The Austin, Texas, yogurt store murders: Households, investigators stay haunted via unsolved case

CASE UPDATE: In September 2025, the Austin Police Division recognized  Robert Eugene Brashers, a serial killer and rapist, because the suspect within the Yogurt Store murders. Brashers, who’s deceased, was once tied to the murders thru DNA checking out. In December 2025,  the Travis County D.A.’s place of job filed a movement to start the method of exonerating the 4 males who had been wrongfully accused of the murders.

This tale in the past aired on  Aug. 27, 2022.

Greater than 3 many years in the past, 4 teenage ladies had been brutally murdered in an I Cannot Imagine It is Yogurt! store in Austin, Texas. The horrific crime has haunted their households, the town, and the investigators who chased each lead within the case to a lifeless finish. May just new knowledge in spite of everything lend a hand resolve the case?

“I will see them, I will nonetheless see the interior of that position,” John Jones, the primary investigator at the case, tells “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty. “That stuff’s … indelibly burned in my thoughts.”

The tale begins on Dec. 6, 1991, when Eliza Thomas, Sarah and Jennifer Harbison and Amy Ayers had been tied up and shot. The yogurt store was once then set on hearth. For many years, investigators labored to seek out suspects. There have been ultimately arrests or even convictions. However the ones convictions had been overturned, leaving the case unsolved these days.

“There may be one of those torture that continues via the truth that it is unsolved and it is ongoing,” says Sonora Thomas, who was once 13 when her sister Eliza was once killed.

“It is at all times there,” says Jones.

There could also be some sure information, on the other hand. A small pattern of male DNA was once discovered on one of the most sufferers. With DNA analysis advancing, investigators hope there will likely be a fit that solves the case.

“Do you have faith that there’s at the moment, some proof that would result in the killers?” Moriarty asks Texas protection lawyer Joe James Sawyer.

“Sure,” Sawyer says.

“Is that this the tip of the start or the start of the tip?” Jones asks.

THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

It is been greater than 30 years since John Jones started the painstaking seek for the killers of 4 teenage ladies in an Austin, Texas, yogurt store.  

He has lengthy since retired from the Austin Police Division and moved out of Texas. However copies of probably the most case information moved with him.

Erin Moriarty [with Jones in his home office]: What’s all of this right here?

John Jones: Those are my notes. … Oh, that is the giant e book … this one is actually from day 1 … hypnosis, polygraph, confessions.

Erin Moriarty: (alternatives up espresso mug) You recognize, I realize this sitting right here.

John Jones: Yeah.

Erin Moriarty (reads espresso mug): “We will be able to no longer omit.” You have not.

John Jones: Nope. I will’t.                  

The photographs of Dec. 6, 1991, stay all too vibrant.

 John Jones: I will certainly nonetheless see it.

It began with that decision from dispatch to visit a scene of a fireplace, that will grow to be one thing a long way worse:

JOHN JONES: What do you’ll be able to were given available in the market?  I am en course … airport 35.

DISPATCH: We have now were given a fireplace …

JOHN JONES (1991 on radio): OK. I am copying the hearth section, however you narrow out at the first a part of that even though.

DISPATCH: … it seems that a theft and murder. There may be, uh, 3 fatalities.

JOHN JONES: That is 10-4, we are en course (activates siren).

John Jones: After which about midway available in the market, they name once more at the radio and mentioned we discovered a fourth frame. 

A neighborhood TV information staff took place to be filming Jones on a journey alongside that night time.

JOHN JONES (on radio): What administrative center is that this at?  

DISPATCH: It is the I Cannot Imagine It is Yogurt. 

JOHN JONES: OK.

John Jones: The hearth division had simply knocked down the hearth. … there was once nonetheless numerous water in there …  numerous smoke nonetheless. … it was once all muted grays, blacks there was once no colour in there excluding the ladies.

