Loading summary
Transcript70 lines
- [00:02]
Charlie Scudder
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. From streaming to shopping, prime helps you get more out of your passions. So whether you're a fan of true crime or prefer a nail biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music and fast free delivery, prime makes it easy to get more out of whatever you're into or getting into. Visit Amazon.comprime to learn more. Build a routine with Ollie that supports 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 or@olli.com 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.
- [01:01]
John Cruzeau
After the mistrial, Dallas DA John Cruzeau had to make some decisions. It wasn't just an emotional loss, it was a political embarrassment. He was seeking reelection that year and his Republican opponent was already using the case. Both the mistrial and Crusoe's decision to spare Shamir Mir from execution as a campaign talking point. Crusoe didn't respond to our questions about that political pressure. Crusoe knew that he couldn't let another mistrial, or even worse, an acquittal, happen again. He had to make some drastic changes. Prosecutors pored over the trial transcript looking for ways to improve their case, but Cruzeau went one step further. Elected district attorneys in large cities like Dallas don't do a lot of actual prosecuting in their day to day jobs. A lot of the gig is more managerial and political than it is working with evidence and witnesses. It had been decades since Crusoe personally prosecuted a case, but he decided that this time he'd ride shotgun with Glenn Fitzmartin, his felony trial bureau chief. He'd oversee the entire prosecution from jury selection through a verdict, if there was one. I'm Charlie Scudder and this is the unforgotten unnatural causes Chapter 8 the second trial of Billy Shamirmir Cruzeau's involvement started with the most glaring hole in the last trial jury selection. A lot of the process of questioning potential jurors is meant to weed out the people who can't put aside personal biases to consider the evidence as objectively as possible. Somehow, in the first trial, prosecutors sat a juror who had such strong convictions, Cruzeau wouldn't let that happen again. For the first time in decades, he led jury selection for the prosecution, making sure to ask jurors if they had personal qualms about sending a man to prison. I asked Cruzeau why that was an important step for him to lead personally. He declined to answer. With Cruiseau at his side, Fitzmartin also streamlined the evidence. He rearranged the order that he called witnesses, this time separating the evidence about Mary Bartel, Kim Harris, and Sue Brooks, so jurors could take in each case one at a time. He also decided not to show the lengthy police interview with Shamirmere on the night of his arrest, eliminating the chance for jurors to hear the defendant's convoluted and contradictory alibi. When the second trial started in April 2022, the pandemic had waned enough that the courtroom was open to the public. Reporters and family members arrived early to secure a good spot. Philip Hayes, Shamirmir's lead defense attorney, was also present this time and was more active on cross examination, poking holes in the state's evidence wherever possible. Here he is questioning a Plano detective that Fitzmartin called to show the jury signals from Shamirmer's cell phone. The day he was the first ping.
- [04:19]
Charlie Scudder
Was 30 minutes prior to the third ping. So you don't know where that phone was in that 30 minutes? No, sir, not exactly. And you don't know who was with the phone, you just know that last ping. Mr. Chamirmere had that phone in the parking lot? No, sir. No, sir. What? Yeah, the. The first part that he stated question was the aggression. Okay. I do believe I know who at this point. Well, you believe all you want, but, I mean, you don't know who had that phone 30 minutes prior to him being arrested. All you know is who had it when he got arrested, right? I believe that he had the phone served and he had the following direction. Okay. Did you understand my question? Well, yes, sir. Okay. Now, you don't know where the phone was an hour before, two hours before, or 30 minutes before. But you do know where the phone was when Mr. Chairman was arrested.
- [05:11]
John Cruzeau
Just like in the first trial, the state wrapped its case in four days, and the defense called no witnesses because prosecutors have the burden of proof. They have the ability to begin and end closing arguments that the jury will hear often. One prosecutor will begin by giving some legal background on the case. Then the defense will present its closing argument. Then another prosecutor will come in with the final word to send the jury into deliberations. Cruiseau was the first up as he walked Toward the jury, he stopped at a large stack of boxes full of evidence, picking up the pillow that killed Kim Harris, still stained with her fuchsia lipstick. Remember, she went by Kim for much of her life, but the attorneys used her legal name, Lou T. Harris, at trial.
