Who Was the Lovers' Lane Killer? Cheryl and Andy’s Tragic Fate Uncovered | Forensic Files

[Music] The story I have for you today is truly one of Houston's most brutal cold cases.
One that still haunts the city to this very day. But cold doesn't mean unsolvable. This is the story of Andy
Atkinson and Cheryl Henry. When 19-year-old Shane Henry pulls up to give her older sister Cheryl a ride to
work on the morning of August 23rd, 1990, she does what most teenagers do in the pre-ell dark ages. She lays on the
horn and waits. Shane's got to get to work herself. So, she's like a little peeved when she has to go inside. More
peeved when she realizes that Cheryl isn't even there. If she was going to like catch a ride or not go or not be
there, like a heads up would have been nice. But now Shane is running late, so she kind of just like scoots without
giving it much more thought. At least not until she gets a call at work that morning at around 10:00 a.m. And it's a
friend and a coworker of Cheryl's and she wants to know where Cheryl is because she just hasn't shown. And
that's when Shane's stomach drops. Although she's not quite sure why because she knows that Cheryl was out
the night before with her new boyfriend, Andy Atinson. like Shane had actually been out with them too. She dipped
around 11 to give the love birds some like time alone, some space. So in her mind, the most likely scenario is that
her sister just overslept or something. But still, Shane can't kick this uneasy feeling. So she actually asks for
permission to leave work early. She's told no, though, which I feel like is pretty messed up, like if you think your
sister is missing. And before long, like the whole family knows what's going on.
The whole family is worried. And Shane just wants to join Cheryl's friends and family who are already out there looking
for her. So, Girl is out the door the second her shift is up, racing to the family home where her mom Barbara and
her stepdad Dan are waiting anxiously. Now, by now, hours have passed since everyone has realized that Cheryl was
missing. Where's Andy? Well, so that's the thing. No one can find Andy either. And by the time Shane gets home, she is
ready to break glass. Like, look guys, we need to call the cops. something is wrong and Barbara doesn't need
convincing. So, the police are called and a missing person's report is filed. And then Shane is like right back out
the door ready to hit the city streets with Cheryl's friends searching for the couple and for Andy's white Honda, which
they were in the night before. But nearly 4 hours later, they are no closer to finding them. So Shane's heart skips
a beat when she walks back in and sees her mom on the phone looking worried. and she can only hear one side of the
conversation, but it feels bad. It's like, "Yes, yes, yes, that's my daughter. Where are
you? We'll come right now." After what feels like an eternity, Barbara hangs up and announces that it was a security
guard on the phone. And I guess this guy works for a local food distributor and he called because he found Cheryl's
purse with her number inside. and it was on the floorboard of an abandoned white
Honda. So, this place that they go to, it's this really undeveloped area near the Cisco office. The Cisco is the
building the security guard worked at. And it's on this dark, desolate street, which is known to people because it's
known as Lover's Lane. And it also runs along this big open field leading into a
big wooded area. And it's popular with young locals for obvious in the name reasons. And Shane says that it doesn't
strike her as super weird that the couple would have gone there. I mean, they're both living with family.
22-year-old Cheryl with her mom, her stepdad, and her little Brady Bunch like kind of family. And 21-year-old Andy,
who is new to Houston, he's living with his grandmother's. So, in less than 2 weeks, Cheryl was actually planning on
moving in with Shane, like they were going to move in together. But until then, privacy was a hot commodity. So,
heading out to Lover's Lane checks out for the couple. But what the guard hadn't found anywhere near the car was
Cheryl or Andy. So the security guy is like what? Rumaging through a random car he found. Like that feels weird to me. I
thought the same thing, but Shane actually gave us a rundown of the day and it makes a little more sense the way
that she explains it. I guess the guard had found the car for the first time like way earlier in the day on his
rounds, but he wasn't concerned until it was still there hours later, right? And
so that's when he decided to check it out. and the windows were rolled down, the seats were reclined and the key was
in the ignition in the idle position. Those are all very bad signs, right? Red flags, which is why he called them. So,
that's the scene when Cheryl's family and friends start showing up, desperate to find some sign of the missing couple.
And right away, they zero in on some cigarette butts stained with lipstick on the ground near the car. The lipstick
looks a whole lot like it was Cheryl's. And when they peek inside the car, they see something that the security guard
hadn't mentioned. Something more ominous than lipstick stains on cigarette butts.
