Los Angeles — The grieving mother of a Missouri girl told a jury Wednesday how her daughter hanged herself with a belt after receiving cruel messages on her MySpace account, some of which were from a boy whose identity was later revealed to have been invented by a neighbor.

Tina Meier recounted how “Josh Evans” interacted online with her 13-year-old daughter, Megan, during the first day of the trial against Lori Drew, who is accused of taking part in the Internet hoax that prosecutors say led to Megan’s suicide.

Meier said after a name-calling exchange between Megan, “Josh,” and two other girls in October 2006, she told a sobbing Megan, who was being treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, that she wasn’t supposed to be online and shouldn’t have gotten into the argument.

“The last words she said to me were, ’You are supposed to be my mom, you are supposed to be on my side,”’ Meier said as she tried to hold back tears.
Meier said she ran later upstairs and found Megan hanging in the closet with a belt around her neck. She died the next day.

Drew, 49, has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.