Speaker 1: Hey, folks. It is Friday, March twenty seventh, and an
Speaker 1: infamous cold case that has haunted the Houston area for
Speaker 1: thirty six years has been solved. According to prosecutors, they
Speaker 1: have caught the so called Lovers Lane killer. With that
Speaker 1: welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ and Robe
Speaker 1: one of the things, and yes, we off the top.
Speaker 1: We'll mention it. You just said it about Savannah Guthrie's mom.
Speaker 1: This is the case that's been sitting there for thirty
Speaker 1: six years, and apparently robed one tip changed everything.
Speaker 2: Right, And that's what police have said time and time
Speaker 2: again about Savannah's mom, Nancy, that it's just one tip
Speaker 2: that they need that will lead them in the right direction.
Speaker 2: But when you have thousands of tips to go through,
Speaker 2: it takes time and you don't know which one is
Speaker 2: that needle in a haystack. And this story highlights that, yes,
Speaker 2: even thirty six years after the murders, justice can potentially
Speaker 2: finally be served. But my goodness, these families have had
Speaker 2: to wait for so long to get something, anything, and
Speaker 2: their reaction is pretty powerful.
Speaker 1: And this we will take you back home. As we're
Speaker 1: talking about the summer of nineteen ninety two. Young people
Speaker 1: were the ages again twenty two and twenty one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty two year old Cheryl Henry and twenty year
Speaker 2: old twenty one year old Andy Atkinson.
Speaker 3: They had a big date night.
Speaker 2: They were out and partying with her sister, dancing at
Speaker 2: a nightclub, and they went off to a place to
Speaker 2: most likely make out. Maybe they couldn't they're young enough,
Speaker 2: they couldn't probably go back to their family's house.
Speaker 3: So they did what a lot of kids have done
Speaker 3: over the years. They parked at a secluded area and
Speaker 3: a cull to sack. It's so called lover's lane. It's terrible.
Speaker 3: You don't need.
Speaker 1: Most of us growing up and there was some spot
Speaker 1: in your hometown, there was some spot in your college
Speaker 1: town like this, and usually they were a little scary, honestly,
Speaker 1: because they are secluded and people go out there late
Speaker 1: at night and you see another car park I you
Speaker 1: assume maybe it's another couple there. You don't know, So
Speaker 1: to put you in that mind of where they were
Speaker 1: and what they were thinking in the night, that's being described,
Speaker 1: that's been described that they had.
Speaker 3: As just horror, horrific, horrific.
Speaker 2: So, yes, they they parked there and then what happened
Speaker 2: was they didn't return home and they didn't show up
Speaker 2: for work the next morning, and so family started calling
Speaker 2: nine one one.
Speaker 3: The search begins. A security guard.
Speaker 2: Sees this vehicle parked in a cul de sac and sees,
Speaker 2: I believe Sheryl's purse and sees some blood on the
Speaker 2: door and thinks le oh, and starts to call police.
Speaker 2: And shortly thereafter their bodies were found. And the way
Speaker 2: they were found, Babe, it is it's like a scene
Speaker 2: out of a horror movie. It is.
Speaker 1: And to be kind honest, we watch a lot of
Speaker 1: horror movies and this thing kind of plays out where
Speaker 1: lovers are targeted and there are these horrific killings and rods.
Speaker 1: This is horrible stuff. They were both bound, He tied
Speaker 1: them both up, He walked them out into the woods.
Speaker 1: He tied him to a tree and slashed his throat,
Speaker 1: slashed her throat as well, but only after he raped her.
Speaker 1: This is horrible, Yeah, horrible stuff. So Robes, what we're
Speaker 1: describing now for the people of Houston, in the day
Speaker 1: that followed, in the weeks that followed, in the months
Speaker 1: that followed, and even in the years, Roues, you have
Speaker 1: a reason to be fearful that somebody capable of that
Speaker 1: is among you.
Speaker 2: And that was true. That was true, And that's the
Speaker 2: scary part. This was one of those crimes where it's unexplained.
