6. The Loopholes

Summary

The Unforgotten: Season 2, Episode 6 - "The Loopholes"

Release Date: November 18, 2024
Host: Charlie Scudder
Produced by Free Range Productions

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Introduction

In the sixth episode of Season 2, titled "The Loopholes," Charlie Scudder delves deep into the intricate web of vulnerabilities within the senior care industry that allowed Billy Shamirmir, touted as Dallas's worst serial killer, to evade capture for years. This episode not only unravels Shamirmir's dark past but also highlights the systemic flaws that facilitated his heinous crimes.

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Billy Shamirmir: A Complex Background

Shamirmir's origins trace back to Eldama Ravine, a rural town in Kenya's Rift Valley. Born in December 1972 to a prominent tribal chief, his upbringing was marked by privilege and responsibility. As Joel Shimirmere's youngest of 28 children, Billy was tasked with caring for his aging father, a role that seemingly prepped him for his later work as a caregiver in the United States.

“Before I came here to the US I took care of my dad who was 100 years old at that time.” [06:33]

Despite his respectable background, Shamirmir struggled with alcohol addiction, leading to multiple DUI arrests in Texas between 2010 and 2011. His fraudulent activities included using his cousin's ID to secure employment under the alias Benjamin Koiteba, further obfuscating his true identity.

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Expert Insights and Investigations

Detective John Hoffman of the Plano Police played a pivotal role in uncovering Shamirmir's criminal activities. Through meticulous research, Hoffman connected Shamirmir's alias to his real identity, revealing a trail of deception that included his involvement in senior living facilities owned by his family.

“Shamirmir used his knowledge of the senior care industry to target independent communities where security is looser.” [10:27]

Hoffman's investigation highlighted how Shamirmir exploited systemic loopholes, leveraging his legitimate caregiving roles to access and victimize elderly residents.

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The McPhee Family Tragedy

The McPhee family's narrative adds a deeply personal dimension to the episode. Scott and Robert McPhee recount the mysterious death of their mother, Carolyn McPhee, in their Dallas home. Initially dismissed as a natural death, inconsistencies led the brothers to suspect foul play by Shamirmir.

“He knew their routine because he'd been living in that house over the course of a couple months. He found an opportunity to go back in and kill her for $5,000.” [34:11]

Their relentless pursuit for truth exposed the gaps in the judicial system, where crucial information about causes of death and missing items were overlooked or mishandled.

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Legislative Responses and Advocacy

In response to these tragedies, a group named Secure Our Seniors Safety (Sosa), comprising victims' families and advocates like Cheryl Pangburn, spearheaded legislative efforts to tighten regulations within the senior care industry. Texas State House Representative Jared Patterson introduced Maryland's Bill, aiming to mandate medical examiners to notify next of kin when altering death certificates, among other measures.

“HB723 is simple, short, budget-neutral to Texas taxpayers and should mandate authorities to do the right thing.” [46:52]

Despite their efforts, the bills faced significant opposition from powerful senior industry lobbyists, leading to only partial success. Maryland's Bill passed, but other measures aimed at improving security and accountability in senior living communities failed to gain traction.

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Industry Pushback and Systemic Resistance

Senior industry lobbyists, including Leading Age Texas and the Texas Assisted Living Association (TALA), vehemently opposed the proposed legislation. They argued that increased regulations would be financially burdensome and infringe upon the independence of senior living communities.

“TALA would support legislation that would ensure unusual deaths at senior communities are investigated more thoroughly...” [47:00]

This resistance underscores the tension between profit-driven motives and the imperative for stringent safety protocols in care facilities.

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Conclusion: Unclosed Loopholes and Ongoing Concerns

Shamirmir's ability to navigate and exploit the senior care system underscores the pervasive vulnerabilities that remain unaddressed. Despite legislative attempts, the episode emphasizes that without comprehensive reforms, similar tragedies may persist.

“Shamir Mir avoided detection for one other big how he killed... He sold his stolen goods at cash for gold dealers and online sales apps, avoiding regulatory oversight of his illegal transactions.” [35:09]

Charlie Scudder leaves listeners contemplating the depth of systemic flaws and the urgent need for accountability within the senior care industry to prevent future atrocities.

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Key Takeaways

• Systemic Vulnerabilities: Shamirmir's exploitation of senior care facilities highlights significant gaps in security and oversight.
• Legislative Challenges: Advocacy groups face formidable opposition from industry lobbyists, impeding comprehensive regulatory reforms.
• Personal Tragedies: The McPhee family's story exemplifies the profound personal losses and struggles faced by victims' families in seeking justice.
• Ongoing Risk: The episode concludes with a cautionary note on the potential for undiscovered victims due to the elusive nature of smothering crimes.

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This episode of The Unforgotten serves as a sobering examination of how systemic loopholes can enable heinous crimes and underscores the critical need for reforms to safeguard vulnerable populations.

Transcript

[Charlie Scudder]

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[Billy Shamirmir]

Let's talk about Mrs. Bartel.

[Charlie Scudder]

Mrs. Bartel, you may recall, is Mary Bartel the victim who survived Shamir's attack in 2018.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Mr. Bartel said the intruder who went to her house had green glass. She said her eyes were fixated on the green glass. Now, what they didn't tell me is that they get back to my car and my apartment. There was only blue gloves. Only blue gloves.

