Original subtitles

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

SONORA THOMAS: I use this office to write

and, sometimes, I see clients online up here.

Yeah, so these are some childhood photos

of the two of us with our cowboy hats on

in Texas.

MARGARET BROWN: And we might not get through the whole thing.

- SONORA: Right, right, okay. - MARGARET: Yeah.

(CLEARS THROAT) All right.

Um... Hmm.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Just take a breath here.

(YOUNG SONORA LAUGHS)

- MARIA THOMAS: Okay, okay. - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MARIA: Aw, that's sweet.

SONORA: "My name is Sonora Rose Thomas."

Give me a kiss, Sonora.

SONORA: "On December 6th, 1991,

my only sibling, my older sister,

Eliza Hope Thomas, was killed.

- I was 13 years old." - At the scene of the crime.

SONORA: "At the moment my sister was killed,

I was fast asleep six blocks away.

If my dad had not been away that night,

I would have been with my sister

and I would have been the fifth victim.

As it was, I spent many years wishing I had been there.

Today, I can say that I'm glad to be alive.

I know now that this life still contains beauty...

but I have not always known that.

This book is my life story.

These murders were said

to have shattered the innocence of the small city of Austin.

They continue to devastate, puzzle, and fascinate many.

As a surviving sibling, I have alternated

between disgust for the ongoing fascination

and awe that the public continues

to be horrified by an event

that has shaped every aspect of my life.

In one of the first videotaped interviews

with my mother,

just a few days after the murder,

I can be seen in the background hyperventilating

while my grief-stricken mother talks to the reporter

and shows him my sister's bedroom."

She always put her hair way up,

you know, and then she'd have clips

and then wash her face real good at night

and I can just still see her.

SONORA: "While reporters were not allowed

at the girls' joint funeral,

one film crew opened a door to the church

to grab what little footage they could.

That's why I almost never return phone messages

left by reporters.

And yet, when I was a freshman in college,

a reporter came to my dorm room to interview me.

This interview proved more difficult

than I had ever imagined.

A simple question like, 'What was your sister like?'

left me blank.

'She loved animals, right?' The interviewer prodded.

All of a sudden, I realized this woman

knew more about her than I did.

Memories live because we talk about them,

but my family didn't talk about Eliza,

so my memories became dormant.

I wrote five pages in my journal the day after that interview.

The interviewer had begun to wake up those memories,

and I didn't want to forget them again.

Still, I had to manage the shame of forgetting."

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

MARGARET: What is the shame of forgetting?

Just that I feel bad. Yeah.

That somehow it's my job

to keep her alive through my memory.

♪ ("DEVIL TOWN" BY ALLEGRA KRIEGER PLAYING) ♪

♪ I was livin' in a devil town ♪

♪ Didn't know it was a devil town ♪

♪ Oh, Lord it really brings me down ♪

♪ About the devil town ♪

♪ I was livin' in a devil town ♪

♪ Didn't know it was a devil town ♪

♪ Oh lord It really brings me down ♪

♪ About the devil town ♪

♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪

This is Robert. Hey, Shannon, how are you?

- SHANNON: I'm good, how are you? - I'm doing pretty good.

♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(SPRAY CAN HISSING)

(WHIRRING)

What you plan to do with your time,

how you plan to spend, you know, the rest of your life.

So, I want it to be positive in that sense.

Um, what we will not, under any circumstance, do

is discuss facts in the case.

So, that means you do have to take some care

when it comes to talking about things like,

uh, "Isn't it true that you confessed?" Yes.

So, I want you to talk about why and how it came to be

that you confessed.

That you never realized for one moment

that it could lead to you going to death row.

Uh, do you want me to wear the black jacket

and black slacks, or the black jacket,

or the blue jacket and black slacks?

I wouldn't even bother to wear a jacket.

I think if you wear the shirt, slacks, dark socks, shoes,

- you're going to be just fine. - All right.

♪ (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JOHN JONES: Told you it was a hideous color, didn't I?

(CHUCKLES) I only worn it once.

Yeah, this is four girls here that are now dead.

For what reason? I mean, surely they couldn't have

that much money in there.

Um, the price of life seems to be getting cheaper

and cheaper these days.

I'd gone to Sheplers and bought that shirt.

That's the first time I wore it.

And I made a promise talking to the families,

that the next time they saw me wearing that shirt,

it's because the case was solved.

And so I haven't worn it since.

It's been hanging in the closet for 30 years.

This is the box.

This was the one that was on all of the billboards around town.

(PAGES RUSTLING)

Under confessions, oral, you know,

I got a chart here, and actually it's...

you have to pull it apart, because this was two,

11x14s and you know, we listed all the confessions,

whether they were oral or written, or bragging.

There's six written ones and probably 40 or so verbal.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JONES: I wasn't the best interrogator.

