Murder: True Crime Stories - SOLVED: The Yogurt Shop Murders 1

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

In 1991, Austin, Texas was shaken by the brutal murder of four teenage girls at a frozen yogurt shop. Bound, gagged, and shot execution-style before the store was set on fire, their deaths launched one of the most haunting investigations in Texas history. Decades later, we may finally know what really happened that night. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Murder: True Crime Stories! Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is Crime House. We all know about rubbernecking. You pass a car accident on the highway and can't help but look. In many ways, true crime is similar when something awful happens. It grabs every one's attention. But that momentum can only continue for so long. Without arrests and convictions, cases inevitably go cold. The leads dry up, and on the tip lines stop ringing, and people move on with their lives. Unless you don't let them. There are lots of ways to shine a spotlight on a case. Press conferences, front page headlines, speeches at the state house, but sometimes you have to get creative.

In 1991, 12 billboards went up around the city of Austin, Texas. They showed four happy teenagers. Below their photos was one question. Who killed these girls? The signs were begging someone to look up and answer. No one ever did. And to this day, the city is haunted by that unanswered question. People's lives are like a story.

There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios that comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following, murder, true crime stories, wherever you get your podcasts.

And to enhance your murder, true crime stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get ad-free listening, early access to every two-part series, and exciting bonus content. This is the first of two episodes on the Yogurt Shop murders, a brutal, quadruple homicide that stunned the city of Austin, Texas in 1991. Today, I'll introduce you to the victims, walk you through the night of the murders, and discuss the early investigation. With mounting pressure to solve the case, detectives narrowed in, on four teenage suspects, but without concrete evidence, the theory that tied them to the crime

fell apart, although it wouldn't stay that way forever. Next time, I'll explain how detectives finally forced the confessions they wanted, only for their questionable tactics to come under fire. I'll discuss the decades-long legal battle that followed, and how all these years later there was finally a break in the case. All that and more coming up. What's better than a well-marbled ribby sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribby sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door.

A well-marbled ribby you ordered without even leaving the kitty pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. In 1991, Austin, Texas wasn't the bustling tech mecca it is today. Back then, it was still a college town with a neighborhood feel. The kind of place where parents could let their kids roam free.

and the most exciting activity was going to the mall, which is exactly what 15-year-old Sarah Harbison wanted to do on Friday, December 6th. That night, Sarah asked her mom for a ride to the North Cross Mall. Sarah and her friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, wanted to shop around before heading back to the Harbisons for a sleepover. Although Amy was still in middle school, she and Sarah were best friends. They both loved country music.

music, riding horses, and were part of the future farmers of America. But it had been a long week, and Sarah's mom was exhausted, so she asked her older daughter, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, if she would drive Sarah and Amy. Jennifer agreed she had a shift that night at a frozen yogurt shop just a couple blocks away from North Cross. She was happy to swing by the mall on her way. Around dinnertime, the girls were ready to leave. Before heading out, they hugged their mom. She reminded them to be safe, then went inside and settled in for the night. A little while later, Jennifer dropped off Sarah and Amy then headed to work. She had a part-time gig at a strip mall yogurt shop called,

I can't believe it's yogurt, exclamation mark and all. She and her friend, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, were manning the store that night. Nothing was out of Out of the ordinary, as Jennifer and Eliza served up frozen yogurt for the late-night crowd. At some point before 10 p.m., Sarah and Amy finished at the mall and walked a few blocks to the shop. They figured they'd hang out until Jennifer finished her shift and was able to drive them home. Eliza's parents even stopped later to say hello. They saw the four girls laughing and smiling. All of them seemed happy and carefree.

just another night in Austin. Around 10 p.m., a customer named Daryl Croft came in. He was a former police officer who now ran a private security company. He was getting yogurt for himself and two friends. As he waited in line, a man wearing a military-style cargo jacket asked him if he was a cop. Croft said no, but he clocked the question. It was a strange thing to ask out of the blue. The man was in his mid to late 20s,

six feet tall, clean-shaven, medium-billed, with dark hair and a deep voice. He offered to let Croft cut in line, but Croft said he was good. He watched as the guy went to the counter, ordered a soda, and said something to Eliza behind the counter. Then he headed to the back of the store.