[Charlie Scudder]

In case you missed that, he said that when police searched his car and apartment, they found blue rubber gloves, not the green ones Mary Bartel described. I've seen these gloves as part of evidence. They're a greenish blue. He also didn't mention that the DNA of at least one other victim was found on the blue green gloves in his car. I gotta be honest with you, Billy. When I hear that you've had all this experience and you knew your way around senior living, I think that's one of the things that police say is, is why you had access. What do you have to say about why? I guess what do you have to say about that?

[Billy Shamirmir]

Yeah, well, they didn't know when I was working. I'm a company like find my own kisses. I would never find my own job.

[Charlie Scudder]

It seems like you're very unlucky to be at all of these places at the times when these people are killed and you just happen to be at all of them.

[Billy Shamirmir]

What I'm saying is I don't even believe that there is medical examiner. Sure, but.

[Charlie Scudder]

I guess I could see that. But again, if it's you being at these places and at the time that these people died and having their jewelry shortly afterwards, there's a lot of ands there. Here's what we know for sure. Shamirmir was raised near Eldama Ravine, a rural town between the major cities of Eldoret and Nukuru in Kenya's Rift Valley. The Shimmermere family is large there. Their tribal community uses the zebra as a symbol or totem to identify themselves. Billy's father, Joel Shimirmere, was a well known tribal chief in the region when Kenya was a British colony. He had three wives and 28 children. Born in December 1972, Billy was among the youngest. In keeping with a tribal tradition, he was given a Christian first name, Billy, and a Kenyan middle name, Kipkorir, which means born at dawn.

[Billy Shamirmir]

We traveled very wealthy in Kenya. We are very wealthy. We're very privileged and thank God for us for that. We have a big farm. My dad, we used to bury cows that we grow produce cows there and we had employees over there.

[Charlie Scudder]

Joel was an old man by then and the young Billy was tasked with taking care of his aging father at their rural home in the Rift Valley. Bathing him, helping him exercise and doing the kinds of things he'd do later as an in home caregiver.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Before I came here to the US I took care of my dad who was 100 years old at that time. So I did some caregiving back home. I don't know what happened. They just said that Billy is the one who's going to take care of her dad. I don't know why they chose me.

[Charlie Scudder]

John Hoffman, the Plano police detective who researched the cash for gold shops you've heard from before, also investigated Shamima's past and family life. Here's Detective Hoffman.

[Billy Shamirmir]

He went to the Nakaru elementary and quickly became a sports legend, almost like a sports hero, track and field. And a couple of the people that I interviewed here in Texas that went to school with him in Kenya talked about what a athletic superstar he was and how respected he was because of his athletic ability. And it helps when you come from the chief's family where you have everything going.

[Charlie Scudder]

According to the Daily Nation, Kenya's largest and most widely read newspaper, Shamir's neighbors remembered him as generous. Others said he was quiet and kept to himself. But they also told the newspaper that he and his brothers would enjoy bitter alcohol drinks, which sometimes got him in trouble. Shamimra's sisters had moved to the United States earlier and had started working as senior caregivers. In 2003, those sisters arranged to get Billy a green card and give him a job in Dallas. At least one of those sisters still lives in the area. She owns and operates several senior group homes and assisted living facilities in Collin County. I've reached out to her a few times over the years. She's declined to comment and did so again for this podcast and no suspicious deaths have been reported at those facilities. When we spoke after the mistrial, Shamira pointed to that as evidence of his innocence. So I want to ask you a question. Did you kill any of these ladies?

[Billy Shamirmir]

No. I have a killer, Charlie. I am not a killer. I am not a killer. If I was a killer, I could have killed all those in our senior livings my family owns. Nobody has been killed there. No jewelry has been stolen over there.

[Charlie Scudder]

He says that if he was a killer, he could have killed the residents of those group homes that his family owns. Instead, he says no one has been killed there.

[Billy Shamirmir]

I am not what they are saying. I am. I am very militant person. I was not brought that way. I was brought in a good family. I didn't have any problems all my life.

[Charlie Scudder]

Although his family in Kenya hoped that sending Billy to the US Would help with his drinking, as the Daily Nation has reported, his problems with alcohol continued. He was arrested in 2010 on a charge of driving while intoxicated in Addison, Texas and served 18 months probation. He picked up a second DWI in Dallas in 2011, didn't show up for court and ended up with a warrant for his arrest. In 2012, Hoffman says Shamir's cousin, who had been living and working in the US moved back home to Kenya but left his ID behind. Hoffman says Shamirmer used the ID to get work in his cousin's name, Benjamin Koiteba. Shamirmere also used that alias Benjamin Koeidoba to disguise his identity. Remember when Josh Allema knew him as a caregiver at Edgemere? Shamirmer was using his cousin's name, according to Benjamin Coitaba.

[Billy Shamirmir]

I've spoken with him on the phone and we've had some emails from him. He left tax documents and identification behind for Billy Chimermer to help him get his tax refunds back. That's the story. To me it's not a very plausible story. It's probably more about being able to use his credentials for Billy to get some work because quickly that's what Billy started doing.

