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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.
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Listener discretion is advised. I knew instantly when I saw those two green rubber gloves.
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Number one, I should not have opened the door. Number two, my life was in grave danger.
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Welcome to Season 11, Episode 256 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
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as much as i would have loved to have launched season 11 alongside our brand new shiny app and
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website it's not quite ready yet you can't always get what you want anyway so we're still working on
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it, but we certainly didn't want to keep you guys waiting for weeks and weeks and weeks.
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So our release schedule for the next couple of weeks is going to be a little bit of regular
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until launch. So thank you for your patience, but believe me, it'll be worth the wait.
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Starting a business sounds exciting until you actually do it. Then suddenly you're the product guy, the website guy, the shipping department, the marketing department, customer service, all of it.
00:01:49
And if you're anything like me when I started, you're thinking, am I doing this right?
00:01:53
is anyone going to actually care? That's where Shopify makes a lot of sense. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world,
00:02:04
including 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. They give you hundreds of ready-to-use templates
00:02:09
so you can build a clean, professional online store that actually looks like your brand.
00:02:14
And once you're up and running, Shopify has tools for inventory, payments, analytics, returns, and international shipping all in one place.
00:02:22
They even have AI tools to help you write product descriptions, improve page headlines, and enhance product photography.
00:02:30
Plus, easy email and social media campaigns to help customers actually find you.
00:02:36
It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 a month trial today at shopify.com slash swordandscale.
00:02:48
Go to shopify.com slash swordandscale. That's shopify.com slash swordandscale. Cha-ching.
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Man, I'm getting old. I get a sore back, my parts hurt in places they shouldn't.
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Soon I'm going to have to start shopping on Amazon for one of those little daily pill holders for all my meds.
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Racking up those CVS points. But that's okay, because I'm coming to terms with it.
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Maybe even becoming fine with it. I mean, we're all going to get there. I know you Zoomers out there think you're way above the whole growing old thing, but I've got news for you.
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You'll be in my shoes before you know it. You see, there's some things in life that you just can't do anything about, no matter how much you want to.
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We all get old. And if we're lucky, we get to live a little bit longer than the next guy.
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and we get to die very old and surrounded by loved ones, people who care about us, people who make it all worth it.
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I think we all want that version of life for ourselves, a feeling that it was a life well lived
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and you can be at peace with the fact that it's all coming to an end now and that's just part of the whole cycle.
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Those final moments may be a little scary and those closest to us will be sad that we're gone.
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But for me, if it all ends up the way I hope it does, it'll be a death with dignity
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and there will be some sort of positive form of closure. Because that's just the natural order of things.
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It's kind of strange to say it out loud, but we all just expect that old people will die.
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When it happens, especially in a place like a retirement community, we don't really look at it too closely.
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And when it happened to 87-year-old Mary Brooks, it seemed at first to just be like any other perfectly normal senior citizen's death.
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So my mother had been trying to reach my grandmother, and she wasn't answering. So then my mom who was living in California at the time so she was far away she asked for me to go in and check out my grandmother Mary Brooks had purchased two condos in the same complex Her grandson and his wife had moved into the second unit and had maintained a warm and loving relationship with her
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It was a mutually beneficial situation. The grandkids could save money on rent and enjoy home-cooked meals.
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And in exchange, the aging Mary had some family close by in case of an emergency.
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It was late at night, dark, so 10 p.m. I was very frustrated about it because I knew that she was fine and that this was breaking her number one rule, which was no surprise pop-ins.
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So I figured she had just turned her phone off because she didn't want to talk to anybody and she was just going to go to bed.
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My mom insisted, so of course I went and did it. The gate to Mary Brooks' courtyard was open, which was unusual given how late at night it was.
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Also strange was the fact that the glass storm door was slightly open, and the wooden front door behind it was also unlocked.
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So I opened as I'm knocking, and the lights in the living room were off, and my grandmother was laying on the floor just feet from the front door.
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Mary Brooks was laying on her side and facing the fireplace as her grandson rushed to her aid.
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I rolled her over, and I guess when that happened, all of the air that's been built up in her lungs was released,
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so it let out a very, you know, sour smell. I thought it was a breath. I started to check for a pulse.
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I put the speaker phone and dialed 911 and tried to resuscitate my grandmother. Police were called in to assist with a CPR in progress.
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The officers quickly arrived to discover the sobbing young man performing mouth-to-mouth on his own grandmother.
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Once they pulled him aside and calmed him down a bit, it was obvious that Mary Brooks was deceased.
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In the bedroom, officers observed Mary Brooks' purse along with several Walmart bags and a receipt showing the time and location of her recent shopping trip.