I'm more the support guy,

you know, with evidence and all of that.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JONES: And, you know, Hector Polanco

knew interrogation.

DICK ELLIS: A homicide investigator for five years,

Polanco has never had a murder case go unsolved.

We'll get to the bottom of this,

and we'll come with a positive conclusion.

And, uh... That I can promise you.

You know, he was the Cobra.

You know, he had the reputation in homicide for

solving the tough cases.

(JONES MUMBLING)

Ah, interview with Shawn Smith.

Buddha Shawn Smith.

He was interviewed by Sergeant Polanco,

who managed to get a confession out of him.

We felt so good about it.

Matter of fact, I brought the shirt down to the station,

and we called in the homicide secretary.

She was typing up the grand jury indictment

for him and the people he said was with him.

We felt good about it.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

We had called the SWAT unit in because, you know,

we were going to go out and arrest all these folks.

And then it fell apart.

MIKE HUCKABAY: The sad thing about it

is Hector really is a good investigator.

He is a very good investigator.

But he don't use it right.

I have seen him get confessions

from somebody that did not have a thing to do with it,

but Hector can scare the shit out of you and make you confess.

He can. He's okay with it.

As long as he gets a confession, he's okay.

You asked me, "Why would somebody confess

if they didn't do crap?"

You can get in somebody's head real easy if you know how.

And most investigators know,

"If I keep you here long enough...

I have you signing that confession

before you leave."

You think, "There ain't no way that's going to happen.

There's no way you're gonna..."

A bull of crap. (LAUGHS) You want me to prove it?

MARGARET:

Y'all have to come get her out of jail.

JONES: Cops can lie to you,

and Hector was very good at that.

Girl number two started towards the back door,

I guess, because she was only tied in the front.

When I talked to Buddha Shawn Smith,

Shawn goes, "Well, Hector had me convinced

that I actually did it."

He convinced Shawn that we had it on video.

We had him on video

from the Chevron station across the street.

There was some element of truth in there.

There was a station across the street,

and it did have a camera,

but we didn't have anybody in it.

That was one of the confessions pretty early on.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JONES: Another confession was Alex Briones.

He said that he burned them, and I looked at his confession,

and he said that he got 1200 dollars,

1300 dollars, something like that.

And I said, "Well, that's wrong."

And then I got asked by Hector, "Well, how much was taken?"

I wouldn't tell him, neither would Huck.

That was kind of one of those hold back things.

Information that only the bad guy and us have.

A truth test, as it were.

Hector was hard to go up against,

but Huck and I kind of held onto each other and go,

"We can't. We just can't."

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Hector Polanco messed his case up big time.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

HUCKABAY: I don't know that can ever be undone what he did.

I don't know how much time we wasted

over nothing.

HECTOR POLANCO: I want y'all to hear this.

This is what's gonna motivate everybody.

♪ ("WE WILL NOT FORGET" PLAYING) ♪

♪ We will not forget ♪

♪ Dreams you'll never dare... ♪

Well, there has been a shake-up in the task force.

Senior Sergeant Hector Polanco, the task force supervisor,

has been reassigned amid allegations

that he coerced a suspect into a confession.

It won't affect the investigation.

He's been there to assist the investigators.

Nothing will change as far as the investigation.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ERIN MORIARTY: Do you have a theory?

Do all of you guys have a, like, a pet theory of...

JONES: Of this case?

I don't because that's a why question,

and you can get lost in a why question.

We'll get these people caught,

uh, and you know, I'm going to ask them

because I'm deep down,

I guess inside, I'm curious too. "Why?"

The reason I'm asking why

is because I need to tell the families.

Actually, what I'm probably going to say is,

I'm going to say this. "Look, fella, fellas,

girls, whoever, you...

Now, see, in a few minutes here,

I got to go out and wake these families up again

and try and give them some good news

in the middle of the night for a change.

Now, what do you want me to tell them?"

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

ERIN: What a junk... Look at my junkie office.

I don't have much in here. I do have... You saw John, right?

I have no idea why John took this picture,

but I've had it here forever.

There's your John Jones next to a bull.

That's a very odd picture.

Over here, Victoria Gotti, John Gotti's daughter.

This is Matt Baker,

a preacher who was convicted of killing his wife.

But this gives you 30 years of...

covering cases.

You know, after you've worked on these stories,

like with John here, after you've worked

on these stories for so many years,

you know the case, you know their lives.

Um...

You know, this is not a job to me.

This is my life. And so, um,

calling these individuals up, John Jones,

I mean, I call just to see how he is.

And I keep doing updates on his case.

♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

That was the first time I was there.

JONES: Hello? Hi.

- CHRISTINA: Hi, Daddy. - JONES: Hey.

