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so [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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listening i'm your host nick and with me as always is a man that's living life by
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the drop ladies and gentlemen here is the captain that's right and you know i like to drop it like it's hot it's good
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to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend this week we are very excited to be
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drinking best made sour pickled beer brewed in the big beautiful state of texas by the brilliant brewers and crew
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over at martin house brewing company captain this week's case takes us back to texas austin texas once again and
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when we were in austin several fine wonderful listeners said to us hey while you guys are here you have to try best
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made sour pickled beer from martin house and these fantastic people were spot on
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it's not really sour well no more sour than pickle juice would be you get a refreshing burst of pickle taste that
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has kind of an ale or pilsner finish garage grade this one's for the people four and a half bottle caps out of five
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and here's to our friends that filled up the fridge for us this week first up a shout out to kim and brie in splendora
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texas and a big we like your jib to brook and hilliard ohio and here's a long distance cheers to stacy in renton
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washington she's thanking us for helping her through quarantine quarantine more like boring teen and a big shout
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out to tasha in good old wisconsin next we have rebecca in pompton lakes new jersey and last but certainly not least
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we have a very big cheers and thanks that goes out to longtime friend of the show paula m everyone we just mentioned
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they went to truecrimegarage.com and clicked on the donate button and for that we thank you yeah say it with me
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bwwr u.n beer run if you're trying to get a special gift for a loved one for christmas go to our store page at
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truecrimegarage.com and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer
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let's talk some true crime [Music] in the early 1990s several unforgettable billboards were
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popping up in and around austin texas these billboards were not put up with the purpose
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of advertising for a great restaurant located at the next exit off of texas highway 130. these
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billboards didn't stare at the passing cars to influence your next cable provider choice
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the only purpose for these unforgettable billboards screamed their mission loud and clear
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with bold white letters all in caps set on a red background who killed these girls
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this was the question on the minds of every red-blooded texan possibly minus one two or who knows how
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many for sure because somewhere maybe in the lone star state or across state lines
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maybe even south of the border someone or someone's know the answer to that question
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who killed these girls the question posted on the billboards centered just below
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what looks to be four school photos the pictures are of amy ayers jennifer harbison
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sarah harbison and eliza thomas these are the four victims of an infamous crime known as the yogurt shop
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murders the four girls ranged in age from 13 to 17. the yogurt shop murders are a still
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unsolved quadruple homicide taking place at the local i can't believe it's yogurt
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shop on a friday night in austin texas the crimes committed that night were many they were fast and they were brutal
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these girls were killed on december 6 1991. the unknown assailant or assailants started a fire in the stockroom of the
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yogurt shop before fleeing into the night an on-duty patrolman noticed the fire it
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was close to midnight he rushed to the smoke coming from the i can't believe it's yogurt located in a
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strip plaza 2949 west anderson lane he called it into dispatch firefighters arrived on the scene and
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began knocking the fire down once they entered the small northwest austin yogurt shop
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one firefighter motioned to the other pointing to a charred foot and then they started finding bodies
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austin police were called and the lone homicide detective working that night got the call that no one wants to
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receive even the most seasoned of detectives two fatalities suspected arson suspected
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homicide looks like gunshot wounds the dispatcher called out over the police radio
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apd sergeant john jones was in route minutes later the dispatcher tells jones they found another body and as he drives
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closer a cop at the scene radioed jonesy make that four on the scene jones got to work
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the following is from the 2016 beverly lowry book titled who killed these girls ignoring the firefighters who either
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milled around or just stood there looking down jones stepped gingerly around the bodies
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having been schooled in evidence collection and processing he felt competent to handle 95 percent of most
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crime scenes but this one lie well beyond his expertise in a memo to the district attorney's
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office he will describe the situation as robbery plus sexual assault plus multiple child victims
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plus bondage plus gunshot wounds plus fire heat smoke water damage plus no known witnesses
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equal the homicide arson and da's worst nightmare this is true crime garage and this is a new look at the yogurt
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shop murders case 30 years later [Music] later this week will mark 30 years since
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some kind of monster or monsters committed the horrific yogurt shop murders and the austin police department
