A new series of lawsuits allege a serial murder suspect’s path of violence through Dallas and Collin counties was even wider than previously believed.

Billy Chemirmir, 46, was already accused of killing 12 elderly women in Dallas and Collin counties has apparently murdered many more U.S. citizens, WTOP reported.

Kim Leach, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney’s office, said 46-year-old Billy Chemirmir was indicted Tuesday on six more counts of capital murder in the deaths of women ranging in age from 76 to 94.

Chemirmir, a Kenyan citizen who was living in the U.S. illegally, also is charged in nearby Collin County with two counts of attempted capital murder for similar attacks there, according to AP news.

Chemirmir has been in custody since March 2018 in the death of the 81-year-old Dallas woman, Lu Thi Harris. Police in Plano were investigating Chemirmir in connection with suspicious death and suspicious person calls at a senior apartment complex in that Dallas suburb and found evidence linking him to Harris’ death in Dallas, authorities said. Plano is in Collin County.

The break in the case came when Chemirmir forced his way into the Plano apartment of a 91-year-old woman that March, telling her to “go to bed. Don’t fight me,” according to an arrest affidavit filed in Collin County. The woman was smothered with a pillow into unconsciousness and robbed.

However, paramedics revived her and she told investigators that her attacker had stolen a box containing her jewelry. Police identified Chemirmir from a license plate number and were able to find and tail him days later, when they watched him throw a jewelry box into a trash bin. They traced the box to Harris, according to the affidavit.

Plano police Chief Gregory Rushin said at the time that Chemirmir used his health care experience “to his advantage in targeting and exploiting seniors, some of the most vulnerable people in our community.”

Police said then that investigators were reviewing about 750 unattended deaths of elderly women for possible links.

According to Dallas News, family members filed the six separate lawsuits Tuesday against The Tradition-Prestonwood, an upscale senior living complex where eight of the people died. The complex is operated by The Tradition, a company that owns four senior living communities in Dallas and Houston.

The relatives allege the complex failed to protect residents and tried to hide a string of suspicious deaths — even after Chemirmir was arrested.

Serial Killer Billy Chemirmir

“As a direct result of The Tradition’s hollow assurances of safety and security, Chemirmir had virtually unfettered access inside The Tradition-Prestonwood for months,” the lawsuits say.

Facility: Safety is ‘top priority’

The Tradition senior living center released a statement saying that the killings were “a true tragedy” but that “safety has always been and continues to be our top priority.”

“The Tradition-Prestonwood relied on the investigations of the Dallas police, its detectives, and other reputable, established governmental entities, including the Dallas County Medical Examiner, the Collin County Medical Examiner, and more,” The Tradition said in the statement. “Any death was investigated by Dallas police and the Dallas County Medical Examiner and ruled as attributed to natural causes. Additionally, there were two autopsies which also confirmed death by natural causes.”

However, the suits allege that Tradition employees were not forthcoming about a troubling series of deaths at the facility. That gave authorities a “skewed, incomplete lens,” the suits state, and allowed suspicious activity to be overlooked.

The statement from the complex went on to say that The Tradition-Prestonwood is continuing to cooperate with the investigation and that the suits’ allegations that founder and CEO Jonathan Perlman withheld information from residents “are absolutely false.”

Families: Promises ring hollow

Dave Wishnew is a partner at Crawford Wishnew Lang, the firm that represents the newly identified families. He said the suits, which were filed in Dallas County, are a “calling” for the firm. The fact that The Tradition-Prestonwood advertises a secure environment, he said, is partly why it should be responsible for Chemirmir’s access.



“We know their promises of safety and security are hollow,” Wishnew said. “It was not like he was Jason Bourne busting in through a ceiling tile in the middle of the night. He was walking through the front door.”

Chemirmir is being held in the Dallas County jail, with bail set at $11.6 million. He was arrested in March 2018 after a woman identified him as the man who attacked her and he was linked to the death of a Dallas woman.



