Over two years after Billy Chemirmir’s arrest, families who say their elderly loved ones were killed by the serial murder suspect are wondering what’s taking so long for county officials to declare the deaths homicides.

Dallas County Medical Examiner Jeffery Barnard said Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the process of amending those death certificates but that he will work to clear the cases by the end of July.

The death certificate revisions aren’t the only part of the investigation into Chemirmir that has been slowed by the pandemic. His attorney, Phillip Hayes, said Thursday that the virus also will delay his criminal trial.

Chemirmir, 47, has been indicted in the deaths of 14 elderly people in Dallas and Collin counties, and civil lawsuits name him as a suspect in the deaths of eight others. A Kenyan immigrant with permanent resident status in the U.S., he is in the Dallas County Jail in lieu of $11.6 million bail.

The number of potential victims could make Chemirmir among the most prolific serial killers in Texas history. He maintains he is innocent.

Although there has been an outbreak of the virus at the jail, Hayes said his client is being held in a single cell and is at low risk of infection.

Chemirmir is scheduled to stand trial next April, and he faces the death penalty if convicted. Hayes said Thursday that the pandemic has delayed all trials, especially long criminal proceedings like Chemirmir’s. It’s unclear how a death penalty trial could be carried out during these times of social distancing.

“I am concerned about the delay because it has prevented us from interviewing both witnesses and experts,” Hayes said in an email. “No one is really sure when Dallas will be able to resume even minor trials. One of this magnitude will require some assurances.”

‘A very long process’

According to police, Chemirmir smothered his victims with a pillow, which made the deaths look natural. Police used cellphone data, video surveillance footage from senior living complexes and other evidence to link Chemirmir to each death.

But before prosecutors take each case to a grand jury for an indictment against Chemirmir, the medical examiner’s office must re-investigate the case and amend the victim’s death certificate. Barnard said that means starting from scratch on each investigation.

Barnard said he’s careful to look at each case with a fresh perspective to eliminate bias from police and ensure that his testimony can stand on its own. He said his office reviews video footage and other evidence to draw conclusions on the cause and manner of death for each case.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, his office also has been responsible for testing every death for the virus — as well as extra casework related to the outbreak. That, Barnard said, means the Chemirmir cases are “on the back burner.”

“This COVID thing became enormous, and our caseload became enormous,” Barnard said. “This just is a very long process.”

‘We are frustrated’

Secure Our Seniors Safety, a nonprofit founded last year by the daughters of four of Chemirmir’s alleged victims, says that at least five cases are awaiting amendment from “natural causes” or “old age” to homicide.

Throughout 2018, nearly two dozen families in North Texas received the shocking news that police were re-investigating their loved ones’ deaths as possible murders. The calls came as much as two years after their loved ones died at luxury senior living communities and private homes in Dallas, Richardson, Plano and Frisco.

The families had no choice but to wait for the causes of death to be amended and the cases to be presented to a grand jury.

For some, the wait lasted just a few weeks. Others waited months. Some are still waiting.

“I know how I felt being told my mother’s death was being investigated as a murder — then you have to wait to see if that’s true,” said Shannon Dion, one of the group’s founders. “We are frustrated with how long it has taken.”

Dion, who was featured in an award-winning two-part series about the case in The Dallas Morning News, said her group has asked police and prosecutors why the cases have faced such a long delay.

“We want the murderer to be held accountable,” she said.

Barnard said that he initially had hoped to finish the remaining investigations by the end of last fall but that a series of personnel issues within the medical examiner’s office caused delays.

He has personally investigated each of the other cases so that he could be the single medical examiner to testify at criminal and civil trials, he said. That way, attorneys don’t have to pay the county extra for multiple expert witnesses.

After The News shared some of the concerns from the family members about the delay, Barnard said Wednesday that he would split the workload with other doctors in hopes of clearing the cases by the end of next month.

“If it was my parent, I’d be raising the roof,” Barnard said. “They want results, and we’re going to get it done.”