Yogurt shop murders: family questions accomplice after wrongful arrests

Nearly 34 years after four teenage girls were killed in the 1991 yogurt shop massacre in Austin, Texas, the family of one of the victims is still asking whether another person helped carry out the attack. Shawn Ayers, whose 13-year-old sister Amy was among the dead, and his wife, Angie, have launched the National Cold Case Center with former prosecutors Mindy Montford and Anne Marie Schubert. The nonprofit aims to fund unsolved homicide investigations, train investigators and support victims' families.

The killings took place at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop on West Anderson Lane on Dec. 6, 1991. Amy, Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, both 17, and Jennifer's sister, Sarah Harbison, 15, died in the attack. On the night of the killings, Jennifer and Eliza were working the closing shift, while Sarah and Amy waited so the four could head to a sleepover. Shortly before midnight, authorities received a report of a fire at the shop. The blaze and water from the sprinklers altered the crime scene and diluted evidence, according to FBI files.

Investigators found Sarah, Eliza and Jennifer stacked together in the storage room, stripped, gagged and bound with their own undergarments, and shot in the back of the head with.22-caliber bullets. Amy was found in a separate area with a ligature around her neck and burns covering up to 30 percent of her body, according to court documents. FBI records describe two gunshot wounds: an initial.22-caliber shot that missed Amy's brain and a second shot from a.380-caliber pistol through her cheek and jawline. Investigators recovered a.380 cartridge casing in a floor drain, and officials removed four.22-caliber bullets from the bodies during autopsies.

The case went unsolved for decades and was marked by false confessions, arrests, convictions and appeals. In 1999, Austin police arrested four local teens: Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn. Springsteen and Scott confessed during questioning but later recanted, saying investigators had pressured them into false statements. Travis County juries convicted Springsteen of capital murder in 2001 and Scott in 2002. Springsteen received a death sentence and Scott received life in prison. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Springsteen's conviction in 2006 and Scott's in 2007. DNA testing failed to match either man to the crime scene, and a judge released both in June 2009. Prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges that October.

Pierce maintained his innocence but implicated Welborn. In 1991, Pierce wore a police wire and tried to coax Welborn into confessing, and an Austin police officer reported that Welborn denied any involvement. Welborn later passed a polygraph test and was never tried. After two grand juries declined to indict him, authorities dropped the case in 2000, by which time he had spent months behind bars. "I'm still really upset and mad at them. If they didn't confess to something they didn't do, we wouldn't be here right now doing this today," Welborn told Texas Monthly. Pierce was arrested on capital murder charges in 1999, and prosecutors dismissed the charges in 2003 for insufficient evidence after he had spent more than three years in jail. Pierce was fatally shot by an Austin police officer in 2010 after a traffic stop, when he fled on foot and stabbed an officer in the neck with a knife.

The investigation shifted in September 2025, when DNA and ballistics evidence identified serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers as the gunman. Brashers fatally shot himself during a January 1999 police standoff in Missouri, so he never faced a murder trial. Authorities had previously connected him to other violent crimes, including killings in South Carolina and Missouri. According to Austin police, Brashers used the same.380-caliber handgun in the yogurt shop murders to kill himself during the standoff. After investigators linked Brashers to the killings, Travis County Judge Dayna Blazey declared the four men innocent on Feb. 19.

For the Ayers family, identifying Brashers did not settle whether anyone else was involved. Angie noted that two weapons were used in the attacks and questioned whether another perpetrator took part. "I may be incorrect, but I don't think that I am," she told Fox News Digital. "There's never been an instance where he [Brashers] used both of those guns in his other cases." She added: "There has been absolutely no definite answer on whether or not he was by himself, or had an accomplice. So, to us, we still don't have all the answers, and knowing that this case is still ongoing, I don't think anyone can say that they know exactly what happened because we can't ask."

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Connor Quincy

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Connor Quincy covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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