A convicted murderer accused of killing nearly two dozen elderly women in Texas was killed by his cellmate in a state prison Tuesday morning, according to a Texas prison official.
Billy Chemirmir watches as the prosecution shows photos of victim Lu Thi Harris during his murder ... [+]
Billy Chemirmir was found dead in his cell and authorities determined his cellmate—whose name hasn’t been released, but is also serving time for murder—killed him, Hannah Haney, deputy director of communications for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told Forbes.
Chemirmir, 50, was serving a life sentence without parole in a state prison for two counts of capital murder, but authorities believe he was involved in many more killings.
The Office of Inspector General is investigating Chemirmir’s death; the cause of his death was not made public as of Tuesday afternoon.
- That’s how many capital murder charges Chemirmir was indicted on, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Officials think Chemirmir began killing in 2016, targeting elderly women whose jewelry he then sold, the Morning News reported. In 2018, he was caught when a 91-year-old woman survived an attack and told police Chemirmir had broken into her apartment and attempted to smother her, according to the Associated Press. When he was arrested, he threw a jewelry box that belonged to another elderly woman in a dumpster, and that woman was found dead in her home later that day.