They see deep, dark stains on the inside of the driver's door. Blood. They're not
sure, but it looks an awful lot like blood. So much so that they do a kind of like back away slowly kind of thing.
Like the last thing they want to do is contaminate what could be evidence. But how did the security guard miss that? I
mean, wasn't he in the car? Well, in this area, there are no street lights and it's dark by now. So, my guess is
that the headlights from all the cars that are now there from everyone who came. Maybe he's making it easier to
see. They also probably are like bringing lights in. I don't know. Whatever they have is definitely more
light than like a lone patrol car would have provided. And Andy's car battery is
dead from the car being left in idle. So there probably were no overhead lights like at the time. Now in 1990, no one
has a cell to call 911. And by the time they see all of this, the security guard
is like on the other side of that big field walking the tree line with one of Cheryl's friends. They're just like
searching over there. So Shane races to the Cisco building with Cheryl's best friend. And they go inside and get the
person at the front desk to call 911. And then they wait and wait and wait for like 30 or 40 minutes, but no one shows
up. What? No cops, no first responders, no fire trucks, nada. So, the girls have
to actually go back and have them call 911 a second time. And this time, the response is immediate and overwhelming.
A response like, "Oh, there are two missing kids in a bloody car." Like that. Yeah. So, this army of cops and
first responders get to work. They search with helicopters up in the sky. They have sent tracking canines on the
ground. Like, the works. And a little after 11:00 p.m., Shane watches a scene unfold. And she told us that to this
day, it like plays out in her mind. It is pure chaos. There's just so many people bustling around. She was like
walking up to her dad in a dazed when out of the corner of her eye, she sees an officer say something to her mom and
then she just hears this blood curdling scream. And to Shane, it looks like the officer like catches her mom from
falling when she howls. And it's like there are no words. It's just these like guttural primal shrieks. And Barbara
actually says later in reporting for KO1 that the officer holding her up is also
holding her back from running towards the area across the field where there's just this like sudden flurry of
activity. And Shane can't even process it all. She turns to ask her dad what's wrong. Like what happened? Why is
everyone so upset all of a sudden? And I don't know if he's been briefed or if he's just like putting two and two
together, but he responds with the last two words that Shane is prepared to hear. She's
gone. And in the blink of an eye, investigators surround them, like coring them towards their car, saying like,
"Listen, we're so sorry, but like you have to leave now. This is a crime scene." And the entire family is
thinking like, "How how can they leave Cheryl out there?" But they don't have a choice. So they go and investigators
have to get to work. Body had been found by a scent tracking dog about 200 yd from Andy's
car just like barely into the wooded area past the field. When she's found she's naked, lying face down on the
ground and her hands are actually bound behind her back with rope and she has what looks like jagged wounds to her
head and her neck and her throat has been slashed. And her killer, it seems, made a half-hearted attempt to conceal
her body under some pieces of like wood from this like rotting fence. And then they find her clothes nearby, a single
$20 bill as well. Her pretty turquoise summer dress with like red accents had actually been cut from her body. And
Shane thinks maybe her underwear had been to, she told us, which suggests to investigators that whatever horrors
Cheryl had been met with probably involved a sexual assault. Now, at this time that they find Cheryl, there's
still no sign of Andy. Though, as they secure the scene and get Cheryl to the morg, searching for him does continue.
But by the wee hours of the morning, they decide they need to break till sunrise. This is all absolute torture
for Andy's dad, Garland. He got to the scene not long before Cheryl's body was found and he like set out walking the
treeine too only to be hustled away almost without explanation. And Garland passed away recently actually in October
of 2024. But I found an interview he did with Linda Sheldon Fel for a series that
she hosts called Moments of Hope. And when he's talking to her, he gets choked up because he talks about this HPD
officer who actually asked to stay at the scene until the search could pick back up at sunrise. And he explains that
at the first hint of daylight, that officer starts walking the same treeine that Garland walked multiple times the
night before, like taking things in, looking for anything that might have been missed in the dark. I mean, looking
for Andy. And out there all alone, it's that officer who stumbles on this grizzly scene because there Andy is
sitting at the base of this enormous tree tied to the tree with rope. His legs like stretch out in front of him
and he's facing the woods. And like Cheryl, his throat was slit so deeply though that he was nearly decapitated.
