The Yogurt Shop Murders: What happened to the teens? Disturbing details of the 1991 incident, explored

The Yogurt Shop Murders (Image via HBO)
The Yogurt Shop Murders (Image via HBO)

Never before or never after has the City of Austin been witness to a more disturbing or gruesome crime than The Yogurt Shop Murders in 1991. What makes the crime even more gruesome is the fact that it remains unsolved to this day. The four-part HBO docuseries chronicling the murder and the investigation that followed premieres on August 3.

Four young girls, looking forward to going back home, had no idea that they would never leave the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop. Even though four boys were implicated and arrested for the crimes, their convictions were later overturned, and the case remains cold to this day.

Keep reading to find out what happened to the teens of Austin in 1991.


The Yogurt Shop Murders: Disturbing details about the case that the HBO docuseries follows

The Yogurt Shop Murders (Image via HBO)
The Yogurt Shop Murders (Image via HBO)

The fact that The Yogurt Shop Murders remains unsolved to this day is one of the most disturbing aspects of this case, as the victims' families have to live with the information that their daughters' killers are still out there and living. There has not been an ounce of closure for these family members.

Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas were working their usual shift at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas, on December 6, 1991, when Jennifer's younger sister, Sarah Harbinson, and her friend Amy Ayers came into the shop, waiting for them to close so that they could catch a ride home.

However, as fate would have it, the four girls never made it out of the shop.

The four girls were not even eighteen

The four girls who were murdered were not even eighteen at the time of the crime. Jennifer and Eliza were seventeen years old and working at the yogurt shop, with an exceptionally bright future ahead of them. Jennifer's younger sister Sarah was only 15 years old, whereas her friend was only thirteen at the time of the crime.

The yogurt shop was burned down to destroy all evidence, and the attempt was successful

The Yogurt Shop Murders (Image via HBO)
The Yogurt Shop Murders (Image via HBO)

Shortly before midnight, firefighters responded to a report of a fire at the yogurt shop. After getting the fire out, they discovered everything black and grey, without a speck of color, except the girls' bodies. Investigators have revealed that this was done, in all likelihood, to destroy all evidence of the crime. Considering that the case remains unsolved to this day, more than thirty years later, the perpetrators were successful.

The girls were dead even before the fire was started

The assumption that the shop was set on fire to erase all evidence regarding the crime was found true when the medical examiners revealed that the girls were shot dead. The Yogurt Shop Murders revealed that Amy had been shot twice, whereas the rest were shot once in the back of their heads. The girls were found gagged, with their hands tied behind their backs with their clothes, and at least one of the girls had been se*ually assaulted.

Two men who visited the yogurt shop that day remain unaccounted for to this day

According to the investigators, 52 people have been accounted for and interviewed by the authorities in accordance with having visited the shop that day. However, several of these people described two men in the shop who did not look like they belonged there, who did not order any frozen yogurt, just drinks, and who have still not been accounted for. The authorities have no name for these two men, and their identities remain a mystery to this day.


The four-part docuseries following The Yogurt Shop Murders premieres on August 3:

"This four-part documentary revisits the case through interviews with investigators, victims’ families, and the two men who served time for the murders - examining law enforcement practices, relentless press coverage, and the lasting effects of grief."

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Edited by Sroban Ghosh