01x01 - Fire and Water

[bunniefuu]

♪ [SOFT MELODY PLAYING
OVER SPEAKERS] ♪

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

♪ [R&B SONG
PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS] ♪

Oh, man.

Um, do you have any more
of this particular shirt?

Because it jumps
from a 16 and a half, 34,

-to a 17 and a half, 37.
-Okay.

Sixteen and a half.

CLAIRE HUIE:

I'm getting clothes
for the 48 Hour interview

and more extra clothes
to go to court

and nice dress clothes
and stuff like that.

CLAIRE:

Good? Good.

CLAIRE:

Yeah, they are
a little bit long.

I think we need to go
with the 29s.

JERRY: There you go.

Did you want to go shorter?

But that's basically
where they should live.

Well, if that's the way
they're supposed to be

then that's the way
they're supposed to be.

I'll go with that then.

Yeah, any time,
all your slack should hit about

right at the back of the heel.

That's rule of thumb.

Yeah, see, I'm so used
to doing this with my mom,

but all my family's
out of state right now.

-Oh, my gosh. [CHUCKLES]
-So...

-You're on your own. [LAUGHING]
-Yeah, finally.

And I'm sure you probably think
it's really funny,

but we're doing a documentary

because I just got off
death row.

Oh, okay.

[POLICE SIREN BLARING]

♪ [DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

NEWSCASTER 1:
Four young Austin girls dead.

NEWSCASTER 2: ...at the
I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!
shop, where two of them worked.

NEWSCASTER 1: Shot and k*lled
during an apparent robbery.

NEWSCASTER 3:
The bodies were found

in the back of the shop,
badly burned.

NEWSCASTER 4: Authorities are
sifting through the evidence

hoping to find some answers.

LANIER PRINCIPAL:
The Lanier school community
have been saddened

by the tragic deaths
of four young ladies

for whom we mourn today.

AMY NEWMAN:
I can't believe it happened.

I guess I had to see for myself
that it really did.

You don't ever think
anybody's going to come

into a yogurt place...

[SNIFFLES] ...and sh**t you
and all your friends.

This just doesn't happen
at the yogurt place. [CRYING]

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

You sure have been most helpful
and very generous today,

so I'll definitely come back
and do business with you.

Because I used to be a salesman
at Radio Shack myself...

-JERRY: Oh, did you?
-...so I understand

a little bit of what you're
going through, yeah.

Yeah, I've spent two years
in a county jail

and then four years on death row

and then two years
in population.

NEWSCASTER: Seventeen-year-old
Jennifer Harbison,

her 15-year-old sister Sarah,
and 17-year-old Eliza Thomas

all died from a single g*nsh*t
wound to the back of the head.

Thirteen-year-old Amy Ayers
was shot twice

in the back of the head.

REPORTER: "Senseless"
is a word being used most often

as police describe
Austin's worst m*rder case.

♪ [DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

-First name?
-ROBERT SPRINGSTEEN:
It's Robert.

Robert.

-And your last name, Robert?
-ROBERT: Springsteen.

Oh. [CHUCKLES]

Not related to Bruce, though?

Well, as a matter of fact, I am.
He's like my dad's sixth cousin.

So, I guess it would--
make him my seventh cousin.

JERRY: Wow.

-All righty.
Got you all set, guys.
-All right.

-Good luck to you.
-ROBERT: Thank you.

Everything's going
to work out okay? [CHUCKLES]

ROBERT: It sure seems that way,
at least for right now.

You're off to a good start, man.

-Thank you, Jerry.
-Thank you.

I appreciate your...
-Hey, no problem.

-...assistance today.
-You bet. You have a good one.

JERRY: Thank you very much.

♪ ["DEVIL TOWN"
BY ALLEGRA KRIEGER PLAYING] ♪

♪ I was livin' in a devil town ♪

♪ Didn't know
It was a devil town ♪

♪ Oh lord
It really brings me down ♪

♪ About the devil town ♪

♪ I was livin' in a devil town ♪

♪ Didn't know
It was a devil town ♪

♪ Oh lord
It really brings me down ♪

♪ About the devil town ♪

♪ [SONG CONCLUDES] ♪

ASSISTANT: Is this okay?

JUSTIN ZEIFWACH:
A little higher, please.

A little higher,
a little higher. There you go.

MARGARET BROWN: Whenever
you're ready, just tell me.

-Yeah.
-MARGARET: I think we're ready.

-You ready?
-Yeah.

-Let's go.
-MARGARET: Let's do it.

-Thank you, sir, for doing this.
-You're welcome.

MARGARET: I am curious

about what initially
drew you to the story.

I just was curious about
how you got involved in this,

the yogurt shop.

Okay.

MARGARET: How does it feel
to be part of this thing,


What does that feel like?

[SIGHS] Uh...

MARGARET: I'm interested in
the trauma that surrounds

-this case because--
-The what?

MARGARET: The trauma that
surrounds this case.

The depth that people
like you cared about it.

You know, I'm interested
because Austin is where I live.

I remember this case.
I know how important it is.

But also, like, is there a way

that this story
can help with healing?

♪ [SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

Um, that's a very open question.
[LAUGHS]

MARGARET: Yeah, I think it is.

At a point, it's just,
do you want to...

Do you want to be
the weak person

and just have this thing
totally consume your life?

Or do you want
to go ahead and live?

People don't want
to talk about their grief.

That's private.

It's just, I've learned to deal
with it in different ways.

People are afraid
to share the brutality

that they've been through.

