The suspect in Houston’s notorious “Lovers’ Lane murders” has died in custody weeks after he was finally arrested for the 36-year-old double slayings.
Floyd William Parrott, 64, was found unresponsive in his Nebraska prison cell on Tuesday while awaiting extradition back to Texas for allegedly slitting the throats of young lovebirds Cheryl Henry, 22, and Andy Atkinson, 21, in 1990.
Parrot’s cause of death is under review but he appears to have killed himself, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told KHOU.
Parrott was busted in Lincoln, Nebraska, on March 25 and charged with the murders, finally breaking open a horrific cold case that scarred the Houston area for decades.
Prosecutors in Texas regret not being able to present their evidence in court but said they are still working the case — while probing another cold case linked to the Parrot.
“We ache for Andy’s and Cheryl’s families who were denied their day in court. Our anger for what Parrott took from them is matched only by our determination to keep going,” Samantha Knecht, division chief prosecutor of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office’s cold case division, said in a statement.
“Yes, we are still working. Parrott’s death does not erase his crimes or end our motivation. It does not bring comfort to the people he hurt. Which is why we are in Louisiana right now seeking to close a cold case linked to Parrott. His survivors deserve accountability.”
Henry and Atkinson had driven to a then-remote road known as “Lovers’ Lane” in West Houston after a night out in a club on Aug. 22, 1990. Their bodies were found near their car by a security guard the next day.
Cheryl had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been sliced open, according to investigators. Atkinson was found nearby tied to a tree, and his neck had been cut so deeply that he was nearly decapitated, officials said.
It became “one of Houston’s most haunting and infamous cold cases,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said after announcing Parrot’s arrest last month.
Parrot was arrested after detectives managed to get a hit on DNA from the slayings matching a sample Parrott once submitted when accused of a sex assault that he insisted was consensual, according to court records obtained by KHOU.
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