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Another earthquake tremor...10:15 a.m.   lasted about 20 seconds.....

Cops: 3rd-graders aimed to hurt teacher

By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

WAYCROSS, Ga. - A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

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The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.

Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.

The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.

Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.

Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.

Martin told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."

Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.

Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.

"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."

"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.

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wow........

Unless thats a picture of the actual pit bull that attacked the couple, don't you think you're just kinda fanning the flames a little?

I don't know, maybe you couldn't find a more vicious looking picture. 

I sit here and wonder if this had been a german shephard or a rott running loose, or heck even a beagle would you have been able to find an appropriate picture.

Give me a break.

Signed
Irritated Reader

KSDK is reporting a levee break in Peerless Park... I'm in Fenton/ Valley Park (on high ground) at work.  I can hear helicopters out there.  I wonder if there's a break in Valley Park as well. 

I guess that new dirt levee isn't working so well......

Folks-

Please contact your elected officials to let them know you support tougher laws against dogfighting.  Here is a link to the Humane Society.  They have a handy form you fill out that locates your official and sends the email directly to him/her.  It's a start..

https://secure2.convio.net/hsmo/site/Advocacy?cmd=d
isplay&page=UserAction&id=125

Thanks!

For all of you fellow animal lovers out there, there is a site called Zootoo.com that is having a contest.  Please check it out-

www.zootoo.com/makeover

The shelter with the most points will win a makeover.  Personally, I've signed up to support Stray Rescue.

 

My letter to Rick Sullivan-

Mr. Sullivan-   Why would you fire the one "constant" that our children have had in the past 1 1/2 years?  Who do you think (in their right mind) would take on the task of overseeing the St. Louis Public School system at this point in time?  At this point the SLPS is a joke, a bad joke. Your so called "mandate" is to improve the SLPS.  Please tell me how this move is improving our schools?   Your SLPS parents or as you have decided to call us, "customers" are outraged to say the least.  We are worried. We feel as if we are beating our head against a brick wall.  How long will you ignore us?  We feel misled by you and your SAB.  Most of us predicted months ago that as soon as you could, you would get rid of her.  We hoped for the best.  Once again the worst has happened.   Dr. B was the only one who knew what she was doing and had a plan to improve the district.  I don't see how this is a good business move on your part.    Currently our children's education future sits in limbo while you mess around and attempt to figure out what you're doing.  I can only thank God that MY child will be out of this mess in two years if not sooner.  Maybe before she graduates the SAB can totally dismantle the SLPS and construct some charter school for her to go to.  Although you wouldn't come right out and say that you were "against" charter schools, you did acknowledge that they took away from the public school system and that it was your job to champion the public school system.  Lets see if you reneg on that as well.  Maybe if the SAB keeps it up you can grant the Mayor's wishes of district wide charter schools.  We'll see won't we?   I feel for the kids and the parents that will have to deal with this for who knows how long.
  Sincerely, Concerned Metro Parent

---

Anyone else want to let him know what you think? Rick.Sullivan@slps.org

Gunman opens fire in KirkwoodFrom staff reportsST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH02/08/2008

An armed man walked into a Kirkwood city council meeting Thursday night and shot several people, including the at least one police officer, the city’s mayor and several council members.

At least one city council woman is dead and others are being treated for serious injuries at a hospital.

A correspondent for the Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started — the mayor was starting the meeting just after the Pledge of Allegiance — when the man rushed into the council chambers yelling and began opening fire with at least one weapon. She identified the man as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, a man she knows from covering the council.

"He came from the back of the room," said Janet McNichols, the correspondent. "He kept something about, ‘Shoot the mayor’ and he just walked around shooting anybody he could."

McNichols said the shooter first fired at Tom Ballman, a police officer at the meeting. She said she looked up to see the officer shot in the head.

Thornton then targeted Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, who was sitting in front of McNichols. He was also hit in the head, she said.

 

"After that, I was on my stomach under the chairs," she said. "I laid on my stomach waiting to get shot. Oh God, it was a horror."

McNichols said Thornton continued to yell about the mayor, and from his voice and the gunshots, she could tell he had approached the dais at the front of the room where the council sits behind a semicircular desk.

At some point he fired at City Attorney John Hessel, who told McNichols he fended the attacker off by throwing chairs. She saw Hessel later, appearing uninjured except for a knot on his head.

