November 26, 2024
It has been a year since serial killer, Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir, 50, was murdered in his prison cell by a fellow inmate at the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony, Anderson County, Texas.
Chemirmir was serving a life sentence without the chance of parole for the murder of multiple elderly people in Texas from 2016 – 2018.
This year, a series based on the murders, titled: Pillowcase Murders, produced by Paramount, was released in May 2024, detailing the crimes.
Chemirmir immigrated to the U.S. from Kenya. He received a green card and became a permanent resident of the U.S in 2007. At one point he had been employed as a health care worker.
Initially, some of the murders were ruled as death by natural causes. Since the victim’s were elderly, in their eighties and nineties, it was believed they had had strokes and died. Family members were suspicious, however, as despite being older, they were in good spirits the day before they suddenly passed, and in some cases, pieces of jewellery were missing, including beloved wedding rings.
Due to the old age of the victims, foul play had initially been overlooked. Family members of several of the victims felt uneasy about the nature of deaths, especially when they discovered the decedents’ apartments in various states of disarray that was out of character for the victims. In the home of one victim, Martha Williams, a pair of black Ray Ban sunglasses that were not at all her style were found on a counter. Her jewellery boxes were all found either tipped over or empty, and various heirlooms were missing. A pillow smeared with makeup and blood was also found, indicative of what appeared to be a suffocation.
Bartel answered a knock at the door to find Billy Chemirmir standing on the other side.
Bartel had just returned home from Church, and was typing up an email when she heard impatient knocking at the door.
He barged into Bartel's apartment telling her "Don't fight me," and forced her onto the bed, where he attempted to smother her to death with her own pillow.
She said the man was wearing green gloves, and that she knew she would be physically unable to fight back against him.
Believing Bartel was dead, he began ransacking her home, taking her jewellery.
She was exhausted from the ordeal, and still in bed, was later found there by a friend at the facility who paid her a welfare visit after the victim failed to show up to a scheduled class.
Bartel had survived the attempt on her life and the following day Billy Chemirmir was arrested. Following the arrest, the previous spree of deaths over a two year span were re-examined, as authorities believed they may have a serial killer on their hands.
They looked into the cases of the six victims who had died before.
Shockingly, Bartel’s neighbour across the hallway had also been killed, her jewellery was also missing.
The son of one resident told police that he had seen a suspicious male hanging around a few days earlier. The witness had watched the suspect get into a car in the parking lot and as a precaution, he made a note of the licence plate number. Police ran the number and finally had a name: Billy Chemirmir.
Investigators lay in wait in the parking lot of a Dallas apartment complex where Chemirmir lived. They watched as he crossed the parking lot and approached a dumpster, throwing something away.
Investigators retrieved a red wooden jewellery box with gold details, and inside, papers belonging to that of who would come to be known as a previous victim, Lu Thi Harris.
When they went to Harris apartment they found her dead inside.
Chemirmir was arrested in the spring of 2018 and accused in the death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. She was found dead in her apartment, and a nearby pillow was stained with the lipstick she had been wearing. Again, her jewellery and valuables were missing.
Chemirmir reportedly sold the jewellery within hours of stealing it, selling it for cash at gold and silver exchange stores in Dallas.
The following month he was indicted on 11 more counts of capital murder.
Eventually he was accused of murdering 22 elderly women- the majority of whom were slain at senior independent living complexes, one of which was The Tradition-Prestonwood, a premier senior living community in Dallas, Texas.
One resident noticed the deaths happening within the community, and even mentioned it to her daughter, saying she was thinking about moving to another complex because her “friends were dying around her.”
Chemirmir would gain access to their homes posing as a maintenance worker or handy man.
After several delays, Chemirmir eventually went to trial in mid-November of 2021- it ended in mistrial due to a hung jury.
Surviving family members of the victims, mainly their daughters, went on to form a group during the trial, where they would share details about their slain loved ones during trial breaks.
Several months later, in April 2022, the retrial began. Three days later, Chemirmir was convicted of Lu Thi Harris' murder and given a life sentence. The death sentence was not sought.
In the Autumn of 2022, Chemirmir went to trial for the murder of 87-year-old Mary Brooks, and four days later was convicted and given another life sentence.
The remaining charges were dropped.
Chemirmir professed innocence, and even went on to appeal the convictions.
He was murdered last year by his cellmate in Coffield Unit, Tennessee Colony.
November 19, 2024
