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Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82

October 09, 2025 / 01:15:52

This episode covers the yogurt shop murders in Austin, Texas, where four teenage girls were killed in 1991. The hosts discuss the investigation, confessions from suspects, and the eventual exoneration of two men.

The case began when firefighters responded to a fire at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop, only to discover a quadruple homicide. Detectives Jones and Huckabe faced numerous false confessions, including from Maurice Pierce, who was arrested shortly after the murders.

In 1999, four men were arrested based on coerced confessions, leading to convictions for Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen. However, DNA evidence later proved their innocence, revealing that the DNA did not match any of the suspects.

The episode also discusses potential suspects, including serial killers Kenneth McDuff and the fast food killer, and the ongoing search for justice for the victims.

Listeners are encouraged to consider the complexities of the case and the implications of wrongful convictions in the criminal justice system.

TLDR

The episode discusses the 1991 yogurt shop murders in Austin, Texas, wrongful convictions, and the search for justice.

Episode

1:15:52
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Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
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Come on, Michael. I think they all four of them were tied up, but I don't remember with what.
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>> Who tied those girls up? >> Um, Bob did. >> All four of them. He had to had some help. He needed some
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help. He couldn't have tied all four of them up by himself. >> I don't remember if I helped him or not.
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>> Okay. You think you might have helped him? >> I I guess I did. >> Okay. What were they tied up with?
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>> Come on, Michael. You know what? Were they tied? Just tell us. What were they
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tied up with? >> White. It was had I remember being stretched with I think it was a t-shirt.
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>> T-shirt. Okay. What else were they tied up with? >> Uh t-shirt. And >> go ahead. You remember?
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>> You remember Michael Wales? Come on, brother. You know, you know, you know. >> T-shirt and I want to say electrical
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cord. >> No, think harder. >> T-shirt and something else. Uh, >> I'm not going to tell you cuz you know.
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I want to hear it from you. >> I'm trying to remember, guys. >> Something else. >> His t-shirt is something else.
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>> And you have Robin time up. >> I think I guess I did. >> Yeah, you did. What were the girls wearing by the time
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they were tied up? What were they wearing, Michael? That's a gimme. Yeah, >> that's an easy one.
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>> Not a whole lot. >> Not a whole lot. >> They used their own clothes to tie them
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up. >> Use their own clothes to tie them up. You and Rob. And by the time you were
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done, what were they wearing? >> Say it. >> Nothing. >> Nothing. There you go. [Music]
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Back in December of 1991 in Austin, Texas, four teenage girls were bound and killed in a small yogurt shop. The
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store, of course, was robbed. And this is a this is a case that has gripped the city of Austin, Texas, and has gripped
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the the state of Texas as well. We are sitting here now 25 years later, still asking the question, who killed these
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girls? >> So, quick recap. When the firefighters show up to the I can't believe it's
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yogurt shop, they realize quickly it's not just an arson, but we have a quadruple homicide. So that's going to
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be a sign to Detective Jones and Detective Huckabe. And in my opinion, those two detectives, I think they
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worked the case very well. They had a lot of issues here with the with the investigation. This being we have people
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making confessions and that is tough because a lot of these confessions are pretty wild. Uh, according to Jones and
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Huckabe, uh, they're they're able to easily quickly sit down with these different people, these confessors, and
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figure out early in their stories that they don't know certain details of the crime, things that would have taken
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place that evening or evidence that was left and collected at the scene. They're
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unaware of what actually took place. So, we're able to quickly dismiss several of
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these confessors. Eight days after the murders took place, they arrest Maurice Pierce, which had a 22 caliber gun,
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which was the gun used in at least three of the murders, and he implements his teenage friends. Um, Jones and Huckabe
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kind of get to the bottom of this guy is just kind of bullshitting. >> Yeah. And on top of that, the gun does
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not match the ballistics of the bullets that were found on the scene. So, they they get rid of these suspects and they
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clear them and they've moved on in the case. Right. So leads are starting to dry up now. And in 1992, we have a
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madman that's running a muck in the state of Texas. He's a known serial killer. He was somebody that was
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released by the Texas prison system. And he's been suspected of new killings. Well, they track him down in 1992 and
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they suspect that he possibly could have done this crime because he was somewhat
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in the area around the time that the crime was committed. He would have been in Austin, Texas. They can place him
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there about 23 days after the crime. >> Yeah. Within a month, him and another person abduct a lady uh and they rape
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her and murder her. >> Yeah. Uh she was abducted from a downtown car wash and this this crime
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took place, the yogurt shop murders took place in North Austin City. >> And that killer's name, that serial
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killer's name is Kenneth McDuff. He's eventually, you know, they stopped looking at him because there's really
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nothing that ties to him as far as forensics goes. In 1994, Detective Jones, who was the lead investigator of
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the yogurt shop murders, he receives a promotion and they move him off of the case. The case is considered cold at
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this point. Now, in 1996, we have other detectives that would move in and start looking at this case with fresh eyes.
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>> In 1997, we have a serial killer that is captured. He will become known as the
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fast food killer. Yeah, he was a pretty bad dude and he was running a muck in the state of Tennessee. Uh what his emmo
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was was he would walk into a fast food restaurant >> and he would really take the scene over.
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He would he would take control of the scene by holding a gun to everybody. He would make a quick robbery. He would
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usually steal the surveillance tapes if there were any. He would execute all of the persons in the store and then he
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would leave. Within a very short time period from February 16th, 1997 to April 23rd, 1997,
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he robbed three different stores. And in the course of he ended up killing a total of seven people. Yeah. And he's
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not just a suspect because he is known to rob, you know, McDonald's or Captain D's and that, you know, the yogurt shop
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would fall kind of in that line. Mhm. >> He is also from the area of Texas. >> Yeah. He was he was born in Texas and at
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a young age he started getting in trouble with the law. In 1983 he robs a Houston steakhouse and he's convicted of
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aggravated armed robbery. He receives a 20-year prison sentence for this. But he's parrolled after just 7 years. He's
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parrolled in 1990 which and he stays in the Texas area. He becomes a truck driver.
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>> So he was in the area at, you know, in ' 91. Yes. And during this time he's he's
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driving a truck. He ends up in some kind of bad accident and he receives quite a
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handsome settlement for this and he decides that he's going to get some plastic surgery because
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>> it's funny that you said a handsome uh you know >> and then rolled it into plastic surgery.
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>> Right. Right. >> Well, he's kind of an ugly kid. Um I'll go ahead and throw that out there. and
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and he makes himself look a little better and he decides he wants to move to Nashville to become a a country
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western singer. >> Nash Vegas. >> Yeah, I believe he wanted to become the next G Brooks.
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>> No, but he had the talent of Billy Ray Cyrus. >> Yeah, I that might be that might be
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giving him far too much credit. >> Uh but there are some reasons to suspect that he might have done this. This is
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certainly something he would have been capable of. However, his crimes were a little bit different in the sense that
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he he didn't rape anybody involved in these these crimes that he committed up in Tennessee. Now, I'm not saying he's
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not capable of doing so. >> It really seems like his motive was for the money and a financial gain and it
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wasn't, you know, where these crimes, these yogurt shop murders really seemed like to me more sexual in nature and it
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just was by, you know, well, I'm leaving the crime scene. and I might as well take some money with me as I go.
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>> Yeah. And at the yogurt shop, they only the whoever got away with this, they only took $540. And they spent a decent
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amount of time there assaulting the girls. >> His crimes, he got into a place, he
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would take as much money as he could. Most of the time, we're talking about upwards of 2,000 or $3,000 each time.
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And he would he would leave no evidence and he would kill everybody in the store. He was quick in and quick out,
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which is not what we saw in the yogurt shop murders. Plus, he was never known to work with anybody else. I think the
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yogurt shop, it looks like a situation where you have more than one asalent. So, detectives looking into Paul Reed.
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They kind of realize he's kind of a lone cowboy. He's, you know, he's not tag team back again. Um, but this will lead
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them to go back through their notes and start to request some people that that Jones and Huckabe already questioned
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back in '91. Yeah. They're going through the file. They're going over this case time and time again. And what they keep
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going back to is this Maurice Pierce keeps standing out to them >> and his three friends that he has,
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Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, and Forest Wilbornne, >> the East Street Band.
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>> Yeah. So, they decide that, you know what, this is the most likely situation.
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These guys did it. Uh, Maurice Pierce looks very guilty. He has a 22 caliber gun on him just days after the crime. He
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mentions the crime to people. >> He's kind of a natural-born criminal. >> Yeah. So, he is picked up and this would
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be in October of 1999. They arrest all four men >> and they are going to sit each one of
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them down individually. And now we're going to start getting some answers, some much long awaited answers that
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we've been looking for in this crime. >> Well, they're going to start getting answers because they're going to force
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these answers upon these these suspects. >> Yeah. To say that the interrogation was
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aggressive might be an understatement >> of the century. >> Yes. Um so what happens is they pull in
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the four, they're talking to him, right? Uh Maurice Pierce has got nothing to offer. you know, he keeps saying that,
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"Nope, I I didn't have anything to do with this. I don't know what you're talking about."