ERIN: You know, three decades. You know, think about that.

So, yeah, he's a big part of my life.

- (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - Hi, yeah, this is...

Hi, I'm Erin. I haven't gotten a chance to come in.

- You good? - I am.

- I'm with CBS News. - Oh, you are?

- Nice meeting you. - Well, nice meeting you.

Now, you be careful what you put out

and what you say.

- Absolutely. - Because I'm listening to y'all.

- Sometimes you tell too much. - We do?

(LAUGHS)

MRS. FREEMAN: You all have a seat.

JONES: This is Andrea.

(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)

JONES: That's Christina.

Christina, turn around and say hi.

- Hi. - (CHUCKLES)

JONES: She did exactly what I said.

That's my wife, Yolanda, over there.

Ah.

And mother of these two little ones here.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

- ERIN: So Mrs. Freeman. - Mm-hmm.

Do you think this city was hit hard

by this particular murder?

This city has been hit hard by a lot of murders.

And there's been many, many more beside those.

And I don't... I don't think,

I think this city's been hit hard by a lot of them.

I think every time one happens, it's hard

'cause it affects somebody.

ERIN: Do you think more emphasis was put on this case

because the fact that these were young,

White, middle-class victims more than, we'll say,

another kind of murder?

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Yeah.

There's a lot of experience back in those gray strands.

Everybody's on pins and needles, at least in our administration,

because they don't wanna be painted as, uh,

as doing all of this,

you know, strictly because it's, it's a Caucasian thing.

Actually, I think the murder of, uh...

of any young people kind of transcends racial lines.

- Daddy. - I mean... Yeah, baby?

- Daddy. See? - Yeah.

- Yeah, I see that. - I see that...

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

♪ (MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REPORTER: The city of Austin is still waiting

to see justice done.

Now, Austin police have gotten about 2000 leads,

but so far nothing has panned out.

So today, the Austin business community

upped the stakes.

The reward for information was quadrupled

to 100,000 dollars.

We are here with a plea.

Give us the information that will lead to the arrest

and conviction of the person that murdered these girls

and we will give you 100,000 dollars

for that information.

DETECTIVE 1: Yeah, we can do it on the phone

or we can bring you in. You're 17, right?

DETECTIVE 2: We can find her, which might be easier.

We were asking for any tip, right?

And we got any tip.

Have you ever seen the file on that yogurt shop mur...

Oh, my Lord. Huge. Huge!

I mean, I have a hard time even explaining to you

what happened, because people started calling in.

DETECTIVE 1: We can bring you in, you're 17.

What do you got?

HUCKABAY: You got people call in and say,

"Hey, I know this guy, his name is..."

Where specifically were this... Was this person sneaking around?

And they'll give you some kind of evidence,

"This is the guy."

Thank you for calling.

Uh, what do you do? You got to find the guy.

You got to investigate.

Yeah, he's some psychotic dude who likes to kill women.

A lot of times it was, "I heard" or "I think I saw..."

But it was our job to glean anything useful

from coming in.

DETECTIVE 1: Aryan Brotherhood.

Tattoos deluxe, and he was on heroin.

HUCKABAY: We had so many notes.

And at this time in homicide, there were six officers.

That's not a lot.

After you got all these files, we separated them.

"That's good, eh, sort of good, nah."

Went three ways. Good, sort of good, and bad.

We got three more of those folks coming in this afternoon.

- They're all backstreet... - HUCKABAY: Work this one,

work that one. I mean, constant, constant, constant, constant.

Piles. Piles. It just kept getting bigger.

-Oh, 342 people

that have been listed as suspects.

We're looking at pages and pages of suspects here.

It's off the scale.

Way off the scale.

CITIZEN 1: This is what I think happened that night.

I think they went in there to get some money.

They tried setting the place on fire to cover their tracks

and haul ass.

This is what I think. This is my theory.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

CITIZEN 2: Some sort of satanic ritual,

cult-like activity.

CITIZEN 3: The Creek people, the persons in black.

CITIZEN 4: White supremacist groups.

CITIZEN 5: Uh, money laundering schemes.

- The vampires, uh, the occult... - (JONES SIGHS)

uh, graveyard riots.

They go out and dance and take pictures on tombstones.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

REESE PRICE: The rumors ran rapid around Austin.

There was all these theories about satanic stuff

and this and that.

And they had a lot to wade through.

JONES: What you got here is party favors.

But if they haven't killed anybody,

I'm sure they're going to in the next five years.

(GRUNTS)

♪ ("CANNIBAL" BY SCRATCH ACID PLAYING) ♪

They start going after goth kids and metalheads...

and PIBs,

People in Black, just dance club kids, teenagers.

♪ My heart And I'll stop eating my heart! ♪

They asked me if I was into witchcraft.