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and the fbi are still on the hunt for those responsible some of the following was taken from a recent reporting
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texas.com article the four teenage girls were brutally murdered on a friday night
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at a yoga shop in north austin in december of 1991. the girls families and those who worked decades trying to find
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and prosecute their killers say the 30th anniversary of their murders approaches
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with no sense of closure the murders remain unsolved and experts say that crimes lacking resolution can leave a
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psychological impact on an entire community but new state and federal efforts as well as a promising dna lead
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have brought renewed hope for answers and justice the details of the crime including the
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subsequent investigation and criminal trials that followed have been well documented jennifer harbison and eliza
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thomas both 17 worked at the i can't believe it's yogurt on west anderson lane jennifer's sister sarah harbison 15 and
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amy ayers 13 arrived at the yogurt shop around closing time on december 6 1991 with
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plans to attend a sleepover together amy was an 8th grader at burnett middle school and the other
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girls attended lanier high school they were shot in the head and gagged with their own clothes
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their bodies were stacked on top of one another before being set on fire authorities arrested four suspects but
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this was almost eight years later in october of 1999 only two of the four robert burns
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springsteen and michael james scott stood trial and both were convicted springsteen received the death penalty
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and scott got life in prison but the texas court of criminal appeals overturned their convictions ruling that
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their confessions were improperly used against each other at trial springsteen and scott were released from prison and
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prosecutors dismissed all charges against them in 2017 another potential breakthrough emerged an austin detective
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submitted dna evidence found in one of the victims into a database that searches ystr dna samples a type of dna
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profile that forensic investigators used to identify male relatives of suspects a match was found
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the austin police department requested more information about the identity of the matching donor
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but the fbi has refused to release any information saying a federal statute prohibits it
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from disclosing identities of anonymous donors despite these hurdles the families have continued to work to
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keep the case in the forefront their efforts have led to new crime fighting initiatives at the state and
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federal levels quote when i heard there were over 19 000 unsolved homicides in texas i was
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really taken aback by that and i think most people are when they hear that number
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when you think about each of those cases there's a family associated with that said mindy montford who was the first
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assistant district attorney for travis county and one of the prosecutors assigned to the yogurt shop murders case
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for four years the yogurt shop murders led montford to work with texas attorney general ken paxton to form the state
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cold case and missing persons unit on october 19th the unit will aid and support law
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enforcement agencies across the state in the investigation and prosecution of unsolved cases montford serves as senior
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counsel for the unit angie and sean ayers the brother of the youngest victim sit on its advisory committee the yogurt
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shop victims families have been pushing to effect change on a national level in may of 2021 the bipartisan homicide
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victims families rights act was reintroduced u.s representative mike mccall said
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quote if a case has been cold for three years it gives the victims the right to petition the local district attorney to
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re-examine the cold case and take another look at it it's very much empowering to the
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families of the victims and particularly the case like the yogurt shop killings many remember the yogurt shop murders as
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a defining moment in austin which was about half its current size and not yet a tech or tourist hub
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the 30th anniversary of the yogurt shop murders brings up painful memories for those who've tried to solve the crime
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austin police sergeant jon jones who was the lead investigator assigned to the case at the time of the murders
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said quote there's no statute of limitations on murder then there shouldn't be any limitation on doing
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what one can to try to get it solved and that sometimes means having to relive that pain
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and answer questions my theory is if me talking about it to you or anybody else can jog somebody's memory out there to
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perhaps get this thing solved then it's worth reliving that night the girls families believe that the case
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will be solved and we here in the garage hope so as well we covered this case rather extensively
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in early 2017 in true crime garage episodes 81 and 82. now you don't need to stop these
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episodes and go back these episodes with this information and nick's research will stand on its own yeah just know
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that this week's shows will be different from those episodes and they are there to listen to should you want to hear the
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case as it were back in early 2017. then captain we gave a detailed description of the events and the facts
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of the case followed by the arrest of four persons nearly eight years later two were convicted because they air