MARGARET: What comes up first
when you think of her?

Uh, for one, it's been 30 years,
seven months, and five days

and I still can't believe it.

♪ [OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

CLAIRE: There are
a lot of details to the case.

There are a lot of people
with strong opinions.

You think you know one thing
and then you talk to somebody

and they convince you
of an entirely different thing.

That's right.
On this day in 1991,

four teenagers were
shot and m*rder*d

inside what was a yogurt shop
in this strip mall.

What you're reduced to
is just people's experiences

of the crime and its effects.

♪ ["PEPPER"
BY BUTTHOLE SURFERS PLAYING] ♪

♪ Some will die in hot pursuit
Fiery auto crashes... ♪

INTERVIEWER 1: We're here
in the drag in Austin, Texas,

asking people about life
on other planets.

Whoa, check it out,
check it out. Bam!

♪ I don't mind
The sun sometimes... ♪

INTERVIEWER 1: What'd you
have for breakfast this morning?

I don't remember.
I was pretty wasted.

INTERVIEWER 2:
Are you a student?

Uh, no, actually.
I'm just in a band mostly.

REPORTER: Someone with
some big bucks had big plans

to change the landscape.

AUSTIN RESIDENT:
I feel bad about being displaced

by all those people
coming here, right.

And it makes me wonder

what's going to happen
in the future.

♪ [SONG FADES] ♪

CLAIRE: Austin used to be
a little college town.

And then it started
to become a big city.

And a big-city crime
happened here.

CLAIRE:

Well, it was one of the most
shocking stories I've heard

in the 20 years
that I've lived here.

People were scared to go out.

People were scared
to go get yogurt.

I mean, how scary is that?

I don't know that
the city of Austin

has ever been the same
since the yogurt shop murders.

I mean,
that was a loss of innocence

for this town for sure.

♪ [OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

CLAIRE: The yogurt shop murders
was like a ghost story

that people told.

It was always told
in hushed tones,

"This happened here."

Partly because nobody
has all the details.

Also because it was
never solved.

This case was so big in Austin.

It was exciting to work
on a film about it,

even if I didn't really
know what I was doing.

CLAIRE: So, that was in, I think
all of this filming took place

is around 2009, I guess.

And I'm sure
you probably think

it's really funny,
but we're doing a documentary

because I just got
off death row.

Oh, okay.

CLAIRE: I was taking
a video class and I had access

because I had this friend
who had worked on the case.

♪ [PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

Can you see it from there?

CLAIRE: Hold it out--
hold it up like that.

And then I didn't finish it.

Of course, I had
all this amazing footage

to look back on.

LOUIS AKIN: Um, tonight,
we're going out

to the-- where the yogurt shop
used to be, the building,

to test a theory.

CLAIRE: This was a kind of case

that never left
anybody who worked on it.

When these shootings happened,

there were a bunch of boys
drinking in a creek

right behind the yogurt shop.

It's where that
cash advance store was.

That used to be the yogurt shop.

There were booths
along the sides

and there were tables
in the middle.

And the cashier
would be behind that--

looks like a fica tree,
but I think it's plastic.

And that counter there

where people would come up
and order yogurt.

Behind that,
they had the refrigerators

and there's a separate room
back there.

And it was back there
that the girls were k*lled

and that the place
was set on fire.

♪ [SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

AKIN: It's a little chilling
standing here like this.

There was
a terrible tragedy here.

Let's go head down
and we'll position

the film crew.

CLAIRE: This case doesn't
make any sense.

And everybody who
was touched by it

can't get to the bottom
of the narrative.

Oh, man.

Do you have any more
of this particular shirt?

Because it jumps
from a 16 and a half, 34,

-to a 17 and a half, 37.
-Okay.

Sixteen and a half.

I'm getting clothes
for the 48 Hours interview

and more extra clothes to go to court

and nice dress clothes
and stuff like that.

Good? Good.

Yeah, they are a little bit long.
I think we need to go with the 29s.

There you go.

Did you want to go shorter? But that's
basically where they should live.

Well, if that's the way
they're supposed to be

then that's the way they're supposed
to be. I'll go with that then.

Yeah. All your slacks should hit
about right at the back of the heel.

That's rule of thumb.

Yeah, see, I'm so used
to doing this with my mom,

but all my family's
out of state right now.

-Oh, my gosh.
-So...

-You're on your own.
-Yeah, finally.

And I'm sure you probably think
it's really funny,

but we're doing a documentary
because I just got off death row.

Oh, okay.

Four young Austin girls dead--

...at the
I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop,

where two of them worked.

...shot and k*lled
during an apparent robbery.

The bodies were found
in the back of the shop, badly burned.

Authorities are
sifting through the evidence

hoping to find some answers.

The Lanier school community
have been saddened

by the tragic deaths
of four young ladies

for whom we mourn today.

I can't believe it happened.

I guess I had to see for myself
that it really did.

You don't ever think anybody's going
to come into a yogurt place

and sh**t you and all your friends.

This just doesn't happen
at the yogurt place.

You sure have been most helpful
and very generous today,

so I'll definitely come back
and do business with you.

Because I used to be a salesman
at Radio Shack myself...

-Oh, did you?
-...so I understand

a little bit
of what you're going through, yeah.

Yeah, I've spent two years
in a county jail

and then four years on death row
and then two years in population.

Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Harbison,

her 15-year-old sister Sarah,
and 17-year-old Eliza Thomas

all died from a single g*nsh*t
wound to the back of the head.

