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Chapter 1: What were the Yogurt Shop Murders and their impact on the community?
The phrase most often associated with justice, the principle meant to anchor the system, is innocent until proven guilty. But for my father and three of his peers, that principle did not exist.
That's Marissa Pierce speaking about her late father, Maurice Pierce. Pierce was one of four men originally suspected in the 1991 murders of four teenage girls, Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison. They were at a I Can't Believe It's yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. What did you see when you first walked into the yogurt shop?
Just wholesale carnage.
Sergeant Jones was looking at the badly burned bodies of four teenage girls who had been bound and gagged and shot in the head. The yogurt shop had been set on fire to cover the killer's tracks. The case has for years become known as the Yogurt Shop Murders. Nearly 35 years later, all four men were declared innocent and exonerated after the Austin Police Department tied another man to the crimes.
We now have evidence linking a specific individual to this case, Robert Eugene Brashers.
And now the city of Austin has made an offer of $35 million to be split amongst the wrongfully accused men, including the family of Maurice Pierce, who died before this settlement was reached.
It's blood money for us. He died for this money. So really, it was never about the money for us. It's about the reform and the changes that need to happen, not only in Austin, but apparently across the country.
In the end, this is a story about eight victims. The four girls who were killed at the yogurt shop. and the four boys who were wrongfully accused of killing them. What I think we need to remember is that over all these years, as terrible as it was for Sarah, Jennifer, Amy, and Eliza's families, the four boys and their families were hounded and treated as pariahs.
I'm 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty, and this is Case by Case. I've been reporting on this case... since almost the beginning and nearly my entire career at CBS News. The signs of pain and outrage are everywhere around Austin. So the police have formed an elite unit whose only mission is to catch whoever killed those girls.
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Chapter 2: How were Maurice Pierce and the other suspects wrongfully accused?
He's like, I'm just glad it's over. And he didn't have to tell me anything because I was with him that night. So I never questioned him as far as, you know, there wasn't a conversation like, did you do it? Because I was with him and I knew he didn't do it.
How did Maurice end up pointing the finger at his best friend, Forrest? How did that come about? Why did they then wire Maurice and have him go in and talk to Forrest?
Because Detective Polanco told Maurice that the gun that he had was the murder weapon that killed the four girls at the yogurt shop. Kimberly, what did you think when you heard that? they'd already went down a rabbit hole with me and my questioning that I already knew that they were lying. So I, I didn't believe anything that they said. They were telling me he was in a cult.
Him and Forrest were in a cult, like with, animal sacrifices then they when that didn't work that's when they tried to say that he was at the yogurt shop visiting one of the girls like trying to make me jealous and I was like they're lying you know that they later on said Maurice confessed to being part of that that wasn't true was it I mean, he never confessed.
He just, when they said that was the murder weapon, he basically said, I didn't have it for this chunk of time. And so I don't think he said Forrest did it, but he's like somebody that was with Forrest or Forrest, if he had, you know, gave the gun to somebody else at the mall or something, um,
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Chapter 3: What evidence led to the exoneration of the wrongfully accused men?
But he didn't have it at that time.
So if I'm understanding you, this is very helpful. So it wasn't that Maurice pointed the finger at Forrest. He's saying, all right, if you're telling me the truth that this gun was involved in the murder, well, I didn't have it at this time. My friend Forrest did. So that's then why they put a wire on Maurice and had him go talk to Forrest.
I found it really interesting, Marissa, that at the exoneration hearing, you talked about that and you said that in that room, there was no evidence, only a detective and a narrative, a narrative that was so completely false. I'm using your words. It feels evil. What do you mean by that?
Well. There's the person that raised me, the person that I know, the person that loved me and taught me all of life lessons. And then there's this fabrication, this creation of a of a mastermind and a ringleader on the news and in articles. And so that's the narrative that I was referencing.
That detective doing the questioning of Maurice for hours was Hector Polanco. Lead Detective John Jones took a statement after that. But he had doubts and told me when I started that it was clear that Forrest Wellborn knew nothing and there was nothing to connect Maurice Pierce. None of the four guys were charged. And so did you feel that it was over at that point? We did.