[Charlie Scudder]

Around that time, Shamir Mir began dating a woman who also worked as an at home caregiver. We've decided not to name her because she is a survivor of domestic violence and has not been accused of any wrongdoing. In the case against Shamirmir, we're going to call her Shamir Mir's ex girlfriend. She's also the mother of Shamirmir's young son who was playing with some particularly loud toys when we spoke on the phone recently. Do you think that he did the crimes he's accused of? Do you think he committed those murders?

[Billy Shamirmir]

You know, I don't know. Seriously, I don't know. Even now I'm in a show like, you know, I got so scared. I'm telling you, our relationship was not that good all the time. We had an argument.

[Charlie Scudder]

The ex girlfriend told me that she was working for a woman who is mobility impaired in 2011. She and the client were grocery shopping when Shamir Mir walked up behind them and asked if she was African. She said she was. He said he was Kenyan. She said she was Nigerian. He asked for her number. She didn't want to give it. Her older client tried playing matchmaker, reminding the ex girlfriend that she was single and needed to find a man. She gave in and told Shamir to give her a call when she was off work that evening. They began dating soon after. The next summer, On a hot 90 degree night in July 2012, the ex girlfriend said she and Shamir went out to an African nightclub in Dallas. He started drinking and didn't stop. When it was time to go home, she got out her car keys but he snatched them away. She didn't want to drive with him after he'd been drinking, she said, but he got behind the wheel and she climbed into the passenger seat. She said he drove all over the road so wildly that she had to jump out of the moving car as it approached her apartment complex in North Dallas. She went to her apartment, changed into a leopard print nightgown and went to bed.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Five minutes later he comes in and knocks the door so hard he walks on the neighbor. And then when I tried to open the door like this, he hit me like three things.

[Charlie Scudder]

According to the report of the police officers who came to the apartment that night, the ex girlfriend told them that after she opened the door, Shamimir started punching her in the face, splitting her lip. He then grabbed a red metal pot from the kitchen and used it to beat her in the back of the head. She fell to the floor and he kicked her in the back several times. He then stopped, went to the couch and turned on the tv. That's when the ex girlfriend found her phone, according to police, and called 911. Shamimir heard her calling and beat her more. The ex girlfriend said the 911 operator could hear her screaming through the phone. He kicked the phone away and grabbed a knife from the kitchen. He started angrily stabbing and slicing her red leather loveseat in the living room. When the police arrived, they arrested him for misdemeanor assault, family violence. He pleaded guilty in exchange for a 70 day sentence in the Dallas County Jail.

[Billy Shamirmir]

We stayed separately for some time. Then when it came to 1013, he was so good and then, you know, he was talking to me and they.

[Charlie Scudder]

Are protesting if you didn't follow. She says that they stayed separate for a while but got back together in 2013. At that time, she said, he seemed to be a better man and was more protective of her.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Again, I don't know. I wish I knew that time I could have separated, you know, I could have left him.

[Charlie Scudder]

Shamir Mir kept drinking, the ex girlfriend said, and she kept calling police when things got out of hand. He became a regular at a few African nightclubs, but rarely brought his girlfriend.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Everybody knew him at these clubs as Billy Chimer.

[Charlie Scudder]

Detective Hoffman, again, it's one of the.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Times he could be Billy Chimer, not have to fake like he's Benjamin Coitava. And one of the patterns that I've noticed talking to all of these different people at all these different clubs, the ones who knew him remembered him because he was such a big tipper in one particular club, African Fusion, they said he was there. Like if he wasn't there every night, he was there every other night. He would drink until he would throw up. And it wasn't uncommon at all for him to leave a hundred dollar tip for the waitress. Well, what he's capable of producing financially isn't consistent with what he's spending. So could it be a motive? He's got a lifestyle where everybody thinks he's a high roller and, you know, he's wearing a suit and going into these clubs and he's liking all of the attention he's getting from the waitresses and everything.

[Charlie Scudder]

A few years after they got back together, she became pregnant with Shamira's child. Shamirmere wanted her to get an abortion and she refused. He disappeared until after the baby, a boy, was born. In early 2017, after Shamirmere had killed at least 11 older adults at Edgemere and the tradition Prestonwood, he was evicted from his apartment for non payment of rent. According to Dallas county court records, the couple moved in together at an apartment in far north Dallas. She said she didn't know anything about the crimes Shamir was committing at that time. In her words, any woman can go out and get a boyfriend and you don't know what he's doing.

[Billy Shamirmir]

We didn't know anything, so I don't know why it was me. Sometimes I return to God, I'm like God, why did I travel in that road to meet somebody like that?

[Charlie Scudder]

She said that sometime in the first few months of 2018, Shamirmer showed her a flight itinerary for a one way trip to Kenya. He had booked for June or July. She said she can't remember the exact date. Now he said that once he was in Kenya, he'd send money to fly his son there next. But he never made that trip since he was arrested in March, just a few months before that one way flight. If he had left, if he hadn't attacked Mary Bartel or if she hadn't survived, if his killing spree had continued undetected for just another few weeks, Shamirmer would have caught that plane and left the country. He would have disappeared. He would have gotten away with all of it. Shamirmer told me again and again that he did not commit the crimes he was accused of.

