The 1991 murders changed Austin forever, its then Mayor stated it was the crime where Austin lost its innocence and caused the community to question their own safety in a city that had been thought to be safe.
Austin is a large city in central Texas, located about 80 miles northeast of San Antonio and about 200 miles south of Dallas, now it is a large city with a population of about one million but in the 1990's it was a smaller city. For many Texans, Austin is a nice quiet place where you could raise a family in safety and peace as violent crimes were largely unheard of at the time.
VICTIM PROFILES
Jennifer Ann Harbison was born on May 9 1974, to parents Mike and Barbara, she would soon become a big sister to Sarah Louise on October 28 1976. The girls lived with their parents in Texarkana area, which is right along the Texas / Louisiana / Arkansas border hence the mixed name. When Jennifer was 5 and Sarah was 2 their mother would separate from their father and move to Austin.
Jennifer Harbison
Barbara made a new life for herself there and eventually married computer technician Frank "Skip" Suraci. Mike would stay in New Boston near the Arkansas border with his new wife, Debby, he remained a doting father to his daughters despite not living in the same town. Jennifer and Sarah attended a Christian school and attended weekend mass but both girls wanted to attend public high school to get the full high school experience.
Jennifer attended the Lanier High School where she would end up president of the FFA (Future Farmers of America), she also ran the 400 and 1600 metre relay for the school's track team and served as student speaker for the house. Amber Sweeney, a classmate, told reporters that "Jennifer was very opinionated. She wouldn't be afraid to say how she felt. I know I'll always remember that, along with her corny jokes.". Jennifer was well liked by not only her fellow students but teachers as well, her geography teacher said "She brought joy into the classroom. She was more excited about life than any kid I've ever known. She was one of the best that Lanier has ever had.".
Jennifer was in her senior year when Sarah joined her at the school. Sarah had graduated from St. Louis Catholic School the previous spring on a humanitarian scholarship and had carried on with that momentum when she joined Lanier. Sarah excelled not only as a student but as an athlete and an overachiever. She was a fierce volleyball and basketball player and was the leader of the school's J.V. Cheerleaders and was also on the student council. Like her sister she was also heavily involved in the FFA.
Principal Paul Turner described Sarah as "She had already established herself as assertive and enthusiastic, a vital member of the freshman class. She was a leader, clearly a kid who was going to make a mark on the place."
Sarah Harbison
While Sarah was getting started on her high school journey, Jennifer was planning her next steps. While her mother wanted her to enjoy her teenage years Jennifer wanted to make some money of her own so she could prepare for college. Her father had bought her a car with the promise that she would help keep up the payments and drive her younger sister around, which Jennifer was more than happy to as the sisters enjoyed a very close relationship but of course to keep up the payments for the car she had to find a job. Jennifer first started out at a grocery store before her best friend, Eliza, recommended coming to work with her at the I Can't Believe It's Yoghurt shop as it was such a great job for teenagers.
Eliza Hope Thomas was born on May 16 1974 to parents James and Maria, she grew up in the Austin area and had a sister named Sonora. In 1981, when Eliza was 7 or 8 her parents divorced and the two sisters would split time between their parents. In December 1991, Eliza was staying with her mother while her sister stayed with their father, ironically only a few blocks away from the yoghurt shop.
Eliza Thomas
Eliza attended Lanier High School. She had a love for animals and planned on becoming a veterinarian and shared a passion for the FFA which is where she met her best friend Jennifer. Eliza was skilled in mechanical objects, she excelled in the welding and small engine repair classes which came in handy when she bought her first car, the 1971 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia in bright green (Eliza had likened it to her birthstone of emerald) was often described as ugly but Eliza adored it and used her skills to upgrade it when she could.
Eliza had bought the car after starting at the yoghurt shop and enjoyed the job as it was one of the only jobs where teenagers were given responsibility and were able to work unsupervised. Eliza enjoyed having Jennifer there as the two could gossip for hours and even shut up the shop together.
Amy Leigh Ayers was born on January 31 1978 to parents Robert and Pam, she was the second child of the family and had an older brother named Shawn. Amy was a huge country music fan and would notedly be remembered for her crush on country music icon George Strait. She was also an animal lover with a special spot for cats, as she had grown up on a ranch she had been riding horses since she was three. When her father was asked if Amy was a part cowgirl he replied she was all cowgirl.
