AUSTIN, Texas — Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, 17, worked together at an Austin, Texas, yogurt shop called I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt. On December 6, 1991, Harbison’s sister, Sarah Harbison, 15, and Sarah’s friend, Amy Ayers, 13, stopped by to help the girls close up shop for the night.
Between 11 p.m. and midnight, unidentified persons shot all four girls and raped at least two. The killers then lit the shop on fire to destroy any evidence.
Before midnight, a police officer noticed smoke from the store and called the fire department. When the firefighters arrived at the scene and entered the building, they discovered the girls’ bodies.
Austin Police Department called in lead detective John Jones and his partner, Mike Huckabay, to investigate. The bodies were at the back of the shop near the back exit. Thomas was lying over Sarah. Harbison was next to them, and Amy was a short distance from the other three near the shop’s bathrooms.
The killer had stripped and bound the girls with their clothes. They shot three girls once and Amy twice.
Austin Fire Department had compromised the crime scene because firefighters were the first to arrive and had already walked through it. The water from their hoses washed away potential evidence as well.
The assailants stole about $540 and used two guns in the murders – a .380 and a .22. Police found a slug and shell casing from the .380 at the scene but not much else.
At one point early in the investigation, Jones and Huckabay had 342 suspects, false confessions from people bragging about the killings, and six actual written confessions, not to mention an overwhelming amount of leads and tips flooding in. However, they never arrested any of these people for the crime.
Even though the fire and water destroyed most of the physical evidence at the scene, coroners could get DNA off one of the bodies.
Possible Suspects
The first possible suspect in the case was 16-year-old Maurice Pierce. Austin police previously arrested him at the Northcross Mall with a gun. Shortly after, investigators looked at three of his friends – 16-year-old Robert Springsteen, 17-year-old Michael Scott, and 15-year-old Forest Welborn. It is very unclear why, out of all the police suspects, they zeroed in on these four boys.
When Jones tested Pierce’s gun, the ballistics didn’t match up. With no evidence tying the other three to the crime or a confession from any of the boys, investigators released all four men.
Witnesses at the yogurt shop the night of the murders came forward.
Dearl Croft, a former police officer who ran a security company, visited the shop around 10 p.m. He was there buying yogurt for himself and two friends. As he stood in line, a man approached him wearing a military fatigue-style jacket.
The man was loitering in the customer line, ushering other customers to order first; when Croft came in, the man asked if he was a cop and offered to allow Croft also to pass him in line. Croft refused, and when the man finally approached the counter, he ordered only a soda. After he paid, he moved around the counter and headed to the back of the store; Croft asked where he’d gone and was told by Eliza Thomas, who as the store’s shift supervisor was operating the register, that she’d allowed him to go into the back to use the restroom.
The Austin Chronicle
Feeling uneasy about the situation, Croft hung around for a few more minutes, but the man never returned from the back room.
Croft testified in 2002 and said he could not identify a suspect out of numerous lineups given to him by police, presumably including the four young men.
A married couple saw the girls just before 11 p.m. when they stopped in the store for some yogurt. The couple said they saw two men sitting in a booth drinking a soda instead of eating yogurt, which they thought was strange considering it was a yogurt shop. The wife said the men made her uneasy, so the couple left.
Despite multiple suspects and a few witnesses at the store before the murders occurred, the case eventually went cold.
Eight Years Later and New Investigators
Three years after the murders, superiors took Jones and Huckabay off the case. In 1999, they assigned new investigators, who soon after made four arrests. Pierce, Scott, Springsteen, and Welborn were all arrested for the yogurt shop murders. Scott and Springsteen confessed to the murders after being interrogated by investigator Robert Merrill, who refused to let them leave until he got a confession.
Pierce and Welborn never caved, so with no confessions from either one of the men or any evidence tying them to the crimes, detectives had no choice but to release them.
All investigators had was a confession, and they went to extreme measures to get one, including putting a gun to Scott’s head.
On the scene that night, the original fire investigator said the fire started in the back where the office supplies were. However, after Scott and Springsteen confessed, investigators obtained a second opinion that matched Scott’s confession that he poured lighter fluid on the girls and lit their bodies on fire.
In May 2001, Springsteen was the first to go on trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to death row. Scott’s trial followed, and he was found guilty and sentenced to life without parole.
The story could have ended there, but it did not.
Springsteen’s sentence was commuted to life, and in 2006, both men’s convictions were overturned because the police had violated their civil rights during interrogation. The Sixth Amendment entitles a person to confront an accuser. Scott’s and Springsteen’s confessions were used against each other, but they could not face one another in court.
In 2008, defense lawyers for Scott and Springsteen requested DNA testing of other suspects. No match came back. So, of course, the police came up with the stupid theory that a fifth person was involved.
A lie is better than nothing when you must prove your version of events is accurate.
