In 1991, four teenage girls were brutally murdered at a frozen yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. What happened that night forever shook the Austin community and continues to mystify the police and haunt the families left in the wake of unthinkable loss. Including interviews with the investigative teams, the victims' parents and siblings, and the two men who served time for the crime, the series explores law enforcement practices and raises complex questions about press coverage and the power of suggestion on memory. The series offers a unique window into the lasting effects of grief and the enduring impact of unrelenting crime coverage in mainstream media through poignant interviews with those closest to the crime and investigation.
In 1991, the murder of four teenage girls rocks the city of Austin, Texas. Amy Ayers (13), sisters Jennifer Harbison (17) and Sarah Harbison (15), and Eliza Thomas (17) were at the yogurt shop where Jennifer and Eliza worked, at closing time but never returned home. They were found later that night in the rubble of the store which had been set on fire. One week after the murders, 16-year-old Maurice Pierce is arrested at a local mall carrying a gun. Under questioning, he implicates his friends Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott in the crimes. As the families grieve and the community comes together to find ways to heal, the police are thwarted in their investigations by a lack of hard evidence.
Trauma continues to haunt the community as family members search for healing, resolution, and ways to hold on to the memories of the girls. The initial suspicions around the four teenage boys lead nowhere. After several false leads and wrongful arrests, homicide supervisor Hector Polanco is found to have coerced a suspect into a false confession and is reassigned. Lead investigator John Jones is diagnosed with PTSD and is taken off the case, suffering guilt about the department's inability to solve the murders. The family of Amy Ayers even turns to a private investigator in their frustration with the lack of progress. Eight years after the murders, new lead investigator Paul Johnson revisits the case and an interrogation video reveals Rob Springsteen claiming to have seen Maurice Pierce with a gun in his hand on the night of the murders.
As the investigation revisits the young suspects more deeply, the police call them in for new videotaped interrogations, which reveal conflicting and ever-changing information. In October 1999, all four boys are arrested. Welborn is released quickly, followed by Pierce, who never gave a confession. However, Springsteen and Scott are charged with murder after having confessed to killing the girls and are sentenced to death and life in prison respectively. But in 2008, with new technology, a DNA sample from the crime scene turns the case upside down.
In 2009, Springsteen and Scott are released on bond and the charges are dropped. But the men still live in a state of presumed guilt by many, despite no physical evidence tying them to the murder scene and more being revealed about false confessions, and the mind's susceptibility to confusion between truth and suggested truth. Three decades after the murders, a cold case detective continues to search for answers and closure for the families. Sonora Thomas, the sibling of one of the girls, works as a therapist, advocating storytelling to heal trauma and a way to change how memories live inside of us. Each of the families seeks solace in their own way as they grapple with their loss.
Complete episode guide for The Yogurt Shop Murders with detailed information about every season and episode including air dates, summaries, ratings, and streaming availability in Portugal.
This episode guide is organized by seasons, making it easy to track your viewing progress or find specific episodes. Use the episode information to plan your binge-watching sessions or catch up on missed episodes.