Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 1 /// Episode:81 | Forensic Files

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Captain. Everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, and let's talk some
true crime. [Music] Notorious unsolved crimes in Texas, the yogurt shop murders.
[Music] Four teenage girls were murdered in North Austin at the yogurt shop. It was set on fire.
And when it was put out by firefighters, that's when they found the bodies inside.
[Music] Tied up, stacked on top of each other. All the girls shot in the head, execution style.
The firefighter with me tapped me on the shoulder and pointed down, and he asked
me, "Is that a body?" And I I had to step back, and it was. I saw another body. I knew that
that it wasn't right. Something was not right. I mean, play that over in your mind time
and time again. If we ever get to a point where we have a national database for some of the
different subtypes of DNA that we have, I that could be one of the keys to to bringing this investigation back into
the courtroom. [Music] 1991 in Austin, Texas, four teenage girls were bound and killed in a small
yogurt shop. The store, of course, was robbed. And now, 25 years later, this case remains unsolved.
>> The yogurt shop murders took place back in December of 1991. This case has gripped the city of Austin since, and it
has been quite the drama. Mhm. First of all, you have the horrible murders that took place, but then you have an
investigation with many peaks and valleys. I had heard of this case years ago, but
never really looked into it. And I do want to add that this case has been requested to be covered on this show by
many. When I first started looking into this case, well, at first of all, it's a very
strange case with strange circumstances. Mhm. But as I got knee-deep in this thing, it started to occur to me, and I
can't I can't shake this thought, that this case is like a meshing of two cases that we have covered before. First, you
have it's like the Burger Chef murders, you know, that we covered back in episode two. And also very much like the
West Memphis Three case that we covered in a three-part series in episodes 40 to 42.
And I'll tell you why I'm making these connections here. First, the Burger Chef murders, for maybe more obvious reasons,
both of these events took place in places of business, uh both being food or snack places, involving a robbery and
ultimately the killing of persons in the store. In the Burger Chef case, all of the persons killed were working at the
store at the time that night. >> And they were mainly teenagers. Yeah, and they were actually taken to another
location first, but nonetheless, it's quite a similar situation. Now, for the West Memphis Three case and the
connection there, the reasons are a little more subtle, but it's it's well, let's say, quote unquote, the
interesting confessions. Basically, little to no evidence, but just a simple confession or confessions
that led investigators to persons they believed to be responsible for the murders in both cases, being that of
young men, or more appropriately, a group of teenage boys. And in both cases, the West Memphis Three and what,
you know, a lot of people call this the yogurt shop murders, I kind of view it as the Austin City Four. Mhm. Uh there's
four victims, and there's going to be four major suspects. Um but with with both of those cases,
we're talking about horrendous murders, very horrifying. Yes. Yes. So, this all takes place on a Friday, December 6th,
1991. 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison drops off her little sister, 15-year-old Sarah.
Now, Sarah is with her friend, who is 13 years old. Her name is Amy Ayers. She drops them off at a local spot. They
are going to catch a movie and hang out afterwards. Jennifer had to go go to work that evening. She worked at the I
Can't Believe It's Yogurt Shop. This is located in a strip mall on West Anderson
Lane in Austin, Texas. I Can't Believe It's Yogurt is a basically a frozen yogurt chain, and uh
similar to like a froyo. Mhm. Yeah, we used to have one of these back in the day, probably around the time of
this crime here in in this city. Um and it's great place to drop in for a snack,
especially in summertime in the hot days. Uh great place to take a date to. You know, these are usually smaller
shops. Ice cream shop jobs are normally run by teenagers, and it's a Friday night, so we don't even actually have
adult on staff. We have Jennifer Harbison, uh who's working the closing shift with another 17-year-old girl,
Eliza Thomas. And as said, this is the evening shift, the closing shift. Jennifer and Eliza would be closing up
the shop for the night at the end of their shifts. Now, keep in mind, this is not a huge store, so it will just be the
two of them cleaning up and closing the shop for the night. And this is something that they had done before.
Sometime later in their shift, Jennifer's little sister Sarah and her friend Amy arrive at the yogurt shop.
They are going to help the two older teenagers with the closing duties, and then catch a ride with Jennifer
afterward. There was going to be a a sleepover that night. Some The closing time was scheduled for
11:00 p.m. Mhm. So, during this time, you know, we we've all seen this done before, or we've worked at similar
establishments, and this means not only do you have your doors open, and you're working through your your customer line,
and and ensuring everybody's having a good >> huge customer base at on this day,
because it is December. But it is Texas, so it is a it's a warmer environment, so
>> should have didn't think about that. >> Yeah, like here in Columbus, some of the
ice cream shops even close for the wintertime. >> right. >> Yeah, so this is something we're not
really accustomed to. But during this closing shift, not only are you trying to uh keep the customers happy and make
sure everybody's served in a timely manner, but you're also doing closing duties. You know, you're cleaning up the
place and closing it for the night and it requires a certain amount of administrative type duties where you'd
be collect you know, counting the money and filling out some paperwork and maybe
doing a little bit of light inventory or paperwork. And then on the flip side you're going to have a little bit of
just hustle and bustle. You know, you got to sweep the floors, mop the floors, you know, wipe down the windows, all
that stuff. And we we know how this goes down, right Captain? Because when when people that are working at a store,
working at a restaurant like this, you if especially on a Friday night when you have things that you want to do
afterwards, usually you're trying to do some of these closing duties even before
you've officially locked the door for the night. You know, you're trying to trying to expedite the whole situation
so you can get out of there in a timely manner. Mhm. Around 10:00 p.m. a man named Daryl Croft enters the shop and he
is there to buy yogurt for himself and two friends. Now, Daryl Croft is quite observant. He's a former police officer.
>> Yeah, or he's just buying three portions for himself. Uh at at the time he ran a security
company. Um there's a line of customers and Croft noticed that there is a man who is
waiting in line, but this man is letting people go before him. The man is wearing
a military fatigue style jacket. Mhm. Uh this man approaches Croft and asks him if he's a cop. I guess Croft had one of
those vehicles, you know, with the lights on top of it. So obviously it the vehicle looks like a police car, but it
is in fact his security vehicle. Uh so the man asks him if he's a cop and then offers to let Croft uh take, you
know, place his order before him, go in line before him. Croft is a bit put off by this and thinking that the man might
be up to something. So Croft does not take the man up on his offer. Thus it's now time for the guy in the
army jacket to place his order and he asked simply just for a can of soda. He doesn't order any yogurt at all.
