Mocity, I'm sorry for your loss, and I truly hope one day justice is served for Cheryl and Andy. Your families deserve it too.
Up until 1985, I used to live not far from where this took place. I know the area well as our family lived there for about 11 years, moving when our oldest was still in middle school. The crime from and in nearby apartments convinced us it was time to move.
Fast forward a couple of years, and we hear from friends still living in our old neighborhood that their 13 year old daughter had been raped at knife point one night while the family and the family dog slept. The rapist had come in through the daughter's bedroom window. She was told he'd kill her if she made a peep. I was horrified. This happened a long time ago, and the memory came back while I was sitting here reading this thread.
Now I sit here wondering if the person who raped our friends' daughter could possibily have been the same person who later killed Cheryl and Andy? I hope HPD considered the possibility,but who knows. I do know a rape kit was used, but I never heard if the person responsible was ever caught. If not, HPD should compare the dna from the two cases. This happened not 3 1/2 miles from where your sister and her boyfriend were murdered.
Before we left that neighborhood, we had a small scare ourselves one evening. My husband, myself and our two youngest went for a walk in the neighborhood toward dusk. As we walked down one of the blocks, darkness had settled in, and a car passed us, and turned at the end of the block. Less than a minute passed, and here came that same car again, this time slowing down, in an apparent attempt to observe us. It had circled the block. I had learned somewhere that when someone unknown is watching you, it's best if you let them know you see them too, so I stared back at the dark, gray car's occupants, but it was really too dark to see their faces or discern anything else about them. The car held at least 3 males. It drove off again, and I had a sickening, creeped-out feeling wash over me. Told my husband and kids we needed to hide in some tall, thick bushes that happened to be in someone's front yard one house away. We did, and sure enough, here came that car again, but when it didn't see us it sped straight away. We stayed hidden in case it came around again on a longer circling route, but it didn't so we scurried home, a few blocks away.
Our old neighborhood was nice, lots of families with children, but when the HUD apartments went up at Kirkwood and Briar Forest, it became a scarier place. My husband knew some HPD officers, and they told us those apartments were as bad as any in all of Houston, murder, rape, meth labs, prostitution, pedofiles, you name it, they had it all.
I'm going to go back, reread, and hopefully ask some pertinent questions.