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>> Yeah. Even though, you know, Maurice at the time of 90 and 91, he was like 15 or
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so. >> So, he's just this punk kid. He had the 22 caliber. He, you know, basically
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implements his friends into the the crime. But that was just kind of him being a dumb, you know, dumbass
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15-year-old. Yeah. I believe his statement was that he had lent the gun to Forest Wilbornne and that Forest had
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used the gun in the yogurt shop murders. This is what put them on the radar from
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the get-go. Now, when they're talking to them, as said, here's here's what their
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thought is going into this. Okay, so they believe that Maurice Pierce is some kind of criminal mastermind and he
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organized this whole uh robbery, right? And they believe that Robert Springsteen
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helped and Michael Scott helped. They believe that Forest Wilbornne would have been the lookout guy or the driver. Um,
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they believe that it would have taken a group of men to to commit these crimes. Now, keep in mind though, these are just
00:13:57
teenage boys at the time. >> Now, they're being questioned years later as adults, right? We have two of them that
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might be willing to talk and we have two of them that they don't know anything, >> right?
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>> Maurice Pierce, he doesn't know anything. Forest Wilbourne, he doesn't know anything. They're not admitting to
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anything. >> In 1999, two of the suspects are 24. Uh, Michael James Scott is 25 and Forest
00:14:25
Welburn is 23. Now, they get Michael Scott to crack first, right? And this is quite the long process. We're talking
00:14:34
about hours and hours of interrogation. and to to listen to the confession, to view it, you will see that the story is
00:14:43
changing as Michael's telling it. >> Yeah. And if you listen to the trailer, that was about 7 hours into one of the
00:14:51
interrogations. >> Mhm. So, where he is, they finally broken him down. They finally get him to
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the point where he admits that he was there, >> that he had taken place in the crime.
00:15:02
Now he they got to go through the details because they got to confirm that he was actually there.
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>> Well, and that's the problem. >> Mhm. >> He doesn't know the details. >> No, he doesn't get a lot of them right
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without being coaxed to to getting it right. You know, he would often give a wrong answer and they would tell him,
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"No, that's not it. Think harder. You need to try harder." >> Yeah. The detective keeps saying, "I'm
00:15:25
not going to give you the right answer." Right. >> Yeah. >> Not going to give you the right answer.
00:15:30
But what he does constantly is he tells you when your answer is wrong. So by a process of elimination, you're going to
00:15:37
get to the right answer. >> Oh no, they were tied up with their clothes. Okay, they were tied up with
00:15:42
their clothes. Well, what clothes, >> you know, uh, well, maybe this part of their clothes. No, wrong. You know, and
00:15:50
he keeps doing that and until he gets the right answer. >> And just to paint the picture for you,
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if you've not seen the confession tapes, >> Mhm. They Michael Scott, he is literally
00:16:00
sitting with his back up against the wall. I mean, he's pushed up against the wall and he has two detectives on each
00:16:07
side of him, right up in his face, and they're all sitting down in chairs and they are right up in his face and they
00:16:13
are very aggressive. Well, got the they got the good cop and bad cop going. They
00:16:17
got one cop that kind of leans back constantly and then the the main cop questioning is like maybe a couple
00:16:23
inches from his face. Yeah. So every time, no. No. >> Yeah. Yeah. You get you got the bad cop
00:16:30
saying, "No, you didn't get that right." And the good cop is saying, "It's okay,
00:16:33
Michael. You can tell us. We know you know the answers." >> Um, so they play that game for quite
00:16:38
some time. And we Let's go through Michael Scott's confession. Okay. He states that they were all four of them,
00:16:46
they were hanging out at the North Cross Mall, which was very close to the yogurt
00:16:50
shop, >> and that Maurice Pierce is in need of money. So he comes up with this idea
00:16:56
that we're going to go rob someplace and he actually picks out the yogurt shop. They agree to go to the yogurt shop.
00:17:02
>> Yeah. Which is probably a pretty common place for teenagers in that town because
00:17:06
most of the employees there are teenagers. >> He says that the the event starts off
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like this. Maurice goes into the yogurt shop and places an order. And then Robert and Michael, they go in and they
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ask to use the restroom. They want to go to the back of the store to see what's going on in the back. Now, during that
00:17:25
time, they're going to open up the back door and they're going to prop it open. >> And like we have from the reports, the
00:17:31
back door was propped open and the front door was locked. >> Yeah. And they're going to wait for the
00:17:36
store to close at 11:00. Now, after the store closes, Maurice and Robert are going to go back in through the propped
00:17:43
open back door and they are going to they have guns at this point and they are going to rob this place, right? Mhm.
00:17:51
>> What ends up happening is during the course of this robbery, they ask the women, the girls, I'm sorry, to remove
00:17:58
their clothing, uh, this being Robert. And then Michael Scott, he ties up the girls and he gags them. Then Maurice,
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he's demanding money from the girls, but they refuse or they say something like,
00:18:12
"There is no money." And when this happens, Maurice shoots two of the girls. Robert then hits one of the girls
00:18:20
and he rapes her. >> Yeah. Which again, this all lines up with the reports. >> Now, the fourth girl is screaming and
00:18:26
she's begging for her life. She's begging that they do not shoot her. >> Um, Michael Scott then pretends to
00:18:33
sexually assault her. He's saying that he was being told by the other guys to to rape her and that he he just
00:18:41
pretended to sexually assault the girl. >> And he can't remember at this point which suspect handed him the gun. Yeah.
00:18:47
And it's at this point that he does shoot that girl and then he would go on to shoot Amy who was raped by Robert.
00:18:55
>> And at this point, Michael Scott then says he is the one that stacks the body
00:19:00
and he also says that he's the one that I think administers the the accelerant. >> You're exactly right.
00:19:05
>> Again, something that's a little strange because a 24 25 year old uh this is cop
00:19:11
speak. >> Mhm. You know, a lot of detectives that have looked detectives and lawyers that
00:19:16
have looked at these confessions say it's funny because that the actual written accounts because you have the
00:19:22
verbal confessions and we have those taped and those are horrendous enough, but then they have to take all those
00:19:28
statements and then now put them on paper. And basically by looking at the the written statements, these cops go,
00:19:34
"Well, it's kind of strange that the these kids are constantly using cop." >> Yeah. It's like they're picking up words
00:19:41
as they're going along and and they state that, you know, it would have been more common to hear a criminal say
00:19:47
lighter fluid rather than accelerant. Um, at this point, they leave the building through the back door. Uh, they
00:19:55
leave it propped open and Michael Scott says that the whole this whole thing only takes about 20 minutes from the
00:20:01
time that they enter the building after closing until they leave. Now, when they
00:20:06
get back to the vehicle, Forest Wilbornne is no longer in the vehicle. He has left.
00:20:11
>> Yeah. Rumor has it he's off somewhere playing a pretend game of pocket pole. >> Yeah. Actually, the the three boys drive
00:20:17
around and they're looking for Forest and they find him in a park. Uh they pick him up and then at some point they
00:20:24
are going to ditch a knife that they had taken from the crime scene. I'm guessing
00:20:29
this would have been to cut up some of the girls clothing or belongings to use them as, you know, bindings. Mhm.
00:20:35
>> Um the other boy that confessed, the man now, Robert Springsteen, his confession
00:20:42
is similar. It does line up with some of the things that Michael Scott said. >> Um one of those one of the key things
00:20:49
here is that they both admit that Robert raped Amy, which that's kind of a a a percentage kind of thing, right? When
00:20:59
you think about it, you have four asalants and one only they're saying only one girl was raped.
00:21:05
>> Well, I mean, let's go back a little bit on this because detectives, yeah, we
00:21:09
have four suspects, but detectives are already kind of leading them on to this idea that well, Forest was outside.
00:21:16
>> Mhm. >> That So there now there's only three, >> so you got a 33% chance of getting the
00:21:20
person right. >> That's true. That's true. Yeah. And they they both said that Forest was outside
00:21:25
as well. and they both said that the door the back door was propped open. It's a little unclear on Robert's
00:21:33
statement as to when he's saying the back door was propped open. Was it propped open to get back into the store
00:21:39
or was it propped open when they left the store? >> Um he also seems to have some knowledge
00:21:45
of the other bullet. Remember we said there was a second gun used in the situation. He seems to have some kind of
00:21:51
knowledge that there was a 38 involved, not just this 22 that they were already aware of,
00:21:57
>> right? Which again, all of this starts lining up with the reports. >> But again, his confession is much
00:22:03
shorter, much less detail, and there are parts of it, you know, that do not match
00:22:10
up with Michael Scott's. Uh there are some things that that these guys do not get right.
