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Just before midnight on December 6, 1991, firefighters responded to a blaze at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. At first it seemed like a simple structure fire, but when the firefighters got into the building, it became clear this was no accident. Someone was trying to cover up a vicious murder. They needed investigators on the scene. Stat. 39 year old detective John Jones was one of the first to respond. He was an experienced investigator with more than 150 murder cases under his belt. That night, he just happened to have a CBS News crew riding along with him filming for a segment. When he turned his patrol car toward the yogurt shop, he had no idea the kind of carnage the cameras were about to capture. He pulled into the parking lot around midnight and found a chaotic scene. Firefighters, public safety officials, and emergency responders were all going in and out of the shop. But as the first investigator on the scene, Jones took charge. He told everyone to pause what they were doing. He needed to see for himself what had happened and to stop anyone from accidentally disturbing the crime scene. When Jones stepped inside, he realized the store was flooded. Water from the firefighters pooled around his ankles. As he stepped through the doorway near the empty cash register, he spotted the first body. She was face down, naked with Two gunshot wounds to the back of her head. Jones stomach twisted as he came closer and realized she was just a kid. Still, he tamped down his emotions and continued on to the back of the store. That's where he found the other three victims. Their bodies were stacked on top of each other, so badly burned they were nearly unrecognizable. But Jones could make out the remains of some Styrofoam cups that had been used for kindling, and he could tell the girls had been stripped, bound, and gagged. Not only that, they had each been shot in the back of the head. Jones had seen a lot of ugly things in his career, but he'd never seen anything like this. He knew from those very first moments that this case would be the kind that stayed with him forever. As more investigators arrived, Jones searched the crime scene for clues. But the fire had been so intense, it had burnt most of the evidence. And the water from fighting the fire had pretty much destroyed the rest. Any footprints or other signs had been washed away. Still, investigators could piece together some of what happened. It appeared the assailant or assailants had either forced the girls into the back room or trapped them there. Then they shot them in the head, execution style. One of the girls had tried to escape, running for the door. She was the one who'd been gunned down in the front part of the store with two shots to her head. The killers had stacked the other three bodies on top of each other, then covered them with styrofoam cups, doused them in lighter fluid, and set the fire. Before long, the medical examiner arrived and was ready to transport the bodies to the morgue for immediate autopsies. But Detective Jones told him to wait. He wanted crime scene investigators from the Department of Public Safety to document everything first. At the time, Austin PD didn't have its own forensic unit, so DPS was their main partner. But DPS didn't arrive until around 4am that meant there were four hours of potential contamination. First responders and officials walking through the scene unintentionally disturbing or destroying critical evidence. Even after DPS arrived, there were breakdowns in protocol. One DPS investigator later claimed that some areas of the shop weren't processed at all, like the bathrooms, the front door, and the dumpster out back. Officers reportedly looked at the top layer of trash, but never emptied the bin to search deeper. Still, some evidence was recovered in the shop. Several latent fingerprints were found on the cash register drawer. At least five hairs were collected from the victim's clothing or bodies. Detectives Recovered bullet casings and a magazine from a semi automatic handgun. And finally, they found a few personal items that might help identify the girls. A ring and a heart shaped belt buckle. Detectives spoke with the manager of the yogurt shop store who confirmed that 17 year old Eliza Thomas and 17 year old Jennifer Harbison had been working that night. And after contacting the families, it didn't take long to piece together that the other two girls were 15 year old Sarah Harbison and 13 year old Amy Ayers. Their families were understandably devastated. And the autopsies that were performed later that day only made them feel worse. The medical examiner recovered a.22 caliber bullet from 18Amy's body and determined that her cause of death was strangulation and gunshot wounds to the head. Amy was the only girl who was shot twice. The other three were all killed with a single shot to the back of the head. They had all died before the fire was set. And while each girl had been stripped naked, only Sarah and Amy, the youngest, is believed to have shown signs of sexual assault. The autopsy results were sealed by a judge. Detectives hoped that by keeping certain details confidential, they could weed out false confessions and quickly identify whether a suspect truly knew what happened that night. But somehow, information about the case kept getting out. In the days following the murders, hundreds of tips poured into the Austin Police department. Many of them referenced facts that should have been kept secret. The detectives tried to sift through all of them and figure out where the information was coming from. But the whole process was overwhelming for detective Jones and the three other homicide