TX TX - Cheryl Henry, 22, & Andy Atkinson, 21, Houston, 21 Aug 1990

[Eva01]

Do they submit DNA to other databases besides CODIS? For example, I think ancestry.com has dna profiles from people who voluntarily submit to find relatives. I believe there are 3 databases like that, but don't quote me. I believe they said there were over a million DNA files in it. They had a story about finding a mother to a child who had been abandoned. They found DNA to a cousin in the database, and were able to get to the mom that way. It is probably a long shot, but you never know.

 

[Eva01]

I have been spending the last couple of hours reading this thread and I am so sorry that two young people lost their lives in such a cruel way. My condolences to the families of both Cheryl and Andy.



Although I quote Eva01 this post is directed at you, Mocity. I think you should take up Eva's offer of help from students, even if you don't know exactly which piece of the puzzle that you need help with. Perhaps just give all the information you have to the students and let them form their own picture? Or let them dig through all the newspaper articles and compile the known information? It seems like a lot of links to articles no longer work, and if someone could dig back and find the texts it would be valuable.

2016 is almost finished. Let's hope 2017 is the year the murderer/murderers are brought to justice.

Thanks. I will check with the administrators to see if they can provide direction on specific needs. Since this is not my area of expertise, I would need specific tasks for the students to do. They can certainly review and provide insight or another set of eyes to the public information. If the family is trying to keep the case to stay in the public eye, students can certainly resend press releases to media. We can also rewrite press releases with an angle that makes it relevant to media. I just need specific tasks that need to be done.

 

[Eva01]

Thanks Billie. Would definitely accept any help from anyone that is offered and can pull together articles as needed. However, our family doesn't know anything that isn't now available to the public. I think sometimes people on these boards think LE tells the family everything they know......,,,, they don't. At this point this is a old cold case so I think they have released most of the information.

I would be happy to have students pull together all the information available on the web and put it one place. Is that what you are talking about?

 

[Eva01]

Justice at Last
Arrest in 19-Year-Old Cold Case
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Have they ruled out Dennis Earl Bradford? He attacked an 8 year old, cut her throat and left her to die in August of 1990. The victim who was raped stated he may have had a mustache.

What about DNA left on Andy? If there was two attackers, maybe there was different DNA left. In the Dennis Earl case they lifted the DNA using a special method.

 

[Eva01]

Yes it was a area for everyone to go and hang out, listen to music, meet up with friends and drink some. When I spoke of it to police it all of a sudden became a "lovers lane" which it really wasn't. That was going in most likely but it was more of a hanging out place.


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Did a security guard or HPD find the empty car? The rape victim stated he may have been wearing a uniform. If the security guard was not a suspect, did they check into co-workers? I know what you mean about the place being a hangout. While we thought the spots where secret, looking back the hangout often brought people who I didn't know or go to school with. I'm not sure if I went to the Enclave, but I know that was the case for the end of Richmond, or EOR as it was called..

 

[mocity]

Funny you know the same spots we did. End of Richmond, SRO fields, half circle, Grady park, etc. A security guard from the office building next to the street where they were parked called it in. He was questioned and not a suspect.


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[Eva01]

Funny you know the same spots we did. End of Richmond, SRO fields, half circle, Grady park, etc. A security guard from the office building next to the street where they were parked called it in. He was questioned and not a suspect.


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What about a co-worker? If I remember, there was always trash left behind. Even though the streets were empty, the lots still had to be maintained, so owners must have had to pay for clean up. I imagine security guards from that building made sure the hangouts didn't make there way to the office building. So what about someone from a different shift?

 

[BillieL]

I would be happy to have students pull together all the information available on the web and put it one place. Is that what you are talking about?

Yes, exactly. But I am no expert on this so so it would be great to get some advice from more experienced sleuthers. Perhaps the moderator could assist?

 

[mocity]

I would be happy to have students pull together all the information available on the web and put it one place. Is that what you are talking about?

That would be great but I wouldn't ask you to do that.


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[mocity]

What about a co-worker? If I remember, there was always trash left behind. Even though the streets were empty, the lots still had to be maintained, so owners must have had to pay for clean up. I imagine security guards from that building made sure the hangouts didn't make there way to the office building. So what about someone from a different shift?