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In the kitchen, more Walmart bags filled with groceries. Several items, like the blueberry waffles, should have been in the freezer or fridge, but instead were thawing on the counter.
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To the casual observer, it all looked like a typical death. Another elderly woman who unfortunately died before she had a chance to put everything away.
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But when Mary Brooks' daughter arrived from California early that next morning, she immediately noticed something wasn't right.
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I was looking for the will, and I knew where she had kept it. she had a safe box at the bank.
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She had a fire safe in the house, and the little fire safe had the keys to the bank box in it
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because we'd put them in there recently. So I was looking for the fire safe, and I couldn't find it.
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My nieces pointed out that we hadn't seen any jewelry, and I wasn't really looking because I was looking for something bigger,
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but they were like, there didn't seem to be any jewelry here. Mary's diamond earrings were missing, as were other meaningful family heirlooms, including a coral necklace purchased on a Hawaiian vacation that was especially sentimental for the whole family.
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The coroner also informed the family that Mary had no jewelry on her at the time they took her, not even her wedding ring, which was extremely odd.
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The theft investigation was started, but there was absolutely nothing, DNA or fingerprint related, to suggest that Mary died at the hands of an intruder, or anybody else for that matter
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It was in January of 2018, and nearly two months later, the case had gone just as cold as the weather
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But on March 19, 2018, in an entirely different retirement community, a different woman named Mary was attacked in her apartment unit and left for dead.
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This was Mary Bartell, whose testimony was presented as a previously recorded video.
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They say, before you open the door, ask, who is it? Well, it's one of my neighbors.
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They're probably as deaf as I am, and I would never know who was at the door. Mary Bartell's morning was just like any other since the death of her husband.
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She attended morning mass at 6.30, then came home to eat breakfast, read the paper, and chat with her sister-in-law.
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It was around 8.30 a.m. when she heard a very insistent knocking. Even with her hearing aids, she couldn't tell if the knocks were for her or her neighbor across the breezeway.
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When she opened the door, an African-American man with medium build was suddenly in her doorway.
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She did not get a good look at his face because her eyes were completely fixated on the two gloved hands now reaching into her apartment.
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I knew instantly when I saw those two green rubber gloves. Number one I should not have opened the door Number two my life was in grave danger Mary attempted to close the door but standing at 5 and weighing only 125 pounds
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she was easily overwhelmed. So he was inside in my apartment, and he said, Don't fight me. Lie on the bed.
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so I did as he said because I knew I could not overpower him physically and of course as soon as I went down on the bed
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he just smashed a pillow down hard over my face and my chest and I just couldn't breathe
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Mary Bartell was being smothered to death by her own bedroom pillow, the one she slept on every night.
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Shock and fear filled her mind as she struggled against the immense force weighing down on her.
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And I tried to move this left hand under the pillow to get to my medical alert button.
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The medical alert button. If only Mary could reach across her chest and press it.
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It would set off a blaring alarm and notify emergency services to come and save her.
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It was totally impossible for me to even, the pillow was slammed down so hard over my head and my chest,
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that there was no way I could even move my hand toward the medical alert button.
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So anyway, after, I don't know, three minutes or however long, it seemed longer than that, of course,
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that he was just using all his weight to keep me from breathing at all, I passed out.
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Mary Bartell passed out, and she probably should have died. But emergency alert necklaces aren't the only medical gear prescribed to many senior citizens.
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After a kidney surgery in 2014, Mary Bartell was having heart issues, so she had a pacemaker implanted.
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This small electrical device, in case you don't have any grandparents, Zoomer, is used to send a signal that helps regulate heartbeats and saves lives,
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which it did again, as Mary's neighbor discovered her shortly after and called 911.
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When Mary regained consciousness, she was on a gurney and surrounded by EMTs. As she tried to recall as much as she could, she noticed her wedding and engagement rings were both missing from her hand.
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She would later learn that more valuables were taken from her home. After an investigation into Mary's attack started, it was quickly discovered that a report of suspicious activity had recently been filed with the management at the Preston Place Retirement Community where Mary lived.
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This large complex with a lifestyle center and swimming pool contained 15 apartment buildings,
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with ample parking areas weaved throughout the property, so many families could put their trust in the promised security of what seemed, from the outside,
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to be an idyllic place to live out your retirement. But something rotten was lurking within, as it often does.
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My mother's name was Eleanor Plank. This is the gentleman who filed the suspicious activity report just four days before Mary Bartell was attacked.
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He visited his mother two or three times a week, and on the morning of March 15th, he was taking her to a doctor's appointment.