The ladies had been briefly recognized. Two were operating on the store, remaining up that night time: Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison had been each 17 years outdated.  Jennifer’s 15-year-old sister, Sarah, and their good friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, had met them there to go house.

The 4 ladies were gagged, tied up with their very own clothes, and shot within the head. Investigators would be informed no less than one of the most sufferers were sexually assaulted. The yogurt store had additionally been set on hearth, destroying attainable proof.

John Jones: There was once smoke and soot on each floor, more or less made fingerprinting more or less tough.

This was once a criminal offense like none Austin had noticed sooner than. Jones knew he wanted lend a hand, and from the scene, contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, The FBI, and Texas Division of Public Protection.

John Jones: Once we knew what form of weapons we had been searching for, that knowledge went out national.

Gunshot wounds confirmed that two various kinds of weapons had been used, main investigators to have faith there have been no less than two killers at the unfastened.

Erin Moriarty: What had been the 2 weapons?

John Jones: .380 and a .22. … And we recovered the entire rounds.

The guns, even though, weren’t discovered, and a job drive labored to get a hold of attainable suspects.

John Jones: They had been from all spectrums. I imply, we checked out everyone from members of the family to drifters.

And whilst police tracked down leads, the households and the Town of Austin grieved.

The Harbison circle of relatives misplaced their handiest youngsters: daughters Jennifer, a hard-working highschool senior, and Sarah, who was once taking part in sports activities and golf equipment as a highschool freshman. Their mom, Barbara, spoke with “48 Hours” in 1992.

Barbara Harbison: My existence was once centered round them from right here to eternity. Any individual took eternity clear of me.

Bob Ayers is the daddy of the youngest sufferer, Amy, a rustic lady with a love for animals.

Bob Ayers: I misplaced my daughter.  I misplaced my first dance.  … I would possibly not see her graduate. I would possibly not see her transform a veterinarian. … She was once a Daddy’s lady.

Sonora Thomas, 13 years outdated when her handiest sibling, Eliza, was once murdered, had a tough time coping with the lack of the sister she appeared as much as.

Sonora Thomas: I take into account the surprise … I take into account fantasizing for days that my sister had come what may escaped and run away and … she was once going to come back again … And so that is what I used to be more or less conserving onto.

Her oldsters struggled as neatly.

Sonora Thomas: My circle of relatives by no means mentioned my sister after she died.

Erin Moriarty: By no means?

Sonora Thomas: No. It is too, it is too painful.

Sonora did as absolute best she may just, choosing up some items of her sister’s existence. Eliza, an animal lover, had a pig she deliberate to go into in cattle display. Only some months after the murders, Sonora took over the ones tasks.

Whilst Sonora could have appeared to be coping, the truth, she says, was once a long way other.

Erin Moriarty: You needed to develop up briefly.

Sonora Thomas: In no time … I might say I fell aside below that drive.

John Jones: We knew they had been hurting as a result of, you recognize, we had been hurting too.

Jones, a dad or mum himself, felt the households’ grief. He promised to do all he may just to lend a hand them.

John Jones: We informed them what lets. And … I confident them that we might stay them apprised as to the entirety that was once taking place, and we did.

Jones additionally made a pledge to the households involving the blouse he wore at the night time of the murders.

John Jones: I more or less made a promise to them … that the following time they noticed me with that inexperienced and white blouse on that that was once a sign to them that, you recognize, we knew who did it.

And Jones gave the impression confident they might in finding the killers.

John Jones: We stayed in consistent touch with the behavioral science unit on the FBI in Quantico … they mentioned that I will have to, because the face of the investigation, I will have to mission an air of self assurance … that will motive the dangerous man to shiver in his boots. … So glance within the digicam and be assured.

And, once we adopted him operating the case in 1992, he did simply that.

JOHN JONES: Let me simply say this, whoever you might be available in the market, you will be mine one in every of in this day and age….

However seeking to determine that out was once daunting.

John Jones (at police station in 1992): 342 folks which were indexed as suspects, however we are having a look at pages and pages of suspects right here.