When I hear all of that, my mind instantly goes to like like the Lake Waco of all, right? I thought the same
thing. And listen, for anyone who hasn't listened to our Lake Waco episode, so it
was like a a two-parter that we did recently, I'll try and link out to it in the notes, whatever. But I agree, it's
got some like eerie similarities to this case. Like the second I heard about Andy, that's what I thought about. But
you got to think about this. No one at the time is thinking there's a possibility of a connection because by
the time Cheryl and Andy were murdered, they already had people in prison for the Lake Waco case. I was going to ask
about the timing. Right now, knowing what I know now, to me, that means nothing. But back then, no one is
screaming serial killer. But to go back to Andy. So Andy's fully clothed. His hands are bound behind his back. And
where the injuries to Cheryl's neck were kind of like jagged and imprecise. I guess Andy's throat had just like one
clean slash. And how far is he from where Cheryl was found? Uh, I don't know exactly. I've seen like everything from
like 75 yards to 150 yards. So, I don't know for sure. But what I do know is that Jill Tyer's report says there
aren't any obvious defensive wounds on Andy. It says the same about Cheryl, actually. But we actually reviewed both
autopsy reports and I don't think that's actually accurate for her. Like girl went down fighting. And there's this
weird thing about the crime scene that I haven't mentioned. I'm not sure when investigators notice it like before or
after Andy's body is found. I mean, but reporting for KO11 says that a golf club
and golf balls from Andy's car had been like laid out in the field in like this line that was pointing to Cheryl's body,
which to me is just like extremely weird. And clearly like someone wanted them to be found. Yeah. Now, I think
it's helpful at this point if we talk through the scene in terms of likely series of events because spoiler alert
answers are hard to come by in the coming years and there's not a ton of reporting on how it all would have
unfolded. The broadstrokes are this. The thinking is that there's some kind of blitz attack when the two are in the car
and somehow they're then taken to the tree that Andy was tied to. So theoretically it could have just been
one guy, but my money is on two. So that's something that investigators are going
to debate for years. It could be either. I think I mean I think it's again I think the thing that's clear is that it
started with the attack on Andy in the car because of all the blood that's on the door and then either they would have
had to hurt him enough to like prove a point like I'm not messing around. Follow me. Cooperate. I have a weapon.
Like I'm going to walk you out. Or maybe Andy was fully incapacitated by whatever happened to him in the car,
which to me that definitely means you would need multiple people to get him out to the tree and keep Cheryl
cooperating, right? One way or another, their hands get tied behind their back. Remember, Andy doesn't have defensive
wounds. So, either he's cooperating because again, there's a threat to hurt Cheryl or him, or he's incapacitated and
can't even fight back. And then Cheryl either makes a run for it and they catch up to her or they walk her to a
different area. But when they get her over there, they cut off her clothes, assault her, and kill her there where
she was found. According to reporting for KHO1, investigators tell Garland that they do think for some reason that
she was killed first. I don't know their reasoning. That's never fully explained,
but that's the theory. Did they get any biologics from the autopsies? Like anything that they can get DNA from?
Yes. And yes. So even though 1990 is super early for DNA science, the detective who works this case the
longest, this guy named Detective Billy Belk, he knows what a powerful tool DNA is shaping up to be. So from like day
one, he asked the higherups to have evidence processed at this special lab that has the tech to detect DNA, which
has to be a long shot and super expensive. Expensive, right? You're not wrong. But you know the saying, you miss
100% of the shots you don't take. So, Detective Bel decides to shoot his and it works. He gets the okay. The lab hits
per. They're able to build a suspect profile from the seaman in Cheryl. But downside of early days DNA, no database.
There's nothing to compare it to, right? No amount of evidence is going to replace the grueling work of boots on
the ground investigating. So, detectives start interviewing family and friends, and they start working their way out
from there. Now, neither family knows of anyone who would want to hurt Cheryl or
Andy. They're both really good kids. They weren't wrapped up in anything shady, and everyone loved them. But
Cheryl's loved ones do offer up a couple of names that peak detectives interest.
Let's call them Lance and Aaron. So, Lance is the boyfriend of a friend that Cheryl had been kind of on the outs with
recently. Dude, like I guess skipped town the morning after Cheryl was found. more than the town. He skipped the whole
country, like took off for St. Lucia. And it seems like this was no planned holiday either. Lance's girlfriend tells
them that she didn't even know anything about this trip. Like he didn't even mention that he was going to go to St.
