According to her family, 43-year old Meshon Cooper was a “wonderful person filled with life, laughter, and so much joy.”
Her
kindness may have cost her her life. Although the details of how they met are not known, Cooper, a Black woman, unbeknownst to her, befriended a white supremacist, Ron Kidwell. At the beginning of July, she disappeared after being seen with the menacing Kidwell. Upon disappearing, her family filed a missing persons report, which prompted police to investigate. They were led to Kidwell’s home. When police arrived to the house, they noticed an overwhelming smell of bleach. A search warrant was issued and police found Cooper’s body inside the home. Cooper had been missing for a week when officers from the Shawnee, Lenexa and Kansas City Police Departments discovered her body.
Those who knew Kidwell were not surprised to learn he was charged with the murder of a Black woman. Kidwell was a known racist and often bragged about his affiliation with the Aryan Nation, as well as his membership with the Ku Klux Klan.
“This was a hate crime,” said his neighbor Kathleen Brown. “One hundred percent a hate crime.” Brown also mentioned that Kidwell had referred to Cooper as a “Black b***h,” along with other racial slurs when talking about her.
Even his estranged daughter,
Crystal Foster, showed zero emotion when speaking about the murderer. He once threatened to kill his her and her three children “if I ever spoke to a person of color,” Foster said. His daughter had been placed in the foster care system as an infant but said, “Kidwell would track her down in various homes.”
“He’s been a monster his whole life,” she said. “He’s the true definition of evil.”
His daughter also stated: “He pretends to be ‘colored people’s’ friends and then he harms them.” Foster referenced the language used by her father to describe his behavior.
Kidwell was a known felon and had been arrested multiple times for assault. He spent 15 years in prison for those crimes. In 2011, he was charged with second-degree assault in Clay County for hitting a Black woman on the head with a hammer while she was sleeping. He demanded she take her pants off and then he sexually assaulted her. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years, according to court records.
“Kidwell stated that he has been diagnosed with HIV and did not use a condom during the sexual activity,” police wrote.
He would brag about the assaults, deriving satisfaction from them, Foster said.
Kidwell’s cousin, Shana Turner, said he had been disowned by much of his family for his racist views.
“Whenever I was around him, he’d talk about white power,” she said. When she heard about this month’s murder allegation, “it didn’t surprise me that she [the victim] was Black.”
Kidwell has been charged with second-degree murder and has a $1 million bond.
