00:00:06
Every year marks another year, you know, that there's no closure. I still have insomnia 30 years after the
00:00:16
fact. I wish I'd solved the crime for the families. We tried. This is the uh I can't believe it's
00:00:38
I was a cop for 32 years at Austin PD. I'll always be associated with that case.
00:00:53
There's no getting away from that. I just hope one of these days we can put this thing to bed.
00:01:03
Yeah. >> Uh, you hear about the call 2900 West Anderson? >> Yeah, I'm headed over there.
00:01:08
>> The call occurred at 11:27 p.m. >> Homicide 4. >> Homicide 4. >> Did you get my in there?
00:01:21
I was the lead investigator on the I can't believe it's yoga shop murder case on December 6th, 1991.
00:01:30
There was a robbery, fire, and murder committed. >> It's all right. I'll make the call
00:01:36
myself. The >> victims were Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ays.
00:01:50
I can still see him. I can still see the inside of that place. That stuff's indelibly burned in my
00:01:57
mind. >> There has never been in Austin a more gristly, ugly crime. >> There's four girls in there and they're
00:02:07
all beautiful girls and they're very young. They're cleaning up. They lock up the yogurt shop and then we believe it
00:02:14
to be two individuals came in. They forced them to the back room at gunpoint. >> I lost my sister Eliza Thomas in the
00:02:26
yogurt shop murders. I was 13. Yeah, I was 13 when my sister died. The whole city was in shock.
00:02:38
Everywhere we drove, there were these billboards with a picture of my sister on it. And so it's like you just hold on
00:02:46
to anything you can to get through these moments that are so impossible. >> We went where the case took us.
00:02:55
>> Open the door. Police. >> We're either going to charge some people and get them in jail or clear them from
00:03:00
this case. >> I don't know how many murders I've tried. It's unlike anything I've ever
00:03:07
done before. It's nothing but one unexpected twist after another. Do you believe that there is right now
00:03:16
some evidence that could lead to the killers? >> Yes. >> Yes, I know who did this. I just don't
00:03:22
know his name. >> Is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end? So, what is all of this here?
00:04:15
>> These are my notes. >> It's been more than 30 years since Jon Jones began the painstaking search
00:04:26
for the killers of four teenage girls in an Austin yogurt shop. >> Oh, that's the big book. This one u is
00:04:34
really from day one. He has long since retired from the Austin Police Department and moved out of Texas, but
00:04:41
copies of some of the case files moved with him. >> Hypnosis, polygraph, confessions.
00:04:49
>> You know, I noticed this sitting here. >> Yep. >> We will not forget. You haven't?
00:04:56
>> Nope. Can't. >> The images of December 6th, 1991 remain all too vivid. I can definitely still
00:05:05
see it. >> What do y'all got out there? I'm in RA airport. >> It started with that call from dispatch.
00:05:18
>> Okay, I'm copying the fire part. You cut out on the first part of that >> to go to a scene of a fire that would
00:05:24
turn into something far worse. Apparently a lovely homicide is free. >> Last chance.
00:05:41
>> And then about halfway out there, they called me again on the radio and said,
00:05:44
"We found a fourth body." >> A local TV news crew happened to be filming Jones on a ride along that
00:05:51
night. >> What place of business is this here? This is the uh I can't believe it's
00:05:59
over. >> Okay. >> Fire department had just knocked down the fire. I mean, there was still
00:06:06
a lot of water in there, a lot of smoke still. It was all muted grays and blacks.
00:06:14
There was no color in there with the exception of the girls. >> The girls were quickly identified. Two
00:06:22
had been working at the shop, closing up that night. Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison were both 17 years old.
00:06:30
Jennifer's 15-year-old sister Sarah and their friend, 13-year-old Amy Ays, had met them there to head home.
