The Yogurt Shop Murders (2025) s01e02 Episode Script

(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(LEAVES RUSTLING)
SONORA THOMAS:
I use this office to write
and, sometimes,
I see clients online up here.
Yeah, so these
are some childhood photos
of the two of us
with our cowboy hats on
in Texas.
MARGARET BROWN:
And we might not get through
the whole thing.
-SONORA: Right, right, okay.
-MARGARET: Yeah.
(CLEARS THROAT) All right.
Um Hmm.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Just take a breath here.
(YOUNG SONORA LAUGHS)
-MARIA THOMAS: Okay, okay.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MARIA: Aw, that's sweet.
SONORA:
"My name is Sonora Rose Thomas."
Give me a kiss, Sonora.
SONORA: "On December 6th, 1991,
my only sibling,
my older sister,
Eliza Hope Thomas, was killed.
-I was 13 years old."
-At the scene of the crime.
SONORA: "At the moment
my sister was killed,
I was fast asleep
six blocks away.
If my dad had not been away
that night,
I would have been with my sister
and I would have been
the fifth victim.
As it was, I spent many years
wishing I had been there.
Today, I can say
that I'm glad to be alive.
I know now that this life
still contains beauty
but I have not always
known that.
This book is my life story.
These murders were said
to have shattered the innocence
of the small city of Austin.
They continue to devastate,
puzzle, and fascinate many.
As a surviving sibling,
I have alternated
between disgust
for the ongoing fascination
and awe
that the public continues
to be horrified by an event
that has shaped every aspect
of my life.
In one of the first
videotaped interviews
with my mother,
just a few days
after the murder,
I can be seen in the background
hyperventilating
while my grief-stricken mother
talks to the reporter
and shows him
my sister's bedroom."
She always put her hair way up,
you know,
and then she'd have clips
and then wash
her face real good at night
and I can just still see her.
SONORA: "While reporters
were not allowed
at the girls' joint funeral,
one film crew
opened a door to the church
to grab what little footage
they could.
That's why I almost never return
phone messages
left by reporters.
And yet, when I was
a freshman in college,
a reporter came to my dorm room
to interview me.
This interview proved
more difficult
than I had ever imagined.
A simple question like,
'What was your sister like?'
left me blank.
'She loved animals, right?'
The interviewer prodded.
All of a sudden,
I realized this woman
knew more about her than I did.
Memories live
because we talk about them,
but my family didn't talk
about Eliza,
so my memories became dormant.
I wrote five pages in my journal
the day after that interview.
The interviewer had begun
to wake up those memories,
and I didn't want
to forget them again.
Still, I had to manage the shame
of forgetting."
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
MARGARET:
What is the shame of forgetting?
Just that I feel bad. Yeah.
That somehow it's my job
to keep her alive
through my memory.
("DEVIL TOWN"
BY ALLEGRA KRIEGER PLAYING) ♪
I was livin' in a devil town ♪
Didn't know
it was a devil town ♪
Oh, Lord
it really brings me down ♪
About the devil town ♪
I was livin' in a devil town ♪
Didn't know
it was a devil town ♪
Oh lord
It really brings me down ♪
About the devil town ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
This is Robert.
Hey, Shannon, how are you?
-SHANNON: I'm good, how are you?
-I'm doing pretty good.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(SPRAY CAN HISSING)
(WHIRRING)
What you plan to do
with your time,
how you plan to spend,
you know, the rest of your life.
So, I want it to be positive
in that sense.
Um, what we will not,
under any circumstance, do
is discuss facts in the case.
So, that means
you do have to take some care
when it comes to talking
about things like,
uh, "Isn't it true
that you confessed?" Yes.
So, I want you to talk about why
and how it came to be
that you confessed.
That you never realized
for one moment
that it could lead to you
going to death row.
Uh, do you want me to wear
the black jacket
and black slacks,
or the black jacket,
or the blue jacket
and black slacks?
I wouldn't even bother
to wear a jacket.
I think if you wear the shirt,
slacks, dark socks, shoes,
-you're going to be just fine.
-All right.
(BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN JONES: Told you it was
a hideous color, didn't I?
(CHUCKLES) I only worn it once.
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.
Um, the price of life
seems to be getting cheaper
and cheaper these days.
I'd gone to Sheplers
and bought that shirt.
That's the first time I wore it.
And I made a promise
talking to the families,
that the next time
they saw me wearing that shirt,
it's because the case
was solved.
And so I haven't worn it since.
It's been hanging in the closet
for 30 years.
This is the box.
This was the one that was on all
of the billboards around town.
(PAGES RUSTLING)
Under confessions, oral,
you know,
I got a chart here,
and actually it's
you have to pull it apart,
because this was two,
11x14s and you know,
we listed all the confessions,
whether they were oral
or written, or bragging.
There's six written ones
and probably 40 or so verbal.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JONES: I wasn't
the best interrogator.
