Austin (KXAN) – Modern evidence of DNA and ballistic evidence linked a man to the crimes of the 1991 yogurt store that occurred in Austin.
KXAN collected information around the developments conducted in the case for almost 34 years.
Timeline
Nineties
December 6, 1991: The police find four bound teenage girls, smooth and burned, each other on each other, so I can’t believe that it is my yogurt! Shop on Anderson Lin. They were later determined to rape and kill them.
December 1991:The police discover a pistol on Maurice Peres a few days after the murders. This event has become an incentive to follow Pears, Fourrest Wilborn, Robert Springstein, and Michael Scott-four defendants in the case.
1992-1998: Investigators continue to follow the expected clients.
September 9, 1999:Michael Scott speaks to the police and is being interrogated for more than 18 hours, and the police say that his confession explains everything: the boys were trying to steal the yogurt when he became fatal. Scott Springstin’s involvement, which later indicates Scott. (Defense lawyer will later claim that the investigators fed Scott details that he repeated under pressure, including how the gun carried the girl’s head. Defense lawyers claim it is forced confession.)
September 14, 1999:Michael Scott gives the police a written statement about what happened in the yogurt store night.
October 6, 1999:The police arrested the four men. December 14, 1999: After an interview with a five -hour video of Robert Springsin’s statement and Michael Scott’s written statement, the provincial judge, Jane Morrier, is convinced that there is a possible reason. Robert Springstein is accused of four charges of premeditated murder.
December 28, 1999:Robert Springstein, Michael Scott and Morris Peres are charged with premeditated murder.
2000s
2000: APD creates cold cases unit.
May 2, 2000:The alcohol, tobacco and firearms office issued a report finding the gun discovered on Maurice Peres in December 1991, the murder was not after all. The officers start roaming the Colorado River under the Loop 360 Bridge, looking for the gun that Michael Scott and Robert Springsin said may have been thrown on the night of the killing. In the nine years that had passed on the murders, six floods were washed.
May 16, 2000:Det. Paul Johnson says that an APD expert told him in January 1999 that the Maurice Pierce pistol.
June 30, 2000:The report of the Ministry of Public Safety in Texas explains that no of the DNA of the children was found at the crime scene, even after the rape test, the nail nails verify and the mucus is examined under one of the girls. Judge John Wesir threw all four charges against Forest Wilbourne, and the lawyer for the Travis Province, Ronnie Earl, falls against Wilburn after two major jury bodies failed to charge him.
May 2001:A jury in Travis Robert Springstein’s province condemns the murders and sends it to death.
September 2002:The jury is declining and sentenced to life imprisonment.
January 2003:Travis Province, Ronnie Earl, says there is no evidence or material certificate to maintain Morris Peres in prison or to ensure a trial, and all charges against Pierce are dropped. Pierce was shot and moved from Austin.
June 2005:Since the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the 17 -year -old murderers have been executed, the governor of state Rick Perry is transferring the death penalty to Robert Springstein to life imprisonment.
May 2006:The Criminal Appeal Court in Texas flipped Robert Springstein with family murder on the basis that he had not faced his accused in the court, and sent the case to the Travis Provincial Court. Meanwhile, Michael Scott’s call is suspended.
February 2007:Travis provincial lawyer for the Texas Court of Criminal Courts has been resuming by the US Supreme Court, and Robert Springstein on his way to a new trial.
June 2007:The Criminal Appeal Court in Texas fluctuates Michael Scott’s conviction of the murder of the capital on the basis that he had not faced his accused in the court, and to send the case to the Travis Provincial Court.
March 2008:A government laboratory test shows unknown DNA on the swabs taken from the victim, Amy Aires.
April 15, 2008:The jury decided to allow the defense to test the semen.
April 17, 2008:The prosecution says that the DNA sample found in new tests cannot be linked to Berbirt Springstin or Michael Scott.
May 2, 2008:Austin police arrested former murder, Maurice Peres, on charges of resisting arrest and attacking a police officer.
May 28, 2008:Michael Scott is talking about a before the trial hearing after he and Robert Springstein have been re -tried in the case.