[Billy Shamirmir]

And this is what I'm saying. I'm 100% sure I will not do. I want you to write, no, he's gonna talk about this again. I will not.

[Charlie Scudder]

I will not go to prison. 100%. What makes you so certain?

[Billy Shamirmir]

I pray that God Almighty answers me, Charlie. God really answers me.

[Charlie Scudder]

God answers me. But police who have always believed Shamir Mir is guilty have sometimes wondered how much his ex girlfriend and family really knew. I asked his ex girlfriend, she said that she thought he had a senior care job where he would go to work each day. He'd talk about going to care for a man named Mr. Henry, but that he would be vague on specifics and she didn't ask him for details.

[Billy Shamirmir]

It broke my heart. It broke my heart because I didn't know that's what he was doing out there.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah. Did you have any idea how he was making a living making money?

[Billy Shamirmir]

No. He told me it was working. I know it was working for one family.

[Charlie Scudder]

Shamirmer's legitimate work as a senior caregiver is well documented. He was earning some money that way. And again his family owned these kinds of businesses as residential properties. He knew the ins and outs of this system very well and it's what allowed him to find loopholes. That's what allowed him to avoid detection as he continued to kill.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

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[Charlie Scudder]

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[Scott McPhee]

You'll see. Well, it's, you know, it's there's no federal, no federal oversight, you know, and the, you know, try and make people think, you know, this is the Wild west and no one is regulating these buildings. But again, that's not but it is true. They're, they're not federally regulated, but they are regulated in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, and they're regulated with vigor. And the states, you know, if the states have issues and they see, you know, serious problems, they can revoke someone's license.

[Charlie Scudder]

That's not necessarily true of independent senior communities, especially not in Texas. As we've mentioned, there is no licensing at those kinds of communities. The most robust security offered is somewhere between a gated residential community and and a college dorm. But this case shows vulnerabilities in more than just senior housing. There's more to the senior care system that millions of Americans rely on every Day and Shamir Mir found cracks in many corners of that system, which is why I recently sat down with Scott and Robert McPhee.

[Scott McPhee]

I'm Scott McPhee. I am the son of Carolyn McPhee, and I'm her oldest son. And I'm the youngest brother, Robert McPhee, and we both live in Frisco, and we're pretty close.

[Charlie Scudder]

When the McPhee boys were young, the family moved around a lot. Their dad, Jack, worked for IBM and was often transferred to jobs around the country. Scott told me that Jack and Carolyn McPhee were quick to make lifelong friends wherever they went.

[Scott McPhee]

That's what I remember the most. And that was always, as far as I can remember, even being a little bitty. Oh, yeah. Always had people over. Yeah. And you go through pictures, right? Of course, we had that opportunity to just go through pictures, and almost all the pictures are them with people. Right. It's not like mom and dad. It's mom and dad and, oh, the neighbors. And look, there's a party. You know, it's a Halloween party, and they're all dressed up, and they go from black and white through kind of old Kodachrome colors to. It's just this constant array of good times.

[Charlie Scudder]

The family eventually settled in the Dallas area, and as the boys grew up, they stayed close, too. In the mid-90s, Carolyn and Jack moved to a smaller home in Plano. Robert and Scott lived just a few minutes away. Did they have any thought of moving to a community, some kind of senior community?

[Scott McPhee]

No. We raised that once or twice, and we were pretty much told to go mind our own business. I mean, to put it bluntly, am I being unfair? Just like you make your own decisions?

[Billy Shamirmir]

Yeah.

[Scott McPhee]

No, they were. They were. They were convinced to be in that house at pretty much at any cost. That was their goal. I know she talked to Susie Kimbrough about moving in with her when it was time.

[Charlie Scudder]

By the way, that's the same Susie Kimbrough that we met in episode one at Highland Springs. She and Carolyn were extremely close friends, and Scott and Robert both talked about how involved she was in McPhee's lives.

[Scott McPhee]

So the conversation I remember was as. As dad was sick, right? So he ended up getting what looked like really kind of ended up looking like Lou Gehrig disease. All right? Als. As he was getting bad and she was needing help, we sort of had the conversation about, is it time for you two to go somewhere where you, mom can get help, dad can get the care he needs. It gives you mom the ability to still be social. As he got worse, he'd fall in the bathroom. She couldn't get him up because he weighed 220 pounds. And she called the fire department for a lift and assist.

[Charlie Scudder]

That happened a couple times.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Yes.

[Scott McPhee]

And I think it happened more than we know because a lot of times we'd find out about it after the fact. But we started to find out as things got really hard for her. I think. I think we started to realize what she'd been dealing with.

