Matthew Meisner and Meagen Epstein were friends since birth. She remembers, at the age of seven, waiting at the hospital when her cousin was born on May 24, 1993, in Mesa.
Over the years their families spent Christmases and Thanksgivings together while living on the opposite ends of town.
“Matthew liked to cheer people up, he liked to make people happy. He was like the peacemaker a lot of the time,” Epstein told The Arizona Republic.
He loved animals and cared for his mom’s three cats after her death – Skitty, Hunter and QT.
Those cats are the inspiration for a new bill proposed in the wake of Meisner's murder.