The survivors description leads police to a man who has a history of trespassing.
Could a victims jewelry box be the evidence they need to catch him?
This time a conviction brings a much-needed feeling of justice.
I think about that every night.
[00:00:13] Loren Adair: My brother and I both started having nightmares.
I would say to her, “Don’t bring up the door.”
I would have a go at save her in my, in my dreams all the time.
It was hard to hear the depositions.
I knew I was in grave danger.”
I knew that my life was in grave danger.
[00:00:53] Ellen French House: I’m sure that’s how my mom felt.
It includes at least 24 murders and two attempted murders throughout North Texas beginning in 2016.
[00:01:25] Reporter: He was banking on them not doing full blown autopsies.
[00:01:29] Trey Crawford: Uh, I’m not even sure what the real number is.
I don’t think anybody will ever know.
[00:01:44] Bob: Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy.
These are the names of the serial killers that almost everyone knows.
Billy Chemirmir stalked and killed the elderly.
And they wrote off the murders as innocent, unattended deaths.
The families involved were often told their loved ones had died peacefully from natural causes.
Ageism is rampant in America, often with devastating impacts on the victims.
But in the case of Billy Chemirmir, the ageism was quite literally fatal.
This is a very, very hard story to tell.
But these deaths cannot be forgotten.
A murder rampage committed by a mad man, but enable by age-bias must never happen again.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
[00:03:47] Loren Adair: My mom was Phyllis Payne.
[00:03:49] Bob: And where was she born?
[00:03:52] Loren Adair: She was born in Fort Worth, Texas.
[00:03:54] Bob: So she lived her whole life in Texas?
[00:03:56] Loren Adair: She did not.
She laughed and said that they lived in 20 houses in 20 years.
Phyllis loved being a mom and a grandma.
[00:04:45] Bob: Phyllis was in her 80s when her husband died.
Within a year, she decided that big, old house was too much to take care of.
I am tired of taking care of this house.”
And she knew people at Edgemere.
And so she said, “I want to move.”
So this was her decision, and she was very excited about it.
she would just say, “What’s not to like?”
[00:05:29] Bob: Edgemere looks more like a resort than an independent living facility.
[00:05:42] Loren Adair: It was nearby.
Loren leaned on her mom a lot.
She wanted to be doing whatever we needed done.
[00:06:26] Bob: When Phyllis wasn’t with Loren, she had very full days at Edgemere.
[00:06:31] Loren Adair: She typically ate her breakfast in her apartment.
Her apartment did have a full kitchen.
And so she would get up and fix herself some breakfast and read the newspaper was her first thing.
And so she would go down there and, and volunteer on certain days.
She had her church and her other organizations that she was a part of.
And so she would love to go to maybe a book club and hear a speaker.
She just wanted to keep learning and growing, even at 9–, even at 91.
Well Mom, her busy social schedule just can’t fit it in.
It’s a man who says he’s there for maintenance.
He wasn’t to check on the medical alert button in her bathroom.
Phyllis lets him in.
Sunday morning begins the beach with laughter and sunshine, then the phone rings.
It’s Loren’s brother.
Something has happened to Mom.
[00:09:09] Loren Adair: Edgemere had gotten a hold of him.
He said that she had passed away.
And I just dropped to my knees and in the sand and said, “What do you mean?
We just talked to her.
She just, you know, she just, she just hosted bridge club.
She was great.”
And so we were, we were devastated and shocked and so, yeah, it was pretty horrific.
[00:09:49] Bob: The family throws everything into the car and races back to Dallas.
It’s all so sudden.
During the drive, they called the facility.
That begins with going through Mom’s things in her room.
Oh, the coffee can.
[00:10:52] Bob: Where is the coffee can?
It was a secret, that coffee can, but it was precious.
Mom would never have misplaced it.
[00:11:01] Bob: She had kept her best jewelry in a, in a coffee can?
[00:11:04] Loren Adair: In a coffee can…in her refrigerator, yes.
[00:11:06] Bob: … in her refrigerator.
That’s really, first of all that’s rather ingenious, I think.
[00:11:10] Loren Adair: Yes, I think so too.
[00:11:11] Bob: You, you knew about the coffee can?
She had; she had done that for years.
[00:11:27] Bob: They looked everywhere.
The coffee can with Mom’s finest jewelry isn’t anywhere.
And there are a few other mysterious things out of place.
Loren files a police report but missing jewelry is far from her mind.
Her mom, her rock isn’t there to talk with every day anymore.
She won’t be there to help her deal with her dying husband.
One day Mom is hosting bridge, the next day she’s gone.
So Loren mostly forgets about the missing jewelry and focuses on her husband’s few remaining days.
Or the few weeks after Phyllis dies on June 5th, Phoebe Perry is also found dead.
Another unattended death at Edgemere.
[00:12:57] Bob: And where is that?
[00:12:58] Diana Tannery: That is East Texas.
[00:13:00] Bob: East Texas.
How far from Dallas are you?
[00:13:03] Diana Tannery: I’m a three-hour drive from Dallas.
My mother, her full name was Juanita Purdy is they, how they know her.
[00:13:10] Bob: Juanita Purdy was a bit of a legend at Tradition Prestonwood Independent Living Facility.
Juanita and her husband are among the first to move into the facility when it opens in 2015.
She even boasts a founder’s tag.
And so she was known as one of the party girls.
And she always liked her red wine, because you know, red wine is good for your heart.
[00:14:22] Bob: Oh my God.
So you would you, you would crash there because you were all drinking.
[00:14:24] Diana Tannery: Exactly.
