Kenyan-Born Man Accused of Killing 18 Elderly Women in Dallas, Texas Finally Speaks

A Kenyan-born man accused of murdering at least 18 elderly women at senior living facilities in Dallas, Texas has finally spoken out.

Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir spoke last week to The Dallas Morning News via phone from jail, where he stated that he is innocent and expressed confidence that he will be acquitted. Chemirmir, who remains in the Dallas County Jail, told the news outlet that he is “100% sure I will not go to prison.”

“I am not a killer. I’m not at all what they’re saying I am. I am a very innocent person. I was not brought (up) that way. I was brought (up) in a good family. I didn’t have any problems all my life,” Chemirmir told the publication in his first interview since his arrest three years ago.

The 49-year-old said he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, adding that other family members operate other senior living homes in the Dallas area where no suspicious deaths have been reported.

“If I was a killer, I could’ve killed all those ladies. Nobody has been killed there,” he added.

Chemirmir says he was born and raised in Kenya’s Rift Valley region and that he is the son of a wealthy farmer. He says he started working as a caregiver in Kenya before moving to the US in 2003, where he sold cars and began working as a senior caregiver in Dallas.

A new trial for Chemirmir is set to begin in April after the initial case against him was declared a mistrial last November.

The 12 jurors selected for his capital murder trial in the 2018 smothering of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris said they were left “hopelessly deadlocked” at 11-1. Judge Raquel Jones urged jurors to continue deliberations before accepting there would be no resolution.

After the mistrial, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot vowed he would retry the case and the date has now been set for April 25th, according to court records.

During the initial trial, jurors were shown a surveillance video showing Harris and Chemirmir shopping at the same Walmart before she was discovered dead in her Far North Dallas home hours later.

The discovery followed the arrest of Chemirmir on an attempted murder charge in Plano, where 93-year-old Mary Bartel was revived after neighbors found her unconscious on her apartment floor at Preston Place Retirement Community. 

Bartel said she was attacked by an intruder, with police linking a suspicious vehicle on the premises to another senior living complex and another attempted murder case in Frisco. The vehicle led police to Chemirmir, who was arrested at his apartment in March 2018.

Police officers said they saw him toss a jewelry box into a dumpster. Inside the box was Harris’ name. Since then, authorities have linked another 17 murders to Chemirmir, but they believe the actual toll is even higher.

Speaking after the mistrial, Chemirmir’s attorney Kobby Warren insisted that the evidence against his client “was all circumstantial.” If convicted, Chemirmir faces an automatic life sentence without parole.