All language subtitles for Pillowcase Murders - S01E01 - A Monster in the Halls

[insects chirping]

- It only takes...

two to three minutes...

two to three minutes
of sheer horror.

- You look up,

and the last thing you're seeing

is a pillowcase
coming to your face.

- You can't breathe.

- Realizing you
are going to die.

[suspenseful music]

- That's the last person that
you'll ever see before you die.

[stopwatch clicks]

There she is.

That was the last time
that I saw my grandmother.

- For months, police
had no suspects.

That changed Tuesday evening.

Plano officers
were led to the home

of 83-year-old Lu Thi Harris.

- Police are reviewing
the deaths now

of hundreds of people
here in north Texas.

- Plano Police plan to
review every single death

of an elderly
woman in the area.

- Police were investigating
these deaths as one-offs.

They weren't looking
for a serial killer.

- The room was covered in blood.

- We never got one warning.

♪ ♪

- They covered it up.

- His job is stalking...

surveilling, smothering,

stealing, and selling.

- Those 55 sales
for, like, $91,000.

- $5,000, that's what
her life was worth.

- We may be talking about
the most prolific serial killer

in the history of the country.

- He took so many lives

by simply just taking
their breath away.

- You can still see the
smudges of her makeup.

This is the pillow
that smothered Mom.

♪ ♪

- In this room, it's
just an accumulation

of all the facts and
documents that I've collected

over the years about my mom.

Her name was Leah Corken...

always perfectly coiffed, hair
done and hands manicured.

Always the lady.

She had a very strong wit.

She would belly up to the bar.

There she is with a big
Johnnie Walker Red scotch.

Pretty Mom, just drinking.

That was her drink.

But then on the other side,

these are all the
incident reports.

I wanted to figure out
how many policemen

were the same for
every one of the deaths,

but it wasn't the same guy.

Oh, This was the bill Tradition
charged me to have her party

in honor of her death.

Kind of kicked
myself this weekend

that I never got the report
from the funeral home

of what they might
have noticed on her body,

because I think I
have this memory

that I saw a big
bruise on her arm.

And just this
morning, I called them,

and they just faxed it over.

So, to read,

there were hematomas on
her right leg and both arms,

as well as under her right eye,

that just really hit home.

August 19th...

It was a really hot
and a humid day.

I kind of remember
hyperventilating

because I couldn't get to Mom...

so I was just racing
over as fast as I could.

And I, about right
here, get the phone call

that just said, MJ, you need
to get here as soon as possible.

The tone of his voice...

just scared the hell out of me.

♪ ♪

My mom's apartment is
that balcony right up there.

And I pulled

into Tradition-Prestonwood
entrance here.

♪ ♪

And I see all the
emergency cars.

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

I remember screaming, Mom.

They had a sheet over her,

and just the
paramedics were there.

So then they took
the sheet off of her,

and I'm looking at
her, and I'm like,

that looks really weird.

Why is she in a
perfectly straight line

with the back of her feet up?

♪ ♪

And her walker

is on the other
side of the kitchen.

I literally laid on the floor

and put myself

in the exact same position
as my mom to mimic.

Wait, is this right?

Why is the back of my
mom's hair messed up,

when she just had
her hair done that day?

And then Ed Sanchez,
the community person there,

hugs me, and he says,
that's how people die.

And I remember clearly
saying, in a straight line like that?

Like, that just didn't
make any sense to me.

I remember
looking at her pillow,

and I'm like, Mom, you
wash your face every night.

Why is there makeup
smudged on your pillow?

♪ ♪

- Unless there are
suspicious circumstances,

major signs of foul play,

the medical examiner does
not come out to the scene.

- When MJ found her
mom, Leah Corken,

she said, you know, the
body just doesn't look right,

and still nothing happens.

[siren wailing]

There was no autopsy done.

- Instead, I get a phone call.

The medical examiner
determined that it was just her heart.

She just died.

But the snapshots
never went away,

yeah, the things that I saw,

and I was just so sad that,
you know, she was dead.

- The Tradition...

Dallas's crown jewel
in retirement living.

This active-adult
facility is the brainchild

of Jonathan Perlman.

- Jonathan Perlman is
a former baseball player.

He saw just how much
money you could make

in the independent-living
industry.

He started with The
Tradition-Prestonwood,

which was his first facility.

- A lot of thought and
planning was involved

in building Tradition.

We've got a movie
theater, arts and crafts.