00:22:15
>> Yeah. And one of the main things that like defenders of these Austin 4 is what
00:22:20
we'll call them is that it's the, you know, Robert claims that he they stacked the bodies and then he lit the bodies on
00:22:27
fire, >> right? >> Which the initial reports from the the firefighters uh and the fire chief and
00:22:32
the fire investigation was that no, the bodies weren't actually set on fire that
00:22:37
it would have been the shelves. If you look at the crime scene though, they're right beside each other. Yeah, it they
00:22:43
would have been the body stack would have been about, you know, just four or five feet from this stock shelf, you
00:22:49
know, where you have plastic cups or I'm sorry, styrofoam cups and things of that
00:22:53
nature. Um, it's it's not crazy to to think that maybe this shelf wouldn't have fallen over at some point. U, but
00:23:01
Michael says that he had used these styrofoam cups with lighter fluid to to light the body stack on fire. Now, what
00:23:09
would end up happening is after they get these confessions, um they would go back
00:23:13
and they would find a new fire investigator to take a look at the crime scene. And this fire investigator says,
00:23:20
"You know what? I disagree with the previous findings. What actually happened is that the the body stack is
00:23:26
where the fire had originated from." >> Well, this is what is so freaking annoying, right? I mean, we see this
00:23:33
time and time again in these cases that go unsolved. Most of the time when a case goes unsolved, it's because these
00:23:40
detectives, not not Jones, not Huckabe, but these detectives go on this uh this mission, we have a theory, now let's
00:23:48
prove the theory. And like we've always heard, uh some of the smartest detectives that we met and that we've
00:23:53
interviewed, you know, trying to do our job a little bit better on the podcast, get some insider information.
00:24:00
It's the guys that say, "Look, I am not smart enough to to imagine what happened. So, I let the evidence present
00:24:09
itself to me and present the story to me. You follow the evidence. You don't come up with the theory theory and make
00:24:17
the shoe fit, >> right?" and and some of the detectives that we've talked to in the Columbus PD
00:24:22
have been really good about this and the idea that they've even said, "Hey, look,
00:24:27
when you're working on a homicide, you might have two, three detectives involved, sometimes more,
00:24:32
>> right? >> And they've talked several times about how they've had uh partners or people
00:24:38
that they've thought really highly of that would come up with theories >> and then they'd have to rope them back
00:24:44
in. Hey man, you're just you're just trying to make the shoe fit. Knock it off. This is not Cinderella.
00:24:50
>> Right. Right. And the the thing here is here's some other things that don't actually fit. Right. And these are
00:24:56
things in their written confession. So we have the the back door was propped open. One thing that they could not
00:25:02
agree on was what did they use to prop open the back door. One had said it was a rock. One had said that it was a pack
00:25:08
of cigarettes. The problem being here is that again, according to their story, the door would have been propped open on
00:25:15
two different occasions. So, it's possible that both items were actually used. >> Well, and let's let's just remind the
00:25:21
listeners, I mean, this is this questioning is happening in 1999 and not 1991. >> So, some of your account is going to be
00:25:30
off >> right now. One thing that that they couldn't get right to was they had said
00:25:35
that the murders took place inside the office. Well, this was a big red flag to the original detective that was on the
00:25:43
case, Detective Jones, because he states that when the police arrived on the scene, there was no evidence that anyone
00:25:50
had entered that office. It was a locked door and it was locked when they arrived. Um, the murders 100% took place
00:25:58
in the back room in that stocking area, in that prep area that we had talked about. And they probably know that for
00:26:04
well again this case is so tough because of the arson >> and and because the firefighters did not
00:26:10
know that they were going into a a crime scene >> and because they were trying to put out
00:26:14
that that those fires that probably really disturbed uh any blood splatter. >> Mhm.
00:26:20
>> So it you know we can't say 100% that that's where that happened. But what we
00:26:25
can say is that when detectives showed up on the scene, 100% that office was locked and they had to actually get a
00:26:31
key from somebody to unlock lock that office, which makes a lot of sense because who is left in charge of
00:26:38
shutting down the yogurt shop. >> Mhm. >> Two teenage girls, >> right? >> And and so the manager, I'm sure, would
00:26:43
go, "Okay, I'm going to lock this up." Or or maybe that was part of their duty. You know, you put the money away, lock
00:26:49
it up. Mhm. >> Um, but I don't think there was a key on on site and then I don't think there was
00:26:55
a key to the office that even the the teenage girls had. Well, and keep in mind too this under this premise, right,
00:27:03
according to their story, the whole reason anything took place there that night was because it was a robbery. The
00:27:10
motive was to rob the store and get money, >> which I think both of us agree that that
00:27:15
wasn't the motive. >> I I don't think so. You're exactly right. The thing here is though,
00:27:19
Captain, if the if the whole motive was robbery, remember we're saying that they
00:27:24
were inside that store under their own words for 20 minutes. >> Mhm. >> I would argue that it might be closer to
00:27:31
an hour that somebody was in the store. But regardless, there was a lot of things that took place once that store
00:27:38
closed. >> Mhm. >> And and a lot of things happening. And I can't I wouldn't be able to sit here and
00:27:44
have somebody tell me that there was a key in that store or that there was access to the key to the robbers and
00:27:50
that they didn't go into the office looking for more money or valuables >> if that if if robbery was the motive.
00:27:57
Now, Michael Scott did get the um the positioning of the bodies correct. He he had a a good idea of that as well as he
00:28:06
did know that Amy was not on the body stack. He knew that that she she was in a separate area. The problem I have with
00:28:14
this statement, and this is exactly what the police said, they said, you know, he
00:28:17
got he got the body positioning right. That that's really tough to do. And I will give them that. But here's where I
00:28:24
have a problem. >> Mhm. >> One thing he did not get right is he didn't he wasn't able to fully describe
00:28:31
the layout of the store. So, yeah, maybe you could get the positionings of the bodies right, but how could you get the
00:28:38
positionings of where they were inside the store? You see what I'm saying with if you don't even know or understand the
00:28:45
layout of the store? >> Well, and there's a lot of things and we'll we'll get right back into uh not
00:28:51
only what they got right, but how they got those things right right after this quick beer break.
00:28:57
>> Going through the items that the confessions got right and the things that they got wrong. Uh, continuing on
00:29:03
that path here, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about this 38. You know, we had mentioned that Michael
00:29:09
Scott doesn't seem to know about a second gun. He never mentions anything about the 38. However, Robert is aware
00:29:16
of the 38. >> Um, and this is presented as a problem for these young men and for their their
00:29:23
eventual prison sentence, right? because this this supposed 38 which we know existed. However, the police are saying
00:29:32
this was a fact that they kept close to them that the people in the general public would not have known about that.
00:29:38
I I tend to disagree a little bit with that statement >> because as we had said, there had been
00:29:43
50 confessions. And one thing that the police state was with with anybody that seemed to have knowledge of the crime,
00:29:51
they went out and looked for the 38 because they had other confessors say that, you know, I dumped the gun here.
00:29:58
>> Well, and we also have four teenage boys and the murder victims were four teenage
00:30:03
girls. So we're talking about a lot and and now eight years have passed. So you have eight years of a not a small town.