Among those hit, in addition to Ballman and Yost, were Mayor Mike Swoboda, and council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr, McNichols said. Conditions were not known for any of them.

RELATED LINK Thornton battled city council in past

Then police officers burst into the room and there was more yelling, McNichols said. First, Thornton saying he had a gun, she said. Then gunshots and the officers saying they’d got him.

McNichols said about 30 people were in the council chambers at the time of the shooting. Witnesses were herded into offices while police secured the scene. Later they were taken to the police station to be interviewed.

Thornton was not a stranger to the council, where he was often a contentious presence. In May 2006, he was handcuffed and pulled from a meeting. He was charged with disorderly conduct and released.

McNichols said he often aimed his ire at the mayor and at Yost.

Late last month, a federal judge in St. Louis dismissed a lawsuit in which Thornton, representing himself, claimed Kirkwood officials violated his free speech rights by prohibiting him from speaking out at meetings.

In a ruling Jan. 28, U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry took into account that Thornton had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in 2006 with off-point complaints about persecution by officials.

"He came to many, many meetings and always said terrible things to the mayor," McNichols remmebered. "He’d come to the meeting and he’d have a big easel and a picture. a donkey on there and call the council asses."

Sportscaster Doug Vaughn of Channel 4 told that station that he went to Kirkwood High School with Thornton and saw him through the years. He said Thornton’s behavior changed after police cracked down on his parking of vehicles for his construction company outside his home in Meacham Park. He felt harassed, Vaughn said.

"He could not have been a nicer guy to those who knew them but I think this problem with the city drove him completely crazy," Vaughn said in the TV interview.

City Hall is at 139 Kirkwood Road. Three blocks surrounding it were quickly cordoned off as dozens of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances from other districts, including Normandy, Eureka and Des Peres, poured in to help.

Even an hour after the shootings, ambulances and fire rescue vehicles were still arriving at the scene.

Media were kept about three blocks from the scene.

Dotti Durban and her husband, Mike, had planned to attend the City Council meeting to learn about an idea to rezone an area near Manchester and Lindbergh but she got held up at work.

She was met by dozens of police cars as she drove to city hall in hopes of catching part of the meeting.

"Lucky for us that we weren’t at that meeting," Durban said.

ST. LOUIS — People's Health Centers is offering free electronic income tax and circuit breaker filing for senior citizens from 1 to 4 p.m. on Feb. 6 at the William L. Clay Sr. Leisure Living Community, 5623 Clemens; and from 2 to 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at BJK People's Health Centers, 5701 Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis.

Participants will need to bring their W-2 or 1099 forms; copies of a blank check and of their 2006 returns; proof of any child care expenses, income or compensation; valid picture IDs for the taxpayer and spouse; and Social Security cards for all family members. For more information, call 314-460-3648.

Gov. Blunt says he won't run again By Jo Mannies ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 01/22/2008
Matt & Melanie Blunt from their YouTube video announcement.
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, just announced that he's not running for re-election this fall.
 
In a statement that shocked political leaders in both parties, Blunt released a TV address "announcing that having achieved virtually everything he set out to accomplish when he ran for governor, he will not seek a second term.

"In his address, Gov. Blunt cites among his accomplishments turning an inherited $1.1 billion deficit into three straight surpluses without a tax increase, cutting taxes, ending the education cuts of the past and providing budgets that will deliver $1.2 billion to universities, classrooms and students, rescuing the broken Medicaid system and transforming it into a network of care for vulnerable Missourians and helping turn record job-loss into nearly 90,000 new jobs.

"The governor called a news conference tomorrow morning at 9:30 am where he is expected to discuss his announcement," his statement said.

Blunt, 37, made his announcement in a press release and a two minute, 50-second video statement. With his wife, Melanie, at his side, Blunt says in the video that he had accomplished his goals during his first term and does not want to stay in "any office just to hold it."

"After a great deal of thought and prayer, and with the knowledge that we have achieved virtually everything I set out to accomplish, and more, I will not seek a second term in the upcoming election," Blunt said.

Blunt said his administration had helped to get the state budget out of deficit, had reformed a "broke and broken" Medicaid system for the poor, had boosted spending on education by $1.2 billion and had helped to create more jobs in Missouri. RELATED LINKS Transcript of Blunt's announcement VIDEO: Address to Missourians from Gov. Matt Blunt on YouTube TALK: Blunt's announcement -- Good riddance or bad move? POLL: How would you grade Matt Blunt as governor?

