Cheryl Henry & Andy Atkinson

Warning, This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as talk of sexual assault. It may be sensitive for some listeners. Hey guys, welcome back to Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. I first want to start off by saying, I hope you all have a fantastic holiday. I very much appreciate each and every one of you, and this podcast has literally been a game changer for me this year. It has helped me in more ways than I'll ever be able to express, I'll ever be able to tell it honestly, has saved me in so many ways, and I am so glad and so grateful for all of the people that are here along on this journey. So I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, celebrating with your family, with your friends. And we are going to go ahead and get right in to right now in true Crime, we have a few different things to talk about. So first thing I want to talk about is finally, after all of this time, they have finally released the remains of Tyler Ryan back to the next of kin, which in this case is her brother Colby. And after all of this time, that is a huge blessing and we are so happy to be able to report that it is officially happening. Now that everything is set in motion, set in stone for Chad's trial, they can start with the process of trying to heal and process everything that has happened in their family. And having Tiley's remains back home is a really really important step in that JJ's remains were released back in October, so it's good that they are both now officially going to be back where they belong. In Idaho News, the state has motion to set Brian Coberger's trial for the summer of twenty twenty four. Of course, nothing has come out yet in regards to if they will do that, but that is what the state is pushing, and I'm hoping that it happens because it needs to happen asap, and we can just cross our fingers that all of that ends up happening and they can start this trial and again get things into motion so these families can start to process and heal and start the process of getting justice for these four innocent kids who were taken from this earth in the most brutal way possible in their own home. Awful, horrible, and it will be one trial that I think is going to be like really really prevalent in our day and age, Like when you think back to the oj Simpson trial and how everyone was just glued to that, It's going to be like that for a lot of people. It's just going to be such a wide spectacle. And you're talking about a quadruple homicide of four students, college students. I feel like it's going to be a big deal for a lot of people, and getting justice for the four of them is really all that matters at the end of the day. So something else interesting that came out was a boy who is named Alex Batty. He is now seventeen years old, but he went missing six years ago. He has resurfaced. So basically what happened was he was taken on a holiday by his mother and grandfather into that twenty seventeen and never returned and he has been missing for those six years. He has been living in Spain and France since then. And he said that for the first few years away from being at his home which he lived with his grandmother, he said, everything was just like a vacation and he spent most of his time reading, drawing, and going to the beach. And he said after he turned fourteen, he said that he felt like he started needing to pick up his own slack to pay for food and rent by working in construction, demolition and decoration. And then he said, around this time he began to start thinking about going back and going back to England. And I don't even think he realized what was going on. He was young. And he also said he had a non existent social life and he only made one friend during the six years that he was gone. And he said when he decided to leave France to try to reach England, he wrote a note to his mother and told her how much he loved her and how much he appreciated what she has done for him, and that he didn't want her to worry about him. He took a jacket, his skateboard and some money and food and left in the middle of the night. And he was found and he is back in England and he is happy and healthy, and he says he still loves his mother and his grandfather and says that he is sorry for leaving, but it was necessary for him in his future. I'm confused, Like not really, I'm not confused, like I understand what happened, Like they obviously took him away, like kidnapped him in a way, I guess so to say, But I don't know if there was like an official like missing missing persons for him, I feel like he would be pretty recognizable. I don't know, like the details surrounding the disappearance, like he obviously went on holiday with his family and then never came back. I don't know. It's interesting, but he took it upon himself to go back. I don't even think he knew that he was considered missing. I don't know. It's interesting. He's now seventeen years old. He is back living in England with his grandmother. I don't know where things stand as far as the mother and the grandfather, if they are going to be facing charges if it was officially kidnapping, because the laws are different than they are in the United States, so I don't know the legalities with all of that, how it works. I don't know if the grandmother is the one that had a custody. I don't know any of that. But it's interesting that after all of that time, six years later he just went back home and that was that, and now he's back home in England with his grandmother. So happy ending Nonetheless, it doesn't sound like he was tortured or suffered or being held captive or anything like that. It does sound like he did live a pretty lonely life while he was gone, But nonetheless, we are happy and glad that he is back home. So that is it for right now in True Crime. We are going to go ahead and get started with today's episode, which is going to be a doozy. I'm going to try to get it done in one part, but it might end up being a two parter because there's a lot to it and a lot to talk about. So let's dive right in. So today we're going to be talking about the double homicide of a couple, Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson. Cheryl was twenty two