Elaine Parent

Elaine Antoinette Parent (August 4, 1942-April 6, 2002) was an American criminal known as "the world's most wanted woman" in the late nineties and early '00s.

She was wanted for the murder of her potential roommate, Beverly McGowan, a 34-year-old bank clerk. McGowan had placed an ad in the paper looking for a roommate. A woman named "Alice" answered the ad. The woman was actually Parent. Soon after, McGowan disappeared; on July 19, 1990, her remains were found in a rural canal in St. Lucie County, Florida. She had been mutilated by removing a tattoo on her stomach, her head and hands to hinder the identification of her corpse but a small tattoo was enough to identify her.

The origin of Parent's nickname, the "Chameleon Killer," was a photograph of an oil painting of herself she sent to police with the message "Best wishes: your Chameleon" typed on the back. The nickname was apt as she stole the identities of her victims and was found to have used McGowan's credit cards after she killed her. She also scoured graveyards for names and dates of birth and stole the information of other potential roommates by telling them she was a numerologist, soliciting their social security numbers, driver's licences and even birth certificates.