00:30:11
I mean this was about uh half a million people in Austin at this in ' 91. >> But you have a lot of people in this
00:30:18
community talking about this. This was huge news for them. So there is a lot of talk. So there is a very good
00:30:26
possibility that they and not and and also we're not talking about just four kids that have not been
00:30:35
involved in this crime. We're talking about four teenage boys that were basically arrested or brought in for
00:30:41
questioning 8 days after the event. >> Yeah. Yeah. So they may have been told about the 38 then. I mean, if you're
00:30:48
sitting in a room eight years ago and somebody's asking you, "Well, what about the other gun? What about this uh wasn't
00:30:55
there a 38 involved?" And and you're saying at that time you don't know anything about it. Well, it's easy to
00:31:00
jump to that conclusion when your back's up against the wall and you're being you're being forced to give answers that
00:31:06
that you might not have any knowledge of. >> Well, and you got this detective, you
00:31:09
know, 2 in from your face and I mean, he might have bad breath. Who knows? But the fact of the matter is, you know, the
00:31:16
the main point of all these confessions that is so blatant is that yeah, they did get some stuff right,
00:31:24
>> but how did they get that stuff right? >> Right. >> They didn't just say something, you
00:31:29
know, uh a perfect example in the trailer is when he says, "Well, yeah, they were bound up by I want to say
00:31:36
electrical cord." Right. >> Right. And he goes, "Nope, that's not it." They got to majority of these right
00:31:43
answers by the the detectives kind of forcing it. >> Yeah. They're they're really you can
00:31:51
hear you can hear especially Michael Scott. You can hear him kind of guessing answers and then he's looking to them
00:31:57
for approval. You know, did I get that one right? It's almost like it's almost like a a kid in school hoping to get the
00:32:04
right answer from the teacher holding the textbook and and the teacher keeps asking questions and saying, "No, that's
00:32:10
not it. Try it again." And and he keeps changing his answers or modifying his answers to get closer to what the police
00:32:17
know to be true. Now, on that 38, we do have Robert who does claim that they dumped it somewhere. And of course, they
00:32:25
go and look for it. Now, mind you, it's eight years later. I have had I've heard
00:32:29
people say, "Well, this this proves that they're innocent." Well, the gun easily
00:32:33
could have disappeared from wherever they placed it eight years ago, >> right? >> Um but but again, we have this situation
00:32:40
where they are arriving at answers. These aren't answers that they walked in and sat down with. The other thing that
00:32:46
I have a problem with here is you still have two guys that haven't confessed to anything,
00:32:51
>> right? You have two guy You have two guys that claim to know very much about the crime and two guys that seem to know
00:32:57
nothing. And even when they are presented by investigators, well, we know you did it because so and so told
00:33:04
us this and told us that. They hold true and they sit there and say, "Nope, I wasn't there. I don't know what you're
00:33:10
talking about." The the other thing too regarding Michael Scott's confession is that part on the tape where he says, you
00:33:17
know, he's asked who was there with you, right? and and he he names two of the other people. He names, you know, I was
00:33:24
there with Maurice. I was there with Robert, >> and I was there with Forest. And he and
00:33:29
he says it in a way that he's like asking a question. >> I'm Ron Burgundy. >> Yeah. And they take it as, okay, well,
00:33:36
now we got the four people that we wanted to hear. We wanted to hear all four of those names. Why? Because you
00:33:42
have to go back to 1991 when they originally questioned these guys. They need Forest to be there. Why? Because
00:33:50
the reason why they picked up Maurice and started questioning him about the yogurt shop murders is because he said
00:33:55
he lent the gun to Forest >> and Forest had used it in the yogurt shop murders. That's what put them on
00:34:00
the radar. So, they really needed Maurice to be there as well as Forest even if those two didn't confess to
00:34:08
anything, >> right? And with Forest, I mean, it's pretty simple. I mean the his interview
00:34:13
um you know I I believe it's with Dline I found very compelling and and very believable because he's pretty much
00:34:21
saying look I was not going to lie and and and and especially not going to lie about this.
00:34:27
>> Mhm. >> And there's no way I did this so there is no way you're going to get get me to
00:34:32
say that. Now, this is what this is what's weird cuz the community and obviously the victim's parents are going
00:34:39
to start going, "Well, these guys are monsters, right? >> These guys are savages." And um and they
00:34:46
need to be locked away, you know, maybe death penalty. >> And and because a lot of people have a
00:34:52
really hard time wrapping their head around why would you confess to a crime that you didn't commit?
00:34:58
>> Mhm. And I would like to believe that that would would just not be possible with me.
00:35:04
>> Mhm. >> But you know, nobody would know this until you were actually in that situation.
00:35:09
>> I had a situation many years ago where I was uh observing a trial, right? And I
00:35:15
had I was close to at an attorney that was involved in the trial and they put one person on the stand. And this is
00:35:23
before it got to an actual jury trial because they were trying to determine if they should just plea this thing out or
00:35:30
if it should go to a jury trial. And one of the the the attorney was representing
00:35:36
a person who wanted it to go to a jury trial. The defendant wanted it to go to a jury because they believe they were
00:35:43
innocent. Now, I don't know what actually took place, but I was in the hallway and I overheard what the
00:35:49
attorney was saying to the defendant. The attorney was saying, "Let's plead this thing out." And the defendant was
00:35:56
adamant. No, it's got to go to a jury because I'm innocent. I'm not pleading to anything. Right?
00:36:01
>> And the attorney said, "Well, the reason why I'm saying we should plea to this is
00:36:04
because they're offering a very low plea bargain. You know, it's something small
00:36:09
like pay a fine and we pretend this never happened." Right. >> Right. He's saying, "Let's just take
00:36:14
this penalty and agree to it." Why? Because the the man that was just on the stand that was on he was on the stand
00:36:20
for almost the course of a whole day. And he said, "You do not want him to be on the stand in a jury trial." And the
00:36:27
defendant said, "Well, he's lying." And the attorney said, >> "He might be lying, but here's my
00:36:33
perception of this guy, okay? And this is what I believe a jury will think. This guy comes off as not being very
00:36:40
bright. he comes off almost to be too dumb to lie where he he he would be perceivably believable to a jury, an
00:36:50
audience of such of a jury. Uh, and I I found this to be something that I kind of kept in the back of my mind when I
00:36:58
was when I was reviewing stuff regarding Forest Wilbornne because we have a guy here that never confesses to anything,
00:37:05
right? Mhm. >> And and on top of that, we have we have we have people from Deline, we have
00:37:13
investigators from the original investigation that that they all claim that, you know, Forest is not a bright
00:37:19
guy. You know, he's not a smart guy. You know, he couldn't organize a a twocar parade. Mhm.
00:37:25
>> Uh he here's the way he strikes me and and I feel bad for the guy because not
00:37:29
only was he brought to and and faced charges regarding this crime, but on top of that then publicly he's put down for
00:37:37
for his mental capabilities or whatever they are, >> right? And I don't to look I think it's
00:37:43
just frankly insulting. I mean, he seems he seems like a a nice character. And at
00:37:48
the end of the day, uh he was smart enough not to confess to a crime he didn't commit.
00:37:55
>> And the big problem I have with his portion of this, okay, he is stating, "I was never there." He he never admits to
00:38:02
anything. Right now, you got two guys that place him at the scene. >> Now, okay. Now, wouldn't investigators
00:38:09
say, "Okay, let's make a deal with Forest. Let's make a deal with him because guess what? But for us, we know
00:38:15
you were there. We were told by these other guys that you sat out in the car. You didn't have any involvement with the
00:38:21
actual rape, the actual tying up of the girls, the actual robbery, the actual killing of anybody. You were just on the
00:38:28
outside of the building waiting for these other guys to return. And by their own omission, when they when they
00:38:34
returned to the vehicle or returned outside of the yogurt shop, you had fled the scene. You you clearly didn't want
00:38:41
any involvement with this, right, Forest? Right. So Forest, why don't you tell us the truth and we might be able
00:38:47
to grant you immunity or we might be able to grant you a slap on the wrist and and because had they got a third
00:38:54
confession that would have been that would have been paramount in this case. >> Right. Right. But Forest has something
00:39:00
going for him in this case. Yeah. You got two guys confessing and saying that you're involved in the case, but you got
00:39:06
another one of the individuals saying, "Oh yeah, by the way, he wasn't there cuz I wasn't there and this [ __ ] didn't
00:39:11
happen." Right. Right. The other thing too is I want to know more about the timeline. One thing that they don't go
00:39:20
for in the confession, they want to know details of the actual crime, but one thing that they failed to do is to wrap
00:39:26
these guys up and on a specific timeline. And what I mean by that is we have Michael Scott who says that the
00:39:32
whole thing took about 20 minutes from the time we entered the building to the time that we left the building. Well,
00:39:37
what do we know? We know that the doors were locked at 11:00 p.m. and we know that around midnight the flames were
00:39:43
seen and firefighters were responding to a to a fire call. Well, okay. So, that's
00:39:48
1 hour. Well, now let's go ahead and look at what the neighbor said. Remember, the neighbor had said that we
00:39:55
have a situation here where we get a summary of his report of that night. And it would be nice to have the full report
00:40:03
because the neighbor states that he had heard some popping noises, >> thought something was a noise was coming
00:40:10
from the roof. He went outside to investigate and that's when he saw the door propped open along with a fire.
00:40:16
Okay. Well, here's here's a little bit of an issue with that. What time did they enter the building? Could could we
00:40:23
could we have had them narrow that down during this confession? because that seems to me to be an important part of
00:40:30
it because it it may not line up with what the neighbor is saying. >> Well, I right, which I understand all
00:40:36
that, but at the end of the day, this confession doesn't mean [ __ ] to me on the idea that this all this information
00:40:44
was forcefed to him. And if you don't believe that, uh, one of the things is when they're talking about, oh, well,
00:40:50
then then I put a gun to this girl's head, right? M. >> And uh then the detective goes behind I
00:40:56
can't remember which one it was. Michael. He goes behind Michael's head and puts a freaking gun to his head.