After the man paid for his can of soda, he went to the back of the store. Uh Croft then approaches the counter
Mhm. and he places his order and he asked Eliza. Eliza is the shift supervisor that night. So she is on the
register. Uh he asked, you know, where did the man go? Why did he go to the back? And she
says, you know, he had asked to use the restroom and that she had allowed him to
the back of the store to use the store's restroom. Croft still is put off by the man and
decides that even after receiving his order, he's going to stick around a little longer than necessary. You know,
he kind of wants to keep an eye on the place. Right. It's you know, it's his nature. He's a former police officer. Um
but after a few minutes go by, you know, his he's he's got frozen yogurt. It's starting to melt.
>> Right here. This is direct evidence that this gentleman bought three servings of
yogurt for himself and not for him and two friends. Well, like I said, the the man that he's waiting on, that he's
trying to keep an eye on, the guy in the army jacket, he doesn't come back. >> He doesn't come back. So uh Croft
decides that he's going to leave. Now, Croft would end up giving a fairly detailed description of this man. He
described the man as a white male, about 6 ft tall, mid to late 20s with a medium
build, dark hair. He was clean shaven. He had a clear deep voice and a long pointed nose. So Croft just described
me. Yeah, I find it very odd that he went into a yogurt shop and didn't order frozen yogurt.
>> Right. >> That's the only reason you'd need to be there. But uh then when he orders the soda and
then heads off to the restroom, it's like, well, maybe he's just being polite by ordering the soda so he's not just
using the restroom and and and not paying for anything. Possibly. My guess is that Croft, you know, kind of got the
hint that maybe this guy was kind of lingering or loitering for for some time for a reason. Right, right, right. Which
I or he's just a complete savage and goes to yogurt shops for a soda. Now, we are
going to fast forward just a little bit. So just before 11:00 p.m. there is a married couple who are in the yogurt
store. So this is just before closing, right? Just before the girls will lock the front door, finish cleaning and
restocking, count the register and then leave for the night. >> Yeah, and this is the best part of the
night if you're the employee. Well, things are winding down. There's only four customers in the store at this
time. >> Well, and you're excited to go home. Yeah, you have the married couple who
say that they see two men sitting at a booth and this is while the girls are cleaning the shop. They're and this is
important here, stocking the napkins in the dispensers that are on the tables and picking up chairs and flipping them
upside down and placing them on the tables as they clean each table and move on to the next. Uh the details of this
couple's account, we we don't have. We don't have them. This is not something that's been presented to the public. Not
everything here has been released but about this particular part of the evening. But the couple says that the
men were sitting together at the booth, of course, and they are acting strange. Mhm. Uh we don't know what exactly that
means, uh but the woman says that the man made her uncomfortable. Mhm. The couple leaves the store just minutes
before closing time and the two men are still present in the store when they leave. So we got creepy McCreeperson and
his buddy old oddball and they're the last two known customers in the yogurt shop that night. Yeah, we would call
these campers, you know, when I used to work at the restaurant and at the bar, people that just kind of sit there with
with basically nothing on their table for far too long and probably, you know, it's so close to closing time. Sometimes
it's a few minutes afterwards. We go, oh, I got a group of campers at table 13. Well, and these campers, these
creepy campers is what we should call them. Neither one of them were eating yogurt. They're both just drinking
sodas. And I know that sounds like such a silly thing to keep harping on, but maybe that's why this married couple,
why the woman was kind of so put off by these two, that she thought that they were strange or acting She says acting
strange. We don't know exactly the details of that. Um but but she's afraid of them. Now,
the the married couple has left. As as Captain just said, we got the two weirdos still sitting at the booth.
>> The creepy campers. Now, closing time is 11:00 p.m. At 11:03 p.m. Mhm. someone pushed the no sale key
on the register. This is opening the register drawer. So this would have been recorded on the register. So we know
this happened. It's believed this may have been the start of the robbery and the start of the horrible events to
come. Now, just before midnight, then rookie Austin police officer Troy Gay was on
patrol near Northcross Mall. Uh he reported smoke coming from the rear of the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Shop. Uh
now, as I said, the yogurt shop is located in a strip mall. And this is just down the street from the Northcross
Mall where the the rookie officer is stationed. Uh according to the media reports at the
time, nearly 50 firefighters responded to this call at the yogurt shop. >> Jesus.
After extinguishing the flames, they made a grizzly discovery. So keep in mind here
what's going on, right? We how destroyed this place must be. There is a fire and
a pretty decent size one at that. >> Well, and and all that the people know, all that the firefighters know is that
this is called in as a fire. It's not called in as a burglary or anything. And that's going to come into play because
what happens is when the firefighters get there, they start doing their job. They start trying to put out the fire.
This place is ablaze. Uh it's a you know, a family owned business. These are franchised. It's connected to other
businesses. So now they're trying to save that whole area. And as they do that, they make that
gruesome discovery. Well, and even after they put out the fire, the place is full
of smoke. Uh objects in the store are melted, burned, and ruined. Um there would be soot everywhere and water from
the firemen's hoses. So much that there were puddles of water all over the place.