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quotes here confessed and the two others saw their charges dropped due to a lack
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of evidence rob springsteen and michael james scott as we said both went to prison rob sentenced to death michael to
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life imprisonment they both confessed that they along with maurice pierce and forrest wilbourne went to rob the store
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and killed all four girls the strange thing here is obvious the two that ended up with charges
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dropped due to insufficient evidence did not confess yet if we were to believe that the confessions of the two that the
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state convicted are correct well then all four are guilty of the yogurt shop murders so to me captain i've always
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felt like this should be an all or nothing situation for these four suspects absolutely it's
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almost as if the prosecution didn't believe law enforcement's confessions that they received
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now when we covered the case we spent a lot of time covering the case against these four individuals the two trials
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and later their release we won't spend a lot of time on that this time around we
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also covered some other good suspects and spent a lot of time on what is most likely the best theory out there so as
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you can see this is a rather large case not a short true crime story at all and captain i like the cut of our jib
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because i think those episodes were really well done and we told as much of the story as you can in just two
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episodes and now as we are approaching the 30-year marker well this is a really good time to
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revisit the yogurt shop let's dive into the facts of this case and the timeline that goes with it we're going to include
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some angles theories and leads that perhaps were not pursued as doggedly as the four men that were arrested who were
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just teenagers themselves at the time of the murders yes but first some background information bryce foods is
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the company that owns the icby store i can't believe it's yogurt store and they own dozens of them bryce foods by 1991
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had been in business for 14 years and the bryce foods firm was started by brother and sister bill and julie bryce
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from dallas in 1977 bryce foods purchased existing yogurt shops i'm not sure captain if this location is one of
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their original stores as said they owned many this location though we know that by 1991 has been around for years and
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only two of the four girls that were killed worked there one of the victims 17 year old eliza thomas started working
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there in early 1991 it's either january or early february and her friend sarah harbison started
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working there in july of 1991. the two were friends and they both attended the same high school well since we've been
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doing this for five years it seems like every time around december when it starts and you start feeling that
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christmas holiday there's a couple cases that always come to mind obviously the jonbenet ramsay case and then this case
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happening on december 6 1991 at 6 30 pm eliza arrives home and is getting ready to make her drive to
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the icby store she was there by 7 pm she worked the night before and was said that she had a
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difficult shift that night before due to a prank phone call from her ex-boyfriend
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roger carducci and one of his pals so at 7 pm eliza is replacing another employee
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jorge barney is closing his store mind you this is like a shopping plaza so there we're going to reference some
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other stores that are nearby throughout this case and timeline jorge barney is closing his store the
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party house he's the owner of the store he's owned it for three months at this time he has a santa on the roof because
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this is a you know the party house is where you're going to go to get decorations and things for party
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planning and such and with the christmas holiday coming up he's got santa on the
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roof and other decorations going on he walks three stores down to another store this is called mr gaddy's and he says
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that he went there to get some pizza it's a pizza place from there he will take his pizza to go back to his store
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in his office to eat and do some bookkeeping and watch some tv he's important because his office shares a
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wall with the stockroom at the icby shop eliza once she arrives and she gets into
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work she places her personal belongings in the store's office which is located in the back of the store in the area we
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will refer to as the stock room this stock room is the room behind the sales counter which is located in the dining
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room the stock room has a walk-in cooler two bathrooms one designated as men's and the other as ladies and the shops
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small office in this back corner the office has a locked door and a floor safe there
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is a back door to the shop which is located near the door to the office from my understanding captain
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that back door to the store is locked via deadbolt and the manager has the only key to
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this back door that's key to know because this back door is not used often when the manager with the key is not
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there because this case is so perplexing it's been investigated by several detectives
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and several crime shows so i will post all the pictures that i think are relevant to seeing the outside
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of the building and there's also a couple diagrams of inside the building obviously we'll post those
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on social media at true crime garage twitter facebook or even at the website and the