Amy's older brother had been involved in the FFA and helped his younger sister get involved as well, Amy didn't need convincing as she regularly wore a cowboy hat to school and was a natural fit. It was here she became great friends with Sarah, Jennifer and Eliza. Amy attended a different school (Burnet Middle School) but was involved with the Lanier school's FFA program and she intended to attend Lanier after middle school.
Amy Ayers
Due to their involvement with the FFA Amy became best friends with Sarah, although the girls didn't get to see each other as much as they'd like due to them not attending the same school but they had arranged a sleepover on the 6 December 1991 so they could catch up and spend some quality time together.
THE MURDERS
It was Friday 6 December 1991, it was close to the school breaking up for the winter break. After leaving school that afternoon, Jennifer stopped by her boyfriend's (Sammy Buchanan) home, he had not been to school that day due to a family funeral so the two had planned on spending a few hours together before Jennifer started her shift at the yoghurt shop. Around 7pm, she returned home to collect her work clothes and then set off to pick up her sister and Amy and drop them off at the mall just down the road from the yoghurt shop.
The I Can't Believe It's Yoghurt! shop was located in the Hillside strip mall in the 2900 block of West Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas.
Amy and Sarah spent the evening at the Northcross Mall, this had been the first time the two had been allowed to go unsupervised at the popular hangout spot for teenagers. The friends were then meant to get a lift to the yoghurt shop so Jennifer could give them a lift to their eagerly awaited sleepover after her shift.
I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! after the crime
At around 9pm, Jennifer went to collect Amy and Sarah from the mall which was closing, the two friends then decided to walk a few doors down to a pizza place named Mr. Gatti's Pizza, which closed at 10pm. They brought their pizza back to the yoghurt shop and were seen by multiple witnesses enjoying their meal in the lobby and deep in conversation. At around 9.30pm, Eliza's mother dropped by the shop to see how the girls were, something all the girls parents regularly did during their weekend shifts, she stayed for a few minutes and had some yoghurt and then left seeing everything was fine. There were no other customers in the shop at the time and everything seemed like a normal shift.
Between 9.30pm and 10pm, a former military policeman and owner of a security firm named Dearl Croft dropped by the shop with some acquaintances. Croft noted two separate couples and a young man who appeared to be alone, he described the man as having a deep voice and a large nose as well as being fidgety, especially when speaking with Croft. The young man seemed perplexed by Croft's car, a security vehicle that had lights similar to a police car, and did some other odd behaviour such as with his order, he ordered a single can of soda, which he took with him to the bathroom at the back of the store, Croft said he never saw the young man come out of the bathroom before he left minutes later. Croft couldn't really describe the man to police later or pick him out of a line up, he could only describe the green jacket he was wearing that looked like it came from a military surplus store.
Between 10pm and 11pm, multiple witnesses would come into the shop, the last sale was recorded at 10.42pm to a couple who had just come out of the movies. This couple reported seeing two men sitting at the booth closest to the cash register, they had clothing on that obscured their faces from view so the couple couldn't provide a good description. This was the last confirmed contact with 13 year old Amy Ayers, 17 year old Eliza Thomas, 17 year old Jennifer Harbison and her 15 year old sister Sarah.
The shop was due to close at 11pm and by the time the couple left at 10.47pm, Jennifer or Eliza were wiping down tables and placing chairs on them, the only chairs remaining on the floor were the two the men were sitting in. It is believed that Amy and Sarah helped Jennifer and Eliza to close up so they could leave sooner, they are thought to have perhaps been cleaning the kitchen or simply waiting there, as their pizza box would later be found there. As the time ticked closer to midnight the parents of the girls weren't worried as the girls had a habit of checking in on the animals they were raising with the FFA before heading home.
Inside I Can't Believe It's Yogurt
Just after midnight, patrolling police officer, Troy Gay, noticed a fire coming from I Can't Believe It's Yoghurt!, he believed it to be a simple kitchen fire. Fire crews arrived soon with Rene Garza being one of the crew, he would later testify to seeing all the lights turned off in the shop and the closed sign on the door. As he approached the shop he could see the smoke as it obscured all of the inside.
Firefighters gained access with a crowbar and soon put out the fire as it had been a small one. Garza's partner, David Deveau, suddenly grabbed him and pointed toward an object and asked "Is that a foot?". It was then that they were greeted with a grim discovery, inside there were the nude bodies of four women. They soon identified the bodies being that of Amy, Eliza, Jennifer and Sarah.
All four had been stripped of their clothing and had been bound and gagged with the items. Amy's body was discovered in the middle of the back room while Jennifer, Sarah and Eliza were found at the back of the rear room, Eliza and Sarah were stacked on top of each other while Jennifer lay close by.