We have a fantastic
exercise room,

even an indoor swimming pool.

- Tradition-Prestonwood
was really trying

to attract people away
from their own homes.

- We're taking all the costs

our residents had when
they owned their home.

We provide all maintenance.
We pay the taxes.

If something
breaks, we fix it.

- You buy all the
glitz and glamor

and all this fabulous stuff.

- For now, I'm
off to see a movie.

Oh, thank you,
Jonathan. Come along.

- But don't be fooled

by independent-living
bells and whistles.

♪ ♪

- My mom...

she met a lot of
good friends there.

They were known as
the "fourth-floor ladies."

Glenna Day was one of them.

- Mama was the party.

She was a widow
since she was 50.

People would say, why
aren't you getting married?

Because she was cute and fun.

And she said,
well, two things...

I've not had an applicant

that I thought
could handle the job,

and if I want something
with hairy legs, I'll get a dog.

- Fourth floor
was the party floor.

- There were, like,
seven or eight ladies,

and they just loved
to be together.

They would have
these silly theme parties.

- But all of a sudden,
neighbors on the fourth floor

start to unexpectedly die.

- We got a phone
call from Ed Sanchez.

He had said that my mother

had passed away
peacefully in her sleep,

and I was like, what?

I know my mother's routine.

She gets up in the morning.

She always makes a
hot tea, sits at the table,

and reads the newspaper.

And so, when I got there,
I called Ed, and I said,

if she died peacefully
in her sleep...

why would today's newspaper
be sitting here on this table...

and her teacup
and fingernail polish?

The lid was off.

So she was there...

awake.

Ed said, oh, well, she
must have gotten up

and then started feeling bad
and then went back to bed

and then passed away.

My mom's death certificate
said "natural causes,"

and that's what we
thought happened,

was natural causes.

[indistinct chatter
over radio]

My mom went there
because she thought

there was
outstanding security,

and she was wrong.

It's all about money,
not about care...

[voice breaking] Or my
mom would still be here.

- I just want to tell
Diana and Philip

that I love you both
so very, very much,

and I hope that you
will always be as happy

as you both made me today.

And I love you both
very, very much.

♪ ♪

- My mother knew something
strange is happening.

Leah and Juanita, all of
a sudden, they were gone.

They were on her floor.
They were her friends.

No heart issues, no
underlying problems.

That prompted her
to go to the doctor,

and he said,
everything's fine.

Sunday morning...

when I walked into the room,

she was on the bed.

Her face was dark,

and I know everyone
that dies is not peaceful,

but it had a darkness to it.

And then she was laying
on her $400 comforter,

paint on her fingers
and on her smock,

which she would never have done.

She'd been
restoring a painting,

and her paints were still
out and had dried by then.

None of that was cleaned up.

It didn't make sense to me.

♪ ♪

- You have Glenna
Day deceased in bed

with paint on her hands...
completely unnatural situation.

And, of course, she,
like Juanita Purdy,

must have felt sick and
laid back down, right?

That was the story.

That was really strange,

and that was certainly
noticed by the families

and then obviously dismissed
by Tradition-Prestonwood.

And all these women were
living on the fourth floor.

- The similarities
were incredible.

All these people
that worked there...

you just got to wonder,

well, how many times do
you have to see a dead person

in a straight line till you
start asking questions?

[dramatic music]

- My mother is Doris Gleason.

And this is Mama's calendar.

She wrote everything down.

Monday, exercise at 9:30.

Tuesday, lunch with Doris.

Pacemaker check, Thursday.

And then on Saturday
morning, she has the sit and sew

checked off,

but the birthday party
for a resident, Rufus,

was not checked off.

She hadn't shown
up at the party.

Sunday, October 30, 2016...

drove over to
Tradition-Prestonwood

to pick Mom up for church.

She normally would be sitting
on a bench waiting for me,

and she wasn't there.

Something was wrong.

Mama's door...

[elevator bell dings]

Apartment 367, was unlocked.

I found her body on the floor

over by the dining-room table.

- Shannon called me... get
over here as fast as you can.

- The chair was pulled
away, the laptop was open,

and Mama's body was
positioned as if she got up

and she collapsed.

[siren wailing]

- One of the officers
called the medical examiner

and said, we have
an elderly lady.

No sign of forced
entry or violence.

Medical examiner
cleared the body

to go to the funeral home.

♪ ♪

- Two days she worked on that.

Mama was a steel magnolia...

gracious and beautiful
but very strong.