A kind of early suspects was once a teen named Maurice Pierce. He was once arrested 8 days after the murders at a mall close to the yogurt store, sporting a .22 caliber gun, the sort used within the murders.

John Jones: The .22s had been unmatchable.

Erin Moriarty: So, you’ll be able to’t say it wasn’t his gun? However there was once no method to fit it.

John Jones: No.

Erin Moriarty: However there was once no method to fit it.

John Jones: — to end up that it was once his gun. He gave a commentary, topic of truth, I took his commentary. And he implicated 3 different boys.

Jones says Maurice Pierce claimed he was once riding a getaway automobile and that 3 acquaintances, Forrest Welborn, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, had been concerned within the murders. However Pierce’s tale started to fall aside.

John Jones: It began to crater once we stressed him as much as pass communicate to Wooded area. And we had been listening in at the cord, and it was once lovely glaring Wooded area did not know what Maurice was once speaking about.

And when Welborn, Scott and Springsteen had been introduced in for wondering, they too denied any involvement. It was once determined there was once no longer sufficient proof to fee them and the seek for different suspects endured. 

CHASING LEADS

Two months after the yogurt store murders, without a viable suspects, police had been chasing leads — regardless of the place it took them.

The duty drive turned into acutely aware of a counter-culture sort team of native citizens recognized to be into the supernatural.

DET. MIKE HUCKABAY [at roundtable, 1992]: They are into vampires, the occult, graveyard rites. … They pass out and dance and take footage on tombstones.

And investigators started to listen to that this team may well be attached to one thing way more severe.

John Jones (2021): The — the ideas had been that they had been speaking concerning the murders.

Erin Moriarty: Speaking concerning the yogurt store murders.

John Jones: The yogurt store murders, sure.

There was once one lady specifically whose identify saved bobbing up in reference to the following tips. The duty drive deliberate a raid on her house, hoping to look if any proof may well be discovered there.

John Jones: It was once creepy in there.

John Jones: However because it seems, numerous that stuff was once rat bones and theatrical portions. However … it was once a excellent lead. … Until we in spite of everything found out that, uh, they are simply dwelling a make-believe existence (shaking his head).

The raid could have been a bust, however it wasn’t lengthy sooner than the duty drive had its eyes on someone else of hobby. A police comic strip presentations a person that more than one eyewitnesses informed police they noticed sitting in a automobile out of doors the yogurt store at the night time of the murders. 

John Jones: And it was once someone we actually sought after to speak to. … So, we put it available in the market.

And the reaction they were given got here from an sudden supply.

John Jones: A few different investigators from the Intercourse Crimes Unit got here up and pass … “We’ve a comic strip that appears identical to that.”

3 weeks sooner than the yogurt store murders, a tender lady in Austin were abducted and sexually assaulted. Police had launched a comic strip of 3 males sought after in reference to that crime. A kind of suspects bore a placing resemblance to that guy witnesses reported sitting in a automobile out of doors the yogurt store.

John Jones: You recognize, I simply more or less went zip after I noticed the — the composite.

A tip got here in that the boys sought after within the kidnapping and sexual attack case had fled to Mexico. Two had been stuck and arrested; person who resembled the individual of hobby within the yogurt store comic strip. The improvement made nationwide information.

John Jones: After they were given stuck in Mexico, we went down there … to interview them. Jones’ workforce puzzled the boys. And so, too, did the Mexican government.

John Jones: However the Mexican govt … introduced to the entire international that … they confessed, they usually had been going to check out them for the murders down there.

Erin Moriarty: They confessed to the yogurt store murders?

John Jones: Sure, they did.

However Jones discovered the ones confessions had main points that did not fit the crime scene. Even the caliber of weapons they claimed to make use of was once incorrect. 

John Jones:  There have been too many inconsistencies within the … confession.

