Suspect in Bill murder pleads guilty

Rick Pfeiffer, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jul. 21—The man accused of the dismemberment murder of Terri Lynn Bills has pleaded guilty in a plea deal with Niagara County prosecutors.

Yasin Abdu-Sabur pleaded guilty to second-degree murder during a hearing Thursday morning before Niagara County Court Judge John Ottaviano.

A trial had been scheduled to begin on April 18 but was delayed pending a psychiatric examination of Abdu-Sabur in early April.

Abdu-Sabur has pleaded not guilty to a single count of second-degree murder in the gruesome slaying of Bills in 2015. He was being held without bail pending the psychiatric examination.

A combination of pandemic-related issues, a list of potentially 400 witnesses submitted to the defense by prosecutors and the initial competency evaluation had all slowed the case.

Abdu-Sabur, 38, formerly of the Falls, was picked up by Niagara County Sheriff's deputies at a South Carolina jail in February 2020 after he completed a one-year sentence for a conviction on domestic violence and child neglect charges. He had first been linked to Bills' murder in 2019.

Bills' body was discovered on June 16, 2015 inside an abandoned house on Willow Avenue. Investigators found only her torso, her head and limbs had been removed.

She had not been seen for several days before the discovery of her torso. Investigators suspected that Bills had been killed somewhere else and her body had been brought to the Willow Avenue location.

In December 2019, investigators discovered the murder scene.

Detectives from the Falls Police Crime Scene Unit, Criminal Investigation Division and even members of the Crash Management Unit, skilled in high-tech crime scene reconstruction, descended on a home at 1526 Pierce Ave. and spent four days scouring it for evidence.

Investigators eventually loaded up a transportable storage pod with material taken from the home.

Police said the trove of forensic evidence they found at the Pierce Avenue home, along with other information obtained by detectives, led to the charges against Abdu-Sabur.

This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.