Her faith and her family were
her most important things.

So it was disbelief.

My sister Nancy...

found these guardian
angel pendants

for me and my mom and herself.

We lost Nancy to
cancer in May of 2003,

but that guardian
angel necklace...

my mother wore
it all the time.

I'd asked for the jewelry

before the funeral
home took her body.

- Shannon said
to the attendant,

I need my mother's
necklace that she had.

- The guardian angel
necklace... where's the necklace?

And that's when they
unzipped the body bag.

- The attendant said,
well, there is no necklace.

- I-I was just destroyed.

♪ ♪

- Ed Sanchez came
up, and he said,

well, these old
ladies hide stuff

in their underwear
drawer sometimes.

He was very dismissive.

- My husband called
the Dallas Police,

and we reported there
had been a robbery.

So I had one hour
of grieving my mother

before the Crime
Scene unit came.

- We put together a list
of everything missing.

The total was about
$10,000 of jewelry.

- I asked the police, do you
think someone hurt my mother?

But then I was told no.

She had died naturally,

and someone just
happened to come by

and rob the jewelry off
of her cold, dead body.

- Doris Gleason
was not the first theft.

There were prior instances
at Tradition-Prestonwood

in which you had sudden,
unattended deaths

with immediately
reported missing jewelry.

- It's very difficult
to imagine

anybody stealing something
off of your mother's body.

But I remember
the officer saying,

and I'm here for what?

Somebody stole my
mom's wedding ring

off of her finger
after she died.

My brother and sister arrived,

and as they were walking in,

the paramedics
were walking out.

I said to my sister, y'all
have to take a picture of her.

I said, take the blanket off.

I always thought she
was in a funny position...

straight line, one arm under.

The community
relations director said,

it was sudden, heart attack.

She just dropped dead.

But something was not right.

There was the bloodstain
right in the middle of the carpet,

and then her salad...

hadn't been touched.

There were footprints.

And I remember just going,
her ring finger looks damaged.

Somebody took that off of her.

- The night Mom died, I
realize her ring's gone.

And I said, who
stole Mom's ring?

She never took her ring off.

- Right after my
mother's death,

my husband and I
found a jewelry appraisal,

and almost all the stuff...

was not there.

So it wasn't just the ring.

- Juanita Purdy had
$30,000 of jewelry missing

and was reported at
the time of her death.

The Tradition reassured them

it was not anybody
working there

because they had
checked the key logs.

- All of these women
immediately reported

jewelry missing to the police.

- Normally, you have
maybe three deaths a year

at Tradition-Prestonwood.

Now we've got several deaths
in three and a half months

with stolen jewelry?

There should be alarms
going everywhere.

Nobody's going
through... there's nobody.

- The executive director said,

just want to let you know
that there have been

been other deaths with thefts.

We suspect the
paramedics did it.

- Norma's daughter
called the police,

and they tell the police,

well, The Tradition's told
us that there was a problem

with the paramedics
stealing jewelry.

And so then Dallas Police

opens up a Public
Integrity investigation.

- Sergeant Davis

starts interviewing
various witnesses.

- Okay.

- There was only one
entity with the full picture

of what was going on,
and that was The Tradition.

But instead of being
honest and forthright,

they actively started
steering the investigation

towards the first responders.

- And so the sergeant focuses

on whether paramedics
may have stolen

Norma French's wedding ring.

- The sergeant does ask if
there's surveillance footage

in the residence area
where Norma French lived.

- Well, as it turns out,

there were a total
of zero cameras

on the fourth floor

and zero cameras
on the third floor.

- The security
cameras they did have

did not cover the doors
of any of these people

or the hallways.

- Sergeant Davis told
me, something is fishy.

Something about
this is not right.

- What the police don't know

is that before this
investigation concluded,

there was an
intruder in November

and December of 2016.

- Tradition-Prestonwood
doesn't tell Sergeant Davis,

we actually have a suspect

that might be a
perfect fit for your crime.

That never happens.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- And so the paramedics...
they're all cleared.

- Okay.

- April 2017,

the case is closed,
no arrests are made.

♪ ♪

- So this is the
request I made

December 5, 2016,

for the open records
from The Tradition

going back two years.

I just was trying to find
information on this property

because my mother had
had this suspicious death.

November 13, 2016,

a staff member called
about a suspicious person...

Black male, 5'10", 180 pound,

dressed in a clean
suit, carrying a satchel.