[Charlie Scudder]

Carolyn and Jack ultimately decided when it was time to hire in home caregivers to help out around the house. The brothers said their parents made the decision themselves, did the research themselves, and only told their sons once they'd selected a home health company they liked. Every day, millions of Americans invite caregivers into their homes to help themselves or an older relative. Age with dignity. According to one AARP survey, 90% of older people want to age at home rather than at a community like the ones we've already discussed. For people who can't afford to live in a nursing home or retirement community or who make the choice to age at home, in home, caregivers are often a requisite service. The company that Carolyn and Jack settled on was called Griswold Home Care. It's a national corporation that franchises with small local business owners to provide in home care. According to Griswold's website, franchisees need no experience in senior care to succeed as home health entrepreneurs. In Texas, the caregivers are simply contracted on a case by case basis by Griswold. That's the relationship Carolyn and Jack entered with the company in 2016. Carolyn would write one check to the caregiver directly and one to Griswold as a referral finder's fee. Often the same caregivers came to the McPhee's home day after day. But if someone called in sick or was on vacation, Griswold would ask another caregiver to step in for a day here or there. Among those stand ins was a man who Scott, Robert and Carolyn knew as Benjamin Coideba. They didn't know his real name was Billy Shamirmir.

[Scott McPhee]

As a general rule, these guys would come in, they'd sit and they watch tv. They'd sit in the living room and read a book with everybody else. Billy or Annette, Kid in this case, Benjamin always went to the other room and did his own thing a little. But he took care of dad. He made him gun him up. So we had no problem with him that way. He was Just kind of standoffish. And then finally Carolyn said, you know what? I don't like him anymore. Let's not have him.

[Charlie Scudder]

Was it just he wasn't personable, probably.

[Scott McPhee]

Because she's a social butterfly and he didn't want to Talk.

[Charlie Scudder]

Later, the McPhee brothers sued Griswold as part of the litigation in the Shimmermere case. Through that suit, they learned that although the company promised they would ensure that everyone they sent into Carolyn and Jack's home was properly vetted, they did not do a background check on Coidoba Shimermir. If they had, they may have realized the pseudonym and his lengthy criminal record. All of the communities that we've mentioned so far have been hesitant to talk about the case. Some have responded with brief prepared statements or never responded at all to repeated calls and requests for comment. I expected the same. When I called the Griswold Home Care office in Plano, I left a voicemail for Lisa hall, the local franchisee for the office that Carolyn and Jack hired. At most, I figured she'd provide a written statement or send me to Griswold's corporate office. But an hour later, my phone rang. This is Charlie Scudder.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Hi, Charlie. This is Lisa hall at Griswold Home Care. I got your message.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah, hi. How are you?

[Billy Shamirmir]

I'm doing fine, thanks. And yourself?

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah, I'm doing well. Doing well. Thanks for giving me a call back.

[Billy Shamirmir]

No problem. And I'm gonna tell you right off the bat, I wish I could help you, but I'm the new owner, and I. I was not involved when he was an employee, so I really don't have any information on him. I had asked about it because I had seen it in the news before I bought it. You know, wanted to know, you know, sort of how it had happened. And I would prefer, if at all possible, to keep our name out of it. We worked real. And since I bought it, we have done an incredibly hard job to keep, to rebuild that confidence with our clients. We have done just, I mean, spent a lot of money. We're doing background checks that, you know, the state of Texas doesn't require you to do. It's a very touchy subject. It's a very hard subject, you know, to gain the trust of clients and to have this. This old issue come up, and it could be devastating to our business should it come up again with our name.

[Charlie Scudder]

She said that her franchise is going beyond state required measures and background checks to provide additional security measures. She said the previous owner didn't Take. She also repeats state background checks every six months for every employee, which she said isn't required either. Many in home caregivers work for multiple companies like Griswold, she said, and she works to keep a high standard for the people she sends into clients homes.

[Billy Shamirmir]

You know, obviously it starts with your caregivers and we've, as I've come in, I've started adding benefits to our caregivers, you know, providing paid time off, you know, health benefits. But we're also, we're firing caregivers that aren't, you know, following. And it starts out at small things. You know, you're late and you're not telling us or you're not communicating well, but it starts out at the small steps and we're not having any. We're having zero tolerance for those type of things. We're not going to allow anything to snowball into a bigger issue.

[Charlie Scudder]

Those steps, she said, are expensive, which means that some owners don't take them. She also said it's already difficult to build trust with clients when your business is sending strangers into their homes. Adding in the looming shadow of a previous employee serial killer makes it particularly hard to get clients to trust her caregivers.

[Billy Shamirmir]

I mean, it just makes you go, what? I mean, you hope that it's the exception, but then when you think it's the exception, then something else like that comes up.

[Charlie Scudder]

In early 2017, after Scott and Robert's mom Carolyn called the Griswold office and asked that they not send Benjamin Coideba anymore. Jack's health continued to decline. He died while receiving hospice care at home in April. Carolyn continued to live in the house. She didn't need any type of care. She still ran her own errands, still took care of herself. New Year's Eve that year in 2017 landed on a Sunday, and normally Carolyn drove herself to church. When she didn't show up, her church friends called Scott, Scott called Robert, and the whole family descended on the home, all arriving within about 30 seconds of each other. They found her body in the bedroom. Her arm was over her face, her glasses were off kilter and had blood on them. They also found several bloody tissues in the bathroom trash, a broken jelly jar in the kitchen, and more blood on the garage door.

[Scott McPhee]

So then I just put the glasses up on the bed and then we noticed it's like, where, where are her wedding rings? And the police said, oh, old people hide things. There was an explanation, but you know, at the time you're not thinking. You don't think Anything, right?