- [06:01]
Charlie Scudder
Okay, what we're really here talking about is a name in the indictment. And you have a picture of a very kind, gentle person, and you have some of her stuff, the things that were precious and meaningful to her have been offered into evidence. Okay, but those are the things that made up Lucy Harris. And then as we went through this case, we found out that Luti Harris, as you've seen from the exhibit, went from this kind and gentle and funny and well traveled person to a dead body left in the place where she called home, and a place where we all go to. To seek refuge and rest and replenishment. And we have here something that all of us never really think about in this fashion, but it depends on who's in your presence and what they're willing to do. Something that you put your head on and go rest and go to sleep and dream and replenish and refresh yourself. Ordinarily, but something like this is likely the instrument of death.
- [07:15]
John Cruzeau
Kobe Warren, who led Shamir Mir's legal team in the first trial, gave the closing arguments for the defense. Like in the first trial, he leaned on the argument that prosecutors had failed to meet their burden of proof that they did not have enough evidence that showed beyond a reasonable doubt that his client was guilty. Remembering the mistrial outcome, he also encouraged jurors not to force a verdict if they disagreed. What do you think your job as a juror is?
- [07:43]
Charlie Scudder
He's like, everybody's like, well, reach a.
- [07:45]
John Cruzeau
Verdict, reach a decision.
- [07:48]
Charlie Scudder
I said, wrong. Because you're only able to reach a decision if each and every one of you on a jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt the things that they believe. See, you're not here to just go.
- [08:04]
John Cruzeau
Back and to talk and to deliberate.
- [08:05]
Charlie Scudder
And reach a decision if you can, sure. But that's not your job. Your job is to deliberate. You know, every.
- [08:16]
John Cruzeau
Every case that I have, I come.
- [08:18]
Charlie Scudder
Up with some sort of thing. As I sat here and looked at all this stuff and, you know, they. Of all the boxes, the more that I listened to the evidence that was.
- [08:26]
John Cruzeau
Presented as well as what wasn't, I thought to myself, all bark and no bite.
- [08:32]
Charlie Scudder
It's a lot of barking.
- [08:34]
John Cruzeau
They're just barking. At the prosecutor's table, Fitzmartin was taking careful notes on a wide yellow legal Pad. When he heard Warren's all bark and no bite line, he knew where to start. His own closing argument.
- [08:48]
Charlie Scudder
That place the cork. What counsel? Don't bark and no bite. Won't bark and no bite.
- [08:57]
John Cruzeau
Do you remember how we started this.
- [08:58]
Charlie Scudder
Trial after you took your oath? It started with these words, True bill of indictment. Remember? That's how we started this. Those were the first words I read to you.
- [09:08]
John Cruzeau
True bill of indictment.
- [09:10]
Charlie Scudder
That was me barking. True bill of indictment. That was me barking. All this stuff, that's me biting. Okay, all this stuff is actually not stuff. It's evidence. It's evidence of the guilt of Billy Chamier and the death of Lou T. Harris. That's what this is, plain and simple. We can't just stop at Barkin.
- [09:41]
John Cruzeau
We gotta bite.
- [09:43]
Charlie Scudder
And that's what this is.
- [09:44]
John Cruzeau
We brought you every bit of evidence the law would allow us to bring.
- [09:48]
Charlie Scudder
In this case to prove to you that that man right there is capable.
- [09:52]
John Cruzeau
Of taking the most innocent of objects. The things we put our children's heads.