Police found that the back door had been unlocked, likely how the killers had made their escape, and that there was about $540 missing from the store, the cash register had apparently been opened at 11.03pm, three minutes after the shop was meant to be closed and thirteen minutes after the front door is meant to be locked. The transaction was classed as no sale which was probably used to open the cash drawer, it is likely this is when the robbery took place but it isn't known if the victims or the culprits were the ones to open the cash register.
Crime Scene Diagram
Arson investigators found the fire had been started at roughly 11.42pm, more than 40 minutes after the closure of the shop and 39 minutes after the no sale on the cash register. This implied the killers had remained in the building for about an hour before setting the building on fire. The bodies were almost burnt beyond recognition as the killer had collected flammable items such as napkins from around the shop and doused them in lighter fluid to create as much destruction as possible. The argument of whether the culprit used lighter fluid or Styrofoam cups (they are very flammable) continues but either way the culprit showed some knowledge about fire and possibility that they were an arsonist. The bodies had chocolate syrup and other sauces poured on them, possibly to help the spread of the fire or as others think as a sick joke as there is no way to tell if it was put on the girls' bodies before or after their deaths.
The fire was said to have been that hot that the bodies had started to melt onto the floor of the shop and that the fire had melted jewellery, cleaning supplies and paint cans. It was miraculous firefighters managed to put out the fire as fast as they did but in doing so had washed away much evidence.
Police thought that the crime had started as a robbery and had escalated to rape and murder, they came to this conclusion because of the cleaning supplies used in the stores closing procedures had been abandoned in the middle of the room and one of the rags used to clean tables had been dropped on the floor nearby with another rag dropped near the dispensers, which were changed every night during closing.
Autopsy reports on each victim revealed all had died the same way, execution style, shot in the back of the head. At least two of the girls had been raped, as they were all nude it is thought all girls were assaulted. Police revealed that two guns had been used in the murders suggesting this was the work of at least two killers.
3D Render of the Bodies Positions When Found
Sarah's hands had been bound behind her back with a pair of underwear and had been gagged. Jennifer was also bound but her hands were not behind her back. Eliza had been gagged and her hands were also bound behind her back, all three had been severely charred by the fire.
Amy was different, her body had been found in a different part of the shop. Her body had only received second degree burns on 25 to 35% of it, she was found with a sock like cloth around her neck and she had also been shot but the bullet had missed her brain and she had also been shot a second time which had done severe damage to her brain, it had exited through her lateral cheek and jawline. It was the different bullets in Amy's skull that alerted police to the possibility this was the work of two killers. They were a .38 caliber bullet and a .22 caliber bullet.
According to some reports, Amy had actually been alive when firefighters had arrived but died moments before they entered and was crawling to the back door to escape the flames before succumbing to her injuries.
Police believed the killers had piled all four girls on top of each other but Amy had pulled herself off the pile and crawled to where she was found. Sarah and Eliza's bodies were on top of each others with Jennifer's body next to them meaning that when Amy moved she had disturbed Jennifer's causing it to fall to the side. It is unknown if the killers were aware of Amy still being alive or if they had left by this point.
The case appalled the local community and the police were pressured to find the culprits of this horrific crime. The case was hit with numerous setbacks from the beginning. The Fire Department while putting out the fire had also unfortunately washed away potential evidence while doing so and this put a strain on the investigation as in the 1990's the Austin Police Department lacked a forensics expert, having only one fingerprint unit and with the small size of the homicide squad there was only one homicide detective on call that night.
The Victims
The owner of the yoghurt shop, Brice Foods, put together a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the those responsible. The students of the girls schools were hit hard by the sudden and senseless loss of the classmates and friends.
The investigation was ran by Detective John Jones and his partner Detective Mike Huckabay who started off by looking into the victims themselves but all of the girls were well liked with no enemies, whoever had done this terrible crime had been a stranger which makes finding the culprits much harder.
Police looked into the series of robberies that had taken place in the area the months before the murders. Local business owners believed these events were connected and that the culprits had targeted the yoghurt shop as it was the only one still open at that time. Police even contacted officials in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where a shockingly similar crime had happened in 1990. Multiple victims had been shot in the head and left for dead at a bowling alley, the culprits had attempted to cover up the crime with a fire and escaped with cash from the robbery, it remains unsolved to this day. Another theory was drug related, the shop had been robbed while the culprits were high or were hoping to rob the store of its cash to secure more drugs.
Police had an advantage of a very clear window for the crime between 10.50pm and 11.30pm but it also proved their undoing in many ways.