00:06:42
The four girls have been gagged, tied up with their own clothing, and shot in the
00:06:47
head. Investigators would learn that at least one of the victims had been sexually assaulted. The yogurt shop had
00:06:54
also been set on fire, destroying potential evidence. >> There was smoke and soot on every
00:07:00
surface, so kind of made fingerprinting kind of difficult. >> This was a crime like none Austin had
00:07:07
seen before. Jones knew he needed help and from the scene contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the
00:07:16
FBI, and the Texas Department of Public Safety. >> Soon as we knew what type of guns we
00:07:23
were looking for, that information went out nationwide. Gunshot wounds showed two different
00:07:31
types of guns were used, leading investigators to believe that there were at least two killers on the loose. What
00:07:38
were the two guns? >> 380 and a 22. And we were covered all of the rounds. >> The weapons though were not found and a
00:07:47
task force worked to come up with potential suspects. >> They were from all spectrums. I mean, we
00:07:53
looked at everybody from family members to drifters. >> And while police tracked down leads, the
00:08:01
families and the city of Austin grieved. The Harbison family lost their only children. Daughters Jennifer, a
00:08:11
hardworking high school senior, and Sarah, who was enjoying sports and clubs as a high school freshman. Their mother
00:08:19
Barbara spoke with us in 1992. >> My life was sort of focused around them for from here until eternity. Someone
00:08:27
took eternity away from me. >> I lost my daughter. I lost my first dance. >> Bobs is the father of the youngest
00:08:36
victim, Amy. A country girl with a love for animals. >> I want to see her graduate.
00:08:44
I want to see her become a veterinarian. She was a daddy's girl. >> I remember the shock.
00:08:53
>> Sonora Thomas, 13 years old when her only sibling, Eliza, was murdered, had a
00:08:59
hard time dealing with the loss of the sister she looked up to. >> I remember fantasizing for days that my
00:09:07
sister had somehow escaped and run away and that she was going to come back. And
00:09:12
so that's what I was kind of holding on to. Her parents struggled as well. >> My family never talked about my sister
00:09:20
after she died. >> Never. >> No. >> It's too It's too painful. >> Sonora did as best she could picking up
00:09:33
some pieces of her sister's life. Eliza, an animal lover, had a pig she planned to enter in a livestock show. Just a few
00:09:42
months after the murders, Sonora took over those duties. >> Third place, Sonora Thomas.
00:09:49
>> While Sonora may have seemed to be coping, the reality, she says, was far different. You had to grow up quickly.
00:09:58
>> Very quickly, I would say I fell apart under that pressure. We knew they were
00:10:04
hurting because, you know, we were hurting, too. >> There you go. Open your little mouth.
00:10:08
>> Jones, a parent himself, felt the family's grief. He promised to do all he could to help them.
00:10:16
>> We told them what we could, and I assured him that we would keep them a prize as to everything that was
00:10:21
happening. And and we did. >> Jones also made a pledge to the families involving the shirt he wore on the night
00:10:28
of the murders. I kind of made a promise to them the next time they saw me with that green and white shirt on that that
00:10:35
was a signal to them that, you know, we knew who did it. >> And Jones seemed assured they would find
00:10:41
the killers. >> And we stayed in constant contact with the behavioral science unit at uh the
00:10:48
FBI and Quantico. They said that I should, as the face of the investigation, project an air of
00:10:54
confidence that would cause the the bad guy to shiver in his boots. >> So, look in the camera and be confident.
00:11:02
>> And when we followed him working the case in 1992, he did just that. >> You know, let me just say this. Whoever
00:11:10
you are out there, you're going to be mine one of these days. >> Where you at? Okay.
00:11:15
>> I'm right here. >> But trying to figure that out was daunting. 342 people that have been uh
00:11:22
listed as suspect, but we're looking at pages and pages of suspects here. >> One of those early suspects was a
00:11:28
teenager named Maurice Pierce. He was arrested 8 days after the murders at a mall near the yogurt shop carrying a 22
00:11:37
caliber gun, the type used in the murders. >> The 22s were unmatchable. >> So, you can't say it wasn't his gun?
00:11:47
>> No. But there was no way to >> prove that it was his gun. Um, he gave a statement. A matter of
00:11:56
fact, I took his statement and he implicated three other boys. >> Joan says Maurice Pierce claimed that he
00:12:04
was driving a getaway car and that three acquaintances, Forest Wellorn, Michael Scott, and Robert Springsteen, were
00:12:12
involved in the murders. But Pice's story began to fall apart. It started to crater when
00:12:20
we wired him up to go talk to Forest and we were listening in on the wire and it it was pretty obvious Forest didn't
00:12:31
know what Maurice was talking about. >> And when Wellborn, Scott, and Springsteen were brought in for
00:12:37
questioning, they too denied any involvement. It was decided there was just not enough evidence to charge them.