Croft stepped up to the counter, counter and asked where the man had gone. Eliza said she let him use the bathroom. Something about the exchange fell off to Croft, so he hung around for a few minutes, waiting to see if the guy returned. He never did. Croft thought about staying longer, but he looked down at the frozen yogurt in his hands and realized it was melting, so he finally decided to go. A little while later, Just before the store closed at 11 p.m., a married couple came in for frozen yogurt. They noticed two men sitting in a booth, acting strangely. They were wearing military jackets and talking in low voices.

The couple noticed the way they kept staring at the girls behind the counter. Something about them made the wife feel deeply uncomfortable. But in the end, the men's behavior wasn't enough to, make the couple take any action. They paid for their yogurt and headed out, leaving the girls to close up with the men still sitting there. And while the final customers finished up their yogurts, Eliza and Jennifer began their closing routine. First, they locked the front door from the inside. They would have to unlock it to let the two men out, but that was just the way they did things. Then they got to work restocking napkins, putting away the toppings bar, and flipping

the chairs off the floor. It's possible Sarah and Amy helped with a cleanup, just four girls in a brightly lit yogurt shop, giggling and having a good time. At some point, all four girls headed to the kitchen area to do the dishes. It's unclear whether the two men finishing their yogurt had left the store at that point. Or if they, followed the girls into the back. Unfortunately, there was no camera in the store to document what happened next. Just before midnight, a police officer was patrolling the area when he spotted something unusual. Smoke rising from the yogurt shop at the strip mall.

At 1147 p.m., he called it into dispatch. Six minutes later, firefighters arrived. Soon there'd be nearly 50 of them. surrounding the building. Some started blasting the shop with water to put out the flames. Others broke down the front door of the yogurt shop and rushed in, battling through the thick smoke and flames. There was practically no visibility. Still, they pushed forward, searching for the source of the fire. Then one firefighter stopped cold. On the floor in front of him was a body, but that wasn't all.

As they made their way to the back of the store, they discovered three more bodies. They were all piled on top of each other in a way that was clearly unnatural. The realization hit the firefighters at the same time. This wasn't just a fire. It was a murder scene. And it would become one of the most haunting crimes

in Austin's history. Just before midnight on December 6th, 1991, firefighters responded to a blaze at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. At first, it seemed like a simple structure fire, but when the firefighters got into the building, it became clear. This was no accident. Someone was trying to cover up a vicious murder. They needed investigators on the scene, stat. 39-year-old detective John Jones was one of the first to respond. He was an experienced investigator with more than 150 murder cases under his belt. That night, he just happened to have a CBS news crew riding along with him, filming for a segment.

When he turned his patrol car toward the yogurt shop, he had no idea the kind of carnage the cameras were about to capture. He pulled into the parking lot around midnight and found a chaotic scene. Firefighters, public safety officials, and emergency responders were all going in and out of the shop. But as the first investigator on the scene, Jones took charge. He told everyone to pause what they were doing. He needed to see for himself what had happened and to stop anyone from accidentally disturbing the crime scene. when jones stepped inside he realized the store was flooded water from the firefighters pulled around his ankles as he stepped through the doorway near the empty cash register he spotted the first body she was face down naked with two gunshot wounds to the back of her head jones's stomach twisted as he came closer and realized she was

was just a kid. Still, he tamped down his emotions and continued on to the back of the store. That's where he found the other three victims. Their bodies were stacked on top of each other so badly burned, they were nearly unrecognizable. But Jones could make out the remains of some styrofoam cups that had been used for kindling, and he could tell the girls had been stripped, bound and gagged not only that they had each been shot in the back of the head jones had seen a lot of ugly things in his career but he'd never seen anything like this he knew from those very first moments that this case would be the kind that stayed with him forever as more investigators arrived jones searched the crime scene for clues but the fire had been so intense it had burnt most of the

