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REDRUM true crime

The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders: Solved After 34 Years

REDRUM true crime

redrumpodcast

History, True Crime

4.6532 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In December 1991, 4 teenage girls - Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Amy Ayers, and Eliza Thomas - were brutally murdered inside an Austin yogurt shop after closing time, in one of the most horrifying crimes in Texas history. Bound, shot execution-style, sexually assaulted, and left inside a store deliberately set on fire, the case shocked the nation and launched a decades-long investigation filled with controversy, mistakes, and unanswered questions.

Police eventually arrested 4 young men, with 2, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, convicted after giving confessions they later claimed were coerced. As forensic insight, conflicting evidence, and allegations of aggressive interrogation tactics came to light, the case began to unravel.

Over 30 years after the murders, advances in DNA technology identified an entirely different suspect: a violent serial offender who was connected to sexual assaults, murders, home invasions, and a trail of violence across multiple states.

In this episode of REDRUM, we break down the full timeline of the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders, the catastrophic investigation, the wrongful convictions, the detective later accused of coercing confessions, and the DNA evidence that finally revealed the truth.

But after decades of false starts, ruined lives, and one of America’s most haunting cold cases… how did investigators end up accusing the wrong men while the real killer remained hidden in plain sight?

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Four girls are closing up a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas, when they are brutally murdered,

0:05.6

and the case quickly spirals into the city's most infamous investigation. Two young men are

0:11.2

eventually convicted of the murders, but the lead detective in charge of getting those convictions

0:17.2

later has another case completely overturned when it was proven he had coerced a confession.

0:24.2

And in fact, in this case, the real killer was identified over 30 years later through advanced

0:30.1

DNA techniques and the truth was finally revealed.

0:34.1

This is Red Rum, stories about the true victims of crime.

0:43.3

I upload episodes on Mondays and Thursdays, make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. December 6th, 1991.

0:46.3

15-year-old Sarah Harbison made her way to North Cross Mall to head out with her friend Amy Ayres.

0:53.3

The pair hung out there for a few hours

0:56.3

before making the 10-minute walk across to the shop Sarah's older sister Jennifer worked at.

1:02.4

The shop was called I Can't Believe It's Yoga. The girls planned to all leave together just

1:07.9

after 11pm, after closing, and Amy was staying at Sarah and Jennifer's

1:13.0

house for a sleepover. Amy was only 13 years old and Sarah was 15, so neither of them had their

1:19.9

driver's licenses yet, so Jennifer was going to give them a lift. Amy and Sarah arrived and had

1:26.0

agreed to help clean up so they could get all of the work done

1:29.5

and finished and leave as soon as possible after closing.

1:33.0

The four of them were pretty close.

1:35.1

17-year-old Eliza, also working at the shop, she had actually managed to get Jennifer, who was

1:40.9

also 17, her job at the yoghurt shop.

1:46.1

And once Amy and Sarah arrived, they headed into the back of the shop so they could kind of work behind closed doors.

1:52.1

They weren't in uniform, they weren't officially employed, they weren't getting any money.

...

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