Lucia. What? Yeah. So, when detectives end up reaching him on the island, he agrees to come back to Houston. He sits
down for an interview, and when they ask him for a DNA sample, he's cool with that, too. When the comparison gets run,
Lance is ruled out. He's not their guy. Which leads me to Aaron, who ironically enough is the kid of a cop, or maybe a
former cop. Not totally sure. He is Cheryl's ex from like middle school and high school, and he doesn't share
Lance's cooperative spirit. I'm not sure if he officially lawyers up or if he talks to investigators or any of that.
All I know is that when they ask him for a DNA sample, he refuses. doesn't give a
reason, just no. Shane told us that the cop dad is straight up offended that they even would ask. So, there's that.
She also told us this weird story about Aaron showing up at their house like the
day after Cheryl died and kind of just standing there like at the end of their driveway like didn't say a word, didn't
come any closer, just stood there. That's so weird and kind of creepy. Detectives think so too. So does
Barbara. Shane said she actually kind of got it. She told us like she always liked Aaron. He'd always been decent to
her sister and she's like I think he was in shock like kind of like the rest of us. I don't know this standoff between
detectives and Aaron over his DNA. This goes on for years. And like on the one hand totally his right but on the other
hand like you got to know this is going to look bad. And what are you hiding? Why not give your DNA? Right? Because of
all the male friends and acquaintances that they approach during their investigation and in these years, and
there are a lot, he is the only one who won't give a sample. And they're not getting hits on anyone else that they're
testing. And so for years, everyone is side eyeing this guy. But you can't hide forever. Though in a lot of cases we've
covered, actually you can, but it like it's very frustrating. But not here. Not with this case. Detectives again, years
later, finally get a warrant for Aaron's DNA. Hopes are high that they're about to solve this case that has haunted the
city once and for all. When the results come back, everyone is probably holding their
breath. But Aaron is not a match. Okay, but if there was more than one killer, that's a big if, isn't it? Like,
and to state the obvious, that same logic applies then to all the men who have been ruled out like so far through
DNA comparison. Like, unless you've got an airtight alibi or something, which I'm I'm sure some of them do, but I
don't have insight into any of that. Who was ruled out through alibi? Who had an
alibi when their DNA was ruled out? I don't know. All I know is at some point in the '9s, the suspect profile does get
entered into Cotus when Cotus becomes a thing, but there are no hits in Cotus. And that activity on the case, it kind
of just like es and flows then throughout the years. Like it picks up a little bit in the mid '9s when a reward
is announced, but like nothing happens. It's just like dead end after dead end. And in all this time, there are no like
really viable suspects. No. Like that's what makes this case so challenging. It truly felt completely random, like this
killer blew into town, committed one of the most heinous crimes these officers would see in their careers, and then was
gone before the sun came up, never to return again. Or at least that's how it seemed for many years. But one day in
early 2001, detectives get this very strange letter in the mail and it's addressed to HPD. But the return address
says Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson. No address, but I'm going to have you read it for us because I mean this is wild.