- [09:58]
Charlie Scudder
Down on at night so that they can have the dreams, as Mr. Crusoe told you. And he turned them into instruments of nightmares, not only for the women that he accosted and attacked, but for their families to learn. Think of Mrs. Brooks's family that they had to learn. That their mother that they put to rest seven weeks before actually found her end. Looking at that man right there, what must that be like?
- [10:36]
John Cruzeau
Fitzmartin was focused, clear and passionate. It was like watching a revival preacher at work. He carefully went through the highlights of all the evidence of Mary Bartel's testimony, of how she led police to realize there was an attacker, of how. Police used suspicious person reports, cell phone data, and offer up sales records to see that Shamirmeer was their primary suspect. Of the Walmart footage that showed Shamirmeer following his victims from aisle to aisle during the first trial, Fitzmartin had showed jurors a photograph of Kim Harris's keys that were found in Shamir Mir's car when he was arrested. This time, he pulled on a pair of gloves and picked up the physical evidence itself, rattling it for them to see and hear the keys jangle on the chain.
- [11:24]
Charlie Scudder
Ladies and gentlemen, these three women didn't.
- [11:26]
John Cruzeau
Know each other, but they are all connected.
- [11:30]
Charlie Scudder
They're all connected by Billy Chimumu. Because this is the individual that took.
- [11:37]
John Cruzeau
Lou T. Harrison's life.
- [11:38]
Charlie Scudder
This is the individual that took Mary Brooks's life. This is the individual that tried to take Mary Bartel's life. You can't know this story without knowing each of them. But the sad, sad thing is that the last face that these poor women.
- [11:59]
John Cruzeau
Saw, or the last face that was.
- [12:03]
Charlie Scudder
Intended to be seen by Mary Bartel is the face of that man right there. It's not of their daughter or their son or someone that's going to comfort.
- [12:14]
John Cruzeau
Them in those that final moment of journey.
- [12:17]
Charlie Scudder
Absolutely not.
- [12:19]
John Cruzeau
It is terror.
- [12:20]
Charlie Scudder
It is fear. It is greed. That is what's looking at them. Get on the bed. Don't fight me. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to blend. You have a duty to do in.
- [12:36]
John Cruzeau
The criminal justice system. You are charged with returning a verdict.
- [12:42]
Charlie Scudder
This is an easy decision, mainly because we bit so much off.
- [12:49]
John Cruzeau
You are instructed to go back to.
- [12:52]
Charlie Scudder
Deliberate and to render a just verdict. And when that verdict is a verdict of guilty, it will be loud, it.
- [12:59]
John Cruzeau
Will be proud, it will be justice.
- [13:02]
Charlie Scudder
And it'll be nothing and no amount of surprise that this man right here, and it'll be what he deserves. Please bring back a speedy verdict so that we can put an end to this. Thank you.
- [13:21]
John Cruzeau
And with that, the jurors left to deliberate. The families, many in tears, walked into the hallway. This time they knew what the wait would be like. I sat down on a bench with Dan Probst outside the District Attorney's office while some of the other families started debating where to go for lunch. He said the trial was like an out of body experience. If the jurors only knew all the other shit, he said, like the dozens of other victims. After a few minutes, Dan went to go get lunch himself. Let's see how long this drags out, he told me as he left. I went down to the courtroom where I'd left my own sack lunch. While I was there, I saw a small red light on the far side of the courtroom flick on the jury signal that it had reached a verdict. I texted the families and everyone filed back in after just 45 minutes of waiting. This time, extra staff from the prosecutor's office filled in the empty seats. Some of the women wore cheetah or leopard print shoes or skirts as a response to Shamir's tie choice. Because those predators eat zebras. They said the judge had instructed the families not to react positively or negatively once the verdict was read. You could hear and see the deep breaths from everyone in the courtroom as we waited for the jury to return and take their seats.
- [14:53]
Charlie Scudder
All right, ladies and gentlemen, on a journey. It's my cooker. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform. Made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand marketing tools that get your products out there, integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scale ups online, in person and on the go. Check Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at shopify.com setup this episode is.
