1990 cold case: Who killed Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson on Lovers Lane in west Houston?
Cheryl was raped and her throat was slit in 1990. Andy was tied to a tree and nearly decapitated. It's a cold case that has haunted two families for decades.
It was a summer night in 1990 and Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson were young and in love. She was a 22-year-old bubbly blonde and he was a 21-year-old with piercing green eyes and a Hollywood smile.
"She thought he was amazing, inside and out, and that he had a great smile, but his mind was wonderful, too," Cheryl's sister, Merideth Colvert, told us in 2013.
That night, on Aug. 22, Cheryl and her sister met up with Andy at Bayou Mama's nightclub on Westheimer at South Gessner. That was the last time anyone saw them alive. The couple drove to a then-remote area known as Lovers Lane off Enclave Parkway near Eldridge Parkway in west Houston. The man who killed them was there, too.
When Cheryl didn't come home by the next morning, her family called Houston police.
It was a security guard who found Andy's white car with Cheryl's purse and shoes inside. Her mom, Barbara Craig, rushed to the wooded area. When search dogs found Cheryl's body, officers held Barbara back. They didn't want the frantic mom to see the horrific way her daughter had died.
“To this day, Shern-min, I know if they had let me go to Cheryl, I would have breathed into her and she'd be alive,” Barbara told KHOU 11 News in 2017. All those years later, the memory of losing her oldest child still brought tears.
Andy was found tied to a tree and nearly decapitated. Detectives told his father that Cheryl was killed first.
"Which means he was tied to a tree and listened to her scream, listened to her being murdered knowing that they were going to do the same thing to him and he couldn't do anything about it," Garland Atkinson said. "That's hard to accept."
The killer used Andy's golf balls and golf club to point the way to Cheryl's naked body found hidden under wooden boards, a $20 bill lying nearby.
HPD detective Darcus Shorten called it "very odd" when we interviewed her in 2017.
"I have gotten sick to my stomach thinking of what they endured," Cheryl's sister said.
MISSING PIECES: Detective hopes familial DNA could lead to killer
The determined detective 'Unfinished business'
Retired HPD detective Billy Belk spent two decades trying to track down the killer.
"This case stayed with me because it's one of the few cases that I never cleared. It's like I left unfinished business when I retired," Belk told us in 2013.
He had his theories.
"Sometimes, I think they were targeted. Cheryl was tied up more than Andy was, even though he was tied to a tree. She put up a fight," Belk said. "Sometimes, I wonder if there are two or three suspects."
Belk traveled around the country trying to find the suspect. He compared DNA samples found at the crime scene with that of known criminals.
"I would say at least 25 potential suspects' DNA has been compared," Belk said, but all were ruled out.
KHOU 11 News also dug up a report by FBI profilers. Here are some of their theories.
- The suspect may have known Cheryl or Andy or both.
- He was about the age of the victims.
- He had above-average intelligence but was a low achiever.
- Police may have interviewed him at one time.
In 2001, someone sent a letter to HPD, promising information for $100,000. Was it written by the killer or was it a hoax? Either way, it never led anywhere and the case stayed cold.
Another victim The dancer and the DNA
An exotic dancer who was raped two months before Cheryl and Andy were killed would provide the first real break in the case, but not until years later.
In 1990, the woman told police she left her job at Gigi's nightclub and went to her boyfriend's house in northwest Houston. A man showed up and said he was looking for the boyfriend who owed him money. Then, he pounced.
The attacker put her hands behind her back and wrapped them in duct tape. He also covered her eyes and mouth with tape and put a bag over her head. She said he then kept pulling the trigger, taunting her as he cocked it, then uncocked it over and over.
The victim described the rapist as late 20s to mid-30s, about 6 feet tall, 180 pounds with black hair and an olive complexion. He had a black fishnet stocking over his head, wore black gloves, a dark shirt and dark pants, possibly a uniform. She said he had a "very forceful, military-type stance."
Eventually, the woman's attacker took $250 from her purse, disconnected her phone and left.
Back then, DNA testing was relatively new and expensive. It took 17 years before investigators would run the DNA found on the rape victim and get a match to the Lovers Lane murders.
They located her in Galveston County, interviewed her again and learned another astonishing link. The victim had once worked for Andy's dad. Police didn't know if the killer might also have worked for Garland Atkinson or if it was just a crazy coincidence.
The rape victim helped famed HPD sketch artist Lois Gibson create a sketch of her attacker, which was also aged to depict what he might look like in 2008.
Despite the DNA match and the sketches, the killer's identity remained a mystery. He wasn't in the national DNA database.
Missing Pieces Not giving up
We revisited the Lovers Lane murders in 2017 for a Missing Pieces report.
Detective Shorten was hoping then that new technology could shed light on the old case. Familial DNA uses data from sites like Ancestry and 23andMe to find potential relatives of the suspect and eventually the suspect themselves.
“That individual profile can be used as probable cause to go and get a DNA sample from the actual targeted person,“ Shorten explained.
Familial DNA has since been used to crack a number of cold cases in Houston and all over the country. No luck yet though on the Lovers Lane case.
Meanwhile, the families left behind find comfort in cherished memories and old photos.
Barbara wears Cheryl’s ring and watch and envisions her daughter in heaven.
“In my mind, I can see Cheryl holding other people because they were traumatized too, and (she) lets them know that they're fine now," Barbara told us.
The families are doing their best to make sure their loved ones aren't forgotten. They even took out a full-page newspaper ad with photos of Cheryl and Andy and details about the case.
If you can help with this case or any other unsolved case, please contact HPD's Cold Case Squad or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
Family's pain lingers The hunt for closure
Shane Craig and Meredith Zarcone said they're not sure if they'll ever get true closure for their sister's death. They also won't stop trying to find the killer.
Tuesday marked 33 years since Cheryl was last seen alive.
"For my whole family and anyone who knew Cheryl, it's a terrible day. I mean, 33 years ... it's hard to even fathom," Zarcone said.
The details of the rape and murder are seared into their memories, even decades later.
"They bound them. They tortured them. They assaulted them. And then, they murdered them. It just destroyed our family," Craig said. "I walk through every minute I was with her that day and what I could have done differently. If I hadn't left her ... if she had gone home."
This week, a family member bought a full-page ad in the newspaper calling for any new leads.
"Hopefully, it will bring someone to actually come forward. That they'll do the right thing," Craig said.
The killer's identity has remained a mystery.
"It's hard when people ask us if there's anything new because for 33 years there hasn't been anything new," Craig said.
In recent years, familial DNA has been used to crack a number of cold cases in Houston and across the country, but nothing has come up in Cheryl and Andy's case.
"I'm more bothered with just knowing what happened, who did it. Um, I'm curious of what this person's been doing all their life. How've they been able to live with it every day," Craig said.
