Throughout the 1990s, police around the world were on the lookout for Elaine Parent after she stole at least 20 identities and murdered a Florida woman named Beverly McGowan, earning the nickname the "Chameleon Killer."
Elaine Parent, a notorious con artist and murderer, operated for decades in the United States and England using more than 20 stolen identities. She began her career as a legitimate real estate agent before turning to a life of crime. Things escalated in 1985 when she was implicated in a jewel theft and officially went on the run.
Over the years, Parent learned how to mold herself into any situation. She sought out vulnerable people, manipulated them into handing over their personal information, and stole their identities, often changing her appearance along with her name.
In 1990, Parent befriended Beverly McGowan, a 34-year-old Florida bank clerk. After gaining McGowan’s trust, Parent convinced her to share her social security number and bank account details — and then she killed her.
Police wouldn’t catch Elaine Parent until 2002. They finally tracked her down in Panama City, Florida, that April, but she died by suicide in her apartment before they could arrest her. Even to this day, many of the details of the “Chameleon Killer’s” crimes remain shrouded in mystery.
The Early Life And Crimes Of Elaine Parent
Elaine Antoinette Parent was born in the Bronx in 1942. Not much is known about her upbringing and early life. In fact, authorities aren’t even sure if Elaine Parent was her real name, as they’ve reportedly never located her birth certificate.
As an adult, Parent worked as a real estate agent for a time before realizing that crime was more lucrative than any conventional profession. Her first reported run-in with the law was a shoplifting charge in Florida when she was in her early 30s. Then, in 1985, she allegedly stole $40,000 in jewelry from an older woman she’d befriended — and she spent the rest of her life on the lam.
For the next 17 years, Elaine Parent leaned into her new role as a professional con artist. She reportedly faked her own death twice and stalked bars, homeless shelters, and graveyards, looking for identities to steal.
In England, Parent befriended Sylvia Ann Hodgkinson. A year later, Parent applied for a passport using the 39-year-old woman’s name. And according to a 1999 report in The Guardian, authorities were never able to track the real Hodgkinson down. She may have been the first victim of the “Chameleon Killer.”
Elaine Parent eventually returned to Florida, where she charmed Charlotte Rae Cowan after meeting her at a bar in Orlando. Parent told Cowan that she practiced numerology and asked for her social security and bank account numbers so she could use the digits to predict Cowan’s future.
“She had the most sophisticated manner, all with this cut-glass English accent,” Cowan told The Guardian. “She was so persuasive and did the whole numerology thing on me and I even gave her my birth certificate.”
Elaine Parent had proved herself a formidable con artist. She had over 20 identities at her disposal — but she wanted even more.
The Murder Of Beverly McGowan At The Hands Of The “Chameleon Killer”
In 1990, a 34-year-old bank clerk named Beverly McGowan placed an ad in the Sun-Sentinel newspaper looking for a roommate to share her condo near Fort Lauderdale. She received a call from a British woman named Alice who was interested in renting the room, as she was an IBM employee who had just been transferred to the area.
Alice said that she was an expert in numerology, and she managed to get McGowan to hand over her passport and driver’s license numbers, which she used to “predict” that McGowan was destined to find true love.
McGowan told her family and friends how excited she was to have found her new roommate — but just a few days after Alice moved in, McGowan vanished. When her siblings went to her condo to check on her, they discovered that her address book, birth certificate, and passport were missing.
On July 19, 1990, a fisherman found a woman’s body in a canal in St. Lucie County, Florida. She’d been decapitated, her hands had been cut off, and a tattoo had been sliced from her stomach. However, her killer had missed a second tattoo, which police used to identify the dead woman as Beverly McGowan.
Immediately, suspicion fell on McGowan’s new roommate. But Alice — better known as Elaine Parent — was nowhere to be found.
Elaine Parent’s Life And Death On The Run
During the investigation into Beverly McGowan’s murder, authorities discovered several revealing clues. Someone in London had tried to use the dead woman’s credit card to rent a vehicle only to find that it had already been canceled. The police also tracked down McGowan’s car near Miami International Airport.
Investigators searched through flight logs to see if “Alice” had recently traveled to England. One interesting name did pop up: Sylvia Ann Hodgkinson. Suddenly, the case began to make more sense. There was just one clear link between McGowan and Hodgkinson, and that was Elaine Parent.
For the next 12 years, police tried to track Parent down. She seemingly enjoyed the thrill of the chase: In 1998, Parent sent detectives in Florida a painting of herself with a typed note that read, “Best wishes: your Chameleon.” From then on out, she became known as the “Chameleon Killer.”
Florida State Attorney’s Office investigator Nora Pfeiffer once said of Parent, “This is the most difficult homicide I’ve ever handled. We’ve always been days, months, even years behind the killer. Our suspect is a mistress of disguise… I’ve had sightings of her in London, Paris, Turkey, Australia, and South Africa. And 12 years after Beverly was murdered, I’m still no closer to knowing why.”
Then, the police finally caught up to Elaine Parent. On April 6, 2002, they knocked on the door of her apartment to arrest her. Parent asked them to wait outside while she quickly got dressed — and then she shot herself.
According to a 2024 article in The Sun, former Panama City police officer Michael McLeod recalled, “I went in first. I remember seeing gun smoke in the room… They didn’t tell us she was known as ‘The Chameleon.’ If the police had known how dangerous she was, they wouldn’t have allowed her to get changed alone.”
After 12 years, Elaine Parent had finally been tracked down — but in true “Chameleon Killer” fashion, she took her secrets with her to the grave.
After reading about “Chameleon Killer” Elaine Parent, go inside the story of Scott Pettigrew, the nightmare roommate who murdered his landlady. Then, read about Maribel Ramos, the Army soldier who was killed by her obsessed roommate.