00:41:02
>> Yeah. >> And and so then then the detective is on record saying, "Well, I didn't put a gun
00:41:08
to his head. I put my finger on his head." >> No. No. You You showed the suspect a
00:41:14
gun. You then put something on the back of his head. I've I've seen the video footage. It looks like you put a
00:41:20
freaking gun on his head. >> Yeah. And not only that, he walks behind Michael to do so. So, so Michael may not
00:41:26
have known even if it wasn't a gun, you would assume it would be a gun, you know,
00:41:31
>> right? And I understand that the community is outraged and that they want answers and all that stuff, but you are
00:41:37
making up a bunch of malarkey, right? M and uh and so then you know just to fast
00:41:43
forward we can't charge two of them because we don't have confessions and we don't have any forensic evidence linking
00:41:50
these individuals to the crime and maybe part of that is due to the arson but now
00:41:55
we're going to put these two men on trial and the other two are just going to be let go.
00:41:59
>> Yeah. So yeah, quick breakdown of that is we have Robert who confessed, Michael
00:42:04
who confessed. Okay. So they're in a whole heap of trouble. We have Maurice does not confess to anything. He's he's
00:42:11
originally charged. However, they could not get an actual indictment. They couldn't get anybody to bring it to
00:42:16
court because of a few things. He didn't confess and on top of that, the gun that
00:42:20
he was was found on his person 8 days after the crime did not match the ballistic test. So, he's he's released
00:42:28
because of that and never fully tried for for this crime. Now, we have Forest. Now, he's in the same boat. He did not
00:42:35
confess to the crime. And the thing that's going to get him off was remember he way back in the day back in 1991 8
00:42:43
days after the crime after they pick him up and they're talking to him he actually hooked him they hooked him up
00:42:49
to a polygraph which he passed >> on that day. This would be one of the reasons that the original investigators
00:42:56
would let him go. But this would also be a reason that they couldn't try him for
00:43:00
this eight years later. Well, and another thing that I find really interesting is as they're going through
00:43:06
this process, you you got Detective Jones and you got Detective Huckabe saying, "Hey, we we question these guys.
00:43:13
>> We know what's up. These guys shouldn't be looked at. Why the hell are you guys
00:43:18
bringing them to trial, >> right?" >> And and they and then they see, you know, and then obviously they get to see
00:43:23
the footage of their interrogation and realize this is, you know, just just watch it. It doesn't take a rocket
00:43:31
scientist to figure out that this this is awful detective work. >> So, Robert and Michael would go forward
00:43:37
and they would be charged with these crimes. Now, what takes place in their trial is uh Robert, they basically use
00:43:45
Michael's statement, his confession against Robert. And they use Robert's confession against Michael and they're
00:43:53
tried separately. However, not neither of those guys are called to the stand in those trials. So,
00:44:01
what takes place is you have Robert who is sentenced to death and it's later commuted to life because they they
00:44:07
decide that you know what, he was a teenager when the crime was committed and you can't, you know, you can't
00:44:12
charge a um a child and sentence them to death. Now, with with Michael, he's sentenced to life in prison.
00:44:22
What ends up happening is in 2006, these convictions are overturned because you you have we have the right to address
00:44:32
our people that accuse us of stuff. And because neither of these guys were called to the stand, they weren't able
00:44:38
to cross-examine what they had stated. Therefore, you have to overturn these charges.
00:44:45
>> All right. So 8 days after these crimes are committed that these teenage boys
00:44:50
are called in. 8 years later they are questioned again. Then they go on trial. They are put away, sentenced to life in
00:44:59
prison or death penalty which is then overturned and then several years of being in jail, they're released based
00:45:07
off of >> Yeah. They're not fully released. What they do is they they they hold them because they're going to try
00:45:15
them again, >> right? >> And they're now we're going to do it the right way is what we're going to do.
00:45:21
Well, they're being held for quite some time. >> Yeah. Of course, they don't make it.
00:45:25
It's just like with Adnan Sed, right? >> Mhm. >> You know, everybody got so excited,
00:45:31
right, that that, you know, he's going to get an actual trial. And I think, you know, the true crime community, uh,
00:45:38
whether or not you think he's innocent or guilty, everybody agrees that the trial was ridiculous. Right.
00:45:44
>> Right. And the evidence they had against this kid was ridiculous. >> Questionable.
00:45:47
>> Yeah. Very questionable. And so now we have a situation where he's just sitting.
00:45:52
>> Mhm. >> Right. >> He's sitting and waiting. Right. Basically, he's still in prison the
00:45:56
whole time, you know, you know, >> which is ridiculous. And the same thing's happening here.
00:46:00
>> Yeah. And not only that, you have the right to a speedy trial. And these guys
00:46:04
have already been in prison for quite some time. I'm sure they would like to be out, you know, while they wait for
00:46:09
their new trial, >> right? But during this holding time, what do we have? We get we get a little
00:46:15
forensic evidence. We get some DNA. >> Well, yeah. This all kind of comes to a close all the about the same time
00:46:22
because eventually the judge comes at the prosecutor and says, "Look, >> you've got to put together a case
00:46:28
against these guys and you got to do it soon. We're not just going to hold them forever while you wait to try them."
00:46:33
>> And they were ready to take and I I'm going to get the names wrong or or the order wrong, but they were ready to go
00:46:39
forward on the trial with one of the suspects. >> I believe it was Robert, >> right? And then with the other one, they
00:46:46
weren't ready. M. >> And so that was the thing was, well, if you guys aren't ready, well, screw you,
00:46:51
right? You know, if you're not ready, then you need to release this guy. And at the same time, like we said,
00:46:55
forensics comes up and then they take a DNA test. >> Yeah. They they have DNA technology that
00:47:01
was not available back to to them back in 1991. Now using this technology they they have
00:47:08
DNA and this is male DNA obviously and they are able to determine that the DNA that they found in Amy does not match
00:47:17
that of Robert. Now we have that makes a big problem with both of their confessions because they both said that
00:47:23
Robert raped Amy. Um, furthermore, this DNA does not match any of the four, >> right? And this becomes a big problem
00:47:32
cuz the only, you know, so the confession we know are wrong. >> We know that they they pushed him into
00:47:38
that, you know, they pushed Robert to claim that he raped the girl, which, you know, I think, um, would be a very
00:47:44
difficult thing to admit to doing. Um but nonetheless, you know, that that part of the story
00:47:53
doesn't line up, >> right? >> But now on top of that, we got five people. >> Well, yeah. Yeah. This is this is the
00:47:59
prosecutor pivoting and saying, "Okay, well, we can roll with that new evidence."
00:48:04
>> Right. Right. Yeah. Instead of going, "Hey, let's try to find the truth. Hey,
00:48:07
let's just make up this, you know, fictitious person." You we we have, you know, in this case, we have pretend rape
00:48:13
and we have fictitious people. And now you you there was no mention in 1991 of of a fifth person.
00:48:21
>> Police never there was a never a fifth person. Then all of a sudden now there's a fifth
00:48:26
person. These guys are still guilty. These guys are still guilty. There's just a fifth person we never heard of.
00:48:32
>> I mean this is just ridiculous. So what then happens is they're released. >> Yeah. in in 2009 uh they are released
00:48:43
and um rightfully so and the case does not die there. I mean, it does not end there because what would end up coming
00:48:51
out later would be that we would have the attorneys, the two defense attorneys, they come out and they say,
00:48:58
"You know what? There is evidence that there is a second and a possible third male DNA that was found at the scene."
00:49:07
>> Right? >> And we had always we had always suspected that more than one of the
00:49:11
girls was actually sexual assaulted, >> right? >> And the that's what the defense
00:49:15
attorneys are saying. Now, the prosecutor and law enforcement have never outwardly stated that. They've
00:49:21
always stuck to there's been one set of DNA that did not match any of the four guys. Therefore, there must have been a
00:49:27
fifth guy there. >> Yeah. But once they do the DNA testing, they have to present that evidence to
00:49:31
the defense teams. >> Well, and on top of that, these def these defense attorneys are saying not
00:49:36
only did this second and possible third DNA that was found not, you know, it didn't match these two guys, it didn't
00:49:44
match any of the four, right? So now, how many people are you going to start claiming were were there committing this
00:49:49
crime? >> And now and right and now we have two individuals that were arrested and spent
00:49:53
time in jail and they can go after um >> restitution. Yeah, they could go after restitution. The the the issue here
00:50:00
though is the state of Texas has a clause basically stating that just to be released from prison or to have an to
00:50:09
have an a conviction overturned does not mean that you are due restitution. You have to be proven innocent, which is
00:50:18
going to be very hard to do, especially when you have these false and law enforcement and a prosecutor
00:50:26
that still think that these confessions are valid, >> right? But you took the chance on doing
00:50:31
the DNA test >> and it didn't match, right? The the the glove don't fit. You must have quit,
00:50:37
right? Um so I think that's the proof. That's the proof that you're innocent. Who cares about the false confession?