evidence and the water from fighting the fire had pretty much destroyed the rest any footprints or other signs had been washed away still investigators could piece together some of what happened it appeared the assailant or assailants had either forced the girls into the back room or trapped them there then they shot them in the head execution style one of the girls had tried to escape running for the door. She was the one who'd been gunned down in the front part of the store with two shots to her head. The killers had stacked the other three bodies on top of each other, then covered them with styrofoam cups, doused them in lighter fluid, and set the fire. Before long, the medical examiner arrived and was ready to transport the bodies to the morgue for immediate autopsies,

but Detective Jones told him to wait. He wanted crime scene investigators from the Department of Public Safety to document everything first. At the time, Austin PD didn't have its own forensic unit, so DPS was their main partner. But DPS didn't arrive until around 4 a.m. That meant there were four hours of potential contamination. First responders and officials walking through the scene unintentionally disturbing or destroying critical evidence. Even after DPS arrived, there were breakdowns and protocol. One DPS investigator later claimed that some areas of the shop weren't processed at all, like the bathrooms, the front door, and the dumpster out back. Officers reportedly looked at the top layer of trash but never emptied the bin to search deeper.

Still, some evidence was recovered in the shop. Several latent fingerprints were found on the cash register drawer. At least five hairs were collected from the victim's clothing, or bodies. Detectives recovered bullet casings and a magazine from a semi-automatic handgun. And finally, they found a few personal items that might help identify the girls, a ring and a heart-shaped belt buckle. Detectives spoke with the manager of the yogurt shop store who confirmed that 17-year-old Eliza Thomas and 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison had been working that night, and after contacting

the families. It didn't take long to piece together that the other two girls were 15-year-old Sarah Harbison and 13-year-old Amy Ayers. Their families were understandably devastated, and the autopsies that were performed later that day only made them feel worse. The medical examiner recovered a 22-caliber bullet from Amy's body and determined that her cause of death was strangulation and gunshot wounds to the head. Amy was the only girl who was shot twice. The other three were all killed with a single shot to the back of the head. They had all died before the fire was set. And while each girl had been stripped naked, only Sarah and Amy, the youngest, is believed to have shown signs of sexual assault. The autopsy results were sealed by a judge. Detectives hope that

By keeping certain details confidential, they could weed out false confessions and quickly identify whether a suspect truly knew what happened that night. But somehow, information about the case kept getting out. In the days following the murders, hundreds of tips poured into the Austin Police Department. Many of them referenced facts that should have been kept secret. The detectives tried to sift through all of them and figure out where the information was coming from, but the whole process was overwhelming for Detective Jones and the three other homicide detectives on the case. Still, Jones worked all the possible angles. He and his fellow

detectives tracked down as many customers from that night as they could. Some had paid with a credit card, but many paid with cash, which meant detectives had to rely on them coming forward once they heard about the event on the news. The married couple who had stopped in the shop before closing, mentioned the two suspicious men they'd seen, but they couldn't recall any real details, only that they gave off a bad vibe. On the other hand, Daryl Croft, the retired officer, gave a clear description of the man he had found suspicious. But even after viewing multiple police lineups, he wasn't able to identify anyone. So Jones and his team moved on. They interviewed friends, coworkers, and classmates of the victims.

They tested the small amounts of DNA that had been collected from the girls, but the lab produced just one identifiable profile, a boyfriend of one of the older girls. However, authorities quickly ruled him out as a suspect. After that, no other strong leads emerged. Even so, Detective Jones had a theory. He believed the whole thing had been a robbery gone wrong. He thought the assailants had planned to target the shop after hours, expecting only two girls inside, but when they found four, things escalated,

and they killed the girls to cover their tracks. It was just a theory, but at that point, Jones didn't have much else. Even the ballistics analysis wasn't that helpful. He knew that two guns had been used in the murders, a 22 caliber and a 3-8. 80 caliber. The 22 was common with criminals who liked them because the way the bullets flattened made them hard to trace. They're often called throwaway weapons for that reason. But the 380 was different. Most of those handguns have a spiral pattern inside the barrel that leaves a specific

twist on the bullet. The one used in the yogurt shop had an unusual pattern. So if investigators ever found a gun with that same twist, it could be a critical link. Eight days after the murders, it seemed like they found what they were looking for. On December 14th, a 16-year-old named Maurice Pierce loaded his illegal 22-caliber pistol in his waistband and put 16 extra bullets in his pocket. Then he and his friend, 15-year-old Forrest Wellborn, walked into North Cross Mall. That was the same mall that Sarah and Amy had gone to the night of the killing.