- [15:31]
John Cruzeau
Brought to you by Amazon Sometimes the most painful part of getting sick is.
- [15:35]
Charlie Scudder
The getting better part.
- [15:36]
John Cruzeau
Waiting on hold for an appointment, sitting in crowded waiting rooms, standing in line at the pharmacy that's painful. Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy remove those painful parts of getting better with things like 247 virtual visits and prescriptions delivered to your door thanks to Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon One Medical Healthcare just got less painful My mom is a lawyer and a big fan of Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. I am too. There's a line in the book near the end that I always think about when covering trials. It comes when Scout is watching the jury come back from deliberating the fate of the wrongfully accused Tom Robinson. I saw something only a lawyer's child could be expected to see, could be expected to watch for. Scout says a jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted. That's not always true, but in every trial I've covered as a reporter, I watch the jury as they file in for any clue to the decision they've just made. That afternoon, as the 12 person panel returned to the courtroom, not a single one looked toward Billy Shamirmere. Judge Jones addressed the jury and is.
- [16:50]
Charlie Scudder
The foreman Stephen Johnson? All right, Mr. Johnson, has the jury misdirected? We have, ma'am. And what is the verdict of the jury? Guilty of capital murder.
- [17:06]
John Cruzeau
Guilty of capital murder. When the foreman said guilty, some heads bowed, others fell back. Some gasped, others released a long held breath. Dan Probst, who was wearing a button with his Aunt Kathy's face and a large red ribbon, dropped his elbows to his knees, pushed his glasses to his forehead and pulled out a red handkerchief to wipe his eyes. Shamirmer stood, arms crossed as the judge sentenced him to life in a Texas prison. The judge thanked the jury and a bailiff escorted them out of the room. Shamir Mir stayed standing. The families began consoling each other, hugging quietly. Even John Cruzeau, the DA wiped away a tear or two. Slowly. Instead of leaving, the families noticed that Shamir Mir was still waiting to be led out of the courtroom. They paused and turned back around to watch. Soon everyone was silent, unmoving, waiting for him to be led away. A grandson of one of the victims gripped the bench in front of him and was softly muttering, cuff him, cuff him. Otherwise there was no noise. After a few more moments, a bailiff returned and led Shamirmir out of the courtroom, back toward his cell. Cheryl Pangburn was the first to speak as soon as the door closed. Now can we react? She asked. Now can we shout and say praise God? One of the prosecutors said yes, and the room exploded into applause. Shouting, cheering, the grandson banged loud on the wooden bench, surely loud enough for Shamir Mir to hear. In the next room, reporters were waiting outside with more questions. The families gathered for a prayer and headed out into the camera lights, one down, 23 to go. That's how I look at it, Scott McPhee told me as he walked out of the courtroom. Later that year, the families gathered in the courthouse again, this time in the central jury room, a large hall with plenty of seating and a squeaky AC fan, which you'll hear in a moment where Dallas county citizens respond for jury duty. Shamirmer had been convicted a second time in the months since that first guilty verdict and officially had two life sentences, one for murdering Kim Harris and one for murdering Sue Brooks. Cruzeau said he would drop the other Dallas cases after he secured the two guilty verdicts, and it was unclear if there would be another trial. Therefore, the judge had agreed to give all the families the opportunity to present victim impact statements, a fairly recent invention of the criminal justice system that allows victims to speak directly to the convicted defendant and explain the personal toll of the crime it actually developed in the United States after another serial killing spree. The family of actress Sharon Tate advocated for giving victims that voice in the courtroom to keep members of the Manson Family cult from receiving parole. Now it's common practice for victims to have this post conviction opportunity in many kinds of criminal Some of the families had spent years thinking about what they'd say when they got the chance to speak to Shamir Mir. Others waited until the night before to write their comments or went to the podium without a script altogether. Shamir Mir was led into the room in shackles and a faded orange and gray jail jumpsuit. He was seated next to his attorneys in front of large photos of each of the victims that Mary Jo Jennings had printed and and carefully placed in the first two rows of seats. There were 15 families signed up to speak. Three had recorded video statements to be played in the courtroom. The first was the family of Kim Harris, who lived in Canada and had not attended any of the trials in Dallas.