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Well, when I picked her up at 10 o'clock, I noticed that there was a car and an individual parked in the parking lot near her apartment.
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and the individual was standing outside and just didn't appear to have anywhere to go,
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if you will, kind of like loitering. But I didn't take too much notice. I mean, I noticed that, but it's not uncommon to have caregivers there or therapists.
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After Eleanor's doctor's appointment, the two went out for lunch, returning around 12.30 p.m.
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When I came back, I noticed the same individual in the same car, and it was in the exact same places at 10 o'clock.
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So that caught my attention. At that time, I took my mother upstairs and we had to use the elevator
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and she was with a walker. And since my curiosity and my suspicions were piqued,
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I kind of instinctively went and looked out the window of her apartment. And then the car, the individual moved the car
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over to building nine and did not get out. And then my suspicions, I was really concerned then.
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Both Mary Bartell and this gentleman's mother, Eleanor, lived in Building 8. As you can imagine, Building 9 was right next door.
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So the car hadn't been reparked very far at all. Our citizen detective continues.
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So what I did is after I got my mother settled, I just walked out walked down and approached the car and the individual and at that point noticed the make model and color of the car And then I asked the individual could I be of assistance And I don know the response was something similar like I here to see my father or something
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And I, to be honest, really wasn't all that interested. I had gotten my initial information.
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He was also able to get the individual's license plate. All of this information was now being gathered by the investigators
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looking into Mary Bartell's attack. While the license plate and vehicle were registered under a different name,
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it turns out the driver of the silver Nissan Ultima had recently gotten into a car accident.
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Listed in the accident report was the name Billy Shamirmir, along with his phone number and an address.
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Further investigating revealed that Billy had an outstanding warrant stemming from a public intoxication arrest a couple years prior.
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On March 21st, just two days after Mary Bartell's assault, police were staked out and ready to arrest their lead suspect before he could harm another helpless senior citizen.
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Unfortunately, they were too late. way, way, way too late. Billy Shamir-Mir had been a very busy man.
00:19:20
A very busy man indeed. Starting a business sounds exciting until you actually do it.
00:19:39
Then suddenly you're the product guy, the website guy, the shipping department, the marketing department, customer service, all of it.
00:19:47
And if you're anything like me when I started, you're thinking, am I doing this right?
00:19:52
Is anyone going to actually care? That's where Shopify makes a lot of sense. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, including 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.
00:20:04
They give you hundreds of ready-to-use templates so you can build a clean, professional online store that actually looks like your brand.
00:20:12
And once you're up and running, Shopify has tools for inventory, payments, analytics, returns, and international shipping all in one place.
00:20:21
They even have AI tools to help you write product descriptions, improve page headlines, and enhance product photography.
00:20:28
Plus, easy email and social media campaigns to help customers actually find you.
00:20:33
It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 a month trial today at shopify.com slash sword and scale.
00:20:46
Go to shopify.com slash sword and scale. That's shopify.com slash sword and scale.
00:20:55
Cha-ching. Police were certain that a man named Billy Shamirmir had been the one who smothered the elderly Mary Bartell with her own pillow and afterwards robbed her of valuable jewelry.
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He'd been reported a few days earlier for loitering around her building in a populated retirement community.
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A honeypot for criminals like this. But police correctly assumed that he wasn't just standing around with nothing to do.
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This was a hunting ground. An easy one at that. Especially for such a ruthless and immoral predator.
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On March 21st, 2018, authorities were stationed at Billy Shamir Mears' apartment complex,
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waiting for him to return home and park in his designated parking space. We had an apartment number and a parking space, so we're waiting for Mr. Schmiermier to return.
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Billy, of course, had no idea he was being watched. Sergeant Hughes observed a vehicle enter the parking lot
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and made us all aware that the driver matched Mr. Schmiermier's description and it could be him.
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The car travels east past Sergeant Hughes, and then Detective Claggett picks it up and broadcasts that it's still heading eastbound.
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I'm in the last parking spot, and there's a dumpster enclosure I backed in, and then ultimately I ended up observing the vehicle drive in front of me.
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So it passes me, but it stops in front of the dumpster. It doesn't pull all the way up to the dumpster.
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It's partially in the parking lot, but partially in an area where, you know, you can stop and get out and just dump trash or whatever.
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Rather than going directly to his parking space, Billy continued past it and instead pulled up alongside the apartment's dumpster area.
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He goes to the dumpster. I hear some noise, some banging around in the dumpster, and then he returns to the car.
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Even though I can't see the full driver's side, I can see the trunk clearly, and I can see the top of the roof on the passenger's side.