"The suspect has been
seen on numerous occasions

"visiting the fourth floor

"and has stated he was
there to check for pipe leaks.

Responding officers
advised to tighten security."

And then I found
Mrs. Abramowitz...

July 18, 2016...

unattended death

and the witness who
called it in... Ed Sanchez.

And then robbery and death...

August 6, 2016, Juanita Purdy.

There's Leah Corken's report,

Glenna Day, my mom's report.

- The Dallas Police were
investigating these deaths

as one-offs.

They weren't looking
for a serial killer.

- Mom was not an isolated case.

- Shannon put a
package together

and sent that to a reporter at
"The Dallas Morning News,"

but he really
didn't have interest

in pursuing the story.

- I felt frustrated,
so I posted a review

on The Tradition-Prestonwood
Yelp and Google.

"The food and
ambiance are delightful.

The security is unacceptable."

And then it goes

into how there were
these deaths with robberies

and that there was
a reported trespasser.

I just felt at that
point, March of 2017,

I'd done all that I could.

I could not have
saved my mother,

but I look at all the lives lost

after her...

it breaks my heart.

- After Doris Gleason,

this long string of
sudden deaths stops.

But then, suddenly,

in September 2017,

women start dying
at a smaller complex

just over the county
line in Collin County

in a little town
called Frisco.

["Happy Birthday" playing]

- Oh, yeah.
[laughs]

- ♪ Happy birthday,
dear Marilyn ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

- My mom was living
her absolute best life.

[people cheer]

- It was a big one.
- Tequila!

- I don't feel guilt.

Go, Mama.

But, like, by putting
her in this place,

how responsible am I...

- 91, here I come.

- For this happening?

[soft music]

She had five kids.

She was also an
investment officer

and was very successful
until she retired.

- Oh, my gosh,
this is so beautiful.

- She poured so
much into her family

that I just enjoyed being able

to turn the tables a
little bit and nurture her

at this stage in life.

- I get so many compliments,
not much jewelry.

[chuckles]

- We set up

her entire apartment
at Parkview.

- Oh, my gosh. I love it.

Cheryl, didn't this
turn out perfect?

- Mm-hmm.

She was in the
marketing brochure.

Every time you
turned the page,

there would be another
Marilyn Bixler quote.

She was so proud of that.

Finally, she could
relax and enjoy life.

She met women
that were like her.

Helen was her best
friend at Parkview.

They had dinner every
night together at the fun table.

[light music]

- My grammy was
the manager and buyer

of a women's clothing
retail company,

a seamstress
for over 45 years.

She was just the most loving,
caring, compassionate person.

♪ ♪

- My mom's apartment
and Helen's apartment

were the exact same location,

but whereas my mom
was on the first floor,

Helen was on the third floor.

- The stairwell with access to
Marilyn Bixler and Helen Lee

was constantly unlocked.

No video surveillance
cameras whatsoever.

- I knew Helen.

I took care of
her for a little bit.

When she died and Marilyn
died, a bell should have gone off.

- Do you solemnly
swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth,

so help you God?
- Yes, I do.

- At this point
in time, in 2017,

how would you
enter the facility?

- Well, you're supposed to
enter through the front door

and sign in.

That isn't always the case.

In the past, you could enter

in and out of any
door that wasn't locked.

The doors were not self-locking.

- Was it common
for the exterior doors

to be unlocked?

- Yes.

I was in building
five, third floor,

right within not even ten
feet of Helen's front door.

And I caught out
of my peripheral

somebody coming up a stairwell.

It was a dark-skinned
gentleman...

black pants, tie.

His shoes were even shiny.

- It was not somebody
that she had seen before.

- I asked him who
he was here to visit.

- And he said, I'm
here to see Maria.

- Maria from the dining room.

I said, you are completely

in the wrong part
of the building.

You need to check
in at the front desk.

And then I let people in the
area know to lock their doors.

- She went and reported him

to somebody in the front office.

- I did see him two
other times after that,

both within a week,
week and a half.

- She confronted
him a second time.

- I was very firm.

I asked him to
leave, and he did.

Third time...

we made eye contact,
and then he was gone.

- He just went
down the stairwell

and left the building.

- I Went downstairs
immediately this time

and told Christine and Rhonda.

- Those are
Parkview employees?

- Sorry. Mm-hmm.

Rhonda said right away,
I'm calling the police.

But the police
didn't catch him.

Clearly he was
there for a reason.

He was stalking.

He was stalking these people.

- I have several clients
in the fifth building.

