Nearly 36 years after a young couple was killed in Houston, authorities say a man has been arrested and charged with capital murder in connection to their deaths.
Floyd William Parrott, 64, was arrested Wednesday in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was awaiting extradition to the Harris County Jail, according to a Thursday news release from the Houston Police Department. Parrott is accused of killing Garland "Andy" Atkinson, 21, and Cheryl Henry, 22, whose bodies were found in West Houston on Aug. 23, 1990.
The killings became known as the "Lovers Lane Murders" as decades went by without any criminal charges in the case.
"One of Houston's most haunting and infamous cold cases has weighed on the Henry and Atkinson families, as well as our community for more than three decades," Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said in a statement Thursday. "Our prosecutors, working with the HPD and FBI, have pursued this investigation with relentless and dogged determination. They have worked hundreds of leads, facing dead ends and plenty of frustration. But, they never gave up on Cheryl and Andy. Thank you to all investigators who have touched this case. Your perseverance has delivered something two families long deserved: progress and hope. Today is a good day."
Today, the Harris County District Attorney's Office takes a significant step in the ongoing pursuit of justice for Cheryl Henry, Andy Atkinson, and their families.
For years, our prosecutors have worked in partnership with @houstonpolice detectives and @FBIHouston agents on... pic.twitter.com/guTO5fKQpJ
— Harris County District Attorney (@HarrisCountyDAO) March 26, 2026
It was not immediately clear Thursday whether Parrott had enlisted a defense attorney. The capital murder charges publicized by the police department and district attorney's office did not appear in Harris County's online court records as of early Thursday afternoon.
Court records show Parrott was convicted of felony impersonation of a police officer multiple times in Harris County in the 1990s. Parrott pleaded guilty to one of those offenses and was sentenced to two years in jail on Aug. 30, 1990 – a week after the bodies of Atkinson and Henry were found – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of the same offense in 1996.
Parrott was charged with sexual assault later in 1996, according to court records, which show he was subsequently no-billed by a grand jury in that case.
According to a criminal complaint in the capital murder case, which was released Thursday afternoon by the DA’s office, investigating police officers matched DNA evidence collected during Henry’s autopsy to DNA that was connected to the sexual assault case, the latter of which was recently uploaded to a nationwide law enforcement database. Police allege in the charging document that Parrott admitted to sexual contact in the 1996 case while claiming it was consensual.
At the time of the murders, Parrott was working about 1 mile away from where the bodies of Atkinson and Henry were found, according to the criminal complaint. It says the couple had been together at a Houston nightclub the night before they were found dead at 1300 Enclave Parkway on Aug. 23, 1990.
Police responded after a security guard approached Atkinson’s vehicle, which had been parked in a cul-de-sac for several hours without moving, and found blood in the car as well as a purse belonging to Henry. Atkinson and Henry were both found with cuts on their necks and their hands tied behind their backs, according to the charging document.
The Harris County DA's office said in a news release it would not immediately provide further comment about the case until a joint news conference with HPD and the FBI, which has been scheduled for Friday.
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