Police accuse parents of killing adopted daughter

By Lawrence Waish

The 1992 murder of Helen Gillin was brutal; the disposal of her body methodical.

Who tried to poison the mentally retarded woman, stomped her to death when the poison didn't work and then burned her body in a pit behind a split-level home in Bear Rocks, Fayette County?

State polioa. who have been investigating her disappearance for seven years. yesterday said er Barents did it.

James D. Gillin, 52. and Roberta F. Gillin, 50, the the couple who adopted the victim into their family oi three sons and one daughter were charged yesterday morning with homicide, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy.

They were arraigned before District Justice Robert W. Breakiron of Connellsvtlle and committed without bond to the Fayette County Prison in Unlontown. Their hearing ls scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday.

According to affidavits of probably cause submitted to Breakiron by the state police,the murder of Helen Giliin was the culmination of an argument between her parents in July 1992. The argument began when Roberta Gillins accused her husband of having a sexual relationship with the 25-year-old victim..

Roberta Gillln tried to poison her daughter by mixing a blue laundry detergent with some kind of heart medication and telling her to drink it. The victim's mental condition was such that "she would consume anything given to her to eat or drink", according to the affidavit.

When she vomited the concoction in the back yard, James Gtllm “became enraged" and ran out the back door of the house screaming, “I'm going to kill you."

He then began to stomp on her with his feet. A knife also may have been used in the slaying.

The affidavit said the Gillins then dumped their daughter's body into the burn pit, doused it with gasoline and kept the lire going through the night. They removed the victim's remains from the pit and disposed of them. The then put animal bones in the pit to conceal what they had done.

When people inquired what had happened to the victim, described by a neighbor as “a real pretty girl,“ the Gillins said she had run away with her boyfriend.

That was the story until February 1995, when the Gillins daughter. Mary Jo Overly told a girlfriend about it. The girlfriend told her mother-in-law and the mother-in-law called the state police.

In March 1995, Mary Jo Overly, who was 13 when she witnessed the killing  told the state police what she saw and heard. She agreed to wear a wiretap during a meeting with her parents in the parking lot of the McDonald‘s restaurant in Mount Pleasant.

Although the Gillins admitted killing the victim dtuing the meeting. police said. portions of the tape-recorded conversation were inaudible and they decided not to arrest the couple at that time.

State police arrived unannounced the following month. dug up the firepit but apparently didn't find enough evidence to charge the Gillins.

investigators aren't saying what, if anything, they found during their two-day stay.

In April. Overly again met with state police investigators an told them her parents, who had moved to West Virginia in 1995. had moved back to Pennsylvania and were living in Yukon. Overly then provided additional information that led to the Gillins' arrest, yesterday.

The couple's arrest didn't surprise some of their neighbors on Oak Ridge Road, a narrow gravel and dirt road bordered with ferns and tall oak and maple trees that serves as part of the southern border of the village.

“They were strange. not the kind of people you want to associate with," said Gigl Lowe, who lives about 100 yards away from the home the Gillin rented for several years.

Lowe, 40, the mother of three sons age 6, 12 and 13 said she tried to be friendly with the Gillins when they arrive in 1992, but it wasn't

reciprocated.

“They let their dogs run loose and they'd always come up here looking for something to eat,” she said.

 “'I‘hey'd pull out of their drive-way without looking and then speed out oi‘ here. They acted as though they owned the road.

“I was worried that they might hit my kids or their friends. I stood in the middle of the road one time to force [Roberta Gillins] to stop when

she came speeding up the road in her monster pickup truck I told her to slow down, but it didn't work. They didn't care.”

Lowe and her husband. Warren, who commutes 40 miles one way to his job as a maintenance technician in Hayes, shared a mailbox with the

Gillins for a period of time. And that's when Gig’ ‘Lowe , usually would see Helen Gillins.

“She was a real pretty girl. She was slim and had short dark brown hair. She looked yougger than she was. She never talk . She would

just look at me and smile when I went down there to pick up our mail."

Russ and Emma Peters. who live on the other side of the former Gillin residence. said the couple and their children seemed to go out of their

way to make nuisances of themselves.

“The parents liked to drink They threw their beer bottles all over their property They and their kids liked to speed up and down the road. They didnt seem to care about anybody but themselves. Their dogs ran wild, especially the Rottweiler.”

Russ Peters. 67, a retired heavy equipment operator. said it took him six to eight months to track down the owner of the house the Gillins

occupied.

"I bought it as a fixer-upper for my son and his family.” he said. “It was a mess. [The Giilms] had really trashed it. And they left without paying  their bills. Their creditors showed up looking for them, but I didn't know where they were.‘"

Russ and Emma Peters. their son, Mark. and daughter-in-law. Marge. spent more than a year of their spare time to completely  renovate the three-bedroom, split-level home and add a two-car garage.

They did such a good job that state police oficers didn't recognize it when they arrived in late April to reacquaint themselves with the

property and re-interview Peters and other neighbors.

Mark and Marge Peters and their daughter. Megan. 4. moved to Ruffsdale last week and one of the new owners. a woman. was still unpacktng whenr eporters and photographers arrived on the doorstep yesterday. She declined to identify herself and asked to be left alone.

State police Trooper Brian Olack oi the Uniontown barracks stood guard to enforce her request.