The unsolved fatal shootings of four teenage girls inside of a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas, more than three decades ago are getting a renewed spotlight in a new HBO docuseries.
The first episode of “The Yogurt Shop Murders” premiered on Aug. 3, and shows how the unsolved murders of Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison and Amy Ayers in 1991 have continued to traumatize those close to the case.
The series features archival footage from Austin filmmaker Claire Huie, who sat for interviews for the doc and described her work making a film about the case, though she never finished it.
“The yogurt shop murders was like a ghost story that people told,” Huie said in the first episode. “It was always told in hushed tones: ‘This happened here.’ Partly because nobody has all the details, also because it was never solved. This case was so big in Austin, it was exciting to work on a film about it, even if I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
Investigators, the victims’ families and the two men who served time for the crime — though their murder convictions were overturned and the murder charges against them were dismissed in 2009 — were also interviewed in the series.
“For one, it’s been 30 years, seven months and five days and I still can’t believe it,” Bob Ayers, the father of victim Ayers said in the first episode of the doc.
Here’s what to know about the case behind “The Yogurt Shop Murders,” which was directed by Austin native Margaret Brown and produced by A24.
What is ‘The Yogurt Shop Murders’ About?
Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison, two 17-year-old employees at an Austin location of the chain I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt, along with Harbison’s younger sister Sarah Harbison, 15, and her friend Amy Ayers, 13, were gagged, bound and shot in the head inside of the store on Dec. 6, 1991.
The store was set on fire after the girls were killed, which damaged key evidence in the case, in addition to water damage from when firefighters arrived to put out the blaze, the Austin American-Statesman reported at the time.
More than eight years after the killings, four people were arrested in connection with the teenagers’ deaths in 1999, though only two of them were brought to trial: Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott.
Springsteen and Scott were tried separately. Springsteen was convicted of murder in 2001, and Scott was convicted of murder in 2002, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Springsteen was sentenced to death and Scott was sentenced to life in prison, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
A few years later, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Springsteen and Scott were unfairly denied the chance to cross-examine each other, and overturned their convictions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
A judge later released both men on bond, and in 2009, prosecutors moved to dismiss all charges against Springsteen and Scott.
Judge Mike Lynch dismissed the murder charges against the two men on Oct. 28, 2009, according to the AP. The murders of Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, Ayers and Thomas are still unsolved.
How to watch new episodes of ‘The Yogurt Shop Murders’
The first episode of “The Yogurt Shop Murders” premiered on Aug. 3 on HBO. The episode is now available to stream on HBO Max.
Subsequent episodes of the show are set to air on Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO, until the series’ finale on Aug. 24. Episodes will also be available to stream on HBO Max after they’ve aired on HBO.
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