Speaker 2: You don't have a reason. This is just a young
Speaker 2: couple enjoying a night on their own. So this was
Speaker 2: perhaps targeted and that they were just easy pickings because
Speaker 2: there was no one around and that seclusion gave him
Speaker 2: the opportunity. But yet, I think this man was on
Speaker 2: the loose for thirty plus years, and he has some
Speaker 2: history of other violent offenses. In fact, he was out
Speaker 2: on parole when police say he committed this horrific crime.
Speaker 2: So this is just something that meant so much for
Speaker 2: the family to hear where they talk about being shocked,
Speaker 2: because think about this, at some point, you give up.
Speaker 2: At some point you think, I'll never know who did
Speaker 2: this to my sister, I'll never know who did this
Speaker 2: to my brother, my son, my daughter, And that not
Speaker 2: knowing and feeling like someone just got away with it
Speaker 2: and who knows. They're probably thinking he could have been
Speaker 2: doing this to other people, to other couples.
Speaker 3: Just all of that uncertainty just weighs on folks.
Speaker 1: So that thirty six year weight ended this week. In fact,
Speaker 1: he was in court yesterday and rolled. Yes, the folks
Speaker 1: in the Houston area, Texas, they remember this and were
Speaker 1: impacted by this. But the guy they caught after thirty
Speaker 1: six years, they did not pick him up in.
Speaker 2: Texas, No, they did not. He was all the way
Speaker 2: in Lincoln, Nebraska. His name is sixty four year old
Speaker 2: Floyd William Parrott. He's been arrested. He's been charged with murder.
Speaker 2: He was twenty eight at the time of the murders.
Speaker 2: I was just trying to do them out there. But
Speaker 2: that's remarkable. Thirty six years ago, he was twenty eight
Speaker 2: years old. And yes, this break in the case from
Speaker 2: a tip combined with renewed DNA analysis, because they had
Speaker 2: all this DNA back in nineteen from the vehicle, They
Speaker 2: had blood, they had the ropes, they had a lot
Speaker 2: of evidence that they found.
Speaker 3: They just didn't know who to be able to tie
Speaker 3: it to.
Speaker 2: It all came together with that tip and they got
Speaker 2: a hit in the database when they got that DNA.
Speaker 1: And that's interesting because, yes, naturally the question is how
Speaker 1: were they able to do this now after all this
Speaker 1: time that is interesting. And what we've seen. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are shows called Cold Case File, there are shows
Speaker 1: that are focused on cold cases. We've seen these things happen.
Speaker 1: This is absolutely fascinating. There are so many police departments
Speaker 1: that have detectives dedicated to cold cases. So you have,
Speaker 1: in this instance, a detective dedicated to this case checking
Speaker 1: it out. He reviews a tip. He comes across a
Speaker 1: tip robes that apparently had been sitting around for a while.
Speaker 1: He saw this last year in going through stuff, but
Speaker 1: we don't they didn't tell us a lot of information.
Speaker 1: Actually not a lot of details. But he takes this
Speaker 1: tip and here's where we are. But yes, the DNA
Speaker 1: part of it. But that's the interesting part. Rolled about
Speaker 1: so many tips, one of them is.
Speaker 2: The right one, and you have to be able to
Speaker 2: connect the dots and then yes, if you've got the
Speaker 2: DNA and you can, then basically that's your smoking gun.
Speaker 2: Now you can say, oh my goodness, I can put
Speaker 2: this man at the scene of the crime period with
Speaker 2: his DNA and turns out all this time, I think
Speaker 2: he had just recently moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, is what
Speaker 2: they believe. But I think in twenty twenty up until
Speaker 2: twenty twenty. He had owned property near the murdercy, but
Speaker 2: he worked just over a mile away from where they
Speaker 2: found the bodies of that young couple, So he was
Speaker 2: there in the area for all that time, and again
Speaker 2: they were able to find him in Lincoln, Nebraska. He
Speaker 2: is there and awaiting extradition as we record this.
