Dennis Dowthitt was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Gracie Purnhagen
According to court documents Dennis Dowthitt and his sixteen year old son picked up the son’s girlfriend, sixteen year old Gracie Purnhagen, and her nine year old sister. When Gracie was outside of the vehicle Dennis attempted to molest the nine year old girl however she would yell out
Dennis Dowthitt would get out of the vehicle and slashed the throat of Gracie Purnhagen. Dowthitt then ordered his son to kill the nine year old girl which he did
Dennis Dowthitt was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Dennis Dowthitt would be executed by lethal injection on March 7 2001
The sixteen year old son was sentenced to 45 years in prison
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When Was Dennis Dowthitt Executed
Dennis Dowthitt was executed on March 7 2001
Dennis Dowthitt Case
Linda and Art Purnhagen said they got what they came for Wednesday when Dennis Dowthitt apologized for killing their daughters, then died after offering a sobbing apology and appearing remorseful and very frightened.
“He’s dead. He was executed for his crime, but it was nothing like what they had to go through. They suffered terribly,” said Linda Purnhagen, who had moments before stared into Dowthitt’s eyes as he shook with fear and remorse all the way to his last gasp.
Dowthitt was sentenced to die for the June 13, 1990, murders of Gracie Purnhagen, 16, and contributing to the death of Tiffany Purnhagen, 9, after Dowthitt and his then 16-year-old son Delton Thurl Dowthitt abducted the girls apparently as they walked home from an Oak Ridge North bowling alley.
The girls’ bodies were found four days later in the summer heat near a pipeline in South Montgomery County. Gracie’s throat had been cut and she had been brutally and sexually assaulted with a beer bottle. Tiffany Purnhagen had been beaten and garroted with a cord that all but crushed her neck.
Dowthitt had indicated toe Texas department of Criminal Justice officials that he would have nothing to say when the death sentence was carried out, and, in fact, Dowthitt’s reported demeanor throughout his trial and years on Death Row was one of denial and claims that Delton Dowthitt was the murderer.
But as he lay strapped to the gurney in the death chamber at Huntsville and with Linda Purnhagen, Art Purnhagen, Art Purnhagen III, and Gracie’s and Tiffany’s brother-in-law Rodney Runion watching, Dowthitt grimaced and looked at the girls’ mother.
“I am so sorry for what y’all had to go through. I am so sorry for what all of you had to go through. I can’t imagine losing two children. If I was y’all, I would have killed me,” said Dowthitt.
After telling sister that the loved her, Dowthitt once again turned to Linda and Art Purnhagen and said, “Gracie was beautiful; Tiffany was beautiful. You had some lovely girls and I am sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
Dowthitt continued to sob, adding “all right, warden, let’s do it.” He appeared frightened at his eminent death, and he continued to sob, turning his head to the left and muttering he was sorry as the drugs flowed into his veins. With a deep gasp, Dowthitt’s chest arched up as the final “sorry” was caught in mid-sentence and he fell silent with no air left in his lungs from the ordeal.
“I know he said he was sorry and he admitted to what he did,” said Linda Purnhagen after the execution. “It doesn’t make me feel any better. Up until today he’s been saying he didn’t do it, and as he’s going to meet God he finally admitted that he did it
Art Purnhagen said he was “shocked” as Dowthitt’s remarks and apologetic admission. “We didn’t expect that,” he said.
The Purnhagens’ attention now turns to Delton Thurl Dowthitt, now 27 and serving a 52-year sentence in another Texas prison. Delton Dowthitt, according to his own admission, garroted Tiffany Purnhagen at the behest of his father, who may have sexually molested the tiny girl as Delton talked to Gracie in the woods near where their bodies were later found.
“He’s due to become eligible for parole in July of 2005. So this particular chapter is ended, and that chapter is beginning or continuing,” Linda Purnhagen said.
The Purnhagens have vowed to oppose Delton Dowthitt’s release, but they added their knowledge of Dennis Dowthitt’s accomplice indicates his record of violence and an escape attempt in prison likely would keep in prison for a long time.
Art Purnhagen said he had never thought about whether he supported or opposed the death penalty before in his life until his daughters were murdered.
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/article/Dowthitt-executed-for-1990-murders-9949201.php