Thirteen-year-old Amy Ayers was shot twice
in the back of the head.

"Senseless"
is a word being used most often

as police describe
Austin's worst m*rder case.

-First name?
-It's Robert.

Robert.

-And your last name, Robert?
-Springsteen.

Not related to Bruce, though?

Well, as a matter of fact, I am.
He's like my dad's sixth cousin.

So, I guess he would
make him my seventh cousin.

Wow.

-All righty. Got you all set, guys.
-All right.

-Good luck to you.
-Thank you.

Everything's going to work out okay.

It sure seems that way,
at least for right now.

You're off to a good start, man.

-Thank you, Jerry. I appreciate your...
-Thank you.

-Hey, no problem.
-...assistance today.

You bet. You have a good one.
Thank you very much.

Is this okay?

A little higher, please.

A little higher, a little higher.
There you go.

Whenever you're ready, just tell me.

-Yeah.
-I think we're ready.

-You ready?
-Yeah.

-Let's go.
-Let's do it.

-Thank you, sir, for doing this.
-You're welcome.

I am curious about what initially
drew you to the story.

I just was curious about
how you got involved in this,

the yogurt shop.

Okay.

How does it feel to be part of this thing,

What does that feel like?

I'm interested in the trauma
that surrounds this case because--

-The what?
-The trauma that surrounds this case.

The depth that people
like you cared about it.

You know, I'm interested
because Austin is where I live.

I remember this case.
I know how important it is.

But also, like, is there a way
that this story can help with healing?

-That's a very open question.
-Yeah, I think it is.

At a point, it's just, do you want to...

Do you want to be the weak person

and just have this thing
totally consume your life?

Or do you want to go ahead and live?

People don't want to talk
about their grief. That's private.

It's just, I've learned to deal
with it in different ways.

People are afraid to share the brutality
that they've been through.

What comes up first when you think of her?

For one, it's been 30 years,
seven months, and five days

and I still can't believe it.

There are a lot of details to the case.

There are a lot of people
with strong opinions.

You think you know one thing
and then you talk to somebody

and they convince you
of an entirely different thing.

That's right. On this day in 1991,
four teenagers were shot and m*rder*d

inside what was a yogurt shop
in this strip mall.

What you're reduced to
is just people's experiences

of the crime and its effects.

We're here in the drag in Austin, Texas,
asking people about life on other planets.

Check it out, check it out. Bam!

What'd you
have for breakfast this morning?

I don't remember. I was pretty wasted.

Are you a student?

No, actually. I'm just in a band mostly.

Someone with some big bucks had big plans
to change the landscape.

I feel bad about being displaced
by all those people coming here, right.

And it makes me wonder
what's going to happen in the future.

Austin used to be a little college town.

And then it started to become a big city.

And a big-city crime happened here.

Well, it was one
of the most shocking stories I've heard

in the 20 years that I've lived here.

People were scared to go out.
People were scared to go get yogurt.

I mean, how scary is that?

I don't know that the city of Austin
has ever been the same

since the yogurt shop murders.

I mean, that was a loss of innocence
for this town for sure.

The yogurt shop murders
was like a ghost story that people told.

It was always told in hushed tones,
"This happened here."

Partly because nobody has all the details.

Also because it was never solved.

This case was so big in Austin.

It was exciting to work
on a film about it,

even if I didn't really
know what I was doing.

So, that was in...
I think all of this filming took place

around 2009, I guess.

And I'm sure you probably think
it's really funny,

but we're doing a documentary
because I just got off death row.

Oh, okay.

I was taking a video class
and I had access

because I had this friend
who had worked on the case.

Can you see it from there?

Hold it up. Hold it up like that.

And then I didn't finish it.

Of course, I had all this amazing footage
to look back on.

Tonight, we're going out to the--

Where the yogurt shop used to be,
the building,

to test a theory.

This was a kind of case that never left
anybody who worked on it.

When these shootings happened,

there were a bunch of boys
drinking in a creek

right behind the yogurt shop.

It's where that cash advance store was.

That used to be the yogurt shop.

There were booths along the sides
and there were tables in the middle.

And the cashier would be behind that...

looks like a fica tree,
but I think it's plastic.

And that counter there

where people would come up
and order yogurt.

Behind that, they had the refrigerators
and there's a separate room back there.

And it was back there
that the girls were k*lled

and that the place was set on fire.

It's a little chilling
standing here like this.

There was a terrible tragedy here.

Let's go head down
and we'll position the film crew.

This case doesn't make any sense.

And everybody who was touched by it
can't get to the bottom of the narrative.

-Jonesy.
-Yeah.

Did you hear about
the call 2900 West Anderson?

-Yeah, I'm headed over there.
-Okay.

I'll meet you out there.


Homicide, four.

People ask me all the time,
"How long are you in homicide?"

And my response is, "153 bodies."

Because that's how you measure time
when you're a homicide detective.

In some cities across the state,

people are k*lling each other
in record numbers.

Tonight, we take a look at Austin
as crime reporter Lisa Kosolou

continues her Channel 7 News close-up.

A Channel 7 reporter was doing a series
on m*rder in Texas.

They went riding around with me,
and then we made calls.

There seemed to be a lot more
random murders, random violence.

And then while we were at the last call,
they called me on my handheld radio.

Okay, I'm copying the fire part.

You cut out on
the first part of that, though.

And I go, "Fire?"
because they wouldn't need me for it.

That's 10-4. Going around.

A triple fatality. A m*rder. Great.

