Elaine Parent: The Chameleon WTPARNELL.com Index

By gradually putting together bits and pieces of the puzzle, investigators realized that their suspects, “Sam” and “Alice”, were in fact the same individual: Elaine Parent. They also surmised that their prime suspect was a beautiful and manipulative woman who traveled the world freely and was a master of disguise. She seemingly had the ability to "become" just about any type of person she wanted, including members of the opposite sex.

In 1996, investigators began an all out search for Charlotte Cowan, whose identity had been used by Parent when she was arrested in Florida in 1991. They hit the jackpot when they discovered Cowan was a real person living in central Florida. The amazing story she told would lead them down new paths and provide a great deal of previously unknown information about their prime suspect.

In the mid-eighties, Cowan sat alone in a gay bar in Orlando called Faces when an attractive woman asked if she could join her. The well-dressed woman with striking eyes, who was a redhead like Cowan, offered to buy her a drink. The woman was really Elaine Parent but gave her name as Ann Tremont and started a conversation which led to the subject of Numerology. Cowan thought of herself as a loner and a “jeans and t-shirt” person who is usually not taken in by a flashy dresser like Parent. But eventually Parent persuaded Cowan to turn over her Social Security number, birth date, and time of birth ostensibly for the purpose of developing a Numerology chart. Parent wrote the information down on a bar napkin. Years later, she would use a similar technique to extract information from Beverly McGowan.

Soon, a man entered the bar and Parent said that he was her brother and she had to leave. She wrote down Cowan’s phone number and promised to call her soon. A few days later, Parent joined Cowan and her mother for lunch. Cowan’s mother was favorably impressed with Parent and felt that she was a sophisticated individual.

Some time later, Cowan received a phone call from Parent saying her brother had committed her to a mental hospital. She went on to say that her aunt had died and she and her brother were to share the inheritance but her brother had committed her as a way of keeping the money for himself.

About a month later, Parent showed up unannounced at Cowan’s at 3 a.m. dressed as a man and wearing a paste-on mustache. She tearfully explained her attire as a disguise that she had used to escape the mental hospital. She hysterically begged Cowan for the use of her birth certificate so she could create a new identity that would shield her from her brother. At first Cowan refused but more intense crying and begging by Parent made her relent. Parent promised to return the certificate and did after a few weeks along with a note apologizing for the delay. Cowan never saw or heard from her again.

Investigators were encouraged by the new information they had developed. They now knew that Elaine Parent using the alias Ann Tremont stole the identity of Charlotte Cowan in the mid-eighties. Parent stood alone as the number one suspect in the murder of Beverly McGowan. But investigators needed to develop a connection between Parent and McGowan. Rina Crowningshield of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office managed to track down a number of Parent’s relatives and former lovers and obtained a handwriting sample.

Investigators decided to perform an ESDA test on the writing pad found in Beverly McGowan’s condo and from which her goodbye letters were written. ESDA is an acronym for Electro Static Document Analysis and is used to examine the impressions made on sheets of paper that lie below the top sheet in a pad or notebook. From this, investigators can “read” information that no longer is a part of the original pad or notebook.

When the ESDA test was performed, it indeed revealed hidden correspondence that was not in Beverly McGowan’s handwriting. The letters were angry in tone as evidenced in this short excerpt:

"I decide to turn myself in, you WILL feel the repercussions I guarntee (sic) it after your treatment and abandonment of me, I have no remorse in tearing down, what in truth I created anyway You will however have advance warning. GIVE ME BACK MY LIFE.''

The handwriting in the letters matched the sample obtained by Crowningshield; Elaine Parent could now be placed inside Beverly McGowan’s condo. Careful analysis by investigators revealed the letters were written by Parent to an English businesswoman. Investigators would once again need to call on their British counterparts for assistance in unraveling the mystery.