Madison Meeks – Editor-in-Chief

Mvm7037@psu.edu

LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON Parents sent their kids to sleepovers assuming that they would be safe, but that was not the case for these three 12-year-old girls, who were staying at their friend’s house. 57-year-old Michael Meyden pleaded not guilty over accusations that he drugged three 12-year-old girls that were staying at his house for his daughter’s sleepover. One friend’s decision not to drink the alleged spiked smoothie at the nightmarish sleepover is a critical key to locking the suspect behind bars. 

The victim was able to get a ride home in the middle of the night and text her parents that her friends might have drunk a spiked smoothie. According to People Magazine, which obtained an affidavit, the suspect had laced the smoothies with benzodiazepines. He then forced his daughter and her three friends to drink them before he sent them off to bed. 

According to the police, one of the victims stated that two of the three friends had drunk the smoothies and then allegedly fell into a deep sleep. The police met with the three girls and their families at the hospital the next day after the horrific sleepover. 

The suspect, Michael Meyden, has since turned himself in to the police and has pleaded not guilty. He is being charged with nine felony and misdemeanor charges. His bond is 50,000 dollars, and he is no longer in custody. 

During the night of the incident, the girls’ parents became concerned when two of the three girls needed help walking and had difficulty remembering what had happened. One of the victims had told police that she had blacked out after drinking two smoothies, and she could remember what had happened after blacking out. According to the police, the smoothies were mango-flavored and had mysterious white chunks in them, but they also had white power on top. The girl who decided not to finish drinking her smoothie after taking a sip and noticing the weird taste had waited until everyone went to bed to alert her parents. She then told the investigators that Meyden had made the smoothies and that he had been upset with her when she did not finish hers. Meyden had also allegedly accused the girl and his daughter of switching straws between the first and second smoothies. 

According to People Magazine, two of the girls had shared a pull-out couch in the basement of the house, while Meyden’s daughter and the other girl had shared a bed in a bedroom close by. While the victim, who had not finished the smoothie, had pretended to be asleep, she told me that Meyden had come down the stairs a little while after they went to sleep. He allegedly started to do tests on the one sleeping girl, like placing a finger under her nose and waving his hands in front of her face. The affidavit states that Meyden tried to separate the girls on the pull-out couch by removing the girl’s arm from around her friend. He went back upstairs for a moment, and that very moment was the chance that the girl had to alert her parents of the situation. 

While her attempts at reaching her own mom were unsuccessful, she texted a few friends, one of whom had sent their own mom to pick up her friend. The friend’s mom had told Meyden that she had a family emergency and that she had to leave. He did not stop her from leaving. Once she had gotten home, she had woken up her parents, who had reached out to the other two girls’ parents, who went to pick up their own daughters from Meyden’s house around 3 a.m. When they had been tested at the hospital, all three girls tested positive for benzodiazepine. 

The police then obtained a search warrant and searched the house. They had seized a Vitamix blender, a mortar and pestle, cups, straws, tramadol, and five bottles of temazepan from the house. 

Meyden’s current known location is Vancouver, Washington, after he got divorced from his wife of 16 years shortly after the sleepover nightmare. As they are minors, nothing is known about the state of the girls other than that they are safe with their families.