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captain's really doing everybody a big service by doing that because i think it's important here as is in most cases
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but in this case it's particularly important to understand the layout of this store because we will be talking
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about the movements of not only suspects but our victims as well well anybody that's worked at a shop knows that you
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have closing time duties that you start preparing even though customers are still in the
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store so i think that becomes very important in this case yes we're going to want to keep an eye on several things
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the events leading up to that closing time as well as those closing duties like you just pointed out as well as the
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customers that are coming and going from the shop leading up to closing time now
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after placing her personal belongings in the yogurt shop's locked office eliza will then return the office door
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key to its designated location which is under the cash register later eliza thomas's personal belongings will
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be found inside the locked office eliza at this point in our timeline captain she is going to be running the store by
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herself until 8 pm this is when her shift mate jennifer harbison arrives for the closing shift
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before arriving at the shop for her 8 pm shift jennifer harbison will drive her sister sarah age 15 and her friend amy
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ayers age 13 to the north cross mall so they can hang out with some friends we should
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also note for those not familiar with austin the north cross mall is relatively close to the yogurt shop i
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believe it's less than one mile from the yogurt shop note their ages as well 13 and 15 right one of the parents would
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later say that this was the first time that the two good friends were allowed to go to the mall by themselves
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i think we all can look back and remember one of those days right captain when you're a young
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teenager and maybe it's the first time that you and a friend are allowed to go somewhere without any type of adult
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supervision and you're you're going to the location being driven by your friend's older brother or
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older sister who's dropping you off it feels very adult-like right it feels very special to those at that time
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and i'm sure that's how amy and sarah felt on this friday night yeah i remember being dropped off at the cinema
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and being able to play a couple arcade games before we watched the movie but you're basically just going into a
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building watching a movie and coming out it was more rare if they would let you walk
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around and look at different multiple shops jennifer does everything that we just
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said and then she arrives at the icby store just before her 8 pm shift she parks her vehicle next to eliza thomas's
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vehicle eliza will be running the register and jennifer will be taking and filling orders
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the store closes at 11 pm bryce foods the company has a pretty detailed closing procedures for the
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employees and this is important here because of these closing duties and jennifer harbison's and eliza thomas's
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work ethic we will get a really good idea of when things went down and how things may have
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gone down this is because everyone has stated that eliza and jennifer carried out the
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closing duties to a tea completing each task in the very specific order designated by
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the bryce foods company [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] all right we're back [Music]
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if you're not signed up on the mailing list make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com
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and sign up on the mailing list and the next week or so we'll be sending out a nice little promo code for the store
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page so if you're not signed up get signed up today all the cool kids are doing it
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yes cheers to you captain cheers all right colonel why don't you go through a list of the closing duties the yogurt
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shop closes at 11 p.m so starting at 10 till 11 the person's working that night they
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will lock the front door from the inside then they will change the sign from open to closed and they will leave
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the key in the lock in the door this is done at this time regardless if there are any remaining customers in
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the store or not then they would deposit the money in the floor safe that is in the locked office
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and then clean up the store when the store is completely clean they would remove the key that's in the front
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door leave through the front door then they would lock the door from the outside place the key inside of an
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envelope and then slide that envelope under the front door the manager with a key to the store opens the store in the
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morning and then retrieves the envelope and the key when they arrive let's get into some of the icby customer
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testimonials and some of the events that we know happened that night we have customer
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lucilla jones who arrives at the yogurt shop and says that when she entered the store
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she noticed two teenage boys seated at the table nearest the door they were approximately between the ages of 14 and
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17 and she says they had a sort of hippie look to them she describes one of them as being
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between five foot four and five foot seven inches tall with medium dark hair 130 to 140 pounds possibly hispanic or
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anglo she does not see the face of the other so no description of him is given other
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than he looks to be older and larger than the other boy that she just described she would give three different
