Man is charged with murder for death of 18-year-old

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    Kansas City, Missouri (KCTV ) — A man is now charged with first degree murder for the death of an 18-year-old Kansas City woman who disappeared on Valentine’s Day three years ago.

A mushroom hunter found Vernece Brown’s remains in rural Cass County in April of 2018 near south Mopac Road and E. 235th Street about two and half months after she was last seen.

Vernece Brown’s family members have waited for three long years to see someone charged for her murder. Now that charges are filed, they are hopeful they will get justice for her.

Vernece was last seen on Valentine’s Day in 2018 after she went to meet a man for a date. Her family searched the Kansas City metro for her. They posted flyers hoping someone with answers would come forward.

“Every day that I get up, I look at a picture. She will never be gone for me,” a relative said. “I’m just sad still.”

According to court records, an autopsy revealed someone shot Vernece. Investigators searched social media and phone records. They say cell phone records and cell phone tower data show Vernece was communicating with Kenneth B. Wilson Jr. and that their cell phones were in the same location shortly before hers went dormant. Court records state his cell phone was used at or near the location where Vernece was found in Cass County. He is charged with murder for her death.

“A sigh of relief,” another relative said. “We’ll just sit back and let God do his will.”

Wilson was already in custody at the Western Missouri Correctional Center serving a sentence for a separate crime. Court records state he was arrested in 2018 while driving a stolen vehicle that was carjacked from a woman in Columbia, MO.

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