On December 6th, 1991, the bodies of 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and 13-year-old Amy Ayers were found murdered in the burned out husk of a “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!” shop in Austin, Texas. In 1996, the cold case was put under review by a new team of investigators. And they went hard. Part one can be found here.
The team proceeded to sift through more than 5000 pages of notes, and case file paperwork, as well as information gathered on more than 1200 suspects. In all, the full case file contained over 10,000 pages.
After sifting, and reorganizing, it was announced that the investigation into the yogurt shop murders was relaunched in August of 1999. The investigators on the case found something from the original investigation that they found very, very interesting. They threw all their eggs in that basket immediately.
On Wednesday, October 6th, the Austin Police Department announced during a press conference that they were in the process of arresting four men, and were charging them with the murders of Jennifer, Sarah, Eliza, and Amy. Those four suspects were: Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott.
Maurice had been 16 years old at the time of the murders. He’d been taken in for questioning, even going so far as confessing to the murders, only to be released when it was determined that his confession had been false, and that he’d been suffering from an unknown mental illness.
At the time of his arrest, he’d been working in a warehouse, and had married his long-time partner, with whom he had a young child.
Forrest Welborn had been 15 years old at the time of the murders. He’d moved to Lockhart, Texas, where he lived alone but had a successful career as a mechanic. At the time of his arrest, he’d just opened up his own shop.
Robert Springsteen had been 17 years old at the time of the murders. He’d moved to West Virginia shortly after the murders, and worked a series of odd jobs throughout the years. He was a newlywed in Charleston, West Virginia when he was arrested.
Michael Scott was 18 years old at the time of the murders. He’d been enrolled in special education classes, and generally kept to himself. He worked odd jobs, before settling into a career as a mechanical repair man. He’d been recently married at the time of his arrest.
The APD theory was that the four had grouped together, and planned to rob the yogurt shop. Maurice, Robert, and Michael went in, while Forrest stood as lookout. The theory went that something had gone wrong, the girls were murdered, and then four teens set fire to the shop to cover their tracks.
Robert, through his lawyers, denied Texas the right to extradite him. Through a lengthy legal process, the Texas state government had to request extradition through the West Virginia state government. He was eventually transferred to to Texas in November of 1999.
After 18 hours of brutal police interrogation over the course of four days, Michael cracked; he started telling them what they wanted to hear. Robert cracked next, under similar circumstances.
With these two ‘confessions’ in hand, police had a timeline that they believed to be absolutely airtight. It went as follows:
The boys entered the yogurt shop just before it was due to close, scoped it out, and unlocked the back door, which had been found propped open. Next, Forrest stayed outside while the other three went around to the back door, and entered the shop to begin robbing it. Someting went wrong, and the three boys proceeded to tie the girls up, assault them, murder them, and then set fire to the shop to hide their tracks.
Both men would later recant their confessions.
Despite the best efforts of prosecutors and investigators, Robert’s extradition had slowed things down. Maurice and Forrest would also have to be certified as adults in order to be tried, as they’d been minors at the time of the murders, but they could not be tried in juvenile court.
Though it took time, both Maurice and Forrest were certified, which meant they could tried as adults. However, no physical evidence of their involvement in the murders was presented during the process of certification. As a result, the bail for both men was lowered. Forrest posted bond in December.
On December 14th, Robert was indicted for the murder of Amy by a grand jury. Michael and Maurice were indicted later, on the same charge, on December 28th. Forrest was absent from these indictments. Out on bail, he went about his life, waiting for the trial to begin.
Through most of December, prosecutors approached Forrest, offering him immunity if he agreed to testify against the other three. He refused, every time, through his lawyers, stating that he had not committed these murders, or been anywhere near them, and the prosecution knew as much, or they wouldn’t be attempting intimidation tactics.
On May 2nd, 2000, the .22 shotgun that had been seized from Maurice back in 1991 was found not to be the murder weapon according to a ballistics report. To add to that, police could not locate the second gun, the .38 which had been used to murder Amy.