00:12:46
Stop right here. Right here. >> And the search for other suspects continued. Get down on the ground. Get
00:12:52
down on the ground. On the ground flow. Anyway, >> 2 months after the yogurt shop murders,
00:13:13
with no viable suspects, police were chasing leads no matter where it took them.
00:13:20
>> In vampires, uh the occult, graveyard, rights, >> the task force became aware of a
00:13:28
counterculture type group of local residents known to be into the supernatural. >> They go out and dance and take pictures
00:13:35
on tombstones. and investigators began to hear that this group might be connected to
00:13:42
something far more serious. >> The the tips were that they were talking about um the murders.
00:13:49
>> Talking about the yogurt shop murders, >> the yogurt shop murders. Yes. >> There was one woman in particular whose
00:13:56
name kept coming up in connection with these tips. >> She got stopped at Oakwood Cemetery. The
00:14:03
task force planned a raid on her home. Look at >> my computer. >> Hoping to see if any evidence might be
00:14:08
found there. >> Stop right here. Right here. >> I locked the door. >> Police. Okay. Police off.
00:14:19
>> Police offic. >> It was creepy in there. all that stuff back there like this around.
00:14:31
>> But as it turns out, a lot of that stuff was rat bones and theatrical parts, but
00:14:37
it was a good lead. So, we finally figured out that >> they're just living a makebelieve life.
00:14:43
>> This Sergeant Hook could be out to task force. >> The raid may have been a bust, but it
00:14:48
wasn't long before the task force had its eyes on another person of interest. This sketch shows a man that multiple
00:14:57
eyewitnesses told police they saw sitting in a car outside the yogurt shop on the night of the murders
00:15:04
>> and it was somebody we really wanted to talk to. So we put it out there >> and the response they got came from an
00:15:11
unexpected source. >> Couple of other investigators from the sex crimes unit came up and go, "We have
00:15:17
a sketch that looks just like that." Three weeks before the yogurt shop murders, a young woman in Austin had
00:15:25
been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Police had released this sketch of three men wanted in connection with that
00:15:33
crime. One of those suspects bore a striking resemblance to that man witnesses reported sitting in a car outside the
00:15:43
yogurt shop. You know, I just kind of went when I saw the the composite. >> A tip came in that the men wanted in the
00:15:53
kidnapping and sexual assault case had fled to Mexico. Two were caught and arrested, one who resembled the person
00:16:01
of interest in the yogurt shop sketch. The development made national news. When they got caught in Mexico, we went down
00:16:11
there to interview them. >> Jones's team questioned the man and so too did the Mexican authorities.
00:16:19
>> But the Mexican government announced to the whole world that they confessed and
00:16:23
they were going to try for the murders down there. >> They confessed to the yogurt shop.
00:16:27
>> Yes, they did. >> But Jones learned those confessions had details that didn't match the crime
00:16:33
scene. Even the caliber of guns they claimed to use was wrong. >> There was too many inconsistencies in
00:16:41
the confession. >> So Jones's team reintered the man. And he says this time they recanted just
00:16:49
about everything. It made Jones and other investigators wonder if those confessions were coerced by the Mexican
00:16:57
authorities. The once promising lead fell apart. It was depressing. >> Over the following years, there would be
00:17:10
other confessions, ones that were willingly given. >> You know, we've faced six confessions.
00:17:17
>> Six people who confessed. >> Yeah. Written. >> That confessed to this crime. >> Yes, they did.
00:17:23
>> And they didn't do it. >> Nope. In 1994, after nearly three years of leading the investigation, John Jones
00:17:34
was moved out of the homicide division. He says it was a mutual decision. Austin
00:17:39
police wanted fresh eyes working the case, and Jones felt it was time to move on. Other detectives took over, and as
00:17:48
time passed, the victim's families were left wondering why no one had been arrested. Amy's mother, Pam, spoke to us
00:17:57
in 1996. >> They're probably out there leading a life as normal as they've ever had,
00:18:04
and ours is never going to be the same. >> That same year, Eliza Thomas's mom moved
00:18:11
away from Austin and the painful reminders. Running into people who were constantly
00:18:18
asking how the case was going was very hard on me and especially my daughter Sonora.
