A former home health aide accused of murdering 18 elderly women is confident that he won’t be found guilty.
Billy Chemirmir is sitting in the Dallas County Jail awaiting a retrial in April after a mistrial in November when he was tried for the death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. In March 2018, Chemirmir was arrested after 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel reported a man forcing his way into her independent senior living apartment in Plano and attacking her. Police tracked the man to his apartment, where they also found jewelry and cash that traced back to Harris’s home. She was found dead in her bedroom.
Following his arrest, police began linking him to the murders of multiple older adults in senior luxury communities, including Marilyn Bixler, who was killed in 2017. Authorities believe that Chemirmir used his work as a caregiver to stalk and access the homes of the helpless victims before smothering them with pillows and stealing their valuables between 2016 and 2018.
Despite the mountain of evidence against him, the 49-year-old says he is 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,” he stated in a phone interview from jail with the Dallas Morning News.
Bixler’s daughter, Cheryl Pangburn, is disappointed that Chemirmir is not remorseful for murdering her mother and the other women.
“I cannot comprehend that the human mind can work that way,” she stated.
