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