[00:14:41] Bob: And the Christmas card list must be enormous is what I’m thinking.
[00:14:43] Diana Tannery: Oh yeah.
And my mother, she never forgot a birthday.
[00:14:52] Bob: Juanita is thriving at Tradition Prestonwood.
She reads the newspaper for a while, and then she’ll have her cereal.
She likes to go down and exercise, they do exercise classes for any of the continuing education.
She never liked to just stay, you know, inside for very long.
She always like to go out and do stuff, have fun.
She’s really excited about an amazing 7-course dinner planned for Saturday.
[00:15:50] Bob: But when dinner starts, Juanita isn’t in her seat.
As they move through the seven courses, her friends start to worry.
Someone tells the front desk, and sometime in the next few hours an employee conducts a wellness check.
…. Juanita is found dead in her room, an unattended death.
Soon after, Diana gets a call from an employee at Tradition Prestonwood.
[00:16:17] Diana Tannery: He says, “you oughta come here.”
And he said that they had found my mother, and she must have died peacefully in her sleep.
[00:16:31] Bob: Peacefully in her sleep?
But she was out on Friday night.
She was ready for that 7-course meal.
Diana and her husband race to Dallas, but it’s going to several hours before they get there.
By the time they arrive, Mom has been moved and well, something just doesn’t look right.
She tells an employee.
Now I noticed there was no rings there.
I asked, I said, “Did you see the rings?”
And he goes, “No.”
And I kind of said, “Well what about people from Tradition.”
And he said that, that they will do their own investigation.
[00:17:30] Bob: And there’s something else that’s wrong.
She didn’t die in her sleep.
And Phillip goes, What do you mean?
I said, “She was up this morning.”
I just knew that she didn’t die peacefully in her sleep.
I knew that she had woken up.
“Then well she probably started feeling bad and went back to sleep.”
But then, then the jewelry was gone.
She doesn’t know what to think of it.
But Leah Corken who lives near Juanita on the 4th Floor has definitely taken notice of these deaths.
She mentions it to her daughter, MJ Jennings, just a couple of days after Juanita’s passing.
I don’t know what’s going on.”
[00:19:12] Bob: It’s the kind of dark humor MJ was used to from her mom.
They’d become very close after her father died several years earlier.
And it was just the worst thing ever imaginable.
[00:19:54] MJ Jennings: It was a lot of fun.
So I really got to have a close bond with my mom when she moved here.
It’s like a mile and a half away from me, and brand new building.
So we were really excited when we found out that was being built.
[00:20:59] Bob: Moving to Tradition Prestonwood doesn’t slow Leah Corken’s social life at all.
After all, she lives on the 4th Floor, the party floor.
Still, she loves going out.
Mom is a football fan, a really big football fan.
You know, and a cold beer at a Packer’s bar to watch her Green Bay Packers.
Oh my God, she was the best fan in the world.
She had a lot of fun.
[00:21:36] Bob: Did she have a cheesehead?
[00:21:38] MJ Jennings: Of course!
I got one in my bar right now.
A bottle of vodka with a cheesehead.
[00:21:50] Bob: You guys talked on the phone at least every day, right?
[00:21:53] MJ Jennings: Every day.
So we have a routine.
You know there were lots of activities.
So we had a routine to check on her on a regular basis.
We just went to have dinner and then we were off to a movie.
[00:22:56] Bob: What movie did you see?
[00:22:58] MJ Jennings: I knew you were going to ask me that.
The movie with Hugh Grant and Meryl Streep.
She was, it was, it was just the most charming movie ever.
Well yeah, we just had a great time.
[00:23:33] Bob: The next day they talk in the morning as they do every day.
But by lunchtime … the routine is broken.
Have a great day, Mom."
And then that afternoon my sister called, and there was no answer.
So anyone in the room could have heard the message.
“Mom, where are you?
Mom, pick up.”
But no one answers.
Did anyone hear the calls?
And at the same time, I said, “I’m going to be on my way.”
My heart just sank knowing it was Mom.
I knew it was Mom.
And then just parked the car and ran up there as fast as I could.
[00:24:51] Bob: She races upstairs to Mom’s apartment.
So I just didn’t expect this happening.
And so I, I was pretty hysterical.
I’m sure I was just bawling and in shock.
[00:25:25] Bob: The death is so fresh; the scene is still pretty chaotic.
But in the midst of the shock and chaos, MJ notices something is wrong.
In the meantime, staff at Tradition Prestonwood had, had come in.
Mom never took her ring off.
She never took it off.
the way she laying looked odd, her walker was on the other side of the kitchen.
This is how they might look like."
But, things were nagging at her.
[00:27:06] MJ Jennings: That was comforting.
That, that was my, a comforting thought.
This doesn’t look right.
You know, ow, my poor mom, poor mom.
And just, just, I was heartbroken.
And um, I felt, it was just heartbreaking.
[00:27:41] Bob: A few weeks later, Ellen French House would feel that same heartbreak.
[00:27:46] Bob: Tell me about your mom.
So I got to spend a lot of time with my parents in their older years.
We were so close that she could finish my sentences.
She loved to garden.
[00:29:12] Bob: Oh wow.
[00:29:21] Ellen French House: Yeah.
Yeah, oh yeah, she would make those.
And even in college.
She moves to Tradition Prestonwood.
We wanted her to be in a safe environment.
My brother and sister live in Dallas, so she saw them frequently.
So it was actually really fun.
And that she’d be happy there.
[00:30:29] Bob: It turns out to be an easy adjustment.
Norma loves living at Tradition Prestonwood.
It’s early October 2016, and Norma isn’t in Dallas.