So, Jones’ workforce reinterviewed the boys, and he says this time they recanted with regards to the entirety. It made Jones and the opposite investigators ponder whether the ones confessions had been coerced via the Mexican government. The as soon as promising lead fell aside .

John Jones: (exhales) It was once miserable.

Over the next years, there can be different confessions, ones that had been willingly given.

John Jones: You recognize, we confronted six confessions.

Erin Moriarty: Six individuals who confessed?

John Jones: Yeah. Written.

Erin Moriarty: That confessed to this crime?

John Jones: Sure, they did.

Erin Moriarty: And they did not do it?

John Jones: Nope.

In 1994, after just about 3 years of main the investigation, John Jones was once moved out of the murder department. He says it was once a mutual determination. Austin Police sought after contemporary eyes operating the case, and Jones felt it was once time to transport on. Different detectives took over and, as time handed, the sufferers’ households had been left questioning why nobody were arrested. Amy Ayers’ mom Pam spoke to “48 Hours” in 1996.

Pam Ayers [fighting back tears]: They are most certainly available in the market main a existence as commonplace as they have ever had. And ours is rarely going to be the similar.

That very same yr, Eliza Thomas’ mother moved clear of Austin … and the painful reminders. 

Maria Thomas (1996): Working into individuals who had been continuously asking how the case was once going was once very difficult on me, and particularly my daughter Sonora.

Sonora’s existence had taken a downward spiral.

Sonora Thomas: In my highschool years, issues actually deteriorated. … Medication, the use of alcohol, being hospitalized, going to a boarding faculty for, you recognize, disturbed youngsters, such things as that.

The case gave the impression stalled, till October 1999. 

RADIO NEWS REPORT: Some breaking information — Austin police have arrested 4 males in reference to the yogurt store murders of 1991.

There have been in spite of everything arrests, however would it not resolution the query at the billboard that were haunting Austin for almost a decade?

SUSPECTS ARRESTED

NEWS REPORT: After just about 8 years, Austinites are getting some solutions in relation to the yogurt store murders…

MAYOR KIRK WATSON (at 1999 press convention): I wish to get started off via thanking y’concerned about becoming a member of us right here these days. … For just about 8 years, we have now all waited to listen to the phrases that our police division is shut to some degree of fixing a criminal offense that has haunted our very souls. … As of late, we in spite of everything get to listen to the ones phrases.

When 4 males had been arrested within the fall of 1999 for the yogurt store murders, reduction was once felt citywide.

MAYOR KIRK WATSON (at press convention): Sarah, Jennifer, Amy, Eliza, we didn’t omit.

The ladies’ households struggled to take all of it in.

Sonora Thomas: There were such a lot of false leads for this sort of very long time. It was once difficult to understand how to consider it and the best way to really feel about it.

However there have been in spite of everything names and faces in charge: Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen. To the duty drive, they had been acquainted names and faces. They had been the similar younger males that John Jones and his investigators puzzled simply 8 days after the murders and in the end launched for loss of proof.

John Jones: I used to be assured and stay assured to this present day that we were given as a long way with them as lets then. However that does not imply that … there wasn’t one thing evolved later that will make them in reality pass out and arrest them. So, I used to be going, “sure, excellent task.” …  I used to be able to dig out the hideous inexperienced and white blouse.

However sooner than that blouse may just pop out of the closet—the only he promised the ladies’ households he would put on when the case was once solved — Jones sought after to grasp extra about what resulted in the arrests.

Joe James Sawyer: There was once no bodily proof. Not anything.

Joe James Sawyer was once appointed as Robert Springsteen’s lawyer.

Erin Moriarty: What made them return and fee those guys?

Joe James Sawyer: Since the new officials, after they reopened the chilly case, satisfied themselves that “we allow them to slip thru our arms. We needed to have had the murderers to start with.” Partially, they determined that as a result of they’d not anything else.