"What we set out to achieve four years ago has been accomplished," Blunt said.

Blunt reads verbatim from his speech in the video announcement. Melenie Blunt does not speak, but looks at her husband during the first part of the video, and then smiles toward camera with him as he completes his statement.

"To serve as your governor is a great privilege," he says near the ending. "I will continue to work every day to be worthy of the faith and confidence you have placed in me."

His decision leaves his party without a presumed candidate in the gubernatorial election on Nov. 4. Blunt and the leading Democratic candidate, Attorney General Jay Nixon, had clashed frequently over issues ranging from immigration to the collapse of AmerenUE's Taum Sauk reservoir.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican from Cape Girardeau and a former state senator, told a Post-Dispatch reporter who saw him in a Capitol hallway shortly after Blunt's announcement that there was a "decent chance" he will run.

State Republican legislative leaders expressed shock at the news, which Blunt revealed to them at 3:50 p.m. in a conference call.

"I'm sort of dumbfounded," said Senate Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood.

House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, said GOP legislators "were shocked. Nobody expected it. I don't think anybody knew this. It's hard to keep a secret in Jefferson City, but I hadn't heard anything."

"...We were just speechless," Jetton said. "You don't expect that on Jan. 22 of an election year."

Jetton said among the likely GOP candidates would be former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent of St. Louis County, U.S. Rep. Ken Hulshof of Columbia, State Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Rolla and Kinder, the lieutenant governor. "We need to sit down among ourselves and see who would best be able to carry out our mission," Jetton said of Republicans.

Of Blunt's decision, Jetton said the governor indicated "he didn't have the sense of mission, that he had accomplished what he had committed to do, that he just didn't have the oomph to carry on."

Jetton had planned to complete this year in office and become a lobbyist, but said Blunt's announcement "changes everything." He said he would discuss his own prospects, including a run for governor, with his wife.

After Blunt made his plans known, State Republican Party spokesman Doug Russell swiftly followed suit with his own statement:
 
 “Governor Blunt has been a remarkable leader that changed Missouri for the better.  His conservative policies and values turned our state in a new, hopeful direction.  Under his administration, budget deficits were replaced with surpluses, education was restored to its place atop our priority list, children are safer, more Missourians are working and healthcare for low-income Missourians has been transformed so that we are preventing sickness rather than treating illness once it has reached a chronic stage.
 
" I wish Governor Blunt, the First Lady and Branch all the happiness in the world as they embark on a new journey when the governor’s term expires.  I also appreciate Governor Blunt’s commitment to ensuring the next governor of our state is a Republican who will continue to employ the principles of personal responsibility, fiscal conservatism and limited government so that we can be assured Missouri’s brightest days are ahead.”  

 
In Washington, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. and the governor's father, said he was proud of his son's service and understands his decision.

"I respect his decision to spend this year being the best governor he can be in service of our state and its people, rather than letting the focus shift to pure politics," Roy Blunt said.

Barely an hour after Blunt made his announcement, the Republican Governors Association in Washington issued a statement praising Blunt as "an important example of why Republican leadership is so important."

The association said Missouri's contest for governor this year was expected to be "one of the most hotly contested" in the country, and remains so. It says Blunt "is leaving a positive legacy for Missouri."

Heath Ledger found dead in NYC at age 28

By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/MICHAEL CAULFIELD Watch Related Video

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan apartment, naked in bed with sleeping pills nearby, police said. The Australian-born actor was 28. It wasn't immediately clear if Ledger had committed suicide.

He had an appointment for a massage at a residence in the tony neighborhood of SoHo, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

A large crowd of paparazzi and gawkers gathered outside the building on an upscale block. Ledger's body was still inside, and several police officers guarded the door.

The medical examiner's office planned an autopsy Wednesday, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was a respected, award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on his heartthrob looks. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," where he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.

Ledger most recently appeared in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan - as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker this year in "The Dark Knight," a sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins."

He's had starring roles in "A Knight's Tale" and "The Patriot," and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in "Monster's Ball." He also played a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian film "Candy."

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 in Perth, in western Australia, to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and co-starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," a teen comedy reworking of "The Taming of the Shrew."

Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, `You're crazy,' my parents were like, `Come on, you have to eat.'"

His movie career caught on anyway, culminating with his Academy Award nomination opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback."

"Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said earlier this month that Ledger's performance as the Joker would be wildly different than Jack Nicholson's memorable turn in 1989's "Batman."

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."

heard a story about a car that crashed into a house in the CWE next door to a firehouse.  The firemen knew the grandma and kids that lived in the house.  The kids are still in the hospital.  They said the fire station would be having some type of fund raiser this weekend and to go to myfoxstl.com for more info.....

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I have looked and looked for more info.  If anyone found the info, can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Taken from Suburban Journals-

'My Space' hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen

By Steve Pokin
Monday, November 12, 2007 5:48 AM CST

Roy Sykes photos Tina and Ron Meier look up at the mausoleum gravesite of their daughter Megan, who would have been 15 on Nov. 6.

His name was Josh Evans. He was 16 years old. And he was hot.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!" Tina Meier recalls her daughter saying.

Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend.Yes, he's cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. "Do you know who he is?"

"No, but look at him! He's hot! Please, please, can I add him?"

Mom said yes. And for six weeks Megan and Josh - under Tina's watchful eye - became acquainted in the virtual world of MySpace.

Josh said he was born in Florida and recently had moved to O'Fallon. He was homeschooled. He played the guitar and drums.

He was from a broken home: "when i was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother 3 boys god i know poor mom yeah she had such a hard time when we were younger finding work to pay for us after he loeft."

As for 13-year-old Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, this is how she expressed who she was:

M is for Modern

E is for Enthusiastic

G is for Goofy

A is for Alluring

N is for Neglected.

She loved swimming, boating, fishing, dogs, rap music and boys. But her life had not always been easy, her mother says.

She was heavy and for years had tried to lose weight. She had attention deficit disorder and battled depression. Back in third grade she had talked about suicide, Tina says, and ever since had seen a therapist.

But things were going exceptionally well. She had shed 20 pounds, getting down to 175. She was 5 foot 5½ inches tall.

She had just started eighth grade at a new school, Immaculate Conception, in Dardenne Prairie, where she was on the volleyball team. She had attended Fort Zumwalt public schools before that.

Amid all these positives, Tina says, her daughter decided to end a friendship with a girlfriend who lived down the street from them. The girls had spent much of seventh grade alternating between being friends and, the next day, not being friends, Tina says.

Part of the reason for Megan's rosy outlook was Josh, Tina says. After school, Megan would rush to the computer.

"Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem," Tina says. "And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty."

It did seem odd, Tina says, that Josh never asked for Megan's phone number. And when Megan asked for his, she says, Josh said he didn't have a cell and his mother did not yet have a landline.

And then on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, Megan received a puzzling and disturbing message from Josh. Tina recalls that it said: "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends."

Frantic, Megan shot back: "What are you talking about?"

SHADOWY CYBERSPACE

Tina Meier was wary of the cyber-world of MySpace and its 70 million users. People are not always who they say they are.

Tina knew firsthand. Megan and the girl down the block, the former friend, once had created a fake MySpace account, using the photo of a good-looking girl as a way to talk to boys online, Tina says. When Tina found out, she ended Megan's access.

MySpace has rules. A lot of them. There are nine pages of terms and conditions. The long list of prohibited content includes sexual material. And users must be at least 14.

"Are you joking?" Tina asks. "There are fifth-grade girls who have MySpace accounts."

As for sexual content, Tina says, most parents have no clue how much there is. And Megan wasn't 14 when she opened her account. To join, you are asked your age but there is no check. The accounts are free.

As Megan's 14th birthday approached, she pleaded for her mom to give her another chance on MySpace, and Tina relented.

She told Megan she would be all over this account, monitoring it. Megan didn't always make good choices because of her ADD, Tina says. And this time, Megan's page would be set to private and only Mom and Dad would have the password.

'GOD-AWFUL FEELING'

Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, was a rainy, bleak day. At school, Megan had handed out invitations to her upcoming birthday party and when she got home she asked her mother to log on to MySpace to see if Josh had responded.

Why did he suddenly think she was mean? Who had he been talking to?

Tina signed on. But she was in a hurry. She had to take her younger daughter, Allison, to the orthodontist.

Before Tina could get out the door it was clear Megan was upset. Josh still was sending troubling messages. And he apparently had shared some of Megan's messages with others.

Tina recalled telling Megan to sign off.

"I will Mom," Megan said. "Let me finish up."

Tina was pressed for time. She had to go. But once at the orthodontist's office she called Megan: Did you sign off?

