Four teenage girls killed. >> I mean, you don't ever think anybody's going to come into a yogurt place and shoot you. I mean, >> a fire that destroyed everything. >> Smoke coming out from I can't believe it's yogurt. >> Authorities felt the pressure. >> We are offering today a $100,000 reward. >> Boys were questioned. >> What did he say to you? either shoot him or you're next. >> The confessions were chilling. >> You did that, didn't you? >> Yes, sir. >> Until they weren't. I >> I don't know if this is real or not or if this is Michael is real. It's okay. You You can present this anyway you want, but it's real. >> Because the deeper the case went, the more it started to fall apart. >> Mike, look at me. You're remembering what happens if you were inside there, right? >> I know. You're remembering what happened was going into >> So what actually happened inside that shop on December 6th, 1991? >> The thing that I missed the very most is when she and her friend Michelle would go out. >> And why after all this time the case still feel unfinished. >> I believe that the people that they arrested are the right people even though they're out. >> This is Guilty Minds. Stay with us till the end because this case might be cold, but something new is finally starting to thaw. >> I know who it is. >> The killers. >> It was December 14th, 1991 at Northcross Mall. A 15-year-old kid named Maurice Pierce got arrested. He had a 22 caliber pistol tucked into his waistband and 16 bullets stuffed in his pocket. That's when Detective Hector Palano stepped in. Over the years, he'd made a name for himself. Caught plenty of bad guys, even got into the papers a few times. Once for pulling over NFL star Earl Campbell. So, when Maurice got hauled in, he figured it was all about the gun. A serious enough offense for a teen, sure. But Maurice was about to get swept into something way bigger. >> I mean, you don't ever think anybody's going to come into a yogurt place and shoot you. I mean, That way bigger case started a week before on December 6th, 1991. Sometime around 4:30 p.m. Sarah Harberson told her mom she'd be heading out with her best friend Amy. >> They just hit it off from the first time they met. And then once that happened, you didn't see one without the other at the livestock show. You didn't have to worry about those two when they were together. >> Sarah was 15. >> Amy was 13. Dear, happy birthday to you. >> Sarah had everything planned out. They could get the ride to the mall with Jennifer Harbison, Sarah's older sister. Later, Jennifer could bring them home after her shift. >> As a matter of fact, this is Jennifer's pin from the Elbert store for her uniform. I didn't even know that was here. A little after 5, Jennifer dropped Sarah and Amy off at the mall nearby. Then she clocked in for her shift at the I can't believe it's yogurt shop. >> Here you go. Have a nice day. >> I can't believe it's yogurt. >> Jennifer worked there with her coworker Eliza Thomas. >> Cutting up. >> Eliza was 17, just like Jennifer. Everything seemed fine until 10 p.m. People in the store saw all four girls. Jennifer, Eliza, Sarah, and Amy chatting, just being their regular selves. Sometime between 1000 p.m. and 11:47, something happened. At exactly 11:47 p.m., Officer Troy Gay was on patrol when he spotted flames inside the yogurt shop and called it in. By pure chance, a news crew was riding along with Detective John Jones that night. They caught the radio call on camera. >> Johny? Yeah. >> Uh, you hear about the call 2900 West Anderson? >> Yeah, I'm headed over there. >> He was the first one to arrive on scene. >> One of our patrol officers called in to dispatch. Smoke coming out from I can't believe it's yogurt. >> By the time the fire was knocked down, the store was a mess of smoke and water. >> Fire department got here shortly thereafter. What we found in the back there was we found four victims. >> Eliza, Jennifer, Sarah. All three were naked, badly burned, wrists tied, except Amy. >> Arizona. >> Amy's hands were not tied. She was found in another area of the store. It looked like she tried to crawl away from the others, but someone shot her again. By Monday, December 9th, the news had spread everywhere. >> They were all teens. Amy Ays, Eliza Thomas, and sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison. >> Investigator believed a group of attackers trapped the girls inside the store. The girls were gagged. Some were sexually assaulted. All of them were shot in the head with 22 and 380 caliber guns. Killers dragged the bodies to the back store room, poured some lighter fluid, and lit the place on fire. There were no signs of forced entry. Nothing broken. No door kicked in. Everything used to tie the girls up came from inside the store itself. It was clear the killers came in like customers and left like ghosts. >> Hey, I mean, you don't ever think anybody's going to come into a yogurt place and shoot you. I mean, >> the city didn't sleep much after that. >> There's no stages to murder. Uh, murder's murder. >> Right from the start, investigators knew they were in trouble. The fire had wrecked the crime scene. even melted a steel ladder outside the building. Then there were the firefighters. 