HEARTBREAKING information revealed the position of the youngest victim was left in after the unsolved yogurt shop murder case of 1991.
On December 6, 1991, four teenage girls were brutally murdered and then set on fire at a local yogurt shop in their hometown of Austin, Texas.
Four teens were shot while working at a yogurt shop[/caption]
The girls were at the I can’t believe it’s yogurt shop in Austin, Texas[/caption]
Amy Ayers, 13, was found in a heartbreaking position when she died[/caption]
The killer has still not been identified[/caption]
Eliza Thomas, 17, Amy Ayers, 13, and their sisters Jennifer, 17, and Sarah Harbison, 15, were all found tied up and gagged when officers arrived at the scene.
However, the youngest victim, Amy, was found separate from the pack with her arm reaching out towards the other girls.
Much of what went on that night remains unknown, although investigators believe at least one of the young girls was sexually assaulted.
After the four girls were shot in the head, the mysterious killer set the yogurt shop, called I Can’t Believe it’s Yogurt, on fire, destroying most of the evidence.
The over 30-year-old cold case has been brought back to life in HBO’s latest four-part docuseries, The Yogurt Shop Murders.
The documentary recounts what happened that horrendous night and what the decades-long tumultuous investigation has involved.
That December night, Eliza and Jennifer were scheduled to work at the shop, but they were joined by their friends Sarah and Amy just before closing, as the four of them waited to go home.
In the documentary, Reese Price, the manager of the shop, recalls the horrific scene after the girls’ bodies were nearly burnt to ashes.
“There wasn’t anything there to identify,” she told HBO.
“Fire is very destructive. It’s not forgiving.”
At the time of the murders, investigators interviewed dozens of yogurt shop customers from that day.
Lead investigator John Jones told 48 Hours that several customers reported two men who looked out of place hanging around the shop.
Both men had drinks, but neither ordered yogurt.
“They never have been identified. And we did everything,” Jones said.
Yogurt shop murder victims
- Eliza Thomas, 17
- Amy Ayers, 13
- Jennifer Harbison, 17
- Sarah Harbison, 15
“We even hypnotized some folks.”
After long and hard efforts by investigators, the case eventually went cold.
“I can see them, I can still see them inside that place,” Jones said.
“That stuff’s… indelibly burned in my mind.”
NEW LEADS
In 1999, eight years after the murders, investigators decided to look into a different lead.
That lead led them to four men: Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn.
All four suspects were teens at the time of the murders and one of the men, Maurice Pierce, was even an initial person of interest.
Jones had questioned Pierce after he was arrested near the yogurt shop with a gun days after the murder; however, he was let go due to a lack of evidence.
When questioned in 1991, Springsteen and Scott confessed to the crimes and were convicted of the murders.
However, the two men recanted their confessions, claiming they were coerced into it, and were set free after having spent 10 years in prison.
HBO’s four-part series first aired on August 3 on HBO Max.