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descriptions of the table throughout the course of the events there will be a trial in the last 30 years one of these
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descriptions says that the boys were focusing in on something that may have been a paper bag
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centered on the table another description that she gives says that she did not see any containers on the table
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and then the third description says she did not have a clear view of the table itself she says that these boys gave her
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an uneasy feeling and she didn't think that the boys fit the quote normal yogurt shop customers she orders a
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yogurt and pays by check and then leaves the store now we are at 9pm here captain
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this is when jennifer harbison leaves the yogurt shop she has to go back and pick up her sister sarah and her friend
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amy from their visit to the mall when the three return sarah and amy walk over to mr gaddy's to
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get some pizza the mall closed at 9pm and mr gaddy's closes at 10 pm so we are very confident with the times that are
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provided here at 9 30 pm maria thomas eliza's mother arrives at the yogurt shop eliza takes a phone call
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from her younger sister and at some point gives the phone to her mother amy and sarah then arrive at the yogurt
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shop with their take out pizza shortly after this jennifer is going to receive a phone
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call from her boyfriend sammy buchanan around the same time a man named daryl croft arrives at the yogurt shop
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he puts his arrival time between 9 30 and 10 p.m he is traveling with two women who stay in croft's vehicle croft
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goes into order to go desserts for all three of them he says that when he walks into the
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yogurt shop he sees two girls working behind the counter maria again this is eliza's mother is standing
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near the counter there's a man and a woman reviewing the menu standing in front of the counter
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a young couple is seated at one of the booths on the right hand side of the dining room and there's a young man in a
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green army type jacket this young man is near the counter and near the couple reviewing the menu right he later would
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describe this young man as early to mid 20s medium build 150 to 170 pounds between 5 foot 10 and
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6 foot tall and caucasian he says there was something off about this man there are two differing descriptions of what
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this man says and does while in the store one in beverly lowry's book who killed
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these girls and another in the book murdered innocents by corey mitchell both of these books are very thorough
00:30:09
and very good anyone that is fascinated by this case should read both of them but rather than ordering
00:30:18
the young man says to croft you go first and then there is this weird awkward exchange where the two men keep offering
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to allow the other to go first you go first no you go first yeah oh i'm sorry you were here before me but it's
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like andy and dwight in that episode where they just kept doing each other favors over and over again it's weird to
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me that he has an uneasy feeling from this gentleman that's letting him go first
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the guy in the army jacket is obviously not in a rush and obviously trying to be polite well i
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think what we need to keep in mind here is we are reviewing all of these customers and their statements
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after the fact and they're giving these statements to police after the murders occurred so
00:31:05
i'm thinking what we have here captain in most of these situations is people are going about their everyday lives
00:31:11
these are all very routine acts uh this daryl croft individual he was a regular at the yogurt shop a lot of the
00:31:19
customers coming in that night were regulars to this yogurt shop and so i think when you have regulars one they
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seem to notice more that's going on because they're aware that you know this visit's a
00:31:32
little different than last one this time they're really busy this time they're not right
00:31:37
i don't think that most of these people are walking into the yogurt shop that night observing what's going on and
00:31:43
going oh something something terrible is here i feel i i sense a presence a bad element something's
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broken i think that it's you know we know what happened and when i left or later that night or now that i know the
00:31:57
outcome now that i know that four girls were killed here i remember this guy something was off about him
00:32:06
something was weird about this guy and we're looking for somebody who killed four people
00:32:10
and so here is my information and daryl croft again he's a regular to the yogurt shop
00:32:16
he was a security guard at the time he owned a security company a lot of times these individuals will be
00:32:25
hyper vigilant they will be extra aware of their surroundings and take mental note right
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of their surroundings so he to me can offer up possibly some better information than
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maybe just the average jane or joe walking into the shop that night well he's coming in like you said between 9
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30 and 10. so this is getting close to closing time my big issue is it's december 6th
00:32:54
yes i understand that it's in texas but it seems like there's quite a bit of pockets of people
00:33:02
seems like there's quite a bit of people towards the end of the day yeah so you're going to have this for
00:33:08
several reasons one it's a friday night and the yogurt shop is open till 11 p.m yeah good point so this is going to
00:33:16
offer up traffic to this store when other stores are closing for the night remember we already pointed out
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that mr gaddy's the pizza place closes at 10. well the mall closes at nine mall closes at nine so we have customers that
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are coming in maybe from mr gaddy's after pizza they want a little dessert they want the yogurt shop dessert maybe
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people are leaving a movie we have several customers that we know went to movies at
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night and decided to get a dessert on the way home a lot of these customers too you're going to see some stay there to
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eat their frozen treats at the shop but also a lot of them are taking things to go they're going in placing their
