They say men tend to fight with their fists, while women tend to fight with words and manipulations. It's not surprising that this ended up so explosive the way it did:

ST. LOUIS - A woman blamed for an online hoax played on a 13-year-old
girl who committed suicide may be the first person protected by a local
law against Internet harassment that was passed in the wake of the case.


Lori Drew's attorney said she is not the writer of the Megan Had It
Coming blog, in which someone identified as Drew purports to explain
why she created a fictitious 16-year-old boy to chat online with Megan
Meier. The messages turned ugly hours before Megan hanged herself.


The writer says she created the boy to see if Megan was saying nasty
things about her daughter, a former friend, and to "give her a taste of
her own medicine." The writer spars with some of the more than 1,500
angry commenters.

There are only three blog entries, one where Lori Drew gives her side of the story. When you read it, you'll be left with no real choice but to conclude that this was one big clusterf!@$. Drew manipulated the hell out of a "mean girl" who suffered from Biploar Disorder, if I read her right. The girl who killed herself was equally guilty by manipulating everyone around her with rumors to try to destroy her former friend's reputation. Her parents even apparently knew that their 13 year old daughter was trying to hook up with a 16 year old on MySpace (who happened to be a fake profile), but didn't shut her down. Why does this strike me as probably not that hard to believe?...

The only one I feel truly sorry for in this case is Drew's daughter, who will have to deal with the aftermath of the stupid, evil choices of her mother and her former friend. There is enough tragedy to go around here, but the true victim here is Drew's daughter.