1990 Houston ‘Lovers Lane’ Murder Suepect Floyd Parrott Dies in Prison
Five weeks after being arrested for the 1990 murders of a young Houston couple at a popular 'Lovers Lane', a 64-year-old suspect of the brutal killings has died.
On March 25, the Houston Police Department arrested Floyd William Parrott for the murders of 22-year-old Cheryl Henry and 21-year-old Garland Andrew "Andy" Atkinson 36 years ago. The couple had been killed at a secluded Lovers Lane area on Aug. 23, 1990.
According to KHOU, Parrott was found deceased in his prison cell in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Tuesday morning. Parrott was awaiting extradition to Harris County in Houston.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said that the cause of death appears to be a suicide, though officials wouldn't provide many details. In a statement to KHOU, Teare expressed disappointment that the case will not go to trial:
“There’s certainly a feeling of I think being cheated...We weren’t able to really get the full measure of justice that this defendant so richly deserved. (The victims' families) don’t get their day in court. They don’t get to see the evidence put forward. But at the end of the day, he was arrested, he was indicted for capital murder for Andy and Cheryl’s murders, and he died while he was in custody.”
As reported by KHOU, police received a tip about Parrott potentially being involved in the murders. DNA taken from Henry's body during the autopsy matched physical evidence found from a 1996 sexual assault case, where Parrott had been.
Another Gruesome Cold Case Solved Through DNA
(Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
The closure of the horrific murders of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson is another reminder for authorities and families of victims in cold cases to never give up.
The resolution of this chilling case comes just seven months after police used DNA to solve another well-documented Texas cold case, the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders. The brutal slayings of four teenage girls went unsolved for 34 years before police announced Robert Eugene Brashers in September. Brashers died of a suicide after a standoff with police on Jan. 19, 1999.