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order paying for them and they're leaving and that's what daryl croft was doing here that night i think
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i have in my notes here and i can't remember where i got this from but i think that he
00:34:10
he and these other people they were they were either out that night and decided to stop for dessert or
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he knew eliza thomas and eliza thomas's mother as well so that's interesting too that
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he knows some of the people in the store when he's walking into it uh he knows them very very loosely
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they're like acquaintances because they went to the same gym so daryl croft again a regular to the shop security
00:34:39
guard security company owner remember we said that there will be trials because we know that two
00:34:45
individuals were convicted in this case and later they were released but at the trial
00:34:53
croft testified that he visited the shop around 10 pm that night in line in front of him was a suspicious
00:35:00
looking man dressed in a green army jacket the man asked him about his security guard car
00:35:07
which was parked out front this is part of that weird exchange where this man sees crop's vehicle and
00:35:14
says you know what are you some kind of cop right which croft that kind of tickled
00:35:20
his spidey sense a little bit because he's like why is this guy so observant and paying so much
00:35:26
attention to me and my vehicle and my vehicle has these lights on it who is this kid to question me and so
00:35:35
the man asked him about his security guard card which was parked out front and then insisted that croft should cut
00:35:42
in front of him now finally crop said that the man slipped into the back headed to what he thought would be the
00:35:50
bathroom this is another reason why i think croft has a vivid memory of this guy he walks
00:35:58
into a busy yogurt shop sees all these customers and this is the only individual that
00:36:04
he's going to see go into the back room now remember the restrooms are back there so that's the assumption that
00:36:10
croft is going to make well also it seems like there's pairs of people and we don't
00:36:16
know if this army shirt or army jacket guy is connected to the couple that he was
00:36:22
closest to it almost seems like he's in there by himself yes everything that goes on would give the appearance that
00:36:32
this man is in there by himself so croft says that the man gave him such a funny
00:36:38
feeling that he decided to kind of stick around like linger a bit to see the man return from the back room
00:36:46
but eventually you know he's handed his three desserts that he's ordered he's paid he's made some chitchat tried to
00:36:53
hang out a little bit but eventually croft will leave now croft could not identify
00:37:00
the suspicious man he saw as being any of the four suspects that were later arrested
00:37:08
and two convicted that's quite interesting to me croft is sure that he was there at 10 pm
00:37:14
based off of his testimony and later when shown pictures of the four guys that were
00:37:19
arrested maurice michael robert and forrest again croft does not match the suspicious person to any of the four
00:37:28
now from the book who killed these girls croft says of green army jacket man his
00:37:33
voice was deep clear and distinctive and that he has a long pointy nose army jacket man then ordered a seven up
00:37:42
and eliza explains that they only have sprite and so he orders a sprite this before dipping into the back room
00:37:50
with the assumption that he went to the restroom right at 10 p.m james thomas this is eliza thomas's father stops by
00:37:58
the yogurt shop and says that he sees all four girls there in the store at that time is he stopping by just to
00:38:05
check in on his kids you know sometimes that happens where your parents just drop in on you at work when you're a
00:38:12
teenager or is he getting yogurt this i don't know i do know that both he and his wife stopped by that night his wife
00:38:20
was there just minutes before i think they're traveling separate and i don't know if james was in the process of
00:38:26
picking up eliza's younger sister who had called earlier that night i think that there was some chance here
00:38:35
captain that eliza's sister was going to find her way to the yogurt shop and maybe one of the parents or both of
00:38:42
the parents were going to retrieve her there but they very likely stopped in as customers
00:38:49
and to see their daughter at 10 42 p.m eliza thomas rings in the last purchase of the night okay underline that make
00:38:58
mental note don't forget 10 42 p.m eliza rings in the last purchase of the night
00:39:05
yeah 18 minutes before closing we have our customers names this is tim striker and margaret sheehan
00:39:12
they will later say that when they get there they notice only two other customers in the store so by this point
00:39:19
in our timeline right we have james thomas we have the security guard man daryl croft all these people have left
00:39:28
the store by this time by this point we have two coming in two customers coming in tim striker and margaret sheehan they
00:39:36
say that when they arrived in the store they only noticed two other customers in
00:39:41
the store at that time and they would later describe them as large people in hooded jackets sitting in the last booth
00:39:50
on the left this is the booth nearest the cash register they said that they saw eliza
00:39:57
behind the counter she's the one that took and fulfilled their order right and they see jennifer
00:40:03
cleaning the dining room she's wiping tables refilling napkin holders and placing chairs on the tables
00:40:10
margaret sheehan does not get a good look at these two customers the two that are described as large people and hooded
00:40:18
jackets i'm assuming they're just they have hoods on their jackets but their hoods are not up this description
00:40:25
i'm giving captain is the best one that i have found it's it's extremely vague and limited
00:40:32
but i actually think given some other things that i've seen along the way that that potentially they have these
00:40:40
hoods up that they're wearing the hoods because that's pretty suspicious so margaret sheehan does not get a good
00:40:46
look at these two customers in fact she says that she's not even certain of the gender for either but based off of their
00:40:55
size she believes that they were both males she says one was larger than the other
00:41:02
and the larger one was wearing a khaki or beige colored padded jacket the other man if it was a man the other
00:41:11
large person let's say was thinner with light brown hair she does not remember seeing any food
00:41:18
or drink or containers on the table where the two were sitting margaret says that she and tim left the
00:41:26
store and when they did she looked at her watch and it was 10 47 p.m so it took them five minutes to
00:41:35
place their order get their yogurt they sat down briefly and then decided to take their desserts with them but five
00:41:41
minutes being in a store with when there's only four individuals working and only two customers other than you
00:41:49
and your date that's a long time to get a perspective of what's happening and to
00:41:57
kind of sense what's going on with inside that shop that's right and note again the time she says was 10
00:42:03
47 p.m when they left we also have when it comes to a lot of these customers well
00:42:09
all of them anyone that ordered something and paid for something we will have the register tape later
00:42:15
that's going to kind of give us a timeline of some events as well but we don't know if these two large