>> Right. One of the firefighters walking through the shop after the fire had been
extinguished, he points to something on the floor and he asked the firefighter next to him, "What is that?" And the
object he is pointing to is a foot. Can you imagine the thoughts that are going through that firefighter's head? Well,
now a new call has to go out, right Captain? Because originally they're responding to a fire and the
firefighters discover that we have a fatality. And actually the call that goes out is that they discovered three
fatalities after extinguishing the fire. This call is going to the police at this
point, obviously. And just seconds later that call from the dispatcher that came
to the police police cruiser radios, well, it it has to be updated because shortly, just seconds afterwards, it's
updated to four fatalities were found. Well, now the firefighters have to start treating this as, you know, a crime
scene and they're already aware that the work that they did to put out the fire has already contaminated that crime
scene, which is going to make this way harder for the police officers and law enforcement and the detectives to
collect evidence. Mhm. And I and I said four fatalities, that is in fact the call that went out, but but technically
Amy, the 13-year-old, she was clinging to life uh when discovered, but but she died very shortly after after the
discovery. So four girls lay dead inside the shop. Three were found together. This would be in the back room prep
area. The other girl, Amy, was found closer to the back of the shop. This is near the store's restrooms. And like we
said, Amy is 13. Mhm. Sarah's 15. And then we have Jennifer and Eliza that are both 17. Just kind of put into
perspective. I mean, we have a couple we do have two older teenagers, but you know, Sarah and Amy were were just
babies. >> Mhm. And Eliza, Sarah, and Jennifer were the three that were found in that back
room prep area. Now, they were actually found together. Two of them were stacked
on top of one another, and the third girl lay next to them. Investigators believe, as do I, that all three of them
were probably stacked on top of each other, but due to the chaos when the firefighters were putting out the fire
and sweeping the ceiling, walls, and floors with their high-pressured hoses, that the girl which was on top was
probably knocked to the floor. One of the first responders described the girls as charred nearly to the bone.
Investigators immediately concluded the blaze was set to cover up the crime. >> You mean the arson happened to cover up
the murders. Yes. Yes, sorry about that. But the thing here is, Captain, we have
multiple crimes happening in a very short period of time in a small space, right? We have the arson that was that
the fire set to cover up the murders. Was the murders due to something going wrong in a robbery? Because one would
assume this is a robbery gone wrong when you start to look at this thing. And there was a robbery. You know, we we
said that the at some point no someone had hit the no sale button on the register. We don't know if this was one
of the girls or if this was a robber. But what we do know is there is $540 missing from the store that night. That
seems like a very small amount of money to kill four innocent girls over. Yeah, it's to me this looks like
it makes absolutely no sense. Even if you if you try to go down the path of a robbery gone wrong.
I don't know that you commit four murders to cover up a a $540 robbery. And and furthermore, it seems to me like
you could have picked another business where there would have been potentially more more money. If this in fact if
money was the actual object that you were seeking that night. How about you talk a little bit about one of the main
characters in this case, Detective Jones. Yeah, so here's an interesting situation regarding this case. Detective
Jones was working the night shift that night. And he was one of the officers that received the call about the
fatalities. He's on his way to the store. The strange thing here is he's actually being
he has a ride-along that night. Right, he's being followed by a news team. >> Yeah, they're doing a piece on crime in
the city. And they're following him around, so we get a lot of news footage from this
crime scene right from the get-go. So, Detective Jones, as you said, he's one of the not only one of the first law
enforcement officers to the scene that night, but he would end up being the lead investigator early on in this case.
He's called to the scene, and he describes the scene to the news team after he goes inside. He comes back out,
and he describes the scene as a wholesale of carnage. And to make matters worse, we got four teenagers.
Well, and actually at the time they didn't even really fully know that. I mean, I've heard Jones talk about this
case time and time again. And one thing, and I'll try to try to say it as best as
I can, but when he's referred to his immediate reaction to what he's seen, you know, he says, you know, I've seen
burned bodies before. You know, the enormity of that is huge. But and then to have the stacked bodies
But he says, we couldn't tell a lot back then, right, when we were in the building.
We couldn't even tell race or sex. So, that tells you how bad the scene was. Mhm. And this shop was, you know, a
pretty typical any kind of retail shop that would be in a strip mall. Mhm. And what we have at the scene is we have the
locked front door. Mhm. So, we could assume that the girls were able to lock the front
door on some capacity. And then normally you lock the front door, you take care of all your belongings. You might have
to run out trash through the back. But they found the back door unlocked and open like a a crack. Yeah, and the
the owner of the store would kind of help police with this with this situation to kind of take them through
how this closing time would work. And what he states is that the back door itself, it's deadbolted. And and there
would be no reason for the girls to open up that door that night. Okay, so they so they didn't have to throw trash away
that night. Right. Having the back door unlocked and opened was strange. Was super strange to the owner. And it might
be just a simple situation as maybe the owner says, you know what, leave the trash near the back door.
Leave the trash in this location, and I will take the trash out when I arrive in
the morning. >> yeah. Now, regarding the front door, it's a little bit of a different
situation. It's it's locked. They you know, the firefighters found the front door locked. They were able to pry it
open pretty easily. They're hell, they're firefighters. That's what they do. They kick in doors and bust down
doors, put out fires, right? But this door itself, it was locked from the inside, and it was one of those kind of
locks where you would lock it with an actual key. Mhm. And that same key would unlock it from the outside, right? So,
the door was locked with the key still in the lock on the inside of the door. Now, what the girls would would do is
after they finished up everything, they would unlock the front door from the inside. They would leave taking the key
with them, lock the door from the outside, and then they would slide the key underneath the door putting it back
into the store. So, the people that arrive in the morning, presumably these are people that have their own key, you
know, the the owner and maybe a manager or something. Right. They would arrive in the morning, and they would pick up
that key, and the whole process would start over. >> Right. But that way you don't have a
bunch of employees running around with the key. Right. You don't have to million keys out. All right. So, just a
quick recap. We have a fire at the yogurt shop. The the the firefighters show up. They start putting out the
fire, and then they quickly realize that we have a murder scene. Mhm. Um we then
have the detectives showing up. They can't even identify these bodies cuz they're so badly burned and so badly
charred. They realize then the arson was to cover up the murders. >> Uh-huh. And then on By the way, we also
have money missing, and we have one door open, the other door still locked. >> Mhm. Um and we'll get into more of the
findings right after this quick beer break. All right. Cheers, mates. I'm actually switching over from the Island
Reserve to a little Rhine Geist The Truth. Cheers. Hey, I do want to get into the autopsy
report. And I And here's the thing though, Captain. This is always tough in these situation
in any case that we go through because sometimes we cover the autopsy findings, and sometimes we do not. Mhm. Uh and
usually, you know, it's a thin line, and you have to decide when you're going to
cross that line and or not. And typically with a case involving teenagers, we would try to stay away from that. But
in certain situations, that report could mean a break in the case. It it can clear up certain amounts of evidence