I'm more the support guy,
you know, with evidence
and all of that.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JONES: And, you know,
Hector Polanco
knew interrogation.
DICK ELLIS:
A homicide investigator
for five years,
Polanco has never had
a murder case go unsolved.
We'll get to the bottom of this,
and we'll come
with a positive conclusion.
And, uh
That I can promise you.
You know, he was the Cobra.
You know, he had the reputation
in homicide for
solving the tough cases.
(JONES MUMBLING)
Ah, interview with Shawn Smith.
Buddha Shawn Smith.
He was interviewed
by Sergeant Polanco,
who managed
to get a confession out of him.
We felt so good about it.
Matter of fact, I brought
the shirt down to the station,
and we called in
the homicide secretary.
She was typing up
the grand jury indictment
for him and the people
he said was with him.
We felt good about it.
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
We had called the SWAT unit
in because, you know,
we were going to go out
and arrest all these folks.
And then it fell apart.
MIKE HUCKABAY:
The sad thing about it
is Hector really
is a good investigator.
He is a very good investigator.
But he don't use it right.
I have seen him get confessions
from somebody that did not have
a thing to do with it,
but Hector can scare the shit
out of you and make you confess.
He can. He's okay with it.
As long as he gets a confession,
he's okay.
You asked me,
"Why would somebody confess
if they didn't do crap?"
You can get in somebody's head
real easy if you know how.
And most investigators know,
"If I keep you here
long enough
I have you signing
that confession
before you leave."
You think, "There ain't no way
that's going to happen.
There's no way
you're gonna"
A bull of crap. (LAUGHS)
You want me to prove it?
MARGARET:
Y'all have to come
get her out of jail.
JONES: Cops can lie to you,
and Hector
was very good at that.
Girl number two started towards
the back door,
I guess, because
she was only tied in the front.
When I talked
to Buddha Shawn Smith,
Shawn goes, "Well,
Hector had me convinced
that I actually did it."
He convinced Shawn
that we had it on video.
We had him on video
from the Chevron station
across the street.
There was some element
of truth in there.
There was a station
across the street,
and it did have a camera,
but we didn't have
anybody in it.
That was one of the confessions
pretty early on.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JONES: Another confession
was Alex Briones.
He said that he burned them,
and I looked at his confession,
and he said
that he got 1200 dollars,
1300 dollars,
something like that.
And I said,
"Well, that's wrong."
And then I got asked by Hector,
"Well, how much was taken?"
I wouldn't tell him,
neither would Huck.
That was kind of one of those
hold back things.
Information that only
the bad guy and us have.
A truth test, as it were.
Hector was hard
to go up against,
but Huck and I kind of
held onto each other and go,
"We can't. We just can't."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Hector Polanco
messed his case up big time.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
HUCKABAY: I don't know that can
ever be undone what he did.
I don't know how much time
we wasted
over nothing.
HECTOR POLANCO:
I want y'all to hear this.
This is what's
gonna motivate everybody.
("WE WILL NOT FORGET"
PLAYING) ♪
We will not forget ♪
Dreams you'll never dare ♪
Well, there has been
a shake-up in the task force.
Senior Sergeant Hector Polanco,
the task force supervisor,
has been reassigned
amid allegations
that he coerced a suspect
into a confession.
It won't affect
the investigation.
He's been there to assist
the investigators.
Nothing will change
as far as the investigation.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ERIN MORIARTY:
Do you have a theory?
Do all of you guys have a,
like, a pet theory of--
JONES: Of this case?
I don't because
that's a why question,
and you can get lost
in a why question.
We'll get these people caught,
uh, and you know,
I'm going to ask them
because I'm deep down,
I guess inside,
I'm curious too. "Why?"
The reason I'm asking why
is because
I need to tell the families.
Actually, what I'm probably
going to say is,
I'm going to say this.
"Look, fella, fellas,
girls, whoever, you--
Now, see, in a few minutes here,
I got to go out
and wake these families up again
and try and give them
some good news
in the middle of the night
for a change.
Now, what do you want me
to tell them?"
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
ERIN: What a junk
Look at my junkie office.
I don't have much in here.
I do have-- You saw John, right?
I have no idea why John
took this picture,
but I've had it here forever.
There's your John Jones
next to a bull.
That's a very odd picture.
Over here, Victoria Gotti,
John Gotti's daughter.
This is Matt Baker,
a preacher who was convicted
of killing his wife.
But this gives you
30 years of
covering cases.
You know, after you've worked
on these stories,
like with John here,
after you've worked
on these stories
for so many years,
you know the case,
you know their lives.
Um
You know,
this is not a job to me.
This is my life. And so, um,
calling these individuals up,
John Jones,
I mean,
I call just to see how he is.
And I keep doing updates
on his case.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
That was the first time
I was there.
JONES: Hello? Hi.
-CHRISTINA: Hi, Daddy.
-JONES: Hey.
ERIN: You know, three decades.
You know, think about that.
