The crime that claimed the lives of four teenage girls at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” shop 34 years ago stunned a city where violent crime rarely happened.
AUSTIN, Texas — In 1991, Austin still had a bit of a small-town feel.
The idea that something so terrible could happen in a city where violent crime was rare, and in a nice neighborhood where four young girls would die under such horrific circumstances, led many to say that the city that had “lost its innocence.”
“Things like that just never happened in Austin,” former KVUE newscaster Dick Ellis said in a 2019 interview. “People were scared. They were worried it could happen to their children.”
Austin was grieving. Funeral services for the four girls brought hundreds to a North Austin church, where a priest spoke of the loss and anger the city was feeling.
Several months later, the grief was channeled into action as students and parents mobilized to help police find clues. Across the city, volunteers handed out flyers that promised a $25,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer.
The parents of the girls went on television to share their memories of their children, while also asking for the killer to confess to his crimes.
For years, the question remained: Who could have done such a thing?
As leads accumulated and some arrests were made that were later dismissed, a solution to the crimes was at an impasse.
Then, on Friday afternoon – 34 years after the tragedy at the yogurt shop – it appeared that the crime had finally been solved.