She’s in Indianapolis visiting Ellen.
It’s a nice long visit, about a month.
And she was genuinely worried.
And I said, “Mother, you’re not to worry about that.”
I know I will see you again."
And you know, of course, it made me cry.
And I just said, “Don’t even think about that or worry about it.”
It’s just strange she said that to me and then she went home two days later.
[00:32:29] Bob: Ellen always hates it when Mom leaves.
[00:32:46] Bob: Can’t miss the Texas/OU festivities.
So, they pack Mom up for an early morning flight.
:" And I said, “Okay, okay.”
Did you notice your husband kissed me on the forehead?"
And I said, “No.”
And she goes, “Well, I don’t think he’s ever done that.”
And she’s like, “It was so sweet.”
The salad stays untouched on her kitchen counter.
So she said, “Well you try her.”
And I said, “Okay.”
And I was like, “Mother!
She did not like it when I did that, because it would scare her.
[00:34:44] Bob: Ellen pings her.
Mom doesn’t respond to anything.
So the family asks for a wellness check.
Ellen’s sister gets a call back right away.
“Come to Tradition Prestonwood.”
So they drove over there and met the Community Relation Director.
And the police came, and they had to, you know, have a cause of death.
[00:35:49] Bob: Heart attack or stroke they suggest to the family.
Still on the phone from Indiana, Ellen feels completely helpless.
She acts on instinct.
And when they were coming I said, I was hysterical, pretty much.
And my sister’s like, “What?”
I go, “You have to take a picture of her.
I don’t know.
So anyway, they took a picture and it’s a good thing they did.
[00:36:51] Bob: Because when they come to take the body, there is an awful discovery.
My sister said, “She doesn’t have her ring on.”
And could, could not get it over her knuckle.
And so we just washed there and that was that.
I just started thinking, who in the world steals a ring off a dead person’s body?
[00:38:02] Ellen French House: So we went through everything.
And I mean clothes, pockets.
I decided to, that I should start wearing it.”
And she said, “No.”
And I said, “Okay, well she had a necklace in there.”
And she had cash in her wallet, or she should have.
And over time, we realized a couple other items that were missing.
And I was just trying to be nice.
That’s bad for them.
You should always be sending in twos.”
And I said, “And you, you should never let the paramedics alone with my mom.
She should have never been alone until my brother and sister got there.”
And I said, “Yes.”
And I said, “Wedding rings?”
And she said, “Hmm-hmm.”
And I said, “Okay.
That is really bad.”
And she said, “Well the other families are suspecting of the paramedics or the fire department.”
[00:40:38] Bob: The other families suspect the paramedics?
It’s horrible, too much to think about at the moment really.
She reports the thefts to police, but she’s got so many other things to think about.
EMTs are outside again.
Who is it and who in the world steals a ring off a dead person’s body?
That’s next week on The Perfect Scam.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch connection Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
[00:00:25] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
When we left our story, Norma French had just passed away, an unattended death.
It’s fall 2016.
That summer, neighbors Juanita Purdy and Leah Corken had also died, also unattended deaths.
These people are dying all around me.
[00:01:26] Sherril Kerr: She had been up early.
I talked to her about 11, but she had been restoring a painting for a friend.
Someone had poked a hole in it.
[00:02:00] Bob: Glenna has an artist’s heart.
She’s fixed plenty of paintings, plenty of homes in fact in her day.
[00:02:07] Sherril Kerr: She was quite the painter.
She was great at interior design.
She had an eye for all that.
Oh my goodness, she was so creative.
She could sew anything; she could make anything.
If you wanted a pillow for your couch, not a problem.
She could, she could do it.
And she’s just drop-dead beautiful.
I mean she doesn’t look; she doesn’t look 87.
She looks like she might be late 70s, maybe.
[00:02:39] Bob: Wow.
[00:02:40] Sherril Kerr: She looked like, well they thought she was my sister.
And I don’t look so old.
[00:02:45] Bob: Glenna has plenty to live for.
She still loves to travel, loves spending time with friends and family.
She’d been widowed decades earlier, but never remarried.
That was part of her charm, Sherril says.
And he had emphysema, of course, smoking got him.
But she always took care of him.
She was just a, a servant all of her life.
[00:03:16] Bob: And then she never remarried after that.
(chuckles) So she also, she was fully of funny quotes.
She said, “If I want something with hairy legs, I’ll get a dog.”
[00:03:40] Bob: Humor helps keep Glenna healthy.
[00:03:42] Sherril Kerr: She was just funny like that.
I mean they just were; they just were funny.
I don’t know, she was amazing.
I thought she would visit me in the rest home, quite honestly.
[00:03:57] Bob: She’s also a generous soul.
At 87, Glenna is still a more than capable driver.
Just a few days after Norma French dies, one of the employees at Tradition Prestonwood becomes ill.
Very ill. And Glenna, jumps into action.
And she stayed with them all night and then, and then brought her home.
[00:04:32] Bob: And she was actually taking care of them.
[00:04:34] Sherril Kerr: Oh absolutely.
[00:04:35] Bob: She cared for her caretakers.
She loved to dance, and had driven her friends to this dance in Farmer Branch.
She’s feeling great, busy.
[00:05:33] Bob: Because Sherril was traveling, it’s a bit of an unusual day.
The regular evening phone call never happens.
And we just didn’t get in until late.
But Glenna’s friends have already started to worry.
‘Cause they ate there at Tradition.
They had a really nice, they had a really nice dining room.
[00:06:40] Bob: Glenna is found dead alone in her room.
Soon after, on Sunday morning, Sherril’s phone starts to ring.
