On Aug. 23, 1990, Cheryl Henry, 22, and her boyfriend Andy Atkinson, 21, were found dead in what has been called the 'Lover's Lane Murders.'
Houston police believe they have cracked one of the Texas city's 'most haunting and infamous' cold case s.On Aug. 23, 1990, Cheryl Henry, 22, and her boyfriend Andy Atkinson, 21, were found dead in a then-remote area known in Houston as 'Lovers' Lane.
' The case, known in Houston as the 'Lovers' Lane Murders,' remained unsolved for nearly 36 years.On Wednesday, police arrested Floyd William Parrott, now 64, in connection with the couple's deaths. He is facing capital murder charges.According to police, the couple was last seen the day before their deaths after a night out at Bayou Mama's nightclub in Houston. A security guard conducting a routine patrol in the area of Enclave Parkway saw a white Honda Civic parked that did not move over a period of time. He approached the vehicle and found an unresponsive woman nearby, police said.A Houston police officer who responded to the scene searched a wooded area near the dead-end street and found an unclothed woman with severe injuries to her neck. Investigators said the woman was sexually assaulted and her throat was cut.The victim was later identified as Henry using the identification found in her purse, CBS affiliate KHOU reported. A blue dress that Henry's family told police she wore the night before was found nearby.Police also located an unresponsive man, later identified as Atkinson, nearby, tied to a tree with severe injuries to his neck. According to an affidavit, Atkinson's hands were tied behind his back with a rope. Another rope was wrapped around Atkinson, the tree and running across his neck, KHOU reported. Despite an ongoing investigation that included collecting DNA samples of potential suspects and hundreds of leads, the double murder remained unresolved for decades, police said.That changed when Houston police received a tip in late 2025 that named Parrott as a possible suspect in the killings. While following up on the tip, a detective reviewed a 1996 report of a separate sexual-assault case in which Parrot was the suspect. The DNA collected in that case was recently uploaded to CODIS, the national Combined DNA Index System.The system flagged that male DNA from the 1996 case matched samples collected during a sexual assault exam done on Henry during her autopsy, KHOU reported, citing an affidavit. Earlier this month, Parrott was identified as a suspect the deaths of Henry and Atkinson.On Wednesday, Parrott was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska.Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told reporters on Friday that while the arrest is a major milestone in the case, the work is not complete.'For the investigators and prosecutors across agencies and decades who never gave up on Cheryl and Andy, who spent 36 years chasing leads… a monumental chapter has been closed,' he said during a news conference. 'But the work cannot and will not stop now. And in a lot of ways, the work for the DA's office starts today.'Assistant District Attorney Samantha Knecht, who leads the Harris County District Attorney's Office cold case division, has been working on this case, in collaboration with federal agents and Houston detectives, for the last 10 years.'The best phone call of my career was Wednesday night when I got to call the family members on this case and let them know that we had arrested someone for this,' she said. 'It was the privilege and highlight of my career.'Henry's sister, Shane Henry, who was in attendance at the news conference, took the opportunity to thank authorities for their work over the last three decades.'Cheryl was my best friend. We did everything together. They used to call me 'little Cheryl' because I would follow her everywhere,' she said. 'Today is the day we waited for with a heavy heart. She was more than a victim in a headline. She was a daughter, a sister and a friend. To hear that the person who is responsible had been caught doesn't bring her back and it doesn't erase the pain our family has lived with all these years, but it does bring a sense of relief knowing that justice is moving forward and that this person cannot hurt another person again.'Teare, who did not provide any additional details on the case or how investigators identified Parrott as a suspect, said Parrott has an extensive criminal record, including trying to impersonate police officers. He said because of this, they believe there are other victims.'We get to ask the public about this guy. If you met him once… if you knew him at all, reach out. Let us know. Over the next months, we are going to get a complete picture of what he was doing in our community for years,' he said.To the family and friends of Henry and Aktinson, Teare said: 'We will never know the people they could have become. To you, Shane, to all of you, what we can promise you is that we will deliver the truth and will deliver justice in the courtroom.'Parrott is awaiting extradition to the Harris County jail.
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