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He walks around the rear of the vehicle to the rear passenger door. And at one point, I don't know if it was right then or just after,
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at some point he looked at me and I was like, okay, this is Mr. Shamir-Mirror. This is the guy we're looking for.
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Anyway, he opens the back door of the car. reaches in pretty deeply. I mean, his whole head is in there.
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I can't see the top of his head anymore. And I hear some banging and stuff. And then he returned to the dumpster
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I walk away at the front of the car, walks out of my view, and then I hear some more banging at the dumpster.
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Eventually, Billy got back in his car and pulled into the spot where they were all expecting him to arrive to.
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They immediately converged on the vehicle to initiate an arrest. All of us are yelling at it. We're the police.
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Flaggis ordered him to get out of the car, but he's not complying. When I got to the passenger front window, I could see that he was holding a baggie, a clear plastic baggie, had a large stack of currency in it, and some jewelry.
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The currency included somewhat unique $2 bills and a gold necklace with a woman's name on it.
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Billy seemed to be frozen in shock at being caught in this exact moment. He could barely get out of the car and onto the ground as they placed him under arrest.
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When I walked to the dumpster opening, I could see in plain view a very large red jewelry box.
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And it was pretty fancy. It had ornate Asian decorations on it and stuff. It was actually a pretty jewelry box.
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It had some kind of metallic copper color hinges and whatnot. So that was laying in the dumpster on top of all the trash.
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There were two drawers missing from the jewelry box when we pulled it out. The dumpster was really, really full, and there were two drawers on top of all the trash that matched what you would think would belong to the jewelry box itself.
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It was obvious that someone had rifled through the geisha pattern treasure chest,
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leaving behind the valueless cardboard boxes and several identifying documents, including an affidavit and an ID card from Health and Welfare Services.
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This box and its contents belonged to someone by the name of Lou T. Harris. Police quickly identified the correct address and, upon entering the premises from the back door,
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confirmed all of their worst fears. Lou T. Harris was already dead. This 81-year-old woman had lived through so much.
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A refugee of the Vietnam War who escaped on a helicopter. A mother of four, twice widowed, who loved to send crisp $2 bills to family and friends.
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only to have her life suddenly snuffed out in her own home. I'm sorry, I'm thinking about my grandma when I read that.
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God, rest her soul. This woman's makeup was still intact except for the fact that her fuchsia-colored lipstick was smeared.
00:26:57
Sure enough, her pillow was found nearby and the pillowcase was marked with a matching shade of lipstick stain.
00:27:07
And perhaps an even more important piece of evidence was observed. A Walmart receipt, time-stamped for the previous afternoon.
00:27:18
Again, I'd love to make a t-shirt for Walmart, but they'd sue me immediately. Since it is the most convenient one-stop shop for murderers.
00:27:28
A review of the Walmart security footage from the previous day, March 20th, would seem perfectly normal to the unaware eye.
00:27:39
But it is utterly chilling when you know how the story ends. Lou T. Harris looks like any other senior citizen, pushing her cart through the aisles and past the various sale baskets set up throughout the Walmart.
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You might even consider picturing yourself doing the same thing, completely unaware that someone is not just watching you, but following you, and far enough away that you don't have the slightest clue that it's happening.
00:28:13
Billy Shamir-Mir also looks like any other shopper as he enters the Walmart, only he's keeping a casual eye on the progress of one particular elderly woman.
00:28:26
When she finally goes to check out, he initially stands right behind her to be next in line.
00:28:33
Then he quietly backs off and enters another aisle over. Before checking out with his own meaningless items, he takes a few steps back and peers into Lou T. Harris' aisle again,
00:28:47
just to make sure his victim is within reach. She's taking a lot longer to check out than he expected.
00:28:54
these fucking old people, right? So he hangs out for a bit, counting his cash, taking a sip from the water fountain,
00:29:04
all while circling her general area. As he finishes up, he actually gets a few paces ahead of her.
00:29:12
In other words, she's still being followed, but not from behind. Billy peers behind himself a couple of times before he gets into his car,
00:29:21
and outdoor security cameras capture the vehicle as it leaves the parking lot at the same time as Lutee Harris does.
00:29:30
And while we're at it, the notion of a Walmart receipt found at the home of a recently deceased elderly woman
00:29:36
should start to sound familiar to you. We open today's episode discussing the mysterious death of Mary Brooks.
00:29:44
Her grandson was too late in performing CPR, and grocery items, including blueberry waffles,
00:29:50
were found thawing on her kitchen counter. Grocery items from Walmart And I hope you sitting down This is the same Walmart that Lou T Harris had been shopping at but I sure you probably pieced that together already
00:30:05
A review of those same Walmart cameras from two months earlier, January 30th, tell an equally convincing story of prey-like stalking from the shadows.