[00:06:47] Sherril Kerr: I was at church.
And my phone buzzed, and it said, “Dallas Police.”
And I thought, well that’s really strange.
And so we left church and were there by probably 11:00.
Drove straight to Traditions, and the police were there.
One of them stayed until we got there.
So that’s, but that’s how we found out.
[00:07:17] Bob: Sherril races up to the 4th Floor to see her mom.
At first it seems like maybe a peaceful, beautiful last act.
The repaired painting sits in the easel restored to its original beauty.
It looks like she finished the project, laid down for a nap, and passed away peacefully.
[00:07:35] Sherril Kerr: It looked like a great ending to a wonderful life, you know.
[00:07:51] Bob: But then Sherril notices something looks off.
[00:07:56] Sherril Kerr: There were several things about it that were really, really wrong.
Whenever she would start feeling better, she’d go shopping.
She was very persnickety about that.
And she was just, I mean she had nice things, but she took care of them.
You know, boy, I don’t, I don’t understand this.
And just several things like that.
Her head wasn’t on the pillow.
[00:08:47] Bob: And there’s more, a lot more.
And she had paint on her fingers and on her hand.
And so she had locked them in a safe.
There was a, a Rolex missing.
We had the empty case, but we didn’t have that.
And she’d gone to the bank.
She has a memorial service planned.
[00:09:46] Sherril Kerr: It was huge.
We did it there at Tradition and it took up the meeting room and three-fourths of the dining room.
I mean there were several hundred people from Tradition.
They did everything for us.
I mean they; they catered lunch, they helped us set up.
they didn’t charge me one penny.
She’s found lying on the floor of her apartment.
It’s another unattended death.
In fact, Shannon wears a matching necklace, but it’s gone.
So is some cash from her purse.
Doris’s family calls police.
Thirteen days later, Dallas Police receive report of a suspicious person at Tradition Prestonwood.
Police are told that a well-dressed man had been walking around the building claiming to be a maintenance worker.
The facility is told to increase security.
Reports of suspicious unattended deaths at Tradition Prestwood stop.
For the families we’ve told you about, life doesn’t get any easier.
Loren Adair is still caring for her sick husband.
He dies of cancer before the end of the year, so she has something else to mourn.
Ellen French House never really gets time to grieve.
Her husband needs a heart transplant.
He spends four months in the hospital.
But eventually, Ellen French House, daughter of Norma French gets an update.
Remember the rumor that EMTs were to blame for the missing jewelry after those unattended deaths?
I told her some things.
She interviewed my brother, my brother-in-law, and my sister.
She interviewed the police, the fire department guys, the paramedics.
She, they interviewed her maid.
Anyway, this took a couple months.
I want to say, let me think, was it April?
Sergeant Davis called my sister and said, “We’re closing the investigation.
We’ve done these interviews.
We do not believe it is any of the Dallas workers.
We think it’s an inside job.”
Something is fishy."
And you know, then Laurie called me, and I said, “Well if something’s fishy?
Why are they closing the case?”
[00:13:20] Bob: Somebody did it.
Mary lives in a different independent living facility, Preston Place.
It’s about 10 minutes north of Tradition, just on the other side of George Bush Turnpike.
But it’s about to be linked to Tradition and Edgemere forever.
Heres a recording later played in open court of Mary Bartel describing what happens when she opens the door.
I tried to force the door shut.
He was inside and he, in my apartment, and he said, “Don’t fight me.
Lie on the bed.”
[00:15:02] Bob: Mary Bartel had been attacked in her apartment by an assailant.
She passes out, but her heart keeps going, perhaps because of a pacemaker that she has.
And when she’s found by a friend, she’s revived.
And that is about to change the lives of dozens of families in the Dallas area.
[00:17:26] Mary Bartel: Well, I noticed it.
[00:17:27] Prosecutor: All right.
What were you missing on your hands?
[00:17:30] Mary Bartel: I was missing my engagement ring and my wedding ring.
The story sounds familiar to police investigators.
He takes jewelry and leaves.
Immediately, police begin hunting for a man named Billy Chemirmir.
Within a day they’re staking out his apartment.
Right then, as police lay in wait to nab their suspect, Chemirmir is at a nearby Walmart.
And so is Lu Thi Harris.
She’s there to pick up a few things for her home in Dallas.
Heres her son-in-law describing Harris’s amazing life journey from Vietnam to Dallas.
Its a recording of his testimony in a Dallas courtroom.
[00:17:05] She grew up in uh, Cholon, which is the Chinese section of Saigon.
And so they met and married in uh 1974.
[00:18:09] Bob: Eventually, after the war, the family settles in Dallas.
[00:18:13] She was a very fun person.
Very humorous, very generous.
You know, most people hate their mother-in-law, my mother-in-law was a hoot.
She, she was very, very fun to be around.
[00:18:30] Prosecutor: You had mentioned that shes generous, lots of gifts?
Store surveillance video shows him checking out only a moment before she does.
Chemirmir follows her in his car, then follows her into her Dallas home.
Soon after Chemirmir returns to his apartment complex, police are there for the stakeout.
They watch as he casually tosses a jewelry box into a trash can.
They descend on their suspect.
[00:19:13] I approach him, and I see that its Mr. Chemirmir.
The car door was open, I identified myself as police.
Told him to get out of the vehicle.
At that point I had no reaction from him.
I repeatedly tell him he was under arrest, to get out of the car.
He wouldn’t get out of the car.
So I pulled him out of the vehicle, and pulled him out in the parking lot.
Her name is inside the jewelry box he threw in the trash.