00:18:25
>> Sonora's life had taken a downward spiral. >> In my high school years, things really
00:18:31
deteriorated. Drugs, using alcohol, being hospitalized, going to a boarding school for, you know, disturbed
00:18:39
teenagers, things like that. The case seems stalled until October 1999. >> Some breaking news. Austin police have
00:18:48
arrested four men in connection with the yogurt shop murders of 1991. >> There were finally arrests. But would it
00:18:56
answer the question on the billboard that had been haunting Austin for nearly a decade?
00:19:18
After nearly eight years, Austin nightites are getting some answers in the case of the yogurt shot murder.
00:19:23
>> I want to start off by thanking y'all for joining us here today. For almost eight years, we've all waited
00:19:29
to hear the words that our police department is close to a point of solving a crime that has haunted our
00:19:37
very souls. Today, we finally get to hear those words. >> When four men were arrested in the fall
00:19:45
of 1999 for the yogurt shop murders, relief was felt citywide. Sarah, Jennifer, Amy, Eliza, we did not
00:19:58
forget. >> The girls families struggled to take it all in. >> There had been so many false leads
00:20:08
for such a long time. It was hard to know how to think about it and how to feel about it.
00:20:15
>> But there were finally names and faces to blame. Maurice Pierce, Forest Welbborne, Michael Scott, and Robert
00:20:24
Springsteen. To the task force, they were familiar names and faces. They were the same young men that John Jones and
00:20:33
his investigators questioned just 8 days after the murders. >> Did you do this? I have no comment.
00:20:40
>> And ultimately released for lack of evidence. I was confident and remain confident to this day that we got as far
00:20:48
with him as we could then, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't something developed later that would cause them to
00:20:56
actually go out and arrest him. So, I was going, "Yes, good job." I was ready to
00:21:03
dig out the hideous green and white shirt. But before that shirt could come out of
00:21:08
the closet, the one he promised the girl's families he would wear when the case was solved, Jones wanted to know
00:21:15
more about what led to the arrest. >> There was no physical evidence. Nothing. >> Joe James Sawyer was appointed as Robert
00:21:25
Springsteen's attorney. What made them go back and charge these guys? Because the new officers when they when they
00:21:33
reopened the cold case convinced themselves that we let them slip through our fingers. We had to have had the
00:21:41
murderers in the beginning. In part they decided that because they had nothing else.
00:21:49
>> There was no new physical evidence suddenly tying any of the four men to the crime. But what police did have were
00:21:57
two newly obtained confessions. One from Michael Scott and another from Sawyer's
00:22:03
own client, Robert Springsteen. Michael Scott's confession came first. He was questioned over four days.
00:22:13
>> Come on, Michael. You're doing good. Tell us. Let's do this today. Let's do it.
00:22:16
>> Remember seeing girl? I remember one girl screaming, terrified. >> Scott told investigators that he and the
00:22:23
others only intended a simple robbery. He said they cased the yogurt shop earlier that day and then after dark. He
00:22:31
said they came back armed with two guns. >> I hear the gun go off. I only pulled the trigger once. I hear
00:22:41
another gun go off. >> Investigators claimed that Springsteen later corroborated much of what Scott
00:22:47
said. >> How you doing? Is that correct? >> But after intense questioning, he went
00:22:54
further. didn't say it. >> Springsteen told them he shot one girl and raped her.
00:23:06
>> He was so tired of this. He'd already been questioned. He'd already been through that mill. He thought, "You know
00:23:13
what? I'll tell you any damn thing you want." >> Sawyer maintains his client is innocent
00:23:19
and says the confession was coerced. In 2009, Robert Springsteen explained to 48
00:23:25
Hours why he would admit to doing something so horrible, something he says he didn't do.
00:23:33
>> I was bered and bered and bered by the police officers until they obtained what
00:23:38
it was they wanted to hear. They were not going to allow me to leave. And I I basically they they broke me down.
00:23:44
>> Let me just ask you, did you have anything to do >> No. >> with the murders at the yogurt shop?
