When smoke began billowing from a small shop, fire crews rushed to the scene to find four teenagers dead inside – a mystery that still remains unsolved
It was a normal Friday night in December 1991 when around midnight, a patrol officer reported a fire at a yoghurt shop. But when emergency services entered the building they were horrified by what they saw.
The yoghurt shop had closed at 11pm but inside were four teenagers aged from 13 to 17 who had been murdered inside. Two of the girls who had been killed – 17-year-olds Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas – were working there that evening. Jennifer’s 15-year-old sister Sarah and their 13-year-old friend Amy Ayers had come by to catch a lift home after closing.
The victims had been bound and shot and the shop had been set alight to destroy evidence of any crime, reports Crime+Investigation. Investigators later said they found two firearms and at least one of the victims had been sexually assaulted.
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Details then began to emerge from witnesses who were at the shop an hour before closing. A man had been allowed to use the back-room loo and stayed an unusually long time. Another couple reported two men acting strangely at a table just before the doors were locked.
Detectives trying to crack the case of the four murdered schoolgirls in in Austin, Texas, struggled to find evidence because of the fire and water damage. And in late 1991, forensic tools were far less sensitive than they are today.
Years passed until 1999, when four young men – Maurice Pierce, Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen and Forrest Welborn – were arrested and Scott and Springsteen confessed to the murders.
However, prosecutors eventually dropped the charges after new DNA testing excluded the four original suspects and both men were released by 2009.
Austin police say more than 50 people have confessed to the Yoghurt Shop Murders over the years, including one notorious serial killer who was later ruled out. None have led to prosecution.
As forensic science improved over the following years, investigators looked at the case again and partial male DNA was identified from evidence associated with one victim.
For a time, Y-chromosome testing appeared to offer a route forward, but the results did not identify a named suspect. Prosecutors said publicly they would not retry the case until they could reconcile the unknown male DNA with any future suspect.
But the victims’ families persisted and helped push a national reform. In 2022, the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act became U.S. law.
It requires federal agencies to review cold cases on request and to apply the latest technology during those reviews. Texas officials explicitly cited the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders as an inspiration for the act.
Austin police say the investigation remains open and advances in forensic testing are checked against preserved evidence when appropriate.
More than three decades on people are still fascinated with this story because the victims were young and doing something ordinary and it remains unsolved. You can watch The Yogurt Shop Murders on Amazon Prime.
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