A lawsuit against The Tradition-Prestonwood alleges that Billy Chemirmir — posing as a maintenance worker at the senior living home — killed (top row from left) Joyce Abramowitz, Leah Corken, Glenna Day, Juanita Purdy and (bottom row from left) Solomon Spring, Margaret White, Norma French and Doris Gleason. Capital murder indictments previously were filed in the deaths of French and Gleason. No charges have been filed in the other deaths. (Lawsuit on behalf of the families)

After his arrest, police reviewed hundreds of deaths that previously had been blamed on natural causes. Last month, Chemirmir was indicted on 11 more capital murder charges.

Authorities believe the previously identified victims were smothered with a pillow while alone in their apartments or homes. The suits say the five new alleged female victims at The Tradition-Prestonwood died under similar circumstances.

The one man, Solomon Spring, was found in a pool of blood. According to the lawsuit filed in his death, the complex suggested Spring had fallen and hit his head.

Chemirmir hasn’t been charged in connection with the latest allegations, but the lawsuits say police have told the families that cellphone evidence connects him to the cases.

“There is no question in our mind or in the police’s mind that these six are victims of Billy Chemirmir,” Wishnew said.

Attorney: More victims possible

He said that new indictments are likely to be handed down soon — including more in addition to the 18 alleged victims already disclosed.

Melinda Gutierrez, a Dallas police spokeswoman, declined to comment on the lawsuits or whether officials were planning to bring more charges against Chemirmir.

The suits list the following as newly identified victims:

Joyce Abramowitz, 82, who died July 18, 2016

Leah Corken, 83, who died Aug. 19, 2016

Glenna Day, 87, who died Oct. 15, 2016

Juanita Purdy, 83, who died July 31, 2016

Solomon Spring, 89, who died Oct. 1, 2016

Margaret White, 86, who died Aug. 28, 2016

The deaths of all the women were also tied to missing jewelry in their apartments. The suits claim that staff at The Tradition-Prestonwood shrugged off those claims when family asked about the valuables.

Details from new cases

The family of Juanita Purdy was told she died “peacefully in her sleep” but became skeptical when they found the morning newspaper and a full cup of tea in her apartment, the lawsuits claim. She was also missing about $28,000 worth of jewelry.

Leah Corken was found face-down in her apartment. When her daughter noticed her wedding ring was missing and asked about the odd position of her body, an employee told her “that’s how old people fall when they die,” according to the lawsuits.

Solomon Spring, the only alleged male victim connected to Chemirmir, was found in a pool of “so much blood that The Tradition had to remove the carpet in his bedroom and a homicide detective was called to the scene,” the suits state.

Maintenance tools were also found in Spring’s apartment, although no maintenance had been requested. Chemirmir allegedly posed as a maintenance worker to gain access to individual apartments.

An artist, Glenna Day would sometimes paint on the patio of her apartment. Her family was surprised to find her body still in her artist’s smock with paint on her hands and brushes on the patio.

Conflicting statements on access

The lawsuits say that after Chemirmir was arrested, one family asked a Tradition-Prestonwood employee whether the suspect had been at the complex.

“No, never,” the employee claimed, according to the suits, which state that the same employee had escorted Chemirmir off the premises years earlier.

The suits note policies at Tradition-Prestonwood that should have kept an intruder out. But they claim: “The Tradition’s purported emphasis on ‘safety and security’ was little more than a marketing tool to draw in new residents.”

The lawsuits also say the complex had conducted an “internal investigation” of Chemirmir and identified him on security camera footage long before Plano police arrested him.

“The Tradition’s nearly singular focus on increasing its bottom line at the expense of its residents’ safety enabled Chemirmir to exploit The Tradition-Prestonwood as a highly accessible environment full of the easiest targets imaginable — incredibly vulnerable, elderly residents,” the suits claim.

Hoping to force better care

Wishnew, one of the families’ attorneys, said that while his clients were working to resolve their conflicts with the facility in private mediation, The Tradition served the families with six lawsuits in arbitration in an attempt to keep the suit out of the public eye and force the families to pay the company’s arbitration fees and costs.

According to the suits, The Tradition is expanding to Fort Worth and Houston in part by marketing its safety and security. Wishnew said he hopes the suits help change the company’s standard of care.

“If you’re going to market it, you have to follow through with it,” Wishnew said. “We want to change the way this business does business.”