So, yeah,
he's a big part of my life.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Hi, yeah, this is--
Hi, I'm Erin. I haven't gotten
a chance to come in.
-You good?
-I am.
-I'm with CBS News.
-Oh, you are?
-Nice meeting you.
-Well, nice meeting you.
Now, you be careful
what you put out
and what you say.
-Absolutely.
-Because I'm listening to y'all.
-Sometimes you tell too much.
-We do?
(LAUGHS)
MRS. FREEMAN:
You all have a seat.
JONES: This is Andrea.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
JONES: That's Christina.
Christina, turn around
and say hi.
-Hi.
-(CHUCKLES)
JONES: She did exactly
what I said.
That's my wife, Yolanda,
over there.
Ah.
And mother of
these two little ones here.
(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
-ERIN: So Mrs. Freeman.
-Mm-hmm.
Do you think this city
was hit hard
by this particular murder?
This city has been hit hard
by a lot of murders.
And there's been many,
many more beside those.
And I don't-- I don't think,
I think this city's
been hit hard by a lot of them.
I think every time one happens,
it's hard
'cause it affects somebody.
ERIN: Do you think more emphasis
was put on this case
because the fact
that these were young,
White, middle-class victims
more than, we'll say,
another kind of murder?
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Yeah.
There's a lot of experience
back in those gray strands.
Everybody's on pins and needles,
at least in our administration,
because they don't wanna
be painted as, uh,
as doing all of this,
you know, strictly because it's,
it's a Caucasian thing.
Actually, I think
the murder of, uh
of any young people
kind of transcends racial lines.
-Daddy.
-I mean-- Yeah, baby?
-Daddy. See?
-Yeah.
-Yeah, I see that.
-I see that
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER: The city of Austin
is still waiting
to see justice done.
Now, Austin police have gotten
about 2000 leads,
but so far nothing
has panned out.
So today,
the Austin business community
upped the stakes.
The reward for information
was quadrupled
to 100,000 dollars.
We are here with a plea.
Give us the information
that will lead to the arrest
and conviction of the person
that murdered these girls
and we will give you
100,000 dollars
for that information.
DETECTIVE 1: Yeah,
we can do it on the phone
or we can bring you in.
You're 17, right?
DETECTIVE 2: We can find her,
which might be easier.
We were asking
for any tip, right?
And we got any tip.
Have you ever seen the file
on that yogurt shop mur--
Oh, my Lord. Huge. Huge!
I mean, I have a hard time
even explaining to you
what happened, because
people started calling in.
DETECTIVE 1:
We can bring you in, you're 17.
What do you got?
HUCKABAY: You got people
call in and say,
"Hey, I know this guy,
his name is"
Where specifically were this--
was this person sneaking around?
And they'll give you
some kind of evidence,
"This is the guy."
Thank you for calling.
Uh, what do you do?
You got to find the guy.
You got to investigate.
Yeah, he's some psychotic dude
who likes to kill women.
A lot of times it was,
"I heard" or "I think I saw"
But it was our job
to glean anything useful
from coming in.
DETECTIVE 1: Aryan Brotherhood.
Tattoos deluxe,
and he was on heroin.
HUCKABAY: We had so many notes.
And at this time in homicide,
there were six officers.
That's not a lot.
After you got all these files,
we separated them.
"That's good, eh,
sort of good, nah."
Went three ways.
Good, sort of good, and bad.
We got three more of those folks
coming in this afternoon.
-They're all backstreet
-HUCKABAY: Work this one,
work that one. I mean, constant,
constant, constant, constant.
Piles. Piles.
It just kept getting bigger.
-Oh, 342 people
that have been listed
as suspects.
We're looking at pages and pages
of suspects here.
It's off the scale.
Way off the scale.
CITIZEN 1: This is what
I think happened that night.
I think they went in there
to get some money.
They tried setting the place
on fire to cover their tracks
and haul ass.
This is what I think.
This is my theory.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CITIZEN 2: Some sort of
satanic ritual,
cult-like activity.
CITIZEN 3: The Creek people,
the persons in black.
CITIZEN 4:
White supremacist groups.
CITIZEN 5:
Uh, money laundering schemes.
-The vampires, uh, the occult
-(JONES SIGHS)
uh, graveyard riots.
They go out and dance
and take pictures on tombstones.
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
REESE PRICE: The rumors
ran rapid around Austin.
There was all these theories
about satanic stuff
and this and that.
And they had a lot
to wade through.
JONES: What you got here
is party favors.
But if they haven't
killed anybody,
I'm sure they're going to
in the next five years.
(GRUNTS)
("CANNIBAL" BY SCRATCH ACID
PLAYING) ♪
They start going after goth kids
and metalheads
and PIBs,
People in Black,
just dance club kids, teenagers.
My heart
And I'll stop eating my heart! ♪
They asked me
if I was into witchcraft.
They asked me if I knew anything
about the murderers.
So many of my friends
were targeted,
had SWAT teams
bust into their houses,
-like, "Oh, they had a-- "
-It got gnarly fast.
