The Lovers Lane Murder: Who Killed a Young Texas Couple in 1990? By KC Baker

On Aug. 22, 1990, Cheryl Henry, 22, and Garland Andrew “Andy” Atkinson, 21, had plans for a fun evening out together.

Cheryl and her sister first met Andy at Bayou Mama’s nightclub in Houston that night, according to the Houston Police Department. Cheryl and Andy later said goodbye to her sister and headed to an area known to locals as Lovers Lane, off of Enclave Parkway.

That was the last time her sister, Shane Craig, spoke to either of them.

When Cheryl failed to show up for work the next day, Craig became worried. So did her mother, who called the police.

“I didn’t know what I knew right then,” Craig told ABC 13 . “But I knew something was wrong. She had just started that job. She loved it too much to ever just not show up.”

The next day, a security guard made a shocking discovery during a random patrol when he came upon Andy’s lifeless body tied to a tree and nearly decapitated, police said, KHOU reported.

Cheryl’s body was found nearby.

Both suffered stab wounds to the throat and died at the scene, police said. Autopsy results also confirmed that Cheryl had been sexually assaulted.

Police immediately launched an investigation into the killings, searching for whoever stole the lives of the happy young couple.

According to KHOU, investigators told Andy’s father that Cheryl was killed first.

“He was tied to a tree and listened to her scream, listened to her being murdered knowing that they were going to do the same thing to him and he couldn’t do anything about it,” Garland Atkinson told the outlet. “That’s hard to accept.”

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The killer used golf clubs and golf balls found in Andy’s car to point the way to Cheryl’s body, which was hidden under a pile of boards, police said, per the outlet.

A $20 bill was found near her body, police said.

“I have gotten sick to my stomach thinking of what they endured,” Craig told KHOU.

The case went cold for years until 2008 when Houston police released a composite sketch of a man they believe killed the young couple.

Using the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), investigators were able to match DNA at the Enclave Parkway scene with DNA from a sexual assault at 7826 Terra Cotta Drive in Houston on June 20, 1990, police said in a news release at the time.

“The suspect’s actions in the Terra Cotta attack and what is known from Enclave Parkway are similar and considered crucial to the ultimate identification of the suspect,” the release states, adding that in the Terra Cotta incident, the victim was robbed and sexually assaulted, but in Enclave Parkway neither victim was robbed.

FBI profilers said in a report obtained by KHOU that the suspect may have known the couple.

The case remains unsolved as of 2025.

Anyone with information on either attack or related incidents is asked to contact the HPD Homicide Division Cold Case Squad at 713-308-3600.