July 15, 2008:The provincial judge is granted three days to provide the defense lawyer with information about the results of the new DNA testing in murders.
August 20, 2008:Judge Mike Lynch refuses to raise a protective order after defense lawyers told Robert Springstein and Michael Scott that the gag is not allowed to talk about the case.
September 17, 2008:Robert Springstein and Michael Scott in the court to attend another session before the trial, and their lawyer requests a new DNA test for the physical evidence collected at the crime scene. Judge Mike Lynch tells the two sides of narrowing the list of elements for the test so that the taxpayer dollars are not lost on elements that are not related to the case.
December 2008:Officials argue with DNA testing from the murder place, and the defense attorneys of Robert Springstein and Michael Scott, there is no DNA evidence that links men to crime. Defense lawyers cite that the only evidence for prosecutors is forced confessions. The defense said that the men were convicted because it was a trial of emotion.
January 7, 2009:Despite the new DNA evidence in the case of yogurt, the trials of Michael Scott and Robert Springstein are moving forward while demonstrators meet outside the Travis Province complex in the hope of charges against men. The new DNA test revealed the DNA of an unknown man found three of the four teenage girls who does not match any of the two men.
March 17, 2009:After the lawyers of the suspects met with a judge to discuss the effects of the new DNA test that puts an unknown man at the scene, the judge did not take any action. Defense lawyers are planning to release the suspects on a bond
June 18, 2009:Robert Springstin’s lawyer Mike Lynch presents the results of the new DNA test and say the results prove that their client did not commit murders. The judge is asked to release his client on the bonds while waiting for the trial.
June 22, 2009:Mike Lynch, a province of the Travis Province, denies reducing bonds to Robert Springstein, and he rules against his request to reduce his bond while waiting for the trial.
June 24, 2009: Springstin and Sakut were released from prison in Bond, awaiting the upcoming trials. Scott was scheduled to appear to be tried on July 6. However, DA asked to continue the case.
October 28, 2009:Travis County Rosemary Limberg’s lawyer applied to dismiss and request the refusal of the charges against Springstein and Sakut. Court records revealed that law enforcement is still investigating the DNA test and relevant issues, and Lehmberg would not have been being tried in the case as investigations continued.
2010s
Working in cold cases continued to investigate small progress, but technological developments were conducted in the DNA world.
December 23, 2010: During a quarrel with the police, Maurice Pierce was shot.
2013: Robert Springstein has filed lawsuits in government courts and federal courts that seek to obtain compensation for her wrong imprisonment, however Both were rejected By September.
January 2017: Travis Da Margaret Moore formed a demo team Partnership with APD cold cases unit To continue the investigation of the case. The DA office has allocated a part of the newly formed office “Yogurt Shop” team to store evidence and accommodate investigators.
2017: Austin investigator provides the DNA evidence from a victim to a database for the DNA appearance used by forensic detectors to identify the relatives of the male suspects, and a match was found. APD requested more information about the match, but the FBI has not provided anything.
2018: The cooperation voltage in the cold case was placed under the first assistant Mindy Montford, who worked with the cold case unit to oversee the appointment of individuals and supervise the prosecution in the end.
2020s
March 2021: Texas Pact Public Prosecutor helps form Texas The cold issue and the unity of the missing persons To provide assistance and support to Texas law enforcement agencies with “unnamed cases, including murders, missing persons, and other issues that revolve around human identity and criminal genealogy.”
May 2021: American actors Michael McCoul, a Republican in Austin, and Eric Salwell, a democratic in California, presented human resources 3359, orLaw of the Rights of Families of Victims of the VictimsWhich would allow families of the cold case victims to reopen the case.
August 2022: President Biden signs the law of the families of the victims of murder on a law.
August 2025: HBO Max “The Yogurt Shop Murders”, documents in the case.
September 26, 2025: The Austin Police Administration announced that it had achieved a “major breakthrough” in the cold case and linked Robert Eugene Prarses as a suspect on the death of 1991. The administration planned to provide additional details surrounding the update during a press conference September 29, 2025.