Like, every-- every day.
OFFICER 1:
Open the door! Police!
DETECTIVE 1: This is police!
Police officer! Police officer!
Get down, get down, get down!
Get down on the ground!
Get on the ground!
Police officer!
DETECTIVE 2: Bingo. Them bones.
CLAIR LAVAYE:
They took a bunch of books
and they took this.
And this is the skull
that was FedExed to me.
-It's just plastic
-(TAPS ECHOING)
and suede and hair
that's been glued on it.
It's been rolled in the dirt.
I knew they were coming,
and that's something
the police didn't understand.
My name was on a shortlist,
and the FBI
were in Europa Bookstore.
It had books on sexual deviancy.
It had books on the occult.
If you walked into that section,
someone from the FBI
would flash a badge and say,
"Do you know" da, da, da.
Seven names or so.
And my name was one of them.
So, I got a skull.
I put it in a box
with some other bones.
I was like, "Find it."
And maybe they'd realize
that this is BS.
I didn't know
they were going to bring
48 Hours with them though.
("48 HOURS"
THEME MUSIC PLAYING ) ♪
ERIN: She supposedly runs
a ring of devil worshipers.
Dozens of them
have been telling Austin police
that Clair either committed
the yogurt shop murders
or knows who did.
This was a terrible crime,
and people are calling in
to police and giving your name.
Why?
(BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CLAIR: Having media enter
my home against my will,
pull things out of my closet,
parade around everything
in my house
REPORTER:
And inside this home,
a large amount of pornography
and S&M materials.
CHESTER JOHNSON:
An awful lot of, uh,
I guess you would describe
as macabre type of, uh, scenes.
To be shown arrested naked
and then have them
cut to commercial, come back.
"Oh, it was nothing.
Just a weirdo."
And then put that on television
again and again for 30 years.
It was just a sign
how desperate they were
that they were bringing in
anybody who was
a little bit different.
DICK: Some serious criticism
is being leveled against
the Austin Police Department
tonight,
and it comes from the families
of the victims
of the yogurt shop murders.
They want to be able to say
they've exhausted
all their leads and they've done
all they can with this.
I think they're going to
sweep us under the rug.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HUCKABAY: As time went by,
you know, our relationship
with the families
sort of got to the point
to where
Oh
I had to sort of move away.
BOB AYERS: The thing that
really pissed me off
was they wouldn't ask
for any help.
They wanted
to solve it themselves.
They wouldn't really
be honest with me.
HUCKABAY:
He started asking questions.
Question, question, question.
He wanted to know this,
he wanted to know that.
Well, hell,
I ain't gonna tell him.
They said, "We can't give you
that information
because if it gets out--"
Well, if it gets out,
where's it gonna be coming from?
You think I'm gonna do something
to jeopardize this case?
They're nuts.
You want me
to trust you with this
and you don't trust me?
He'd asked me, he said,
"What'd they do to my daughter?"
I said, "Well, she was shot
in the head."
"Was she naked?"
I said, "Bob, where are we going
with all this?"
"Well, I just want to know,
did they rape her?"
"Bob
stop right now.
I don't want to talk anymore
to you about this."
I said, "This is bad for you,
bad for me.
You don't want
to know everything,
I promise you."
And, you know, I'm not going
to tell him all that crap.
He don't need
to know that anyway.
I wish I didn't know it.
(CHUCKLES)
(SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
Then, you know,
it gets to the point
where they come
and tell you something.
Well, am I really
going to believe this,
or are they just saying this
to throw me off track?
You know, I got to have
some stability here.
(BATS SCREECHING)
BOB: The police department
is supposed to be on our side.
You have to trust them.
What else do you have?
There's been
nothing like it before.
There's been
nothing like it since.
And they just flat
did not know what to do.
-(SCHOOLBELL RINGING)
-(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
LANIER PRINCIPAL: (OVER PA)
There has been a break
in the yogurt shop
investigation.
A confession has been received
according to the news reports
that we've heard.
It is the break we have
all been waiting for.
Three hundred, 21 days ago,
four teenage girls were murdered
at a North Austin yogurt shop.
Tonight, for the first time,
they've named three men
they want to question
in the murders.
REPORTER 1: They are charged
in an abduction and rape case
not related to
the yogurt shop murders.
But during questioning,
Saavedra reportedly confesses
to the yogurt murders.
REPORTER 2: Saavedra,
also known as "The Terminator",
implicated two other people
in the murders.
One by the name
of Alberto Cortez
has a striking resemblance
to the man
who was seen sitting outside
of the yogurt shop
in December
when the murders happened.
It's a day we look forward to,
but a day we dread
at the same time.
BOB: The end may be near,
but it'll never be over.
Maybe we'll get
a little consolation
if these are the guys.
BARBARA AYRES-WILSON:
I hope it's over.
I hope this is it, and I hope
they can prove everything
that this man
has confessed to us.
They can prove it without,
beyond a shadow of a doubt
so that it is them.
