Solomon Spring, an 89-year-old grandfather, was a resident of The Tradition-Prestonwood, an upscale independent living facility in the North Dallas/Richardson area of Texas. He had a daughter named Marsha Repp. The facility, which opened in 2010, offered its residents a luxurious environment with amenities like an elegant dining room, an indoor pool, and serene courtyards, promising a safe and comfortable community for its elderly inhabitants.
On October 1, 2016, the promise of safety was shattered when Mr. Spring’s daughter, Marsha, discovered her father dead in his fourth-floor apartment. The scene was violent and alarming. Mr. Spring was found in a pool of his own blood, having sustained a significant gash to the back of his head. Near his body was a bloody lamp, suggesting a struggle or a brutal attack. Despite the disturbing scene, his death was initially not treated as a homicide. Staff reportedly suggested to police that Mr. Spring was on blood thinners, and his death was officially ruled as natural, likely the result of an accidental fall. However, some details at the scene were suspicious, including the presence of maintenance tools in his bathroom, even though no work order had been placed for his apartment.
For nearly two years, the belief that Mr. Spring died of natural causes held. But his death was not an isolated incident. It was part of a horrifying pattern of deaths and thefts that plagued senior living communities in the Dallas and Collin counties. The truth began to emerge in March 2018, after a 91-year-old woman at another facility survived an attack by a man who forced his way into her apartment and tried to smother her with a pillow. Her description led police to Billy Chemirmir, a man who posed as a maintenance worker or medical professional to gain access to his victims' apartments, where he would kill them and steal their jewelry and other valuables.
Following Chemirmir's arrest, investigators began re-examining hundreds of deaths of elderly residents that had been ruled natural. They soon connected Chemirmir to a string of killings, including many at The Tradition-Prestonwood. Cell phone location data placed Chemirmir at the facility at the time of Mr. Spring's death. Solomon Spring was the only known male victim in the series of murders attributed to Chemirmir and one of the few who was not smothered. The investigation into his death was reopened, and it was reclassified as a homicide.
In the wake of these revelations, the families of Mr. Spring and seven other victims at The Tradition-Prestonwood filed lawsuits against the facility. The lawsuits alleged that the residence failed to provide adequate security, did not alert residents to the string of burglaries and suspicious deaths that occurred between July and October 2016, and allowed Chemirmir to move freely through the property. The families contended that the facility prioritized its reputation over the safety of its residents.
Billy Chemirmir was eventually indicted on 22 capital murder charges, though he was not specifically tried for the murder of Solomon Spring. He was convicted in two separate trials for the murders of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and 87-year-old Mary Brooks and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. In April 2022, after the second conviction, the Dallas County District Attorney’s office dismissed the remaining charges against him, a decision that brought a difficult end to the legal process for many of the victims' families. The case against Chemirmir for the death of Solomon Spring was officially closed. On September 19, 2023, Billy Chemirmir was killed by his cellmate in a Texas prison, bringing a final, violent end to his story.