They asked me if I knew anything about the murderers.

So many of my friends were targeted,

had SWAT teams bust into their houses,

-like, "Oh, they had a... " -It got gnarly fast.

Like, every... every day.

OFFICER 1: Open the door! Police!

DETECTIVE 1: This is police!

Police officer! Police officer!

Get down, get down, get down! Get down on the ground!

Get on the ground! Police officer!

DETECTIVE 2: Bingo. Them bones.

CLAIR LAVAYE: They took a bunch of books

and they took this.

And this is the skull that was FedExed to me.

- It's just plastic... - (TAPS ECHOING)

and suede and hair that's been glued on it.

It's been rolled in the dirt.

I knew they were coming,

and that's something the police didn't understand.

My name was on a shortlist,

and the FBI were in Europa Bookstore.

It had books on sexual deviancy. It had books on the occult.

If you walked into that section,

someone from the FBI would flash a badge and say,

"Do you know..." da, da, da. Seven names or so.

And my name was one of them.

So, I got a skull.

I put it in a box with some other bones.

I was like, "Find it."

And maybe they'd realize that this is BS.

I didn't know they were going to bring

48 Hours with them though.

♪ ("48 HOURS" THEME MUSIC PLAYING ) ♪

ERIN: She supposedly runs a ring of devil worshipers.

Dozens of them have been telling Austin police

that Clair either committed the yogurt shop murders

or knows who did.

This was a terrible crime,

and people are calling in to police and giving your name.

Why?

♪ (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

CLAIR: Having media enter my home against my will,

pull things out of my closet,

parade around everything in my house...

REPORTER: And inside this home,

a large amount of pornography and S&M materials.

CHESTER JOHNSON: An awful lot of, uh,

I guess you would describe as macabre type of, uh, scenes.

To be shown arrested naked

and then have them cut to commercial, come back.

"Oh, it was nothing.

Just a weirdo."

And then put that on television again and again for 30 years.

It was just a sign how desperate they were

that they were bringing in

anybody who was a little bit different.

DICK: Some serious criticism is being leveled against

the Austin Police Department tonight,

and it comes from the families of the victims

of the yogurt shop murders.

They want to be able to say they've exhausted

all their leads and they've done all they can with this.

I think they're going to sweep us under the rug.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

HUCKABAY: As time went by,

you know, our relationship with the families

sort of got to the point to where...

Oh...

I had to sort of move away.

BOB AYERS: The thing that really pissed me off

was they wouldn't ask for any help.

They wanted to solve it themselves.

They wouldn't really be honest with me.

HUCKABAY: He started asking questions.

Question, question, question.

He wanted to know this, he wanted to know that.

Well, hell, I ain't gonna tell him.

They said, "We can't give you that information

because if it gets out... "

Well, if it gets out, where's it gonna be coming from?

You think I'm gonna do something to jeopardize this case?

They're nuts.

You want me to trust you with this

and you don't trust me?

He'd asked me, he said, "What'd they do to my daughter?"

I said, "Well, she was shot in the head."

"Was she naked?"

I said, "Bob, where are we going with all this?"

"Well, I just want to know, did they rape her?"

"Bob...

stop right now.

I don't want to talk anymore to you about this."

I said, "This is bad for you, bad for me.

You don't want to know everything,

I promise you."

And, you know, I'm not going to tell him all that crap.

He don't need to know that anyway.

I wish I didn't know it. (CHUCKLES)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

Then, you know, it gets to the point

where they come and tell you something.

Well, am I really going to believe this,

or are they just saying this to throw me off track?

You know, I got to have some stability here.

(BATS SCREECHING)

BOB: The police department is supposed to be on our side.

You have to trust them. What else do you have?

There's been nothing like it before.

There's been nothing like it since.

And they just flat did not know what to do.

- (SCHOOLBELL RINGING) - (OVERLAPPING CHATTER)

LANIER PRINCIPAL: (OVER PA) There has been a break

in the yogurt shop investigation.

A confession has been received

according to the news reports that we've heard.

It is the break we have all been waiting for.

Three hundred, 21 days ago,

four teenage girls were murdered at a North Austin yogurt shop.

Tonight, for the first time, they've named three men

they want to question in the murders.

REPORTER 1: They are charged in an abduction and rape case

not related to the yogurt shop murders.

But during questioning,

Saavedra reportedly confesses to the yogurt murders.

REPORTER 2: Saavedra, also known as "The Terminator",

implicated two other people in the murders.

One by the name of Alberto Cortez

has a striking resemblance to the man

who was seen sitting outside of the yogurt shop

in December when the murders happened.

It's a day we look forward to,

but a day we dread at the same time.

BOB: The end may be near, but it'll never be over.

Maybe we'll get a little consolation

if these are the guys.