just a couple blocks away from the yogurt shop. Carrying a gun in Texas wasn't normally something that would raise too many eyebrows, but in the wake of the murders, everyone was on high alert. And someone must have noticed Maurice's gun and called the cops because just a few minutes later, Austin police officers showed up and arrested Maurice for unlawfully carrying a weapon. At first, it looked like a routine gun charge, but then officers realized the weapon Maurice was carrying

was the exact type used in the yogurt shop murders. It wasn't the 380 that they really wanted to find, but the 22 caliber still piqued their interest. Suddenly, this wasn't just another mall arrest. It was the break investigators had been waiting for. They brought Maurice in for questioning, and in doing so, they would change the course of his life forever. This episode is brought to you by Square. You're not just running a restaurant, you're building something big. And Square's there for all of it. Giving your customers more ways to order,

whether that's in-person with Square Ciosk or online. Instant access to your sales, plus the funding you need to go even bigger. And real-time insights so you know what's working, what's not, and what's next. Because when you're doing big things, Your tools should to. Visit square.ca to get started. Do you want to know what it's like to hang out with MS-13, El Salvador, or how the Russian mafia fought battles all over Brooklyn in the 1990s?

What about that time I got lost in the Burmese jungle hunting the world's biggest meth lab? I'm Sean Williams. And I'm Danny Gold. And we're the host of the Underworld podcast. We're journalists that have traveled all over reporting on dangerous people and places. And every week will be bringing you a new story about organized crime from all over the world. Available wherever you get your podcast. Eight days after the yogurt shot murders in December 1991,

a 16-year-old boy named Maurice Pierce was arrested at a mall in Austin, Texas. He had a loaded 22-caliber pistol tucked into his waistband, the same type of weapon used in the killings just a few blocks away. At the police station, officers put Maurice in an interrogation room. Detective Hector Polanco was assigned to question him. Polanco had been on the force for 15 years and was known for getting confessions. In fact, he'd never worked a murder case he couldn't close. But that reputation came with controversy.

According to Detective John Jones, it was common knowledge that Polanco sometimes fed suspects' key details during interrogations to get them to say what he wanted. We don't know what exactly he said to Maurice in that interrogation. interrogation room. All we know is that by the end of the questioning, Maurice signed a written statement. In it, he claimed his 22 gun had been used in the yogurt shop murders, but not by him. He said it was his friend, 15-year-old Forrest Wellborn, who had borrowed the gun and used it to kill the four girls. He insisted that Forrest had told him so. To make sure Maurice was telling the

truth, police gave him a polygraph test. When he passed, the focus shifted to Forrest Wellborn, the friend who Maurice claimed was responsible. But detectives needed more than just Maurice's word. So the next day, they put a wire on Maurice and sent him to talk with Forrest. The plan was to catch Forrest in a confession. Maurice flat out asked Forrest if he had killed the girls with his gun. But Forrest seemed confused. at the question. He asked Maurice what the hell he was talking about. To Detective Jones, it seemed like Forrest had absolutely no clue what was going on. And it wasn't because Forrest was a criminal mastermind who was skilled at lying. Jones described Forrest as someone who couldn't

organize a two-car parade. There was no way he could paw off a quadruple homicide on his own and get away with it. But investigators had to do their due diligence. If Maurice couldn't get a confession, they had to question for us themselves. They brought him down to the station, where he denied any involvement whatsoever. During the interview,

he did mention something that caught the detective's attention, though. He confessed that he and Maurice had stolen a car the day after the murders and taken it on a joyride to San Antonio. And they hadn't gone alone. They'd been with two other boys, 17-year-old Robert Springsteen and 17-year-old Michael Scott. Detectives logged the two additional names, and they would get to them next. But in the meantime, they kept pressing Forrest.

