December 6, 1991. Austin, Texas. After responding to a fire at a local yogurt shop, the authorities discover the burned nude bodies of four victims who have all been shot in the head: 17-year old employees Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison; Jennifer’s 15-year old sister, Sarah Harbison; and Sarah’s 13-year old friend, Amy Ayers. Nearly eight years later, investigators arrest four suspects for the murders and while the charges against two of them are eventually dropped, the other two – Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott – had confessed to the crime, so they wind up being convicted at their respective trials. However, both men’s convictions are overturned due to civil rights violations and forensic testing reveals the presence of DNA on the victims which does not match any of the alleged perpetrators. In 2009, the charges against the two defendants are dismissed and they are released from prison, but there are no conclusive answers about who actually committed the crime. Last week, in Part One of our series on the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders, we shared the basic facts about the case. This week, in Part Two, we will attempt to analyze and break down this crime by sharing all the different theories about what happened.

If have any information about this case, please contact the Austin Police Department at (512) 472-TIPS (8477).

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_killings

“Who Killed These Girls? The Unsolved Murders That Rocked a Texas Town” by Beverly Lowry

“Murdered Innocents” by Corey Mitchell

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/innocence-lost-the-yogurt-shop-murders-09-01-2010/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yogurt-shop-murders-are-two-never-identified-customers-key-to-solving-austin-texas-case/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-yogurt-shop-murders-austin-texas-families-investigators-haunted-by-unsolved-case/

https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/2021/11/30/yogurt-shop-murders-austin-cold-case-photos/8798254002/

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3622

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3658

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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

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