"No, Mom. They are all being so mean to me."

"You are not listening to me, Megan! Sign off, now!"

Fifteen minutes later, Megan called her mother. By now Megan was in tears.

"They are posting bulletins about me." A bulletin is like a survey. "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."

Megan was sobbing hysterically. Tina was furious that she had not signed off.

Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people.

"I am so aggravated at you for doing this!" she told Megan.

Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!"

On the stairway leading to her second-story bedroom, Megan ran into her father, Ron.

"I grabbed her as she tried to go by," Ron says. "She told me that some kids were saying horrible stuff about her and she didn't understand why. I told her it's OK. I told her that they obviously don't know her. And that it would be fine."

Megan went to her room and Ron went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence.

"I had this God-awful feeling and I ran up into her room and she had hung herself in the closet."

Megan Taylor Meier died the next day, three weeks before her 14th birthday.

Later that day, Ron opened his daughter's MySpace account and viewed what he believes to be the final message Megan saw - one the FBI would be unable to retrieve from the hard drive.

It was from Josh and, according to Ron's best recollection, it said, "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a BOOGEDY rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you."

BEYOND GRIEF INTO FURY

Tina and Ron saw a grief counselor. Tina went to a couple of Parents After Loss of Suicide meetings, as well.

They tried to message Josh Evans, to let him know the deadly power of mean words. But his MySpace account had been deleted.

The day after Megan's death, they went down the street to comfort the family of the girl who had once been Megan's friend. They let the girl and her family know that although she and Megan had their ups and down, Megan valued her friendship.

They also attended the girl's birthday party, although Ron had to leave when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday." The Meiers went to the father's 50th birthday celebration. In addition, the Meiers stored a foosball table, a Christmas gift, for that family.

Six weeks after Megan died, on a Saturday morning, a neighbor down the street, a different neighbor, one they didn't know well, called and insisted that they meet that morning at a counselor's office in northern O'Fallon.

The woman would not provide details. Ron and Tina went. Their grief counselor was there. As well as a counselor from Fort Zumwalt West Middle School.

The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed.

She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan's former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out. These were the people who'd asked the Meiers to store their foosball table.

The single mother, for this story, requested that her name not be used. She said her daughter, who had carpooled with the family that was involved in creating the phony MySpace account, had the password to the Josh Evans account and had sent one message - the one Megan received (and later retrieved off the hard drive) the night before she took her life.

"She had been encouraged to join in the joke," the single mother said.

The single mother said her daughter feels the guilt of not saying something sooner and for writing that message. Her daughter didn't speak out sooner because she'd known the other family for years and thought that what they were doing must be OK because, after all, they were trusted adults.

On the night the ambulance came for Megan, the single mother said, before it left the Meiers' house her daughter received a call. It was the woman behind the creation of the Josh Evans account. She had called to tell the girl that something had happened to Megan and advised the girl not to mention the MySpace account.

AX AND SLEDGEHAMMER

The Meiers went home and tore into the foosball table.

Tina used an ax and Ron a sledgehammer. They put the pieces in Ron's pickup and dumped them in their neighbor's driveway. Tina spray painted "Merry Christmas" on the box.

According to Tina, Megan had gone on vacations with this family. They knew how she struggled with depression, that she took medication.

"I know that they did not physically come up to our house and tie a belt around her neck," Tina says. "But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old - with or without mental problems - it is absolutely vile.

"She wanted to get Megan to feel like she was liked by a boy and let everyone know this was a false MySpace and have everyone laugh at her.

"I don't feel their intentions were for her to kill herself. But that's how it ended."

'GAINING MEGAN'S CONFIDENCE'

That same day, the family down the street tried to talk to the Meiers. Ron asked friends to convince them to leave before he physically harmed them.

In a letter dated Nov. 30, 2006, the family tells Ron and Tina, "We are sorry for the extreme pain you are going through and can only imagine how difficult it must be. We have every compassion for you and your family."

The Suburban Journals have decided not to name the family out of consideration for their teenage daughter.

The mother declined comment.

"I have been advised not to give out any information and I apologize for that," she says. "I would love to sit here and talk to you about it but I can't."

She was informed that without her direct comment the newspaper would rely heavily on the police report she filed with the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department regarding the destroyed foosball table.

"I will tell you that the police report is totally wrong," the mother said. "We have worked on getting that changed. I would just be very careful about what you write."

