This murder segment was aired on Unsolved Mysteries.



It involved this woman (the victim) who lived by herself. I think she was a bank loans officer and she had advertised for a roommate.

A woman answered her ad and became her new roomate. She was from England and worked for IBM or so she said. She spoke with a very strong English accent. The woman described this new English lady roommate as a very nice person to her family.



Later on, the brother and sister recieved a letter from the woman(the victim) saying that she had sold off her home and belongings and was leaving for awhile to be by herself.



A few days passed with no word from her and police later find the mutilated body of a woman in a Florida swamp. Her head was crudely decapitated leaving her jawbone and a few set of teeth left. Her hands and feet were severed and were missing. Tatoos on her abodomen were crudely cut off. Seemed like her murderer/s were trying to conceal her identity. However they overlooked a tatoo on her ankle. That tatoo and the few teeth remaining were enough to pinpoint the identity of the victim. It was the woman that had gone missing.



Turned out someone had stolen her credit cards and were using it. All in all the person/s stole a mere $1000.


Police are dumbfounded why anybody would brutally murder an innocent person like that for a mere $1000. They were hard pressed for a strong motive.



Turned out the woman that was her roommate was an imposter and was actually born in New York City and faked an English accent. She was a con artist. Eventually she was located by police somewhere else in Florida but she shot herself dead with a gun when she was about to get arrested.



Did she have an accomplice e.g. a male accomplice? It must have taken a man to brutally kill that woman and carrry and dump her body in that remote swampland? I find it hard to believe she alone could have physically done it.


Anybody shed any new information on this murder case?

I just saw this case last week, but had known about it for quite some time because it was on America's Most Wanted several times before Elaine Parent committed suicide.

As usual with UM vs. AMW segments on the same case, UM focused more on the victim's last movements instead of the suspect. Also, at the time of UM's airing all they had was a sketch of Alice - it was later that they pinpointed Parent as a suspect.

I haven't heard anything new so I assume that police think she acted alone. Apparently the person in the Cleopatra wig was Parent herself (she was a chameleon after all). What was ominous was how in the update, Stack's last words were something to the effect of "To this day, investigators have no idea as to the motive of the murder". And it's so true. Why did Beverly have to die in such a gruesome manner? And for so little? Identify theft has claimed bigger victims but they actually have left them alive!

http://www.amw.com/site/thisweek/P/ParentElaine/parentCap.html

AMW's report on Parent and her death.

Thanks for the link to the America's Most Wanted website for the update on this case.


But in Unsolved Mysteries it was reported by the clerk that was serving the woman that was wearing the black cleopatra wig, that she looked like a man. She tried to use the victim's credit cards to hire rental cars in London. She spoke with a very deep male tone of voice. It appeared that this she was in fact a he.


If this was the case it appears to me that this transexual man/woman must have been Parent's accomplice.


I find it hard to believe Parent, a lady, could physically be capable of brutally killing her victim in that fashion and be physically strong enough to carry the victim's heavy body to be dumped in the Florida swamplands.



It must have taken a male accomplice to have done this.

Can anybody shed any additional light to this point?

Elaine Antoinette Parent was wanted by the United States State Department for passport fraud and was considered a significant link in the murder of Beverly McGowan in July 1990. McGowan's remains were found in a canal in St Lucie county Florida. After the murder of McGowan, police suspect Parent travelled to London and attempted to use her credit cards. Authorities believe Parent returned to the United States. She used 20 aliases including Alice and Charlotte Cowan and a mistress of disguise. Its believed she lived in Panama City, Florida from 1994 until her suicide in April 2002.

Court TV broadcast an episode titled,The System: The Chameleon in July 2002. It was an hour documentary on the international search for Parent after the murder of McGowan. It examined Parent using stolen identities, cooperation between British and American authorities to find her and the use of a Psychological profiler to assess the motive and reasoning of Parent's crime.

Some brief facts on Parent

Age: 57 (D.O.B. 8-4-42)
Sex: Female
Race: White
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125 lbs
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Brown
Scars: tiny mole under right eye, circular scar on left thumb print
Tattoos: None