detectives on the case. Still, Jones worked all the possible angles. He and his fellow detectives tracked down as many customers from that night as they could. Some had paid with a credit card, but many paid with cash, which meant detectives had to rely on them coming forward once they heard about the event on the news. The married couple who had stopped in the shop before closing mentioned the two suspicious men they'd seen. But they couldn't recall any real details. Only that they gave off a bad vibe. On the other hand, Darryl Croft, the retired officer, gave a clear description of the man he had found suspicious. But even after viewing multiple police lineups, he wasn't able to identify anyone. So Jones and his team moved on. They interviewed friends, co workers, and classmates of the victims. They tested the small amounts of DNA that had been collected from the girls. But the lab produced just one identifiable profile, A boyfriend of one of the older girls. However, authorities quickly ruled him out as a suspect. After that, no other strong leads emerged. Even so Detective Jones had a theory. He believed the whole thing had been a robbery gone wrong. He thought the assailants had planned to target the shop after hours, expecting only two girls inside. But when they found four, things escalated, and they killed the girls to cover their tracks. It was just a theory, but at that point, Jones didn't have much else. Even the ballistics analysis wasn't that helpful. He knew that two guns had been used in the murders. A.22 caliber and a.380 caliber. The.22 was common with criminals who liked them because the way the bullets flattened made. Made them hard to trace. They're often called throwaway weapons for that reason. But the.380 was different. Most of those handguns have a spiral pattern inside the barrel that leaves a specific twist on the bullet. The one used in the yogurt shop had an unusual pattern. So if investigators ever found a gun with that same twist, it could be a critical link. Eight days after the murders, it seemed like they found what they were looking for. On December 14th, a 16 year old named Maurice Pierce loaded his illegal.22 caliber pistol in his waistband and put 16 extra bullets in his pocket. Then he and his friend, 15 year old Forrest Welborn, walked into North Cross Mall. That was the same mall that Sarah and Amy had gone to the night of the killings. The just a couple blocks away from the yogurt shop. Carrying a gun in Texas wasn't normally something that would raise too many eyebrows. But in the wake of the murders, everyone was on high alert. And someone must have noticed Maurice's gun and called the cops. Because just a few minutes later, Austin police officers showed up and arrested Maurice for unlawfully carrying a weapon. At first it looked like a routine gun charge. But then officers realized the weapon Maurice was carrying was the exact type used in the yogurt shop murders. It wasn't the.380 that they really wanted to find, but the.22 caliber still piqued their interest. Suddenly, this wasn't just another mall arrest. It was the break investigators had been waiting for. They brought Maurice in for questioning, and in doing so, they would change the course of his life forever. So good, so good, so good.

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The guy thought he had a good thing going. A good job and two lovers. That is, until this triangle got complicated and somebody had to go. I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Deadly Engagement, an all new podcast from Dateline. It's a story that's sure to keep you guessing as lovers turn on each other in a desperate bid to avoid prison. Listen now.

A (26:29)

Eight days after the yogurt shop murders in December 1991, a 16 year old boy named Maurice Pierce was arrested at a mall in Austin, Texas. He had a loaded.22 caliber pistol tucked into his waistband, the same type of weapon used in the killings. Just a few blocks away at the police station, officers put Maurice in an interrogation room. Detective Hector Polanco was assigned to question him. Polanco had been on the force for 15 years and was known for getting confessions. And in fact, he'd never worked a murder case he couldn't close. But that reputation came with controversy. According to Detective John Jones, it was common knowledge that Polanco sometimes fed suspects key details during interrogations to get them to say what he wanted. We don't know what exactly he said to Maurice in that interrogation room. All we know is that by the end of the questioning, Maurice signed a written statement. In it, he claimed his.22 gun had been used in the yogurt shop murders, but not by him. He said it was his friend, 15 year old Forrest Welborn, who had borrowed the gun and used it to kill the four girls. He insisted that Forrest had told him. So to make sure Maurice was telling the truth, the police gave him a polygraph test. When he passed, the focus shifted to Forrest Welborn, the friend who Maurice claimed was responsible. But detectives needed more than just Maurice's word. So the next day they put a wire on Maurice and sent him to talk with Forrest. The plan was to catch Forrest in a confession. Maurice flat out asked Forrest if he had killed the girls with his gun. But Forrest seemed confused at the question he asked Maurice what the hell he was talking about. To Detective Jones, it seemed like Forrest had absolutely no clue what was going on. And it wasn't because Forrest was a criminal mastermind who was skilled at lying. Jones described Forrest as someone who couldn't organize a two car parade. There was no way he could pull off a quadruple homicide on his own and get away with it. But investigators had to do