A new HBO documentary is revisiting the emotional toll the 1991 quadruple homicide at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas, still has on the community, more than 30 years later.
“The Yogurt Shop Murders” investigates the murders of Amy Ayers, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison and Eliza Thomas on Dec. 6, 1991, through archival footage and interviews with investigators, plus the friends and families of the four victims.
“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 Amy Ayers, said in the first episode of the series, which premiered on Aug. 3.
Over the series’ four episodes, which premiere on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO, those close to the case show how the slayings have continued to go unsolved for more than three decades, and how some Austinites are still traumatized by what happened on the night of Dec. 6, 1991.
What Happened the Night of Dec. 6, 1991, in Austin, Texas?
Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison, two 17-year-old employees at an Austin location of the chain I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt, were working on the night of Dec. 6, 1991.
Jennifer Harbison’s 15-year-old sister, Sarah, and her friend Amy Ayers, 13, were at a nearby mall when Jennifer picked them up and brought them to the yogurt shop, said Beverly Lowry, the author of “Who Killed These Girls?: Cold Case: The Yogurt Shop Murders” in the first episode of “The Yogurt Shop Murders.”
A police officer on patrol that night noticed flames rising from the shop, and after firefighters arrived to put out the blaze, they found the bodies of the four girls inside, the Associated Press reported in 1991.
Former Austin Police Department homicide investigator John Jones described the crime scene in the first episode of “The Yogurt Shop Murders.”
“I had to go in through the party shop, which was next door, because I couldn’t go in the front door because the fire department was still in there, knocking down the fire,” Jones said.
“It was still smoldering. They had pulled down the ceiling so there was water everywhere, there was steam everywhere, there was smoke everywhere,” he continued. “As it started to clear out, you could see the bodies, three together and then one away from the others.”
Ayers, Thomas, Jennifer Harbison and Sarah Harbison had been gagged, bound and shot in the head before the store was set on fire, the Associated Press reported.
The fire, and the subsequent water damage from firefighters attempting to stop the blaze, damaged key evidence in the case, the Austin American-Statesman reported at the time.
After months of searching for a suspect, two men were arrested in Mexico in October 1992 after authorities said they confessed to the crime, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time.
A few days later, the suspects recanted their confessions and said they were forced into signing their confessions, the Dallas Morning News reported.
They were never charged in Mexico nor Texas in connection with the murders, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The Austin American-Statesman reported in 1996 that despite thousands of leads and more than 30,000 hours of investigation, police had no primary suspects and the case remained unsolved, five years after the four girls were killed.
Who Was Arrested in the 1991 Yogurt Shop Slayings?
In August 1999, Austin Police announced they would be reopening their investigation into the murders, the Austin American-Statesman reported at the time.
Kevin Buchman, a spokesperson for the Austin Police Department at the time, told the American-Statesman no new developments had occurred in the case, but a decline in homicides in the city that year allowed detectives to take another look at unsolved cases.
Two months later, in October 1999, police announced they had arrested four men in connection with the murders, the Associated Press reported.
Robert Burns Springsteen Jr., Michael James Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn were high schoolers at the time of the slayings and had been charged with capital murder, the AP reported. Pierce and Welborn were charged as juveniles because they were under 17 at the time of the slayings, per the Dallas Morning News.
Police said Springsteen and Scott confessed they were involved in the crime and implicated Pierce and Welborn in their statements, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Pierce and Welborn had not made a confession in the crime.
Later that month, police revealed they had no physical evidence linking Welborn and Pierce to the crime, though investigators had interviewed the pair several times, the Associated Press reported.
All charges against Welborn were dropped in 2000 due to a lack of evidence, the Associated Press reported.
Three years later, all charges against Pierce were dropped due to a lack of evidence, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Who Was Tried and Convicted for the Yogurt Shop Slayings?
Springsteen was the first to stand trial in 2001, the Dallas Morning News reported at the time.
Prosecutors alleged Springsteen had cased the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt store earlier in the day on Dec. 6, 1991, and returned with friends that night to rob the shop, according to the Morning News.
The men forced the girls into a back room, where they were shot and killed, prosecutors said, according to the Morning News. Ayers managed to reach the door after being shot, and then was allegedly shot again with a different gun, prosecutors said, per the Morning News.
Prosecutors also showed jurors a 1999 statement from Springsteen that they said included details of the crime that only the killer would know, the Morning News reported.
Springsteen’s defense attorney, Joe James Sawyer, told jurors during the trial his client’s confession was coerced, and that police lied to him during their interrogation, the Morning News reported.
After a three-week trial, jurors convicted Springsteen of capital murder for Ayers death, the Associated Press reported. He was sentenced to the death penalty in June 2001, according to the AP.
Scott’s trial began in 2002, in which he was also accused of killing Ayers, the Austin American-Statesman reported at the time.
Prosecutors read Scott’s eight-page confession to jurors, though Scott later recanted the confession, the American-Statesman reported.
Scott’s defense attorneys argued during the trial his confession included statements that didn’t match crime scene evidence, according to the American-Statesman.
After just under 24 hours of deliberation, jurors convicted Scott of capital murder in September 2002, according to the American-Statesman. He was sentenced to life in prison, the American-Statesman reported.
Why Were Robert Springsteen’s and Michael Scott’s Convictions Overturned?
After years of appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Springsteen and Scott were unfairly denied the chance to cross-examine each other, which violated their Sixth Amendment rights, and overturned their convictions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Judge Mike Lynch later released the defendants on bond, pending a possible retrial by the state, according to the DPIC.
In 2009, prosecutors admitted they were still not prepared to take the case to trial, and filed a motion for all charges against the two men to be dismissed, the Associated Press reported.
Lynch approved the motion, dismissing the charges against Springsteen and Scott. The pair smiled and silently shook hands with each other in the courtroom, the AP reported.
“This has been a long time coming,” Scott told the AP. “I’m happy to be here.”
No one else has been accused of wrongdoing in the case since Springsteen’s and Scott’s convictions were overturned.