There was once no new bodily proof abruptly tying any of the 4 males to the crime, however what police did have had been two newly got confessions— one from Michael Scott and any other from Sawyer’s personal shopper, Robert Springsteen. Michael Scott’s confession got here first. He was once puzzled over 4 days:

OFFICER (1999 interrogation): Come on Michael, you might be doing excellent. Let us know. Let’s do that these days. Let’s do it.

MICHAEL SCOTT: I take into account seeing ladies. … I take into account one lady screaming, terrified.

Scott informed investigators that he and the others handiest meant a easy theft. He mentioned they cased the yogurt store previous that day. After which, after darkish, he mentioned, they got here again armed with two weapons.

MICHAEL SCOTT (interrogation): I pay attention the gun pass off. I handiest pulled the cause as soon as…. I pay attention any other gun pass off.

Investigators claimed that Springsteen later corroborated a lot of what Scott mentioned. However after intense wondering, he went additional.

OFFICER (interrogation): You f——g know for those who f——g raped her, simply say it.

ROBERT SPRINGSTEEN: I caught my d— in her p—- and I raped her.

Springsteen informed them he shot one lady and raped her. 

Joe James Sawyer: He was once so uninterested in this. He’d already been puzzled. He’d already been thru that mill. He concept, you recognize what? I will inform you any rattling factor you need.

Sawyer maintains his shopper is blameless and says the confession was once coerced. In 2009, Robert Springsteen defined to “48 Hours” why he would admit to doing one thing so terrible—one thing he says he did not do.

Robert Springsteen: I used to be berated and berated and berated via the law enforcement officials. Till they got what it was once they sought after to listen to, they weren’t going to permit me to depart. And I principally— they broke me down.

Erin Moriarty: Let me simply ask you, did you could have the rest to do—

Robert Springsteen: No. I didn’t.

Erin Moriarty: — with the murders on the yogurt store?

Robert Springsteen: No. By no means.

Even if Joe James Sawyer did not have Michael Scott as his shopper, he says he has severe issues about his confession, too.

OFFICER (INTERROGATION): Is that the gun you shot someone with, Mike? Is that the gun you walked up in the back of someone with and shot within the head? 

Joe James Sawyer: I frankly could not have faith it. … They terrorized him. And he was once afraid to mention no.

Forrest Welborn denied having the rest to do with the murders, however police had been satisfied he was once the lookout that night time and Michael Scott positioned him on the scene. Erin Moriarty spoke to Welborn in 1999 in prison in a while after his arrest. 

Erin Moriarty: Have been you there that night time?

Forrest Welborn: No.

Erin Moriarty: Have been you there as a lookout?

Forrest Welborn: No. I am blameless.

Erin Moriarty: You had not anything to do with this?

Forrest Welborn: Not anything in any respect.

Welborn were puzzled more than one occasions via investigators over time, and he by no means wavered. He, just like the others, first got here on police radar when, in 1991, simply days after the murders, Maurice Pierce were stuck with that .22 caliber gun on the mall close to the yogurt store. Pierce informed the detectives again then that he had given the handgun to Welborn and that it were used within the yogurt store murders.

Erin Moriarty: Why would he say that?

Forrest Welborn: I do not know.

Welborn has at all times maintained his innocence regardless of drive from the police.

Forrest Welborn: They’d get proper in my face and, you recognize, inform me the entirety I mentioned was once a lie.

Be mindful, false confessions on this case had been not anything new. Jones mentioned that six written false confessions had been got when he was once in fee. So, when he discovered that the 2 confessions had been all of the new investigators appeared to have, it gave him pause.

John Jones: I’m going, neatly, perhaps I should not get that blouse out simply but.

It wasn’t lengthy sooner than the case in opposition to the boys started crumbling. Fees in opposition to Forrest Welborn had been brushed aside after two grand juries didn’t indict him. And afterward, fees had been dropped in opposition to Maurice Pierce for loss of proof. The entirety fell aside excluding the circumstances in opposition to Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen. And with Scott and Springsteen’s confessions, the sufferers’ households felt prosecutors had a robust case.

