Woman accused of stabbing fur wearer solicited hitmen
The CLEVELAND HEIGHTS — Cleveland Heights woman arrested in what investigators said was a stabbing motivated by a woman wearing a fur coat was charged with federal crimes more than eight years ago after she solicited hitmen to carry out a similar attack on fur wearers.
A federal judge ultimately dismissed the charges of solicitation and use of interstate devices for murder for hire after prosecutors determined that Meredith Lowell was incompetent to stand trial, according to federal court records.
Now the 35-year-old is charged with attempted murder and felonious assault in a stabbing at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, according to Cleveland Heights police and reports. Her bond is set at $1 million.
The victim was identified as a babysitter who was dropping off children at the church for choir practice..
Wednesday’s incident echoes information the FBI gathered during an investigation that spanned the end of 2011 and early 2012, where Lowell tried to hire someone on Facebook to kill fur wearers, according to federal court documents.
The FBI received a tip in November 2011 that someone using a Facebook page under the name of “Anne Lowery” posted a message on the social media site looking to hire a hitman.
“I would like to create an online community on facebook which would allow me to find someone who is willing to kill someone who is wearing fur toward the end of October 2011 or early November 2011 or possibly in January 2012 or February 2012 at the latest,” the message read.
The message offered between $830 to $850 which the poster described as “far more than I was originally willing to pay,” the complaint says.
FBI agents engaged with the Facebook user, which records subpoenaed by investigators revealed was Meredith Lowell.
“I will pay you after you kill the person who is wearing fur at the above mentioned time and time of the year,” she wrote in a conversation with an undercover agent contained in the criminal complaint. “You need to bring a gun that has a silencer on it and that can be easily concealed in your pants pocket or coat. Do not wear anything that even looks even remotely like fur.”
She also recommended that if the hitman was uncomfortable using a gun, that he could “bring a sharp knife that is at least 4 inches long, it should be sharp enough to stab someone with and/or to slit their throat to kill them,” according to the complaint.
“I want the person to be dead in less than 2 minutes.”
The conversations between Lowell and the undercover agent continued for months, and agents searched her trash and found animal-rights literature.
Federal court records show that investigators arrested Lowell Feb. 21, 2012.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan dismissed the case at the request of federal prosecutors about a year after it was filed. A forensic psychologist with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons determined that Lowell was incompetent to stand trial “based on mental disease or defect.”
“On January 11, 2013, Leslie Powers, Forensic Psychologist, issued a report stating that the defendant remained incompetent due to mental disease or defect, but did not pose a danger to herself, the community, or property,” Gaughan wrote in her order dismissing the case.
The order also forbid Lowell from possessing guns.