The murder of four Austin teenagers at a local yogurt shop 15 years ago shattered the innocence of our community. On Dec. 6, 1991, the Austin Fire Department responded to what they thought was just a fire at a ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt’ shop on Anderson Lane.
They would soon learn it was also a murder scene. In the shop were the badly burned bodies of 15-year-old Sarah Harbison and her 17-year-old sister, Jennifer. Also in the shop 17-year-old Eliza Thomas and 13-year-old Amy Ayers.
News 8 Austin Jennifer Bordelon reports on the anniversary in a three-part series beginning Wednesday evening. Here, she speaks with anchor Paul Brown about the series.
Q: The case was picked up by the Austin Police Department’s Cold Case Unit eight years after the murders and they focused in our their investigation on four friends. What happened to those four?
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Yogurt shop murders
Watch the interview with Jennifer Bordelon.
 
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A: Well, those four friends are all in very different places right now. First of all, you’ve got Robert Springsteen. Now, he has actually had something happen with his situation just this year. It started off that he was originally sentenced to death. That, in 2005, was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court to make it a life sentence. That has then been found, since then been found, that his trial was an unfair trial, and so by a decision from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, he is now facing a re-trial. So, that’s his situation. Once of the other guys, Michael Scott, he’s serving a life sentence near Galveston in a prison down there, and he’ll be eligible for parole in 2034. Then there’s Forest Weldon. Now, he’s the guy that’s considered to be the lookout and the driver in this certain situation, but all charges were dropped against him because two grand juries failed to indict him. Now, the fourth person is Maurice Pierce, and he was actually considered to be the ringleader of these four guys, however -- and he was also 16 at the time that this happened -- however he was released by the DA because there wasn’t enough evidence. So, those two other guys are free and then one up for a re-trial.
Q: So, really not a lot of closure for the family members of the victims. What’s happened to those families of the victims?
A: Obviously, a very trying time for the families of the victims. Eliza Thomas’ parents, they actually divorced and moved out of the state. Now, the other two sets of parents, they actually still live in the Central Texas area. The Harbison sisters, Jennifer and Sarah, their parents divorced. As far as I know, the mother is still in Central Texas, and Amy Ayers, her parents are still together and still in the Central Texas area.
Q: In your story on Wednesday evening, what will you focus on?
A: Well, there are several different elements that we’ll be focusing on. For example, there was an author that actually wrote a book about the specific crime. It’s called Murdered Innocence. And that’s by Cory Mitchell. He actually did his own independent investigation and also looked at police reports, looked at media reports, so I’ll be talking to him about his thoughts and what he found during the investigation and also about his book. We’ll also be talking to Bruce Todd, who was the mayor at the time, just about how this affected Austin. I mean, Austin went from a town that was very safe in the minds of the people that lived here to a place that couldn’t believe something like this could ever happen. A big shift in the Austin community at that point. And, we’ll also be talking to the Harbison sisters’ mother about how she has been handling it 15 years later.
Q: And how will the 15th anniversary be marked?
A: Well, actually every year, there’s a small group of people who gather at the memorial that’s actually at the old ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt’ shop site, so there is a memorial there, and they will just gather, that small group of friends, in remembrance as they do every year.