- [21:04]
Charlie Scudder
Hi, Billy. This is my dad. Hi, Benny. Ms. Weeti Harris of Son. And I'm Karen Lucy, Harris's granddaughter and my dad's only child. We don't expect you to remember us, but we hope that you remember our message. The fact remains that you killed my grandmother. And for a while there we were struggling with so much grief. We were really scared and angry as well. We were just triple checking the locks on our doors. We had trouble sleeping at night and we were just, I don't know, like, terrified of going out. But we were also terrified of staying in because of how she was murdered. And my family and I are going to perpetuate that suffering and your pain in ourselves because we're choosing to forgive you. We're choosing to end that cycle of pain and suffering by forgiving you. So we forgive you, Billy. My name is Lindsey Williams Roan. I will not waste my breath on you. Our mother, Martha Williams, was a fighter. And she fought you. She's raised two fighters. We have fought you and we will continue to fight you until you are dead in your cold, dark prison cell alone. My mother probably already told you, but it bears repeating. Go to hell. My name is Scott McPhee and I represent the family and friends of Cherl McPhee. In 2016 and 2017, you came into our parents home disguised as a caregiver would help our mother care from our bailing father. You ate in that house with us. You spent time with our family. You saw what we were and who we were. And it all been nothing more to you than a few thousand dollars worth of jewelry. Then you took the life of a woman who made years of joyful life less. So many lives, so many memories are forever destroyed because of your grief. The horrifying stories of your attempts and successes. The smothering so many incredible, incredible people. Sick. You have changed me and my world forever. You have robbed me not only of my beautiful, cherished mother, but you've also stolen the Ellen I was. The nightmares are unbearable. I wake in tears, praying that it's all that dream. But then the real estate school. And the horror washes over me as I head off to another day trying to act like I'm okay. When I realized the last thing my mom saw in those wolves were your dark, evil eyes. Look at you. You're so blank. She had to suffer the most unimaginable fear. I've had to endure that vision for three years which has caused so much Pain and suffering. I could continue to tell you, but I know you don't care. Now that this is over, you have zero impact on me and my future. I can finally move on now. It is you who has lost everything. It is now you who will be the victim. Everyone in prison has mom and Grandma. And when they found out that you murdered all these powerless victims, it will be you who is preyed on. You will be stopped and followed and frightened rotten. Hell, you piece of shit. My mom was in a conundrum. She kept telling me they just were not ready to die. They didn't seem ready to die. Well, guess what? They were not ready to die. Jewelry was your motive. And you took these most precious people from their lives. Our innocent and loving mothers. You have no heart. You have no soul. You have no conscience. You have no dignity. Make this one short, sweet. Today is a day of thanks, not Thanksgiving. Thanks that you're gone forever. Speaking for Dr. Sinclair, she healed veterans. She cared for the sick her entire life. She worked to make people's lives better. And you and I did it in about three minutes. When you're in that cell and you need an aspirin or you need a band aid or you need brain surgery, remember the name. Dr. Katherine Stinkler. My mother, Doris Humphrey Gleason, was a steel magnolia. Beautiful and gracious on the outside, strong and mighty on the inside. Her faith, family and friends were the most important thing to her. She would have given you the jewel. You didn't have to kill her. My mother called my sisters in my father's hands as they passed away. They died surrounded with love. Because of you. Mama died in fear. I have nightmares seeing her face when she realizes she shouldn't have opened the door to you, that she is in trouble. I promised my dad that he could go in peace, that I would take care of Mama. And you made me break my promise to my Lord.