Barbara Ayres-Wilson (out of doors courthouse, 2010): Those younger males were implicated and they’ve confessed. And they are able to withdraw it, however in truth, they in reality had been there, they usually in reality did the murders.

A DNA BREAKTHROUGH?

In 2001, just about 10 years after the murders of Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers and Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, the yogurt store homicide trials started. Each defendants — Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott — confronted the loss of life penalty.

Joe James Sawyer: The one factor that ever tied Robert or Mike Scott to that crime scene had been their confessions.

Confessions that each defendants mentioned had been coerced. The 2 had been attempted one by one. Springsteen’s trial was once first. Neither of the boys would testify in opposition to one any other. So as an alternative, prosecutors used their confessions in opposition to one any other, studying portions of the confessions to the juries. Springsteen’s attorney, Joe James Sawyer, was once annoyed that he could not cross-examine Scott. 

Joe James Sawyer: I assumed the trial was once hugely unfair to my shopper and that it was once being executed systematically and with deliberation.

The trial lasted 3 weeks. The jury deliberated for 13 hours after which, reached a verdict.

JURY FOREPERSON: We the jury in finding the defendant Robert Springsteen IV accountable of the offense of capital homicide …

Responsible. Springsteen was once condemned to loss of life row.

In 2002, Michael Scott went on trial. He was once convicted as neatly. He was once sentenced to existence in jail. However the case did not finish there. Fifteen years after the murders, got here a surprising flip of occasions.

NEWS REPORT: In a 5-4 determination, the courtroom in the back of me mentioned that Michael Scott’s constitutional rights had been violated all over his trial and subsequently will have to get a brand new one.

Each Scott and Springsteen’s convictions had been overturned on constitutional grounds. The 6th Modification provides defendants the proper to confront accusers — and take into account, in Scott and Springsteen’s trials, their confessions had been used in opposition to one any other, however they were not allowed to query each and every different in courtroom. 

Joe James Sawyer: And the relaxation … the relaxation was once improbable.

However that reduction for the defendants got here as a devastating blow to the sufferers’ households. We later spoke to Eliza Thomas’ mom, Maria, about that second.

Maria Thomas: Each time I pay attention the ones phrases, “that their rights had been violated,” I simply really feel like I’ll pass insane. … Their rights are violated. Our ladies had been murdered.

Sonora Thomas: It ruins your sense of equity. It ruins your sense of — that we are living in a simply international.

Even if their convictions had been overturned, Scott and Springsteen weren’t launched. A brand new district lawyer, Rosemary Lehmberg, was once decided to retry them. So that you could in finding extra proof, her place of job had ordered DNA assessments on vaginal swabs taken from the sufferers on the time of the murders. It is known as Y-STR checking out — and was once rather new in 2009 when “48 Hours” spoke with D.A. Lehmberg.

Rosemary Lehmberg: This era searches for male DNA handiest

A partial male DNA profile was once got from one of the most sufferers believed to were sexually assaulted. And nobody anticipated what it might divulge.

Erin Moriarty: Does that DNA fit any of the 4 younger males who had been in the beginning accused and two of them who have been convicted?

Rosemary Lehmberg: It does no longer.

The DNA didn’t fit any of the unique 4 suspects, together with Scott and Springsteen.  And that is the reason important as a result of Springsteen, in that confession he mentioned was once coerced, informed investigators he raped one the ladies.

CeCe Moore is a DNA professional and genetic genealogist whom we requested concerning the case and the position of Y-STR DNA in legal circumstances.

CeCe Moore: This is a software that may do away with virtually everybody … It will have to do away with everyone however the suspect.

Erin Moriarty: If their Y-STR does no longer fit, they didn’t give a contribution that DNA?

CeCe Moore: On account of … the place that DNA was once discovered, sure, on this case, it is crucial.

The district lawyer was once considering discovering the supply of that DNA — she questioned if Springsteen and Scott had any other spouse.