00:30:18
Simply by looking down the various parking lot aisles, you can see Billy Shamirmir back up his car into a parking spot that has a perfect view of the handicapped spaces.
00:30:30
Talk about a predator. At one point he gets out and helps a little old lady loosen a shopping cart.
00:30:40
Oh, what a nice man. He even wipes it down for her, smiling and patting her on the shoulders like an oddly charming middle-aged man.
00:30:49
A good stand-up citizen. Later he buys an orange and a Lunchable. And he sits in his car for what seems like an hour.
00:30:59
moving the vehicle around to various spots in the same lot until at one point he's parked right next door to poor old Mary Brooks.
00:31:09
He watches as she loads up her groceries and his car slowly wades behind her like a silver shark
00:31:17
until they're both out of frame. Mary Brooks and Lou T. Harris died two months apart
00:31:24
and in the exact same manner. They were smothered by their own pillows, and their jewelry was taken immediately following the attack.
00:31:34
It happened to a third woman as well, Mary Bartell, who miraculously survived because of her pacemaker.
00:31:42
And as it became clear that all three of these cases were related to one another, a fourth case suddenly came into focus.
00:31:51
We convinced her to move closer to us because of her age, and she lived in a big house, so it was time for her to downsize.
00:32:02
This is the daughter of Martha Williams. We shared a hairdresser, and her appointment was on Wednesday.
00:32:09
So Tuesday, the hairdresser reached out to me to find out why my mom had not confirmed her appointment.
00:32:16
So I think I texted her Tuesday evening. I don't think I called her, but it was kind of late.
00:32:22
I really wasn't concerned at that point. The next morning I go to work, the hairdresser shot me another text message,
00:32:29
and I was in the car on my way to check on her at that point. When she arrived on Wednesday, March 7th,
00:32:38
she noticed newspaper was still on the front porch, which was odd considering it was her mother's daily routine to read the paper.
00:32:46
Upon seeing her mother's lifeless body inside the home, she called 911 and began reaching out to family members.
00:32:55
It was clear that Martha had actually been dead for several days, confirming by the remaining anti-seizure medication kept in her daily pill organizer, the kind I should probably go buy from Amazon.
00:33:09
These were pills she certainly would have needed to take if she was still alive.
00:33:15
I noticed her wedding ring was gone before they took her away. After an autopsy was performed, Martha Williams' death was reported as having occurred by natural causes.
00:33:29
But in a story that should be starting to sound painfully familiar, Martha's surviving family members started to find certain unnatural circumstances
00:33:42
upon closer inspection of her home and the days that followed. I think one of the things that alarmed us too,
00:33:50
she had a drawer in a highboy dresser with her jewelry, and when we opened that up, many missing items,
00:33:58
lots of open, like some of the jewelry boxes were open. She was missing some significant pieces that she had recently bought.
00:34:08
And on March 20th, the same day, Billy killed Lou T. Harris. Martha's family made an especially disturbing discovery.
00:34:17
My sister went in. She had a feeling about it. So she went to the bed and started to pull the pillows off, sheets off,
00:34:26
just to see if there maybe was anything in there or I'm not really sure. But she found this pillow and she comes in with it.
00:34:33
I'm in another room and she comes in with it. and she's just like frozen, you know.
00:34:39
And then we look at the pillow, and it has impression, it had a facial impression,
00:34:46
and it had a little blood. I kind of freaked out. I was like, don't touch it. Now, a second autopsy was being performed
00:34:54
on Martha Williams. Only this time, it was ruled a homicide. Billy Shamir Mir could not be excluded from DNA
00:35:03
that was sampled from under Martha's fingernails. He also could not be excluded from DNA taken from her blood-stained pillowcase.
00:35:13
A year later, Martha's connection to these other cases would be solidified when Billy Shamir-Meer's impounded vehicle was finally investigated.
00:35:23
Among the many items found were some of Martha's missing family heirlooms, as well as two rubber gloves that also contained her DNA.
00:35:33
the prosecution would ultimately refer to these four women as sisters tragically connected to one another by their unfortunate encounters with Billy Shamirmir.
00:35:47
In order to fully comprehend the death of Mary Brooks in January of 2018, you also have to understand what happened to Mary Bartell Lou T Harris and Martha Williams during the month of March While cell phone towers tracked Billy every move on those four horrifying days in question
00:36:10
and more security cameras captured him smiling as he sold stolen jewelry to the local diamond and gold exchange,
00:36:20
sometimes within hours of acquiring it, Billy maintained his innocence. And as we all know, here in America,
00:36:31
you are innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty. But proving that guilt
00:36:38
would be more challenging than anyone could expect. Starting a business sounds exciting until you actually do it.