their due diligence. If Maurice couldn't get a confession, they had to question Forrest themselves. They brought him down to the station where he denied any involvement whatsoever. During the interview, he did mention something that caught the detective's attention though. He confessed that he and Maurice had stolen a car the day after the murders and taken it on a joyride to San Antonio. And they hadn't gone alone. They'd been with two other boys, 17 year old Robert Springsteen and 17 year old Michael Scott. Detectives logged the two additional names. They would get to them next, but in the meantime, they kept pressing Forrest. They even made him take a polygraph test to defend his claims. But then Forrest passed his test, which presented a problem. Forrest and Maurice couldn't both be telling the truth. Detectives eventually decided that Forrest was being honest and Maurice had some sort of mental issue that made him believe his own lies. According to detectives, that was why he was able to pass his own polygraph test. Even with all the confusion around the tests, investigators still wanted to talk to Maurice and Forrest's friends, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott. Police brought them down to the station for questioning, but like Maurice and Forrest, they were let go. Unfortunately for the four of them, they wouldn't be free forever. One month after the murders, the Austin Police Department held a press conference. They announced the formation of a multi agency task force. It included the Austin pd, the Department of Public Safety, the Sheriff's department, the District Attorney's office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the FBI. At that point, the FBI agent stepped forward and unveiled a criminal profile of the killers. They believe the killers were white males in their late teens to mid-20s. The leader was described as emotionally immature, quick to anger, with a criminal history and a dominant personality. Someone who may have coerced one or more reluctant participants into joining him. He was also probably a local who was familiar with the yogurt shop and the surrounding areas. Not everyone agreed with that profile. Some investigators thought the killers had to be older grown men. Now, there were a couple of reasons for that. First, the owner of the party supply store next door to the yogurt shop had Only heard a few popping noises. Likely the gunshots, but nothing else. The rest of the murders had happened in near silence. That suggested the killers had a huge degree of control over the situation. And the crime scene itself was methodical. The girls were stripped. The murders were execution style. Some of the victims had been sexually assaulted. It didn't feel like teenagers panicking during a botched robbery. It felt premeditated, carried out by someone with far more sadistic intentions than stealing some cash. Even with the differing opinions, detectives followed the FBI's profile, looking for young suspects who fit the bill. They picked up teenagers and college students who wore black clothes, had tattoos, or hung out in the wrong neighborhoods. Anyone who seemed off. They were pulled in for questioning and given polygraphs. But none of it led anywhere. By February of 1992, two months after the murders, the investigation had stalled. With no arrests, no new evidence, and seemingly no answers, the victims families took matters into their own hands. That month, 12 billboards went up across Austin, Donated by a local company. They featured pictures of the four victims and asked a simple question in white italicized letters over a red background, who killed these girls? And the families also pooled money for a reward for any information leading to arrests and convictions. It started at $25,000 and eventually grew to $125,000. Detective Jones and his team felt like they were letting the girls and their families down. It wasn't for lack of effort, though. They'd interviewed 342 suspects and fielded thousands more leads by that point. But they were no closer to solving the case. And they felt the police chief, mayor, and DA all breathing down their necks, frustrated that a case this big had gone unsolved. And then the national press descended on Austin. Dan rather and 48 hours came to town that same month. The production followed the detectives through the halls of the precinct, hoping to be there when the break came. Instead, behind closed doors, there was more bad news for the investigative team. Detective Hector Polanco, the same detective who'd interrogated Maurice Pierce, was transferred off the task force. There were allegations that he'd coerced a confession out of another potential suspect related to the case. Jones wanted no part of that. He didn't believe in pressuring people into confessions, but he understood the desperation. He wanted this case solved. He needed it solved. And while Jones wasn't going to cross a line, he knew they were running out of time. Because if something didn't break soon, then Austin's most notorious murder case was about to go cold. Thanks so much for listening. I'M Carter Roy and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next time for part two on the yogurt shop Murders and all the people it affected Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two part series, you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back on Thursday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios and this episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertzofsky, Rachel Engelman, Laurie Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Alex Burns, Hania Said and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.

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