Maurice Pierce walks out of jail.

The 11-year-old yogurt shop case has come to a close, for now.

Maurice Pierce, the final suspect, was released from jail on Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. He had been jailed since late 1999 for the murders of Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; sisters Sarah, 15, and Jennifer, 17, Harbison in a North Austin "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" Shop on Dec. 6, 1991.

Pierce, now 27, had a smile on his face and was surrounded by family and media, as he walked from the Del Valle jail to a waiting SUV to be driven away.

Pierce only said he was happy to be out of jail. His family was ecstatic about the release.

"He has a daughter and he has a wife that he lost years with that they'll never be able to replace," said Annette Castellanos, Pierce's sister. She called his release an act of God.

The release was announced at a Tuesday afternoon press conference at police headquarters.

"Both Springsteen and Scott have made statements regarding the participation of Maurice Pierce in those murders but neither is currently available to testify. Each of them has a Fifth Amendment right not to testify. Both have made statements that cannot be used without violating the Constitutional right of Maurice Pierce to confront the witnesses against him," District Attorney Ronnie Earle said in a prepared statement. "The State is therefore unable to proceed at this time."

	Robert Springsteen was sentenced to death in June 2001.

Springsteen and Scott confessed to the murders; those confessions got them convicted. Pierce never confessed. Since, the Fifth Amendment gives Springsteen and Scott the right to not testify, the district attorney's office had to drop their case against Pierce.

In June 2001, Robert Springsteen IV was tried and convicted for the murder of Amy Ayers. He was sentenced to death.

In September 2002, during the longest criminal trial in Travis County history, Michael Scott was also tried for Ayers' death. He was sentenced to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 32 years when he is 60.

Forrest Welborn, a fourth suspect in the crime, was never indicted by a grand jury. Both Scott and Springsteen said Welborn was the "lookout man" and stayed in the car.

On Tuesday, Pierce walked out of jail a free man.

Earle said Pierce was released, in part, to avoid a case of double jeopardy should a case against him fail. Because there is no statute of limitations on murder, the case will remain open. But after more than 11 years of investigation, it is unlikely that police will find the evidence they will need to bring Pierce to trial.

	Michael Scott was sentenced to life in prison in September 2002.

"The evidence shows Maurice Pierce's guilt, the evidence we have, we just don't have enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt," Earle said. "We do not have the evidence to convict him right now, but life is long. We're not through, and we won't rest until justice is done in full measure."

Since the night of December 1991, investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Austin Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Austin Fire Department and the Texas Rangers have tried to gather evidence to take these cases to court.

The "smoking gun" evidence all of these departments sought never surfaced. There were no eyewitnesses. There was no conclusive DNA evidence or fingerprints. The bullets recovered from the crime scene were too damaged to be of forensic value. And the fire set to destroy the crime scene – did just that.

Those details of the crime, and more, were brought to life during both trials.

Pierce, who was 16 in 1991, was considered the ringleader of the four boys that night. Scott and Springsteen both said it was his idea to rob the yogurt shop. Both said they "cased" the shop and only expected two girls to be working they night. When they came through the backdoor, they found four.

Jennifer and Eliza worked at the store; Sarah and Amy were there to visit. The confessions both say that the girls had already deposited the money in the floor safe when Pierce asked the girls for money.

After repeatedly asking for money and being told there wasn't any, Pierce became upset and shot one girl, both confessions said.

	Annette Castellanos (right), Maurice Pierce's sister, said the release is "An act of God."

The girls were then bound, gagged, some were sexually assaulted. They were all shot. The girls' bodies were stacked and then the yogurt shop was set on fire.

Police began the largest manhunt and criminal investigation in Austin's history. A three-block radius of the yogurt shop was picked over by investigators. A creek behind the shop was canvassed three times for clues, but all the efforts were in vain.

By 1993, police had received 5,000 tips. Some of those tips lead to confessions that were proved false rather quickly.

Just eight days after the murders, Pierce was arrested at Northcross Mall, across the street from the yogurt shop with a gun in his waistband. Pierce told police the gun was used in the murders.

Ballistic tests showed the gun was not the murder weapon. Springsteen, Scott and Welborn were all questioned by police as associates of Pierce. All were cleared in the investigation and were not considered suspects.

		WATCH THE VIDEO
	Background of Pierce case News 8 Austin's Doug Shupe reports on the background of the case against Maurice Pierce. Release reaction The family and community reacts to Maurice Pierce's release.

In 1999, a cold case unit took over the case and began talking to previous interviewees. The investigation turned to the four boys. A friend of the boys identified Scott as the weak link.

His answers in 1999 didn't match answers given in 1991. Over the next few days, Scott confessed to the murders.

Detectives then flew to West Virginia to interview Springsteen. They interviewed him and he confessed. Many details of the two confessions matched.

Following those confessions, police turned to Pierce, but he never confessed.

Judge Mike Lynch, who presided over both cases, refused to comment on Pierce's release because both of his cases are under appeal. Assistant District Attorneys Robert Smith and Darla Davis who worked on the case since 1999, also refused comment.

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To learn more about this case, visit the News 8 Austin Yogurt shop trial information page.