The letter says HPD. If you want to know who killed C Henry and A Atkinson, it will cost
$100,000. Reply Hugh Chronicle personal column mun 3121 only. A lawyer will be hired to
make sure you play straight. Anon and Hugh Chronicle and Houston Chronicle is like the Houston Chronicle and Mun is
Monday, I think. So, and an I think is just supposed to be anonymous, but it's weird, right? Ah, please tell me they
play along with this though. They do. They do exactly as they're told. They publish their reply in the Houston
Chronicle basically like, "We hear you. We want to play ball. Tell us what like to do next kind of thing." And they keep
all this on the download. Like the public doesn't know a thing about this letter at the time. So like even when
they publish their reply, the the public like doesn't even know what they're looking for or to look for it. But when
they publish this, it's just radio silence. They never hear from that letter writer again. They even try
having the envelope processed to like see if there's DNA or fingerprints, whatever. That's a dead end, too. And
the case is more than 10 years cold by this point. And once again, like with after this letter, when this leads
nowhere, like they're out of leads. Now, I haven't touched on this yet, but Detective Bel, remember, he has been on
this case from like day one. Over the years, he builds a super solid relationship with Cheryl's family. And
what are solid relationships based on? Trust. How do you earn trust? Transparency. And that's what he's been
giving them. Like he doesn't share anything that could jeopardize the investigation of course, but he has been
keeping them in the loop step by grueling step which has given them like all along this sense of like yes,
Cheryl's case is actually being actively worked by one of the best. Yes. Which is
like what so many families want. And in all honesty, this case is like his great
white whale and he really wants to solve it before he retires. And because of all
this transparency that he was giving them, Shane actually shared a 2005 email chain with us. It was between them and
Detective Bel or Detective Bel and Barbara. And in this, Detective Bel lists out all of the men who have been
excluded based on the DNA evidence, which at that time was 17 names deep. He even assures them that in this list, the
infamous railroad killer, Raphael Rescendez, has been ruled out thanks to Cotus. Now, just for clarification, like
no one has placed this guy in Houston at the time of the murders, as far as I know, but like I know he was in the
state in July of 91 when he killed a man in San Antonio. And that's like 3 and 1/2 hours away from Houston, but like
duh, he's the railroad killer, right? Like dude got around. I don't have any context about like how or why or when he
slid onto like the investigation's radar. So, giant grain of salt here. I was just like I was surprised to see his
name on that list. I thought it was worth mentioning. But here's his name of people who were ruled out. They're
they're obviously trying. They're working hard. By 2007 though, Detective Bel has come to terms with the fact that
his dreams of solving the case before he retires actually might elude him. He's been with HPD by that point for 20
years. and like it's his time. So he turns in his badge and gun admitting like this kind of defeat for him like
his great white whale got away. So to be a fly on the wall when his phone rings the very next week and
he's told that this could be it. They finally got a hit in Cotus after all these years. Except there's always an
accept, right? Yeah, the hit isn't a person that they've linked to his case. They've
linked his case to another case. A brutal like with a capital B sexual assault case also there in Houston. So,
this guy is still there. Not so fast. The sexual assault wasn't recent. In fact, it happened 2 months before Cheryl
and Andy were killed. I'm sorry. The backlog is that deep. I have no idea why, but the victim's
sexual assault kit was never processed for 17 I was going to say four almost decades. Yes. And it wasn't the only one
sitting untested either. I mean, far from it, although that's like a whole another podcast. The good news in that
one though is the victim in that sexual assault case was still alive when detectives went and tracked her down in
Galveastston County. And she tells them her story is so basically she got off work as a dancer at a club at around
2:00 in the morning one morning in June of 1990. According to reporting by Lindsay Wise in the Houston Chronicle,
she was staying at her pilot boyfriend's place and he was off like flying a plane
somewhere. So, she came home to an empty house, apartment, whatever. Or at least
it should have been empty. So, she walks in, kicks off her shoes, has a bite to eat downstairs, and then heads upstairs
to go to bed. And that's when this man lunged out at her from a dark room. I mean, it is the stuff of actual
nightmares. And here, I think the best thing to do is just have you read an account from Wise's reporting.
[Music] The man wore a fishnet stocking over his face, black gloves, and a dark shirt and
pants that matched, possibly a uniform. He held a long-barreled handgun in his left hand. "Where's Randy?" he asked,
referring to her boyfriend by name. He taunted her, putting the gun to her head and cocking it. He bound her hands
behind her back with gray duct tape before taking cash from her purse. He then duct taped her eyes and mouth shut,
threw her on the bed, and shoved a bag or pillowcase over her head. Like, you know what happens next? When the whole
thing was over, he forced her down onto the floor and told her that she better stay there because he might be gone in
minutes. He might not be, and it would be bad for her, basically, if she like got up while he was still there. So,
when she finally does work up the courage to get up, she finds that her phone line had been disconnected. So,
when they're piecing this together from this victim, like 17 years later, there's something like weird that
pops out in her interview because they learn that she had actually worked for Andy's dad, Garland. And this is at a
different club than I believe that she like the one at the time. But guess who worked as a bouncer at Garland's club
every so often? Andy. There was also this mention in KOU that the first victim said the perp had this quote like
very forceful military type stance. So people start to wonder if maybe maybe this guy was a bouncer, maybe he was a
security guard like Andy. Is there a reason though? I mean to me it's just as likely that he was a customer at the
club. No, totally. I mean, I think I think the reason they're coming up with this is like the combo of like the dark
or uniform like clothes, but I mean like absolutely he could have just been a customer or maybe he wasn't part of the
club scene at all. I don't know. Except as far as investigators are concerned, the possible connections only get
stronger when they factor in that Cheryl had worked at another club for a short period of time. Like she and a close
friend had applied to be bartenders or like cocktail waitresses or whatever. Like I say it was like kind of like a
mutual dare. I'm sorry. There's no way that all of this is coincidental. That's what I thought too. Like the suspect
pool just got like so small. And so the media goes wild with this when they find
out. However, like all these years on there hasn't been anyone in particular that has popped out from that scene or
whatever. And actually, Cheryl's family swears that too much has been made of this whole thing. Shane told us that
Cheryl worked like a few shifts the summer before she was killed at a club. So, like this is like a year plus prior
and she decided really fast it like just wasn't for her. Okay, so that part might
be coincidental. But when this guy attacked the first girl, he was looking for her boyfriend. Calls him out by
name. Maybe Cheryl and Andy's attack was about Andy, possibly, except there's something that confuses me about that.