that are found. Well, and also depending on what you find during that autopsy, it changes the suspect that you're
looking for. Mhm. And as we said, there later in this case, there's going to be four suspects that that are brought to
the forefront amongst a whole bunch of other groups of suspects. And the problem here is I think you have
to review that autopsy report because within that, there could be clues as to how many perpetrators it took to carry
out this crime. Was it four people? Was it one person? You know, and some of this information helps. And the reason
being is, you know, we talked about the West Memphis case, right? Mhm. West West
Memphis 3. So, so just comparing the two real quick here. And the reason why I think it's important is in this
situation in the yogurt shop murder situation, we have a pinpointed time frame of when the deaths
probably occurred. Right. Because we we know that they're closing about 11:00. Uh and then we know that the
firefighters receive a call and are on the scene about 12:00. Yeah. So, we have about an hour. Mhm. And and we can
surmise that that they were killed during that hour period. Now, in the West Memphis case, what the big what the
big problem with that case was, and in my opinion, is that they were not they were not able to nail down the time of
death. And that being that there were so many people that have been suspected of that
crime, you know, whether it be in the media's eyes or in the eyes of investigators. But one big problem you
have there is when you cannot pinpoint that time of death, well, you could have eliminated a lot of those
suspects just to what time they they were murdered. Well, right. And if you have a time of death, then you can find
out if that person has an alibi or not. But again here, I think what we're going
to find out is does this point to one person, two persons, four people carrying out this crime? That that's the
important thing here. Which is very similar to the West Memphis 3 as well. So, hopefully this will clear some
things up for later on discussion because this shocking case is about to get real cloudy real quick. I do want to
be perfectly clear here though, right? While I do have a quote-unquote autopsy report,
um and I have very little reason to doubt the following report, but I want everyone to understand something that
this is a third-hand account of the autopsy report. Because early in this case, it was determined that the autopsy
reports should be sealed and according to some people these are technically public documents.
Mhm. And that they should be made public because this could help with the actual
investigation. So what I have here is actually a third-hand account of the autopsy reports. This was the reports
were supplied by a former attorney Mhm. >> to a writer and then a a writer reviewed
them and gave a summary of those reports. So what we have here is is this report
and I'll read it read it as it goes. Mhm. Um Well, just I mean the warning is is this
is graphic in nature. So Yes. >> just be warned. So we have the body of Sarah Harbison was found nude
found gagged and her hands were bound behind her back with a pair of panties. Her body was severely charred
and she had been shot through the back of the head with a .22 caliber gun. This was a lead bullet which was recovered
from her brain. Then we have Jennifer Harbison whose nude body was found. She was not bound
but her body was found in a manner that her hands were behind her back. Mhm. Her
body was severely charred as well. But there was no binding on the hands. >> No binding but you don't know what could
have been burnt in the situation. Mhm. Um she had been shot through the back of the head and again a .22 caliber lead
bullet was recovered from her brain. Eliza Thomas she was nude as well and gagged. Her hands bound behind her back
with a brassiere and her body was severely charred and she had been shot through the back of
the head. Again a .22 caliber lead bullet was recovered from her from her brain. Yeah, I mean this is just the
scene is horrific. What a tragic scene. Amy Ayers her body she was found nude as well with a sock
like cloth material wrapped around her neck with a half hitch in the back. Um this would be the manner that it was
tied in. Her body was not severely charred. Now remember she was the one that was found elsewhere. Mhm. Okay, so
this might help lead investigators to figure out where the fire had originated from.
Um >> Well, Amy Amy wasn't badly charred as like the other victims were but she did
have second and third degree burns on about 25 30% of her body. And she had been found shot in the back of the head
just like the same same as the other girls with a .22 caliber gun. Um but the bullet in this case did not enter the
brain. However, there was a second gunshot. Mhm. And in this report it says the caliber is not specified in the
report caused this second gunshot caused severe damage to the brain. So possibly
two weapons two guns. This would be two weapons yes and this bullet exited through the right lateral cheek and jaw
area. All right, so is it possibly two guns or is it definitely two guns? Well, according to this report it sounds more
like possibly two guns but what we would later learn is that it is in fact two guns and I'm going off of this
assumption because of the police were looking for a .22 caliber gun and a .38 or a .380 caliber gun. Okay, and what
this tells me is that probably at the time that when this autopsy was filed >> Mhm. when this report was conducted they
may not have found that bullet at that time. And it may have been recovered from the scene later therefore they know
that it's a .380. Um the the report goes on to state that whereas the cause of death for each of the other girls this
is all this is Jennifer Sarah and Eliza the three other girls other than Amy was
determined by the coroner to be shot with a .22 caliber gunshot wound to the back of the head the cause of death for
Amy was listed as a result of gunshot wounds of the head and asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. Also unlike the
other girls Amy's fingernails were cut for examination purposes and fingerprints were taken. Yeah, it seems
like maybe that we should just assume that with Jennifer Sarah and and Eliza that maybe their bodies were just so
badly charred that they couldn't actually take those for fingerprints. Yeah, I would guess that a certain
amount of evidence was lost due to the amount of fire that that the bodies had to succumb to but the situation here is
it it's showing us a few different things. Okay, one it's showing us that Amy is believed to have spent more time
with with whoever was assaulting her or whomever was you know killing her. Mhm. Um you know they clipped her fingernails
for a reason. Um and this may have been we have a big problem here right Captain
because we have one girl that's found back by the restrooms. She's the same girl that is shot twice the only one
that's shot twice the only one where there's mention of possible strangulation as well. So do we have a
situation where all four girls are shot and believed to have been dead and then whoever did this is stacking the bodies
so that because when you burn the place the whole goal here is if you're trying to cover up these murders is that you
want to burn as much of that evidence away and as much of those bodies as possible. Mhm. Do we have a situation
here where someone had stacked those bodies and for whatever reason Amy had survived? We know that the bullet didn't
hit the brain and then at some point she started to crawl or to move away from the from from the stack and was was
tracked down and then killed near the restrooms. That's very I mean it's horribly sad for the fact you know
Amy again is is the youngest of all four victims. We should also talk about what the city's fire investigator
found now that we've gone through what we've heard of the autopsy. So the city fire investigator Melvin Stahl he
concluded that from reviewing the crime scene that the fire had started in a corner of the shop where the supplies
were stored. So this would be where the fire started then at some point it it worked its way through portions of the
of the store. Yeah, and with the autopsy and with this the fire report this is basically the start of the investigation
and looking for suspects and looking for answers of this quadruple homicide. Yeah, and in this situation detectives
are going to do just like what they would normally do in any homicide type situation. You're going to start off by
interviewing family members and friends of the victims and you're interviewing the store owner and employees as well as
owners and employees of the shops nearby. You're also going to interview the customers who had been in the shop
that day and fielding thousands of tips phoned in from very concerned from the very concerned public because this I
mean this this case blew up the city rightfully so. I mean people were calling in with tips left and right.