A profile was released of the culprits in the latter half of December:
The culprits did not plan it out but they were familiar with the area due to their quick getaway and their ability to successfully escape the crime scene with no police or people seeing them. They were not at risk to strike again but were dangerous enough to commit the crime when desperate. The leader of the group would be a dominant personality, someone who was able to coax the other individual into participating. The other person would likely to be extremely remorseful and likely to come forward with information in the future. It is also likely the culprit/s to have had a history with fire related crimes, at times using arson to cover up other crimes. They undoubtedly had a history of starting fires and would most likely have a criminal record reflecting that.
Notable suspects that came up during the investigation are as follows:
Kenneth Allen McDuff
McDuff was a serial killer based in the Texas area and is suspected of at least fourteen murders. He was convicted of the murder of three teenagers, Robert Brand, Mark Dunman and Edna Louis Sullivan, on August 6 1966. The killings were dubbed the Broomstick Murders as Edna's neck had been broken with a broomstick after being repeatedly raped.
Kenneth McDuff
McDuff was paroled in 1989 due to prison overcrowding and he carried on with his murderous ways and was eventually recaptured after evading arrest and was sent to death row. On November 17 1998, the day of his execution, McDuff confessed to the what was dubbed the Yogurt Shop Murders (along with others) in the vain attempt to stop his execution but it went ahead as planned and after his death, investigators confirmed he was not the killer after fingerprints and hair from the scene did not match to him.
Maurice Pierce
Maurice Pierce was suggested to police as a suspect eight days after the murders, the 16 year old was seen at the Northcross Mall with a gun on the same night that Sarah and Amy were hanging out there before heading to the yoghurt shop, the gun was a .22 caliber, the same as the murder weapon.
Maurice Pierce in January 2003
Pierce then began to accuse his friend who had been arrested with him, Forrest Welborn. Pierce admitted his gun was indeed the murder weapon but said he had loaned Welborn the gun and that the two along with their friends, Micheal Scott and Robert Springsteen, had fled Austin the day after the murders in a stolen car. The only problem is that the policeman interrogating was overzealous and wanting to solve the case and had succeeded in getting a delinquent to confess.
It all started to fall apart when Pierce failed to give anymore details about the crime repeating rumours rather than facts about the case, he passed a polygraph test and the guns ballistic tests had come back inconclusive (some reports say the test was negative), the police had nothing and realised that perhaps Pierce had falsely confessed and implicated his friend for attention. Welborn always maintained his innocence and it was clear had no idea what his friend was talking about.
Further false confessions would plague the investigation along with fruitless tips. Desperate, the police also went after the local alternative community as Satanic Panic was still gripping America but eventually after harassing many local people had to admit that they were wrong.
Years soon passed and still no one was arrested until 1999. Forrest Welborn, Micheal Scott, Robert Springsteen and Maurice Pierce were this time arrested. The sudden change seemed to come from a confession from Micheal Scott and Robert Springsteen for the murders and rapes. The police finally felt they had found their killers.
Police theorised that the four had planned to rob the shop with Scott, Springsteen and Pierce entering the shop while Welborn was the look out. Police tired to get charges against Welborn but due to a lack of evidence all charges had to be dropped with Pierce also finding his charges dropped, which was extremely difficult for the families and police as Pierce was thought to be the mastermind of the plan. Springsteen and Scott were tried separately and were found guilty of murder with Springsteen receiving a death penalty and Scott sentenced to 99 years in prison.
The suspects at the time of the murders
Not long after the trials, concerns were raised that the two were in fact innocent. There was no physical evidence to connect them to the scene, both men said their confessions were coerced and there was apparently evidence to back up this claim. One of the detectives was transferred onto the case after he had coerced confessions in an unrelated case and a damning photo came to light showing another officer pointing a gun at Scott's head during an interrogation. You can view Scott's interrogation here.
Fifteen years had now passed since the murders and both convictions were overturned due to Scott and Springsteen having their Sixth Amendment right to confront their accuser violated. The confessions were used to convict the men but their lawyers were never given the opportunity to cross examine the men. In 2008, DNA testing proved the male DNA at the scene did not match either men.
Then Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg stated that even though she was sure Scott and Springsteen were the murderers, the two would not be re-prosecuted until the unknown male DNA had been identified. Most of the authorities believe all four men were the ones behind the murders and that there must be a fifth member that has for now eluded police, Scott and Springsteen's lawyers state the mystery fifth man had never been mentioned before until DNA had exonerated the two men.
