LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman accused of helping perpetrate a hoax on MySpace.com against a 13-year-old neighbor who later hanged herself.

Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Mo., faces one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

Megan Meier committed suicide in October 2006 because she believed she was being rejected by a 16-year-old boy she met on MySpace. One message from the boy said the world would be better off without her.

But the boy didn't exist. Ms. Drew is accused of creating a fictional profile on the social networking Web site to find out what Megan was saying about Ms. Drew's daughter.

Ms. Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.

Megan's death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case.

But federal prosecutors in Los Angeles launched a grand jury investigation this year to determine whether Ms. Drew or others defrauded Beverly Hills-based MySpace by providing false information to the site. Both Megan and MySpace are named as victims in the case, U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said.

MySpace issued a prepared statement saying it "does not tolerate cyberbullying" and was cooperating fully with the U.S. attorney.

Ms. Drew's attorney, H. Dean Steward, said he planned to wage a vigorous defense, suggesting that prosecutors in Los Angeles were overstepping their jurisdiction.

Megan's father, Ron Meier, said he welcomed any attempt to hold someone accountable.

"I don't know who is actually going to end up paying for what happened to our daughter. I just want some justice after all this time," he said.

Los Angeles Times,

The Associated Press

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