Well, and I'm sure there's a bunch of statements from the the store owners next door. Yeah, yeah one such interview
was that of the owner of the next door shop. This is a party supply store. Mhm. This man stated that the only thing out
of the ordinary for that evening was that he had heard popping noises and sounds that he had thought were coming
from the roof. He had also noticed the back door to the yogurt shop was open. It was it was propped open and and this
was abnormal. Now of course the the police are assuming that the popping noises that he had heard were probably
the gunshots. >> Right. But one thing we got to keep in mind here is this store is right next door and in a
strip mall they're sharing they're basically sharing a wall. So this is not like a huge barrier between the two
locations. What what is he hearing? He's hearing popping noises. He's not hearing
screams. He never reports hearing screams or or loud commotions other than these popping noises. So what that tells
me is that we have a a group of victims here that seem to be by going by this one account seem to be controlled by
whomever's carrying out this crime. Yeah, I mean you'd think Well, you'd think also maybe that um
there's some way that they're unconscious at this point. >> Mhm. And maybe that's why they're not
you're not hearing the screams. Cuz you'd think that if you're next to your you know best friend or next to your
sister and and she got shot Mhm. you know what you would be doing. That would be uncontrollable.
You know what I mean? Like that you could have you could have one suspect on each victim and that doesn't
stop you know somebody from making some kind of noise once you you start shooting. Yeah, we have two of the
victims that are gagged. That may have played a role in that that as well. But we also don't know what what's going
on inside these four walls. We don't know what's being said to them. What we do know is just like you said
four victims conceivably you would you would guess that that all four of them would have been shot with that .22. Mhm.
Three of them were killed by the .22 the fourth survived it but was shot by it. So you almost seem like you have a
situation here where they're being executed one at a time. Right. And you're exactly right. You would expect
the remain the alive people to start reacting to what they're seeing or hearing. Um somehow
somehow either these these screams were muffled or they didn't happen at all. And somehow these the perpetrator or
perpetrators of this horrific murder and murders was able to control the scene and control the victims.
>> Well, and like I said, I mean, the possibility it's just likely to me that they would be unconscious by some level.
Um there were only one of them had been reported to show signs of some kind of actual struggle
um and that was Amy. She had had what appeared to have been hit on the face with something.
Um and again, we talked about her probably having more uh you know, probably a closer attack on
her than the other girls. Um the because of the crime scene being so messed up, you know, because of the
fire had destroyed so much of the crime scene, Detective Jones, he knew that this would make the investigation very
difficult at best to identify and collect evidence that remained at the scene. Uh I got to say that Detective Jones, I
believe, you know, did his due diligence here. He immediately calls in for backup. He reached out and brought in
several different organizations into this investigation. He brought in the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms. He also brought in the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Detective Jones was not the only
detective on this case. He was actually working with his partner, uh Detective Huckabee.
Plus having brought in all those other organizations, you're going to have, you know, detectives and investigators
involved uh from those places as well. Well, 8 days into this investigation, we got uh Detective Huckabee and Detective
Jones, they're going to receive a break. Yeah, this would be a 16-year-old boy. His name is Maurice Pierce. Now, he had
been picked up at the Northcross Mall. Remember, we had said this was the mall that was just blocks from the crime
scene. And he's picked up because he's carrying a .22 caliber handgun. Yeah, during questioning, Maurice Pierce, he
said that he had lent the gun to his friend Forrest Wilborn, who was 15. And Wilborn had said that he had used the
gun to commit the yogurt shop murders. Right. Now, if you at this point, as far as detectives go, you're
thinking, "Done. Solved." Yeah. Yeah, and but you got to do your due diligence because you need evidence if if if in
fact this Wilborn character carried out the murders. So, one thing that they do is that they
hook Maurice Pierce up and they're they're going to record a conversation that he's going to have with Forrest
Wilborn. And Forrest Wilborn has no clue, according to the recording, what what his friend Maurice Pierce is
talking about. >> Right. And, you know, they're trying to get this they're trying to get some idea
if Forrest Wilborn was actually involved. Now, when they bring in Wilborn, he immediately denies any
involvement, but he did tell investigators that he and Pierce, along with two other boys, this would be Robin
Springsteen and Michael Scott, that at some point they had stolen a a vehicle. Mhm. Uh and this they had stolen a
vehicle because they wanted to joyride to nearby San Antonio. Uh this was a stolen SUV. This took
place not long after the crime, but it was that admission that put Springsteen and Scott and the other two boys on the
police radar. Right. Nonetheless, after lengthy questioning, Jones and his team,
they dismissed Maurice Pierce as a suspect. >> Mhm. They concluded that he was lying
about having lent the gun to his friend and his friend saying that he had used it in the murders. And that's that's
just such an odd thing to lie about, though. Well, and and the thing here with Jones, too, is Jones speaks very
frankly to everybody and and I I like the cut of his jib. I like his character. And and one thing that he
said years later, you know, when brought up the fact of Maurice Pierce and they found him with the gun and now you're
you're talking to his Maurice Pierce's three friends, he basically says, "Yeah, we had to deal with him because he got
caught with a god damn .22." And Jones would go on to say that it yes, it's the same caliber as one of the
two guns used in the crime, but it became clear to Jones that neither Pierce nor Wilborn had any connection to
the crime at all. When he describes Forrest Wilborn, he describes Forrest as "Forrest had no clue." He says, "This is
a guy that couldn't organize a two-car parade." Yeah, that boy didn't know chicken [ __ ] from chicken salad. He was
no criminal mastermind. That's the, you know, to say the least and in Jones' opinion. Moreover, Jones says that
Maurice Pierce, his gun, that .22 that they found on him, it did not match the ballistics of the crime, which is a
strange which is a strange thing because then he almost immediately says that and
he points this out and he's rightful rightful to do so, but stating that .22s are typically thought as throwaway
weapons because the ballistics the bullets are flattened because they're a softer, smaller
bullet. And this usually leaves very few few clues which would help match them to
a particular gun. Uh but the gun that they checked on Pierce was just one of 75 guns. They
test-fired 75 guns and they never found a successful link to any of the guns that were used in the crime.
