Ashley Flowers (3:45)

I'm your host Ashley Flowers.

Britt (3:47)

And I'm Britt.

Ashley Flowers (3:48)

And the story I have for you today is one of Houston's most brutal cold cases. One that still haunts the city to this day. But as we crime junkies know, cold doesn't mean unsolvable. And hopefully that's where you all come in. This is the story of Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry SA when 19 year old Shane Henry pulls up to give her older sister Cheryl a ride to work on the morning of August 23, 1990, she does what most teenagers do in the pre cell 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 10am and it's a friend and a co worker 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 Atkinson. Like, Shane had actually been out with them, too. She dipped around 11 to give the lovebirds 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.

Britt (6:22)

But where's Andy?

Ashley Flowers (6:23)

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 persons 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 four 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, 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 Lovers 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. So in less than two weeks, Cheryl was actually planning on moving in with Shane, like they were gonna move in together. But until then, privacy was a hot commodity. So heading out to lovers lane checks out for the couple. But what the guard hadn't found anywhere near the car was Cheryl or Andy.

Britt (8:23)

So the security guy is like, what, rummaging through a random car he found? Like, that feels weird to me.

Ashley Flowers (8:29)

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.

Britt (8:54)

Those are all very bad signs, right?

Ashley Flowers (8:57)

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.

Britt (9:33)

Blood.

Ashley Flowers (9:34)

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.

Britt (9:46)

But how did the security guard miss that? I mean, wasn't he in the car?

Ashley Flowers (9:50)

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 91 1. 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 where they ask the front desk person to call 91 1. And then they wait and wait and wait for like 30 or 40 minutes, but no one shows up.

Britt (10:41)

What?

Ashley Flowers (10:41)

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.

Britt (10:53)

A response like, oh, there are two missing kids in a bloody car like that.

Ashley Flowers (10:57)

Yeah. So this army of cops and first responders get to work. They search with helicopters up in the sky. They have scent tracking canines on the ground, like the works. And a little after 11pm 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 daze 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 KHOU 11 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 corralling them towards their car, saying like, listen, we're so sorry but like, you, 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.

Chuck (12:32)

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Ashley Flowers (13:04)

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Britt (15:58)

When I hear all of that, my mind instantly goes to like the Lake Waco at all.

Ashley Flowers (16:03)

Right. I thought the same thing. And listen, for anyone who hasn't listened to our Lake Waco episode. So it was like a two parter that we did recently. I'll try and link out to it in the notes or 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.

Britt (16:30)

I was gonna ask about the timing.

Ashley Flowers (16:31)

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 and we can touch on this, the Waco stuff, maybe later. 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.

Britt (16:55)

And how far is he from where Cheryl was found?

Ashley Flowers (16:58)

I don't know exactly. I've seen like everything from like 75 yards to 150 yards. I don't know for sure. What I do know is that Jill Tyers 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 KHOU 11 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.

Britt (17:48)

Yeah.

Ashley Flowers (17:49)

Now, I think it's helpful at this point if we talk through the scene in terms of, like, 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 broad strokes 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.

Britt (18:16)

So theoretically, it could have just been one guy, but my money is on two.

Ashley Flowers (18:20)

That's something that investigators are going to debate for years. It could be either. I think, 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. 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.

Britt (18:52)

Right.

Ashley Flowers (18:53)

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 Khlu 11, 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.

Britt (19:29)

Did they get any biologics from the autopsies? Like, anything that they can get DNA from?

Ashley Flowers (19:34)

Yes. And yes. 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 higher ups to have evidence processed at this special lab that has the tech to detect DNA.

Britt (19:55)

Which has to be a long shot and super expensive.

Ashley Flowers (19:58)

Expensive. Right. You're not wrong. But you know the saying. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So Detective Belk decides to shoot his. And it works. He gets the okay, the lab hits pay dirt. They're able to build a suspect profile from the semen in Cheryl, but downside of early days. DNA. No database.

Britt (20:18)

There's nothing to compare it to.

Ashley Flowers (20:19)

Right. No amount of evidence is gonna 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 pique 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 him 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.

Britt (21:11)

What?

Ashley Flowers (21:12)

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.

Britt (22:17)

That's so weird. And kind of creepy.

Ashley Flowers (22:21)

Detectives think so, too. So does Barbara. Shane said she actually kind of got it she told us 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. The 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 gotta know this is gonna 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.

Britt (23:29)

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Ashley Flowers (25:30)

When the results come back, everyone is probably holding their breath, but Aaron is not a match.

Britt (25:38)

Okay, but if there was more than.