00:37:02
Then suddenly you're the product guy, the website guy, the shipping department, the marketing department, customer service, all of it.
00:37:09
And if you're anything like me when I started, you're thinking, am I doing this right?
00:37:14
Is anyone going to actually care? That's where Shopify makes a lot of sense. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world,
00:37:24
including 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. They give you hundreds of ready-to-use templates
00:37:28
so you can build a clean, professional online store that actually looks like your brand.
00:37:34
And once you're up and running, Shopify has tools for inventory, payments, analytics, returns,
00:37:39
and international shipping all in one place. They even have AI tools to help you write product descriptions,
00:37:46
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Billy Chamiramir was brought to trial in November of 21. He was charged, among other things, with the murder of 81-year-old Lou T. Harris.
00:38:44
Police had come across Lou's already deceased body laying between her bed and a dresser.
00:38:50
There were no signs of strangulation, only what is called petechial hemorrhaging,
00:38:57
or small blood vessels that have burst. This can be caused by smothering, but it can also be caused by a strong sneeze.
00:39:07
Certainly, any number of natural deaths could lead to such a state. But this was not a natural death.
00:39:17
Police didn't just kick in Lou's back patio door on a whim. They saw Billy Shamirmir dumping her personalized belongings with their own eyes.
00:39:28
And among the many things retrieved from Billy at the time of his arrest, the cup holder of his rental car contained the keys to Lou's home.
00:39:39
Killing her and taking her valuables, apparently, wasn't enough. He had the audacity to keep her keys,
00:39:47
suggesting he might return one day and take even more. You would think this was an open and shut case.
00:39:55
And indeed, the trial only took four days. But on the final day, there was an unexpected turn of events.
00:40:05
This all came down to one juror. Throughout the day, the jury sent back multiple notes saying she refused to deliberate.
00:40:11
They were hopelessly deadlocked and nothing was changing, ultimately leading to today's outcome.
00:40:19
It's one thing to have the story laid out in a true crime podcast, but convincing an independent jury is an entirely different matter.
00:40:28
especially in the fine state of Texas, where the jury must be unanimous in matters of felony criminal cases.
00:40:37
In this particular case, the decision was 11 to 1. A mistrial was declared due to a hung jury.
00:40:47
When we use the phrase justice is blind, it's because we expect the people judging the case to be unbiased,
00:40:55
to absorb the facts of the case and make a wise decision without the influence of the outside world.
00:41:03
But, as time goes on, the world seems to get more complicated, and being truly unbiased is quite, frankly, extremely hard to come by, if not impossible.
00:41:16
We will likely never know why this one person could not be swayed. we have a pretty good idea just by looking around the world through social media but
00:41:29
we don't really really really know but as a surviving members answered questions to the
00:41:36
press just outside the courthouse you could feel the devastation that all of them were experiencing
00:41:43
if you could say something to that one juror what would you what would you guys want to say
00:41:48
without one person. No comment. No comment. Yeah that would be not I don think we can say We not addressing anyone Yeah we not going to address the one juror We are just disappointed that they could not come to the correct and obvious
00:42:09
Fair to say you were angry? Well, I'm a little upset, yeah, I would say. I'm very upset that, you know, they presented a really great case,
00:42:19
and the one that abstained, that voted, didn't vote yes, They didn't even go back and look.
00:42:25
They didn't have any questions, didn't have anything to go back and anything to ask about the trial.
00:42:31
Just stayed at no. How do you do that? I mean, you must have some reason for voting the way that you did on this jury.
00:42:42
All of them were rightly sickened at the prospect of having to hear the facts of the death of their loved ones all over again.
00:42:53
Just because one stubborn person who had their mind made up and refused to have a logical conversation when confronted with straight up facts.
00:43:03
Somebody that just wanted to ignore the law and call it as they saw fit. Someone who really, really looks at skin color deeply before making a decision about character rather than maybe looking at character by itself.
00:43:20
And so, a second trial for Billy Shamir-Mir was set for April of 2022. Thankfully, this time he was successfully convicted for murdering Lou T. Harris and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
00:43:40
The Dallas district attorney then explained that they would not be seeking the death penalty, because reasons.
00:43:48
Quite frankly, the reason was of how much time they'd already wasted on appeals and how much it actually costs to kill someone.