Lt. Craig McGuire, spokesman for the sheriff's department, said he is unaware of anyone contacting the department to alter the report.

"We stand behind the report as written," McGuire says. "There was no supplement to it. What is in the report is what we believe she told us."

The police report - without using the mother's name - states:

"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.

"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.

"(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan ?..

"According to (her) 'somehow' other 'my space' users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. (She) stated she knew 'arguments' had broken out between Megan and others on 'my space.' (She) felt this incident contributed to Megan's suicide, but she did not feel 'as guilty' because at the funeral she found out 'Megan had tried to commit suicide before.'"

Tina says her daughter died thinking Josh was real and that she never before attempted suicide.

"She was the happiest she had ever been in her life," Ron says.

After years of wearing braces, Megan was scheduled to have them removed the day she died. And she was looking forward to her birthday party.

"She and her mom went shopping and bought a new dress," Ron says. "She wanted to make this grand entrance with me carrying her down the stairs. I never got to see her in that dress until the funeral."

NO CRIMINAL CHARGES

It does not appear that there will be criminal charges filed in connection with Megan's death.

"We did not have a charge to fit it," McGuire says. "I don't know that anybody can sit down and say, 'This is why this young girl took her life.'"

The Meiers say the matter also was investigated by the FBI, which analyzed the family computer and conducted interviews. Ron said a stumbling block is that the FBI was unable to retrieve the electronic messages from Megan's final day, including that final message that only Ron saw.

The Meiers do not plan to file a civil lawsuit. Here's what they want: They want the law changed, state or federal, so that what happened to Megan - at the hands of an adult - is a crime.

THE AFTERMATH IS PAIN

The Meiers are divorcing. Ron says Tina was as vigilant as a parent could be in monitoring Megan on MySpace. Yet she blames herself.

"I have this awful, horrible guilt and this I can never change," she said. "Ever."

Ron struggles daily with the loss of a daughter who, no matter how low she felt, tried to make others laugh and feel a little bit better.

He has difficulty maintaining focus and has kept his job as a tool and die maker through the grace and understanding of his employer, he says. His emotions remain jagged, on edge.

Christine Buckles lives in the same Waterford Crossing subdivision. In her view, everyone in the subdivision knows of Megan's death, but few know of the other family's involvement.

Tina says she and Ron have dissuaded angry friends and family members from vandalizing the other home for one, and only one, reason.

"The police will think we did it," Tina says.

Ron faces a misdemeanor charge of property damage. He is accused of driving his truck across the lawn of the family down the street, doing $1,000 in damage, in March. A security camera the neighbors installed on their home allegedly caught him.

It was Tina, a real estate agent, who helped the other family purchase their home on the same block 2½ years ago.

"I just wish they would go away, move," Ron says.

Vicki Dunn, Tina's aunt, last month placed signs in and near the neighborhood on the anniversary of Megan's death.

They read: "Justice for Megan Meier," "Call the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney," and "MySpace Impersonator in Your Neighborhood."

On the window outside Megan's room is an ornamental angel that Ron turns on almost every night. Inside are pictures of boys, posters of Usher, Beyonce and on the dresser a tube of instant bronzer.

"She was all about getting a tan," Ron says.

He has placed the doors back on the closet. Megan had them off.

If only she had waited, talked to someone, or just made it to dinner, then through the evening, and then on to the beginning of a new day in what could have been a remarkable life.

If she had, he says, there is no doubt she would have chosen to live. Instead, there is so much pain.

"She never would have wanted to see her parents divorce," Ron says.

Ultimately, it was Megan's choice to do what she did, he says. "But it was like someone handed her a loaded gun."

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Thoughts? 

Honestly, I don't know that I could exercise the self control that the Meiers' have.  I just don't know what I would do.

What a sad sad example of parenting at its worst.

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The idea of a blog w/ no comments is kinda silly, ain't it?

BodyWorlds-

 

What can I say…WOW!

 

This has got to be one of the most incredible things that I have seen this year. 

 

I went this past weekend with my daughter who is pre-med.  Even though anatomy really isn’t my thing I thought it would be interesting.

 

This exhibit was beyond interesting.  My feelings on it went from being interested to amazed to thinking how beautiful and then it would hit me that this was a person and then I would have to reflect on that for a moment as well.

 

It was very tastefully done and so informative.

 

I am sooooo getting “plastinated” when I die…..