16 of them rushed inside to fight the fire. They disturbed what little evidence the fire hadn't already ruined. News spread fast. Too fast. >> Yeah, this is four girls here that are now dead. For what reason? I mean, surely they couldn't have that much money in there. >> Within days, the Austin police and FBI were drowning in tips. Over 5,000 leads came in. 50 people claimed they'd done it. One of them was Kenneth Alan McDuff, a death row serial killer. >> Did you kill anyone, Mr. McN? >> He claimed it was him. McDuff had in fact murdered a young woman in Austin, Colleen Reed, just weeks after the yogurt shop massacre. But after exhaustive investigation, police concluded McDuff was lying. Of the 5,000 leads, not one checked out. A local judge ended up sealing the autopsy reports just to weed out the liars. Still nothing. >> Price life seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper these days. >> Media wanted answers >> and they were wonderful. They were beautiful to their death. >> Families wanted closure >> and I want them to look me in the eye and I want them to tell me why they did that. >> Investigators were desperate. >> We are offering today a $100,000 reward. The APD started looking in the rougher neighborhoods for anyone who looked off. >> 342 people that have been uh listed as suspect, but we're looking at pages and pages of suspects here. >> That's how Maurice Pierce got pulled in. 15 years old, carrying a 222 pistol. And just like that, he was on their radar. But it wasn't just kids. They're >> into vampires, uh the occult, graveyard rights. At one point they even focused on a local woman. Why? She called herself a witch. >> She got stopped at Oldwood Cemetery. >> As lead investigator, Detective Jones raided her house. >> Found there. >> Right here. >> Unlock the door. >> Police. Okay. Police. >> Police off. Get down. On the ground. >> Found bones. found skulls, >> all that stuff. >> But they weren't human. >> Rat bones and theatrical parts. >> She was eccentric, sure, but she hadn't killed anyone. Still, the damage was done. The case turned into a circus. >> You know, let me just say this. Whoever you are out there, you're going to be mine one of these days. >> Eventually, the task force got a real lead. Multiple people said they saw a man sitting in a car outside the yogurt shop that night. They gave descriptions and a sketch was made >> and it was somebody we really wanted to talk to. >> And then a strange thing happened. >> Couple of other investigators from the sex crimes unit came up and go, "We have a sketch that looks just like that." It turns out just 3 weeks before the yogurt shop murders, a woman in Austin had been kidnapped and assaulted. Police released sketches of three suspects from that case and one of them looked a lot like the man from the yogurt shop sighting, but those suspects had run off to Mexico. Eventually, two were arrested in Mexico. One looked a lot like the yogurt shop guy. Then came the bombshell. The Mexican government announced that the men had confessed to the yogurt shop murders. John Jones and his team flew down and interviewed them. >> There was too many inconsistencies in the confession. >> The guns they said they used weren't the ones from the actual crime. Other facts just wrong. So Jones sat down with them again. This time the suspects changed their stories. Turns out those original confessions were forced. It was another dead end. That's when Morris Pierce came back into the picture. The 22 caliber gun they found on him at the mall. Same caliber was used in the yogurt shop murders. That was enough to make him the prime suspect. In the interrogation room, he confessed. Said that same gun was used in the killings, but he claimed it wasn't him. He implicated three other boys. >> His friends Forest Wellbborne, Michael Scott, and Robert Springsteen were the murderers. He was just the getaway driver. Forest Wellbornne had borrowed the gun on the night of December 6th. Officers tested the slugs from the scene, but they couldn't make a clear match. >> The 22s were unmatchable. >> Detective Jones wasn't convinced. He wired Pierce, sent him to ride around town with Wellbborne, hoping he'd say something incriminating. >> And it it was pretty obvious Forest didn't know what Maurice was talking about. >> Later, when police questioned Forest Wellborn Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, they all flat out denied. They even passed the polygraph. That was enough for Jones. He dropped the whole thing, decided