Rosemary Lehmberg: I stay actually assured that … each Springsteen and Scott had been accountable for killing the ones 4 ladies.

However in 2009, without a suits on that DNA, Lehmberg dropped fees in opposition to Springsteen and Scott. After just about 10 years in the back of bars, they had been launched — however no longer exonerated, leaving open the likelihood they may well be retried at a later time.

ROSEMARY LEHMBERG (at press convention): This was once a hard determination and one I might reasonably no longer must make.

The query remained even though: whose DNA was once it?

Amber Farrelly: I do know who it’s.

Joe James Sawyer: The killer’s.

Erin Moriarty: You might be satisfied that that —

Amber Farrelly: That could be a positive reality.

Amber Farrelly was once a part of each Scott and Springsteen’s protection groups. She got here up with a idea that the thriller DNA would possibly belong as an alternative to two never-identified males who witnesses reported seeing sitting within the yogurt store simply sooner than it closed.

Amber Farrelly: The ones two males had been described dressed in fatigued-colored jackets. …They had been very slouched over, whispering, like they had been — it was once an overly shut dialog in a sales space.

Officers attempted to trace down the ones two males in addition to the supply of the DNA. After which, in 2017, an Austin police investigator searched a public on-line DNA database to look if he may just get a success. And, unbelievably, he did.

Michael McCaul: I assumed, my God, we in reality have a possibility, a shot to resolve this crime after such a lot of years.

WHO KILLED THESE GIRLS?

Congressman Michael McCaul: I actually concept this was once it –   I actually concept we had a possibility to resolve it.

United States Congressman Michael McCaul, like such a lot of others from Austin, was hoping that the not too long ago exposed DNA within the Yogurt Store homicide case would possibly in spite of everything carry solutions to the sufferers’ households.

Congressman Michael McCaul: We’re going to by no means omit that tragic day. It is stained in my reminiscence.

Twenty-five years after the murders, the Austin Police Division went in search of a fit to the Y-STR DNA that were discovered at the yogurt store sufferer believed to were sexually assaulted. And, in 2017, they were given a destroy. On a public DNA database used for inhabitants research, investigators concept they’d discovered a fit.

Congressman Michael McCaul: I have noticed DNA … end up murder circumstances. … the DNA proof is actually the important thing right here.

However that pattern from the crime scene was once no longer a whole DNA profile, it was once simply Y-STR — the male portion of DNA. And, it was once no longer an overly detailed pattern, having simply 16 markers.

CeCe Moore: 16 STR’s isn’t crucial fit … there may well be thousands and thousands of folks with that very same profile … So, in genetic family tree … We normally use 67 or 111 markers, or perhaps much more.

Erin Moriarty: However is not it a spot to start out?

CeCe Moore: It’s …  It is not absolute, but when there may be not anything else to paintings with, it’s surely one thing to appear into.

Nonetheless, it appeared to be essentially the most promising lead in years.  However there was once an issue: the reputedly matching pattern at the public database were submitted anonymously via the FBI. It belonged to a federally convicted wrongdoer, arrestee, or detainee, however had no identify hooked up to it.  When Austin government attempted to get a reputation, the FBI would no longer supply it, mentioning privateness rules.

Congressman Michael McCaul: There are some restrictions on privateness … And so, it will get into some very kind of, dicey problems.

Pissed off, officers reached out to Congressman McCaul for lend a hand.

Congressman Michael McCaul: And so, I pressed the FBI very difficult. 

In spite of everything, in early 2020, the FBI agreed to paintings with the Austin Police Division to look if additional checking out may well be executed on that Y-STR DNA from the crime scene.

Congressman Michael McCaul: I used to be very interested by it. The concept that lets carry this example to closure for the households and convey the ones accountable to justice.

Extra complex checking out got here up with further markers: 25 as an alternative of the unique 16. However as so frequently took place on this case, what gave the impression so promising, was unhappiness. 