- [27:47]
John Cruzeau
Throughout it all, Shamir Mir looked straight ahead, sometimes furrowing his brow, often looking expressionless at the person speaking. He didn't move, didn't even blink. Two days later, Shamimra called me again. I asked if he had any remorse after hearing from so many grieving families. But he said again that one day the truth would come out and that he did not kill anyone. I'm not that psycho, he told me. One murder in a place where we put some of our most vulnerable loved ones should be a wake up call. Dozens of killings should be a catastrophe. It should have raised alarm bells in how investigators think about violent crimes against seniors. And Death investigations at communities for older adults. It should have made us think more deeply about how we balance independence and security for a generation that is rapidly aging. Why wasn't it? And what would it look like if we did have that conversation? There is another version of this story, a version where the killings aren't just brushed aside as one bad apple, but become a call to action, which sparks a larger conversation. It just didn't happen in the United States. German spree killer who has been dubbed as Omar Murder the Granny Killer. I never heard about this. How. Why have I not heard of this? I wonder what happened. Okay, so earlier this week I was at this event and somebody asked what I was up to this summer and I mentioned this project and I started telling them about Billy Schmiermere and they hadn't heard about him, but they said, oh, just like that guy in Germany, which I kind of was like, okay, yeah, sure, whatever. And I just finally remembered it and went and googled Germany's senior killer. And the first result is a guy named Olaf Dieter is a German spree killer who has been dubbed as Omar Mordor, the Granny Killer. I never heard about this. I never heard about this.
- [30:10]
Charlie Scudder
Huh? Wait.
- [30:14]
John Cruzeau
Okay. A woman. A woman wakes up, describes her attacker after his arrest, it turned out Dieter had already murdered another elderly lady that same day. Doctors had previously recognized their deaths as natural. Oh my gosh. Dieter had previously worked with his victims as a geriatric nurse, enjoyed their confidence, allowing him access to the crime scenes without resistance. Why have I not heard of this? I wonder what happened. In June 2001 in Bremerhaven, a city on the northern coast of Germany, five elderly women were found dead in their homes over a 10 day period. Their deaths were all attributed to natural causes only after a woman named Marta Neubauer was revived and pointed police to her former in home caregiver Olaf Daetor. Did police realize that the women had been suffocated and that their apartments had been robbed? Daeter was arrested soon after and was sentenced to life in prison later that year. Sound familiar? Murders are five times more rare in Germany compared to the US and the case of the Omar mortar was an immediate sensation. The medical examiner there, a doctor named Klaus Puschel, publicly scolded the doctors who had brushed aside the deaths as natural without an autopsy. He pushed the German Society for Forensic Medicine to study what he called forensic gerontology. In an article published in Rexmetizin, a German forensic science journal, Puschel wrote that the violence against elderly people as well as their particular vulnerability and defenselessness absolutely require attention, these dark sides of old age must be further illuminated. These problems resonate very little in either the medical field or in society. Doctors feel very little responsibility. However, the responsibility of doctors must be emphasized, especially when caring for elderly patients. When I started looking into the Dator case, I came across another series of European murders that's a little more well known and also led to changes in how older people are treated. Throughout the 1980s, four nurses, Maria Gruber, Irene Leidow, Stefjana Meyer and Walter Wagner, worked at a geriatric care hospital in the Lynes neighborhood of Vienna. Together, they killed at least 49 elderly people and possibly hundreds more with either morphine overdoses or by forcing water into their lungs, drowning their patients. They got away with it for six years because although the patients were not terminally ill, their deaths looked natural. Elderly people often die with fluid in their lungs. The crimes shook Europe, created tabloid headlines around the world, and even made the front page of the New York Times. The women were dubbed the line's Angels of Death. The Austrian chancellor at the time called it the most brutal and gruesome crime in Austria's history, and for others, it was a reminder of the Nazi led murder programs of a generation prior. When detectives tried investigating the case, they were met with a wall of silence from the state run hospital, one investigator said. Just like how the senior living communities in Dallas avoided telling police how much they knew about Shmir Mir. The head of the hospital in Vienna was suspended for his role in stymieing that investigation. Patients fled the hospital where the four