By Claudia Dimuro
pennlive.com
DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — A man in Texas is suspected of killing 24 elderly women while they resided in retirement communities and other senior living complexes.
NBC 5 News reports that Billy Chemirmir, 48, is thought to have either smothered his victims with a pillow or choked them to death prior to robbing them. He is said to have posed as a maintenance worker in order to gain access to their homes.
While Chemirmir’s formal indictments total 17, The Dallas Morning News states that Chemirmir is possibly linked to seven more deaths due to additional medical examiner reports and civil case filings.
The ages of the murder victims listed in the indictments against Chemirmir range from mid-seventies to nineties, the eldest being age 94.
It was only after a woman living at the Preston Place Retirement Community in Plano identified Chemirmir after surviving an attack in March 2018 that concerns began to grow. Upon further review, police began to suspect other deaths in nursing homes were linked to Chemirmir.
The New York Posts reports these charges occurred after Texas police began investigating the deaths of at least 750 unattended seniors who had lived in areas where Chemirmir was present during the time of their passing.
Six of the suspected murders took place in a senior living complex called The Tradition-Prestonwood. Each woman was killed within an approximately three-month span of each other. Their families were told that causes of death were natural despite the fact that valuables such as jewelry were missing from their apartments.
The Tradition-Prestonwood is now facing a lawsuit from a number of those family members who claim the facility failed in its security measures.
Chemirmir is currently being held in the Dallas County Jail with bail set at $11.6 million.
(c)2020 The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.)