I don’t post on Websleuths often, but this case is one that I’ve followed over the years. I lived in Austin during the yogurt shop murders. I was in college in December 1991, a few years older than the victims, and I lived in south Austin when the crime occurred. That crime, along with the Colleen Reid crime, was absolutely shocking for the community. In the late 90s, I worked in north Austin at Lakeline Mall, and I hired teen girls to work in the store I managed. Several of them told me of their parents’ concerns for working the closing shift, and I assured them that we all leave together to the area of the parking lot we all parked in with security guards making sure we were safe. The yogurt shop murders changed the entire Austin community.
I’ve always kept up with the ins and outs of this case over the years, and when Covid closed everything down, I borrowed the book, Who Killed These Girls? by Beverly Lowry. That gave me a lot of details I hadn’t heard before. The more recent events with the DNA and the FBI not willing to cooperate in giving information to Austin investigators is frustrating for sure, but I still hold out hope that new advances in technology will reveal the killers eventually. I’m especially excited about M-vac DNA retrieval. It can be used on old evidence and is 12 times more likely to pick up DNA than traditional swabbing, revealing much larger samples for investigators to work with.
I still live in Austin and I have driven to the strip mall where the crime took place to get a real life look at the building. The businesses have changed names, but the building, parking lot, streets, etc are the same. Northcross Mall, where Amy and Sarah hung out before Jennifer picked them up on her break, is not the same as it was. But, that is about a half mile down the road from the yogurt shop location. There are a some things that I think about the location that should have been pertinent to the case. One is that behind the building is a narrow strip of pavement that has the back doors to the businesses, dumpsters, and only enough room for one car to fit driving behind it. The pavement has a curb, then grass that gently slopes down to Shoal Creek, which runs behind the strip mall. If I were looking at this case, I would know that the killers left out the back door and it is possible that they did NOT walk to the front parking lot and drive a car out onto the main roads. If they had done that, they could have risked being seen or caught. It’s very possible they went on foot, down and across Shoal Creek. If investigators did not collect evidence in that creek, then they really screwed up. I’m almost 100% sure these guys smoked, because they certainly had a way to start a fire, which meant they carried a lighter. If they were cigarette smokers, and they walked to the yogurt shop from the neighborhood, then collecting discarded cigarette butts would be very important. I feel like the use of scent tracking dogs would have been extremely helpful to know how these guys left the scene. Dogs could have followed the scent of humans that had evidence of starting a fire, or evidence of blood. I feel like a lot of evidence could be re-examined.
I have an opinion/hypothesis about what could have happened in the case. I have a feeling that those last two guys that were in the shop were drug users and they needed money. In 1991, the likelihood of robbing a business for drip money would be high. I feel like one or both lived or visited someone in the neighborhood along Shoal Creek. (I believe the neighborhood is called Allendale.) I think they knew that young girls worked in the yogurt shop and it would be an easy target for robbery as it closed. I bet they had been in the yogurt shop previously at closing time. I think they were loitering in it that night, scoping out customers to see if anyone stood out as someone that would notice them. I think they purposely were keeping their heads down as that last couple came in and left, to avoid being identified later. I do not think their plan was rape and murder, just robbery. I think once the crime was in progress, they escalated the offense to rape, murder, and arson. I do not think the girls knew them, but I bet they felt uncomfortable having these two men in the shop at closing time. Everyone has an inner voice that knows when something isn’t right, and I bet Jennifer or Eliza or both of them felt this way as they were cleaning up. If I were searching for these killers, I would be looking for two young men in the area that were friends and wore a tan and a green jacket. Somebody would certainly know them. As an investigator, I would have been in the creek photographing shoe prints and picking up cans, bottles, cigarette butts, etc. I would have canvassed the entire neighborhood asking about guys that fit either description and also if anyone suddenly left town. I feel like this case was absolutely solvable and it still is.
One of the cold case investigators that has been tackling all the DNA drama in these past couple of years is Jay Swann. His daughter and my daughter were friends in elementary school and used to play and have sleepovers together. I have met him on a few occasions and I know he is doing everything in his power to solve this case. Even though APD messed it up and the prosecutors convicted the wrong men, I don’t think APD is corrupt or looking to avoid catching the real killers. I think they are actively working this case every day. I just think they need a break. Hopefully that will come with forensic advances in technology.
