Charges: KC man shot roommate, abandoned his body in wooded area of Riverside
A Kansas City man is accused of shooting and killing his roommate before abandoning the body in a remote part of Platte County, according to a news release Friday from Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd.
William M. Bell, 25, was charged Thursday with second degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse in Platte County Circuit Court.
The charges came two months after his roommate, Conrado “Conrad” Mendez, was found in a wooded area in the 4300 block of Northwest Tullison Road in Riverside.
According to court records Mendez’s body was found on top of a piece of plywood and wrapped in plastic under a bridge. A black trash bag with rubber gloves was under the trash bag. DNA evidence found on the gloves was later connected to Mendez and Bell. The plastic Mendez was wrapped in had a product description indicating it had once held a box spring for a mattress.
Police, prosecutors allege, found Bell after speaking with the furniture store that sold the box springs and obtaining a list of customers who bought the item. One of Mendez’s roommates was on the list, according to charging documents.
When officers responded to the home, two of Mendez’s roommates told them that Bell was not home and that Mendez had moved out three weeks prior.
Bell, they said, had met Mendez to pay him $50 he was owed before kicking him out of the house because of a falling out over allged drunken, aggressive behavior.
According to court records, Bell told the roommates that Mendez was gone when he arrived home.
One of the roommates told police his handgun went missing days after Mendez moved out, prosecutors said.
According to court records Bell admitted to killing Mendez in Facebook messages. He told another person that Mendez was “intoxicated and being aggressive” and that he thought he might have a knife.
In an interview with police on Wednesday Bell allegedly told police that he had shot Mendez during a confrontation on March 28.
Bell is being held in the Platte County Detention Facility. His bond is set at $750,000.
Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
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This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 10:19 AM.