Where do I need to come to, in here?
What place of business is this?

Okay.

By the time I got there,
as I pulled into the parking lot,

was when they called me on the radio
and said they found a fourth one.

I had to go in through
the party shop, which was next door,

because I couldn't go in the front door

because the fire department
was still in there knocking down the fire.

It was still smoldering.

They had pulled down the ceiling,
so there was water everywhere.

There was steam everywhere.
There was smoke everywhere.

As it started to clear out,
you could see the bodies.

Three together
and then one away from the others.

I'm not at all afraid to go in the room
to see a dead person.

I don't want to see no dead child.
That don't work with me.

The obvious question
when you got females

that are stripped, shot, and burned is,
were they sexually assaulted?

When a body's been declared dead,
it belongs to the medical examiner.

The medical examiner wanted
to just load them up

and take them down to the morgue
to do an autopsy.

But I wanted them to wait
until DPS got there

so they could do swabs,
because DNA was something fairly new then.

But I knew and Huck knew
that that was important.

And if it hadn't been for Huck...

You know, he's the one who talked
him into waiting until DPS got there.

We called the manager.

She said there's only supposed
to be two girls there.

Only Jennifer and Eliza
actually worked there.

It was my first day of my vacation,

and my mother-in-law
knocked on the door

and said, you know,
"You got a phone call.

The police are on the phone for you."

And no phone call in the middle
of the night is a good call. Never.

I was just kind of like, "Yes, sir?"

He said,
"We've had a fire at the yogurt shop."

And I'm looking at the time and I'm like,

"Okay, let it burn?"
You know, I was kind of kidding

because I knew that the girls
would have been finished.

And he says,
"Well, I need you to sit down."

I'm like, "I'm fine. What's wrong?"

And he said, "No, no, no.
I need you to sit down."

And again, he tried to warn me.

And I said, "No, sir, what's wrong?"

And he said,
"Well, we have four dead bodies."

And my knees went-- It just-- boom.

And he said, "Can you come up here?"

It's slow motion.
It's literally slow motion.

There was like this mist.

And I could see the yogurt shop

and there was just lights flashing
everywhere, sirens, fire trucks.

And I remember
sort of a panic hitting in, like,

"Okay, this is real. This is real."

We pulled up,
and I think it was Jones and Huckabay.

One of them said...

"Do you think that if we went inside,
you could identify the bodies?"

"Sure."

They said it'd be better
for me to do it than their families.

I was only 24.

I wasn't thinking fire and burned people.

I agreed to it
because it was the right thing to do,

and I still feel that to this day.
It was just best.

There was fire trucks in the back alley
and there was media everywhere.

We wound up going through
the front of the store.

There's no lights. Dark.

You know, you got the counter,
the machines,

and then there's the door
that leads you to the back.

The water was dripping down
on you, and it was dark.

It was just ominous.

And there wasn't
anything there to identify.

So...

They didn't have faces.

There's no clothing.

Fire's very destructive.

It's not forgiving.

What we found in the back there
was we found four victims.

That's all we can comment on right now.

Were the victims together

or were they in different parts
of the building?

No, I can't. Can't give you that either.

-Were they found in any way?
-Can't give you that.

Was there any sign
of forced entry to the building?

-Can't give you that.
-What can you give?

Just what I gave you.

It's still very early
in the investigation, okay?

And there'll probably come a point

that we need that information
to solve this case.

Put your hand.
Hold on, put your hand right here.

It's already turned on, Liz.

Right here. I know.
She puts her hands over here.

-And look.
-Okay. Yeah.

I was 13. I was at my dad's house.

And then, in the middle of the night,
there was banging on the front door.

Give me a kiss, Sonora.

And they didn't really know anything.

I mean, that was like the confusing part
about that night.

As they came in and they were like,

"There was a fire."
And said something happened to Eliza.

Yeah. It was such a confusing scene.

I just remember-- and I--
my body just started

to have this really strong reaction
and my teeth just started chattering.

Yeah. And I remember at one point
just putting my hand in my mouth

to try to stop my teeth from chattering.

My parents were divorced.

So, at some point we had to go
to tell my mom what was going on.

Hi, Sonora, how are you?

And my mom wouldn't come
out of the house

to talk to the police officer.

I just remember my dad,
you know, saying, you know,

"Take care of your mom" and then leaving.

My mom like, went to her room...

and I just started cleaning the house.

And at some point, I turned on the TV,

and this story was on the news.

The first sign that something was wrong
came just after midnight last night.

That's when a passing police officer
noticed smoke coming out of the store.

But once the smoke cleared,
firefighters made a grim discovery.

They found the bodies
of four young victims.

All had been shot in the head.

The victims are identified
as Eliza Thomas, 17-year-old...

And my sister's picture was on the news.

I remember going to bed
and just thinking...

like, I've never...

woken up on a day
that my sister wasn't alive, you know.

There's no Sonora without Eliza.
There's no Eliza without Sonora.

...seventeen years old and a student
at Lanier High School.

Jennifer Harbison, also 17 years of age

and her 15-year-old sister,
Sarah Harbison.

Both girls were
Lanier High School students.

It was just... unspeakable

that someone did this on purpose.

It was unspeakable.

You know,
you just have all those regrets of...

of not protecting.

Home video tapes give us intimate glimpses

of the girls and their personalities.

Jennifer was 17. Sarah was 15.

Jennifer's athletic claim
to fame was track.

Sarah loved the game of basketball.

These balloons here
are from Sarah's last birthday.