BARBARA AYRES-WILSON: I hope it's over.

I hope this is it, and I hope they can prove everything

that this man has confessed to us.

They can prove it without, beyond a shadow of a doubt

so that it is them.

There's no mistake,

and that they have to be punished for this.

'Cause I don't wanna get the wrong person.

I just want to make sure it's the right one.

DICK: "When we got to the ice cream shop,

I came across four girls who were there.

The first one was the only one I could tie with the ropes.

And then I took off her clothes and used them to tie the others,

all the while continuing to beat them

so they would be quiet until they were unconscious."

If they are charged, they will be tried in Mexico

because of the extradition process.

Does it bother you

that they won't even come here to face charges

and that there is no death penalty in Mexico?

It bothers me.

- FAITH DANIELS: Does it? - Mm-hmm.

BARBARA: It doesn't bother me.

Marie, why do you say it bothers you still?

MARIA: I want to see them.

I want them to see, um, my hate for them.

I'm, I'm, I'm...

(SCOFFS) I hate them.

JONES: It was kind of a confusing interrogation.

The Mexican authorities were leading it.

They finally got around to giving Huck a copy

of their written confession.

That was sort of fun. I got to go to Mexico.

JONES: And there were some glaring deficiencies in it.

One, they had the caliber of the gun wrong.

Uh, number two, is they said they poured white gas

all over the place, which is kerosene.

We knew that didn't happen.

It was a very nice confession.

I mean, a Hollywood screenwriter would be proud of that.

The only problem is it wasn't worth the paper

it was written on.

You know?

But, you know, when people saw excerpts of it,

they go, "Yes, they confessed."

A lot of people believe that people wouldn't confess

to stuff that they didn't do.

Mm, au contraire, they do. For whatever reason.

♪ (SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(SIGHS)

REPORTER: Today, Porfirio Carlos Saavedra

fought back tears saying he was forced

to sign a statement saying he killed four girls

at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop last December.

Saavedra told me federal police put a bag over his head,

a rag in his mouth, handcuffed his hands,

punched him, and threatened to hurt his family

if he didn't sign a statement that was read in court today.

- (PIG OINKS) - Be careful.

ANNOUNCER: Heavyweight Hog, third place, Sonora Thomas.

ERIN: The truth of the matter is,

many parents of children who are killed

want other people to know just

how awful it is and what they're going through.

You don't like these?

We'd like you to have them, really. We would.

BARBARA: When I see their friends,

it kind of shocks me

because they've grown up and gone on.

But these little girls are still my little girls.

ERIN: Initially, when these parents lost their kids,

everybody wanted to talk to them.

They were in the news.

But over time, it's no longer in the news.

And their friends are saying, "You've got to move on."

They can't move on.

They can't... Who could move on? You've lost your child.

Or in Barbara's case, you've lost two children.

And the story needs to have the focus.

Otherwise, it will go unsolved.

We're going months, and it turns into years,

and then it comes to the point where they tell us,

you know, "We just don't have a whole lot to go on."

ERIN: When you're covering it,

you're also kind of facing your fears,

like, "If it could happen to these people,

it could happen to me."

It wasn't just the fact that there were four young kids

who were killed,

it was how they were killed.

You see a very dark side of humanity.

I guess I think it's part of my job.

And you're going to feel it,

and, um, and thank God you feel their pain.

I can kind of understand people. (STUTTERS)

If you're not in this position,

you just don't really know the right thing to say

because I probably wouldn't have.

But for me, some of the things that really anger me is,

"I'm so lucky. You're so lucky you have another child."

Well, which one of any one of you would choose

which child you'd be willing to let go of?

SONORA: We're fascinated by this unsolved crime,

but if you interview somebody who survived through it,

I think the fascination goes away pretty quickly,

'cause it's really not fascinating,

it's really sad.

I think, like, that's the most important

story to tell, is to tell people

that these events, like the yogurt shop murders,

has a negative impact on so many people's lives

for decades, and decades, and decades.

Like, this isn't something that you just overcome

or recover from.

That's the story that's more important

than who done it.

What's it like for those families to go home

and go to bed that night,

and the next night, and the next night, and the next night

and years to come when their child isn't alive?

And we don't hear those stories

because those people are so traumatized.

"48 Hours called me for an interview

leading up to the 30th anniversary.

The producer had said, 'Erin Moriarty has fond memories

of your mom.'

I'm a sucker for anybody who was nice to my mom.

During the interview, Erin Moriarty asked,

'Were your friends' parents more protective of you

after the murders?'

I responded, 'I didn't have any friends.

No one talked to me anymore.'

'How about your parents? Were they more protective?'

I replied, 'I've been talking with other siblings

who have lost siblings, and they all say the same thing.'

'When you lose a sibling, you lose your parents too.'

