Animal rights activist arrested for soliciting hitman to kill fur-wearing person

A 27-year-old animal rights activist was arrested and charged with soliciting a hit man to murder a random fur-wearing person, according to federal authorities.

Meredith Lowell, of Cleveland Heights, OH, appeared in U.S. District Court in Cleveland on Tuesday, where a magistrate ordered her held until a hearing next week.

According to an affadavit filed by the FBI, a person going by the name "Anne Lowery" posted a message on Facebook seeking "a hitman to kill someone wearing fur."

The FBI says the message read:

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 person willing to do this job would hopefully live in northeast Ohio, somewhere in Ohio, or be able to commute to Ohio and should be against people who wear fur products. I am willing to pay this person up to $830-$850 which is far more than I was originally willing to pay. Groups such as the Animal Rights Militia (also known as Animal Defense Militia) that are willing to kill people who wear fur are welcome to join this page. I welcome members of the Animal Liberation Front, the Animal Rights Militia, and similar groups that are militant to join and anyone else who believe that people who wear fur should be killed.

The FBI traced the source of the post to the Cleveland Heights Library, after seeing that Lowell made several references to it on her Facebook page.

In its affadavit, the FBI said it used something called an "Online Covert Employee," or OCE, who had received 176 hours of specialized training.

"The OCE's training also included how to create and maintain false personas online and how to communicate using false personas," the FBI document adds.

This OCE then made contact with Lowell through Facebook, and offered to help, at one point going so far as to advise Lowell that her original post was illegal. 

Further in the affadavit, the FBI says that "Anne Lowery" identified herself as Meredith Lowell and gave a full description of herself.  She allegedly offered to pay $730.00 for the hit, but said in January she might not be able to pay the full amount and offered jewelry and money.

On Nov. 15, 2011, Lowell allegedly sent the agent an email providing a description of the type of person she wanted killed.

”Since you know why it is wrong for people to wear fur products, I assume you know why I am willing to pay someone like you to kill a person who is wearing fur,” she allegedly wrote. “Here is the description of what the person should be who is wearing fur who should be killed –

“1) color – any ethnicity, and any race
2) age – preferably 14 years old or older but should be at least 12 years old, hopefully a teenager or older, should not be a child
3) boy girl woman or man
4) height – at least 4 feet or taller
5) weight – any

“Should not be anyone I currently know and definitely should not be anyone my family knows," the email reportedly said.

According to a report at The Blaze, Lowell allegedly gave instructions for the hit:

“You need to bring a gun that has a silencer on it and that can be easily concealed in your pants pocket or coat. … If you do not want to risk the possibility of getting caught with a gun before the job, bring a sharp knife that is (at least) 4 inches long, it should be sharp enough to stab someone and/or slit their throat to kill them. I want the person to be dead in less than 2 minutes,” says an email reprinted in the affidavit.

She told the undercover employee she wanted to be on site when the slaying took place so she could distribute “papers” afterward, the affidavit says. She hoped to be arrested so she could call attention to her beliefs and to get out of the home she shared with her parents and brothers who eat meat and eggs and use fur, leather and wool, investigators said.

Reprinted emails also say Lowell wrote that she sees nothing wrong with “liberating” animals from fur factory farms and laboratories since “soldiers liberated people from Nazi camps in World War 2.”

According to Cleveland's News5, the "FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force worked with the Cleveland Heights Police Department on the case."

Lowell is set to appear in court next Tuesday.