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The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold – Episode 343 – The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders (Part 2)

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

Tv & Film, True Crime

4.53.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

December 6, 1991. Austin, Texas. After responding to a fire at a local yogurt shop, the authorities discover the burned nude bodies of four victims who have all been shot in the head: 17-year old employees Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison; Jennifer’s 15-year old sister, Sarah Harbison; and Sarah’s 13-year old friend, Amy Ayers. Nearly eight years later, investigators arrest four suspects for the murders and while the charges against two of them are eventually dropped, the other two – Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott – had confessed to the crime, so they wind up being convicted at their respective trials. However, both men’s convictions are overturned due to civil rights violations and forensic testing reveals the presence of DNA on the victims which does not match any of the alleged perpetrators. In 2009, the charges against the two defendants are dismissed and they are released from prison, but there are no conclusive answers about who actually committed the crime. Last week, in Part One of our series on the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders, we shared the basic facts about the case. This week, in Part Two, we will attempt to analyze and break down this crime by sharing all the different theories about what happened. If have any information about this case, please contact the Austin Police Department at (512) 472-TIPS (8477). Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_killings “Who Killed These Girls? The Unsolved Murders That Rocked a Texas Town” by Beverly Lowry “Murdered Innocents” by Corey Mitchell https://www.cbsnews.com/news/innocence-lost-the-yogurt-shop-murders-09-01-2010/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yogurt-shop-murders-are-two-never-identified-customers-key-to-solving-austin-texas-case/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-yogurt-shop-murders-austin-texas-families-investigators-haunted-by-unsolved-case/ https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/2021/11/30/yogurt-shop-murders-austin-cold-case-photos/8798254002/ https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3622 https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3658 “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. “The Trail Went Cold” is doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website. “The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.com. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:11.0

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0:22.0

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0:25.0

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0:28.0

Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.

0:39.6

I'm your host Robin Warner and today we're going to be presenting the second of our

0:43.9

two-part series about the 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders.

0:49.2

Last weekend I appeared at the True Crime Podcast Festival in Austin and since the Yogurt

0:53.9

Shop Murders was one of my most highly requested cases which I had not yet covered, I thought

0:59.0

now would be a good time to finally tackle it.

1:02.1

But since it is such a convoluted story, I decided to make it a two-part episode.

1:07.4

We released part one last week which outlined the most important facts of the case and if

1:11.9

you haven't heard that episode yet, I suggest you go back and listen to it since I'm going

1:16.4

to be discussing a lot of the information I previously shared as well as my own theories

1:21.0

and analysis.

1:22.7

So as a brief recap, this crime took place at an I can't believe it's not Yogurt Shop

1:27.0

in Austin, Texas on the evening of December 6, 1991.

1:31.8

Two of the victims were 17-year-old Eliza Thomas and 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, employees

1:37.8

who were both working the closing shift.

1:40.3

The other two victims were Jennifer's 15-year-old sister Sarah Harbison and Sarah's 13-year-old

1:45.6

best friend Amy Ayers who were hanging around the Yogurt Shop because Jennifer had

1:49.5

proms to drive them back to her house for a sleepover after her shift ended.

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