Inside The Megan Meier Hoax

MAY 15--The key witness in the Megan Meier case is a 19-year-old woman who has admitted setting up a fake MySpace page at the direction of a Missouri woman who sought to secretly determine whether Meier was "saying bad things" about her daughter.

Ashley Grills, 19, testified earlier this year before a Los Angeles grand jury probing the circumstances leading to the 13-year-old Meier's suicide in November 2006. A month after Megan's death, Grills was interviewed by investigators working for the Meier family and provided a chilling behind-the-scenes account of the cruel MySpace hoax, which Grills said was hatched by 49-year-old Lori Drew.

Grills, pictured at left, reported that Drew's daughter Sarah had a falling out with Meier and that "Lori wanted to set the page up to find out whether Megan had been saying bad things about Sarah." In her interview, which was memorialized in this report prepared by the Meier investigators, Grills said she felt "deep remorse" for her role in the hoax.

Grills reportedly received immunity in return for her testimony before the federal grand jury, which is expected today to hand up an indictment in the Meier probe. (2 pages)