Lead singer of Boston band commits suicide

[pumpkinpie]

Delp Suicide Note: 'I Am a Lonely Soul'
By: Katharine Webster
Associated Press Writer

Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston who killed himself last week, left behind a note in which he called himself "a lonely soul," according to police reports released Thursday.

The note was paper-clipped to the neck of Delp's shirt when police found his body at his Atkinson home, on the bathroom floor, his head on a pillow. He had sealed himself inside with two charcoal grills; toxicology tests showed he had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

"Mr. Brad Delp. J'ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul," the note read.

Delp joined Boston in the mid-1970's and sang two of its biggest hits, "More than a Feeling" and "Long Time." He was cremated Wednesday, after a private funeral earlier in the week.

His fiancee, Pamela Sullivan, called police March 9 after noticing a dryer vent tube connected to the exhaust pipe of Delp's car. In the garage, police found a note taped to the door leading into the house.

"To whoever finds this I have hopefully committed suicide. Plan B was to asphyxiate myself in my car."

In another note on a door at the top of the stairs, Delp cautioned that there was carbon monoxide inside.

"I take complete and sole responsibility for my present situation. I have lost my desire to live," he wrote. The note also included instructions on how to contact his fiancee: "Unfortunately she is totally unaware of what I have done."

Police later found four sealed letters in an office addressed to Sullivan, his children, their mother, Micki Delp, and another couple whose identity was not disclosed. Police Lt. William Baldwin said police gave the letters to family members without reading them.

Sullivan told police that Delp "had been depressed for some time, feeling emotional (and) bad about himself," according to the reports.

He had planned to marry Sullivan this summer during a break in a tour with Boston. A lifelong Beatles fan, Delp also played with the tribute band Beatle Juice.

[pumpkinpie]

He had all that going for him,- a famous singer in a well known band! This just goes to show that depression sometimes has nothing to do with a person's life conditions. It's something a person can't just snap out of, if severe enough. Too bad he didn't get help for his depression, with all he had going for him, and his wedding on the way this coming summer!

I always liked the song "Amanda" by Boston.

[pumpkinpie]

News
11/16/2007 20:57:12 EST Mom: Web Hoax Led Girl to Kill Herself
By BETSY TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer

Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her. Megan, a 13-year-old who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder, corresponded with Josh for more than a month before he abruptly ended their friendship, telling her he had heard she was cruel.

The next day Megan committed suicide. Her family learned later that Josh never actually existed; he was created by members of a neighborhood family that included a former friend of Megan's.

Now Megan's parents hope the people who made the fraudulent profile on the social networking Web site will be prosecuted, and they are seeking legal changes to safeguard children on the Internet.

The girl's mother, Tina Meier, said she doesn't think anyone involved intended for her daughter to kill herself.

"But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile," she told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.

Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law. But sheriff's officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.

Megan Meier hanged herself in her bedroom on Oct. 16, 2006, and died the next day. She was described as a "bubbly, goofy" girl who loved hanging out with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad.

Megan had been on medication, but had been upbeat before her death, her mother said, after striking up a relationship on MySpace with Josh Evans about six weeks before her death.

Josh told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O'Fallon. He said he was homeschooled, and didn't yet have a phone number in the area to give her.

Megan's parents said she received a message from him on Oct. 15 of last year, essentially saying he didn't want to be her friend anymore, that he had heard she wasn't nice to her friends.

The next day, as Megan's mother headed out the door to take another daughter to the orthodontist, she knew Megan was upset about Internet messages. She asked Megan to log off. Users on MySpace must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she opened her account. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

Someone using Josh's account was sending cruel messages. Then, Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like, "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."

Megan's mother, who monitored her daughter's online communications, returned home and said she was shocked at the vulgar language her own daughter was sending. She told her daughter how upset she was about it.

Megan ran upstairs, and her father, Ron, tried to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, she was found in her bedroom. She died the next day.

Her father said he found a message the next day from Josh, which he said law enforcement authorities have not been able to retrieve. It told the girl she was a bad person and the world would be better without her, he has said.