00:42:21
individuals had any dessert with them or any all we know is that they're at a booth they're at a table it doesn't
00:42:30
mean that they're eating anything exactly in fact we have margaret who says one i didn't get a good look at him
00:42:37
right here's what i do remember and goes out of her way to say i don't remember seeing any food drink or
00:42:45
containers on their table well this would be like you said three minutes they're leaving three minutes before
00:42:51
they're going to go put that key in that door and lock the door yes again this is 10 47 pm and she says
00:42:58
that when she and tim left the two people sitting in the booth nearest the cash register
00:43:04
were still in the store margaret says when she arrived and when she left that she noticed a
00:43:12
green car in the parking lot this green car is a tricky little piece of information
00:43:20
as we don't know if this is a suspect vehicle right or a car with no real significance to the murders
00:43:28
at all yeah tricky little piece of [ __ ] or if it was one of the girls vehicles because we know that eliza
00:43:35
drove a bright green carmen gea right this is a pisser here captain and in my opinion a bit of a stumble in the
00:43:43
investigation because we can't say if this is a suspect car or eliza's or a vehicle that has nothing to
00:43:50
do with the murders at all well but maybe law enforcement knows and they just haven't shared that information
00:43:55
with the public this thing went to trial twice right there's that's your time to share
00:44:01
information with the public when you're going to sentence a man to death and another to life imprisonment let's lay
00:44:09
out the facts of the case yeah but they also charged two individuals that confessed that all four people were
00:44:15
involved and they only charged two people here's a stumble in the case in my opinion because if if we truly are
00:44:22
still on the hunt for the individuals responsible for these murders yeah this could be important information
00:44:30
again i don't think until we have somebody locked up in the proper person convicted
00:44:36
that we will know for certain if the suspect drove or suspect drove a or suspects drove a green vehicle that
00:44:45
night but the reason why i say that it's a stumble is we could at least eliminate one
00:44:52
possibility and one possibility is that it's eliza's bright green carmen gea a carmen gea is a unique looking vehicle
00:45:02
i would have shown margaret a picture of eliza's carmen gea and at the very least
00:45:07
try to confirm or rule out that as a possibility well i agree with you because that makes the most logical
00:45:13
sense now we don't know captain what happens in the next three minutes so our two customers
00:45:19
left at 10 47 they say that there are two male customers left in the store sitting at that booth nearest to the
00:45:26
cash register at the time that they left we don't know if these men left or if these men stayed there and are
00:45:33
responsible for the four murders what we do know is within the next hour that's six zero minutes
00:45:43
all four of the teenage girls will be killed yeah so for the next 60 minutes a lot of
00:45:49
horrible shit's going to happen one thing we don't know for certain but can assume based off of manager and
00:45:57
co-worker statements eliza and jennifer followed the closing procedures to a tee
00:46:04
and add to that equation that the two workers are teens right it's late on a friday night they're
00:46:12
going to want to get everything done and get out of there with the quickness so according to the closing duties the
00:46:19
girls would have at 10 till 11 o'clock locked the front door from the inside whether or not the store was void of
00:46:29
customers and then flipped the sign from open to close and then continued with their closing duties now our customers
00:46:37
that left at 1047 did not say that they saw the two younger girls they only said that they saw the two
00:46:44
older girls that were working at the shop that night it's presumed that amy and sarah went to the back room
00:46:54
we assumed this for two reasons one it was understood that sarah would be helping her older sister with the
00:47:01
closing duties that night in exchange for jennifer driving her and amy around amy was scheduled to ride home with the
00:47:11
harbison sisters and stay the night at their house that night the second reason is later at the crime
00:47:18
scene the mr gaddy's pizza box is found in the back room at 11 03 p.m a no sale was rang in on the register
00:47:31
anyone who has worked to register is familiar with the no sale key you push it and it logs a no sale on the register
00:47:38
tape and then the register drawer opens up so this would be recorded on the register and as we said when we covered
00:47:49
this case four years ago it's believed that this may be the start of the robbery and the start of the horrible
00:47:56
events to come well there's a lot of evidence where we could go through and talk about what we think could have
00:48:02
happened but let's go through some more events that we know for sure happen okay at 11
00:48:08
47 p.m rookie austin pd officer troy gay reports seeing smoke coming from the rear of the icby store
00:48:17
at 11 53 the first truck arrives from the austin fire department the response time note is six minutes which is longer
00:48:26
than normal here but at first it looks like they were going to the wrong address and then the address was
00:48:32
corrected on the call while in route one minute later a second fire engine and then at 11 57 pm another fire engine
00:48:42
arrives in total captain we're gonna have nearly 50 firefighters on scene that will
00:48:47
respond to this call yeah later when the bodies are found they will also find jennifer harbison's timex
00:48:55
watch not on her she took this off when she and the others were ordered to strip by their
00:49:02
killers her watch stopped marking the time at 11 48 pm when the watch quit working because of
00:49:11
the fire now some other things were found as well that helped to fill in the blanks for us as to what actually
00:49:19
happened from 1103 to the time that the firefighters are on the scene so a couple of things here
00:49:26
captain one someone started to clean out the yogurt dispensers but did not finish
00:49:33
one of the girls was wiping the counter but did not finish right a can of coca-cola and a cup of ice
00:49:40
is later found on the counter the booth where margaret sheehan says the two men were sitting when she and
00:49:48
tim striker left the yogurt shop at 10 47 pm is the only table in the store's front
00:49:54
of the house that does not have a chair on it the chair is the universal signal that the table has been cleaned stocked
00:50:02
and closed yes this table has an empty napkin holder the other tables have napkin holders that have been
00:50:10
filled well that tells us something though right the other tables have been cleaned restocked and closed so maybe
00:50:17
not a hundred percent but that could mean that these individuals were still in the shop when the other duties were
00:50:25
stopped possibly it tells us it tells us this that those three items are all things that should have been completed
00:50:33
if they were able to finish their closing duties right so whatever happened however it happened
00:50:40
it took place before these three items could be closed out for the night the yogurt dispensers were not finished
00:50:48
being cleaned the counter was not finished being wiped down and that table was not closed out for the night
00:50:54
indicating either they didn't get to that table or as you said somebody was sitting there which prevented them from
00:51:01
getting to the table the fifth thing that i want to point out here is that the register drawer
00:51:07
