Last week I talked about the disappearance and murders of the Grime’s sisters. This week I am going to talk about the Austin yogurt shop murders.

Late at night on December 6, 1991 there was smoke coming from the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop on West Anderson Lane in Austin Texas. Inside were the brutally beaten bodies of 4 teenage girl- Amy Ayers, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison and Eliza Thomas. 1 of them was raped and 3 of them were stacked on top of each other. They has been bound together with their own clothing before being shot in the head with a .22 caliber handgun. THIS ONE IS INSANE! DAMNNNNNN!!!!

Four suspects, all teenagers themselves at the time, were charged with the crime eight years later: Forrest Wellborn, Maurice Pierce, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott. Grand juries, citing a lack of evidence, declined to indict Wellborn. The charges against Pierce were later dropped. Scott and and Springsteen were later convicted in 1999. They confessed that they committed the rape and murders while the other two stood there and watched. Scott was sentenced to life in prison and Springsteen was sent to death row.

It was said though that the confessions may not have been actual confessions but that they may have been coerced. The convictions of Scott and Springsteen were eventually overturned.

When investigating these murders it was hard because at the time the Austin PD was not experienced enough in handling the horrific case and the pressure from the media and public did not help. This case was messy. There was false confessions, useless information, leads that were useless that still had to be checked, and there was over 342 potential perpetrators.

There wasn’t much detail about the murders because of the fire, it ruined a lot of possible evidence. One thing is for sure though, these murders were gross.