There's no mistake,
and that they have to
be punished for this.
'Cause I don't wanna
get the wrong person.
I just want to make sure
it's the right one.
DICK: "When we got
to the ice cream shop,
I came across four girls
who were there.
The first one was the only one
I could tie with the ropes.
And then I took off her clothes
and used them to tie the others,
all the while
continuing to beat them
so they would be quiet
until they were unconscious."
If they are charged,
they will be tried in Mexico
because of
the extradition process.
Does it bother you
that they won't even come here
to face charges
and that there is
no death penalty in Mexico?
It bothers me.
-FAITH DANIELS: Does it?
-Mm-hmm.
BARBARA: It doesn't bother me.
Marie, why do you say
it bothers you still?
MARIA: I want to see them.
I want them to see,
um, my hate for them.
I'm, I'm, I'm
(SCOFFS) I hate them.
JONES: It was kind of
a confusing interrogation.
The Mexican authorities
were leading it.
They finally got around
to giving Huck a copy
of their written confession.
That was sort of fun.
I got to go to Mexico.
JONES: And there were some
glaring deficiencies in it.
One, they had the caliber
of the gun wrong.
Uh, number two, is they said
they poured white gas
all over the place,
which is kerosene.
We knew that didn't happen.
It was a very nice confession.
I mean, a Hollywood screenwriter
would be proud of that.
The only problem is
it wasn't worth the paper
it was written on.
You know?
But, you know,
when people saw excerpts of it,
they go, "Yes, they confessed."
A lot of people believe
that people wouldn't confess
to stuff that they didn't do.
Mm, au contraire, they do.
for whatever reason.
(SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(SIGHS)
REPORTER: Today,
Porfirio Carlos Saavedra
fought back tears saying
he was forced
to sign a statement
saying he killed four girls
at the I Can't Believe
It's Yogurt! shop last December.
Saavedra told me federal police
put a bag over his head,
a rag in his mouth,
handcuffed his hands,
punched him, and threatened
to hurt his family
if he didn't sign a statement
that was read in court today.
-(PIG OINKS)
-Be careful.
ANNOUNCER: Heavyweight Hog,
third place, Sonora Thomas.
ERIN:
The truth of the matter is,
many parents of children
who are killed
want other people
to know just
how awful it is
and what they're going through.
You don't like these?
We'd like you
to have them, really. We would.
BARBARA:
When I see their friends,
it kind of shocks me
because they've grown up
and gone on.
But these little girls
are still my little girls.
ERIN: Initially, when
these parents lost their kids,
everybody wanted
to talk to them.
They were in the news.
But over time,
it's no longer in the news.
And their friends are saying,
"You've got to move on."
They can't move on.
They can't-- Who could move on?
You've lost your child.
Or in Barbara's case,
you've lost two children.
And the story
needs to have the focus.
Otherwise, it will go unsolved.
We're going months,
and it turns into years,
and then it comes to the point
where they tell us,
you know, "We just don't have
a whole lot to go on."
ERIN: When you're covering it,
you're also kind of
facing your fears,
like, "If it could happen
to these people,
it could happen to me."
It wasn't just the fact
that there were four young kids
who were killed,
it was how they were killed.
You see a very dark side
of humanity.
I guess I think
it's part of my job.
And you're going to feel it,
and, um, and thank God
you feel their pain.
I can kind of understand people.
(STUTTERS)
If you're not in this position,
you just don't really know
the right thing to say
because I probably
wouldn't have.
But for me, some of the things
that really anger me is,
"I'm so lucky. You're so lucky
you have another child."
Well, which one of any one
of you would choose
which child you'd be willing
to let go of?
SONORA: We're fascinated
by this unsolved crime,
but if you interview somebody
who survived through it,
I think the fascination
goes away pretty quickly,
'cause it's really
not fascinating,
it's really sad.
I think, like,
that's the most important
story to tell,
is to tell people
that these events,
like the yogurt shop murders,
has a negative impact
on so many people's lives
for decades, and decades,
and decades.
Like, this isn't something
that you just overcome
or recover from.
That's the story
that's more important
than who done it.
What's it like
for those families to go home
and go to bed that night,
and the next night,
and the next night,
and the next night
and years to come
when their child isn't alive?
And we don't hear those stories
because those people
are so traumatized.
"48 Hours called me
for an interview
leading up to
the 30th anniversary.
The producer had said,
'Erin Moriarty has fond memories
of your mom.'
I'm a sucker for anybody
who was nice to my mom.
During the interview,
Erin Moriarty asked,
'Were your friends' parents
more protective of you
after the murders?'
I responded, 'I didn't
have any friends.
No one talked to me anymore.'
'How about your parents?
Were they more protective?'
I replied, 'I've been talking
with other siblings
who have lost siblings, and they
all say the same thing.'
'When you lose a sibling,
you lose your parents too.'
I lost my parents that day.
My mom went to her room
and I stopped going
to my dad's house."
