Authorities said Mary Brooks, 87, died of natural causes after she was discovered dead on the floor of her Dallas, Texas, condo with her grocery bags still on the counter.
It required an attack on another woman weeks later for police to change their minds, despite the fact that her adored coral necklace and diamond rings were among the jewellery that her family had found was missing.
Billy Chemirmir, 49, is accused of killing 22 older women, including Brooks, and his subsequent capital murder trial for Brooks’ death will start on Monday (local time) in Dallas. After his arrest in 2018, the allegations against Chemirmir expanded as police in the Dallas region reexamined older people’s deaths that had previously been deemed natural despite family raising concerns about missing jewellery.
This summer, four new indictments were added.
Chemirmir, who adamantly claims his innocence, was found guilty of capital murder in the suffocation death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris in April and was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. If found guilty in Brooks’ death, he will suffer the same punishment. In November of last year, the jury couldn’t agree, leading to a mistrial in his initial trial for Harris’s death.
One of the many relatives of victims who will attend the trial, according to Loren Adair Smith, whose 91-year-old mother is one of the victims Chemirmir is accused of killing, will carry a “big bag of mixed feelings.”
While having that dreadful emotion, Smith added, “we are genuinely delighted to go back and conclude this chapter.”
Chemirmir’s arrest began as a result of Mary Annis Bartel escaping an attack in March 2018.
At the time, 91-year-old Bartel reported to authorities that a man had broken into her apartment at a senior independent living complex, tried to suffocate her with a pillow, and taken her jewellery.
Bartel revealed the assault in a recorded interview that was shown during Chemirmir’s earlier trials before she passed away in 2020. She claimed she knew she was in “severe danger” the instant she opened her door and noticed a man wearing green rubber gloves.
The following day, according to the police, Chemirmir was located in the parking lot of his apartment building. He had just thrown out a sizable red jewellery box and was holding cash and jewellery. Documents in the box helped them find Harris’ house, where they discovered her dead in her bedroom with lipstick all over her pillow.
Prosecutors presented evidence during the trial showing that Harris and Chemirmir checked out simultaneously at a Walmart just hours before she was discovered dead.
Chemirmir disclosed to a detective in a police video interview that he earned money by purchasing and reselling jewellery and that he has also held jobs as a caretaker and a security guard.
The majority of Chemirmir’s claimed victims resided in units at senior independent living facilities. The widow of a man he had cared for while working as an at-home caregiver is among the women he is accused of killing in private houses.
David Cuddihee, Brooks’ grandson, stated in court that he discovered her body on January 31, 2018. He claimed she was still healthy and active despite occasionally using a cane.
Cuddihee recalled, “She would walk to church, she would walk to the dentist down the street.”
The day before her corpse was discovered, Brooks was at Walmart, according to the police’s testimony about grocery receipts. A vehicle that matched the description of Chemirmir’s was visible on shop surveillance footage leaving shortly after Brooks and travelling in the same way.
When John Creuzot, the Democratic district attorney for Dallas County, tried Chemirmir in two of the county’s 13 capital murder cases, he chose not to pursue the death penalty but instead to seek life sentences. As he runs for reelection in the most active pro-death penalty state in the nation, his Republican opponent has criticised that choice.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Creuzot stated that while he is not opposed to the death penalty, he weighs several factors before deciding whether to pursue it, including the length of time it would take for someone to be executed, the expense of any appeals, and whether the person would still pose a threat to society if they were to remain in prison. He said, “Chemirmir is going to die in the prison.”
Attorneys in the neighbouring Collin County have not indicated whether they will bring any of Chemirmir’s nine capital murder cases to trial.
A US man is tried once more for the murders of 22 older women.
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