00:43:57
I mean, legally. It's not cheap. It's not cheap at all. It's a little cheaper than housing them for the rest of their life, but just a little bit.
00:44:07
And also, you know, depends on how old they are and how much delicious prison food they'll consume for the rest of their lives.
00:44:14
Also, inflation and a bunch of other factors. But you get the point. Instead, the strategy was to have Billy tried for the first murder in this sequence.
00:44:27
First, the murder of Mary Brooks. A victory in this additional trial would mean a second capital murder conviction, ensuring that Billy would never see the light of day outside of prison.
00:44:44
Another bite at the apple, as they say. It's what happens when you kill multiple people.
00:44:51
You do get multiple chances at a not guilty, but, you know, your luck's running out fast.
00:44:57
You've heard several of the testimonies presented at that trial throughout this episode.
00:45:02
And it should come as somewhat of a relief that Billy Shamir-Mir was unanimously found guilty of Mary Brooks' murder as well.
00:45:11
and thus sentenced to a second life term in prison without the possibility of parole.
00:45:20
The Dallas County District Attorney explains further. Well, we're just happy that these cases are over with.
00:45:26
As promised, we were going to try them twice, get two convictions. Actually, we're going to try them as many times as necessary to get two convictions.
00:45:33
And I've been asked why, because we never know if a case will be reversed on appeal,
00:45:37
just like Mr. Halperin's case, 20-something years later. and this case will take a different trajectory on appeal.
00:45:44
Instead of going from here to Austin to Washington, etc., this case goes across the street to the Court of Appeals and maybe to Austin.
00:45:53
And so the appellate timeline is much more succinct and much more likely to result in it being affirmed.
00:46:02
And so Mr. Shamir Mir will die in the penitentiary. And that was my goal. I stated it, and I said we're going to do this twice to accomplish it, and here we are.
00:46:15
But unfortunately, there is more tragedy to this story than we've revealed up to this point.
00:46:21
This didn't just happen to Mary Brooks, Mary Bartell, Lou T. Harris, and Martha Williams.
00:46:29
Billy Shamir-Mur has been indicted for murdering 22 elderly women. And those are just the cases that we know about.
00:46:41
Cases where family members cared enough to sense something was wrong and continued pushing until the truth came out.
00:46:50
Representatives from many of these families spoke during impact statements, all the while staring down the completely emotionless Billy Shamirmir
00:46:59
as large photographs of their loved ones filled the empty chairs. You first entered her apartment on a Wednesday morning claiming to look for a leak.
00:47:11
She realized that afternoon that you had taken her necklace that day. It wasn't enough for you, so you came back two days later, and you smothered her to death and took the rest of her jewelry.
00:47:21
The eternal flames of hell are too good for you, Jameer Mare. The pain and suffering of those victims and their families means nothing to him.
00:47:30
he looks like a puppy that's been scolded for soiling the carpet and doesn't understand what people are mad about
00:47:37
he is nothing but a jackal a hyena a vulture that has learned to walk on two legs
00:47:45
he's a pretend man, not a real man like them, he is a coward preying on the weakest members of our society
00:47:54
you will now be caged like the vicious cowardly animal you are I would spit on it, but my saliva would be insulted by touching it.
00:48:06
This is not the first time we met Billy. Do you remember? Probably not. We shared an elevator at Tradition Prestonwood one late afternoon in 2016.
00:48:18
I walked in. You're just standing there. Not a button is pressed, and you wouldn't look up.
00:48:24
I immediately knew something was up. What is wrong with this man? What is he doing in this building?
00:48:30
I knew evil was surrounding me. Ron, hell, you piece of shit. On October 8th, 2016, you terrorized, smothered, and murdered my mother.
00:48:44
I often wonder, did you watch the Texas OU game that was on her TV while you smothered her?
00:48:52
I know she was watching that game as she had told me exactly what she was going to do that afternoon.
00:49:01
I also know that you stayed in her room well over in an hour. I pray she did not suffer long.
00:49:10
The game was something my mom, Norma, and our whole family look forward to every year.
00:49:15
We had so many great memories built around that game. the game is forever ruined because of your evil so many lives so many memories are forever
00:49:27
destroyed because of your greed although you are the actual murderer sadly you are not the only
00:49:35
only evil in this picture i also hold the tradition preston wood its owner jonathan perlman
00:49:43
and its employees, including Rachel Nelson, Jeff Wells, Ed Sanchez, Mary Will, as equally as accountable.
00:49:55
I can only imagine you lurking the halls and thinking, how foolish are these negligent people that they are not recording and reporting me
00:50:05
as I have trespassed in this building over a hundred times. So many lives could have been saved had the tradition Prestonwood management not put profit and pride over cooperation with the authorities.
