Police Look for People of Interest in Slaying of 79-Year-Old Woman

Dallas police call Avanell Cowgill's killing "a violent act" and "a brutal murder"

Dallas police want the public's help in finding several people seen at various stores using the credit cards of a 79-year-old woman killed in her East Dallas home last week.

Avanell Cowgill's daughter asked police on Saturday to check on her. Officers went to the home in the 11300 block of Earlywood Drive in East Dallas and found the back door open and Cowgill dead inside the home.

Cowgill left church at approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Police said she went to a store, went home and may have been killed that night.

On Tuesday, Dallas homicide detectives released photos of two people seen at various stores on Friday, using Cowgill's credit cards.

Dallas police released new video in the case on Thursday that they said shows a man shopping at a Walmart on March 8 before he used Cowgill's credit card to pay for the purchases. 

The first person is a white man who is taller than 6 feet and weighs about 250 pounds. Police said he changes his appearance from one store to another and tries to avoid store security cameras.

In one photo, he is seen wearing a blue jeans, white shoes, a gray windbreaker and a baseball cap with a "B" on the front. Police say the same man was seen at a second store wearing blue jeans, white shoes, a brown work jacket with a hood and a black-and-red baseball cap with a "B" on the front.

The second person is a white man who is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He was seen wearing a red, yellow and black horizontal striped shirt.

Dallas police released a photo of the car the two men were seen driving, it is an older model silver four-door compact car missing a back right hubcap.

Police also released a YouTube video from various angles of a store surveillance camera:

There are two separate rewards concerning the crime. Dallas CrimeStoppers is offering a $5,000 reward and Oak Farms Dairy is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment in this murder case.

Anyone with information is asked to call the lead detective on the case, Detective Scott Sayers at 214-671-3647.

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