My family never talked
about my sister after she died.
-Never?
-No.
And
I worry about losing memories.
"The childhood house I remember
was quiet, lonely, unpopulated.
I remember coming home
from school
to find the mail was still
in the mailbox,
my mom was still in bed,
and my sister was still dead."
There is a kind of torture
that continues
by the fact that it's unsolved
and it's ongoing.
"It was helpful
to hear Erin speak
about other
crime victims' families.
This is when I saw
that this strange genre
of crime shows
doesn't just provide fodder
for the curious.
It also provides an outlet
for victims to tell a story
that no one wants to hear."
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SONORA: "When you walk
into the detective's office
at the Austin Police Department,
there are four, 8x10 photographs
of my sister and the other girls
hanging right in front
of the door.
Below them is a 3D model
of the yogurt shop.
Detectives will not
allow themselves to forget.
These are
the first things they see
when they walk
into their office.
It made me sad to note
that it's still hanging
over their heads
as much as mine.
Yet knowing this allowed me
to feel a kinship
with these strangers.
If I met them,
I would want to hug them
and also apologize."
(SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
JONES: You have a person
out there who wasn't there,
who knows he's standing there
every day looking at a murderer,
who up to this point
is getting away with it.
Uh, it's been a tough case.
It's been a tough role
for most of us.
But, you know,
I like to tell people
that we're peddling
as fast as we can
to try to get this thing solved.
And it's all we live and breathe
and think about 24 hours a day.
You know,
we wanted to do right
and it seems like
a lot of the times
we were just struggling
to keep the train on the tracks.
We know all there is to know,
you know, about the you know,
about the crime itself.
And we've got everything ready
except who to charge with it.
When the families suggested
to Huck and I,
"You know, you guys really--
I think we should
I think y'all should
get with a counselor.
I think you need
to talk to somebody."
And, of course I'm going,
"Well, how weak is my shit?"
Where the
the families are saying,
''You guys need
to go talk to somebody."
So, we both did.
That's when I got diagnosed
with PTSD.
And I didn't know what that was.
I thought that
was something that,
you know, you had to be
in a war for, you know.
"As a result of a critical memo
Mr. Jones received
from a superior officer
this week,
he has not been able to function
in a normal manner.
This is not unusual in the case
of post-traumatic
stress disorder."
JONES: Hi, this is--
this is Andrea.
JONES: That's my wife,
Yolanda, over there.
I'm too busy to be tired.
And, uh
I think you get to a point
where your mind just shuts down.
That's it.
JONES: The symptoms for PTSD
listed in the DSM-III are,
"Recurrent distressing dreams
of the event."
Yeah.
"Intense psychological distress
at exposure to events
that symbolize
a traumatic event,
such as anniversaries." Check.
REPORTER:
The chief investigator
working Austin's infamous
yogurt shop murder case
has been reassigned.
Senior Sergeant John Jones
has been on the case
of the murders of four girls
for two and a half years.
"Restricted range of affect,
such as loving feelings
or any deep, real feelings."
Zero relationships
since divorce.
(SMACKS LIPS)
"Difficulty falling
or staying asleep."
Check.
"Irritability."
Small check.
"Exaggerated
startle response"
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
Yeah, now I know why
I haven't read that in a while.
(PAGE RUSTLING)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DOOR CREAKS SHUT)
Let me get these keys
and we'll go to the vault
and I'll show you
some memorabilia
that we do still have.
-(KEYS JANGLE)
-(DOOR UNLOCKS)
This is our old archive safe
that keeps locked up
with all sorts of
lots of rich history and stuff.
And here it is.
This is the yearbook that
that class
had dedicated to her that year.
Um, this was,
this was her memory right here.
Pretty picture.
Yeah, we all were doing
our hair like that, so.
It's interesting
because her time capsule
is starting to come up,
probably because it wasn't
placed in the ground correctly.
But through time
and just Earth's changes,
it's starting to come up.
So, it's very concerning to me.
I don't want it to get in
the wrong hands and stuff.
So, we have a marker here
on this side of the tree,
and I think they had
some plants. I'm not sure.
But on this side of the tree
over here,
is actually another marker
for her.
And it says,
"Time capsule,
preserving memories
of Amy Ayers,
a life that
should have been spared.
February 21st, 1992."
So, this was
a little bit later on.
I would only imagine
that it could be things
from her locker,
maybe some newspaper clippings.
So, this is what we have of her.
STAFF MEMBER 1:
Good afternoon and welcome
to Burnet Middle School.
We're here today for
a special memorial dedication
in honor of Amy Ayers
on this, what would have been
her 14th birthday.
STAFF MEMBER 2:
In and around this courtyard
is where Amy and her friends
used to gather every day.
They would laugh
and talk in carefree times,
and then they gathered
in sorrow.
This tree, which will bloom
white blossoms in the spring,
will be a lasting symbol
of Amy's love of life.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SHAWN AYERS: I like answers.