00:23:49
>> No. Never. Even though Joe James Sawyer didn't have Michael Scott as his client,
00:23:54
he says he has serious concerns about his confession, too. >> Is that the gun you shot somebody with,
00:24:01
Mike? >> I don't. Is that the gun you walked up behind somebody with and shot in the
00:24:06
head? >> I frankly couldn't believe it. They terrorized him and he was afraid to say
00:24:14
no. Forest Wellborn denied having anything to do with the murders, but police were convinced he was the lookout
00:24:21
that night and Michael Scott placed him at the scene. >> Hi, I'm Aaron Moretti with CBS.
00:24:30
>> I spoke to Wellbourne in 1999 in jail shortly after his arrest. >> Were you there that night?
00:24:37
>> No. >> Were you there as a lookout? No, >> I'm answering. >> You had nothing to do with this.
00:24:47
>> Nothing at all. >> Well, had been questioned multiple times by investigators over the years, and he
00:24:53
never wavered. He, like the others, first came on police radar, when in 1991, just days after the murders,
00:25:02
Maurice Pierce had been caught with that 22 caliber gun at the mall near the yogurt shop. PICE told the detectives
00:25:10
back then that he had given the handgun to Wellbborne and that it had been used in the yogurt shop murders.
00:25:17
>> Why would he say that? >> I don't know. >> Well has always maintained his innocence
00:25:24
despite pressure from the police. >> They'll get right in my face and, you know, tell me everything I said was
00:25:31
a lie. Remember, false confessions in this case were nothing new. Joan said that six written false
00:25:40
confessions were obtained when he was in charge. So, when he learned that the two
00:25:45
confessions were all the new investigators seemed to have, it gave him pause. >> I go, well, maybe I shouldn't get that
00:25:54
shirt out just yet. >> It wasn't long before the case against the man began crumbling. Charges against
00:26:02
Forest Wellorn were dismissed after two grand juries failed to indict him. And later on, charges were dropped against
00:26:09
Maurice Pierce for lack of evidence. Everything fell apart except the cases against Michael Scott and Robert
00:26:17
Springsteen. And with Scott and Springsteen's confessions, the victim's families felt prosecutors had a strong
00:26:25
case. These young men have been implicated and they have confessed and they can withdraw it. But the truth is
00:26:32
they actually were there and they actually did the murders. In 2001, nearly 10 years after the
00:26:53
murders of Eliza Thomas, Amy Ays, and Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, the yogurt shop murder trials began. Both
00:27:02
defendants, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, faced the death penalty. >> The only thing that ever tied Robert or
00:27:10
Mike Scott to that crime scene were their confessions. >> Confessions that both defendants said
00:27:17
were coerced. The two were tried separately. Springsteen's trial was first. Neither of the men would testify
00:27:25
against one another. So instead, prosecutors used their confessions against one another, reading parts of
00:27:32
the confessions to the juries. Spring seeds lawyer, Joe James Sawyer, was frustrated that he couldn't
00:27:39
cross-examine Scott. >> I thought the trial was massively unfair to my client and that it was being done
00:27:46
systematically and with deliberation. The trial lasted three weeks. The jury deliberated for 13 hours.
00:27:55
>> Defendant, please run >> and then reached a verdict. >> We the jury find the defendant, Robert
00:28:01
Springsteen IV, guilty of the offense of capital murder. >> Guilty. Springsteen was condemned to
00:28:08
death row. In 2002, Michael Scott went on trial. He was convicted as well. He was sentenced
00:28:16
to life in prison. But the case didn't end there. 15 years after the murders came a shocking turn of events.
00:28:26
>> In a 54 decision, the court behind me said that Michael Scott's constitutional
00:28:30
rights were violated during his trial and therefore should get a new one. >> Both Scott and Springsteen's convictions
00:28:37
were overturned on constitutional grounds. The Sixth Amendment gives defendants the right to confront
00:28:44
accusers. And remember, in Scott and Springsteen's trials, their confessions were used against one another, but they
00:28:52
weren't allowed to question each other in court. >> And the relief, the relief was incredible.
00:29:02
>> But that relief for the defendants came as a devastating blow to the victim's
00:29:07
families. We later spoke to Eliza Thomas's mother, Maria, about that moment. >> Every time I hear those words that their
00:29:18
rights were violated, just feel like I'm going to go insane. Their rights were violated.