They also find a set of keys in his car that open Harris’s front door.
When they rush to her home, they find her dead.
A pillow nearby, covered in lipstick marks.
Investigators interrogate Chemirmir, he tells them nothing.
There are hundreds of unattended deaths involving the elderly every year int he Dallas area.
And there’s now a pile of theft reports.
Just how far does the trail of Billy Chemirmir lead?
On March 23rd, just three days after the arrest, police go public with the story.
They need help tracking down the trail of victims.
[00:20:54] Police: We’re not going to leave any stone left unturned.
Billy Chemirmir, 45, is accused of capital murder and attempted murder.
[00:21:13] Police: In Dallas alone, our initial estimates is over 750 uh elderly females.
that we’re going to go back and review those cases.
[00:21:20] Newscaster: Police say they’re looking into this man, Billy Chemirmir.
For years he’s been posing as a home healthcare nurse, or maintenance worker.
They believe he’s been attacking and possibly murdering elderly women and stealing their jewelry.
[00:21:33] Bob: It’s not just police who start casting a wide net.
They get in touch with Trey Crawford.
And, and that, that woman, her name was Dr. Catherine Sinclair.
We met with the Sinclair family in April of 2016.
Dr. Sinclair was a very healthy, beautiful woman.
And her safe was missing.
[00:24:11] Bob: And there are a lot of pieces to put together.
Trey’s firm is, in some ways, investigating Chemirmir’s case in reverse.
[00:25:33] Trey Crawford: And those calls were not easy.
[00:26:35] Trey Crawford: I mean, and those phone calls were very difficult.
They were all thinking they had years left.
And then to find out several years later that they were actually murdered.
[00:28:10] Bob: Just how many murder victims would police and Trey Crawford find?
And why would a jury find the case against Billy Chemirmir inconclusive?
That’s next week on The Perfect Scam.
Would we be available to come in that afternoon to look at some pictures.
So my wife and I got in the car, and we drove to the Plano Police Department.
Does this look like your Mom’s jewelry?
And my wife looks to me and goes, “Wait a minute.
So are you telling us that you believe that Chemirmir killed Carolyn?”
And he says, “Oh, I’m certain of it.
He was there, and I’m certain he killed her.”
[00:01:00] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
Soon after, they go to Harris’s home and find her dead.
Almost immediately, investigators start linking Chemirmir to unattended deaths and jewelry thefts all around the Dallas area.
Hundreds of cases; deaths previously determined to be from natural causes are reopened.
But now, there’s a murder investigation.
Scott and his wife are talking to the lead detective on the case.
[00:02:08] Scott McPhee: So now we’re having a conversation about this Chemirmir guy.
He’d been down to the Dallas County Jail interviewing this guy.
He said, “Yeah, the guy said, kept saying something about Grace World.”
And my wife goes, “You mean Griswold?”
[00:02:42] Bob: Benjamin Koitaba.
His mind was fine, but his body started to waste away.
So they turn to a home healthcare agency.
Fortunately, Scott has records to refer to.
I mean Ive; I’ve done all of the, how do you unwind someone’s life.
I had nothing left.
So I had everything.
During the next three months, Koitaba would be in the McPhee home three or four days a week.
He is competent and on time, but otherwise different from the other aides.
You got to know them; they were there 12 hours a day; they’re in your life.
He was distant, disconnected, he didn’t take meals; he’d go in the other room.
He was a little bit of a loner.
[00:05:36] Bob: By January of 2017, Koitaba has moved onto another assignment.
And Scott’s dad, his health rapidly declines.
He passes away in April.
Some of the aides, not Koitaba, come to the funeral.
[00:06:00] Scott McPhee: Yeah, you know she was, it was a hard time.
I mean of course they’d been married for 50 some years.
And she had plenty of it left to go, trust me.
She was a force of nature.
[00:07:17] Bob: A force of nature that is suddenly gone.
So I called Rob.
We all, we all jumped in the car.
We all rushed to her house.
The front door was locked.
[00:08:36] Bob: The family calls 911 and policy come to examine the scene.
[00:09:52] Bob: That explanation seems reasonable enough to Scott and his family.
[00:09:56] Scott McPhee: You’re in such shock.
Your brain, your brain’s not really working.
It makes perfect sense.
It, it seemed like a reasonable explanation at the time.
[00:10:40] Bob: But that time doesn’t last very long.
Within days, the family has questions about missing jewelry.
This is, it’s the same ring she’d worn their entire marriage.
So that ring was a fixture.
He didn’t see any indent on her fingers.
So he doesn’t believe that she’d even had it on that day.
So what we started to realize over the course of the next few days is that ring was missing.
We couldnt find it.
He dropped her at the house Saturday night.
That jacket was nowhere to be found in the house.
We thought that was odd.
Where, where is the jewelry?
I’m sure it’s somewhere around there.
Look, you know, look through all her boxes.
So I was, I, I’m starting to get uncomfortable with the explanations.
I’m starting to think we had all these people coming through the house.
Because they are gone.
[00:13:12] Bob: Someone stole those rings.
There has to be an explanation.
[00:13:24] Scott McPhee: I want to say it was around March 23rd.
This guy," I mean it all fit.
Learning that Benjamin Koitaba was really Billy Chemirmir.
Your grieving process starts all over again.
We had started to move on from that.
Your whole life gets turned upside down in that moment.
[00:15:51] Bob: Chemirmir is in jail initially held on an outstanding arrest warrant for another crime.
By May, he’s indicted for attempted murder and held in lieu of paying one million dollars bond.
And I had not heard the news.
And so I said, “No, no, what are you talking about?”