Another parent, who learned of the MySpace account from her own daughter who had access to the Josh profile, told Megan's parents about the hoax in a counselor's office about six weeks after Megan died. That's when they learned Josh was imaginary, they said.

The woman who created the fake profile has not been charged with a crime. She allegedly told the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department she created Josh's profile because she wanted to gain Megan's confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online.

The mother from down the street told police that she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.

A person who answered the door at the family's house told an Associated Press reporter on Friday afternoon that they had been advised not to comment.

Megan's parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan's death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors' driveway and encouraging them to move away.

Megan's parents are now separated and plan to divorce.

Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, a community of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. It could come before city leaders on Wednesday.

"Is this enough?" Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. "No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it's something, and you have to start somewhere."

[pumpkinpie]

News
11/18/2007 17:34:31 EST /AP Photo

Families Stay Close After Murder-Suicide
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press Writer

They grew up 20 minutes apart in northwest Ohio, Michelle from a town of 1,750, her dad a postal worker, her mom a shirt embroiderer.

Andy lived just outside this city of 9,400 known for hometown hero Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon. His dad sells farm supplies - vaccines, pet food, pond chemicals. His mom is a secretary at a nursing home.

Andy and Michelle, so close that he drove 436 miles round trip in a weekend to visit her in college.

Yet for reasons no one can explain, Andy shot Michelle to death outside his apartment June 3, 2006. He fired 16 shots at his girlfriend of three years, then walked back inside his apartment, knelt on the living room floor, placed his Glock 9 mm semiautomatic in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

"Two good kids," said Dan Brown, Andy's father. "We don't know what happened."

Another murder-suicide, another wrenching headline. Yet this time two families were brought together, not torn apart.

Two families mourned two victims. Both were 21 years old.

"We didn't just lose a daughter," said Michelle's mom, Becky Mielecki. "We also lost a son."

___

In high school Michelle and Andy were just friends. Their gang of nine girls and three guys hung out almost every weekend, painting their faces for football games, grabbing Mexican food at El Azteca, a restaurant just off Interstate 75 where Andy always ordered No. 32 - enchiladas tapatias - for the number on his basketball jersey.

Michelle ran cross country, and both were members of the Octagon Club, a service group that cleaned up the stadium after football games, visited nursing homes.

Silly and funny and caring, always telling jokes to make you laugh, said Cary Fell, a friend who still chatted with Michelle almost every day in college.

A loyal friend, always willing to help, lend a few bucks, be there for you, said Cody Hefner, Andy's best friend.

Family came first. Andy spent hours with his grandfather. Michelle took her younger sister, Jenny, along whenever she headed out with friends.

On Sept. 11, 2001, his 17th birthday, Andy turned down a dinner out to watch news of the World Trade Center attack. From that day on he wanted to be in law enforcement.

He rode with Wapakoneta police officers. He bought a Mag-Lite flashlight, the kind police carried, and a scanner and walkie-talkies. Right after turning 21, he bought the Glock, a common gun in police departments.

Michelle's sister Jenny didn't like guns and told Andy so. Guns don't kill people, he and Michelle replied.

They started dating the summer after graduating from high school.

Michelle spent a semester at college in southern Ohio but didn't like being so far away and transferred to the University of Toledo, where Andy was studying criminal justice and accounting.

She studied sports marketing and dreamed of handling public relations for the Cleveland Indians. A lifelong fan, she'd gone to a game on her birthday every year since she was a little girl.

At his apartment Andy had a poster of a model holding a Glock in a "Charlie's Angels" pose over his bed. He kept his black-colored gun in a drawer by his bed. His MySpace username was "glockamb."

"Being alone," he wrote on his MySpace page, as his greatest fear.

"Saving someone's life," he wrote under "How do you want to die?"

Michelle revealed her biggest fear on her own page. "Dying or someone I love or close to me dying."

___

Andy was devastated when his grandfather died in a fire in March 2006. Michelle saw how emotional he'd become, how tearful. Different from before.

She was dealing with her own emotions. "Am I too young to be in a committed relationship?" she asked in an instant message of Hallie Sheck, a friend from Grady's Ladies, a group of female fans of handsome Cleveland Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore.