So, when I saw this
strange person on this floor,

it was pretty upsetting.

But after that, I
never saw him again.

- Sunday the 17th...

I found her.

They said she must have died

from a heart attack or a stroke.

But what are the chances

that she falls

perfectly in that space

between the couch
and the coffee table

and that her glasses
end up several feet away?

They were bent outward,

and the right lens
had popped out.

And in the back of my
mind, you know, I'm thinking

that her best friend
just died two weeks ago.

- Sunday, September 3rd...

Grammy never
made it to church,

so I decided to go
check on her myself.

[dramatic music]

I saw her laying
in her bedroom...

cane at her side, her
bag over her shoulder,

getting ready to
take down to dinner.

I do remember a
stain in the living room,

and I trusted law
enforcement when...

they said that she probably
died of a heart attack.

- At this point,
we're not dealing

with Dallas PD anymore.

We're dealing with Frisco PD.

Small police department,
takes these reports.

And these new incidents...

they are not connected
to those previous deaths

at Tradition-Prestonwood.

- The ultimate
consequence of that

is that more people
are going to die.

- The deaths with
suspicious circumstances

stop at Parkview Frisco

but continue down Preston
Road to Preston Place.

- Preston Place is in
kind of the heart of Plano,

this massive suburb a
few minutes from Frisco.

[mellow music]

- If you want to be busy,
you want to have fun,

this is definitely
a place to be.

It's a home environment.

The best thing
here is our people.

- It's really nice.

The people are just great,
my neighbors and everything.

We just have a ball here,
and the parties are fantastic.

♪ ♪

- Preston Place was
a little bit different.

It was previously just a
regular apartment community,

so there's separate
entrances to each apartment.

You had an exterior gate.

The gate was
nonfunctional, almost always.

There were very few cameras,

and some of those
were nonfunctional.

There were none
in the parking lot.

- They assured us they
had never had any issues

with security.

[applause]
- Happy birthday!

all: ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

- ♪ Happy birthday to Mimi ♪

- My mom was a Southern lady.

She'd never met a stranger,
but she was the best cook.

You know, pot roast
and fried chicken...

nothing healthy.

And she loved being
close to my son.

When Jason came over and
she could cook a meal for him,

it was the highlight
of her week.

She was happy there.

But she had heard that
there was a burglary.

They even changed the locks.

And then on March the
7th, she had the intruder.

[dramatic music]

11:30 in the morning,

she was sitting
in her easy chair,

watching television.

She had some
groceries delivered to her.

As soon as they left...

within a minute, there
was a knock at the door,

and she assumed that
they had forgotten something.

And so she said, come in.

A man came in that
she didn't recognize,

and he said, I'm
here to look for a leak.

We can hear water
running downstairs.

And she was
immediately rattled.

- He just kind of walked
through her apartment,

went into her
bedroom-bathroom area...

and then left.

It unnerved her so much

that she called the front
desk at Preston Place

and reported it.

- My mom told me he was 5'10".

He was a Black man.

He had on a white dress
shirt and black slacks.

But the alarming thing was that
he was wearing rubber gloves.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Martha Williams was another
resident at Preston Place.

The family discover her dead.

- Surveillance shows
Martha Williams

in the parking lot
at Preston Place

a few days prior.

She had just returned
from shopping.

She had shopping
bags on her bed,

and her body was
found alongside the bed.

She did have some
bleeding from the face,

and her shirt was actually
pulled over her head.

There was makeup stains
on the back of her shirt.

The family reported that
there was jewelry missing.

We took that very serious.

- That's March 7th...

the same day that
this trespasser entered

into Miriam
Nelson's apartment.

- At the time, we had no idea.

Nobody at Preston
Place told us anything.

It's infuriating.

If I had heard about one
death with missing jewelry,

I would have moved my
mom into my home that night.

That Wednesday that
he came to her apartment,

my mother called
all of her neighbors.

She spoke to Janine's
mom, and Janine's mom said,

well, you know, I had a
similar incident a year ago.

- The man had come
into my mother's apartment

in November of 2016,

told her that
there was a leak,

walked around kind
of towards her kitchen.

And then my mom told him,

my daughter is on her
way to take me to lunch.

And at that moment, he left.

My mom described him as Black

and wearing nice clothing,

like he was going to church.

- It just really
surprised my mom.

A year ago you had somebody come

and ask if you had a leak?

- Here's Miriam Nelson
upstairs from my mom

in the same
building a year later.

