Exclusive: Teen Talks About Her Role in Web Hoax That Led to Suicide

April 1, 2008 — -- In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America," Ashley Grills, 19, admitted she was part of a scheme to create a fake persona on MySpace and start an online romance with a 13-year-old neighbor, Megan Meier.

Grills insisted, though, that she was not the only adult involved in the cruel hoax, which eventually led the emotionally vulnerable Meier to commit suicide in October 2006, after her spurious online boyfriend and others began making nasty comments about her.

Grills has testified to a grand jury that Lori Drew, the 47-year-old mother of one of Meier's friends, was actively involved in creating the account and wrote some of the messages to Meier — a charge that Drew and her attorney deny.

"We were just combining ideas about how we can figure out what Megan was saying about Lori's daughter," Grills told ABC News' Deborah Roberts. "It was all three of us — me and Lori and her daughter."

Drew was never charged with a crime in Missouri, where Meier ended her life.

Now, in a strange twist, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles has begun its own investigation to charge Drew with fraud. In this case, the alleged victim is not Megan Meier but MySpace, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif. Grills has been granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against Drew.

Drew has said that Grills was the main instigator behind creating the fictional "Josh Evans" and striking up an online relationship with Meier.

Grills admitted for the first time publicly that she created the profile of Josh Evans, and she told Roberts that she wrote the cruel words, "the world would be a better place without you," that may have pushed Meier over the edge.

Grills said that she was trying to end the "relationship" because she felt that the joke had gone too far.

"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills said.