Accused Serial Killer Billy Chemirmir Goes On Trial Next Week In Dallas

Just Because Someone Elderly Dies, Doesn't Mean It's Not Suspicious

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes.  And ages.  Our heroine in today’s story is ninety-one-year-old Mary Annis Bartell. In March, 2018, she survived a brutal robbery and attempted murder and helped police nab suspected serial killer Billy Chemirmir. An unnamed ninety-three-year-old survivor of a similar attack told a similar story and provided additional key details.    

We’ll never know how many lives they saved.  It’s a safe bet to say “a lot,” given that he allegedly killed eighteen and is suspected of murdering twenty-four. His murders go back to at least 2015 (although he has been in Dallas since 2010).  There was no evidence he had any plans to stop.

The Killer’s M.O.

According to prosecutors, forty-eight-year-old Billy Chemirmir had a consistent way of operating. He targeted elderly women. Posing as either a maintenance man or healthcare worker, he would talk his way into their homes or apartment in an independent living facility.

Once he was inside, he would kill the women and steal their valuables. The surviving victims said he acted like he was just going to rob them, reassuring them and telling them to lie on the bed and not fight him. Instead, when they followed his instructions, he would suffocate them with a pillow. He must have thought the two survivors were dead when he left their apartment.   

Missed Clues

Yes, these were older women.  It is not as surprising when an eighty-year-old woman dies as when an eight-year-old does. But older people get murdered just like people of any age, and there were certainly clues that could have raised suspicions.

Take the 2016 death of eighty-three-year-old Leach Corcoran. When she died suddenly, her daughter was shocked. They had gone shopping and out to dinner the night before, and her mother had acted as lively, sharp and healthy as ever. 

Then, there were the odd details that were so out of character for her. Found on the living room floor of her upscale apartment at The Tradition-Prestonwood, an independent community in Dallas, Ms. Corcoran’s meticulously coiffed hair was a mess. There were make-up smudges on her pillow, yet her mom religiously performed her bedtime hygiene routine.  Her wedding ring was missing.

Still, no one suspected foul play. Gradually, her grieving family came to accept what they were told; she had probably died of a stroke.  At least, they thought, she hadn’t suffered. 

They had no idea how many local families were living through the same experience, grappling with the sudden loss of a healthy and active older family member and troubled over missing jewelry.

Chemirmir Had Been There Before

It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback after we know how the game ends. So, I’m not criticizing police for issuing a criminal trespass warning the first time security spotted Chemirmir at the Edgemere living facility.

I applaud law enforcement for arresting and charging him when he was spotted there again three months later.  He was booked – and convicted – for criminal trespassing and giving officers the wrong name. (When searching him, police discovered two IDs, one under his real name and one under an alias).

It’s somewhat disturbing that he only served a month in jail. But that’s not on the police. But when, according to a November 2016 police report, someone matching his description was escorted off of the property of another independent living facility in late 2016 after having been seen there several times and lying about what he was doing there (he said he was checking for pipe leaks), surely there should have been some kind of inquiry. 

Wouldn’t you think someone would at least have talked to some of the residents? If they had, they would have quickly realized that many of the residents were alarmed by – and suspicious of- the increasing deaths of their friends.  

Just days before Glenna Day, 87, was found dead there in October 2016, she told friends something seemed off. “They asked how things were going. She said, ‘Well, I’m thinking I should move because my friends are dying,’” said her daughter.  

“Their Time Had Come”

“Every death is a homicide until proven otherwise.”  I think every police officer and death investigator would agree with that statement. Hell, I read it in a death investigation training manual. 

But that’s not what happens in the real world. It can’t be. There aren’t enough resources to treat every death as a potential murder. It’s not practical.  There has to be a decision tree that helps officers decide what deaths are suspicious and which ones are not.   

But that should be based on the evidence and not the age of the victim. Just as I’ve seen death investigators jump the gun and label a murder a suicide just because the victim had a history of depression, there undoubtedly is a tendency to assume the sudden death of an older person is natural. Case closed.     

Kudos to then-Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin for owning up to this at a news conference following Chemirmir’s arrest. Acknowledging a common tendency to assume the death of an older person is natural, he said, “There is not a deep investigation. ... It would be very easy to disguise a crime.”

Let’s hope the bright light of justice illuminates every corner of that disguise.  As the Benedict of Nursia said, “There’s nothing better to display the truth in an excellent light, than a clear and simple statement of facts.”

See you next week, Mind Detectives. If you’re interested in true crime and forensic psychology, check out my book, Serial Killers: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask!

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