Immediately I knew he was back.

- A signal went off then.

Let's make sure that she's
protected and she's aware.

- I called Jason, my son,

and I explained
how rattled she was.

He said, I'm on
it. I will be there.

Tell her I'll be there
within the hour.

When he got there,
he sent me a picture

of the gun on her counter.

He said, I'm here.
I'm guarding the castle.

Everything's going
to be under control.

The next morning,
Jason went to the office.

He was very upset

that this person could
come on the property.

I mean, it was
supposed to be secure.

- It was reported to staff,

and then it wasn't
reported to police.

- They assure Jason

that they had hired
some additional security.

I think these guys were going
to drive around in golf carts.

- But not once
was it disclosed

to Miriam Nelson's grandson

that, by the way, we've
had several deaths

with reported thefts not
soon before this happened.

- Friday morning,
when I called my mom,

she seemed fine.

Jason's presence had
definitely settled her down.

She said, you
know, I think I'm fine.

You know, everything
seems to be under control.

But she said, well, I'm
looking for a necklace.

She goes, I'm pretty sure when
that man came in on Wednesday,

he took my diamond
necklace that was sitting out.

- Unfortunately, we didn't
get a lot of this information in

until after we discovered
even more bodies.

- I went into her bedroom
and flipped the light on,

And that's when I
saw her lying in bed.

The absolute worst
moment of my entire life.

- Her mom's dead.

It's like you black out.

I ran stoplights all the
way down Preston Road,

and when I got there,
it was a crime scene.

- It just seemed
like a normal death.

There were no, you
know, injuries to her.

The officers that
responded to the scene

didn't notice anything
that looked out of place.

The only thing that was odd

was the person a
couple days prior.

- I'm saying, wait a minute,
she had this intruder,

and we think he stole
a diamond necklace.

I started thinking,
oh, my gosh,

did this man come back?

I can't imagine
the horror she felt

seeing him again and knowing...

that he was going to kill her.

♪ ♪

- The fact that there
was a suspicious person

that had come to the apartment,
as well as the jewelry missing,

definitely heightened
our concern.

- When the detective
came in, he said to me,

do I have your permission to
investigate this as a murder?

And I was just floored.

- People were scared,
so I made some signs

and I put them up
on the mailboxes.

"Lock your door when
home and ask who is there

"before opening the door.

"This man entered my
mom's apartment last year.

"He spent the entire day on
the Preston Place campus.

"Finally, he was seen,

"and one of the Preston Place
maintenance men chased him.

And he climbed the wall."

Then I went over to the office.

There was every expectation

that management
would take seriously

the safety of the residents,

but they did not want my
warnings to stay posted.

- Preston Place took
those notices down,

like, within the day.

They said, well, because
we did not authorize them.

Why would you do that?

- My gut feeling was,
there's something wrong.

There's something
really wrong here.

And so I sent out an
email to our department.

I was like, there's deaths.
There's jewelry missing.

Then I began to
research the address.

I went back two years,

and there were a few
additional deaths there,

and I started talking about
it with other detectives,

contacted our crime analysis,

and asked them to
pull the actual data.

I came to the conclusion

that we had somebody
killing for jewelry.

- There certainly started
to become a pattern

at Preston Place.

But my mom was not a gossiper,

so because of that,

there were probably a
lot of things we didn't hear.

But my mom did go to a
memorial at Preston Place

for Martha and Miriam.

They put them together.

And my mom says,
this is strange, Jenny.

They don't seem ready to leave.

My mom was right on the money.

They weren't ready to die.

My mother wasn't ready to die.

My mom was a
very happy person.

This is my mom as a young
woman right out of college.

She was beautiful.

A brilliant individual...

went to med school,
met my father,

dropped out and had
four children in six years.

This was the Christmas
before she passed,

and then last but not least,

this was a picture
in my backyard

with her dog Helen, a blind dog.

This ended up being
on her memorial.

The guilt is immeasurable.

[dramatic music]

I chose Preston Place.

I was responsible for her.

[voice breaking] Guilt,
yeah, I'll always feel that.

Haunts me.

March 19th...

we were going to go have lunch.

[cell phone ringing]
I did call her first.

I did say, I'm on my way,

and I didn't hear from her.

But nothing too
overly concerning.

- Ann Conklin
lives in building 8

right across the hall from a
woman named Mary Bartel.

- My mom was up at about 4:30.

Quarter to 6:00,
she drove herself

over to Prince of
Peace for daily Mass.