and Andy was twenty one, and this happened in Houston, and it's a story that I have always been familiar with. It's always kind of plagued me and bothered me because it seems like there is a lot of evidence that could lead us to the person who did this, but it's kind of been halted. So we're going to talk about everything that happened leading up to the double homicide, the discovery of the remains of Cheryl and Andy and everything that's kind of happened since. Because there's a lot of information to cover in this one, so we're gonna go ahead and dive into it. So the date is August twenty second of nineteen ninety and Cheryl and Andy had decided to go on a double date with Cheryl's younger sister, So it was Andy and Cheryl and Cheryl's younger sister and her date, and they had gone to a sports bar that was called by You Mama's. And after the double date ended, they had kind of gone their separate way. Cheryl and Andy went their way and then Cheryl's sister and her date went the other way. So after they left, Cheryl and Andy decided to go to a place that was dubbed Lover's Lane and it was in Houston. So this specific area was off of Enclave Parkway in Houston, and it was just kind of like a secluded, backwoodsy type area where couples would often go if they needed some alone time. I don't feel like things like this exist anymore. I feel like this stuff was super popular like back in the day. Maybe it still exists, And I'm super out of the loop. But now this area that was quote unquote Lovers Lane is now very built up and it is no longer a secluded, woodsy type area. And that is Houston for you, because everything is built up everywhere. So by the next morning, which was the morning of August twenty third, nobody had heard from Cheryl or Andy. Now Andy's grandmother had called his dad and Andy had lived with his grandmother and said, hey, Andy didn't come home last night. Andy's dad wasn't all that concerned. Andy was twenty one years old. He could stay out late if he wanted, he could not come home if he wanted, so he wasn't really too concerned. But shortly after that conversation, Cheryl's dad phoned Andy's dad and said that he hadn't seen or heard from Cheryl. And now Andy's dad was starting to grow concerned because he knew that Cheryl was very responsible and that if she hadn't come home and nobody had heard from her, that something likely was wrong. So they from there decided to phone the cops, and they went ahead and put in a missing person's report for Cheryl and a missing person's report for Andy. So somewhere in the midst of all of that happening, a security guard finds a abandoned car in the area of Lover's Lane. And when the car was first discovered, the keys were still in the nision. There was a tape in the take deck. This was still back when there was tape players and cars. I know, it's probably a foreign concept because that seems like such a long time ago, and it really was. But nineteen ninety, you asked me, nineteen ninety is like ten years ago. Forever in my heart and my soul, nineteen ninety is ten years ago. But there was a tape still in the tape deck, and there was also blood that was found on the interior of the car. So automatically, the person who found this car automatically is thinking not so great thoughts. And of course they see that the car is registered to Andy, and because he'd already been reported as a missing person, they kind of connected the dots that something horrible had happened to Andy and Cheryl. So from there law enforcement comes out. They go ahead and bring in a canine unit, and there are the dogs that are sniffing, and the dogs come across a golf club and three golf balls that were almost set in a pattern of like pointing at something kind of like an arrow would be I'm imagining like the golf club, and then the balls in like a triangleish shape to like point like an arrow shape. I guess, making like the tip of the arrow. That's what I'm picturing in my mind. And that setup was pointed towards an area in the nearby woods. So the dogs kind of guide the authorities into that area, and it ultimately ended up being about two hundred yards away from where the car was found. They found the body of Sheryl Henry and she was lying face down under some planks which had been kind of rotted, like rotted pieces of wood. She had been sexually assaulted. Her clothes had been cut off of her and they were just kind of thrown nearby. Her hands were bound behind her back, and she had been brutally murdered, her throat slashed, and it was a horrific, horrific, horrific scene. There was also a few deflated balloons that it looked like somebody had probably released balloons like helium balloons, and they had gotten kind of caught up in the trees and they were very deflated. That was found near her body. They do not believe that that was part of the crime scene. It just happened to be that's where they were. But then they also found a twenty dollars bill that was tossed on the ground near the body. So just kind of an odd way to find somebody, and the fact that there was seemingly like a clue as to where the body was. It's just kind of ear. You don't accidentally drop a golf club and balls in the shape of like pointing to a spot. You just don't. Nobody is that lucky. It was obviously placed there by the killer because this killer is a deranged psychopath. We're already gonna go there if this killer is a deranged psychopath. And they obviously wanted this to be found because I think they enjoyed the hunt and the kind of like cat and mouse game that they felt like they were going to be playing with police. So about fifty to one hundred yards away from where Cheryl was found, they found the body of Andy, and he also had his hands tied behind him. I've seen two conflicting reports. I've seen that he was seated with his hands tied behind him against a tree, or that he was tied to the tree, but either way, his hands were tied behind his back and his throat was slashed and trigger warning because this is violent as hell. His throat was slashed so much that his head was almost decapitated from his body. This is not a rookie killer. This is somebody that is a violent human and has probably done something like this before and is vicious, vicious, vicious. He was