I lost my parents that day.

My mom went to her room and I stopped going

to my dad's house."

My family never talked about my sister after she died.

- Never? - No.

And...

I worry about losing memories.

"The childhood house I remember was quiet, lonely, unpopulated.

I remember coming home from school

to find the mail was still in the mailbox,

my mom was still in bed, and my sister was still dead."

There is a kind of torture that continues

by the fact that it's unsolved and it's ongoing.

"It was helpful to hear Erin speak

about other crime victims' families.

This is when I saw that this strange genre

of crime shows doesn't just provide fodder

for the curious.

It also provides an outlet for victims to tell a story

that no one wants to hear."

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SONORA: "When you walk into the detective's office

at the Austin Police Department,

there are four, 8x10 photographs

of my sister and the other girls

hanging right in front of the door.

Below them is a 3D model of the yogurt shop.

Detectives will not allow themselves to forget.

These are the first things they see

when they walk into their office.

It made me sad to note that it's still hanging

over their heads as much as mine.

Yet knowing this allowed me to feel a kinship

with these strangers.

If I met them,

I would want to hug them and also apologize."

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

JONES: You have a person out there who wasn't there,

who knows he's standing there every day looking at a murderer,

who up to this point is getting away with it.

Uh, it's been a tough case.

It's been a tough role for most of us.

But, you know, I like to tell people

that we're peddling as fast as we can

to try to get this thing solved.

And it's all we live and breathe and think about 24 hours a day.

You know, we wanted to do right...

and it seems like a lot of the times

we were just struggling to keep the train on the tracks.

We know all there is to know,

you know, about the... you know, about the crime itself.

And we've got everything ready except who to charge with it.

When the families suggested to Huck and I,

"You know, you guys really... I think we should...

I think y'all should get with a counselor.

I think you need to talk to somebody."

And, of course I'm going, "Well, how weak is my shit?"

Where the... the families are saying,

"You guys need to go talk to somebody."

So, we both did.

That's when I got diagnosed with PTSD.

And I didn't know what that was.

I thought that was something that,

you know, you had to be in a war for, you know.

"As a result of a critical memo Mr. Jones received

from a superior officer this week,

he has not been able to function in a normal manner.

This is not unusual in the case

of post-traumatic stress disorder."

JONES: Hi, this is... This is Andrea.

JONES: That's my wife, Yolanda, over there.

I'm too busy to be tired.

And, uh...

I think you get to a point where your mind just shuts down.

That's it.

JONES: The symptoms for PTSD listed in the DSM-III are,

"Recurrent distressing dreams of the event."

Yeah.

"Intense psychological distress at exposure to events

that symbolize a traumatic event,

such as anniversaries." Check.

REPORTER: The chief investigator

working Austin's infamous yogurt shop murder case

has been reassigned.

Senior Sergeant John Jones has been on the case

of the murders of four girls for two and a half years.

"Restricted range of affect,

such as loving feelings or any deep, real feelings."

Zero relationships since divorce.

(SMACKS LIPS)

"Difficulty falling or staying asleep."

Check.

"Irritability."

Small check.

"Exaggerated startle response..."

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

Yeah, now I know why I haven't read that in a while.

(PAGE RUSTLING)

♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(DOOR CREAKS SHUT)

Let me get these keys and we'll go to the vault

and I'll show you some memorabilia

that we do still have.

- (KEYS JANGLE) - (DOOR UNLOCKS)

This is our old archive safe that keeps locked up

with all sorts of lots of rich history and stuff.

And here it is.

This is the yearbook that that class

had dedicated to her that year.

Um, this was, this was her memory right here.

Pretty picture.

Yeah, we all were doing our hair like that, so.

It's interesting because her time capsule

is starting to come up,

probably because it wasn't placed in the ground correctly.

But through time and just Earth's changes,

it's starting to come up. So, it's very concerning to me.

I don't want it to get in the wrong hands and stuff.

So, we have a marker here on this side of the tree,

and I think they had some plants. I'm not sure.

But on this side of the tree over here,

is actually another marker for her.

And it says,

"Time capsule, preserving memories

of Amy Ayers,

a life that should have been spared.

February 21st, 1992."

So, this was a little bit later on.

I would only imagine that it could be things

from her locker, maybe some newspaper clippings.

So, this is what we have of her.

STAFF MEMBER 1: Good afternoon and welcome to Burnet Middle School.

We're here today for a special memorial dedication

in honor of Amy Ayers

on this, what would have been her 14th birthday.

STAFF MEMBER 2: In and around this courtyard

is where Amy and her friends used to gather every day.

They would laugh and talk in carefree times,

and then they gathered in sorrow.

This tree, which will bloom white blossoms in the spring,

will be a lasting symbol of Amy's love of life.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

SHAWN AYERS: I like answers.

