Leah Corken, an 83-year-old Caucasian woman, passed away on August 19, 2016. Initially, her death was believed to be due to natural causes. Leah was found on the living room floor of her apartment at The Tradition-Prestonwood, an upscale independent living community in Dallas. Her freshly styled hair was a mess, and there were makeup smudges on her bedroom pillow. Additionally, her wedding ring was missing. Leah's daughter, M.J.
Jennings, had misgivings about the suddenness of her mother's death, especially since Leah had seemed her usual sassy self the night before.
In March 2018, 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel survived an attack in her apartment, where a man forced his way in, telling her "don't fight me" as he tried to smother her with a pillow and left with jewelry. The next day, police arrested Billy Chemirmir. Authorities announced they would review hundreds of deaths, signaling the possibility that a serial killer had been stalking older people. Over the following years, the number of people Chemirmir was accused of killing grew. He was charged with capital murder in the deaths of 18 women, including Leah Corken. Most of the victims were killed at independent living communities for older people, where Chemirmir allegedly forced his way into apartments or posed as a handyman. He was also accused of killing women in private homes.
Chemirmir, 48, faced life in prison without parole if convicted, as prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty. At a news conference days after Chemirmir's arrest, then-Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin acknowledged a tendency to assume the death of an older person is natural. When police tracked Chemirmir to his nearby apartment following the attack on Bartel, he was holding jewelry and cash. A jewelry box police say he had just thrown away led them to a Dallas home, where Harris was dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on her pillow.
Chemirmir's attorney previously called the evidence against Chemirmir circumstantial. Many of the deaths now attributed to Chemirmir were initially listed as natural causes, with the deaths often not investigated because there was no suspicion of foul play. However, after Bartel survived the attack, Chemirmir was identified as a suspect and arrested. Information from that investigation ultimately led to detectives investigating him for multiple deaths as they began reviewing hundreds of natural death cases to identify any other potential victims. In July 2019, NBC 5 spoke with the families of Purdy, Corken, and Glenna Day, all women who lived on the fourth floor of The Tradition-Prestonwood in Dallas and all whose families believed they were victims of Chemirmir after they suddenly died during a three-month span in 2016. The families filed a lawsuit then claiming the senior living community failed when it came to security and repeatedly allowed a serial killer to enter the property.