A few days later she'd write, "It's good and I'm happy."

Andy sensed a change too. One day he'd tell Cody he was worried they might be breaking up. The next he'd say they had talked and everything was fine.

On Memorial Day, Andy and Michelle were together at her parents' house, sitting in the living room, cuddling and holding hands.

The next week, Andy called his sister Lindsey, upset that Michelle had broken a date to spend time with a friend.

On Friday, June 2, Michelle told a co-worker at a Bed, Bath and Beyond store that she was going to break up with Andy that night, police say.

That evening Michelle and Lindsey - her roommate - left a party and headed for the Distillery, a popular Toledo bar. Michelle called Andy at work to tell him to meet them there.

"I'll see you tomorrow night," Andy told co-workers as he left.

Meeting at about 11 p.m., they had a few beers. Andy and Michelle were close, holding hands. Then they were gone. Their abrupt departure seemed unusual.

About 2 a.m. June 3, neighbors on the third floor of Andy's apartment building heard loud arguing. "Help me," one couple heard. "No, Andrew," someone else heard.

As the neighbors ran into the hall they saw Michelle pull her wrist free from Andy's grip at the door of his apartment. Andy stepped into the hall, raised his Glock and began shooting. At least two bullets struck Michelle in the torso. The rest hit a stairway wall.

Finished, Andy went back into his apartment, not bothering to shut the door. He called Lindsey on her cell phone but disconnected the call before she answered.

He killed himself with his final bullet.

Coroner's tests showed Andy's blood-alcohol content was 0.10 percent, legally drunk in Ohio. Michelle's level was 0.16.

Family members say they don't believe alcohol played a role. Police say it can't be ruled out.

___

Andy's father, Dan, calls the hour-and-a-half drive to Toledo that morning the longest of his life. Later that day, he and Andy's mom, Dorothy - everyone calls her Dort - took another long drive to a house just 20 minutes away in Cridersville.

Dort told Dan she had no idea how the Mieleckis felt toward them but knew they had to go.

"Don't hate Andy and don't hate us," she said to Michelle's parents.

The Mieleckis decided the day of the shooting that anger wasn't the answer.

"It's not that I'm real religious but I do believe in God and I believe in forgiveness and you're not supposed to hate," Becky says.

The Browns went to Michelle's viewing and funeral; the Mieleckis to Andy's.

Over the next year the couples stopped by each other's homes to visit. They went to the Dairy Stand for ice cream. Dort, 54, and Becky, 47, talked on the phone. Still do. Not long ago the couples went out to dinner together at the Inn Between.

"Friends Say Boyfriend Was Jealous Type," said one headline after the shooting. But family and friends say that what happened was out of character.

The shooting "was probably the only thing wrong the kid ever did in his life," Tom Mielecki says.

As the one-year anniversary approached, Dort suggested a cookout to honor the couple's memory. Friends came from around the country. They talked and laughed for hours.

The Mieleckis showed up first and left last, as darkness fell.

"Two good kids," says Tom Mielecki, 51. "I wish we knew why, but we don't."

Jenny and Lindsey see each other often. What's the sense in being angry, says Jenny, 20. Lindsey needs her as much as she needs Lindsey.

Andy's other sister, Stacey Jutte, was pregnant as the anniversary approached. She and her husband, Rick, hit upon the name for the baby as they visited Andy's grave.

"You tell me first," Stacey said to her husband. She wept at his reply. "It was the exact same name."

Andrea Michelle.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is based on interviews with Wapakoneta High School principal Aaron Rex; Michelle's parents, Tom and Becky; her sisters, Jenny and Trish; Andy's parents, Dorothy and Dan; his sisters, Lindsey and Stacey; Michelle's friends Cary Fell, Jodi Lynn Gray and Hallie Sheck; Andy and Michelle's friends Cody Hefner and Drew Dorner; Toledo police Detective Liz Kantura; and several witnesses of the shooting.

___

On the Net:

Grady's Ladies: www.gradysladies.com/

Michelle Mielecki's MySpace page: tinyurl.com/33y5cy

Andrew Brown's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/glockamb#22840760