How a Delay Finding Victims of Suspected Texas Serial Killer Could Create Hurdles for Prosecutors

The call said Phyllis Payne died peacefully in her sleep -- lying in her robe on the bed at her Dallas senior living complex.Loren Adair, Payne's daughter, couldn't believe it. "She was 91, but you would've thought she was 70," Adair said. "She had a lot of good years ahead of her." Then, two years after Payne's 2016 death, Adair got a call from a Dallas police detective with startling news. He said he believed Payne had been murdered by a man now suspected of killing other elderly women in Dallas and Collin counties. "At first I thought, 'This sounds like a really sick joke,'" Adair said, but she eventually realized it was no prank. "He got away with it for so long. It's unbelievable." Three years to the day after Payne died, Billy Chemirmir was indicted with her death and those of 10 other women 75 or older. Chemirmir, 46, had already been charged with capital murder in another elderly woman's death in March 2018, and he's accused of the attempted murder of two other women. In all, he's accused of smothering a dozen elderly women with a pillow before stealing their jewelry and other valuables. He is in the Dallas County Jail in lieu of $9.1 million bail, and has a federal immigration hold because he is in the country illegally. Chemirmir's attorney, Phillip Hayes, could not be reached for comment, but he previously has said that his client maintains his innocence.   Continue reading...