00:29:25
Our girls were murdered. >> It ruins your sense of fairness. It ruins your sense of
00:29:33
that we live in a just world. Even though their convictions were overturned, Scott and Springsteen were
00:29:41
not released. A new district attorney, Rosemary Lmberg, was determined to retry them. In an effort to find more
00:29:49
evidence, her office had ordered DNA tests on vaginal swabs taken from the victims at the time of the murders.
00:29:59
It's called YSTR testing and was fairly new in 2009 when we spoke with DA Lmberg. This technology searches for
00:30:09
male DNA only. >> A partial male DNA profile was obtained from one of the victims believed to have
00:30:18
been sexually assaulted and no one expected what it would reveal. Does that DNA match any of the
00:30:26
four young men who were originally accused and two of them who have been convicted?
00:30:32
>> It does not. >> The DNA did not match any of the original four suspects, including Scott
00:30:40
and Springsteen. And that's significant because Springsteen in that confession he said was coerced told investigators
00:30:48
he raped one of the girls. CC Moore is a DNA expert and genetic genealogologist whom we asked about the
00:30:58
case and the role of YSTR DNA in criminal cases. It is a tool that can eliminate almost
00:31:08
everyone. It should eliminate everybody but the suspect. If their YSDR does not match,
00:31:17
>> they did not contribute that >> because where that DNA was found. Yes. In this case, it's very important.
00:31:25
>> The district attorney was focused on finding the source of that DNA. She wondered if Springsteen and Scott had
00:31:32
another partner. >> I remain really confident that both Springsteen and Scott were responsible
00:31:39
for killing those poor girls. >> But in 2009, with no matches on that DNA, Lmberg dropped charges against
00:31:47
Springsteen and Scott. After nearly 10 years behind bars, they were released but not exonerated, leaving open the
00:31:56
possibility they could be retrieded at a later time. >> This was a difficult decision and one
00:32:04
I'd rather not have to make. >> The question remained though, whose DNA was it? >> I know who it is.
00:32:11
>> The killers. >> You're convinced that that >> that is a certain truth. Amber Fairley
00:32:17
was part of both Scott and Springsteen's defense teams. She came up with a theory
00:32:22
that the mystery DNA might belong instead to two never identified men who witnesses reported seen sitting in the
00:32:31
yogurt shop just before it closed. Those two men were described wearing fatigued colored jackets. They were very
00:32:43
slouched over whispering like they were it was a very close conversation in a booth.
00:32:49
>> Officials tried to track down those two men as well as the source of the DNA.
00:32:54
And then in 2017, an Austin police investigator searched a public online DNA database to see if he
00:33:03
could get a hit. And unbelievably, he did. I thought, my god, we actually have a chance, a shot to solve this
00:33:13
crime after so many years. >> I really thought this was it. I really thought we had a chance to solve it.
00:33:36
US Congressman Michael McCall, like so many others from Austin, hoped that the recently uncovered DNA in the yogurt
00:33:44
shop murder case might finally bring answers to the victim's families. >> We'll never forget that tragic day. It's
00:33:53
stained in my memory. 25 years after the murders, the Austin Police Department went searching for a
00:34:00
match to the YSDR DNA that had been found on the yogurt shop victim believed to have been sexually assaulted. And in
00:34:09
2017, they got a break. On a public DNA database used for population studies, investigators thought they had found a
00:34:20
match. >> I've seen DNA prove homicide cases. So the DNA evidence is really the key here.
00:34:29
>> But that sample from the crime scene was not a complete DNA profile. It was just
00:34:36
YSTR, the male portion of DNA. And it was not a very detailed sample having just 16 markers.
00:34:45
>> 16 STRs is not a very powerful match. There could be millions of people with that same profile. So in genetic
00:34:53
genealogy, we usually use 67 or 111 markers or maybe even more. But isn't it a place to start? It is. It's not
00:35:03
absolute, but if there's nothing else to work with, it is certainly something to
00:35:08
look into. Still, it seemed to be the most promising lead in years. But there was a problem. The seemingly matching
00:35:16
sample on the public database had been submitted anonymously by the FBI. That meant it came from a federally convicted
00:35:24
offender, arresty, or detainee, but had no name attached to it. When Austin authorities tried to get that name, the
00:35:33
FBI would not provide it, citing privacy laws. >> There are some restrictions on privacy.