Pierce was lying. All four boys were let go. No charges. Then came another blow. Detective Hector Palano, who'd helped bring in Pierce in the first place, got pulled off the case. Turns out Palano had a history, and it wasn't good. He was already on thin ice when two more suspects confessed. Tony Bell and Alex Brionis. But their stories didn't sit right. Tony Bell told an FBI agent he only confessed because Palano threatened him. said Palano told him he'd have his sister raped if he didn't talk. Alex Briones, on the other hand, had been picked up for a completely different case in San Antonio. But after some time alone with Polano, he confessed to the yogurt shop murders, too. Thing was, he couldn't give any details. Other officers started getting suspicious and reintered Bioness, but the guy kept asking for Palano. Said he wouldn't talk unless he was in the room. He then finally admitted. Palano told him exactly what to say and threatened him, too. That did it. Palano was out. Internal affairs started digging through his past cases, and what they found only made it worse. Back in 1990, a father reported his daughter missing, and Palano brought her boyfriend in and interrogated him for two straight days. One session lasting 11 hours, the next 16. The boyfriend ended up confessing twice. But then 10 days later, the missing woman called her dad from Tucson. She was alive. And now that same detective had been involved in the yogurt shop case. It didn't just set the investigation back. It left a permanent stain on everything that had already been done. By late 1991, the case had effectively gone cold. The only semi-olid lead, Maurice Pierce, had been discredited. By 1993, Sergeant John Jones was removed, well promoted technically, to the assault division, but everyone knew what it meant. He was being pushed out. Jones had poured years into the case, but too many confessions had gone nowhere. >> You know, we face six confessions. 3 years later in 1996, the department brought in a new lead investigator, Detective Paul Johnson. Johnson's job was to do what no one else could. Get a conviction. One of his first steps, he pulled Pierce's original file. The weapon didn't match, but something else did. Pressure. Pierce's friend, Michael Scott, cracked. In September 1999, police brought in Michael Scott and questioned him for 5 days for over 20 hours. He was held in isolation. Told the others had already implicated him. >> Girls, you want to live with this the rest of your life? >> No, I don't. Then get it out right now. They're you over. They're the ones that shot the girls. Do it. What did you see happen? >> Scott broke. He confessed to the yogurt shop murders. >> You did that, didn't you? >> Yes, sir. We could just open some more doors, haven't we, Mike? The next day on September 15th, 1999, Austin detectives flew to Charleston, West Virginia. There they located Robert Springsteen, another associate. >> Now, you've been living here in Charleston for quite some time. Uh, what have you been doing? >> Uh, working, living my life. >> Springsteen was interrogated for 5 hours. At the end of it, he confessed claiming that he had raped Amy Heirs and helped kill the others. According to Springsteen and Scott's statements the night of December 6th, 1991 went like this. A 13-year-old boy, Johnny Holder, sold a22 revolver to Maurice Pierce for $100. Pierce never paid him. On the night of December 6th, Holder saw Scott and Springsteen at the Northcross Mall and told them, "Tell Pierce, I want my money." Later that night, in the mall's food court, the four boys, Pierce, Scott, Springsteen, and Wellbborne, met up. Pierce still didn't have the money, so he allegedly proposed they rob someone. They drove past the yogurt shop and decided it would be an easy target. Wellbornne stayed outside in the car as a lookout. The other three went in. Pierce placed an order while Scott and Springsteen asked to use the restroom. Springsteen unlocked the back door and propped it open with an empty cigarette pack. They left and waited for closing time. Around 11 p.m. they returned. Pierce carried the 22 revolver. Springsteen held a 380 pistol. Scott followed. Wellbborne again stayed outside watching. >> If you were in the building, >> they entered through the propped back door. What they hadn't expected was that the girls were still there closing up. >> I remember one girl screaming, terrified. >> They forced them into the back room. Pierce demanded money, but the cash was already in the safe. Only 12 to$14 remained in the till. That allegedly set Pierce off. He shot two of the girls in a rage. Springsteen raped Amy Heirs. Then Springsteen told Scott to do the same. Scott didn't. >> I remember looking at this girl I cry. >> Pierce handed him the gun and told him to shoot. >> At some point, Maurice handed his that revolver. What did he say to you? >> Either