So there's a period of time. That's when Marissa was born and Marissa's growing up. But then, almost eight years later in 1999, a new investigation and interrogations pushed two of the four men, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, to seemingly confess. Michael Scott's confession came first. He was questioned over four days.
Come on, Michael. You're doing good. Tell us. Let's do this today. Let's do it. Same girl. I remember one girl screaming, terrified.
Scott told investigators that he and the others only intended a simple robbery. He said they cased the yogurt shop earlier that day, and then after dark, he said, they came back armed with two guns.
I hear the gun go off. I only pulled the trigger once. I hear another gun go off.
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Chapter 4: How did the families cope with the wrongful accusations and their aftermath?
This is very loud, is that correct?
But after intense questioning, he went further.
You f***ing don't have to f***ing make your own. Just say it, that's what I'm saying.
Springsteen told them he shot one girl and raped her. Both men later recanted those confessions, saying that they were coerced. But Springsteen, Scott, along with Maurice Pierce and Forrest Wellborn were arrested. How did you find that out? When did you find out that Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott had suddenly confessed after all those years and implicated Maurice?
I mean, basically, you're figuring it out when he got picked up on October 6th of 1999. And Marissa, do you remember? How old were you?
What was that like?
I was seven.
And it was intense. It was devastating. It was confusing. It was a lot of things for a seven-year-old to have to try to grasp. I think my mom and dad tried really hard to shield me. I was seven. It was a lot, though.
How did you explain it to Marissa, Kimberly?
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Chapter 5: What was the role of Erin Moriarty in reporting this case?
I mean, all of a sudden, her dad, that she's known for seven years, is suddenly in jail.
I didn't tell her why he was in jail. I just, uh, told her he was in jail. I mean, at first, so that day they came really early before work. I mean, it was a whole SWAT team. Um, and, but I heard all the commotion, like the dogs were barking and I, I went out, I was still in my nightgown and, uh, They pointed all their guns at me, right, because I'm coming out of the house.
They have him hogtied on the ground. Did you even know what it was about yet? Did you know what was happening? Oh, I knew what it was about, yes, because they had talked to him before. Um, not too long before he got arrested. Um, but yeah, it was just, I sent her to school because I didn't, you know, you're in shock and you're like, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do.
And then, uh, the principal called me because the news was there at her school. And so then I figured out, well, I can't send her to school. So, um, Yeah, then everything just started happening. I had to quit my job. We moved. I wanted to be, I don't know, somewhere where I felt like it would be less known. I didn't want her to be messed with at school.
I didn't work that whole first year because I was trying to be there for... Maurice, I don't think we ever thought it was going to last that long. When there is no evidence and you know that you're innocent, you just, I don't know, you just think that it's all a huge mistake, misunderstanding.
Back then, I interviewed Forrest Wellborn, and he clearly did not seem to know anything. Were you there that night?
No.
Were you there as a lookout?
No. Manson.
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Chapter 6: How did Maurice Pierce's family fight for justice after his death?
A.P.D. Officer Frank Wilson caught Pierce and the two struggled. Pierce removed Officer Wilson's knife from his belt and then stabbed him in the neck. Officer Wilson shot and killed Pierce. Officer Wilson survived his injuries. Marissa, is that how you would describe what happened?
I mean, I guess I don't I don't know.
If my dad wanted to harm this officer, Frank Wilson, my dad was a capable man. If he wanted to, he could have, and he didn't want to. He was just trying to run. His mind went into survival. That was it. He just wanted to get away. And naturally so. I wish people could understand that. I know that my father was not trying to harm that officer.
Marissa was on the phone with him when he died. Oh, my God. Tell me about it, Marissa.
I was on the phone. I was on the phone when it happened.
And that's how I knew. that he just wanted to get away because he had told me, like could hear it in his voice, the fear that was taking over.
He said, they're after me. They're after me. And I heard him put his car in park. I heard him open the door. I heard him run. And then he let me go. He hung up.
And I believe that he hung up when he knew that this officer was on him. So that way, like I said, he's always found a way to shield me. And I think that was intentional.
And he let me go, but it was only moments later that he called me back. And at the time, he whispered very quietly to me.
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