And right now I don't have much.
I got a lot of questions.
ANGIE AYERS: Back him up.
There's not a day that goes by
that she's not in our mind.
And if we do
cutting horse stuff,
you better believe
that the first thing on our mind
is Amy and the last thing
out of that arena is Amy.
Let me try again.
Oh, yeah.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SHAWN: I'll never know.
That shit can drive you nuts.
(COW MOOS)
SHAWN: Why did this happen?
There's never
an answer good enough.
Bring him back.
ANNOUNCER: Time.
Thank you, Shawn.
That was Cats Royal Bandit
and Mr. Music Man himself,
Shawn Ayers,
from Stephenville, Texas.
When you lose a cow,
there's nothing more irritating.
Because that means the cow won
and that is not what you want,
is the cow to win.
BOB: Through the years.
I've wondered that a lot.
What would she be like
if she was grown up
and what would she be like
if she had kids?
It's Angie.
That's what Amy
would have been like.
She's just a spitting image
of her.
She's right there
in front of me.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ANGIE: It's family-owned
and operated,
independent still.
And we have
a sporting goods side for guns.
We're all a family
and we consider this a family,
and we need to know our patients
and know each other,
know each other's lives.
But when I came in,
they'd already known that
I have excess baggage, I guess,
if you wanna call it that,
that I was gonna have
to deal with.
ANGIE: I was sad for Shawn
and his family.
They are victims of this crime,
and they're having
to beg for answers from
the Austin Police Department.
That's when
I started getting irritated.
And I started like, "Why aren't
they telling y'all anything?"
And the answer was then,
"They don't have to.
This is the way that they do it.
This is the way it has been."
But that's when
I shifted over to, "Uh-uh,
no, there's gotta be
someone out there
that can answer our questions
and help us."
SHAWN:
Every so often you get calls
from somebody about the case.
I got a phone call
from a private investigator.
ANGIE: She said, "Look,
I don't want to be intrusive,
but my sister-in-law told me
about your case.
I helped solve
my best friend's murder
in Dallas. I really think
that I could help y'all."
(RAIN PATTERING)
ANGIE: It's very difficult
to open up to somebody
and let them in
because we're very private.
SHAWN:
And it's not the first time
we've ever been contacted
by a private investigator,
but gut reaction was,
"I think she can help."
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(WIND CHIMES TINKLE)
SHEILA WYSOCKI: All right.
So, you'll notice the chimes
throughout the house.
So, they're all over
in my backyard.
And each chime
represents a client.
And so when they blow,
I can listen. And certain ones,
you know how I am,
certain ones
tell me certain things,
and, you know, when I'm working
on a particular case,
I can hear 'em.
So, this is gonna represent Amy.
You're gonna put it right here,
even if it's not the--
Or right there.
It's up to you guys.
-Where do you want?
-Can it fit?
All right, you can
put it there, too.
It's going to hit. Uh-oh.
Well, okay, so just so you know,
yours is a little bit tangled,
kind of like your case.
-So I'm sorry.
-Pretty.
So, when we're out here working
and when I'm walking the dogs
in the back, I can hear Amy.
-I love that.
-SHEILA: Yeah?
-That's pretty cool.
-SHEILA: Isn't that fun?
I love doing it.
-ANGIE: Thank you.
-SHEILA: Yeah.
All right, guys,
we're going to start.
So, what we do
is we help families, right?
And this is our family
in the yogurt shop case.
Angie has worked
for seven years on
putting (CHUCKLES)
putting pressure on the police
and the DA to get information
to help the girls.
And so we've gone through
what she's done
and she's gotten to a standstill
and that's where we come in.
And my group feels very lucky
-Oh, I hope I don't cry.
-(LAUGHS)
I'm a crier, um,
to have you guys come
and do this.
So, watch your step,
(CHUCKLES) and then take a seat.
-(VOLUNTEERS APPLAUD)
-(SHEILA CLEARS THROAT)
I'm going to start
with you, Catherine.
Do you have anything
you wanna ask?
Um, I'm interested to know what
your thoughts are
on all of the confessions
that were obtained,
what your take is
on false confessions in general.
VOLUNTEER 1: The individual
next door in the party store,
do you have an opinion on
if he would have heard noises?
VOLUNTEER 2:
Two people were spotted
sitting in that booth
at the end of the night.
VOLUNTEER 3: Do you know
if anybody has made an attempt
to see what fits
in the physical space?
And I've done cases,
Sheila and I have done cases
that involve the occult.
VOLUNTEER 4:
He told someone that that night
he saw the devil
come out of that shop.
I thought it was some type
of gang initiation.
The embezzlement,
money laundering,
and the insurance is kind of
under one umbrella right now.
There's the creek people,
the PIB, People in Black.
VOLUNTEER 4: In the back
by the telephone,
there's a cross.
Do you know
or have heard something
as far as that he went and told
other people something
SHEILA: I hate to do this,
girls. On your knees.
You're naked, you're young,
and you don't know what to do.