And right now I don't have much.

I got a lot of questions.

ANGIE AYERS: Back him up.

There's not a day that goes by that she's not in our mind.

And if we do cutting horse stuff,

you better believe that the first thing on our mind

is Amy and the last thing out of that arena is Amy.

Let me try again.

Oh, yeah.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

SHAWN: I'll never know. That shit can drive you nuts.

(COW MOOS)

SHAWN: Why did this happen?

There's never an answer good enough.

Bring him back.

ANNOUNCER: Time. Thank you, Shawn.

That was Cats Royal Bandit

and Mr. Music Man himself, Shawn Ayers,

from Stephenville, Texas.

When you lose a cow, there's nothing more irritating.

Because that means the cow won

and that is not what you want, is the cow to win.

BOB: Through the years. I've wondered that a lot.

What would she be like if she was grown up...

and what would she be like if she had kids?

It's Angie.

That's what Amy would have been like.

She's just a spitting image of her.

She's right there in front of me.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ANGIE: It's family-owned and operated,

independent still.

And we have a sporting goods side for guns.

We're all a family and we consider this a family,

and we need to know our patients and know each other,

know each other's lives.

But when I came in, they'd already known that...

I have excess baggage, I guess, if you wanna call it that,

that I was gonna have to deal with.

ANGIE: I was sad for Shawn and his family.

They are victims of this crime,

and they're having to beg for answers from

the Austin Police Department.

That's when I started getting irritated.

And I started like, "Why aren't they telling y'all anything?"

And the answer was then, "They don't have to.

This is the way that they do it. This is the way it has been."

But that's when I shifted over to, "Uh-uh,

no, there's gotta be someone out there

that can answer our questions and help us."

SHAWN: Every so often you get calls

from somebody about the case.

I got a phone call from a private investigator.

ANGIE: She said, "Look, I don't want to be intrusive,

but my sister-in-law told me about your case.

I helped solve my best friend's murder

in Dallas. I really think that I could help y'all."

(RAIN PATTERING)

ANGIE: It's very difficult to open up to somebody

and let them in because we're very private.

SHAWN: And it's not the first time

we've ever been contacted by a private investigator,

but gut reaction was, "I think she can help."

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

(WIND CHIMES TINKLE)

SHEILA WYSOCKI: All right.

So, you'll notice the chimes throughout the house.

So, they're all over in my backyard.

And each chime represents a client.

And so when they blow,

I can listen. And certain ones, you know how I am,

certain ones tell me certain things,

and, you know, when I'm working on a particular case,

I can hear 'em.

So, this is gonna represent Amy.

You're gonna put it right here, even if it's not the...

Or right there. It's up to you guys.

- Where do you want? - Can it fit?

All right, you can put it there, too.

It's going to hit. Uh-oh.

Well, okay, so just so you know,

yours is a little bit tangled, kind of like your case.

- So... I'm sorry. - Pretty.

So, when we're out here working

and when I'm walking the dogs in the back, I can hear Amy.

- I love that. - SHEILA: Yeah?

- That's pretty cool. - SHEILA: Isn't that fun?

I love doing it.

- ANGIE: Thank you. - SHEILA: Yeah.

All right, guys, we're going to start.

So, what we do is we help families, right?

And this is our family in the yogurt shop case.

Angie has worked for seven years on...

putting... (CHUCKLES) putting pressure on the police

and the DA to get information to help the girls.

And so we've gone through what she's done

and she's gotten to a standstill and that's where we come in.

And my group feels very lucky...

- Oh, I hope I don't cry. - (LAUGHS)

I'm a crier, um,

to have you guys come and do this.

So, watch your step, (CHUCKLES) and then take a seat.

- (VOLUNTEERS APPLAUD) - (SHEILA CLEARS THROAT)

I'm going to start with you, Catherine.

Do you have anything you wanna ask?

Um, I'm interested to know what your thoughts are

on all of the confessions that were obtained,

what your take is on false confessions in general.

VOLUNTEER 1: The individual next door in the party store,

do you have an opinion on if he would have heard noises?

VOLUNTEER 2: Two people were spotted

sitting in that booth at the end of the night.

VOLUNTEER 3: Do you know if anybody has made an attempt

to see what fits in the physical space?

And I've done cases, Sheila and I have done cases

that involve the occult.

VOLUNTEER 4: He told someone that that night

he saw the devil come out of that shop.

I thought it was some type of gang initiation.

The embezzlement, money laundering,

and the insurance is kind of under one umbrella right now.

There's the creek people, the PIB, People in Black.

VOLUNTEER 4: In the back by the telephone,

there's a cross.

Do you know or have heard something

as far as that he went and told other people something...

SHEILA: I hate to do this, girls. On your knees.

