How police arrested a suspect in the 1990 ‘Lovers’ Lane’ cold case murders in Houston

(HOUSTON, Texas) — A man who had a history of impersonating law enforcement has been arrested in a 1990 cold case double murder known as the “Lovers’ Lane” killings, authorities said.

Floyd William Parrott, 64, is charged with capital murder for the killings of Cheryl Henry, 22, and Garland “Andy” Atkinson, 21, Houston police said.

The victims’ car was found parked in a cul-de-sac on Aug. 23, 1990, police said. Henry and Atkinson, who had been dating for a few weeks, were found near the car, according to court documents. Both of their necks were cut with knives and they were tied up with rope, documents said, and Henry was raped.

At least 100 people were looked at as potential suspects over the decades, but Parrott was not one of them, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said at a news conference on Friday.

In late 2025, a Houston police sergeant was looking into a tip that named Parrott, and the sergeant found a Houston police report from 1996 in which Parrott was named as the suspect in a sex assault, court documents said. Parrott claimed the sex was consensual, documents said, and a grand jury declined to indict, Teare said.

The DNA from the 1996 case was “recently placed” into CODIS, the national law enforcement DNA database, documents said, and that DNA was found to be a match to swabs from Cheryl Henry’s sexual assault exam at her autopsy.

“A June 1990 sexual assault case also had a case-to-case hit,” court documents said.

Teare said Parrott impersonated law enforcement in the late 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s.

In May 1988, Parrott was arrested for impersonating a police officer, court documents said. He was again arrested for impersonating a police officer in May 1990, and he was out on bond when the June 1990 sex assault and the August 1990 murders occurred, court documents said.

Parrott lived in the Houston area for most of his life and left a few years ago, Teare said. He was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Wednesday and is awaiting extradition to the Harris County, police said. Investigators interviewed Parrott on Wednesday and he denied knowing Cheryl Henry, according to court documents.

“Cheryl was my best friend. We did everything together,” Henry’s younger sister Shane Henry, said at the news conference.

“Hearing that the person responsible has finally been caught does not bring her back,” she said, “… but it does bring a sense of relief knowing that justice is moving forward.”

Teare said the DA’s office believes Parrott committed “numerous different types of crimes.”

“If you recognize this individual and he pulled you over … call us,” he said.

“If you met him once, if you met him at a club, if you knew him at all, reach out,” he said. 

Teare said the DA’s office can be reached at 713-274-5640.