Barbara and Frank Suraci
spend a lot of time

in their daughter's rooms.

This is Jennifer's room.
She too was a tomboy.

Two weeks after the murders,

a reporter came
to our house and he said,

"You're not crying."

And I said, "I don't have anything left."

As a matter of fact,
this is Jennifer's pin

from the yogurt store for her uniform.

I just get to a point
that I couldn't cry a lot anymore.

Jennifer and Sarah shared a passion,

FFA, raising sheep.

They really just love those animals.
They just love them.

Frank and Barbara
still do not believe their girls are gone.

They know someday
the K*llers will be caught.

We chose to be public
about this from the beginning,

hoping that it would help
solve our case sooner.

And so, any opportunity that we had
to be in front of a camera at any time,

most of us parents would do that.

If there was ever
anyone who was nearly born

in the saddle, it was Amy Ayers.

Happy birthday...

Amy's birthday.
At 12, she got her cutting horse, Copy.

Her love of animals took her to the FFA.

And it was through the FFA.

that she became friends
with Jennifer and Sarah Harbison.

Didn't have to worry about those two
when they were together.

We knew that they were going
to be safe in what they did.

That was until the night of December 6th.

Amy and her three best friends
were k*lled...

The clearest memory I have of her
is the first time I got to hold her.

I was sitting in a rocking chair,
her on my lap.

I remember-- Because I wanted
a little sister so bad.

I didn't want a little brother.

So, when I had a little sister,
I was bayonets.

I got everything I wanted right there.

Back him a little bit there.

There's not one day
that I do not think of her,

or Sarah, Jennifer, or Eliza, any of them.

My dad's always ranched.
We always had animals, did cowboy stuff.

I mean, that's how I was raised.

The best way to live or raise kids
is on a ranch.

If you're on a ranch,
you've got everything you want.

We had our own milk cows,
we had a garden,

we had our own beef.

I'd ride a horse to the mailbox.

It's just the little things like that.

The kids, they seen calves
and horses be born,

seen them grow up,
seen them get fat, seen some die.

You know, it was real life, it was real.

When I think of her, I think of horses.

But ever since she was
knee-high to a duck,

she liked the horses.

If you're riding a cutting horse
you're riding a cutting horse.

You're doing the same thing
that the adults are doing.

There's no "kid version"
of riding cutting horses.

It's all the same thing.

A lot of times I'd be riding some colts

and I'd be having a problem,
I'd just stick her on him.

For a couple of days,
she'd ride him in the pasture,

do this, do that.

Come back and my problems were over.
She just knew animals.

She was happy.
I mean, she could be very serious.

She's kind of an old soul,

but she was happy
and most happy around animals.

So, when I see kids and animals together,

it really reminds me of her.

And after we'd moved to Austin,
she got involved with the Junior FFA.

Future Farmers of America.

The farm was kind of like

our, like, little getaway.

After school, everybody go to the farm.
We raised animals and stuff together.

That's how I got to know
Jennifer and Liza and Amy and all of them.

To me, FFA teaches me
to be a better person and...

you know, to just learn more
about people and how things work.

The thing that sucks is the older I get,
the less I can remember about her.

And I mean, I try to remember,
I don't know why it's happening.

It bugs me.

But it's, I mean, it's weird.

Smile!

I had written
a previous book about a m*rder.

And I learned to deal
with extreme behavior.

The extremities
of what people are capable of.

What a human being can do
to another human being.

So, we're going
back to the day it happened

and the 48 hours afterward.

In your mind,
what are the most pertinent thing

of those first 48 hours?

I think what really,
if you want to get down to it,

made this almost impossible to solve

was the fire and the water.

Especially the water.

When I got inside the yogurt shop,

I was in water up to here.

That's how much
the fire had come in there.

Turns out a lot of the firemen
were kind of worried

that they had disturbed the crime scene.

You know, there was soot everywhere.

So much of the evidence
was probably contaminated.

So, taking fingerprints
was kind of pointless,

although we tried.

We found the key left in the front door,

but that was apparently
part of the process

of when they got ready to close,
to put the key in the front door.

We went through
the whole procedure front to back.

First of all, if there was
some customers in the store,

you'd lock the door and they would sit
and usually finish.

There were some people that would stay
and I know that there was regulars

that they knew or felt comfortable with.

We had a radio and they would dance
in the back and giggle,

and they were always smiling,
always happy.

It was a job, but I don't know
that it was work to them.

They had a set order.

I do believe the toppings were put away.

Machines were cleaned,
but the gaskets weren't put back on.

I think there was a bucket
still sitting there on a ladder.

There was still water in the sink

where they were washing
the topping ladles.

My guess is they were close
to being finished.

But they had extra help.

The other two girls, I'm sure,
were put to work.

Earlier that night, Sarah and Amy,
the two younger girls,

had been walking around Northcross Mall.

Jennifer picked them up
when the mall closed

and took them to the yogurt shop.

Northcross Mall is blocks
from the yogurt shop.

I mean, it's walking distance, really.
But, you know,

safe side, she went and picked them up,

brought them back, ordered pizza,
and they may have been in the back

helping clean up when the intruders came.

We surmised the yogurt shop case
was a robbery gone bad.

That it went sideways
because the bad guys,

however many there were,

weren't aware
that there were two more girls

in the back of the store.

So, they'd been casing it even
for a short period of time,

all they would have seen
was the two girls out front.

So, they were up against four.
Four FFA girls on top of that.

Who knows what all happened in there,
but it didn't take long.

Maybe they were in there 20, 25 minutes.

And then it would have probably
taken another 15 minutes

for the fire to build up to the point

to where it was noticeable
to the guy next door

in the party shop.

I think the girls tried
to get out the front door,

and took off running.

And they stopped them,
took them back in the back,

And thought,
"You're going to call the cops?"

So they k*ll 'em.

And then the fire was started.

The bodies were in two locations.

The three girls were stacked
near the back door.

And then the fourth one, which was Amy,
was ten, 13 feet away from the others.

All four girls were tied
with their own underwear, brassieres...

and was shot in the back of the head
with a .22 caliber p*stol.

There were two g*ns used,
a .22, and a .380.

The .22, the round is small and soft

and it's just about impossible
to get ballistics off a .22.

The .380 round that had been
used on Amy, found it in a drain

and it was perfectly preserved.

The lands and grooves told us
exactly what kind of g*n it was.

We knew what we were looking for exactly.

Northcross Mall was really beautiful
and big and fun.

There was an ice skating rink.

Christmas decorations were out
and Santa Claus around.

The movie theaters showed
The Rocky Horror Show

and they did these dramas
where they acted out

the parts at midnight.

That's where kids went to hang out,

to walk around,
not so much to buy anything.

A week after the yogurt shop murders,

a boy named Maurice Pierce

decides to go to Northcross Mall,

the same mall that Sarah
and Amy had been in the previous week,

and walk around with a g*n, a p*stol,

in the waistband of his jeans.

And it was loaded,
and he had b*ll*ts in his pocket.

His young disciple, Forrest Welborn,

just adored Maurice
and would do pretty much

whatever he could do to be in his presence
because he was magnetic, Maurice.

And they were walking around the mall
with this g*n.

Maurice got arrested
with a .22 p*stol at Northcross Mall

which was two blocks away
from the yogurt shop.

We'd put out that we were
looking for a .22 and a .380.

So, I get a young kid over there

who's got a .22 p*stol
and is two blocks away.

They took him and he was questioned
by a cop named Hector Polanco.

A homicide investigator for five years,

Polanco has never had
a m*rder case go unsolved.

Hector interviewed him
for three or four hours, I guess,

before he called us in and we came in.

I just took down what he said
and I'd stop every now and then

and ask him to clarify stuff.

"My name is Maurice Earl Pierce,
I'm 16 years old.

I am at the Austin Police Department
giving this statement to Sergeant J. Jones

concerning what I know about
the 'I Can't Believe it's Yogurt' murders

last Friday night."

"I picked up Forrest Wellborn
from McCallum High School.

We rode around for a while,
went to my house."

Forrest said, 'Let's get the g*n.'

So I took it out of my closet
where I kept it,

and he put it in the glove box.

Forrest and I went up to Northcross Mall.

Forrest got out of the car with the g*n.

I went to the bathroom,

and Forrest went somewhere else.

We split up.

So about 10:45, I just went
and sat out in the car waiting for him.

Forrest showed up
at my car at about 11:30.

He got in the car
and handed me the g*n,

then said, 'I did something.'

I said, 'Like what?'

But he never did answer."

So, Maurice gave up Forrest Welborn
and said Forrest had borrowed his g*n

and had disappeared for a while

and come back sweaty
and the g*n had been fired

and he was smelling of hairspray...

which Maurice explained
as a way to start a fire,

to spray hairspray
and throw a match in it.

When asked who else
was with him that night,

Maurice said, "Rob Springsteen...

and Michael Scott."

"Forrest and I left the mall.

We met Rob Springsteen and Mike.

Then we went riding around,

went up to the trails
and shot the g*n off

because Mike and Rob
said they wanted to."

Michael Scott and Rob Springsteen.
They were layabouts.

They'd drank a lot of beer,
smoked weed, like a lot of kids their age.

They were looking for trouble.

The day after the murders,
those four guys stole a car

and went to San Antonio
to visit a girlfriend.

"Forrest and I saw
a goldish-tan-colored Pathfinder

with keys in it.

We took it and went and picked up
Rob and Mike and went driving."

They stole a car and went to San Antone.

And they drove around and did stupid stuff

and then came back, parked that stolen car

where they had gotten it from.

"When we got back to Austin,
I dropped Rob and Mike at Rob's house.

Forrest asked me
if he could borrow the g*n.

I told him 'No'. I asked him why?

He said because 'I want to go
do what I did last night,

go k*ll some more girls.'"

Later the next day, we wired him up
and sent him out to Forrest.

And we listened to that.
We were following him on the wire.

He was trying to lead Forrest along

and Forrest had no idea
what he was talking about.

And we got Forrest
in to interview him.

Forrest, he couldn't organize
a two-car parade.

I mean, he just...

you know, he couldn't have held it in.

You know, we had Sergeant Polanco
and two other homicide investigators

that had been there a while.

They knew interrogation.

So, could they have done it?
Yeah, they could have.

Did they? I don't know.
Where's the-- Where's the evidence?

You get to a point...

where your inner body, soul,

and all that comes up
and says, "This is the guy."

I felt that.

Just the way he acted
and reacted and all this...

something here, Huck.

But I had to prove it.

You have to get a written confession

signed by the guy
to get him indicted, you know.

If you don't have a confession,

then you better have
a bunch of good evidence

to prove that he did it.
Well, we didn't have that.

We didn't have
anything to prove, you know.

I mean, we had no fingerprints.

Good morning.
It's ten o'clock. I'm Larry Brill.

The families of four girls
m*rder*d earlier this month

at a yogurt store
are making a plea for help this morning.

The investigation
has been moving along slowly,

but police and the families
need help to catch the K*llers.

We are the parents
and step-parents

of the four young teenage girls

brutally slain
at the North Austin yogurt shop

on December 6, 1991.

We've been told that the community
is looking to us

for leadership and advice
on ways to handle this tragedy

and what to do.

The families are still having good days
mixed with bad,

so are the police.

Under the close scrutiny
of an angry and impatient public,

investigators have been going
full throttle now to turn up any new clues

as to who might have k*lled
the four girls.

There's a lot of things that we did
in this case that hadn't been done before.

We sent undercover guys to the funerals

and had it mic'd up just in case
somebody showed up to apologize.

We pulled every ticket
that was written in that part of town,

we called two or three times
for all of the customers

that had been in the yogurt shop.

Without video evidence,
we're depending on people

answering the call through the media.

It's just going to take
the right phone call,

the right little piece of information.

The ones that use credit cards, we knew.

But we got quite a few in
that had used cash.

Everybody wanted to help.

Customers and friends of the victim
have told us about...

what they consider to be suspicious people
going in and out of the restaurant.

Something else we did
in the yogurt shop case,

we hypnotized everybody
that was in the shop.

Maybe they had seen something
the night they were in there

that looked fairly unusual.

That's how we got composites
from several of them,

is we put them under hypnosis.

Police are expected to release part
of an in-depth psychological profile

developed last week
with help from the FBI.

The assessment of the ICBY murders
are as follows.

Although the race of the offenders
in this case is difficult to determine,

it is probable that the K*llers are white.

Although other races cannot be eliminated
on this basis alone due to the fact

that other races do frequent
this commercialized area.

The age of the offenders
is also difficult to establish

but in all probability,
they are in their late teens to mid-20s.

Likely unemployed or in a menial job
not requiring contact with the public,

and likely we're dealing
with residents of the area.

One has a dominant personality
and manipulates the weaker ones

by forcing them to participate
in some aspect of the crime.

Police believe at least one of them
has told someone else

and they're hoping
this person will come forward.

You have a person out there
who wasn't there, who knows.

He's standing there every day
looking at a m*rder*r

who up to this point
is getting away with it.

The police need additional eyes and ears.

If you think you have something to report,
however seemingly insignificant,

your tip may earn you
a substantial reward.

A daycare group
that two of the m*rder*d girls attended

when they were in preschool
called Child Inc.,

called for a community effort
in solving the crime.

One telephone company has paid
to put billboards

on more than 40 taxi cabs
in Austin this week.

Any information that anyone has
that they think might be remotely helpful

needs to be called in.

We want those pictures up.

We want people to know
that these beautiful girls were alive,

a part of this city,
and we don't want anyone to forget

that they lived, they were here,
and they were m*rder*d.

Whoever did this is going
to have to be caught,

and they're gonna have to be
brought to justice.

I always want someone watching me...

because I know Eliza was my sister
and my best friend.

And half of me died when I heard the news.

There's somebody working
around the clock on it.

We're getting numerous calls still.

And, you know,

a lot of the information
is just not any good.

But we never know
which piece of information

is going to be the piece
that we need to solve the puzzle.

How close we were to the families,

that's something else we did
that was pretty unique.

They were pretty much a part
of the investigation,

they could come and go
and they kinda walked in a couple of times

when we were jacking up some suspects,
you know.

John Jones and Mike Huckabay,
they came to our house a lot.

Of course, Mike Huckabay wore boots.

He was kind of the cowboy
of the police department. We got along.

Bob liked me.

I'm not really a cowboy,
but I do a lot of cowboy stuff,

rodeos and stuff like that.

We just sort of connected there.

I didn't want to get real close,
but it's hard not to.

They would give us some tidbits
or keep us up to date.

You could see the stress on them,
stress on us.

I had full faith in them.

Two months after the murders,
members of the community came together

to try and keep alive the memory
of the four teenagers.

Can I have the families over here? Okay.

A couple of Austin composers
wrote a song.

"We Will Not Forget."

Y'all you ready to do one now?

I watch you lying there

You have my eyes and hair

I love your laughs
Your coos and sighs

The answer to my prayer

We will not forget

Time we had to share

We will not forget

Dreams you'll never dare

We will not forget

Several hundred people
showed up to remember the girls.

Some spent their time quietly reflecting,

others reminiscing
about the good times they'd had.

We had walked together
every day after first period.

We'd just sit there talking.
Just me and her we went down the hall.

It helps to know that there...

are more people than just you
going through the exact same thing

and feeling the exact same thing.

This is real painful stuff.

So, I really work hard to get back
to the funny part of it

because it's just too much.

The thing I laughed
about right after the girls died

is that Americans,
the way we deal with grief,

let's see, we had T-shirts,
we had coffee mugs,

we had buttons, we had pins.

We have to make
a marketing opportunity out of everything.

So, we did. We sure did.
We did all that, too.

So, isn't that funny?

It's got their names on it.

The deeper I got into it,
the more incapable I felt

of telling the story myself.

This was Sarah's eighth grade.

You can tell she has glasses
and Jennifer's senior year.

I would find myself talking
about the case,

the project that I'm working on.
I'm working on this project...

but the project's so dark.

And I would talk about it as if

this was like my path to professionalism.

And they're both smiling.

-It's adorable.
-Oh, my gosh.

More white sands,
more memories, more laugh, more...

Yeah, that's very, very
emotional to do that, so...

Can we get a wide shot of you

-looking through them?
-Yeah.

People always say,
"Oh, I just can't imagine."

You don't need to.
Don't even need to think about it.

It's too much to think about,
too much to carry with you forever.

You'll have your own pain
in your own way and your own time.

You don't need to visit this one.

It's enough.

And then we have
the sit-down interview with her.

I don't remember it very well,
but she was really open.

Well, I guess can we start off by your--
telling us

how your daughters were m*rder*d?

All right, so anyway.

I am mortified by my own footage...

which made editing it difficult. But...

I think that's an insensitive way
to start an interview.

And what are you going to do?
I mean, it is what it is.

I wanted to get to that...

that moment where...

you...

are sensitive to the terror
that the girls faced.

And I know that
the families have thought about that.

So, I asked the question,
but it sounds insensitive.

We can see how she responds.

Well, I guess,

can we start off by your-- telling us
how your daughters were m*rder*d?

Yeah.

December 6th was a Friday
and I was at work

and I talked to the girls on the phone

and I told them
I was getting off early that day.

And so,
I was supposed to get off at 4:30.

And when I came home,
actually, it was 5:30 when I got home.

So, Sarah was sitting on the couch
and she was peeling an orange

and Jennifer wasn't...
I asked her where her sister was.

She said, "She's over at Sam's."

That was her boyfriend,
that was Jennifer's boyfriend.

And they had taken him home from school.

And-- But Sarah, she said to me,
she said, "I'm going out tonight."

And I said, "Oh, you are?"

Interesting that she was telling me
what she was going to do

before she asked.

And so, yeah, she said, "I am--

We're going to the mall.

Amy's going to spend the night.
We're going to the mall."

I said, "Okay." And so...

Anyway, she was in such a good mood.
She was in such a good mood.

That's the thing I remember the most
about that last evening.

Jennifer was going to work
at the yogurt shop that night

and I was so tired
because my boss had been on vacation.

And Sarah wanted me to take her
and Amy to the mall

so they could do some Christmas shopping

or whatever they were doing.

And I said, "Oh, man,
I just don't feel like it."

So, Jennifer, I convinced Jennifer
to take Sarah with her

and to go pick up Amy on her way
to work and drop them both at the mall,

which was just a block or two
over from the yogurt store itself.

And so...

I walked them out to the car

and they were getting
all their stuff together.

And, you know,
I got a hug from both of them.

Of course, I told them I loved them

and got to do that last

"Y'all be careful, I'll see you
and I'll talk to you later.

Y'all be careful."

And off they went
and that was the last time I saw them.

My husband and I were at the house
that night and he was watching TV

and they had a special
on Pearl Harbor.

And I just didn't want to watch it.
It just upsets me, so I didn't watch it.

So, I went into the bedroom to watch TV,

the Star Trek I think is what...
the reruns.

And I was in there
and I was laying across the bed.

I still remember
I had on my purple sweats of the day,

you know, and I was all snugged
but I fell asleep on top of the covers.

And he came to bed
and sort of got in under his side

and I never really got in the covers.

And then I heard...

the doorbell ring and it startled me
because I wasn't exactly in bed

and I wasn't exactly out of bed.

And I jumped up and he was in bed
and I ran to the door

and I didn't see the girls and I was...

You know, things are running
through your mind.

It's not that many feet
from my bed to the front door.

So, I was looking
and I turned the lights on.

And as soon as they opened the door,

there were two police officers
and a lady with them.

And I said, "Skip, the police are here.
Something's wrong with the girls."

They didn't tell me that. I knew. I knew.

And he got up
and they had us sit down on the couch

and they said there had been a fire and...

And that the girls were gone,
that they were dead.

And...

And I kept trying to listen to that.
I knew that didn't make sense.

I knew that it didn't make sense
because the girls wouldn't just burn up.

They just wouldn't burn up in a fire.

And...

And that they were both gone.

And...

So, you're processing,
trying to make that work.

How can someone be and then not be?

And they wouldn't leave
until we called someone to be with us.

I didn't want anybody to know,
so I just lied.

"No, we don't have anybody.
We don't know anyone.

Can't tell that story."

And finally I admitted that I had a sister
that lived in this town.

And...

So, the...

The lady from the police department
called my sister.

It's so funny,

because we've laughed about this story
since she jumped out of bed,

and what does she put on,
her stupid blue sweats.

So, we're both dressed
in these silly sweats.

That's not funny, I know, but...

it was just crazy.

So, she did get across town.
She had to stop and get gas,

and she came across town
in her blue sweats.

And...

and then I had to tell her...

the-- what had really happened.

I...

I had to tell her
and I had to see her face.

It was horrible to see her face.

You don't want to tell people
horrible things.

And that was...

was a really horrible thing.

Acknowledging someone's death
is just...

is just so very hard.

And, so...

Of course, so then
we have to call Mike Harbison,

the girls' father...

and hear his screams...

And...

and his wife got on the phone
and she was saying,

"Tell me what happened."

He's screaming,
"I don't know what happened."

And we had to tell her.

And...

So, you have another person
whose life is over.

And one more person
whose life is over. And...

I had to call my sister,
my other sister...

and tell them that life was over...

and listen to the screams.

And...

This was just our house.
This was just my house.

There were other houses.

Bob and Pam had to go through this.

Maria Thomas had to go through this.

Telling the families the news
of the absence of souls.