For almost a year, the families that live on Waterford Crystal Drive kept quiet about the MySpace tragedy.

Not any more.

When Megan Meier's family moved to the neighbourhood, a brand new family-oriented development near St Louis, they hoped that their troubled 13-year-old would make friends.

Like millions of teenagers marooned amid the malls of suburbia, Megan turned to the online networking site MySpace for friendship.

When "Josh Evans" started to exchange messages with her, Megan, a 13-year-old suffering from depression and attention deficit disorder, was elated.

Their friendship lasted about a month.

Then "Josh" brutally ended it, telling her that he had heard she was a bad person.

That night, 16 October 2006, Megan hanged herself in her room.

When the truth about "Josh" emerged six weeks later, her devastated parents suffered another blow.

It turned out that an adult neighbour called Lori Drew who had fallen out with her daughter had pretended to be the 16-year-old Josh to gain the trust of Megan.

Megan's parents, Tina and Ron Meier, asked their other neighbours to not to discuss what had happened, while waiting for the police to take action.

But nothing happened: there is no law against being cruel and immature.

Local papers refused to identify the Drew family, to protect their teenage daughter.

But now, bloggers have taken on Megan's cause, with an outburst of virtual vigilantism.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that dozens of people have apparently been calling local businesses that work with the Drew family's company, which prints advertising.

The Drews' home address, phone numbers, email addresses and photographs have also been posted on blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com.

And there are reports that people are driving through the once tranquil neighbourhood in the middle of the night, screaming, "Murderer!"To protect themselves to from vigilantes, the Drews, have placed security cameras on the roof of their house.

They have also refused to talk to the media.

Megan's parents want to see the Drews prosecuted, and they want changes to the law to safeguard children on the internet.