William Webb - Getting Away With Murder

Getting Away with Murder

15 Chilling Cold Cases That Will Make You Think Twice About Going Outside

Cold Case Crime Series #7

William Webb

Absolute Crime Press

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

Copyright 2020 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

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Introduction

D espite a decline in the number of murders in the United States since the 1960s, thousands go unsolved each year. As of 2013, the solve rate was at an all time low at only 65 percent of the total committed. The following 15 murders were committed between 1958 and 2014. The oldest of the set involves the bizarre murder of Pearl Eaton, one of the famous Ziegfeld Follies Girls of the 1920s. From the beginning, the crime had no leads or suspects and remains among the coldest of the 15 unsolved crimes. The most recent the murder of four members of the McStay family found buried in the California desert in November 2013 is under active investigation.

1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders

A t about 11 P.M. on the night of December 6, 1991, four teenage girls were closing a yogurt shop in north Austin, Texas. Shortly before midnight, the Austin Fire Department responded to a fire at the same location. Fire and police officials thinking they were responding to a structural fire were horrified to discover the bodies of the four teens among the rubble. The first police officer to enter the building described the scene as wholesale carnage. Twenty-three years later, no one is in prison for the crime.

Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, both age 17, worked in the I Cant Believe it is Yogurt! shop located in a strip mall at 2949 West Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas. Jennifers sister Sarah Harbison, age 15, and a 13-year-old friend Amy Ayers, joined the two girls at the shop on the night of December 6, 1991, to help with closing. All four girls were later described by family, friends, and school officials as wholesome, full of life, and popular with their classmates.

Sometime after closing, one or more assailants shot three of the teens in the back of the head once and the fourth girl twice. Both .22 and .380 caliber weapons were used. The fourth girl was also strangled and one, perhaps two, of the teens was sexually assaulted. All four girls were stripped of their clothes and bound and gagged with them. Three of the bodies were piled on top of one another in the back room of the shop. The youngest teen tried to escape and was killed near the front door and the empty cash drawer was found next to her body. The front door still had the key in the lock a detail that required first responders to break down the door.

To eliminate any witnesses and cover up the crime which may have started out as a robbery the assailants piled Styrofoam cups on the bodies, poured lighter fluid on them, and set the store on fire. A patrolling police officer notified the Fire Department at 11:47 P.M. When the wristwatch was later removed from Jennifer Harbisons arm, the time read 11:48.

The coroner determined that all four girls were dead before the fire was started and each had extensive burns. Even though they were all shot in the back of the head execution style, they were all four found lying face up on the yogurt shops floor.