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The poor parents of the murdered girls must be so confused. I feel so bad for them.
Hi, Wudge! Thanks for posting these links. I remember when this crime occurred. It was very frightening, since I knew teens who worked at yogurt & sandwich shops late into the night. I remember being happy when someone was held accountable for the crime.
I am a BIG supporter of the innocence project: I have learned so much about wrongful convictions that I have just about lost faith in our legal system. (For those of you who don't remember, I have a son who was accused of causing an accident that resulted in severe harm to another: it took two years to prove my son's innocence (and yes, although the law states you are innocent until proven guilty, we HAD to PROVE his innocence.)
This is a very interesting case. I am scratching my head over two things. #1....Whose DNA is in that victim? and #2.....why would the defense be AGAINST further testing?
I look forward to following this case to it's end.
Officials vote to hire outside help to solve yogurt shop murders
Posted: Jun 04, 2012 4:29 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 04, 2012 6:50 PM CDT
The Public Safety Commission voted 5 to 4 to pass a resolution asking for an outside investigation into the yogurt shop murders.
On December 6, 1991, four young girls were sexually assaulted and killed at the I Can't Believe Its Yogurt Shop in North Austin.
Nearly 21 years later, no one is behind bars for the horrific crimes, which is why Dr. Kim Rossmo, proposed the resolution.
<More story and video at link>
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/18...ing-outside-help-to-solve-yogurt-shop-murders
There are a few subplots in the Yogurt Shop Murder case. The false confession/conviction of Springsteen and Scott was certainly the angle that has dominated the news of late. There have been far too many of these in Texas. I do like the place and have always had a good time there, great food and lots of good live music and people are really friendly and don't hold my Blue State/Liberal opinions against me. Still, I can't help but get the feeling that the Rich and Powerful have pretty much free reign and run roughshod over the rights of everyone else; particularly anyone with the bad judgment to be poor.
I really think it is time for the Travis County DA's office to come clean and admit they were wrong. Yes, they will have to pay out a couple of settlements and perhaps re-open the investigation. Is that such a bad thing?
Anyone who still doubts that "false confessions" really exist needs to brush up on this case (but there are plenty of others). This is also a pretty good example of why we have a Fifth Amendment and the Miranda Decision. The kids confessed only after they were roughed up and threatened with a gun (there is a video tape of that). There was no other evidence and the details of the crime that were laid out in the signed confession were all wrong; particularly the part about the unknown Perp who raped and left DNA on Amy Ayers.
That DNA is probably the best clue available. Officially, that sample has never been matched to anything on CODIS. I give Texas Law Enforcement the benefit of the doubt that they would never "hold back" on a criminal investigation in order to defend a law suit.
If the Perp has managed to avoid a felony arrest in the 20 years following the crime, interesting questions are raised. This was not an ordinary "robbery gone bad". The Perp(s) came with gasoline. The plan all along was to rob rape, kill and then torch the place. This is the sort of thing a stone cold sociopath might do. Kind of scary that he could then settle back into the life of a law abiding citizen. There is also the problem/possibility that the matching sample is sitting in some storeroom waiting for funds to be available to test it, log it and submits it to CODIS. If there really is no "hit" out there, very likely the case will never be solved. I'm sure any valid leads were dropped once they got the confession from Springsteen and Scott. It is probably hopelessly cold by now.