A man who was accused of drugging three girls at a sleepover party reportedly asked his coworkers about their kids pretty frequently, according to a former colleague. The former colleague told the New York Post that the questions the man, Michael Meyden, asked "seemed really innocent at the time."
However, in February, Oregon's Lake Oswego Police Department shared that Michael Meyden, 57, "was responsible for the drugs detected in the girls’ bloodstreams" after three 12-year-old girls tested positive for benzodiazepines. Now, Meyden's behavior at work seems a lot more questionable to his former colleague.
According to local police, Meyden was indicted on multiple charges: three counts of causing another to ingest a controlled substance, three counts of application of a Schedule-4 controlled substance to another, and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. He turned himself in to the Clackamas County Jail.
The Oregonian reported that Meyden served mango smoothies to his daughter's friends during a sleepover at his Lake Oswego home in August 2023. The girls told police that Meyden "insisted they drink" the smoothies, according to the outlet.
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The girls also said that Meyden was "very involved" in the sleepover. One girl didn't drink much of her smoothie, USA Today reported, and she remained conscious. The girl noticed Meyden watching them. She then sent a text to her mom and several other people.
“Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency. I don’t feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me , Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!” the girl texted her mom, as per The Oregonian.
The girl was reportedly able to reach a family friend who agreed to pick her up from the sleepover, reported USA Today. The girl woke her parents up when she got home, and the other girls were picked up from the sleepover at about 3 a.m.
When the girls were struggling to walk and kept asking "what happened," their parents took them to the hospital, according to The Oregonian. At the hospital, they tested positive for benzodiazepines.
Meyden's former colleague now worries that she was wrong when she "thought he was just being nice." She told the New York Post that Meyden "was the one co-worker who would like my daughter’s cheer pics on Facebook."
"He would ask questions about her, he knew my kids’ names and ages," she continued. It seemed like normal small talk at the time, but now seems suspicious given what has come to light.
She told the outlet that "he always wanted to know about our families." The outlet reported that Meyden was working at renewable energy company Avangrid with this colleague for about two years.
The colleague said Meyden would "ask about my kids, how old they are, what extracurriculars they liked," though it didn't seem strange at the time because "he’d tell me what his kids were up to."
In retrospect, the colleague wonders why Meyden cared about these details.