They even made him take a polygraph test to defend his claims. But then Forrest passed his test, which presented a problem. him. Forrest and Maurice couldn't both be telling the truth. Detectives eventually decided that Forrest was being honest, and Maurice had some sort of mental issue that made him believe his own lies. According to detectives, that was why he was able to pass his own polygraph test. Even with all the confusion around the tests, investigators still wanted to talk to Maurice and Forrest's friends, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott. Police brought them down to the station for questioning, but like Maurice and Forrest,

they were let go. Unfortunately, for the four of them, they wouldn't be free forever. One month after the murders, the Austin Police Department held a press conference. They announced the formation of a multi-agency task force. It included the Austin PD, the Department of Public Safety, the Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney's Office. the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the FBI. At that point, the FBI agent stepped forward and unveiled a criminal profile of the killers. They believe the killers were white males in their late teens to mid-20s.

The leader was described as emotionally immature, quick to anger with a criminal history and a dominant personality. Someone who may have coerced one or more reluctant, participants into joining him. He was also probably a local who was familiar with the yogurt shop in the surrounding areas. Not everyone agreed with that profile. Some investigators thought the killers had to be older, grown men. Now, there were a couple of reasons for that.

First, the owner of the party supply store next door to the yogurt shop had only heard a few popping noises, likely the gun shop. likely the gunshots, but nothing else. The rest of the murders had happened in near silence. That suggested the killers had a huge degree of control over the situation, and the crime scene itself was methodical. The girls were stripped, the murders were execution style, some of the victims had been sexually assaulted,

it didn't feel like teenagers panicking during a botched, robbery. It felt premeditated, carried out by someone with far more sadistic intentions than stealing some cash. Even with the differing opinions, detectives followed the FBI's profile looking for young suspects who fit the bill. They picked up teenagers and college students who wore black clothes, had tattoos, or hung out in the wrong neighborhoods. Anyone who seemed off. They were pulled in for questioning and given polygraphs, but none of it led anywhere. By February of 1992, two months after the murders, the investigation had stalled. With no arrests, no new evidence and seemingly no answers, the victim's families took matters into their own hands.

That month, 12 billboards went up across Austin, donated by a local company. They featured pictures of the four victims and asked a simple question in white italicized letters over a red background. Who killed these girls? And the families also pooled money for a reward for any information leading to arrests and convictions. It started at $25,000 and eventually grew to $125,000. Detective Jones and his team felt like they were letting the girls and their families down. It wasn't for lack of effort, though. They'd interviewed 342 suspects and fielded thousands more leads by that point, but they were no closer to solving the case. And they felt the police chief, mayor, and DA all breathing down their necks, frustrated that a case this big had gone unsolved.

And then the national press descended on Austin. Dan Rather and 48 hours came to town that same month. The production followed the detectives through the halls of the precinct, hoping to be there when the break came. Instead, behind closed doors, there was more bad news for the investigative team. Detective Hector Polanco, the same detective who'd interrogated Maurice Pierce, was transferred off the task force. There were allegations that he'd coerced a confession out of another potential suspect related to the case. Jones wanted no part of that. He didn't believe in pressuring people into confessions, but he understood the desperation. He wanted this case solved. He needed it solved. And while Jones wasn't going to cross a line, he knew they were running out of time.

Because if something didn't break soon, then Austin's most notorious murder case was about to go cold. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next time for Part 2 on the Yogurt Shop Murders and all the people it affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original, powered by Pave Studios.

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And this episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertsovsky, Rachel Engelman, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp. Alex Burns, Honeya A Saeed, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong is perfect for spooky season. Dive into the real-life events behind the world's most terrifying blockbusters and beyond. Twisted Tales is a crimehouse original.

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