00:50:44
Because not only did we have these two false confessions, we had what any, you know, 50 well 50 to 60 reported. I mean,
00:50:52
so it's it's just basically, you know, it's it makes our system seem like such a joke. And I'm sure there's people
00:51:00
listening in other countries that's going, "What the hell is wrong with the America's?" Well, we have law
00:51:05
enforcement down there that still want to try these guys for for this crime, which is
00:51:09
>> well, and that's the other thing is the when these guys get out of prison, right? They say this ain't over
00:51:16
>> because 10 years from now, they might come knocking at our door. >> And and that's kind of why they're like
00:51:22
actually moving forward with, you know, trying to prove that they're innocent so
00:51:26
we don't have to deal with this anymore. >> One of the one of the people that they
00:51:30
suspected is actually dead now. He's passed away. Very interesting story. >> So in 2010, this is Maurice Pierce.
00:51:37
Remember, he was the one that they thought was the mastermind of this whole crime that organized the whole thing.
00:51:43
And in December of 2010, he's pulled over by a Austin police officer and and well, two police officers. I apologize.
00:51:53
Now, his family would claim that that because he was imprisoned, and let's say imprisoned, because he was held for
00:52:00
quite some time while they were trying to bring him him to trial, even though they ultimately did not.
00:52:06
>> Um, he's stating, you know, that they have he has some kind of anxiety and all
00:52:11
kinds of issues from having been what he believes is harassed by the police, >> right? And um there's a situation here
00:52:19
where he's pulled over and this this traffic stop does not go well for anybody. He freaks out and he takes off
00:52:27
on freak out. >> He takes off on foot and eventually one of the officers catches up to him and
00:52:33
now we've got a fight going >> and during the course of this fight, Maurice pulled a knife off of the
00:52:39
officer and he stabbed the officer in the neck. The officer then shot Maurice, which
00:52:46
>> Don't Yeah, don't bring a knife to a gunfight. >> Well, he didn't even bring the knife,
00:52:51
first of all. >> Well, don't take the guy's knife that has a gun. >> But there's all there's all kinds of bad
00:52:56
problems here. The the Thankfully, the officer survived, and I don't lay any fault on the officer. I I believe he he
00:53:02
has to defend himself, and I think he did the right thing. The only problem is, would Maurice have had these issues
00:53:09
had he not lived this type of life? had he not gone down. >> Yeah. But you know what came first, the
00:53:15
chicken or the egg? I mean, what we do know was he was carrying around a gun in a mall,
00:53:20
>> right? When he was a kid. >> When he was a kid, not when he was not on the track traffic stop,
00:53:24
>> right? But what I'm saying is like it's, you know, he was kind of doing this [ __ ] way before, you know. So, the
00:53:30
moral of the story, don't do [ __ ] and you won't have a [ __ ] life. >> Yeah. He put himself in harm's way.
00:53:36
>> Okay. So, we have three of the four still alive. And like we've talked about before, we had these 50 to 60
00:53:42
confessions. So, uh, what we do want to bring up is that we had a very odd confession by a guy that we already
00:53:50
talked about in this case. >> Yeah. And one of those is from Kenneth McDuff. Now, he was the broomstick
00:53:56
killer. He was the one that we said was possibly in the area at the time of the crime.
00:54:01
>> He would have been very capable of this crime because he killed many, many women
00:54:06
and he did all of that in the state of Texas. >> Yeah. and he sometimes worked with other
00:54:10
indivi individuals. >> Yeah. And one thing that he did that that that is kind of interesting here,
00:54:16
right? He never admits to anything, right? He never confesses to any of his crimes. He's they had to bring him to
00:54:23
trial for every one of these crimes and he's convicted of them. And it's not until leading up to his his execution
00:54:32
>> that he starts talking to police. Now, this is just within days or weeks of his
00:54:37
execution. Now, he's executed November 17th, 1998. >> During this time, right around this
00:54:44
time, there's an anonymous source that comes forward that tells an Austin TV station, this is KV U
00:54:52
>> TV station, that McDuff confessed to the yogurt shop murders. Okay. And but they
00:55:00
also go on to say that that investigators are having a problem with this because he got certain key details
00:55:06
wrong about this crime, >> right? But it's also years and years it was seven years later.
00:55:11
>> Now let's keep in mind though >> and a guy that did multiple murders. >> He was asked by the original
00:55:17
investigators. He was questioned back in '92 by the >> original Jones. Yeah. >> And and he actually tells them now now
00:55:24
at this point he hasn't really confessed to anything, right? But he tells the two
00:55:28
of them, "Had I done that murder, I would have confessed to it. Why? Because I would have been proud of it, right?"
00:55:33
>> You know, that's this is the kind of a-hole that we're dealing with here. >> Right
00:55:37
>> now, here's where I have a big problem with the whole Kenneth McDuff thing, right?
00:55:41
>> His name. >> First of all, it's an anonymous source tells a TV station. >> Right. Right. Sounds a little bullish.
00:55:47
>> It's very fishy. First of all, we know from doing this show for so long and from the people listening to the show
00:55:53
for so long, >> TV stations, newspapers >> suck. >> They make things up sometimes.
00:55:59
>> You know, it would be very easy to say, you know, we cannot we cannot tell you
00:56:03
our source, but someone came forward and stated that he confessed to these crimes. I mean, that would be big news.
00:56:09
That would sell papers. That would get people to tune in to your TV station. The other problem that I have with this
00:56:16
crime is but leading up to his execution, he ends up admitting to everything. He ends up leading them to
00:56:22
bodies that they hadn't found yet, >> right? >> Why wouldn't he just confess to this one
00:56:27
as well? He he he stood to gain nothing or lose nothing by confessing to this. >> Well, it sounds like he did confess to
00:56:35
it, though. >> No, he he didn't. Law enforcement would come out and actively say he did not
00:56:40
confess to this. M >> it was only the media that stated that McDuff had actually confessed to the
00:56:45
yogurt shop murders. >> It's simply put, they have DNA, test his DNA. >> Yeah. >> Well, you have you have the um the head
00:56:56
of the Texas Department of Justice, his name is Glenn Castleberry. >> He actually says in a press conference,
00:57:02
>> Old Castleberry, >> he says when he's asked, "Did Kenneth McDuff confess to the yogurt shop
00:57:08
murders?" He says no, he did not. I've never heard that from anyone that McDuff said anything.
00:57:14
>> No reliable source. >> Exactly. >> Look, the the maybe he didn't confess to it because of
00:57:21
their ages. You know, you have two 17year-olds, a 15-year-old and a 13year-old. And maybe that's one of the
00:57:27
reasons why he didn't confess. Again, you have DNA. Test his DNA. >> He He had been convicted of killing
00:57:33
teenagers before. >> Right. I understand he was convicted of it, but what I'm saying is maybe that's
00:57:38
one of the reasons he I I would have to go back and look at all his confessions to different cases. You know what I
00:57:45
mean? So, like did he constyold woman? But did he, you know, so which which crimes did he commit that he that
00:57:54
he confessed to? And what were those ages of those victims? And maybe he's just not going to confess to uh the
00:58:01
crimes against teenagers. >> A couple of thoughts on McDuff. You know, yesterday you and I were talking
00:58:06
off mic and you had stated, you know, when we went through the description of the of the man that was seen in the army
00:58:13
fatigue jacket, >> right, >> that was standing in line and he ultimately just or orders a soda and
00:58:19
he's acting weird, right? >> Um, that description did match, you know, we talked about how it it vaguely
00:58:25
matched Kenneth McDuff. >> The issue is it matched Kenneth McDuff if McDuff were about 20 years younger.
00:58:32
you know that he it he is a white man. He does have the pointy nose. He has the clear deep voice, the clean shaven with
00:58:38
dark hair. You know, he matches all >> no scruff. >> The only problem is McDuff is about 63
00:58:45
and a half, 6'4. >> And and when I So he's about 4 in taller than what Croft described the man in the
00:58:53
army fatigue jacket as. So that's an issue. He's also about 20 years older than and I don't think that you would
00:58:59
have mistaken his age >> because at the time that McDuff was out and running around, not only was he
00:59:05
killing women, but he was also drinking heavily and smoking crack. So, I imagine
00:59:10
that he probably after serving after serving almost 20 years in prison, having a crack addiction, I'm guessing
00:59:18
he he does not look like a young 45, you know what I mean? And on top of that, he's balding in the front and balding in
00:59:25
the back by this time. So I don't think you would mistake him for >> no party in the front. No party in the
00:59:30
back. >> No party at all with Kenneth McDuff. >> Yeah. >> The other problem I have with him being
00:59:35
the person that committed this crime. It he his thing is he would have extended periods of rape and torture on
00:59:45
his victims. And what I mean by that is every one of his victims, he abducted them from one location, and took them
00:59:53
with him somewhere, spent a good amount of time with them before he killed them.