I'll ask about it. However the detective doesn't know us from Adam now that it has shifted so many times and Houston is such a large place. I am keeping a list of some questions and will go to him with them.


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[BillieL]

Mocity -do you or any member of your family keep in touch with Andys family? The reason I ask is because it would be interesting to hear their perspective too.

 

[Roselvr]

Thanks Billie. Would definitely accept any help from anyone that is offered and can pull together articles as needed. However, our family doesn't know anything that isn't now available to the public. I think sometimes people on these boards think LE tells the family everything they know......,,,, they don't. At this point this is a old cold case so I think they have released most of the information.

Hi Mocity I'm an advocate that helps a few families with missing loved ones. I've set up FB pages that they now run to get their cases out there. One Eric Franks will be on Disappeared when it starts back up. I've been trying to figure out how to submit his case to the show for 2 years. No clue how they found it except they searched for missing persons with certain criteria. His case is very solvable.

Best advice I have for you, as you know LE can only do so much. Families have to take it upon themselves to keep the public aware, Facebook is the best way to do that. I can point you to a few of my pages so you can see how I set the narrative up, I include all of the links I can plus any screen shots or photos of articles. It's very important to location tag photos. You would surely want to get the sketch out there. You can also log in as the page and share things like the sketch to local PD's FB pages. You may even want to make a flier with as much info as you can. Have someone make a local map then put Cheryl and Andy with as much info as you can from that article or what you know so far, maybe have the class do some research to see if there were any other rapes within a 50 mile radius. See if homicide detective Billy Belk is still around. You can also look into ordering their file with Freedom of information act.

The victim reported she had left her job at GiGi's about 2 a.m. June 20, 1990, and returned to her boyfriend's house at 7826 Terra Cotta. Her boyfriend, a commercial pilot, was traveling, so she ate takeout alone in the living room.

Henry had worked at a similar club, Rick's Cabaret, on Bering. Atkinson occasionally worked the door at Dreams Street, a club on Winrock managed by his father.

Now, for the first time, investigators are considering the possibility the man who attacked them frequented or worked at local strip clubs.

Yep. The DNA from the 1990 rape victim wasn't matched to Cheryl's until 2008.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...help-break-notorious-Lover-s-Lane-1635849.php

There was some forensic testing done but I think it basically said "white male".

There is other testing they can do on the DNA, it's a new technology called DNA phenotyping to possibly build the rapists face from his DNA. I'm not sure how expensive it is. You can read about it here

Aurora releases DNA-generated composite of suspect in 1984 slaughter of Bennett family - Parabon specializes in DNA phenotyping. It creates images that help police identify possible suspects of unsolved crimes.

Building a Face, and a Case, on DNA

Thanks. I will check with the administrators to see if they can provide direction on specific needs. Since this is not my area of expertise, I would need specific tasks for the students to do. They can certainly review and provide insight or another set of eyes to the public information. If the family is trying to keep the case to stay in the public eye, students can certainly resend press releases to media. We can also rewrite press releases with an angle that makes it relevant to media. I just need specific tasks that need to be done.

Basically, Websleuths is just a tool for people to work various cases whether missing, John or Jane Does or unsolved cases such as this. There really isn't anyone to ask what's needed until someone familiar with this case steps up to organize something. The best person for that is Mocity.

 

[mocity]

Mocity -do you or any member of your family keep in touch with Andys family? The reason I ask is because it would be interesting to hear their perspective too.

Not really. My sister does speak his Dad on occasion.


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[Snoods]

Mocity, check out this article about forensic genealogy. This is a peek at the future of DNA and the future is now!

The man accused in Phoenix’s “Canal Killer” case may have his ancestors to blame for his 2015 arrest.

Records show forensic genealogy was key in leading police to Bryan Patrick Miller, a man now facing a death-penalty trial in the early 1990s slayings of Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas.

Using a method with little precedent in the world of criminal justice, a California genealogist named Colleen Fitzpatrick handed police what would amount to a case-busting lead: the suspect’s last name.

