Suspected Kenyan-Born Serial Killer Billy Chemirmir Indicted on 18th Capital Murder Charge in Texas

Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir, a Kenyan-born man accused of killing numerous elderly women at assisted facilities in Texas has been indicted on another charge of capital murder.

A Dallas County grand jury handed down the additional capital murder charge against Chemirmir on December 29th, 2020.

This brings the cumulative capital murder charges pressed against the 48-year-old to 18 while civil lawsuits accuse him of killing eight more elderly women.

The most recent charge relates to the death of 87-year-old Glenna Day, who was killed October 15th, 2016 at The Tradition-Prestonwood, a senior living complex in Dallas.

Chemirmir is accused of smothering or suffocating elderly women in senior living facilities in order to steal their jewelry for sale online. 

He is alleged to have posed as a maintenance worker or healthcare provider to gain access to the apartments of elderly women in Dallas and Collin counties.

Most of the deaths now linked to him were initially listed as natural causes and were not investigated as there was no suspicion of foul play.

This changed after a woman residing at Preston Place in Plano survived an attack in March 2018, after which Chemirmir was identified as a suspect and arrested.

Investigators reportedly found jewelry, cell phones, and other belongings of the victims in Chemirmir’s apartment when it was searched in 2018.

Chemirmir is being held at the Dallas County Jail after he was unable to raise $11.6 million bail. He has maintained his innocence.

In Texas, capital murder carries either automatic life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty with prosecutors reserving the death penalty for offenses deemed heinous.

Last year, Chemirmir’s lawyer Phillip Dayes said the evidence against his client is circumstantial.

“It seems like every unexplained death they come up with, they’re pinning on him. If you look at all of it, it doesn’t stand up,” Hayes told the Dallas News.

Chemirmir, who moved to the US in the 1990s after marrying an American citizen, is originally from Eldama Ravine, Baringo County, Kenya.