00:35:39
So, it gets into some very sort of uh, you know, uh, dicey issues. >> Frustrated, officials reached out to
00:35:46
Congressman McCall for help. And so I pressed the FBI very hard. >> Finally, in early 2020, the FBI agreed
00:35:55
to work with the Austin Police Department to see if further testing could be done on that YSDR DNA from the
00:36:03
crime scene. >> I was very excited about it. The idea that we could bring this case to a to
00:36:10
closure for the families and bring those responsible to justice. More advanced testing came up with
00:36:17
additional markers, 25 instead of the original 16. But as so often happened in this case,
00:36:26
what seemed so promising turned into disappointment. Some of the additional markers did not
00:36:33
match the FBI sample. In other words, what seemed to be a match was not. In a letter to Congressman McCall, the FBI
00:36:43
explained the new results quote conclusively exclude the male donor of the FBI sample. As such, the FBI YSDR
00:36:54
profile is not an investigative lead. >> And that was the greatest disappointment
00:37:00
because we really thought we had it. >> If it didn't match that individual, doesn't it still mean there's somebody
00:37:07
out there? This DNA belongs to somebody, right? >> It does. It does. Um and that's why
00:37:14
we're we're not going to rest till we find the match. >> How important then is this DNA profile
00:37:19
that exists to solving this case? >> I mean, it's um it's everything. With DNA research advancing so quickly,
00:37:31
there's real hope that one day that sample of DNA obtained 30 years ago may finally solve this case. Still, it will
00:37:41
not erase the pain or the loss of lives. Every year that goes by, I get farther and farther away from my sister,
00:37:50
you know, and I worry about losing memories. Sonora Thomas struggled for years with
00:38:01
panic attacks and physical pain until with the help of therapy, she realized it was connected to the murder of her
00:38:09
sister, Eliza. With a unique understanding of what trauma victims experience, Sonora wanted to help others
00:38:17
like her and became a therapist. >> There's so many moments, you know, when your heart is open. You know, you're
00:38:25
joyful, but there's also this loss that's always accompanying your life. >> Senor found it helpful to look for ways
00:38:33
to remember Eliza. When we got married, we have flower and an empty chair at our
00:38:38
ceremony and my sister was mentioned. >> Compounding Sonora's pain, her mother died in 2015.
00:38:46
Maria Thomas passed away with so many unresolved questions about the murder of her daughter.
00:38:54
>> There is a kind of torture that continues by the fact that it's unsolved and it's ongoing.
00:39:04
It's always there. >> John Jones is still haunted by the fact that the case is unsolved and by what he
00:39:14
saw that gruesome night. He has suffered from PTSD through the years. >> I had completely shut down
00:39:24
uh to where all my energy was directed at at the case. >> It took a toll on you, didn't it, John?
00:39:32
even 30 years afterwards. >> Well, yeah, it would on anybody. I think not as much as the families, you
00:39:39
understand? >> I know. >> Whatever pain I'm having pales in comparison to what they
00:39:46
what they're going through >> these days. Jones finds solace singing in his church choir.
00:39:58
>> I can relax when I'm in church. Leave the world behind. Leave outside. >> No, I I know it's just past the door.
00:40:08
>> And when he's in that outside world, the families of Amy Heirs, Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, and Eliza Thomas are
00:40:17
never far from his thoughts. >> I feel bad for them that it's still not solved. >> But Jones has hope. He has kept that
00:40:28
shirt he wore the night of the murders. >> Only worn once. >> The shirt he promised to never wear
00:40:34
until the case was solved. 30 years later, it's still sitting in there. >> Still sitting here. It is.
00:40:42
>> And sometime soon, John Jones looks forward to wearing it again. >> I just hope one of these days we can put
00:40:53
this thing to bed. for the family's sake. >> Nearly five decades ago, the son of Sam
00:41:16
terrorized New York City. >> He struck again over the weekend >> in a rare prison interview.
00:41:20
>> What would you tell 23-year-old David Burkowitz today? The serial killer reveals what drove him to murder.
00:41:26
>> He wouldn't understand what it was to walk in darkness. >> 48 hours. Son of Sam, the Killer Speaks.
00:41:31
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