Elaine Parent
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August 4, 1942
Elaine Parent | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Elaine Antoinette Parent August 4, 1942 |
| Died | April 6, 2002 (aged 59) |
| Cause of death | Suicide by gunshot |
| Other names | The "Chameleon Killer" |
| Details | |
| Victims | Beverly Ann McGowan |
| Location | St. Lucie County, Florida |
Elaine Antoinette Parent (August 4, 1942 – April 6, 2002), popularly known as the Chameleon Killer and also known by aliases including Sylvia Ann Hodgkinson, Beverly Ann McGowan, Charlotte Rae Cowan and Ann Tremont, is the name of a deceased con woman, identity thief and murderer who was one of the United States' most sought-after female fugitives in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Many investigators have questioned if "Elaine Parent" was her real given name, or if her nationality was actually American, since no U.S. birth certificate under that identity has ever been found.[1] Parent also claimed, at various points, to have been South African, Australian or even a Soviet exile.[2]
Parent reportedly told acquaintances that she had been born in New York City in 1942 and raised in Illinois during her teenage years. A passport application filed under a slightly different name, Elaine Victoria Parent, claimed Minneapolis as her city of origin and 1946 as her birth year. No verifiable information about Parent's movements during the 1960s are known, and the sole documentation of her criminal activity during the 1970s stemmed from an arrest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for shoplifting in 1972.[3]
