By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir, 50, was charged with smothering to death 18 elderly women over a two-year crime spree, but he insisted he was a “very innocent man from a good family.” Chemirmir, was born in Kenya, Africa, the son of a village chief. In October, 2022, he was convicted of capital murder for the death of Mary Brooks, 88, found dead in 2018. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He is accused of killing at least 24 older women in north Texas. Police describe where he went door to door at independent living apartments, and pretended he was a maintenance worker. He stalked other women at Walmart and followed them home. He would kill them by smothering them with a pillow over their face. He would steal jewelry, cash and any precious items he could find. Unfortunately many of the deaths were found to be from natural causes. Police who responded to the crime scene assumed that because the victim was elderly, they had expired from a heart attack and not a homicide. When family members reported items missing, they were assumed to have been misplaced by the victims, and not to have been stolen. One has to wonder considering what came to light afterward, how many lives could have been saved if these deaths would have been properly investigated. In March, 2018, Mary Bartel survived an attack and described the man who forced his way into her apartment. He wore green gloves, and made her lie on the bed while he pushed a pillow on her face. A pacemaker kept her alive until a neighbor found her and called 911. A sting operation was set up, and the evening after Bartel was attacked Chemirmir was apprehended. Police had seen him throwing a red jewelry box into a dumpster. They inspected the item and found the name of Lu Thi Harris. When they went to her home, the doors were locked. Inside they found her dead on the floor. Investigators reviewed hundreds of cases, and medical examiners changed the death certificates from "natural causes" to "undetermined" or "homicidal violence". Chemirmir was hit with 22 counts of capital murder, and several others were not brought before a grand jury for indictment. The Dallas County prosecutors dropped 11 other capital murder charges. He was eventually found guilty in the deaths of two women: Mary Brooks, 87, and 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. He was sentenced in April 2022 to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, which the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said would ensure “there will be no chance of Mr. Chemirmir to die anywhere except in a Texas prison.” In June 2023, Chermirmir appealed the first of two capital murder convictions. Two months later, the Texas prosecutor said he wouldn't seek the death penalty. Greg Willis the Collin County District Attorney said, "Billy Chemirmir is an evil person who preyed upon our most vulnerable citizens. Although he is certainly deserving of a death sentence, my decision ... is informed by the fact that he has already been tried three times in another county and he will never be a free man again." Ultimately this statement was more prophetic any believed at the time. In September, 2023, he was found dead in his cell at Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony, Texas. He was killed by his cellmate who was in prison for a murder conviction. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said Chemirmir was killed after making inappropriate comments sexual in nature towards his cellmate's children. The cellmate beat Chemirmir, dragged him out of his cell and killed him while other inmates watched. No one intervened and Chemirmir may have been stabbed with a pen. They prison was in lockdown and somehow the cellmate opened the door and killed him. Those ladies can now rest easy in their graves.
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