[Billy Shamirmir]

We weren't thinking straight.

[Scott McPhee]

No, but you're not. You're in shock.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Yeah.

[Scott McPhee]

You're in shock.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Healthy. What happened?

[Charlie Scudder]

I kept saying, mom, what happened? A Plano police detective came to the house. He deduced that Carolyn must have been on her way to church when she got a nosebleed. She turned around and drove home, the detective assumed, explaining away the blood in the garage and the tissues. Then he said she must have had an aneurysm and dropped dead instantly. Nosebleeds can be a sign of an aneurysm, but only in rare cases. And that theory also didn't account for the missing jewelry either. Over the next few months, Scott and Robert continued to push police to investigate the missing jewelry. They thought maybe paramedics had taken it. Or even the detective who came out to the scene. Scott said he was getting ready to file an internal affairs complaint against the detective in March 2018 when he saw the news of Shamirmir's arrest.

[Scott McPhee]

I was old school, got the hard paper and went, holy crap, this explains everything. And it was not long after that we ended up going into the Plano police department, put two and two together and put the. The Benjamin Coitaba alias together to Billy Shamir. Mirror found Benjamin Coitaba's name in the material that I'd kept still from all of the visits that she'd had in the house, as well as still had those glasses. Don't ask me why. Still had the glasses. And we turned those over, and it was. It was almost a year before they came back as a positive match to his DNA.

[Charlie Scudder]

Here's what Scott and Robert think happened. Now, there's no way to say for sure, but they guess that since their mom was so sociable and would have recognized the home healthcare worker that helped take care of her dying husband, she may have invited him in. She didn't drink tea, but there was a mug of tea on the counter, so they think he asked for one. They think she hit Shamir Mir in the head with the jelly jar, which explains the tissues with the blood in the bathroom, in the garage, and on the glasses.

[Scott McPhee]

He knew their routine because he'd been living in that house with them over the course of a couple months. He knew they went to church. He was obviously watching what she did, and he found an opportunity to go back in and kill her. So it was what she had.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah.

[Scott McPhee]

He knew the rings. Yep. Because you probably stared at him every day. I don't know how you protect yourself from that. Right. Someone who knows your routine knows your life you have a relationship with. He got in that house because of the relationship and he killed her for $5,000. I that's hard to protect yourself from. You need help to protect yourself from something like that. You can't do it yourself. The big thing is getting this fixed. The home health care is broken. Yes. There needs to be accountability, like big time. There's deep pockets in the home health or the retirement communities where they're pushing back against regulation. Of course, in laws, it's all about the money.

[Charlie Scudder]

So Shamir Mir used his knowledge of the senior care industry to target independent communities where security is looser. He also managed to get a job at a home health care company despite his criminal record and used it to identify even more victims in their own homes. He then sold his stolen goods at cash for gold dealers and online sales apps, avoiding regulatory oversight of his illegal transactions. Loophole after loophole after loophole. So now that we know these loopholes exist, how do we close them? Why haven't we yet? And who's standing in the way? Oh, such a clutch off season pickup Dave. I was worried we'd bring back the same team. I meant Those blackout motorized shades lines.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it's easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install hall of Fame 6. They're the number one online retailer of.

[Scott McPhee]

Custom window coverings in the world.

[Charlie Scudder]

Blinds.com is the goat shop blinds.com right now and get up to 45% off select styles. Rules and restrictions may apply. Build a routine with Ollie that supports.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

Your wellness needs, like getting your daily vitamins and minerals with Ollie's multigummies or keeping your mood upbeat with all the vitamin D and hello happy. Give your gut health some support with probiotics and wake up feeling refreshed after taking Ollie sleep. Do wellness on your terms. Find Ollie at a Walmart or Target near you [e-mail] these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Not hearing from her at all through the course of the entire day was the cause for concern. So that's why I went over and checked on her.

[Charlie Scudder]

This is Cheryl Pangburn. In September 2017, her mother, Marilyn Bixler, lived at an independent living community called Parkview Frisco. Her story is like many of the ones we've heard already. Just like Jenny Bassett At Preston Place, she realized something must be wrong when her mother didn't shout to stop her dogs from barking at the door.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

So I opened the door, and of course, these units are not very big, so I immediately saw her laying on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. I could see the back of her head, and just panic set in, just sheer panic. And, you know, everything's kind of a blur.

[Charlie Scudder]

From that point on, Cheryl called 911. The officers called the medical examiner's office, which cleared Marilyn's body to be picked up by the funeral home. Natural causes. But immediately, Cheryl had questions. Her mom's body was perfectly aligned between the couch and the coffee table in the living room with nothing disturbed. Then there were the glasses, broken and sitting on the other side of the room, opposite from the direction she was facing. About a week later, Cheryl realized that a few of her mother's best items of jewelry were gone. It all seemed suspicious, but Cheryl didn't know what to make of it. She tried to move on.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

I mean, there's nothing you can do with it. You just kind of try to accept it doesn't make sense, and you just. You kind of process it and compartmentalize it. You know, you lost your mom before you were ready to and before you thought she was ready, and you just kind of grieve and live life.