women had worked, seeking other places for care. As medical officials became more defensive about their role in not stopping the killing sooner, Vienna was in shock, questioning the very nature of its healthcare system and and treatment of elderly Austrians. In the decades since, Vienna has boosted its social services, particularly for older adults. There's a publicly funded office for senior living, with district representatives in every neighborhood of the city, a network of healthcare, housing, transportation and recreation services that make the city one of the best for older people, according to the World Health Organization. Their approach is not just about senior care. It's about senior life, about making sure that older adults have the tools, resources and, yes, protections to live their life as fully and independently as possible. But no such reckoning has happened here in Texas, and there's no sign there ever will be. In fact, while we were working on this podcast, there was another string of murders at unlicensed assisted living group homes in Arlington, Texas, my hometown. In those Police say the owner injected as many as 20 older patients with a drug cocktail that caused their deaths. The initial reports listed their deaths as natural. Many were buried or cremated by the time investigators noticed what was happening. At a press conference in June, Arlington police officers called it unimaginable and disturbing. One officer said he'd been working in the department for over 20 years and had never seen anything like this. It's the exact same language that police in Plano used when they began investigating Shamir Mir just six years ago. There are times when looking into these cases can feel exhausting. Like Lisa hall, the Griswold home care owner in Plano, told me a few episodes ago, it's easy to frame this case as an exception. One bad example.
- [35:56]
Charlie Scudder
You hope that it's the exception, but then you. When you think it's the exception, then something else like that comes up.
- [36:03]
John Cruzeau
Realizing that this isn't just about one bad case, that it's about a series of systems that are difficult to change. That's heavy stuff. Dealing with that is a skill, and it's one I've been focused on passing to younger reporters. A couple times a year, I bring a special guest speaker to the journalism classes I teach at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The campus isn't far from Shamirmereville, as Mary Jo Jennings called the neighborhood where he targeted his victims. Shannon Dion is an alumna of smu, and having her visit campus is always a highlight of the semester. When she comes, we get to sit down and talk to students about responsible crime reporting and building trust between reporters and victims of trauma. It's a rare experience. Young reporters rarely get a chance to hear directly from news sources. In traumatic stories like these, they don't get to hear about the bad and good parts, about being thrust into the limelight for something horrific, which is why hearing from Shannon is such a treat.
- [37:08]
Charlie Scudder
Well, thank you all for letting me be here today and participating in this journey you're on.
- [37:15]
John Cruzeau
You have done a lot of these at this point. Yes. Interviews we're talking about, you know, how to do the mics, you know about your keeping my issues quiet, quiet on the set, all that good stuff. Right. That's not a thing that people generally experience. Like to be that media awareness. I guess to go from not wanting to have anything to do with this to this. That's gotta be a weird roller coaster.
- [37:50]
Charlie Scudder
On the roller coaster of weird. This is just one of many weirds, you know. So, as you know, I was at home, retired with my husband, just living the life and Then life happened and everything changed. So, yes, I've learned a lot more about media than I thought, but I've also had to learn how to zoom and how to work with website creators and the legal system and going to Austin and fighting for legislation. So this is just one of many weird things that I never anticipated learning about.
- [38:33]
John Cruzeau
Why it could be easy to not want to take those steps, to just. Or not take all of those steps. Why do these interviews? Why go to Austin?
- [38:45]
Charlie Scudder
The interviews are done. Well, let me back up. When this all occurred and the other victim daughters and I found each other, we all shared a lot of things. You know, our anger, our frustration, our sadness, our love for our moms. But we shared that this was so wrong that this person had been allowed to enter these properties a number of times. So we felt like that had to change. That was our first mission and our second mission was to share the story so that other people would be aware of the vulnerabilities in these communities. And that for me, is healing to get that information out. My mother wasn't murdered for no. Without any good coming from it. I was going to ask what steps do you think could be taken to really build trust in the beginning between a reporter and someone who you're interviewing as such an intense scale as this is great question.