She probably got
back a little before 7:00.

She called Aunt Dawn,
and they finished the call,

and about 8:30, she heard
the pounding on the door.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Ah, yeah.

- Mary was a sweetheart.

She was just right around
the corner from our apartment.

- I'm going to make real coffee.

8:00 in the morning,
I left the apartment

to go buy a short
list of groceries.

As I walked out my door,

well, there was a gentleman
standing right there.

He was a Black gentleman.

He was dressed nicely.

I asked him if I could
help him find somebody,

and he said, no, no, thank you.

I'm just waiting for my
next therapy appointment,

which that happens
every day out there,

so I didn't think
anything more about it.

[doors chime]

And so I went on to the store.

- Our friend Jackie
was picking up Mary

to come to exercise,
which she did every day.

And she noticed
that the door was ajar.

So she pushed it
open and looked in,

and, oh, she saw Mary.

[siren wailing]

- That day, I was working
the desk in the ER.

Plano Fire Department
brought in Mary Bartel.

The fire lieutenant says,

we just picked this
lady up at her apartment.

What's she saying is not
making a whole lot of sense,

but I just thought
I'd mention it to you

in case you want
to go check it out.

- Brian Frantz is
working an off-duty job.

A lot of people's
goal on an off-duty job

is not to do a whole lot, right?

But he took it upon himself
to go and talk to this lady.

- When I met her,
she was out of it.

Her breathing was
still a little bit labored.

She was distraught.

I think she was confused,

because she believed
she was at the gym,

where she was supposed
to meet her friends,

yet they had found
her in her bedroom.

- But there was

a little bit of details
that made it to where,

like, okay, let's
listen a little bit harder

and figure out what's
actually happening here.

- Things started coming clear.

She said a Black male
came in and smothered her.

"He pushed me back onto my bed

and put the pillow over my face"

And then she says, "I
should have known better.

"I saw him go into my
neighbor's apartment earlier,

"and I knew he
didn't belong there,

and I shouldn't have
opened the door."

- Officer Frantz wanted to
make sure what he was hearing

was legitimate.

- She gave me her phone,
and I called her son John.

I said, she's
pointing to her hand

and saying her
wedding ring is missing.

He told me, she wears that
wedding ring all the time.

She sleeps in it,
she bathes in it.

It does not leave her hand.

If that wedding ring's
missing, there's a problem.

- Officer Frantz
contacted his supervisor

and made sure to impress
the importance of this report

being taken seriously.

- We have this lady
who was attacked

from the Preston
Place Apartments.

Jewelry missing.

It reminded me of the bulletin
Officer Chapman had put out

regarding thefts
from deceased people.

That's when I get
that sinking feeling,

like, oh, my gosh,
this is serious.

We need to get people
over to that apartment.

We have a crime scene.

- This thing has gone

into super warp
speed at this time.

[siren wailing]

- Came back from
the grocery store,

and I saw the police
outside Mary Bartel's,

and I thought, that's strange.

What is wrong with Mary?

And at that time I saw
Ann's daughter drive real fast

into the parking lot,

running toward
Ann's apartment.

I heard her scream
bloody murder twice.

It was just a very
loud, piercing scream.

- I opened the door, and
my mother's on the ground.

[sniffles, voice
breaking] And...

the room was really dark,
which would never be my mother.

The TV's blaring, and
the shades are all shut.

Her yogurt bowl
was sitting there,

and she had one pill
sitting to the left of it,

and the dog was yapping,

and it's a vision I
will never forget.

- The anguish that I
heard in her screams,

that struck me to my core.

- I back out of her place...

and I back into a policeman.

I say...

my mom's on the floor.

[somber music]

[crying] Can you
go resuscitate her?

[breathes deeply, shakily]

And he comes back, and he says,

ma'am, I can't resuscitate
her because she's dead.

[sniffles]

- The detective that was there

was all hands on
deck at that point.

Send everybody you got.

- There's, like,
eight police cars,

and they yellow-tape
her apartment,

and a cop comes up
to me and asks me if...

jewelry's missing.

And I'm thinking
to myself, jewelry?

I don't know. [sniffles]

I don't know.

- I received a call
from my brother John

saying that my mom
had been attacked.

Got to the hospital
within 15 or 20 minutes.

She was sitting up
in bed, very alert.

- When I first was
speaking with her,

there was no noticeable
injury to her face,

but as time went on,
we observed the bruising

on her cheek
underneath her eye.

