The man charged in the 1990 Houston "Lovers' Lane" double murder was found dead in a Nebraska jail this week, days before a scheduled court appearance in the extradition process.
Floyd William Parrott, 64, had been charged in March with capital murder in the killings of Cheryl Henry, 22, and Garland "Andy" Atkinson, 21. Houston police said the case remained unsolved for more than three decades before investigators linked Parrott to the crime through renewed work on the file and DNA evidence.
Investigators said DNA from a 1996 sexual-assault case tied Parrott to the 1990 murders after his profile was entered into the CODIS database. That profile matched biological evidence collected during Henry's autopsy, which included samples preserved from a sexual-assault examination, according to 1011Now.
Police also said the same DNA profile matched evidence from a June 1990 sexual-assault case, giving detectives another forensic link to Parrott. Court records cited by KHOU said investigators used that DNA evidence, along with old case files, to conclude Parrott was responsible for the killings.
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Parrott was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska, on March 25 by Houston police detectives and FBI agents and was being held while Texas sought his extradition, according to Houston police and the Harris County District Attorney's Office. Officials said he had not waived extradition and was scheduled to be in court on Apr. 30, HoustonTX reported.
Authorities said Parrott was found unresponsive in his jail cell and that lifesaving efforts were made before he was pronounced dead. Officials have not released a cause of death, and the incident remains under investigation.
The killings of Henry and Atkinson have long been one of Houston's best-known cold cases. Police said the couple was found dead on Aug. 23, 1990, in a wooded area near Enclave Parkway, where investigators reported that both had been stabbed in the throat and that Henry had been sexually assaulted.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office said Parrott's death does not change the evidence developed in the case. Prosecutors also said investigators are continuing work on related cold cases tied to Parrott, as per the Independent.