fully clothed, and automatically they tried to rule out scenarios of why they were targeted. It didn't appear that robbery was the motive. He still had money on him, he had a nice watch on Nothing seemed to be taken from the scene, so automatically they ruled out that it was a robbery gone wrong. The detectives that were working the case did believe that Cheryl had been murdered first, and Andy, unfortunately was tied to this tree and had to witness every single thing that happened to share all that night and had to witness her being killed. I cannot even freaking imagine this guy is a twenty one year old kid. I cannot even imagine the horror that he was feeling at that moment, I can only imagine that if he could have done something to help her, he would have. So it does go back to what I said earlier about him potentially being just sitting kneeled against the tree. It does make sense that he was tied to the tree because I feel like if he could have gotten away, he would have, And it makes a lot more sense that he was tied to the tree versus just being sitting by the tree. So, of course, first thing is first they are going to interview and talk to everyone that was close with the couple that knew them, their family, their friends, and they immediately are able to identify several suspects and they were able to recover some DNA from the crime scene. So they get that DNA and they ask all of their initial suspects for some DNA samples, and all of those people that provided DNA that were persons of interest initially were all cleared as not having anything to do with it because the DNA did not match. So from nineteen ninety to two thousand and two, this case goes cold. There is no new leads, there's not really a whole lot going on DNA wise, they haven't had anything come back up. So in two thousand and two, the DNA lab in Houston closed for a period of time, and I look this up because I was not privy to this information. So it closed from two thousand and two to two thousand and six after major flaws in testing procedures were revealed. An independent audit completed found that hundreds of evictions had been based on testing that was incomplete or may have been flawed. So a lot of the DNA testing that went on between those periods wasn't necessarily on the up and up. So that also added another layer to this investigation. So with all of this, they decided that they were going to retest all of the DNA samples, like hundreds of samples had to be retested because of this information that came out. So in two thousand and four, they did some independent testing on the DNA and they were able to find a match. There was a DNA sample that had been taken from Cheryl at the initial crime scene and they were able to match it to the DNA from an attack and rape on another woman that had occurred on June twentieth in nineteen ninety. So this attack would have happened a couple months before the attack on Cheryl and Andy, and this person survives. They are not named, but we are going to go ahead and talk about her story now because I feel like it's a really important one to talk about. And we need to realize that whoever did this is dangerous and we need to figure out who the hell it is before they strike again and again and again and again, if they haven't already. So two o'clock in the morning, June twentieth of nineteen ninety the victim she was an exotic dancer at a place called Gigi's, and she had returned to her boyfriend's house that night. He lived at seventy eight twenty six Terracotta Drive, which was in West Houston, not far from where Lover's Lane was actually, And she went ahead and went upstairs, and in the doorway of the master bedroom, she sees a man in a fishnet stalking mask, and you obviously can't tell like features because it distorts your face. And she said that he held a gun in his left hand, which means that he is a left handed person, and that is a clue in my opinion, And he said to her, where's Randy now? Randy was the name of the girl's boyfriend, so he obviously knew of her enough to know that her boyfriend was named Randy. So he then attacked her. He tried to threaten her life and say that he was going to kill her, and he tied her wrists with duct tape, put it over her mouth and her eyes. He shoved a pillow case over her head and then took the contents of her purse, and he then proceeded to sexually assault her and she did survive this. Surprisingly, he did not kill her. After he finished his assault, he threatened her and told her to lie on the floor and not move and threatened her with I might be here for a minute, I might be here for hours. Don't try to call the cops, or I'm going to kill you. You know, the usual song and dance that deranged psychopaths like to pull on their victims to gain control and put the fear of God into them. That is exactly what he did. The interesting part of this crime is her boyfriend easily could have been there too. He could have come home with her or been in the house, and this guy was like lying in wait, like obviously waiting for her to come home. Waiting for her in the bedroom, asking where Randy was. Like, he did his homework to a point and was able to gain access to the house and he knew enough about her to kind of personally ask her, you know, where is Randy. And we really don't know for sure if this girl was his first victim or not, but if it was, he very much enjoyed the fact that he was able to do that and get away with it, and just two months down the line, he decided that he was gonna mess with another couple and attack Cheryl and Andy at Lover's Lane. The victim of the initial crime did describe him as a white man in his mid thirties. Again, this was in nineteen ninety, about six feet tall, one hundred and eighty pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a possible mustache and olive skin. There is a composite sketch of him. We know for sure that his DNA is the same DNA that was found on Cheryl's body, so we can confirm that the person who killed Cheryl and Andy also attacked this woman. So there is a connection. Now, I do need to backtrack a little bit because I forgot about this little piece of information. Actually, I don't think the police released the information and right away, which is why it's kind