>> It seems like Detective Jones and Detective Huckabee did a really good job of trying to let the evidence tell the
story and not to come up with a theory and make the shoe fit. You're exactly right. And the other thing here, too, is
we from Jones' statements, future statements, we can we can verify that there was that second gun even though
and and we know now that the autopsy report was not complete because Jones would tell us that the there was a
second gun used in the crime. This was a .380 pistol used to fire the single shot
into Amy. And he stated that a big part of their investigation, which was right to do so,
was looking for that .380. He said because while most .380s have a particular twist to the rifling of the
barrel, the one that was used in the yogurt shop murders, it had an opposite twist. So, if that gun could be found,
which who knows? I mean, it still could be found even 25 years later, this would
be a tremendous help to closing this case and to figuring out who did this crime. Well, it seems like this
16-year-old Pierce is a little bit of a nutcase, right? He's he's basically saying, "Well, I got this gun." He seems
like he's being kind of bragadocious about this whole idea of um you know, my friend was involved, you
know? And then it just seems odd and and like I said, Detective Jones is going, "Well, the
shoe doesn't fit." Right. >> And then we have this other detective that comes in to actually interrogate
Pierce. Yeah, and I I want before we get into that, I want to go into this just a
little bit more here because Detective Jones, he's not a rookie detective, okay? At this point in his career, he's
investigated over 140 homicides. So, this is a seasoned detective. This is a guy that knows what to look for. He's
probably put many, many people behind bars for those murders. Now, this situation, like you said,
do we just have some dumbass 16-year-old boy? And I can say that because I was once a dumbass 16-year-old boy.
>> Okay? And I know how some >> a dumbass 16-year-old boy. >> how some some of these things work,
okay? So, do we have a situation here where this kid and and he's probably not a, you know, a good you know, a
do-gooder. He's probably not a good Samaritan. He's walking around a mall with a with a gun. And and you know,
could could you see kind of a dumbass 16-year-old kid kind of bragging to his friends like, "Oh, you see this gun?
This .22 caliber, it's it's the same kind of gun that was used in the yogurt shop." You know, uh
not meaning it's the exact same gun. Um the other thing, too, though, like what you were going to get into is this
other detective that was involved in the investigation at the time. What we also
see in the West Memphis 3, there's a lot of accounts, whether these were made-up
accounts or not, was that, you know, Damien Echols was going around town basically, you know, bragging about that
he was involved. >> Mhm. You know. Yeah, and and he states things like, "Well, I had people asking
me if I was involved, so at some point I just kind of joked joked to them to their face."
>> Right, right. Which came back to really be a bad idea. >> you in the ass. >> Probably much like this Maurice Pierce
person. Um but we have a detective um who's no longer a detective. His name is Hector
Polanco. Now, he's an interesting guy, right? He is a guy that that Jones would say, you know, we learned this years
later that Hector Polanco was responsible for getting >> For having a bad name. Yeah, for getting
many many people to confess to crimes that they did not commit. What a skill. Yeah,
yeah, he he he was he was strong in the area of coercion, right? He also interviewed Jessie Misskelly. So, which
he did not. We don't want anybody to get confused there. Um but what he's saying is that when
they brought in Maurice Pierce and they wanted to really grill him, right? Put the hammer down. So, they stick him in
an interrogation room with this Detective Polanco. And Polanco was not able Polanco's a bad
name. It's a regular name. I'm sorry if your last name is Polanco. Most of our listeners have the last name
Polanco. 95% of our listeners are Polancos. What he's saying here is that if Polanco could not get this Maurice
Pierce to confess to the crime, >> Mhm. he didn't do it. He absolutely didn't do it. And that's that's
Detective Jones saying this out of experience. Okay, so do you think, listen, I'm just hypothetically, right?
What do I think? We have Pierce in the room. We don't know if he did it, right? Right. But they call in. Oh, he's in the
room because they assume he did it. Okay, no, I'm saying hypothetical. That's what hypothetical was Oh, I'm
sorry. is fictitious land. Okay, we just have a suspect, right? >> Mhm. And and they call you in. Columbus PD
calls you in. Mhm. And they say, "We want you to get him to confess." You think you could do it?
