Suspected Serial Killer Murdered Many More Elderly Patients, Claims Lawsuit

A suspected Texan serial killer, who has been charged with the murder of 12 elderly women, may have killed at least six more victims according to new lawsuits filed against a living facility where he is accused of targeting victims.

Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir was first eyed as a possible attacker last March when he was suspected of trying to smother a 91-year-old woman to death, The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth reported. But before police could even arrest him in connection with that alleged incident, “they observed him walk to a dumpster and toss unknown items in the dumpster. [...] In the dumpster officers found a jewelry box containing jewelry and a name. Officers were able to associate the name found in the jewelry box to an address in the city of Dallas,” according to a press release posted on the Dallas Police Department’s website.

That jewelry box led them to the body of an entirely different woman than the 91-year-old Chemirmir was accused of trying to kill and after a thorough investigation officials said they linked him to the murders of 12 elderly women killed between 2016 and 2018. 

“Suspect Chemirmir has worked as a healthcare worker and has a history of impersonating maintenance personnel at a retirement community in Dallas,” Plano Chief of Police Gregory Rushin said a press conference held last March. “Chemirmir uses his healthcare experience to his advantage in targeting and exploiting seniors.”

Billy Chemirmir Photo: Dallas County Jail

Initially, the victims are believed to have died of natural causes. Chermirmir is accused of posing as a maintenance worker and healthcare provider in order to gain access to the women. Investigators allegedly found jewelry, cell phones, and other victims’ belongings in Chemirmir’s apartment when it was searched last year,.

Now, six lawsuits, one for each victim, have now been filed against The Tradition-Prestonwood, the independent living facility, where Chemirmir allegedly killed elderly women. Two of the victims he has been charged with killing died at that particular facility, according to Fox News. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, claims he killed six more victims at the facility, which if true, would make his alleged death toll at least 18. Of the six, five are women and one is a man.

“We now know with Google location tracking data that [Chemirmir] was in our clients’ loved ones’ residences at the time they were killed,” attorney Dave Wishnew told CBS Dallas Fort-Worth.

The lawsuits accuse the facility of failing to protect its residents and covering up the suspicious circumstances around these deaths. 

“Tradition should have done everything that they had promised they would do: Provide all of the exceptional level of security that they marketed to the elderly and the families who brought their loved ones to their facilities,” Wishnew said.

The lawsuits claim the facility was aware that somebody was taking “substantial amounts of jewelry from residents who had suddenly and unexpectedly died in their own apartments — and that burglaries occurred before or at the time of death.”

The Tradition put out a statement which reads in part, “The deaths by an alleged serial killer in people’s homes and at multiple senior living communities in the DFW Metroplex is a true tragedy. The Tradition-Prestonwood regards all our residents as family.” It claims that the deaths in question were attributed to natural causes and denies claims that the facility withheld any information from families.

“What was shocking is that this person was allowed to be there in the first place,” Trey Crawford, another attorney for victims' families, told FOX4 in Dallas. “He literally roamed freely, stalking his next victim, posing as a maintenance man, walking around, knocking on doors."

Chemirmir’s bail is now set at more than $9 million. It’s not clear if he has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf at this time.