Two College Sweethearts, One Night in 1990, and a Houston Case Still Unsolved

On a warm August night in 1990, college sweethearts Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson went out on a date. They never came home.

Cheryl was twenty-two. Andy was twenty-one. The two were found brutally murdered at a secluded spot in West Houston that locals called Lovers' Lane, a quiet place where young couples went to talk and be alone. The crime shattered a community and left two families in anguish. More than three decades later, it remains unsolved.

In The Lovers' Lane Murders: The Tragic Story of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson, author and historian Johnny Teague revisits the case with compassion, fresh investigation, and never-before-seen details. It's a book that works on two levels at once. It is a gripping true-crime account of an unsolved double murder, and it is a tribute to two young people whose lives were taken far too soon.

That second part matters, and it's what makes this book different from so much of the true-crime genre. Teague worked closely with the victims' families throughout the project, through interviews, conversations, and collaboration. Their voices, emotions, and memories are woven through the book with care. Cheryl and Andy appear here not only as victims but as the people they were: students with plans, relationships, and futures ahead of them. Readers come to know them, which makes the loss land with real weight and makes the families' long search for answers all the more moving.

True crime is one of the most popular genres in publishing, podcasting, and television, and the reasons are worth thinking about. Part of the appeal is the puzzle: readers want to understand what happened and why. But at its best, true crime does something more important. It keeps cases in the public eye long after the headlines fade. Cold cases have been solved years or even decades later because new attention brought a witness forward, because someone finally decided to talk, or because advances in forensic science made old evidence newly useful. Every time a case is carefully retold, there's a chance someone reading it remembers something that matters.

That's the hope at the heart of this book. By shedding new light on the case, Teague aims to reignite interest and, perhaps, move it closer to resolution. He lays out what happened that night, what investigators found, and the questions that still haunt the case, always keeping the focus on the people involved rather than sensationalizing the violence.

Johnny Teague is well suited to the task. He is a pastor, historian, and author, and he has served as Senior Pastor of Church at the Cross in West Houston, the same part of the city where the crime took place. His long years of pastoral work have given him deep experience walking alongside people through grief, and that sensitivity shows on every page. He is also the author of A Real Estate Nightmare, another investigation into an unsolved Houston case, and he brings the same combination of research, empathy, and persistence to both books.

The Lovers' Lane Murders is part true crime and part memorial, and it calls for the one thing Cheryl and Andy's families have sought for so long: closure. It's a must-read for true-crime readers, anyone interested in Houston history, and anyone who believes that no case, and no life, should ever be forgotten.

The Lovers' Lane Murders: The Tragic Story of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson by Johnny Teague is available now in paperback and hardcover.

Update on the case: In March 2026, more than thirty-five years after the murders, authorities arrested Floyd William Parrott, 64, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and charged him with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson. Investigators from the Houston Police Department, the FBI, and the Harris County District Attorney's Office identified him through a tip, renewed DNA analysis linking him to evidence from the scene, and further police work. On April 28, 2026, while awaiting extradition to Texas, Parrott was found unresponsive in his cell at the Lancaster County jail. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his death appeared to be a suicide. Because Parrott died before trial, the charges against him were never tested in court. "We ache for Andy's and Cheryl's families who were denied their day in court," said Samantha Knecht, chief prosecutor of the Harris County District Attorney's Cold Case Division. Our thoughts remain with both families.