[Charlie Scudder]

Over the next year and a half, Cheryl pushed aside her suspicions and focused on the long process of learning to live with without her mother. She didn't see the news about Shamirmer's arrest in 2018 or the investigation into hundreds of unattended deaths at senior communities in the area. Meanwhile, the dozens of other families had begun to get the news that their loved ones were murdered and had started to develop an informal support network. Among them was Karen Harris, whose mother, Miriam Nelson, was killed at Preston Place in March 2018. She had decided to sue Preston Place and had hired Trey Crawford, the lawyer you heard from in an earlier episode, to represent her. Trey had a list of victims and shared it with Karen.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

I didn't know anybody.

[Charlie Scudder]

I was, you know, on an island by myself. This is Karen, who you may remember from our first episode.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

I was up one night, sleepless nights.

[Charlie Scudder]

After my mom died.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

I didn't sleep for a year. I was up pouring over that list, and when I came across the name Marilyn Bixler, I thought, Bixler.

[Charlie Scudder]

I knew a Bixler in high school.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

Sure enough, when I Googled her obituary, there was Cheryl's name. And she married Joey Pangburn, another classmate.

[Charlie Scudder]

Of Mine from high school.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

I didn't have her phone number, but I knew she was on Facebook, so that's how I found her.

[Charlie Scudder]

And.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

And I just private messenged her. I'm sitting in an appointment at a hair salon, and I get a Facebook messenger message. And it's someone that went to my high school. And she said, I was going over a list of victims, and I ran across the name Marilyn Bixler. And I just wanted to reach out to you and say my mom was also a victim of Billy Shamir Mirror. And I know how hard this is, and if you would ever just like to talk about it or could find comfort in talking, here's my number. You know, please feel free to reach out to me. And so I googled the name Billy Shamir Mirror. I mean, I literally. I think I must have turned white as a ghost, because right at that time, my hairstylist turned the corner to the processing room and looked at me. She's like, you. You're like, are you okay? Like, you look like you're about to pass out. I mean, my mind was just spinning because you start to. To put together all of the suspicions that you had and wonder if this could actually be true. And the last thing you want is for that to be true. So that. That's how I found out. It's through Facebook Messenger.

[Charlie Scudder]

While Karen called Plano police and demanded to know why Cheryl didn't know, Cheryl tried calling Frisco police and started to piece together what had happened. Early on, police determined that Marilyn had been killed by Shamirmere. They'd even discussed exhuming her body. The medical examiner had changed the cause of death from natural causes to undetermined. And at no point did any official contact Sheryl or her family. She'd simply fallen through the administrative cracks. Police thought the medical examiner had called. The medical examiner thought the police had called.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

They. They just never reached out to me to let our family know.

[Charlie Scudder]

I can imagine a lot of emotions with that.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

A lot.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

Yeah, a lot.

[Billy Shamirmir]

It's.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

It's amazing to me, just from my personal experience, you know, the judicial system, law enforcement is supposed to be working on behalf of the victims and the families. And my experience was a fight every step of the way.

[Charlie Scudder]

In 2020, I wrote about Cheryl's experience finding out about her mother's murder on Facebook in a story the Dallas Morning News. Her next door neighbor, Texas State House representative Jared Patterson, read the story and decided that situation was unacceptable. He drafted a bill that would require medical examiners to notify Next of kin if a cause of death is altered. He called it Maryland's bill. It was part of a suite of bills pushed by a group called Secure Our Seniors Safety, or Sosa, a political nonprofit founded by Shannon Dion, Ellen House, Mary Jo Jennings, and other family members of Schmnimir's victims. There were four bills in Maryland's bill on death certificate amendments. A bill to close loopholes in cash for gold regulations, one to eliminate forced arbitration clauses like those in the tradition Prestonwood leasing contracts, and one that would create a comprehensive security certification program for independent living communities. Why was it important for you to seek some kind of legislative change?

[Cheryl Pangburn]

Because my mom, this was her second family, she lived with these people under the same roof. She socialized with them and saw them daily. They were like family to her. She would have been down in Austin herself trying to make a difference. She would not have stood for the lack of security. I mean, it'd be easier to just try to live life and not do any of this and just move on. People have said that over the years, okay, now you've done this. It's time to move on. And the truth of the matter is it happened in 2017. But for all of us that are trying to make a change, it's like it happened yesterday. We wake up every single day, and there's some facet of it that just comes to mind. It never leaves us.

[Charlie Scudder]

The Texas legislature meets once every two years for 140 calendar days. During the 2021 session, I drove to Austin with Shannon, Dionne, and Cheryl for the first hearing on Maryland's bill, which was the first to be considered by legislators. We arrived at the Capitol building before dawn and waited in a small committee room while Representative Patterson laid out the bill to his colleagues in the House. Thank you, Chairwoman Klick, and members of the committee for the opportunity to lay out this bill.

[Billy Shamirmir]

I'm not expecting you to answer this first question, by the way, but how.

[Charlie Scudder]

Many of you knew that an alleged serial killer recently operated for years in Dallas and Collin counties targeting elderly residents members? This is a simple bill, and unlike the experience of my neighbor, it would allow for families to be appropriately informed by a professional.

[Billy Shamirmir]

That's the least that we could do.

