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What Idaho Murderer Bryan Kohberger Told Police After He Was Arrested
On Dec. 6, 1991, Jennifer Harbison was working at I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! in Austin, Texas, with Eliza Thomas.
Amy Ayers and Sarah Harbison were at the shop waiting to catch a ride with Sarah's older sister.
But none of them ever made it home. Responding to a report of a blaze at the business shortly before midnight, firefighters discovered the bodies of the four teenage girls.
The Yogurt Shop Murders, a new HBO docuseries premiering Aug. 3, delves into the chilling crime, as well as the investigation that led to four men being charged with capital murder eight years later—and why the case remains unsolved to this day.
“All of the family members always said to me, ‘There never is closure,’” series director Margaret Brown told the Austin American-Statesman in March. “‘You learn how to live alongside it, but it never loses its potency.’”
Here’s what to know about the cold case that continues to haunt Austin:
Courtesy of HBO
Who were the victims of the 1991 yogurt shop murders?
At 11:47 p.m. on Dec. 6, 1991, a patrol officer reported seeing flames inside I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! in northwest Austin. Inside, firefighters found the burned bodies of Jennifer Harbison, 17, her sister Sarah Harbison, 15, Eliza Thomas, 17, and Amy Ayers, 13.
Police said they believed the fire was purposely set to destroy evidence.
Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo told reporters a few days later that the teens were already dead when the fire started. Amy had been shot twice, while the other girls were each shot once in the back of the head.
Courtesy of HBO
The front door was locked, according to investigators, but the back door was open and there were no signs of forced entry. Money was missing, Austin Police Lt. Andrew Waters said at the time, per the Austin American-Statesman, so robbery was “the best theory.”
But, he added, “it’s possible there could have been something else and they attempted to make it look like a robbery.”
Were there any suspects in the yogurt shop murders?
Eight days after the murders, Maurice Pierce, 16, was arrested at Northcross Mall, a few blocks away from the crime scene, carrying a .22-caliber revolver.
Pierce told police his gun was involved in what happened at the yogurt shop and that he drove a getway car, retired detective John Jones, who was the lead investigator on the case, told 48 Hours in 2022.
Jones said Pierce "implicated" Forrest Welborn, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen IV in his statement to police.
But the other three boys denied any involvement, Jones explained, and there wasn't enough evidence to file charges.
In the early days of the investigation, detectives interviewed hundreds of people and amassed a long list of suspects, Jones counting 342 at one point.
When did police first make arrests in the yogurt shop murder case?
Scott was re-interviewed by Austin cold case detectives in September 1999.
Courtesy of HBO
At first he denied knowing anything about the murders before he told police, but over the course of what his lawyers said was a 20-hour, multi-day interrogation, he admitted to participating. Authorities said he also implicated Pierce, Welborn and Springsteen in the crime.
Springsteen was arrested days later in West Virginia. He too initially denied being involved before he told detectives during a videotaped interview that he sexually assaulted and shot one of the girls.
Welborn and Pierce were arrested that October and all four were charged with capital murder.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said at a press conference announcing a break in the case, “On Dec. 6, 1991, we—as a city—lost our innocence. Today, we regain our confidence.”
What happened to the yogurt shop murder suspects?
Springsteen and Scott recanted their confessions, maintaining that they were coerced (which police and prosecutors denied), and pleaded not guilty at trial.
Tried separately for the murder of Ayers—which left the door open for them to be prosecuted for the other murders in case of an acquittal—both men were found guilty.
Springsteen was sentenced to death in 2001, while Scott was given life in prison the following year.
Meanwhile, ballistics testing couldn’t prove that Pierce’s .22 was one of the two guns used in the murders. He spent three years in jail awaiting trial—maintaining his innocence throughout—and was released in 2003 when prosecutors acknowledged they didn’t have the evidence to convict.
Two grand juries passed on indicting Welborn, who also insisted he was innocent, and the case against him was dropped in 2000.
Springsteen’s conviction was overturned in 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that Scott’s confession—allowed into evidence at Springsteen’s trial for corroboration—had been used in violation of the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to confront or question his accuser at trial.
Scott’s conviction was thrown out in 2007, the appellate court issuing the same ruling regarding clips of Springsteen’s confession being played at Scott’s trial.
Travis County prosecutors said they planned to retry both men, but both walked free in 2009 after newly tested DNA collected from crime scene samples wasn’t a match to Springsteen, Scott, Welborn or Pierce (who died in 2010).
Courtesy of HBO
Where does the yogurt murder shop case stand now?
The 1991 case remains open.
“We're waiting for…the DNA science to improve to then resubmit what we have left in the crime lab for further testing,” U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, whose district includes Austin, told 48 Hours in July 2025. The DNA, he noted, “is everything.”
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