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Daily Texan arhives

Date: 08/15/2000

We will never forget

It was the most brutal crime in Austin history; it was a crime that would forever rob Austin of its innocence. In 1991, the bodies of Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas and Jennifer and Sarah Harbison were found in the charred remains of a yogurt shop off of Anderson Lane. The shocking murder/arson simply became known as the "Yogurt Shop Murders," and Austinites vowed to "never forget" the girls or the crime.

The Austin Police Department and the District Attorney's office have played significant, if not sordid, roles in the nine-year ongoing investigation of the crime. After eight years of misguided leads and dead-ends, the APD looked like it broke the case when it publicly announced it was bringing charges against four young men for the murders. The APD's case was based around four men, Maurice Pierce, Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen and Forrest Welborn, all whom the police had questioned as suspects eight days after the murder, but were dismissed as possible suspects.

But that's where this case falls apart. The police department as well as the prosecution have stumbled repeatedly with numerous ethical and evidentiary obstacles that threaten to destroy what's left of the flimsy case they have against the four suspects.

The police felt that an alleged videotaped confession from two of the suspects in September was enough to go ahead with their indictments of the four suspects. But a disturbing videotape of the September interrogation surfaced in May which showed Detective Robert Merrill apparently holding a gun to the back of Michael Scott's head while he was sitting in his chair being questioned by authorities. Many defense attorneys believe that if the detective was actually holding a gun to Scott's head, the confession could be thrown out or used to reverse the case if they are somehow found guilty. Also, in May, ballistics reports taken from a gun found on Maurice Pierce's person shortly after the murders found that the bullets taken from the crime scene didn't match Pierce's gun, and that his pistol "probably was not the murder weapon."

Then in June, one of the grand jurors who issued indictments against the men revealed that she had serious doubts regarding the truthfulness of the prosecutors in the case and believed that they may have actually withheld evidence from the jurors. Less than a month later, Forrest Welborn was a free man after a second grand jury failed to indict him, forcing a judge to dismiss the charges against him.

To top it all off, in a Department of Public Safety report last week, DNA samples taken from the bodies at the crime scene apparently do not belong to any of the four suspects in the case.

The police department and the district attorney's offices should be commended for the enthusiasm and determination they have displayed in trying to solve this case, but this case has been severely mishandled since day one. From flooding the crime scene by extinguishing the fire, to attempting to convict the suspects without any physical evidence, the lack of professionalism exhibited by those involved is disheartening.

The families of the four girls have already been through one horrible ordeal, by forcing them to relive their painful tragedy throughout a miserably botched case, what little closure they may have been experiencing is gone. Now three other families are in turmoil, waiting to see if their sons are innocent, or if they will be put away or executed for their guilt. The lack of evidence and shoddy prosecution of this case has victimized everyone involved. With an election in November, District Attorney Ronny Earle should take note, "We will not forget."