[Charlie Scudder]

Is offer that courtesy to these families. Personally, I cannot imagine learning that my loved one had died from a different cause than originally communicated. And I certainly can't imagine hearing that on Facebook secondhand.

[Billy Shamirmir]

No one should.

[Charlie Scudder]

Then it was Cheryl and Shannon's chance to speak directly to lawmakers for the first time.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

My name is Cheryl Pangburn. I'm representing myself today and I'm here in support of House Bill 723. I'm here today because I'm the one that Jared was referring to, excuse me, to learn about my mother's death on Facebook. So it was 11 months after this amendment occurred that I was made aware of it. And it was not that anyone reached out to me. It was simply that it came up in a conversation with the police investigator.

[Charlie Scudder]

Here's Shannon sos Primary focus is simple.

[Billy Shamirmir]

This cannot happen to another Texas family.

[Charlie Scudder]

Nobody, no family should ever find out.

[Billy Shamirmir]

On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media their loved one was murdered. HB723 is simple, short budget neutral to.

[Charlie Scudder]

Texas taxpayers and should mandate authorities to.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Do the right thing.

[Charlie Scudder]

But nearly every one of the bills suggested by the victims was swiftly and strongly opposed by senior industry lobbyists. They said that the mandatory security measures would be too onerous and expensive to implement, that seniors wanted independence in their living choices, not security measures, that introducing any regulation like this was a slippery slope to much greater state control of their business interests. Among the loudest dissenting voices were two statewide PACs, leading age Texas and the Texas Assisted Living association, or talla. Leading Age Texas is the statewide arm of a national group that lobbies on behalf of senior groups and nonprofits which spent $130,000 on federal lobbying last year. The Tala PAC spent $16,000 in political expenditures during the 2021 legislative session when Sherrill and Shannon first visited Austin Soss. The victims group had just a little over $13,000 total in the bank at that point, which was not enough to hire their own lobbyist. Although Wynn did take on their case part time pro bono, Leading Age Texas did not respond to multiple requests for comment and tala's leaders declined to be interviewed for this podcast. But they did send me a prepared statement that calls the killings horrific. It points out that the concerns and suspicions about the deaths were minimized and that the outcomes may have been very different if their concerns had been investigated. The statement goes on to say that TALA would support legislation that would ensure unusual deaths at senior communities are investigated more thoroughly and that the group supported and will continue to support policies which improve safety for seniors while balancing their independence. Did it surprise you there was so much pushback from the senior industry?

[Cheryl Pangburn]

Not at all.

[Charlie Scudder]

Why not? It's a money making business. There is no regulation in senior independent.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Living currently and they are very happy.

[Charlie Scudder]

With the setup that they have right now.

[Billy Shamirmir]

They were more concerned about keeping things calm, people thinking they're safe, letting the.

[Charlie Scudder]

Life continue as it was then, possibly sharing information that was important and would.

[Cheryl Pangburn]

Have been helpful to the residents.

[Charlie Scudder]

But that might have created an uproar, a concern that wasn't going to be helpful to their business. At the end of the 2021 legislative session, only Maryland's bill and the Cash for Gold measure were passed into law. The arbitration and security certification bills failed in 2023. The families returned with a single bill and five measures to improve senior living security, including mandated background checks for employees and required name tags for every visitor. It passed the Texas House, but the Senate committee assigned to review the bill never scheduled it for a hearing, and it died there. Next year, the group plans to return to Austin with more measures, but Shamir Mir avoided detection for one other big how he killed Smothering deaths leave few signs to the untrained eye. In its medical examiner, Dallas had a prime expert in the field, one who had seen multiple smothering deaths in the past and had written research papers on the signs serial killers leave behind. And even he missed it, only changing the death certificates of a dozen or so that Dallas police identified early on. So how many more victims could be out there?

[Billy Shamirmir]

I think probably there are many people.

[Charlie Scudder]

Have experience with smotherings. They just don't know their smotherings.

[Billy Shamirmir]

Because that's the thing about smothering is.

[Charlie Scudder]

You'Re lucky if you get any real evidence. Next time on the Unforgotten Unnatural Causes that's totally impossible.

[Billy Shamirmir]

It's a really crappy excuse for not delivering good care and it really bothered me.

[Charlie Scudder]

And in a society that is obsessed with race, it came up in the trial. She would not describe his race to me. The Unforgotten is a free range production Season two Unnatural Causes is created, written and hosted by me, Charlie Scudder. Our producer is Wes Ferguson. Associate producer is Monika Watkins. Audio editing, engineering, mixing and mastering by Austin Sisler at Eastside Studios in Austin, Texas. Theme song and sound design by AJ LeGrand. Wes Ferguson is the Executive Producer at Free Range. Special thanks to the Dallas Morning News and the Division of Journalism at Southern Methodist University Meadows School of Yards. If you're running a retail business, don't let disorganized order fulfillment cause chaos. Use Shipstation instead. From running a business out of your garage to multiple warehouses, shipstation is ideal for every phase of your your growth. Save time with one login for all your stores and by automating tasks. Plus, you'll get the best shipping rates from global carriers. Calm the chaos with the shipping software that delivers. Start a free trial at shipstation. Com audio. That's shipstation. Com audio.