You're naked, you're young, and you don't know what to do.

So, you go, one, two, three.

Well, if I'm running, you grab this arm, I could spin.

- Amy's 13 years old. - SHEILA: Right.

- These are guys. - SHEILA: Right.

Would a guy really need

to smack her with a cash register drawer?

- SHEILA: That's vengeance. - Or would they just punch her?

Does that maybe point to a woman?

SHEILA: You're 100 percent right.

ANGIE: It's very frustrating not having answers.

It has consumed me at times.

I'm just trying to do the right thing.

I'm trying to find the answers for everybody.

So, I don't see random disarray with those bodies.

VOLUNTEER 5: Is there some type of symbolism as to the position

- of the bodies? - Oh, great point.

ANGIE: It's aggravating. It's frustrating.

But who else can I ask

to give me the answers that I'm looking for?

Head, legs, head, legs.

Head, legs, head, legs.

SHEILA: So that's our work, is to disprove it,

- if we can. - VOLUNTEER 4: It could be nothing.

- SHEILA: It could be. - VOLUNTEER 4: It really could be nothing.

ANGIE: You would think after 30 years

that we would have been a lot further along.

There's been so many people in the police station

and in the DA's office that have come and gone.

And every time they do that, you have to start over.

REPORTER 1: It has been a frustrating,

painful five years for family and friends

of Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers,

and Jennifer and Sarah Harbison.

REPORTER 2: Investigators have followed lead after lead,

but five years later,

they are no closer to solving the case.

REPORTER 3: News 36 has learned that a number

of Austin homicide investigators have been assigned

to look at this case once again.

The Austin Police Department announced today

it will reopen Austin's infamous yogurt shop murder case.

REPORTER 3: There's a small group of detectives

in Austin, tasked with finding any clue

that will crack this case wide open.

REPORTER 4: Paul Johnson's been working to pour over new leads.

♪ (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

PAUL JOHNSON: At that time, people that had been assigned

to the yogurt shop case previously,

had left the detail.

You know, I was reluctant to get in this.

Well, everybody else in the homicide detail

was also reluctant.

The rumors was that there were problems

with the yogurt shop case.

The investigation had already gone before,

they had come up with suspects that had been announced publicly

and acted like, "This is them."

And it turns out, "Well, no, it's not them."

REPORTER: The next day, he recants the confession.

Things like that just muddies up a case.

JONES: When the new group took over,

Huck and I were pretty much shut out.

They seemed to be saying that we screwed it up.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JONES: I always thought that we'd be a part of it,

that we'd be of counsel, of emeritus,

that they would still come back to us and say,

"Hey, what do you think?"

HUCKABAY: I don't believe he and I

should have been taken off the case.

They sort of eliminated me totally.

They don't want me involved anywhere, because I...

I throw a candle into the, into the fire, you know?

JONES: The only thing I regret about all of that

is how we lost contact with the families.

JOHNSON: Some people have actually accused John Jones

of being too close to the families.

And he actually used that to get more money,

to get more people, to get time off.

JONES: In order to put themselves up,

the new investigators put us down.

I mean, it sounds kind of rude or crude maybe, but...

I did not have a close relationship

with the families because I didn't want to get...

too emotionally tied into their concerns.

♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

So, here's the door, the back door.

I don't know if it has a lock on it

from the outside now, um...

We suspect that the suspects had gone in front

during business hours and unlocked the back door

to come in after hours...

and go in the back door.

This dumpster was a little closer over here,

but the backs of the buildings are basically the same.

This creek looks a little more grown up

than it used to be, but...

the trees are 30 years older and so I guess that's expected.

So, I started going over the case.

It was very large.

I came up with about 2000 separate reports.

So, there's 2000 separate tips.

And it was just me and Ron Lara.

REPORTER: The APD Cold Case Unit,

born out of the yogurt shop task force.

Ron Lara was part of the original task force,

created to solve the case.

The case continues on.

There's still, uh, you know, tips coming in.

JOHNSON: We would just work on one at a time.

And if we worked it up to saying,

"This is not our suspects," we would go to the next tip,

and the next one, and the next one.

And then we got to the Maurice Pierce tip.

Remember Maurice Pierce was arrested roughly ten days

after the yogurt shop murders in Northcross Mall,

which is, like, two blocks away, with a gun...

- (CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING) - 22-caliber.

And the Maurice tip involved four people.

Maurice Pierce himself, Robert Springsteen,

Michael Scott, and... Forrest Wellborn.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JOHNSON: When I started this case,

I actually thought the best I could ever do

is probably figure out in my own mind

who I thought did it,

but never be able to get evidence to go to trial.

And then it's like almost overnight,

my whole expectation of how this might end up, changed.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

RON LARA:

LARA:

LARA:

LARA:

LARA:

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