00:50:24
Nine murders in that complex alone as far as we know In 2016 three women at the Edgemere Complex were killed
00:50:35
followed by eight more victims within three and a half months at the traditional Prestonwood Senior Living facility.
00:50:42
A year later, another woman was killed at a place called The Parkview, no relation to the TV show, by the way.
00:50:50
and another knocked from her walker while Billy used a pillow to muffle her screams.
00:51:00
2018 included the four interlinked stories we've been focusing on in today's episode,
00:51:05
but in truth, seven different victims from that year were living in the same facility
00:51:12
called Preston Place Retirement Community. An attorney explains why there are forthcoming civil suits.
00:51:21
Preston Place put on the facade of being a safe and secure senior living environment.
00:51:26
They purported to be a gated retirement community. They even posted signs that there was 24-hour surveillance.
00:51:32
There were no security cameras. The gates were constantly left open. There was rampant criminal activity, and that was reported.
00:51:39
And not just any criminal activity. This particular person was reported to be on the premises,
00:51:44
and to not have done anything about that in the face of actual knowledge of this specific person is unacceptable.
00:51:54
And another thing that I think really creates a false sense of security is their failure to report what they did know to the other residents,
00:52:03
which had they known that, they might have changed their own behavior and wouldn't even be here today.
00:52:09
so these lawsuits are meant to effectuate change and hold people accountable so that this doesn't happen again or it's less likely to happen again.
00:52:17
Family members had every right to be furious. And while their own family units were destroyed by Billy Shamirmir,
00:52:25
many of them came together to form a different type of family. Bonded by their grief and united in a push for legislative change on several issues
00:52:36
when it comes to protecting the safety of our elders in their final years of life.
00:52:43
An alleged serial killer's actions left the victims' families devastated. Now they're working with lawmakers to pass legislation
00:52:50
that might save lives in the years to come. Families are advocating for several new laws Facilities would be required to report all crimes on their property and perform enhanced background checks on employees Also places that buy and sell gold would have to keep records of who they did business with
00:53:08
Over the years, there have been some victories on this front, while other common-sense measures appear to have been stalled by lobbyists and business owners
00:53:17
who refused to recognize the mistakes that happened under their watch. And protecting seniors is at the heart of legislation that has now passed in the Texas House and Senate this session.
00:53:28
Today, a group of family members of the victim celebrated passage of two bills. One bill will require medical examiners in Texas to notify the families if there are changes in the cause of death.
00:53:40
CBS 11's Andrea Lucia highlighted one such case last February involving the death of Marilyn Bixler.
00:53:45
Her family didn't know the Collin County medical examiner had changed the cause of Bixler's death until they found out about it on Facebook.
00:53:53
Another bill bolsters accountability and existing laws that govern cash for gold stores.
00:53:59
The group believes had stronger accountability been in place, police may have been able to investigate sooner and possibly prevent more deaths.
00:54:06
Meanwhile, other proposed legislation primarily aimed at senior living centers didn't pass this session.
00:54:11
The group vows their work is far from over. In October of 2022, a moment of silence was held for 11 of Billy's victims in Dallas County.
00:54:24
Because of the two confirmed life sentences, these 11 cases were dismissed. There are, however, still several murders that occurred in Collin County.
00:54:37
But only time and maybe the DA's office will tell if any further legal action will be taken.
00:54:48
Who was Billy Shamirmir? Does it really even matter? Does it matter that he was born in Kenya and immigrated to the United States in the 90s?
00:54:59
that he was described as quiet and humble with no history of violence in his well-respected family.
00:55:09
At some point, he gave up the right to a biography, I think. Because I really don't give a shit who Billy Shamir-Mir is.
00:55:19
And I don't think anyone listening to this right now does either. If you do get some help Because in the end this inhuman piece of shit became consumed by his
00:55:34
warped understanding of the American dream, thinking that it meant greedily taking what
00:55:42
wasn't his and paying absolutely no regard to the innocent lives he destroys along the
00:55:51
way. He did it with a smile, often pretending to be a compassionate care worker, someone you could
00:56:01
trust your grandparents with. Certainly not someone who was there to hurt you, steal from you,
00:56:10
kill you. He was there to help you, totally harmless, just like a soft, warm, comfortable,
00:56:21
Pillow. All right, that's going to do it for another one. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:56:56
It's going to be an amazing season. Thank you for being here. And we hope to see you real soon with the launch of our brand new app and Sword & Scale TV.
00:57:05
Stay safe. Thank you. you