The APD came under fire in June of 2000 when it was discovered that they’d known about the ballistics report, but had failed to include the findings in the certification process against Maurice. They believed, rightly, that the findings would work against them, and as such, chose to simply ignore them.
The hits to the APD just kept on coming during the month of June. A photo began circulating of a particularly horrendous portion of Michael Scott’s police interrogation. In the photo, Detective Robert Merrill was seen holding a gun to the back of Michael’s head, demanding he confess. This did not look good, especially with the APD already having a bad reputation for forcing false confessions to pad their statistics and close cases.
Facing more backlash than they knew what to do with, the prosecution decided to cut its losses. Near the end of June, they dropped all charges against Forrest in light of a second grand jury failing to indict him.
By this point, the police and the prosecution only had two confessions, forcibly obtained, and no physical evidence. But they were absolutely certain that they had the right perpetrators. And so, they decided to test DNA. They would be sorely disappointed – none of the DNA that had been found on the bodies of the murdered girls matched their four suspects.
And yet, the prosecution pushed forward with the trials.
In April of 2001, Robert Springsteen was the first to be tried for the Austin yogurt shop murders. He pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution charged him with the murder of 13-year-old Amy Ayers. Should he be acquitted, they would charge him with the murder of another girl. And so on, until one stuck.
Despite the prosecution’s flimsy excuse of a case, Robert Springsteen was convicted of the murder of Amy Ayers, and sentenced to death.
In July of 2002, Micheal Scott went to trial. He was also charged with only one murder, the other saved by the prosecution as contingencies. Despite his defense team pointing out all of the flaws in their case, as well as the forced confession, Michael was found guilty of the murder of Amy Ayers. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Maurice Pierce was due to face trial in April of 2003. However, the only evidence against him were the confessions by Robert and Michael. Under Texas law, an individual cannot be convicted based solely on the evidence of co-conspirators.
The trial could not move forward. As a result, Maurice Pierce, who had allegedly been the ringleader of the group, was released, and all of the charges against him were dropped.
After Robert and Michael’s convictions, suspicion grew that they’d be railroaded by APD detectives, and prosecutors.
Both Robert and Michael stated that their confessions had been coerced, evidenced by the photo that had been making the rounds, and their defense teams were adamant that there was absolutely no physical evidence linking them to the murders.
The courts found that Robert and Michael’s Sixth Amendment right to confront their accuser had been violated. Their confessions had been used against each other during their separate trials, but they had not had the opportunity to confront, or cross-examine, their accusers. The convictions against both men were overturned.
Retrials were immediately ordered. However, no dates were set. The prosecution could not trust the evidence they had on hand, and had to start examining the case from scratch.
In 2008, once again, DNA found at the scene of the murders was proven not to be a match to any of the four men accused.
In June of 2009, the District Attorney’s office decided that they would not retry Robert Springsteen or Michael Scott for the Austin yogurt shop murders. They were released from prison on June 24th, 2009.
In October of 2009, all of the charges against Robert and Michael were dropped.
Most APD detective continue to believe that they were right all along, and refuse to acknowledge the evidence that exonerates Maurice, Forrest, Robert, and Michael.
One man, though, Detective John Jones, never believed the four men to be guilty for an instant. He has spoken publicly against the direction that the new investigation took.
Further DNA testing has found three genetic profiles at the scene of the murders. While the DNA did not link Maurice, Forrest, Robert, or Michael to the crime, the DNA did get a hit from the FBI database.
As of 2020, this FBI hit has been the only lead in the investigation in years. And, at least for now, they seem to be keeping their cards close to their chest.
If you have any information, please call 512-472-TIPS.
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Sources:
Yogurt Shop Murders: The Night Austin, Texas Lost its Innocence – Leah – Medium
The Unsolved Austin Yogurt Shop Murders – Christine – The True Crime Files
The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Michael Whelan – Unresolved
True Crime Garage Podcast – Austin Yogurt Shop Murders – Episodes 81 and 82