And he said, “Well, we’re sure that your mother was one of his victims.”
And so I, my immediate reaction was if this is a joke, this is really sick.
We would, we would like to come out to your home and speak with you."
And at that point, I still didn’t know who this was.
And so I said, “I will come to you.”
And so he gave me the address of the Dallas Police Station.
I said, “I would like to get a hold of my son.”
He said, “We need you to come down to the station right away.”
So I’m sorry, this is bringing it all back.
[00:18:58] Bob: Sharing that moment with families, it’s an awful task.
And in some cases, Trey calls with something more definitive in mind.
[00:19:22] MJ Jennings: So, my husband is double-board certified in orthopedics and sports medicine.
Well I never answer a call that I don’t know who the number is.
But they left a message.
And I’m reading this going, what are you talking about?
And it was from our attorney, Trey Crawford.
And with that, I don’t think he got another word in edgewise.
She was one of his victims.
She got the news from the police.
[00:21:55] Sherril Kerr: The detective called me.
And he, he was asking me questions.
[00:22:27] Sherril Kerr: Oh no.
No, none of it.
[00:22:37] Bob: Yeah, I mean well, ‘cause it’s like unbelievable, right?
I mean…
[00:22:41] Sherril Kerr: I don’t even know if there’s a word.
It was like, are you sure?
You’ve got to, you, it’s got to be somebody else.
It was a coincidence.
So my sister called, and he said, “Is your mother Norma French?”
And she said, “Yes.”
And he said, “Well she’s on the top of our list.
We were going to call you later today.”
[00:23:48] Bob: The news is really, really hard to take.
It was hard to get it in my head.
I’m like, maybe she wasn’t one of them.
He, you know, and so he said that there were others in the building.
And I was like, I knew it, I knew something was up.
And they said they wanted to know if they could talk to me.
I said, yes, they can talk to me.
[00:25:12] Bob: As time goes by, the list of victims keeps growing.
Chemirmir is indicted for 11 murder in May 2019.
A June lawsuit alleges there’s even more victims at Tradition Prestonwood.
[00:25:34] MJ Jennings: Well, it’s a puzzle.
It, it was a puzzle piece.
It’s, it’s like he murdered how many there?
And how many there?
[00:26:25] Bob: How many?
The victim families keep working the case.
[00:26:29] Ellen French House: So then I started investigating myself.
Googling, doing whatever I could do.
And I had this little law website that I can get on, and a lawsuit popped up.
And I just looked at it and I thought, oh my gosh, there’s another one.
She lived at the same place that your mother did.
And I think we may have the same circumstances."
[00:27:18] Bob: But by this point you were all finding each other.
[00:27:20] Ellen French House: Uh-hmm.
There are the usual legal delays, and COVID slows down the wheels of justice too.
Chemirmir’s defense says all the evidence that he’s the murderer is circumstantial.
[00:28:17] Prosecution: Ladies and Gentlemen.
This is a case about stalking, smothering, and stealing.
You just heard what I have to prove to you in that indictment.
[00:29:47] Bob: Chemirmir is a cold killer, a sociopath, the prosecutor argues.
That’s obvious from the way he talks with investigators after his arrest.
[00:28:57] Prosecution: Did he even ask who died?
Is it someone I’ve come into contact with?
He just says, “No, I’ve never been anywhere.”
Never been at Preston Place, never been near Lu Harris’s home on Warm Breeze.
He didn’t even think to ask who had died.
Wouldn’t that be normal to say, wait, you’re charging me with murder of who?
That’s what a sociopath is.
A witness testified that cellphone records place Chemirmir at the site of the murder.
[00:30:44] Bob: The jurors also hear from Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffrey Barnard.
Mary Brooks’s death was not investigated, an autopsy not performed.
Well that’s common when there’s an unattended death involving an older person, he says.
[00:31:36] Dr. Jeffrey Barnard: That’s correct.
Lu Thi Harris’s jewelry would have been sold too if Chemirmir hadn’t been arrested.
He’d made a lot of money recently selling jewelry.
Seemed like a lot of money right over time, $91,000 in transactions.
[00:32:36] Bob: Billy Chemirmir was an experienced home healthcare aide.
We know from Scott McPhee that he had at least the basic skills to do the job.
So he knew how to make the crimes look innocent, look like natural deaths.
And worse, he knew how to use ageism to his advantage.
Things like that happen.
Maybe her heart gave out.
But then, it’s just like clockwork for him.
Ms. Brooks killed in her home and Ms. Harris killed in her home.
And that their property ends up sold or about to be sold.
His greed was more important to him than the life of Lu Harris.
That’s what the evidence has shown over these past few days.
Why was it important?
It’s important because it shows that this isn’t just a coincidence.
[00:35:48] Bob: The jury deliberates for an afternoon, then into an evening.
It’s a torturous time for the families.
[00:35:56] Ellen French House: It was surreal.
I mean the evidence was the case, the prosecutor, they all did such a fabulous job.
And I said, “I don’t either.”
The jury can’t reach a unanimous verdict.
The judge implores them to keep trying, but by midday the result is in.
The jury deadlocked 11-1 and said it could not reach a unanimous decision despite repeated urging from the judge.
Fox 4’s Alex Boyer is at the Crowley Court House in Dallas.
[00:37:02] Reporter: Yeah, Blake, a pretty incredible turn of events here today.
Now it all came down to one juror who could not be swayed.
The judge ordered them to keep deliberating.
A short time later the judge received another note saying they remained deadlocked 11-1.
[00:37:29] Scott McPhee: Um, shocking.