So, the dancer, the thing I haven't told you, she got a good look at the guy, like albeit he had like a smooshed face
because of what he was wearing. She definitely heard his voice, but she didn't recognize him either. Like, not
as an employee at the club, not as like a regular customer. In fact, she tells HPD that she had always assumed her
attacker was someone from a moving company that she had beef with. So, who knows? What we do know is she sits down
with HPD's forensic artist. She has a composite sketch drawn of the man that she can still picture all these years
later. She says he's tall. He has olive skin, dark hair. And as Michelle Homer and Sherman Chow report, she thinks he
was somewhere in his like late 20s, maybe early to mid30s. Hold up. How old was that security guard that found
Andy's car? Uniform military stand. I'm always skeptical of security guards who are like the first on the scene. So, and
HPD was too. Like he was actually one of the guys who was ruled out with DNA. So,
probably one of the first, I would assume. So, not him. But whoever this guy is who attacked our first victim and
then Cheryl and Andy, he's a ghost. The sketch that's published in 2008 doesn't generate any promising leads. And that
in 2008 was the last real update in this baffling case. So when everything with Lake Waco basically unraveled, did
anyone go back to see if there like could have been a connection? if they did, that was never like reported. It
never made it into reporting. And keep in mind, like just how much Lake Waco unraveled is in the eye of the beholder.
And if the beholder is the great state of Texas, it never unraveled at all. Like sure, Munir Dee won his appeal. He
was acquitted at a retrial, but the convictions of the other three defendants were upheld. And the official
party line is that they all died in prison, guilty men, including David Spence, who was executed in 97 for his
supposed involvement. And if you remember, like there have been a few attempts pushed by
like private parties to test DNA evidence in the Lake Waco case, which there is DNA evidence in the Lake Waco
case, but all of those have either been unsuccessful or have stalled for reasons
that are like too convoluted to get in here. Again, go listen to the episode. The long and the short of it is, as far
as I can tell, no DNA profiles from Lake Waco have ever been entered into Cotus.
I don't even know if they were fully processed cuz again, there was no COTUS when Andy and Cheryl were murdered. Lake
Waco was even years before that. And at that point, it was closed. Yeah. And to me, to me, this is like baffling and I
can't even understand why they wouldn't. But but this goes back to like the whole first case where it's like
they they want to be right more than they want to find the truth. Mhm. But Cheryl and Andy's case, this case is
still unsolved today. Before you ask, yes, they have considered genetic genealogy. It might even be in the works
or not IGG exactly. A lot of reporting seems to conflate familial DNA with genetic genealogy. And the HPD declined
to give us a comment. So like I couldn't get a ton of clarity to be exact. They told us they had to respectfully decline
to comment due to the sensitivity of the investigation, but they didn't elaborate
on that choice of words. So, we tried reaching Detective Bel, too, who was retired. We couldn't get a hold of him.
And in all the years, like since Belk left, I think things have kind of broken down between HPD and Cheryl's family.