Speaker 1: So as they pieced this together, folks, and don't know
Speaker 1: how this all exactly works, but my understanding is that
Speaker 1: that detective who found the one tip, he realizes that
Speaker 1: Parrot somewhere in his investigation the tip, I guess directed
Speaker 1: him towards this guy. But Parrot was accused of another
Speaker 1: sexual assault somewhere in nineteen ninety six. Yep, Do I
Speaker 1: have this right?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, So there's DNA from that case that had not
Speaker 1: been properly entered into this coda's database after all this time,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't there to be compared. So once all
Speaker 1: the DNA is in the system, low and behole, the
Speaker 1: DNA from the lover's lame murders matches the DNA from
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, and holy hell, here we just like
Speaker 1: that a case is solved, just with a couple of
Speaker 1: key strokes on a computer, you know.
Speaker 2: And I hope that gives hope to so many families
Speaker 2: out there who are waiting for answers, who are afraid
Speaker 2: they'll never know what happened, or who was responsible for
Speaker 2: their loved one's death, or just even them being missing.
Speaker 2: So for all the people who are waiting for answers,
Speaker 2: and how excruciating that is. And we've just seen a
Speaker 2: play out with Savannah her talking about just the pain
Speaker 2: waking up in the middle of the night, just the
Speaker 2: not knowing this give this does give peace, This does
Speaker 2: give closure to this, these two families in particular, but
Speaker 2: I feel like it might give hope to so many
Speaker 2: other families out there thinking maybe one day, maybe not tomorrow,
Speaker 2: but maybe a year from now, maybe ten years from now,
Speaker 2: we'll figure this out.
Speaker 1: You need a win. This is a weird comparison. Was
Speaker 1: the first thing that came to my mind. Why some places,
Speaker 1: some states require that lottery winners have to be publicly identified,
Speaker 1: because people need to have confidence in the system and
Speaker 1: know and see that yes, that person want or somebody
Speaker 1: out there is like me. You need a win. I
Speaker 1: mean for folks who are way for people to go.
Speaker 3: It's all true.
Speaker 1: You need to see that, Oh this is possible, and
Speaker 1: it did happen after thirty six years. My case has
Speaker 1: only been six months, My case has only been three
Speaker 1: It doesn't It matters, man. It gives your reason to keep.
Speaker 2: And that is everything when you're waiting for answers that
Speaker 2: you are afraid you might not ever get. So when
Speaker 2: we come back, we are going to read to you
Speaker 2: the family statement from the victims. It is powerful and
Speaker 2: it just speaks to what so many people live with
Speaker 2: each and every day with violent crime and hoping and
Speaker 2: praying that one day they too will have their case solved.
Speaker 2: We'll hear directly from the Henry family when we come back.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ
Speaker 2: where police say they have finally nabbed the Lover's Lane
Speaker 2: killer after thirty six years on the run. This is
Speaker 2: an incredible story, a cold case that haunted the Houston
Speaker 2: area for more than three decades and certainly haunted the
Speaker 2: family members of the two young victims in this case,
Speaker 2: twenty two year old Cheryl Henry and her boyfriend, twenty
Speaker 2: one year old Andy Atkinson. It was bittersweeten and we'll
Speaker 2: get into the exact statement, because it's so sad to
Speaker 2: know that just a year and a half ago, late
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, Cheryl's mom and Andy's dad passed away
Speaker 2: without knowing, without seeing this day, without feeling like justice
Speaker 2: might be served. And the family talks about that because
Speaker 2: you think about their parents just died within the last
Speaker 2: two years, and they had waited more than three decades
Speaker 2: and probably had thought, I'm never going to know, I'm
Speaker 2: never going to know what happened. But it just speaks
Speaker 2: to why it's people to have that time go by
Speaker 2: and to just be waiting for answers.
Speaker 3: It's unthinkable.
Speaker 1: It's we always say, right, it's the not knowing. It's
Speaker 1: one thing that not does somebody's faith. But even when
Speaker 1: you know your loved one might have been killed, you
Speaker 1: still what's the next thing? You do want to know? Why? Yes,
Speaker 1: you're just desperate for answers, and so at least this
Speaker 1: is one step in that. The why you might never
Speaker 1: get and the why there might not be a good reason,
Speaker 1: but to.
