Girl at Sleepover Where Friend's Dad Allegedly Drugged Group Texted Mom in Panic: 'Please Pick Up. Please'
Michael Meyden, 57, is accused of drugging three of his daughter's 12-year-old friends during a sleepover last August, according to police.
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Stock image of a cell phoneHarrowing text messages show the panic a 12-year-old girl felt the night her friend’s dad allegedly attempted to drug her and at least two other friends at his daughter’s sleepover, according to authorities.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE quotes two text messages sent by the scared 12-year-old girl as she tried to contact her mother — and then multiple friends’ parents – to pick her up from Michael Meyden’s home in Lake Oswego, Ore., last August.
Police allege that Meyden, 57, drugged three girls who were staying over at his house for a sleepover with his daughter, lacing a batch of mango smoothies with benzodiazepine and encouraging the girls to drink them.
Meyden was indicted last week on nine felony and misdemeanor charges including causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, according to the Lake Oswego Police Department. After pleading not guilty, the father of two was released on a $50,000 bond last week.
One girl at the sleepover didn’t drink much of her smoothie and remained awake when Meyden allegedly returned to the basement where they were sleeping — a pair of the visiting girls on a pull-out couch and another sleeping next to Meyden’s daughter in an extra bedroom in the basement, according to the affidavit.
The 12-year-old girl told investigators that she “pretended to be asleep” while Meyden allegedly hovered over her and her friend on a pull-out couch and performed “tests” on them to make sure they were asleep, the affidavit states. He then allegedly began separating two on the bed before suddenly going back upstairs.
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The girl tried to shake her friend awake, but her friend would not fully awaken.
"Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency,” the girl frantically texted her mother at 1:43 a.m., per the affidavit. “I don't feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!”
The girl’s mother did not respond, so the girl began calling and texting several friends to ask them to ask their parents to pick her up. Finally, one friend answered and sent her mother to pick the girl up from Meyden’s house.
“So I'm ‘sleeping’ and her dad comes down and (I'm) hugging [the friend] because she was scared, and he kept moving us away from each other but kept doing tests to make sure we weren't awake,” the frightened girl alleged to her friend over text, according to the affidavit. “Also, [the friend] won't wake up and she did for like seconds, but she kept her eyes closed and didn't talk."
The friend’s mother soon arrived and picked the 12-year-old girl up from Meyden’s house, safely bringing her back home where she woke up her parents and told them what had allegedly happened. Her parents then contacted the parents of the two remaining girls who were at Meyden’s house and told them to pick their daughters up.
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Related: Ore. Dad Accused of Drugging Girls at Sleepover Got Divorced from Wife Weeks After Alleged Incident
The other parents arrived at Meyden’s house around 3 a.m. and told Meyden they were there to pick up their daughters. “I don’t understand,” Meyden replied, urging the parents to come back the next morning because the girls were asleep downstairs with his daughter, the affidavit alleges. The parents refused to leave and went inside with Meyden to retrieve their kids, taking them to a nearby hospital the next morning where all three allegedly tested positive for benzodiazepine, according to the affidavit.
Less than two months after the incident last summer, Meyden got divorced from his wife of 16 years. He’s now living in Vancouver, Wash., according to local KIRO7.
Additional reporting by Christine Pelisek.
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