The Internet Can Kill

Courtroom footage is available for this story for license and/or purchase from the IN SESSION archives – click here.

Prologue

Bullying, murder and cannibalism—the online world is no playground; it mirrors our flesh-and-blood world in all its danger and ugliness. A series of recent tragedies and their ongoing legal developments remind us of just that.

Lori Drew, Rachelle Waterman, Kevin Ray Underwood

Megan Meier, a blossoming 13-year old from a Missouri suburb, committed suicide after a jealous neighbor's mother allegedly masqueraded as a courting teenage boy and feuded with her on MySpace.

Rachelle Waterman, then 16, blogged about her difficulties with her mother on a remote Alaskan island. When she complained to her ex-boyfriends, the two older men lent a hand by killing her mother, and implicated the teenager.

Kevin Ray Underwood explored the darkest recesses of his psyche on his blog. At 26, the Oklahoman acted on these black desires, abducting, killing and raping a child—whom he was planning to eat.

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1. Prologue
2. Megan Meier: Girl Meets Boy, Loses Boy, Kills Herself
3. A Girl Betrayed
4. Is Lori Drew the Real Culprit?
5. Vengeance
6. Rachelle Waterman: Manipulative Murderess or Abused Child?
7. Confessions
8. Contradictions
9. Trial and Freedom
10. Kevin Ray Underwood: Cannibal
11. Single, Bored, Lonelyand Dangerously Weird
12. Warnings and Advice
13. Bibliography