shoot him or you're next. >> Scott did it. >> Cuz I didn't want to do it. I only pulled the trigger on. Turn around. Use your stupid gun. >> Pierce dragged Amy into the office. He told Scott to shoot her, too. He did, but she was still alive. >> I hear Robert saying, "Do it. Do it." Springsteen then fired the final shot with the .380 pistol. >> I heard the gun go off. >> Scott allegedly piled the bodies, soaked them in lighter fluid, and lit them on fire. They drove off, ditched a knife at a bridge, and disposed of the guns days later. On October 6th, 1999, nearly 8 years after the murders, Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen, Maurice Pierce, and Forest Wellbourne were taken into custody and charged with capital murder. Early this morning, the Austin Police Department with assistance from other law enforcement agencies served four arrest warrants charging four individuals with capital murder. The getaway driver Forest Wellbornne was never indicted and walked free. 2 months later, on December 1st, 1999, investigators collected DNA samples from all four men. No one could have predicted the impact those samples would eventually have on the entire case. In April of 2001, despite having no physical evidence against Robert Springsteen, the jury returned a guilty verdict. >> We, the jury, find the defendant, Robert Springsteen IV, guilty of the offense of capital murder. >> Springsteen was sentenced to die. 16 months later, Michael Scott's trial ended much the same way. On September 22nd, 2002, he was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. It finally looked like the case was solved, but there was a problem, a big one. There was no physical evidence tying any of the four to the crime. Not a single fingerprint, DNA sample, or hair. Nothing. On January 28th, 2003, just a few months after the trials, the district attorney dismissed the charges against Maurice Pierce, citing a lack of evidence strong enough to secure a conviction. After spending more than 3 years behind bars, Pierce walked free. It would take another three years before the next major turn. On May 30th, 2006, the court overturned Robert Springsteen's conviction, ruling that Michael Scott's written confession had been improperly used against him. >> It's wonderful, and I'd like to thank God and my families and my attorney for this opportunity. Thank you. The same legal flaw brought the same result for Scott on June 6th, 2007. His conviction overturned as well. His wife hugged him as he exits the courthouse. >> The big day will be when 12 people declare my husband not guilty so that this is this nightmare for our family is over and the state can start pursuing the actual perpetrators and give those girls families some peace. >> With all convictions overturned, the case suddenly moved back to square one. Detectives were forced to reckon with the fact that they had pursued the wrong men. But something else was brewing in the background, something that would soon shake everything up. It was June 2008, nearly a decade after the murders. The DNA collected from all four suspects back in 99, well, it ruled out Scott, Springsteen, Pierce, and Wellbborne, none of them matched the unknown male DNA found at the scene. It was a punch to the gut. The confessions had never lined up with the physical evidence. And now the DNA made it official. Someone else had been in that yogurt shop. Someone still out there. By June 24th, 2009, prosecutors dismissed all charges against both Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott. would not be prudent to risk a trial until we know the nature of the involvement of this unknown male. >> Springsteen had spent nearly 10 years behind bars. Scott had spent just as long locked up based on a confession some believed was coerced. They walked out, no longer convicted murderers, but not exactly free either. It wasn't just four teenage girls who were wronged in Austin in 1991. It was also the four boys police dragged into this nightmare. What the Austin Police Department did in this case wasn't just incompetent. It was corrupt and calculated. The confessions from Scott and Springsteen were the product of hours of psychological battering. No lawyer present, no parents, just exhaustion, isolation, manipulation, and fear. Let's listen again. >> We want the truth. And you know what the truth is. You're having trouble with the memory, the flashback. You know what happened? You're scared to tell us. I don't blame you. It's a horrible thing what you saw in there. >> But you want Can I tell you what I keep seeing in my head? Tell us what you see in your head. >> I keep seeing these girls get shot, >> right? Tell us what that looks like. Tell us what you see specifically. How they're getting shot and who's shooting them. Come on. You're doing good. Tell us. Let's do this today. Let's do it. >> Seeing girls. I