Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.

This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety

purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

This episode is the third and final installment of my coverage of the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders in Austin, Texas.

If you haven't listened to the first two parts of this series, I definitely recommend going back in listening to those first or else this episode won't make any sense.

As a quick refresher, in part one, I went over the background of murder victims Jennifer and

Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers, and I walked through the timeline of events leading

up to their deaths. In part two, I discussed the first eight years of the investigation,

including incredibly devoted

detective John Jones and Hector Polanco, aka El Diablo, who would later become notorious for obtaining

false confessions.

I also went over a few suspects and loose ends that haven't been tied up yet. And I ended with the spotlight on

four old suspects that were cleared twice before investigators decided to take another look.

These suspects were 16-year-old Maurice Pierce, 15-year-old Forrest Wellborn, and Michael Scott and

Robert Springsteen, who were both 17 years old.

Let's start with some background on these four guys.

Starting with Maurice Pierce, who the investigators did believe was the ringleader.

Maurice was born in Houston, Texas, and had three sisters who he was pretty close to.

Their parents would eventually divorce, and by the age of 12,

Maurice would start doing drugs and getting into more trouble. Out of all of the four boys,

...