00:59:59
>> Mhm. >> My issue with this crime is Kenneth McDuff, I don't think, would have had
01:00:05
the ability to walk away from these victims. I don't think he would have been able to kill them on site and leave
01:00:12
them there. I think he would have seen this as an opportunity to take four girls with him someplace else and do,
01:00:19
you know, his whatever he does. >> Yeah. Which I see your theory. I think the the problem is um when you take in,
01:00:27
you know, when you take over this uh yogurt shop that maybe there was something that happened uh where he had
01:00:35
to change his plans. It's >> all I'm saying is that, you know, these parents deserve some answers. Uh the
01:00:44
victims deserve uh justice and and and they wouldn't get it if it was picked up. I mean, the just I mean, the justice
01:00:51
would already be done, but at least we'd have some closure. So, and I I don't know tons about DNA, so it's maybe it's
01:00:59
an issue where they don't want to test it too much because then eventually it goes away. But, uh, I I think he's
01:01:05
somebody that I think they should at least test. >> Well, and it's a little unclear here,
01:01:10
too, because we've we've had these very general statements that come out regarding this case because we have two
01:01:16
people. What even though I don't think it's likely that Kenneth McDuff did this crime
01:01:22
>> and as well as I don't think that it's likely that the fast food killer did this crime and and one point of that
01:01:27
being that that he never raped any of his other victims. uh there was there was rape that happened in this
01:01:33
situation. I'm not saying he's above it or that he's not capable of it. It just doesn't seem to fit what the two of them
01:01:39
did time and time again. >> Right. >> The problem here though that I have is the immediate question goes, well, did
01:01:45
they did they test the DNA against McDuff or against the fast food killer? And we get these very general statements
01:01:52
from people very close to the case, investigators, authors, media people, right? Basically what
01:01:59
their statement is is that they've tested this DNA against hundreds of suspects. So anybody that they thought
01:02:06
could have been involved in this crime has been tested. Well, that's a very blanketed statement. I would love to
01:02:11
hear someone just outright say Kenneth McDuff, we tested it against his, it didn't match,
01:02:15
>> right? >> You know, uh Reed the fast food killer, we tested it against his and there is no
01:02:20
match. >> Yeah. I think with Reed there there doesn't seem to be as many connections.
01:02:27
Now, we have a public and we have a law enforcement that is still hung up on these four guys. They still want to find
01:02:33
a way to charge them. We have the original investigators. >> Well, it's very much like like we said,
01:02:39
West Memphis 3. There's a innocent side for West Memphis 3. There's a guilty side.
01:02:44
>> Same thing with the Austin 4. >> We have the original investigators and we have attorneys and people close to
01:02:50
the case that are saying, "You know what? If if you want to solve this thing, >> Mhm. It's very solvable because we have
01:02:57
DNA and maybe at some point that this hits on some computer somewhere else in the country or maybe even in the great
01:03:03
state of Texas and we figure out who did this that way. But in time if we if we sit around and wait for that, we're
01:03:09
doing nothing productive in the in the process. >> So what these investigators, original
01:03:14
investigators and attorneys, people close to the case are saying the way to solve this case is to go back and review
01:03:20
what you know. Throw those confessions out. go back and review the evidence and see where it takes you. Well, we have a
01:03:28
big chunk of evidence right here that points to who committed this crime. Now, we talked about police interviewing the
01:03:36
customers that came in that day. So, we have an issue here, though, because I don't know how with it being 1991 and
01:03:44
they're not being surveillance, you know, I don't know how they they interviewed all of these people. They
01:03:50
must have did a a a public call to action and say, you know, if you were here on this day, come in so we can talk
01:03:57
to you. Now, they can check certain sales to verify if people were there or not. And the thing here is though, they
01:04:04
have two people that that they never speak to. Two people that are unidentified and that's it for that
01:04:10
entire day. And who are those two guys? Those are the two guys that the married couple said that they saw still in the
01:04:16
store just minutes before closing time. the two weirdos without yogurt. >> Yeah. They're sitting in a booth and
01:04:24
they're drinking cans of soda. >> So, we have all kinds of issues here. The first being that the law enforcement
01:04:30
has never publicly laid out the description of these two men. They've left it very vague, which I have a
01:04:37
problem with. It's 25 years later. Let's let's release that description. If if that married couple gave you a good
01:04:44
description, let's release it. Why did those guys not come forward? Okay. And first of all, I want to throw in another
01:04:51
thing here. We have that that other unidentified man that was in the army jacket that was seen just around 10
01:04:57
o'clock that night, he had ordered a soda as well. Now, we get a description of him from that former police officer,
01:05:05
Officer Croft. Now, one could one could assume that if you have two guys later that are claimed to be the only two that
01:05:12
were not identified, yet you have this guy in the army jacket that earlier was in the store and he's not been
01:05:18
identified. Well, he must have been one of those two men would be what I would surmize.
01:05:23
>> He doesn't have to be. He could have been sent in first to case the place and
01:05:28
then two other guys are sent in later and they're kind of observing everything, but they're going to be the
01:05:33
ones to take over. You open up the back door and then the army the army savage guy that just goes takes a pee. Uh
01:05:42
>> well he comes through because what we do have evidence of and and this would be
01:05:46
another thing that I think law enforcement has to come out with. >> Mhm. >> Is do you have DNA from two people or do
01:05:52
you have DNA for three people? >> You're exactly right and and I agree with that statement. But here's where
01:05:58
here's where I arrive at the conclusion that the man in the army jacket is one of the two men that was seen right at
01:06:04
closing time. >> And that being that we have statements from law enforcement saying that there
01:06:09
were only two unidentified customers for that day. Yet we have two separate stories taking place. One with two guys,
01:06:17
one with one guy. So that would be three unidentified customers for that day. What they're stating is there's two. So,
01:06:24
I'm arriving at the conclusion that the army fatigue jacket guy is one of those people seen sitting at the booth
01:06:30
drinking a can of soda right before closing time. >> Mhm. >> The other thing that you and I have
01:06:35
discussed too is what is the motive here? Well, the motive becomes very important when you cannot determine what
01:06:40
actually took place. Right. We we we both agree that we think the motive here was rape.
01:06:46
>> Is that correct? >> Yeah, I think it was sexual. Yeah. >> We we don't think that this the motive
01:06:50
was robbery. Why? because of the small amount of money. Two, they never broke into the office. And and three, they
01:06:56
could have just taken the money and left had everything gone their way. Now, one
01:07:00
would argue that it was a robbery gone wrong. I get the argument. However, what I'm stating here is that I see a
01:07:07
situation where you have two teenage girls closing a store on a Friday night. All right, they they claim that it was
01:07:14
very important to go back and talk to every customer from that day. I get that. But what I'm getting at is I
01:07:20
wonder if they talked to the customers from the previous Friday. If if the in fact the motive was rape, somebody knew
01:07:27
that that store was being operated by two teenage girls that were unattended by anybody else. They they see this is
01:07:35
the opportunity. >> Yeah. But if they didn't question anybody on other days that attended the
01:07:40
yogurt shop, uh that information is long gone and those witnesses are long gone.
01:07:45
And if they did come forward, how reliable would they be? >> That's correct. That's correct. The But
01:07:50
the thing here is I'm I'm going to stick on motive for a while. Okay. The other issue is if if the motive was in fact
01:07:56
rape, well then there was a murder that was used to cover up this rape. And furthermore, a fire that was set to
01:08:03
cover up the rape and the murders. Now, what we do know, one bit of evidence that we do know is that the lighter
01:08:09
fluid that was used to set the fire was not present in that store until this robbery took place. Therefore, whoever
01:08:16
did this crime brought the accelerant into the store with them. Right. >> This seems a little pre-planned to me. I
01:08:23
wouldn't bring lighter fluid to a robbery. Well, that's why there's a lot of speculation in the the city of Austin
01:08:30
that for some reason that this was some kind of insurance fraud or or or some kind of scandal like that. Yeah. And
01:08:38
I've I've heard those arguments. The thing that that I have a problem with on those is that why stick around and do
01:08:44
the rape then if that's if that's the actual case. You know what I mean? >> There's some sick individuals.
01:08:50
>> Yes. I I get that there's plenty of sick individuals, but but a job is a job. You
01:08:54
see what I'm saying? It it would make more sense to me. >> No, that's that's called a crime, not a
01:08:59
job. >> Crime. >> They're hired to commit this crime. >> Mhm. >> And it would make more sense to me to
01:09:06
get in there, do the job, and leave rather than to spend a amount of time in the crime scene.