Robert Springsteen, Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn and Micheal Scott
Maurice Pierce was killed by police on December 24 2010 after stabbing a police officer in the neck during a struggle after he was pulled over and then fled. He was shot by the other officers and died at the scene after initially fleeing again.
A series of billboard were famously put up throughout Austin with photos of the murdered girls along with the question, "Who killed these girls?". A reward for information in the crime was raised to $125,000, the largest reward offered for any crime in the Austin area.
After looking into the case many believe that the culprits may lie in the two men that were seen by eye-witnesses before they left the shop that night shortly before the murders would take place. Police apparently interviewed 52 customers who visited the shop on the day of the murders, these witnesses saw two men who were there around closing time and who have never come forward for questioning or been identified.
The Billboard Appealing for Information
The description of the men is:
One had light hair, maybe a dirty blonde colour, around 5 foot 6 inches, late 20's to early 30's. The other is described as a bigger man, both were wearing bigger coats, one green, an army fatigue style and the other wearing a black jacket.
In recent years advances in DNA have allowed police to see more of the crime:
Three genetic profiles; first unknown male who had raped Amy, his DNA was also found in the body of Jennifer indicating he had raped her as well, second unknown male whose DNA was found in Sarah, third unknown man whose DNA was found on the bindings used on Eliza.
DNA from Jennifer's boyfriend had been found in Amy's body, this indicates the man raped Jennifer and then Amy. Jennifer had apparently had sex with her boyfriend hours before her murder.
The hair DNA found on the body of Amy would show police the male lineage of their suspect and was used to clear Micheal Scott and Robert Springsteen. This hair was ran through databases and apparently has a match, something the FBI is reluctant to release citing privacy concerns and federal law, Amy's family want this to be investigated properly as it could lead to the culprit.
The I Can't Believe It's Yoghurt shop never opened again for business and became a nail salon in the years after the murders but a plaque remains in the parking lot under an oak tree as a memorial to Jennifer, Sarah, Amy and Eliza. The victims families filed a lawsuit in 1994 against the owners of the yogurt shop for their failing in not doing everything possible in protecting their teenage employees and that the owners of the shopping centre had not taken any action to the shocking amount of robberies that had taken place in the run up to the murders. The families claim that had appropriate action been taken by both parties then perhaps their daughters would not have had to die. The suit was settled for $12 million with a portion of the proceeds going to a non-profit organisation in honour of the girls called We Will Never Forget SAJE (the first letter of each girls name), its aim was to send out safety materials to schools and businesses in the Texas area to hopefully prevent another tragedy from happening.
The Memorial Plaque
The case remains unsolved.
OUR CONCLUSION
At Apollo's Raven, we feel the two unidentified men to be the true killers. They were two men and the large jackets could have easily hid the guns, their reluctance in leaving the store even after they could see the shop was closing and all other customers left is suspicious. The fact that these two men are the only two witnesses to never be found or identified is damning in our opinion, if you had nothing to hide why not come forward, especially when you heard that four teenage girls had been murdered minutes after you were there. The proof that the confessions were coerced is undeniable and we agree with the defences statement of the fifth man suddenly appearing is convenient. The police don't seem to want to acknowledge that they made errors in the original investigation and that they have participated in witch hunts in an attempt to find the killers. The FBI's reluctance to release the DNA evidence despite their having been a match is odd and suspicious as after all this time surely any evidence, especially one with a positive DNA match, should be looked into and makes us wonder who exactly this person is.
There have been discussions on genealogy sites being used by police to identify suspects as a breech of privacy as the DNA submitted was intended to be used by a private company not for the police to use, whether this is what the FBI is concerned at is unclear but ultimately is baffling if this DNA could lead to those responsible. Amy's family have spoken to the FBI in the hopes that hearing a plea from the family would sway them but the FBI have remained silent with strong criticism from the police who stated that they had failed the girls once again.
At the end of the day we must not forget that four exceptional women had what would have been exceptionally bright lives cruelly snatched away in an act of brutality that is still shocking to this day and it seems to have been for $540, a cruel and terrible reason to rape and murder girls who were there to support themselves financially and to get a lift home. The failures of the yoghurt shop and the shopping centre in protecting these girls is appalling. We feel particular sorrow for the Harbison family as they lost both their children that night. We can only hope that some new evidence or a confession will come to light so we can finally give Jennifer, Amy, Sarah and Eliza the justice they so desperately deserve.
If you have any information about the case please call 512-472-TIPS
Cold Case Filing Cabinet
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