Speaker 3: Know that someone is held accountable matters.
Speaker 2: I mean feeling like at least you know you're not
Speaker 2: getting your loved ones back, but to have that justice
Speaker 2: is something We've got. The Henry family statement that they
Speaker 2: released shortly after news of the arrest.
Speaker 3: Today is a bittersweet day for our family.
Speaker 2: Cheryl and Andy were truly incredible people, kind, loving, and
Speaker 2: with so much life ahead of them after nearly thirty
Speaker 2: six years, we never imagined this day would come, and
Speaker 2: we are overwhelmed with emotion. We are deeply grateful to
Speaker 2: the Houston Police Department, the FBI, and the countless law
Speaker 2: enforcement professionals who never stopped working toward justice. We also
Speaker 2: want to thank our family and friends who have continued
Speaker 2: to pray, support us, and stand beside us through every
Speaker 2: year and every breakthrough. We never gave up hope, and
Speaker 2: we thank God that a suspect is now in custody.
Speaker 2: We just wish our mother and Andy's father would have
Speaker 2: lived to see this day. Cheryl's mother, Barbara Craig, and
Speaker 2: Andy's Garland Atkinson, both passed away in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: As we move forward and seeking justice for Cheryl and Andy,
Speaker 2: we kindly ask for privacy and continued prayers during this time.
Speaker 1: Well done, well said, understandable. We've covered a lot of
Speaker 1: even executions lately, and I think about that when the
Speaker 1: execution is done. The victim's family oftentimes like this is over,
Speaker 1: no more appeals and all this stuff. Over the past
Speaker 1: thirty six years, this family has to hear little updates,
Speaker 1: have little bits of hope there is that there was
Speaker 1: at one point there was a pretty significant breakthrough in
Speaker 1: this case. They having to keep hearing little dribs and
Speaker 1: drafts and thinking, maybe this is the one, and maybe
Speaker 1: this is that can stop. Now that's a big deal,
Speaker 1: and that's that's peace as well, I'm sure, and I
Speaker 1: wondered robes over the past thirty six years. Every time
Speaker 1: you get a phone call it's an unidentified phone number,
Speaker 1: you're like this, polease still heart me calling? This is
Speaker 1: the one?
Speaker 3: Is this the tip?
Speaker 1: Is this that it.
Speaker 3: Gives me chills to think about?
Speaker 2: I mean this is it actually makes me emotional because
Speaker 2: you can put yourself in that position, and it's one
Speaker 2: thing to suffer obviously the loss of life, the loss
Speaker 2: of a loved one, but to sit like on edge.
Speaker 3: You're always on edge. You're always waiting.
Speaker 2: There's this level of anxiety that I'm imagining never goes
Speaker 2: away because you're waiting for word, You're waiting to hear something.
Speaker 2: And now I feel like their shoulders can just relax
Speaker 2: a little bit. I wonder what else they're going to
Speaker 2: find out about this guy. It seems odd that you
Speaker 2: would just, at one point in your life, at twenty eight,
Speaker 2: decide to go out and randomly kill two strangers and
Speaker 2: then go about the rest of your life doing nothing else.
Speaker 2: That's just I wonder what else there is. I wonder
Speaker 2: how much of a threat they think he still was, and.
Speaker 3: I would imagine that.
Speaker 2: Yes, we're going to be hearing a lot more about
Speaker 2: this man in the days to come, as there will
Speaker 2: be obviously more intensive investigations about what this man was
Speaker 2: doing for the past thirty six years and how he
Speaker 2: had been able to literally get away.
Speaker 3: With murder up until now.
Speaker 2: Of course, we will continue to follow this case for you,
Speaker 2: but a big, huge breakthrough for Houston, for that area,
Speaker 2: for so many folks who had been on edge for
Speaker 2: all this time. The Lover's Lane killer police say they
Speaker 2: got their guy. And with that everyone, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for listening to us. I'm made me roback alongside TJ. Holmes.
Speaker 3: We will talk to you soon.