So, you go, one, two, three.
Well, if I'm running,
you grab this arm, I could spin.
-Amy's 13 years old.
-SHEILA: Right.
-These are guys.
-SHEILA: Right.
Would a guy really need
to smack her with
a cash register drawer?
-SHEILA: That's vengeance.
-Or would they just punch her?
Does that maybe
point to a woman?
SHEILA:
You're 100 percent right.
ANGIE: It's very frustrating
not having answers.
It has consumed me at times.
I'm just trying to do
the right thing.
I'm trying to find the answers
for everybody.
So, I don't see random disarray
with those bodies.
VOLUNTEER 5: Is there some type
of symbolism as to the position
-of the bodies?
-Oh, great point.
ANGIE: It's aggravating.
It's frustrating.
But who else can I ask
to give me the answers
that I'm looking for?
Head, legs, head, legs.
Head, legs, head, legs.
SHEILA: So that's our work,
is to disprove it,
-if we can.
-VOLUNTEER 4:
It could be nothing.
-SHEILA: It could be.
-VOLUNTEER 4:
It really could be nothing.
ANGIE: You would think
after 30 years
that we would have been
a lot further along.
There's been so many people
in the police station
and in the DA's office
that have come and gone.
And every time they do that,
you have to start over.
REPORTER 1:
It has been a frustrating,
painful five years
for family and friends
of Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers,
and Jennifer and Sarah Harbison.
REPORTER 2: Investigators
have followed lead after lead,
but five years later,
they are no closer
to solving the case.
REPORTER 3: News 36
has learned that a number
of Austin homicide investigators
have been assigned
to look at this case once again.
The Austin Police Department
announced today
it will reopen Austin's infamous
yogurt shop murder case.
REPORTER 3: There's
a small group of detectives
in Austin, tasked
with finding any clue
that will crack this case
wide open.
REPORTER 4:
Paul Johnson's been working
to pour over new leads.
(BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
PAUL JOHNSON: At that time,
people that had been assigned
to the yogurt shop case
previously,
had left the detail.
You know, I was reluctant
to get in this.
Well, everybody else
in the homicide detail
was also reluctant.
The rumors was that
there were problems
with the yogurt shop case.
The investigation
had already gone before,
they had come up with suspects
that had been announced publicly
and acted like, "This is them."
And it turns out,
"Well, no, it's not them."
REPORTER: The next day,
he recants the confession.
Things like that
just muddies up a case.
JONES:
When the new group took over,
Huck and I
were pretty much shut out.
They seemed to be saying
that we screwed it up.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JONES: I always thought
that we'd be a part of it,
that we'd be of counsel,
of emeritus,
that they would still come back
to us and say,
"Hey, what do you think?"
HUCKABAY:
I don't believe he and I
should have been
taken off the case.
They sort of
eliminated me totally.
They don't want me
involved anywhere, because I
I throw a candle into the,
into the fire, you know?
JONES: The only thing I regret
about all of that
is how we lost contact
with the families.
JOHNSON: Some people have
actually accused John Jones
of being too close
to the families.
And he actually used that
to get more money,
to get more people,
to get time off.
JONES:
In order to put themselves up,
the new investigators
put us down.
I mean, it sounds kind of rude
or crude maybe, but
I did not have
a close relationship
with the families
because I didn't want to get
too emotionally tied
into their concerns.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
So, here's the door,
the back door.
I don't know if it has
a lock on it
from the outside now, um
We suspect that the suspects
had gone in front
during business hours
and unlocked the back door
to come in after hours
and go in the back door.
This dumpster
was a little closer over here,
but the backs of the buildings
are basically the same.
This creek looks
a little more grown up
than it used to be, but
the trees are 30 years older
and so I guess that's expected.
So, I started going
over the case.
It was very large.
I came up with about
2000 separate reports.
So, there's 2000 separate tips.
And it was just me and Ron Lara.
REPORTER:
The APD Cold Case Unit,
born out of
the yogurt shop task force.
Ron Lara was part
of the original task force,
created to solve the case.
The case continues on.
There's still, uh,
you know, tips coming in.
JOHNSON: We would just work
on one at a time.
And if we worked it up
to saying,
"This is not our suspects,"
we would go to the next tip,
and the next one,
and the next one.
And then we got to
the Maurice Pierce tip.
Remember Maurice Pierce
was arrested roughly ten days
after the yogurt shop murders
in Northcross Mall,
which is, like, two blocks away,
with a gun
-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
-22-caliber.
And the Maurice tip
involved four people.
Maurice Pierce himself,
Robert Springsteen,
Michael Scott, and
Forrest Wellborn.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHNSON:
When I started this case,
I actually thought
the best I could ever do
is probably figure out
in my own mind
who I thought did it,
but never be able
to get evidence to go to trial.
And then it's like
almost overnight,
my whole expectation of how
this might end up, changed.
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
RON LARA:
LARA:
LARA:
LARA:
LARA:
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