“The name Miller came up in my analysis,” Fitzpatrick wrote in an email that she later forwarded to investigators.

Miller, a now-44-year-old father, was arrested within weeks of Fitzpatrick’s emails with police. His trial is scheduled to begin April 28.

Police had long held samples of crime-scene DNA they believed belonged to the killer, and Miller had remained in Phoenix for much of his adult life. But as investigators often bemoan, a DNA sample is useful only if you have a suspect's sample against which to compare it.

The first crime occurred in November 1992, when 22-year-old Angela Brosso failed to return home from a bike ride. Police soon would find her headless body near 25th Avenue and Cactus Road, and her head in the Arizona Canal several days later.

Ten months later, 17-year-old Melanie Bernas would face a chillingly similar fate. In September 1993, the high school student also had been out on a bike ride before her apparent abduction. Her body, which was discovered the next day, also was found in the canal.

After months of speculation, police confirmed what the community had feared. The two murders were connected by a single suspect’s DNA.

Over the years, it is likely officials had run the suspect’s DNA through databases such as CODIS, a national repository for the profiles of known criminal offenders. But because Miller had never been to prison, his DNA profile would not have been included in this database.

Read the whole article, it's fascinating.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...iller-case-bryan-patrick-miller-dna/94565410/

 

[mocity]

Mocity, check out this article about forensic genealogy. This is a peek at the future of DNA and the future is now!

Read the whole article, it's fascinating.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...iller-case-bryan-patrick-miller-dna/94565410/

Thanks so much Snoods. I have reached out to my stepmother to find out if anyone has talked to her about this. I am waiting a response from her!

 

[B4igo2it]

A little more info in a news story in 2014 snipped, "There has been some progress on the case in recent years. The Harris County Sheriff's Department says it has linked the grisly murders to another unsolved rape and burglary that was committed months before the Lover's Lane murders, but the case remains unsolved."
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/houstons-creepiest-unsolved-murder-mysteries-6738308

A couple of years ago, a group of sleuthers were putting together a listing of cases throughout the Houston area, started off with the Killing Fields, Clear Lake area, Jessica Cain, etc. I will put that link in tomorrow as it is late now, there may be some helpful information to obtain from cases during this time period.

This sounds like a hate crime, and I suspect more than one person responsible too.. I often think of knife assaults related to latino/central american players and I wonder if the "White" DNA would also include nationality as that is the way they are entered into the crime data base JIMS reports by RACE as WHITE. See http://www.jims.hctx.net/jimshome/jimsreports/jims1058.htm

I am so sorry for your loss. I lost my sister 11 months ago, I know the pain.

 

[mocity]

Nothing new but the Houston Chronicle (paper) posted an article. No mention to families but I guess we take what we can get. Cheryl is #35

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...ve-one-of-these-terrifying-Texas-10934540.php

 

[TXCrimeHistory]

This is my first post to WS.

My name is Mick Stewart and I went to school with Cheryl Henry ( Clements High School, Sugar Land, Texas ), 1983-85. Like other Clements students who knew Cheryl, a wonderful cherub, sweet-hearted we were absolutely shocked to first hear then read about the double murder. I was working part-time law enforcement in Fort Bend County and remember the area quite well ( we all did ) as it was a seminal right-of-passage for high school and college students to drive out there and park. My heart goes out to the family. As Clements alum we still talk about her overtime we meet. She is not forgotten.

 

[TXCrimeHistory]

Lets hope that this latest Houston Chronicle post is the light we need to solve this murder.

 

[mocity]

This is my first post to WS.

My name is Mick Stewart and I went to school with Cheryl Henry ( Clements High School, Sugar Land, Texas ), 1983-85. Like other Clements students who knew Cheryl, a wonderful cherub, sweet-hearted we were absolutely shocked to first hear then read about the double murder. I was working part-time law enforcement in Fort Bend County and remember the area quite well ( we all did ) as it was a seminal right-of-passage for high school and college students to drive out there and park. My heart goes out to the family. As Clements alum we still talk about her overtime we meet. She is not forgotten.

Thanks Mick for posting! I am Cheryl's stepsister. I appreciate your message will pass along to my stepmom and stepsister as they will love to hear this too.