- [39:44]
John Cruzeau
And I think these are the same things, whether it's a. A soft story or a super hard story like this. Right. I do think empathy is a really important. A kind of help me understand. I can never completely understand, but help me understand where you're coming from. That's where it starts. It starts from that curious place of I just want to get to know you better. I want to get to know this situation better. I don't. I don't know. There's some humility in that. I don't know what this is like. Help me tell others. It's impossible to hear these kinds of details, these kinds of stories, which are really important stories. It's impossible to hear those details and not have a human response. I started reporting this story while I was planning my wedding. In the months after Shamiro was indicted for several of the murders, I delayed publication of my first big story on the case for the Dallas Morning News because of our honeymoon plans. Covering traumatic stories like this one is part of why I left my daily newspaper job in 2022 to start freelancing and teaching. I was present for every single day of Shamir Mir's three trials, except for one morning when I drove to a doctor's office in Fort Worth to hear my son's heartbeat for the first time on an ultrasound machine. Even while I was working on this podcast, my in laws were suddenly forced to move my wife's grandmother into a nursing home. I volunteered to do the background checks for the facilities they considered. In many ways, this story has been a very big part of my personal life for the past five years. Whenever Shannon visits my class, we talk about that. We talk about how we've become close and what it was like for both of us to go through all those trials. The mistrial, the guilty verdict. It was really hard for me covering those trials. It was.
- [41:48]
Charlie Scudder
You had spent so much time with us that we were not just a cold source. Yeah. You had lived the story with us. And then the trials come.
- [41:59]
John Cruzeau
And again, like we said earlier, it's not an. I understand.
- [42:03]
Charlie Scudder
Correct. Correct.
- [42:05]
John Cruzeau
But doing this kind of work, being exposed to these stories over and over and over does mount up trauma. At the end of those days, I had to decompress. I had to take some time to get my own head right. It was really, really important to me to follow the story through the. To legislation, to see how that happened to the. Through the conviction. Because even in those traumatic situations, there is hope, something.
- [42:44]
Charlie Scudder
There's something you have to sometimes dig deep. And there are days, trust me, I was curled up in the fetal position in my bed. But you find a way to move forward, y'all. I just want to make it clear. This is a hard story. I'm really glad we're approaching it from the journalism side, but I want to make sure you all take away today. It's also a message with hope and a call to action. That's. That's my point.
- [43:16]
John Cruzeau
Students like to stay after and ask more questions of Shannon when she visits. The first time she visited, she was surrounded by students thanking her and wanting to know more. I remember seeing one young woman come forward without a word. She pulled out a necklace that was around her neck and held it out for Shannon to see. Shannon found the necklace around her own neck. A guardian angel charm on the end, just like the one her mother was wearing when she died, the one the Shamir mirror stole from her body. Shannon showed the young woman that their necklaces matched and then pulled her in for a big hug. Four days later, I was at home taking care of my infant son for the day, away from the laptop and documents and stresses of this story and everything that comes with it. I had my phone on silent that morning, not worried about any calls. But when I did check it. I saw a message from a reporter friend. I'm sure you're on this, but just in case he had texted. It was a link to a breaking news story. Billy Shamirmir was dead. Next time on the Unforgotten Unnatural Causes. There's not going to be an indictment. There's not going to be a trial. It's just, oh, by the way, here's some horrible gut wrenching pain you now get to deal with. Yeah, I don't think that's a gift. The Unforgotten is a Free range production. Season 2 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. Thanks to Alexandra Englund for assistance with German language translation and pronunciation in this episode. Special thanks, as always, to the Dallas Morning News and the Division of Journalism at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts, particularly Professor Annette Nevins, who let Shannon and I crash her news reporting course in this episode.