1975-03-20

Lawmen Hold Dalhart Man For Murder

DALHART-Orin Lee Dailey, 19, of Dalhart. was in city jail late Monday in lieu of $25,000 on a charge of murder in the death of an 81-year-old next door neighbor March 20.

Dallam County Sheriff R.C. Johnson said the charge in the suffocation death of Mrs. Cozette Gillis was filed Saturday and the arrest made that afternoon.

Johnson sai the arrest came after his office received laboratory test results back from the Texas Department of Public Safety laboratory in Austin.

Mrs. Gillis was found dead and sexually abused the night of March 10, by a neighbor.

The nude body was bound and a rag had been stuffed in her mouth deputies said.

An autopsy revealed she died of suffocation.

The home of Mrs. Gillis is located less than a block off U.S. 87-385.

Officers said evidence at the scene had indicated an intruder cut a hole in a screen door broke a glass pane and unlocked the door from inside.

Dalhart police speculated at the time the body was found that the intruder was inside the house and waiting when Mrs. Gillis came home.

Mrs. Gillis was about 5-foot-3 and weighed less than 100 pounds, officers saiu. She was a retired telephone company employe who sold baked goods to friends