Ashley Flowers (25:41)

One killer, that's a big if, isn't it? 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 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 90s, the suspect profile does get entered into CODIS, when CODIS becomes a thing. But there are no hits in codis. And then activity on the case, it kind of just like ebbs and flows then throughout the years. Like, it picks up a little bit in the mid-90s when a reward is announced, but, like, nothing happens. It's just like dead end after dead end.

Britt (26:25)

And in all this time, there are no, like, really viable suspects.

Ashley Flowers (26:29)

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 gonna have you read it for us because, I mean, this is wild.

Britt (27:07)

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 31201 Only a lawyer will be hired to make sure you play straight. Anon and Hugh Chronicle Houston Chronicle is like the Houston Chronicle and Mun is Monday.

Ashley Flowers (27:35)

I think so. And Anon, I think, is just supposed to be anonymous. But it's weird, right?

Britt (27:40)

Please tell me they play along with this, though.

Ashley Flowers (27:42)

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 to do next kind of thing. Yeah, they keep all of this on the down low. Like, the public doesn't know a thing about this letter at the time. So, like, even when they publish their reply, the public 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 process 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 Belk, 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?

Britt (28:36)

Trust.

Ashley Flowers (28:37)

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. She's not 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, you know, 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 Belk or Detective Belk and Barbara. And in this, Detective Belk 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, Rafael Resendez, has been ruled out thanks to codis. 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, three and a half 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 on, 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 are ruled out. They're. They're obviously trying. They're working hard. By 2007, though, Detective Belk 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 this kind of defeat for him. Like his great white whale got away. But 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 CODIS after all these years. Except there's always an accept, right? 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.

Britt (31:03)

So this guy is still there.

Ashley Flowers (31:05)

Not so fast. The sexual assault wasn't recent. In fact, it happened two months before Cheryl and Andy were killed.

Britt (31:14)

I'm sorry, the backlog is that deep.

Ashley Flowers (31:17)

I have no idea why, but the victim's sexual assault kit was never processed. For 17 years.

Britt (31:25)

I was gonna say four. Almost decades.

Ashley Flowers (31:27)

Yes. And it wasn't the only one sitting untested either. I mean, far from it. Although that's like a whole nother podcast. Now, the good news in this, though, is the victim in that sexual assault case was still alive while when detectives went and tracked her down in Galveston County. Her story is. So basically, she got off work as a dancer at a club at around 2 o'clock 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. Yeah, and here I think the best thing to do is just. Have you read an account from Wise's reporting?

Britt (32:21)

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. Then he duct taped her eyes and mouth shut, threw her on the bed, and shoved a bag or pillowcase over her head.

Ashley Flowers (32:54)

When the whole thing was over, he forced her down onto the floor and told her that she better stay there 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 daughter, 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 KHOU 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.

Britt (33:50)

Is there a reason, though? I mean, to me, it's just as likely that he was a customer at the club.

Ashley Flowers (33:55)

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, they said it was like, kind of like a mutual dare.

Britt (34:25)

I'm sorry, there's no way that all of this is coincidental.

Ashley Flowers (34:29)

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. 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.

Britt (35:00)

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?

Ashley Flowers (35:13)

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 smushed 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 scheme 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 mid-30s.

Britt (36:02)

Hold up. How old was that security guard that found Andy's car? Uniform, military, state.

Ashley Flowers (36:09)

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.

Britt (36:37)

So when everything with Lake Waco basically unraveled, did anyone go back to see if there, like, could have been a connection?

Ashley Flowers (36:46)

If they did, 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 Deeb 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 codis. I don't even know if they were fully processed, because, again, there was no CODIS when Andy and Cheryl were murdered. Lake Waco is even years before that.

Britt (37:48)

And at that point, it was closed.

Ashley Flowers (37:50)

Yeah, and to me, this is, like, baffling, and I can't even understand why they wouldn't. But this goes back to, like, the whole first case, where it's like, they want to be right more than they want to find the truth. 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. And actually, to be exact, they told us they had to respectfully decline to comment due to the sensitivity of the investigation. They didn't elaborate on that choice of words. So we tried reaching Detective Belk, 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, oh, it was tough to get through because, like, when his final wishes are mentioned, including his wish to be buried next to his son back home in North Carolina, like, oh, 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 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, nine 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 kismet. 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 Mary. 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. And it just feels like it's the wrong word to use for this, but, like, so unfair. So I'm gonna close out this episode with the same plea I make at the end of every unsolved case. Someone knows something confessed to someone or was confessed too. And if that's you crime junkies, please call the Houston Crimestoppers tip line at 713-222-8477. Garland Atkinson 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'll link out to them in the show notes. We encourage anyone who can to do the same. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com.

Britt (41:31)

Youm can also follow us on Instagram @crimejunkie podcast.

Ashley Flowers (41:34)

We'll be back next next week with another episode. Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

D (42:22)

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Ashley Flowers (42:54)

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