In 2010, Pierce, who by this time was rightly fearful of cops, was pulled over in Austin by Officer Frank Wilson and his rookie partner. Pierce took off on foot, and Wilson followed in pursuit. After a brief struggle, Pierce pulled out a knife and stabbed Wilson in the neck. Wilson then shot Pierce to death. Wilson survived his injuries.
The yogurt shop murders remain unsolved. The case has been featured numerous times on podcasts and television shows.
True Crime Diva’s Thoughts
I don’t believe those four young men committed these murders for two reasons. One, their DNA did not match what was found in one of the girls. As bad as their bodies were burned, I assume the DNA was taken from inside one of the girls. If this was the case, then it absolutely rules out the four men, at least as far as the rape is concerned, because Springsteen confessed to it. This proves he lied and didn’t rape anyone. If there was a fifth person, where is he? How come cops can’t find him? He doesn’t exist, that’s why.
Also, fingerprints and hair collected at the crime scene DID not match any of the four men.
Two, the boys were teenagers then, and Jones and Huckabay never got a confession from them. Hector Polanco also interrogated the group. He was known as a pit bull investigator because of his strong methods of interviewing suspects. Even he was unable to get a confession from the boys. Getting admission from a teenager would be easier than an adult. The only way the new investigators got two to confess in 1999 was because they were asshole investigators who broke the boys down over several days and refused to stop until they got what they wanted – a confession. False confessions happen more often than we would like to believe.
I also don’t believe that four teenagers could have pulled off the perfect crime without messing up somehow.
This was not a robbery gone wrong. I don’t think robbery was the motive at all. Who in the hell robs a yogurt shop? Any intelligent person would know that a place like that doesn’t carry much cash. There were two killers, in my opinion, so if they split the $540, that left each receiving only $270. That’s hardly worth killing over. Why not just take the money and run?
I think the man Croft had felt uneasy about that night was scoping the place out. The fact that he only bought a soda had asked to use the bathroom, and fled out the back door, tells me this could have been why he was at the yogurt shop. I also wonder if this man was one of the two men the couple saw sitting at a booth drinking a SODA. It’s evident these two men were responsible for the crime, not four teenagers with no motive to murder.
This was a sexually motivated crime or something far more significant than we may ever know. I think it’s the latter. Regardless, this was a planned crime. An accelerant (lighter fluid) was used to start the fires, showing that this crime was premeditated, which begs the question: who would want to kill these girls and why? Who would benefit from the murders? Did someone hire these men to kill the girls? If so, who? Who would want one or all of them dead? Was it over insurance money? Laundering of money and Jennifer or Eliza found out and threatened to expose the person or persons? There was a reason for this crime. It wasn’t random. Someone wanted these girls dead.
The book, Murdered Innocents mentions Eliza’s mom, Maria, being at the yogurt shop at the same time as Dearl Croft. She arrived at the shop around 9:00 p.m. and had been there about an hour before Croft came. She even chatted with him for a bit, according to the book. However, this information is not found in any news report I read or on 48 Hours Mystery (the show did a segment on the murders in 2010), which I find a bit interesting because Maria had to have seen the suspicious man who went to use the bathroom. Yet, she insists these four men killed her daughter and the other three girls.
I don’t see how you could be so sure when there is no evidence, but that’s just me. Eliza’s father also showed up at the store around 10:30 p.m. with his wife, Eliza’s stepmother. Again, this is not mentioned in news reports that I read. What else is not mentioned is whether or not the father saw anyone suspicious at the store that night.
I don’t know why the cops were so focused on these four men as being the killers. It makes you wonder if a bit of a cover-up is going on here. The botched investigation, false confessions, etc. It doesn’t look good, does it?
This case reminds me of the February 10, 1990, Las Cruces, New Mexico massacre, where seven people were shot multiple times in a bowling alley.
Four of the seven victims died – the bowling alley security guard, his two young children, and a 13-year-old friend of the bowling alley manager’s daughter. The cook, manager, and the manager’s daughter survived the shootings. Two Hispanic men were involved in the shootings. One was carrying a .22. They stole about $5000 from the safe.
After shooting the victims, they set the office on fire to destroy evidence. None of the female victims were raped, though. This case also remains unsolved to this day. Some believe that robbery was not the motive in this case. It appeared to the cook that they were looking for something else before stealing the money out of the safe. She also had seen these same two men before that awful day, sitting at a table, watching everyone. They were not bowling, playing pool, or anything offered at the bowling alley. They were watching, possibly scoping out the place.
The murders happened about 40 minutes before the bowling alley was to open for the day. Police, in this case, believe the killers were from out of state and were hired to commit these crimes. Las Cruces is about 622 miles northwest of Austin.
Sources: 48 Hours Mystery, The Austin Chronicle, Texas Monthly