remember seeing them. I remember one girl screaming terrified. Okay. I I don't know if this is real or not or if this is Michael, it's real. It's okay. You You present it any way you want, but it's real. >> That's not a confession. That's a kid cracking. >> Mike, look at me. You're remembering what happens if you were inside there, right? I don't You're remembering what happened. I don't actually remember going in the building. If you were in the building, you went in there with him. I don't believe that, Michael. You do remember in there. And you know you were in there. Did you shoot any of those girls? No, sir. But tell us what happened. What did those two boys do to those girls? You want to live with this the rest of your life? >> No, I don't. >> Then get it out right now. They're you over. They're the ones that shot the girls. Do it. What did you see happen? >> This wasn't justice. This was theater. >> At some point, Maurice handed his that revolver. What did he say to you? >> Either shoot him or you're next. >> That's what he said. >> Cuz I didn't want to do it. Right. >> Either shoot him or you're next. What do you remember hearing again? >> I remember looking at this girl. I cry. I hear Robert saying, "Do it. Do it." I hear the gun go off. I only pulled the trigger once. I turn around. There's a stupid gun. >> It's a result of days of pressure and isolation. >> What happens next, Mike? That brought back some memories, didn't it? >> I remember looking at the gun. You ever seen that gun before? >> I'm not positive. >> Does that look like a gun you've seen before? >> It looks like a gun I've seen before, but I'm not positive. >> Is that the gun you shot somebody with, Mike? even pointing a gun to their head. >> Don't Is that the gun you walked up behind somebody with and shot in the head? >> Is that the one? Talk to me, Mike. >> Yes, sir. >> They ignored hard facts like how Pierce's gun didn't match the ballistics. They overlooked how none of the four teens DNA showed up at the crime scene. This is why cases like the yogurt shop murders remain relevant, not just for the mystery, but for the failure. Detectives never pursued the eyewitness testimony of the customers who saw two suspicious men that night. The most striking account came from Darl Croft, a former police officer. On the night of December 6th, 1991, around 10 p.m., Croft and two friends walked into the I can't believe it's yogurt shop. Four young girls were working the closing shift. Two men were there, too, and they didn't seem like they belonged. One was tall, dark-haired, in a green military jacket. He let people cut in line, almost like he was stalling. When he got to Croft, he asked if Croft had been a cop, then offered to let him go ahead. Croft declined. After ordering a drink, the man walked behind the counter and into the back room. Croft asked Eliza Thomas why she let him through. She said he wanted the restroom. Croft waited for him to return. He never did. Croft left, but when the news broke the next morning, he filed a police report. No sketch was ever made. Years later, in 2011, another eyewitness surfaced. A woman, one of the last customers, had also seen two men in a booth. Even as the girls cleaned and flipped chairs, the men lingered, doing nothing. She watched them in the windows reflection. By 11 p.m. when Jennifer Harberson locked the front door, the two men were still there. The woman left. The girls stayed alone with them. Both eyewitnesses gave the same descriptions of the men, but to this day, they've never been publicly identified. No sketches, no names, no arrests. Criminals who rob for money don't usually bring lighter fluid to a stickup. They don't take the time to tie up their victims. They don't sexually assault and then burn the bodies. This was never just about money. This crime was intentional from the start with a clear motive, domination and violence. If we accept this, then we're no longer looking for bad high school boys. We're looking for men with a history of violence and the calmness to set a fire and walk away into the night. The two men seen by witnesses fit the psychological profile. And if they weren't the ones who pulled the trigger, then where are they? Why haven't they come forward? Why haven't police found them? Maurice Pierce never really got away from the shadow of the yogurt shop murders. In 2010, he was back in Austin just driving through the town when an officer pulled him over. Given his history with the cops, he didn't really trust them anymore. And then everything turned south. Maurice pulled a knife and stabbed the officer in the neck. >> Give me something for his neck. Let me grab an eye. I >> shot him in the stomach. >> Officer survived, but not without firing his gun. Maurice died there on the street, 29 years old. And just like that, his part in this long, twisted story came to an end.