So, they're not even in the inner circle at the moment, which to me doesn't feel
like an option. like you don't have to be on the inner circle, but I think they deserve a yes or no. Like, are you using
this new technology to solve my family member's case or not? That seems like it should be a basic right for a family to
get. Now, I mentioned earlier that Garland passed away super recently. When I read his obituary, I had to
like it was tough to get through because like he when his final wishes are mentioned, including his wish to be
buried next to his son back home in North Carolina, like it's it's tough. And I mentioned that because I think it's easy
for people to overlook just how radically the loss of a child, especially in like such a horrific way,
impacts like every last second of your life for your afterlife, too. Like whatever you think that is. Like his
final wishes were his testament to that. Like that like it it literally followed
him to his grave. Once you've become the parent of a murdered child, like there is no unbecoming it. you have joined the
worst club on earth and you're like stuck. And of course, it goes so far beyond the parents, too. Like, I mean,
take Shane and her younger twin brother and sister, Chris and Meredith. They're 12 years younger than Cheryl, 9 years
younger than Shane. And Shane says that the second that she and Cheryl met them,
and I say met like, you know, they're newborns, you know what I mean? But the second they met them, it was just like
kismmet. They had like found each other's soulmates, she said. Like, that's how it felt. Cheryl ran straight
toward baby Chris and Shane ran straight toward baby Meredith. And from that day
on, that's like how it was. Cheryl and Chris, Shane and Meredith until one day it wasn't. And it devastates Shane to
know that Chris lost who was his soulmate that day in 1990. It's just like it's just unfair. It's so and it
just feels like it's the wrong word to use for this, but like so unfair. So, I'm going to close out this
episode with the same plea that I make at the end of every unsolved case. Someone out there knows something.
Confess to someone or has confessed to or someone out there can do something. If that's you, Crime Junkies, please
call the Houston Crimestoppers tip line at 7132228477. Garland Atinson died without
ever finding answers or justice or peace. But maybe the loved ones who are still alive today won't have to. In
honor of Andy and Cheryl, we made a donation to the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. We're
going to link out to them in the show notes, and we encourage anyone who can to do the same. You can find all the
source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkypodcast.com. You can also follow us on Instagram,
CrimeJunk Podcast. We'll be back with a brand new episode. But don't forget, you
can find all of our episodes on our wide feed, Crime Junkie Podcast, wherever you
listen to podcasts. [Music]

What happened in the unsolved "Lovers Lane" murders of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson in Houston, Texas on August 23, 1990? Last seen after a night out, Cheryl, 22, and Andy, 21, were found deceased in a secluded area off Enclave Parkway in west Houston—Cheryl hidden under boards and Andy tied to a tree. Key details include the white Honda Civic, a $20 bill, a turquoise dress, and golf clubs left at the scene. We discuss the DNA evidence possibly connecting this to another 1990 sexual assault, an anonymous letter offering the killer’s identity for $100,000, and the ongoing pursuit of justice by the Houston Police Department, the Houston Chronicle, and the victims’ families, including Shane Henry and Garland Atkinson. Join us as we recount this enduring cold case and its unanswered questions, and hopefully someone listening might have a clue that could help solve this mystery.

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Check out these other great crime channels: @KendallRae She Faked Cancer, Ran A Ponzi Scheme & Committed Murder: The Case Of Michael & Natalie Cochran https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vencyYcZPo @christinaarandall Wow! The Case Has Been REOPENED! & Pastor JP Millers Girlfriend Allegedly This Admitted Under Oath! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPLyj2G3MY4 @LawAndCrime 'Possessed' TikToker Killed Mom, Daughters in Crosswalk: Cops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R__mwTiOD7s @LawyerYouKnow Was This the Biggest Win for #KarenRead So Far? Big George Weighs In On Karen Read's Week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ttQJbdiCk @FormanLaw How to Nail a Witness on Perjury Charges? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TECPIoK7klM

Brief Summary

The cold case of Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry remains unsolved after their brutal murders in Houston in 1990.

Key points

The Haunting Cold Case. The story of Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry, a brutal cold case that still haunts Houston.
A Disturbing Discovery. Cheryl's purse is found in an abandoned car, raising alarms about her disappearance.
Lipstick Evidence. Cigarette butts with lipstick lead to unsettling implications about Cheryl's last moments.
The Gruesome Find. Cheryl's body is discovered, revealing the horrific details of her murder.
A Crime Scene Unfolds. Cheryl's family learns the shocking truth as investigators declare the area a crime scene.
The Mysterious Letter. In early 2001, detectives receive a strange letter demanding $100,000 for information on a murder case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

But cold doesn't mean unsolvable.

Introduction to the case of Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry.

0:06WatchApr 3, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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