One of the most further markers didn’t fit the FBI pattern. In different phrases, what appeared to be a fit, was once no longer. In a letter to Congressman McCaul, the FBI defined the brand new effects “conclusively exclude the male donor of the FBI’s pattern … as such, the FBI Y-STR profile isn’t an investigative lead.”

Congressman Michael McCaul: And that was once the best unhappiness as a result of we actually concept we had it.

Erin Moriarty: If it did not fit that exact, does not it nonetheless imply there may be someone available in the market — this DNA belongs to someone, proper?

Congressman Michael McCaul: It does. It does. And that is the reason why we are not going to relaxation until we discover the fit.

Erin Moriarty: How essential then, is that this DNA profile that exists … to fixing this example?

Congressman Michael McCaul: I imply, it is the entirety.

With DNA analysis advancing so briefly, there may be actual hope that sooner or later, that pattern of DNA got 31 years in the past, would possibly in spite of everything resolve this example. Nonetheless, it’ll no longer erase the ache or lack of lives.

Sonora Thomas: Annually that is going via, I am getting farther and farther clear of my sister, yeah. And I fear about shedding recollections.

Sonora Thomas struggled for years with panic assaults and bodily ache, till, with the assistance of remedy, she learned it was once attached to the homicide of her sister Eliza. With a singular figuring out of what trauma sufferers enjoy, Sonora sought after to lend a hand others like her, and turned into a therapist.

Sonora Thomas: There may be such a lot of moments, you recognize, when your center is open, you recognize, you might be completely satisfied. However there may be additionally this loss that is at all times accompanying your existence.

Sonora discovered it useful to search for techniques to bear in mind Eliza.

Sonora Thomas: After we were given married, we had a flower and an empty chair at our rite, and my sister was once discussed.

Compounding Sonora’s ache, her mom died in 2015. Maria Thomas kicked the bucket with such a lot of unresolved questions concerning the homicide of her daughter.

Sonora Thomas: There may be one of those torture that continues via the truth that it is unsolved and it is ongoing.

John Jones (shaking his head): It is at all times there.

John Jones continues to be haunted via the truth that the case is unsolved, and via what he noticed that grotesque night time. He has suffered from PTSD over time.

John Jones: I had totally close all the way down to the place all my power was once directed on the case.

Erin Moriarty: It took a toll on you, did not it John, even 30 years afterwards?

John Jones: Smartly, yeah. It will on any one, I believe — no longer up to the households, you already know.

Erin Moriarty: I do know.

John Jones: No matter ache I am having pales compared to what they are going thru.

Nowadays, Jones reveals solace making a song in his church choir.

John Jones: I will calm down when I am in church.

Erin Moriarty: Depart the sector in the back of? Depart out of doors?

John Jones: No, I realize it’s simply previous the door.

And when he is in that out of doors international, the households of Amy Ayers, Jennifer and Sarah Harbison and Eliza Thomas, are by no means a long way from his ideas.

John Jones: I think dangerous for them. That it is nonetheless no longer solved.

However Jones has hope. He has saved that blouse he wore the night time of the murders — the blouse he promised to by no means put on till the case was once solved. Greater than 30 years later, it is nonetheless sitting in there.   

And someday quickly, John Jones seems ahead to dressed in it once more.

John Jones: I simply hope one in every of in this day and age we will be able to put this factor to mattress, for the households’ sake.

When you’ve got details about the Yogurt Store Murders, name 512-472-TIPS. 

The Murder Sufferers’ Households’ Rights Act was once signed in to legislation on Aug. 3, 2022.  Motivated via the yogurt store murders, the legislation supplies members of the family of chilly case homicide sufferers a method to formally request federal investigators evaluate their case with the newest to be had era. 

Produced via Ruth Chenetz, Stephanie Slifer and Anthony Venditti. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Marlon Disla and Michelle Harris are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the manager tale editor. Judy Tygard is the manager manufacturer.