A teenager who became famous after hiccupping uncontrollably for weeks has been charged with luring a man she met online to a house where he was robbed and fatally shot.
Jennifer Mee, 19, of St. Petersburg and two others are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Shannon Griffin, 22, on Saturday.
Ms. Mee’s unusual condition landed her on NBC’s Today Show in 2007 and got her a hug from country star Keith Urban.
But her life seemed to fall into disarray when the hiccups finally stopped five weeks after they started. She ran away from home twice and her family has sued a hiccup cure company for allegedly using her image for profit without permission.
“I’ve said for a while now: her case of the hiccups wasn’t a case of the hiccups, it was a curse of the hiccups,” Ms. Mee’s mother, Rachel Robidoux, told radio station 93.3 WFLZ in Tampa on Monday. She said she did not know exactly what happened to Mr. Griffin, but described the situation as a nightmare and said her daughter had not lived with her in a year.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon said Monday that Ms. Mee met Mr. Griffin through a website recently and lured him to a house across the street from her apartment building, where the two others robbed him at gunpoint.
Mr. Griffin struggled and was shot several times. Chief Harmon said it was a robbery gone awry and that less than $50 was stolen from Mr. Griffin, who had worked at a Walmart for at least a year and was supposed to be on vacation this week.
On her MySpace page, Ms. Mee describes herself as a “female version of a hustla” and adds that “her heart is still in Vermont,” where her father lives. She last logged in to her page on Sunday.
Ms. Mee’s hiccups — up to 50 a minute — gained her notoriety in 2007. She tried home remedies and consulted medical specialists, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist, until the hiccups finally stopped on their own.
She was being held without bond early Monday and Pinellas County jail records did not show whether she had an attorney. She is scheduled for a court appearance Monday afternoon at the Pinellas County Court in Clearwater.