Uh no no, I don't I don't think I would have that skill. >> You don't think you watched enough
detective shows or like SVU or anything? Uh there was a detective that that worked a famous case up in Canada with a
serial killer and I can't remember his name, maybe McDon- I can't remember his name. He was the guy that was involved
in the the Air Force up there. Uh so this is a guy that would not be easy to break. Uh and I watched they had a
lengthy video of him interrogating this guy and he got him to to talk eventually. And this was this was not
like this was not like a guy that just got into the Air Force. This was a guy that was very high-ranking officer that
that had spent 20-some years in the Air Force up there and he was a respected individually individual in the community
as well as in the government uh government's eyes up there. He he would be the type of criminal that you would
think that you wouldn't be able to get him to spill the beans so to speak say, right? Right. And this guy was able to
do it and I I sat there and I watched the interrogation like three times cuz I thought oh, if I could just pick up
something here Yeah. then you could use this on anybody and it would work. I I can tell you right now I don't have that
ability. >> Well, maybe it was just his time to tell, you know what I mean? Maybe it was
just was building up inside him and it didn't really matter who asked. >> Well, I got to admit when I when I first
sat down and I heard about this situation, I I was being the ever ever being the skeptic
that I am, right? I I expected it just to be something all your typical run-of-the-mill interrogation. This guy
he was never like aggressive or forceful with anything. Um I don't even think he ever lied to
the guy that he was interrogating. But he got him to confess. He got him to start talking and it was I thought it
was masterful. Yeah, and I know there's like some techniques that they use, but uh one of our uh buddies that is a
Columbus uh detective always talks about he never claimed to be like a super intelligent guy. He worked hard, uh did
his job, but he wasn't like into like the psychology of trying to figure out criminals and all that stuff. And so he
would just go in have them talk, you know, confess, you know, and and maybe they did confess, but it would be like
bits and pieces. And then he would just go, "Okay, well, I got to go talk to this guy." And he would go out, you
know, pretend to talk to the guy, get another cup of coffee, come back and go, "We got to start from the beginning cuz
you're lying." And then he would just do that about five or six times and he'd >> Wear them down. Eventually,
they're just like so confused and thinking that this guy has to know something that they just
start spilling the beans. Uh you know, I don't know if we're talking about the same guy, but there there's a a
detective that I spoke to and this is a very this is a pretty regular technique,
I'm assuming, but I had never thought of it at the time. But one thing he had told me cuz I'd asked him I was like,
you know, how many times in these when you're questioning somebody do you just outright lie to them, which I've always
thought was strange, but you you're allowed to do so. >> Right. Um and he told me that, you know,
he's like, "A lot of times you don't have to lie to them." And he's like, "It's really about the way you word
things." And he said, you know, if I if I were talking to somebody that we suspected robbed an ATM machine, well,
what am I going to use? I'm going to use their knowledge that that their general
knowledge that they may know and I'm going to mix in a little bit of stuff that we might know, but I'm not going
to, you know, I'm not going to have to lie because I could look at the guy and tell him,
"Well, what if I said to you that we have you on camera committing this crime?" Right. He's not claiming that
they do, but then immediately the guy's thinking, "Well, of course they have cameras at these ATMs. I was at that
ATM." And then a lot of times >> was not at the ATM and then you go, "Well, that's impossible." Right. Yeah.
Well, now's the point in the investigation because look, that's your big lead, right? Going back to the four
teenage boys that are picked up. That's your big lead and then that after you investigate it and you put them through
the mill there, it really goes nowhere for them. >> What doesn't check out? Exactly. It
doesn't it doesn't fit the crime. Uh so now police are going to start focusing in on the freaks, right? Because you've
you've you've exhausted some of your leads and you got to start looking into, well, what's going on in the area? Yeah,
and also just to keep in, you know, our minds on the time frame, this is 1991. This is 2 years before West Memphis 3.
And and so we this is the height of satanic panic. Yes, and that's that's part of the freaks that they're going to
start focusing the investigation around. They are going to check in with known uh Satanists in the area, rapists, uh
violent offenders, and serial killers. And because this is an extremely violent crime that took place.
>> Right. And you would you would think that if you have to find somebody outside of the circle of the victims or
outside of the circle of the shop itself, that now you're going to have to look for people that are capable of such
horrendous violence. >> Well, and that's one of the things that Detective Jones said is is he didn't
even believe that the the four that they had were capable of something this horrendous.
>> Mhm. Let's go into the thought of the serial killers that we had mentioned, right? So
in 1992, we have a man that is picked up and his name is Kenneth Allen McDuff. Okay, now
some of our listeners are go- this name is going to ring bells with them, right?
>> Mhm. Uh this is a serial killer and he is he was actually first convicted of raping and murdering three teenagers way
back in August of 1966. Um he killed three people, like I said, in 1966 and he was he was known as the
broomstick killer. Mhm. And you think, "Well, why is he involved in this 1991 case?" Well, he was he was caught and
Texas had a problem, okay? Nowadays, we know Texas is one of the fast-track states where they they they convict
people and they execute people with with a quickness uh that's not carried out as fast in
other states. Way back then, it was a bit of a different situation, okay? Because you
did have the the uh capital punishment, the death penalty was abolished in 1972.
So even though that he was convicted and sentenced to death back in back in '66,
that was abolished in '72. So they end up commuting his sentence to life with the possibility of parole. Yeah, which
is ridiculous. Which you also have another you have another bad thing going on here in in the state of Texas.
At some point in his in his while he's in prison, there's an overpopulation problem, okay? All these prisons are
getting heavily overpopulated. So the idea here is you got to let some of these guys out to create some space for
the new guys coming in. Yeah. The thought here is that sounds like a great idea. Well, he would he would not be
high on their list of people to release, obviously, because he's an extremely violent offender. Right. Three murders.
So what they start off with doing is letting out the non-violent offenders. Well, they do that for quite some time
and even though it doesn't create enough space. So at some point they have to start releasing violent offenders. The
problem here is he had served quite a bit of time and he was considered to be older and therefore the thought would be
that there's a better chance of him being rehabilitated when you compare him to a prisoner that had only spent a
short amount of time in prison. >> Right, but you have three murders under your belt and three rapes, so
you know, hey, let's send this guy out cuz he's too old for that. So due to the extremely crowded prisons Texas prisons,
McDuff is paroled in 1989. Now actually upon his release, McDuff is arrested on a series of parole violations, but he's
not locked up for any substantial length of time. What happens here, Captain? Mhm. Is that
in late December of 1991, along with an accomplice, uh he is in Austin City, Texas. They
pick up a woman named Colleen Reed. Now she is at a car wash. Now this car wash is not
terribly far from the yogurt shop, right? Okay. >> They pick her up and abduct her at a car
wash and basically I don't want to go into the details of of what takes place after that, but she
is killed. She's killed that night. >> Mhm. And her body is is not found for quite some time and it's not found in
1992. Um what happens here is he would after being released, he ultimately ends up killing a couple of people and he's
suspected of killing many more people. The thing here is he he's in the area at the time. Right.