was found open and the till removed the till was found on the floor in the back room next to amy ayers body how much
00:51:15
money was taken money taken is an interesting question because when reviewing this case
00:51:23
and reviewing the way that it was handled the investigation was handled it looks to me
00:51:29
like robbery was the genesis of everything to come that's what they are telling us they
00:51:36
being law enforcement and they being the investigators that have worked this case
00:51:41
from jump street to me i see something very different i see a situation where money was
00:51:47
involved and part of the crimes committed but i don't know if it's the genesis i
00:51:53
don't know if it's where this whole attack and the whole nightmare began because when i'm looking at a picture of
00:52:02
the crime scene it says next to the picture police discovered this register both open and
00:52:09
empty with an open bag containing money underneath so directly under the cash register visible to the naked eye
00:52:19
is a bag that contains money that's just sitting there it's still sitting there the next day
00:52:26
while investigators are going through the crime scene right now one item that's also in the
00:52:31
cash register that's visible again the register drawer is open the till has been removed they will find the till
00:52:37
along with scattered change next to the body of amy ayers in the stockroom but you can see a check that's still
00:52:45
sitting in the register anybody that's operated a register knows that there are certain items that you do not put in the
00:52:51
till you put them underneath the till but inside the register drawer things get really complicated here
00:52:58
because i wouldn't expect a person in a robbery to want to grab a check take the check with them
00:53:06
and then later have to cash it somewhere especially when we know that the check is for a small amount this was a
00:53:13
customer check somebody that paid for their yogurt that night using a check didn't you say that one lady paid for
00:53:20
her yogurt her and her dates yogurt correct so there's checks left behind there was also a bag of money underneath
00:53:28
the cash register that was not even touched they did take some money and i have in my notes here and i don't know
00:53:35
where this information came from i was trying to track this down last night so i want everybody to take this with a
00:53:41
grain of salt but i have in my notes that 540 dollars is what was determined to be missing
00:53:53
from that night again though one thing that this tells me is either cash is not the main
00:54:00
concern for the offenders or they didn't go around to the back of the counter because this bag of money and i don't
00:54:11
know how much money is in it but there's paper money that's visible at the top of
00:54:15
this bag they didn't bother to take that so either they didn't see it by going around to the back of the counter
00:54:22
or money was not the main concern for them yeah i agree later the detectives would review the closing duties with
00:54:30
bryce foods company and this is important here because as we said it's clear that they were not finished
00:54:37
closing for the night the door may have been locked the sales may have been done for the day
00:54:44
but the girls were still working when whatever happened went down now bryce foods is not trying to sway any
00:54:52
type of opinion they're just simply trying to offer up an alternative here and one being that the no sale button
00:55:01
being pushed at 1103 may not have been the start of the robbery but could simply have been the start of
00:55:09
one of the girls closing out the register another thing that they offered up was
00:55:14
that the coca-cola can and the cup of ice found on the counter could have belonged to one of the girls that after
00:55:22
closing for the night they decided to get themselves a drink and set this down on the counter
00:55:28
and then things got bad from there right i appreciate the additional information
00:55:34
and the thoroughness of bryce foods and their involvement in the investigation but
00:55:40
the problem with those two thoughts are a couple of things we already mentioned the yogurt
00:55:46
dispensers someone started cleaning them out but did not finish we also mentioned
00:55:51
the counter somebody was wiping down the counter but did not finish this to me indicates that we got two
00:55:57
girls working two girls trying to complete these closing duties and both of them are interrupted
00:56:04
simultaneously so i think we have a situation where very likely the 1103 pressing of the no sale key is probably
00:56:13
the start of the robbery and this probably took place shortly after one individual
00:56:21
orders a coca-cola and a cup of ice sets it down on the counter girl turns around gun in the face open up the
00:56:28
register this is a robbery right from there they're probably going to usher all of the girls into the back
00:56:35
and i say probably because we do not know we do not know the point of entry for the attackers
00:56:41
because at this point we have three possibilities one would be the front door however the
00:56:49
front door is locked so we can go ahead and cross that one out but if our killers came through the
00:56:57
front door that means they came through that front door before the girls locked it at 10 until 11 that night and that
00:57:02
means it was the two guys sitting in the booth or the state's case against the four
00:57:10
guys that they would later arrest eight years later was that the killers came in through the
00:57:15
back of the house through that back door that robert springsteen at some point went into the shop
00:57:23
and wedged the back door open using i think it was a empty pack of cigarettes and in his confession states that he
00:57:33
jimmy rigged that door so that it would remain open that you could pull it open from the outside
00:57:39
gaining access to the store from the back but it was positioned in a way that persons from the inside it would not be
00:57:47
obvious to them that the door was not closed not latched not locked right this is still possible
00:57:54
however this begs the question well then why didn't the perpetrator take that bag of
00:58:00
money because now if you have our killers our attackers our robbers our robbers and we're told that the genesis
00:58:08
of everything that's about to happen starts from a planned robbery from these four
00:58:14
young men still boys at this time that they entered through the back with the main purpose of robbery and then
00:58:21
went to the front approached the girls and went to the register and started taking the till and money from the
00:58:28
register the problem with that is then why didn't they take that bag of money that was sitting underneath the register
00:58:35
i don't think the robbers slash killers ever saw that bag of money i think that the attack came from the other side of
00:58:42
the counter the girls were surprised and the girls were corralled into the back of the store to
00:58:49
where our killers then discovered two additional girls or knew that they were already back there well this crime could
00:58:56
have been committed by one individual two individuals or or possibly more i think sometimes people lean to the fact
00:59:04
that there was four attackers involved because we have four victims i would actually lean towards
00:59:10
less two individuals even possibly one because if that back door is locked if you're in if you're in that building be
00:59:20
before they lock that door with a weapon or with a gun you can easily control that situation
00:59:28
yes and there's evidence at the scene that will suggest that the number of attackers was either
00:59:33
two or three persons [Music] so much more to get to meet us back here in the garage tomorrow and until then be
00:59:55
good be kind and don't live [Applause] [Music] you