01:09:12
>> Yeah. And normally I like to go down those, you know, conspiracy rabbit holes. This just seems
01:09:17
>> Captain Conspiracy. Captain for the last time people I was I was just trying to
01:09:23
be nice to Alex Jones and say I was fans of his captain doesn't like >> I really do not like Alex Jones. I just
01:09:29
watched a couple sometimes I'm just glad that we got a brain up Captain Conspiracy for a second because
01:09:35
sometimes yes I go down a couple rabbit holes and I watch his videos. I do believe he has an agenda. I do not like
01:09:41
that agenda. I think a lot of the stuff he brings up is complete malarkey horshit. Alex Jones, bad jib. Bad jib. I
01:09:50
do not like his jib. I I I'm just saying that overall I don't think he's like some horrible person and deserves to die
01:09:57
or anything. I think he has kids and and he's trying to make a living and and I think he's he's his agenda is money and
01:10:06
all this other [ __ ] you know, he says a bunch of [ __ ] for my Anyways, >> what the captain's trying to say here is
01:10:12
that the insurance scheme, the insurance conspiracy is far-fetched, right, at best, right?
01:10:18
>> It's farfetched like a lot of Alex Jones's ideas. >> Yeah. And so that would be a whole it'
01:10:23
take us a whole another day or two to explain that whole conspiracy to you. So we we don't believe in it and we don't
01:10:29
need to go through why. >> All right, go on. >> Yeah. Back to my rant. So I think here
01:10:34
all I'm trying to say right I just want to go into the short quick theory of it right the two guys that were seen in the
01:10:40
shop just before closing I think they were sitting at the booth I don't think anybody ever reentered the building
01:10:46
afterwards I think that they one of them got up locked the front door the other one approached the register if you look
01:10:53
at a diagram of the actual crime scene they were sitting in the booth that was closest to the register at the crime
01:11:00
scene photos that are shown later. That booth, that table is the only table that
01:11:06
sits there with an empty napkin dispenser. Right. They we we said that the the women the couple had stated that
01:11:12
they had saw the girls refilling the napkin dispensers. >> Right. >> The only one that wasn't filled was the
01:11:18
one at this table. The only one that didn't have a chair put on top of the table was this table as well. I think
01:11:24
they got up and they took control of the situation. I think they were targeting the two teenage girls that were there. I
01:11:31
think the motive was sexual. I think that unfortunately the other two younger victims just happened to be there that
01:11:37
night. That was a variable that they had not planned on. I do think that the Army
01:11:41
fatigue jacket guy did go back to the restrooms at some point because that area is blocked off from the rest of the
01:11:46
store. He wanted to double check that there was actually nobody back there. There wasn't a male manager or
01:11:51
additional staff back there that night. They wanted to carry out what they were going to do. Mhm.
01:11:57
>> I also think that the what kept throwing me off was this back door situation.
01:12:02
Okay. Because in the confession of these guys, they state that they had left the
01:12:05
back door open and came in later and police and firefighters find this back door open. The thing here is what I was
01:12:13
able to figure out last night is that the the building did have a sprinkler system. I think that this back door was
01:12:19
just basically left open to let that fire burn as long as it possibly could to burn off as much evidence as possible
01:12:27
before that sprinkler system would kick on and maybe possibly put out the fire >> and possibly just the way they left as
01:12:33
well. >> Yeah. Yeah. Could have just been happen. >> We're going to leave here and and and
01:12:37
just, you know, leave it open. It makes some sense. Yeah. >> Now, one one thing here, Captain, I'll
01:12:43
throw a whole little conspiracy since you like him so much, right? All right. So, we have the neighbor the
01:12:49
neighbor statement. I would love to hear what that full statement is or read that
01:12:53
full statement because I have some problems with that statement. This guy says he never hears any screams. He says
01:12:59
he hears popping noises and he goes outside to investigate and he sees the door open and that's when he sees the
01:13:05
fire. Now, I want to know how long it was from the time that he said he heard the popping noises to the time that he
01:13:13
went outside and saw the fire, right? Because we know that it took some time for this event to take place.
01:13:20
>> If he went out immediately and saw the fire, that when then that story is complete malarkey, that would make no
01:13:27
sense because then he would have he would have seen the killers leaving the building, fleeing the building, which he
01:13:33
did not say that he saw anybody. >> Mhm. Here's a little thing here. Uh I hope that they tested the DNA of that
01:13:39
store owner next door. >> Yeah. Okay. I think you're reaching there, but uh yeah, I'm sure I think at
01:13:46
the end of the day, they have this DNA and any possible suspects instead of trying to get people to falsely confess.
01:13:53
>> How about you just test that DNA? >> Yeah, that's really the only good thing in this entire story here is that they
01:13:59
have DNA. I think they'll catch this person or persons eventually. >> Well, hopefully. I I believe this family
01:14:05
and um and the victims, like I said, uh deserve justice and and deserve some answers. All right, wrapping up, we have
01:14:11
our recommended reading for this week. It is Wolf Boys by Dan Slater. You can pick that up by going to our website.
01:14:17
This is the true story of a couple teenagers that joined the Zetas, which is one of the worst, most brutal Mexican
01:14:24
drug cartels out there. You have a a story about a good naturatured teenager that turns into a feared assassin. So,
01:14:30
that's Wolf Boys by Dan Slater. Go to truegar.com, click on the recommended page and check
01:14:35
that out. You can purchase that along with anything else through the Amazon banner.
01:14:40
>> And follow us on social media at true crime garage. We are on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, you our
01:14:48
YouTube channel is uh >> blowing up. >> It's starting to blow up. But uh the Instagram bet I won and now we did a
01:14:56
double or nothing. So, if you're not on Instagram, not following us, it's a good
01:15:00
way to see kind of the characters of each case. We kind of try to post a bunch of pictures of each case, uh, you
01:15:06
know, different crime scene details and stuff like that, so you kind of get a visual idea of what's going on in these
01:15:12
cases, so it's not just our nasely drones. >> That's right. All right. Thank you all
01:15:16
for listening and thank you, Captain. We will see everybody back here in the garage next week. And until then, be
01:15:21
good, be kind, and don't litter. >> And don't smitter. Smash. Heat. Heat. [Applause]
01:15:42
[Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • Yogurt Shop Murders
    In December 1991, four teenage girls were bound and killed in a yogurt shop robbery in Austin, Texas. This case still haunts the city today.
    “Who killed these girls?”
    @ 05m 22s
    October 09, 2025
  • Confessions Under Pressure
    During intense interrogations, suspects reveal details about the yogurt shop murders, but inconsistencies arise in their stories.
    “I'm not going to give you the right answer.”
    @ 15m 25s
    October 09, 2025
  • The Role of Evidence
    Detectives are criticized for trying to fit evidence to a theory rather than following the evidence.
    “You follow the evidence. You don't come up with a theory and make the shoe fit.”
    @ 24m 12s
    October 09, 2025
  • Confessions and Inconsistencies
    Two boys confess to the crime, but their statements are riddled with inconsistencies.
    “They got the majority of these right answers by the detectives kind of forcing it.”
    @ 31m 49s
    October 09, 2025
  • Forest's Denial
    Forest maintains his innocence despite being implicated by others' confessions.
    “I was never there.”
    @ 38m 00s
    October 09, 2025
  • Confessions and Doubts
    Two individuals confess to a crime, but doubts arise about the validity of their statements.
    “This confession doesn't mean [ __ ] to me.”
    @ 40m 38s
    October 09, 2025
  • Justice System Flaws
    The discussion highlights the ongoing issues within the American justice system.
    “What the hell is wrong with America's?”
    @ 51m 02s
    October 09, 2025
  • The Tragic Outcome
    Maurice's confrontation with police leads to a violent encounter, raising questions about his past.
    “Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.”
    @ 52m 48s
    October 09, 2025
  • Justice for the Victims
    The discussion emphasizes the need for answers and justice for the victims' families.
    “These parents deserve some answers.”
    @ 01h 00m 37s
    October 09, 2025
  • The Importance of DNA Testing
    Investigators stress the significance of testing DNA to solve the case.
    “I think they'll catch this person or persons eventually.”
    @ 01h 14m 03s
    October 09, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • It's very kind to grade jibs on a curve, my friends.
    Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82
  • How could you get the positionings of the bodies right, but not the layout?
    Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82
  • Why would you confess to a crime that you didn't commit?
    Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82
  • This confession doesn't mean [ __ ] to me.
    Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82
  • These parents deserve some answers.
    Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82
  • This seems a little pre-planned to me.
    Austin Yogurt Shop Murders /// Part 2 /// Episode:82

Key Moments

  • Listener Shoutouts01:37
  • Yogurt Shop Murders04:59
  • Inconsistent Statements20:42
  • Detective Critique23:33
  • Forest's Innocence34:21
  • Justice System Issues51:02
  • Pre-planned Crime1:08:20
  • DNA Evidence1:14:01

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown