[This story was originally posted on February 5, 2022. It was updated on August 27.]
It’s been over 30 years Four teen girls murdered An Austin, Texas, curd shop and case remain unresolved. At one point, there were arrests and then beliefs, but those beliefs were later overturned on the appeal, and eventually, New DNA Technology The participation of those initial arrests was suspected.
The case has left the investigators who seem to have a stagnation, but as the correspondent Erin Moriyerti reported in the “48 hours” of this week, there is a theory that two sometimes two-known people seen in the curd shop on the night of murders may be involved in unresolved murders, which have been shaking Austin for decades.
On December 6, 1991, 17 -year -old Eliza Thomas, 13 -year -old Amy Aires, and two sisters, 17 -year -old Jennifer Harbisson and 15 -year -old Sarah Harbisson “I can’t believe that it’s yogurt!” Shop in Austin.
The city had never seen such a crime. Eliza and Jennifer were working in a curd shop that night. They were getting ready to close when Jennifer’s sister, Sara, and her friends, Amy, met her to go home there. Investigators believe that at least two people entered the shop and committed a brutal crime before fixing the place on the fire, destroying a lot of evidence.
John Jones worked for the Austin Police Department at the time of crime and was the chief investigator on the case. He has retired since then. Jones told Moriyarti that as part of the initial investigation, he and his team tracked the customers who were in a curd shop on the day of crime, to see if they were seen to be anything suspicious. According to Jones, many customers described the two men, who were sitting in the shop “outside the place”, before it was due to the closure. Neither the man was reported to buy frozen yogurt – instead, only one drink.
Jones told Moriyarti, “They were never recognized. And we did everything. … We also hypnotized some people.”
Despite the efforts of the investigators, the leadership did not go anywhere and finally the case cooled down. Then, in 1999, about eight years after the murders, there was a break in the case when the new investigators decided to re -examine a separate old leadership.
AP photos 
Robert Springstein, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forest Welborne Crime were only teenagers. They too, after one of them, landed early on Jones’ radar after Maurice Pierce, arrested with a gun in a mall near the curd shop in the following days. Subsequently, men were questioned by Jones and his team, but were later released for lack of evidence.
In 1999, the new investigators decided to resume men. Two of them, Robert Springstein and Michael Scott accepted the killings of the curd shop and implicated Pierce and Welbourne in the process. All four people were later arrested.
But it was not long before Springstein and Scott recalled his confession and said that he was strong. Due to lack of evidence, the allegations against Pierce and Welbourne were dropped.
Springstein and Scott were only two to test tests. Both of them were convicted, but years later, their culprits were overturned on constitutional grounds. The sixth amendment empowers the defendants to face the accused and in Scott and Springstein’s tests, their confession was used against each other, but was not allowed to question each other in court.
The prosecutors intended to retrieve Springstein and Scott, but before doing so, they ordered a DNA test at the vaginal swab taken from the victims at the time of the murders. By this point, investigators were confident that one of the at least one of the victims was sexually assaulted, and the prosecutor wanted to take advantage of a new type of DNA test called Y-STR test. It only discovers male DNA.
No one expected what it would reveal. As a result of the test, a partial male DNA was obtained from one of the victims, but to surprise the prosecutor’s office, the DNA sample did not match any of the four men who were arrested. The charges against Springstein and Scott were removed, and were released from jail after spending 10 years behind bars.
Attorney Amber Fareli worked on both Scott and Springstein’s defense teams. He is adamant that the police did all this wrong by arresting Scott, Springstein, Welborn and Pierce. She reported that “48 hours” she believes that the curd shop has two unknown customers who should actually be corrected to the police.
While working on the defense teams of Scott and Springstein, Farelli was tasked with transferring through the old police records, in which interviews were organized by those interviews Jones and his colleagues with customers who visited the curd shop on the day of murders.
“(Police) has held and interviewed 52 people in a curd shop that day,” Farelli told “48 hours” Erin Moriyarti.
Austin Police Department 
Farelli says that many of the customers mentioned two people who were sitting in a curd shop just before closing that night.
“We have no names. And when you see – when you go back and you see and you see,” they have talked to 52 people and have not missed a person from 4:30 pm till 11:00 pm. And many people talk about a man or two, and they describe them in the same way?
“Was those two people who never identified the last people in a curd shop, as far as you know?” Moriyarti asked Fareli.
“Absolutely,” Fareilly replied.
Farelli says that men were “described as an inclination on the table, talking to each other and whispering, as if they did not want anyone to hear what they were saying.”
She says that one of the men was described as light, short hair, “like a dirty blonde,”, and was said to have been about 5’6 “tall and in the late 20s or early 30s. She says that the other man was described as being” big “, and both were seen wearing a big coat.
John Jones, former chief investigator on the matter, is still haunted by the killings of the unresolved curd shop, even though he has been retired for a long time. He said that “48 hours” he is still surprised about those unknown customers.
“Yes, this is a kind of question for me that till date, they have not been identified,” he said. “Is it proof that they did so? No, but it is evidence that we really need to talk to them.”
If you know about the killings of the curd shop, then call 512-472-Tips,