We also observed
some lipstick on her chin.

- But the policeman said,

I think we may have a
serious problem here.

- Right.

- Okay, thank you.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- When I received the
call, my heart just dropped.

She lives at that same location.

I immediately knew
that somebody

had attempted to kill
her for her jewelry,

and that person
was the same person

that killed Martha Williams
and Miriam Nelson.

- The detectives were
doing a scene investigation

at both Miss Bartel's

and Miss Conklin's
across the hall.

All resources are
being deployed on this.

- We're knocking on
doors, trying to figure out

if anybody had seen
anything or heard anything.

At some point,
check with the office.

- There was a
guy, Richard Plink.

He had a
suspicious interaction

and reported it to staff.

- A few days prior,
Richard Plink observed

a male just sitting in a car.

- Sitting out there for
hours in the parking lot.

- Plink approached him,
asked him why he was there,

and the person said
he was looking for work.

- Plink found that really
odd and really suspicious.

- He thought enough of it
to document a license plate...

big break.

Now we know what
vehicle we're looking for.

- We run that plate.

That vehicle had been
involved in an accident,

and the person that was driving
was listed as Billy Chemirmir.

Chemirmir had a warrant
for public intoxication,

so our detectives
set up an ops plan

to arrest him.

- The same time, within hours,

I found Mary Bartel's
ring on OfferUp.

The item was marked sold.

I was able to
identify a buyer.

He didn't know who
Chemirmir was at the time.

Zebzeb4 was the name
of the seller's profile,

but he tells me that he
met him at Starbucks.

I went to this location to
check about getting video,

and right next door,

I find a diamond
and gold place.

I went in.

I had a picture
of Billy Chemirmir.

Instantly they recognized
him as a repeat customer.

He had been in
there that same day.

When I hear
that, I'm thinking,

there may be a lot more to this
than what we initially thought.

- In the arrest
operation brief,

we were told that
we were dealing

with a possible serial killer

who was preying
on elderly women.

- There's a good chance
that if we don't get him,

there's going to be more bodies.

- My unit deployed
to 4500 Pear Ridge...

which was the
apartment complex

where he was known to live.

The vehicle that Chemirmir
was known to drive was wrecked,

so we had no idea what
he was going to be driving.

Basically, we just
had to sit and wait.

At about 5:50 p.m.,

we observed a vehicle
enter the apartment complex

with the subject driving

that matched
Chemirmir's description.

He just rolled in, parked
in front of the dumpster,

and got out like it
was any other day.

- They saw the suspect
throw items into a dumpster.

- Eventually he parked
in space number 67,

Chemirmir's assigned
parking space.

- At that point,
they take him down,

and they find him clenching
on to jewelry and money.

- After we get Chemirmir
secured in the car,

we go check the dumpster.

Inside, I could see
this really pretty

bright-red jewelry box.

It had been broken into.

Some of the jewelry in
Chemirmir's possession

was consistent with jewelry
left in the jewelry box.

So then we were very concerned

about who the owner
of the jewelry box was.

There was a
really old name tag,

had the name Harris on it,

and there was another
formal document,

had the name
Lu Thi Vang on it.

We used those names to
locate a possible address

for a Lu Thi Harris
in Dallas County,

a few miles from where we were.

- There was a
decision made quickly.

Go to that residence
and do a welfare check.

- We went straight to that
address on Warm Breeze Lane.

♪ ♪

Dallas PD, since it's
in their jurisdiction,

ultimately forced
entry into the residence.

After some time,
they came back out

and informed us that there
was a deceased female inside.

♪ ♪

- Initially, her death
didn't appear abnormal,

except we've got
all of her jewelry

on a murder suspect, right?

- Our detectives were like,

please look at the pillows.

- This guy is suffocating
people with the pillows.

Find the pillow.

- Turn it over.
Please look at it.

- One of the pillows
on Miss Harris's bed,

they picked it up,
looked underneath it,

and there was red lipstick
on the bottom of the pillow.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- My family knew him
as Benjamin Kortaba,

the caregiver for my father.

- We found a gun, a magnet.

Do you want me
to go to the police?

And she said no.

- If it wasn't for
my grandmother

and the evidence gathered,
he would have kept going.

- Chemirmir's DNA
was on the pillow

five months before
he was arrested.

- If they would have got
on this tip from day one

when I said homicide,

there could be 20, 25 more
people walking this Earth.

there could be 20, 25 more
people walking this Earth.