And, and that you had one juror who’s like, no, I don’t believe it.
I still can’t get over it.
And we, you know, we just, could not believe that he was not convicted.
[00:38:42] Loren Adair: All over again.
And I mean it was devastating.
[00:39:19] Bob: The prosecution announces it will move for a retrial as soon as possible.
Still, it will take five months.
Chemirmir remains in jail.
What happens to Chemirmir at the next trial?
Will anyone else have to pay for the crimes of Billy Chemirmir?
Will the families ever get justice?
That’s next week in the conclusion of our 4-part series, Fatal Ageism.
Then countless lives could have been saved.
[00:00:16] Scott MacPhee: I do.
I really do believe that.
I think they; they took a few things for granted.
So yeah, I think ageism is a big problem and a big part of it on many fronts.
They steered the investigation into something else.
[00:01:26] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
And this is the conclusion of our 4-part series, Fatal Ageism.
It takes months for the retrial to begin.
During that time, the horror for the families really starts to set in.
I have a picture in my game room, and she sits there and watches whatever I’m watching.
And uh, I felt responsible.
[00:02:19] Bob: Trey Crawford is a lawyer representing the families.
Fox 4’s Alex Boyer has more from the courthouse live.
It points the two of them in the same location at the same time the day of the murder.
For Ellen French, it’s been a long road.
Remember, her mom died, was murdered, in October 2016.
It’s been nearly 6 years, but with each new event, the morning restarts.
[00:03:54] Ellen French House: It just seems like it was yesterday for all of us.
It’s very strange.
[00:03:59] Bob: Well the clock restarts every time something happens, right?
She comes to life for the jurors through her recorded deposition.
Mary Bartel Deposition:
[00:04:39] Investigator: Mrs. Bartel, is that a closeup of your face?
[00:05:01] Bob: The prosecution lays out its case, reminding the jury about the attack.
Mary Bartel was revived after she passed out and was able to describe Chemirmir to police.
And right at that moment, while she is describing him, he’s trying to sell her jewelry.
[00:05:18] Prosecution: We know one thing for certain.
We know that she got a pillow put over her face.
Thank God she had a pacemaker.
[00:06:06] Prosecution: Where’s her stuff?
Her stuff is where everybody else’s stuff is.
And that’s the commonality in these cases.
It took a year, but DNA tests eventually show the blood is Chemirmir’s.
Listening to the testimony makes his mom’s last moments all the more real for Scott.
Um, so I’m proud of her for that.
But prosecutors say there are overwhelming signs that Chemirmir is guilty.
He stalks her at a nearby Walmart.
There’s video of that.
He’s sold stolen jewelry.
Cellphone location data puts him at the site of the attacks.
Prosecutors rest their case for the second time.
[00:08:00] Prosecution: Okay, all this stuff is actually not stuff, it’s evidence.
It’s evidence of the guilt of Billy Chemirmir in the death of Lu Thi Harris.
That’s what this is.
This is an easy decision.
Mainly because we bit so much off.
c’mon bring back a speedy verdict so that we could put an end to this.
[00:08:57] Bob: Naturally, the families are nervous.
[00:09:08] Judge: Have the jury reached a verdict.
[00:09:10] Jury Foreman: We have.
[00:09:11] Judge: And what is the verdict of the jury?
[00:09:14] Jury Foreman: Guilty of Capital Murder.
[00:09:17] Judge: Okay, thank you.
You may be seated.
And that mainly, you know, just that he can never hurt anybody again.
[00:10:54] Bob: Chemirmir is taken to prison.
He’s convicted a second time, sentenced to a second life term.
That conviction means the end of the road for Ellen House French.
The end of those sad flights from Indiana to Dallas to sit in a cold courtroom.
In some ways, that fills her with mixed feelings.
I had no idea how I was going to feel when I got home.
But I’m not ready for it to be over, if that makes sense.
Because I always came to see my mom, and she was always there for me.
[00:12:01] Bob: Soon after that second conviction, the other murder cases against Chemirmir are dismissed.
It’s a standard legal procedure, but one that still stings.
The Dallas County Office sent me an official form.
There’s a number on there, her name is not even mentioned.
It is a number, it’s her case number.
And I couldn’t help but look at that and go, are you kidding me?
She’s just a number.
That’s all she is.
An older person with a number that died.
And that’s just so hard to comprehend that she’s not going to have her own trial.
And I’m glad that we at least got the indictment.
[00:13:17] Bob: Lawyer Trey Crawford explains the frustration that other families feel.
[00:13:21] Trey Crawford: The families of these victims continue to suffer.
And I know several people that did not come forward.
It’s not going to put him in jail any longer.
It’s not going to change the outcome.
So I’m okay with it.
Many hold life-size photos of their parents as they speak.
MJ Jennings talks directly to Chemirmir, tries to get him to react.
[00:15:39] MJ Jennings (victim impact statement): Do you recognize this picture?
This is my Mom, Leah Corken.
What you saw when you looked at this woman that day, was a quick way to make money.
You devalued my innocent mom to dollar signs and preyed on her.
[00:16:11] Diana Tannery: He would just look at you.
He didn’t change expression.
It was like, he didn’t hear it.
It was like he had some kind of earplugs in.
[00:16:19] Bob: Courtroom images show Chemirmir looking right at the victims as they speak.
[00:16:24] Ellen French House: His eyes were so dark and almost yellow.
She’s trying to help the other victims.
She still thinks that they need to hear from him, from the killer what really happened.
Remember, Chemirmir still maintains his innocence, and no one really knows how many victims there might be.
So, she tries to goad him into confessing.
Don’t be a coward in the eyes of God.
Ask for forgiveness and confess to your sins.
[00:18:13] Bob: I’m so sorry.
So I apologize for that.
[00:18:24] Ellen French House: Oh, Bob, it’s okay.
I, I want to, I really want this story to be out there.
“Well, my mom was murdered.”
She’s like, “What?”
No one knows the story.
Never heard about the string of elderly murders miscast as unattended deaths of natural causes.
And they have lots of opinions about why that is.
[00:19:41] Ellen French House: My mom was 85 years young.
She was walking, talking, driving, drinking, cooking, shopping.
And sharp as a tack.
And a lot of these other women were too.
And you know, people like to say, oh, nursing home.
[00:20:11] MJ Jennings: I’m just going to be honest with you.
Nobody cares about elders, it’s not a big enough story.
You know he disappeared in 2017.
You just don’t stop murdering, so I know the police know where he went.
I know that they took detectives off the case to quit looking for more victims.
Dallas doesn’t want to be known for that.
People were taking off the case.
I’m so angry with our, our system that’s failed us.
But that’s not the whole story.
It’s also a story of missed opportunities.
If only every unattended death were properly investigated.
If only older people were treated as important.
Yes, Billy Chemirmir killed the victims, but ageism was, in some ways, the murder weapon.
Billy had worked with older people.
He knew how to smother them, so their deaths looked natural.
But more important, he knew their deaths would likely be overlooked.
Things like that happen."
Let me be completely clear: Most, if not all of these deaths didn’t have to happen.
This isn’t some Monday morning second guessing.
And basically a planeload of healthy, older Americans were murdered by Billy Chemirmir.
The investigation into this disaster needs to be complete.
It can’t happen again.
[00:23:09] Loren Adair: We’re seeing now that unattended deaths should be investigated.
And especially if there’s anything missing.
[00:23:30] Bob: Scott wants law enforcement agencies to receive training in elderly issues.
They explained it away and, and moved on.
She had a recent clean bill of health from her doctor.
It’s just really hard, he was really good at covering it up.
And no one paid attention.
[00:24:49] Bob: Meanwhile, lawyer Trey Crawford thinks the independent living institutions didn’t do enough.
[00:24:55] Trey Crawford: There’s two sides of this equation.
He’s going to be in prison for the rest of his life.
[00:24:45] Bob: Some families have settled civil litigation with the institutions involved.
For its part, Tradition Prestonwood didn’t respond to AARP’s request for comment.
The deaths in people’s homes and at multiple senior living communities is a true tragedy."
Preston Place was sold to new owners after the murders.
They did not respond to a request for comment.
Tina Tran is the Texas State Director of AARP.
Very few people would know it.
[00:27:19] Bob: Do you remember where you were the first time you heard his name?
[00:27:23] Tina Tran: You know, I do.
I remember it was actually one of my volunteers brought the, the story to my attention.
[00:27:31] Bob: And, and what was your first thought?
[00:27:32] Tina Tran: I think my first thought was just terror.
It was, it was scary.
[00:27:39] Bob: Tran is convinced ageism is at the core of the story.
And yet the people who know them best are saying quite the opposite.
[00:28:31] Tina Tran: Yeah, and then to find out later that your fears were confirmed.
[00:28:47] Bob: The trial highlighted something that probably surprises most listeners.
Medical examiners often don’t investigate the deaths of older people, even if they die alone.
There’s just too many deaths to investigate.
[00:29:46] Tina Tran: They are a big business.
Quite pricey for family members and the residents who occupy them, that’s right.
We see it as, as people, older people are, are isolated in their homes.
We see it when people, and there’s a big natural disaster.
Like this age bias and is, is really prolific.
[00:30:41] Bob: What is AARP doing about this kind of systemic ageism?
[00:32:03] Bob: And what can families do to protect their loved ones?
It’s a matter of life and death to not accept the status quo of looking the other way.
Their natural lives, who knows, maybe the very best time of their lives was stolen from them.
For the families we talked to, they all have to live with it.
[00:33:39] Loren Adair: I have to do something.
Ellen describes beginning the organization with Shannon Gleason, also the daughter of a Chemirmir victim.
[00:34:26] Ellen French House: Things needed to change.
There’s just so many things that can be done to help.
They’ve already had some big wins.
But her family was not notified.
Instead, they found out about murder allegations six months later from a stranger on social media.
Marilyn’s Law requires family notification if a death certificate is changed.
And more changes are coming.
Scott MacPhee, whose mom was murdered in her home, wants more regulation for home healthcare aids.
And that’s just wrong.
Because there is, there’s little to no oversight there at all.
That’s, that’s one of the big areas that I know the S.O.S.S.
That’s the big one.
Trey says the courage they have shown is remarkable.
They have effectuated change in ways that we cannot quantify.
[00:38:45] Bob: What do these victims hope people take away from this story?
How do I do a background check?
[00:39:47] Bob: MJ thinks families should ask pretty specific questions before anyone moves in.
What sort of security measures do you have in place.
ensure that you’re able to’t erase the tapes and just copy over them.
Do your research, and don’t just be blown away by the luxury living amenities.
Do the security research.
[00:40:27] Bob: The movie theater is one thing, but it’s safety that really matters.
[00:40:31] MJ Jennings: 100%.
But that’s just a moment.
Their full lives, the laughter, the love they made, those live on.
That is their real legacy.
We wish them whatever peace they can find.
We wish that for all the victim families, especially those we might not yet know about.
And we wish for change, change in the way we look at our treasured elders.
[00:41:25] Bob: Where do you think this ends?