And he's a very bad guy. And and second of all, he's there's some similarities to this crime as to his old crimes. He
was known to have raped the victims before killing them. He was also known to have tied them up and a lot of them
they to use their own belongings. You know, we talked about these girls were tied up with with socks that were theirs
and >> or panties of Yeah. Exactly. And he he had done similar things with stockings
and uh and panties and things like that, shoelaces before. Um the thing here is though that that's
strange is that if he were to have been involved in the yogurt shop murders, this would have
taken place December 6th, 1991. He picked up Colleen Reed December 29th in Austin, 1991. It would be hard for me
to believe that he would have stuck around. You know, we're talking about a guy that was probably
moving about quite a bit, especially moving about the state of Texas. It would be hard for me to believe that he
would stick around for almost a month after that crime. >> but not unheard of for killer to stick
around. No, you're exactly right. You're exactly right. >> Yeah, and with Colleen Reed, he had an
accomplice and so, you know, a lot of people believe and I think a lot of the evidence points out that it was at least
two people that, you know, did these heinous crimes at the yogurt shop. So, again,
you have two people in the Colleen Reed and then those same two people, you know, just you know, less than a month
earlier could have done this. It is possible. I do want to go through real quick how McDuff was eventually picked
up. It wouldn't be until March It was March of 1992. There was an abduction and there was a
murder of 22-year-old Melissa Northrop. Now, Northrop, she was working at her job as a clerk. This is at the Quick
Pack convenience store. This is in Waco, Texas. When she was abducted and driven
from the location in her own vehicle, which was a 1977 Buick Regal. This car was found abandoned 5 days later.
But, it wasn't until April 26th that her body was found floating in a gravel pit
about a mile from where the car was discovered. Her hands had been tied behind her back with shoestrings and a
sock. She had been strangled with a rope. Police were led to McDuff after his abandoned vehicle was found parked near
the store. >> Mhm. And he had once worked with Northrop at the store and was arrested.
He was tracked down in Kansas City, May 4th, 1992. This was after they had shown
his picture on America's Most Wanted and received tips of where he was located. >> Yeah, and this is frustrating for the
cops and frustrating for the detectives cuz clearly, you know, you know, this fits his MO, you know, and you have this
serial killer, you have this animal and and you really want it to to be pinned down on him. Yeah, you he has
to be looked at, right? Because even you might not be able to link him to the area at the exact time, but the problem
is he's somebody that is certainly capable of such. And he has to be looked at. And this is somebody they did look
at and they looked at him very hard. Just couldn't connect the dots to to make it fit.
>> Yeah, but this will not be the last time that we hear from McDuff in the in this
case. >> No, and this also will not be the last time that we hear we bring a serial
killer into the investigation. This investigation is really I mean, it this case doesn't go cold for quite some
time. The investigation's very hot. You're talking about a situation where we have almost 400 suspects.
We've had thousands of people interviewed, thousands of tips received. We've had people that have been
interrogated, questioned. >> Yeah, and these cases normally don't go cold because of the amount of pressure
that they're getting put on the departments from the communities. Yeah, and this case would ultimately see 50
confessions, right? And six of them being written confessions. So, we don't have time to you know, we got
to do this in part two, obviously, but we'll get into some of those confessions. We'll get into some of
these other suspects including more about McDuff and the other serial killer. >> All right, and we our recommended
reading for the week is Yes, our recommended reading for this week is Wolf Boys by Dan Slater. This is the
story of two American teens recruited as killers for a Mexican cartel and their pursuit by a Mexican-American detective
who realizes the war on drugs is unwinnable. Mhm. This is This is what it's like to be an
employee of a global drug trafficking organization. And this also talks about how a 15-year-old American boy goes from
being a star quarterback to a trained assassin. >> This case also takes place in Texas.
That's right. And and more specifically, the border town of Laredo, Texas, where,
you know, sometimes people grow up poor, the streets are dangerous, and sometimes
Mexican-American teenage boys would end up joining gangs like the Zetas, which is a drug cartel with roots reaching
back to the Mexican military. Wolf Boys is a true story. It's the true story of a couple of teenagers that
joined the Zetas. This is a brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade. And a good-natured teenager
turns into a feared assassin. So, pick up Wolf Boys by Dan Slater by going to our website truecrimegarage.com.
Click on the recommended page. You're going to see all kinds of books on there. And you can do that by going
through our Amazon banner. And we want to thank you for joining us in the garage today. Tomorrow, we'll pick up
right where we left off where where the detectives down in Austin City are hot on the track of finding who did this
horrific murder. And we're hot on the track and we're bringing you along with us. So, until tomorrow, be good, be
kind, and don't forget [Music] [Applause]

Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 1 /// Episode:81

Original Release: 2-17-2017

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

In 1991- Austin, Texas 4 teenage girls were bound and killed in a small yogurt shop. The store of course was robbed. Four teenage boys would later be arrested and two of them found guilty of the murders. These convicted killers were eventually released when new evidence showed that the state's case was wrong. Now over 25 years later this case remains unsolved. Who killed these girls? Some still argue police had it right years ago, when they questioned the four boys and later arrested them. Some investigators suggest the killer or killers are unknown to law enforcement. Some point toward an insurance fraud scheme reaching high levels of the local judicial system.

Beer of the Week - Island Reserve: Russian Imperial Stout - By Cisco Brewers Incorporated

Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved yogurt shop murders in Texas, detailing the victims and the investigation's challenges.

Key points

The Yogurt Shop Murders. Four teenage girls were murdered in a yogurt shop in Texas, and the case remains unsolved.
A Gruesome Discovery. Firefighters discover four fatalities after extinguishing a fire at the yogurt shop.
Arson to Cover Up Murders. Investigators concluded the blaze was set to hide the crime of murder.
Detective Jones' Gripping Account. Detective Jones describes the scene as a wholesale of carnage, revealing the horror of the crime.
Autopsy Findings Reveal Horrors. The autopsy report details the horrific conditions of the victims, raising questions about the crime.
Detective Jones Calls for Backup. Detective Jones brings in multiple organizations to assist in the investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can't shake this thought, that this case is like a meshing of two cases.

The host reflects on the complexity of the case.

5:51WatchOct 8, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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