of wonky on the timeline. But in two thousand and one, more than ten years after Cheryl and Andy were killed, there was a letter that had been postmarked in Houston and it was sent to HPD and whoever wrote this note said to investigators, if you want to know who killed c Henry and A. Atkinson, it will cost you one hundred thousand dollars. The note also had told the investigators to reply in the classified section of the March twelfth, two thousand and one, Houston Chronicle, and they warned the investigators that a lawyer will be hired to make sure you play straight. Well, first of all, you're obviously a deranged killer. And do you really think that a lawyer is going to represent you given the fact that you're a deranged killer and you're extorting money like you ain't playing with a full deck? I'll tell you that. And it's very Zodiac killer, right doesn't that just remind you of the Zodiac Killer in a way. But they did go ahead and answer according to the instructions, and they said, we want to know what you know about the Henry Atkinson murder. And they gave a number for the note sender or lawyer to contact the investigators, and they said that they were going to do as this person wanted. And they never got a response from anyone, and they purposely were tight lipped about it. They didn't put any press out about it. The note came at a time when nobody was really talking about the case. As a case goes cold, people don't really talk about it. Maybe on the anniversary of the killings it will have a news article or a news story about it, but other than that, nobody was really talking about this case in two thousand and one, so nobody ever respond to the investigators doing what this person said to do. So to this day, the case does remain unsolved, and Cheryl's mom has expressed that although it's really important for them to find who killed their daughter and Andy, they try not to base their happiness on whether or not the person is caught because there is a high probability that this person won't be caught. They also acknowledge, and I'm talking about investigators acknowledge that the note that was sent could be a hoax, but it doesn't really seem like there's a point to it. Why would someone randomly write a note like that and then claim to know and then ghost It doesn't really make a lot of sense, especially since there wasn't a lot of attention around the case at that time. So they do believe that whoever wrote the note is either the direct killer or knows who the killer is and could identify them. And just the weirdness of the way that the crime scene was, with the golf club and the golf balls, and the way that this note was sent, it just seems like this person is obviously psycho. We've already discussed that deranged, like not a normal human, and I feel like they just like taunting people. And it's just weird too, because Cheryl's body was essentially trying they were trying to hide her under like these wooden planks, but also there was like an arrow pointing to the area where her body was. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Who this person is, what this person thinks about, and the fact that if this person is still living, they have probably committed so many more heinous crimes by now, and the fact that the DNA is there for two different cases and they have not been caught is astonishing to me. So we are at thirty three years since this horrific crime occurred, and Cheryl's sisters still very much want to try to find out who killed their sister. And they said, for my whole family and anyone who knew Cheryl, it's a terrible day. I mean, thirty three years, it's hard to even fathom. They bound them, they torture them, they assaulted them, and then they murdered them. It just destroyed our family. I walked through every minute I was with her that day and what I could have done differently if I hadn't left her, if she had gone home. Hopefully it will bring somebody to actually come forward and that they'll do the right thing. It's hard when people ask us if there's anything new, because for thirty three years there hasn't been anything new. I'm bothered with just knowing what happened, who did it. I'm curious of what this person's been doing all their life, how they've been able to live with it every year day. And that's so true. Somebody that does this, something like this, like this is a horrific, horrific double murder of two kids like they're twenty one and twenty two. Their kids. Who is able to do something like that and just go on with their life like normal and not do it again. That's the part that gets me. They have to have done it again. And were they local to Houston? Did they were they just in the area, were they visiting family? What connections do they have? Do they live elsewhere? Are they a serial killer elsewhere? There are so many questions and so many unanswered things with this story, and it just bothers me to my core. So as with every episode, I say, please share this episode, I'm going to be posting the sketch of the suspect. I'll post pictures of Sheryl and Andy, some of the other things associated with the case. There's a picture of the no that they finally did release, that was sent and that's all we can do. Share, Share, share, get the word out. Somebody somewhere knows something, and someone eventually is going to hopefully pay for what they did. The DNA is there. We just have to wait for it all to match up and all to come together. Some of these cases take decades and decades and decades before they're solved, but eventually they will get solved. And I am hopeful that that will happen in this case, because we have Cheryl, we have Andy, we have the other victim who was attacked, and god knows how many other people out there have been victimized by this horrible, horrible human. So shockingly, I was able to get through all of that in one episode. I felt like I was going to have to make it a two parter, but I'm really glad I didn't because I wanted this whole story to be out there so everybody could really learn the story of Cheryl and Andy. So thank you guys so much for listening. Like I said, I hope you have a very merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and I will see you guys next time for a new episode. Bye.