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Season 1 – The Yogurt Shop Murders

Play trailer 1:34 Poster for Season 1 – The Yogurt Shop Murders Next Ep Sun Aug 24 Documentary Crime Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 10 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Exploring the tragic murder of four teenage girls at an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop on December 6, 1991 in Austin, Texas; chronicling the immense trauma left by the crime and details the maze of the investigation.
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The Yogurt Shop Murders — Season 1

Critics Reviews

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Craig Mathieson The Age (Australia) ...The Yogurt Shop Murders may well be the most profound documentary this misshapen genre has ever produced. Scene by scene, year by year, it tells a story that is not only heartbreaking, but also deeply illustrative. Rated: 4.5/5 Aug 18, 2025 Full Review Cat Cardenas Rolling Stone The series is a vivid meditation on grief and memory, and the power of each of these intangible forces to consume and define us. Aug 13, 2025 Full Review Sam Adams Slate Brown’s series is less preoccupied with cracking a long-unsolved case than it is with gently probing the wounds that have never been allowed to heal. Aug 5, 2025 Full Review Megan Lachinski Next Best Picture By keeping the lens trained on the survivors, Brown reveals the heart of any true crime story: the lasting impact of violence on families and communities, and what those ripples say about us as a society. Rated: 7/10 Aug 11, 2025 Full Review Joel Keller Decider The makers of The Yogurt Shop Murders are not just curious about the case but how deeply the case affected Austin and the people who were intimately involved with it over the past three decades. Aug 5, 2025 Full Review Dustin Rowles Pajiba It’s also a riveting watch. People hollowed out by 30 years of grief recount what happened in raw, wrenching detail. For some, it’s a chance at closure, if such a thing is even possible in cases that never find justice. Aug 5, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve W I gave up trying to watch the series it’s excruciatingly slow. Does not provide an in depth look into the murders just glosses over them it definitely does not provide any insight or theory's behind the murders. This primarily delves into the pain of those who knew the victims. I did not find it well done and felt it jumped around. I would not recommend. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/18/25 Full Review Dan C. This documentary is excellent, focusing more on the aftermath and how it affected all of those involved. Not your typical true crime show which I found refreshing. Incredibly respectful. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/13/25 Full Review Zach S One of the most profoundly boring documentaries i have ever watched. choosing to do a "taste of life" doc surrounding this awful unsolved event seems tasteless and weird. The doc pretends to make in roads in to the case but ultimates goes no where. Do not watch this. Watch anything else Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/12/25 Full Review prawnda s complete waste of time. this barely discusses the cases, it just waxes on and on about the victims emotions with no actual information being presented. every single shot goes on for 10x longer than it needs to so that some lady can do the entirety of her dishes on film. this is not true crime, it's a soap opera, and it's extremely callous for the director to pointlessly exploit the emotions of victims or their families like this. to every "executive producer" of this steaming pile of nonsense: you should be ashamed of yourselves. i'm not surprised to see emma stone's name on the product though, as she's done plenty of pointlessly sensitive or offensive projects in the recent past. and to rotten tomatoes: 100%? are you kidding me? people have never trusted your cherry picked, bribed, or ai critics for a reason, and it's always been obvious that you hide actual reviews from human beings who simply want a product to be rated honestly and according to it's quality. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/12/25 Full Review Read all reviews
The Yogurt Shop Murders — Season 1

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Cast & Crew

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Nancy Abraham

Executive Producer

Avi Belkin

Executive Producer

Margaret Brown

Executive Producer

Beth Garrabrant

Executive Producer

Lisa Heller

Executive Producer

Ali Herting

Executive Producer

Episodes

Episode 1 Aired Aug 3, 2025 Fire and Water In 1991, the murder of four teenage girls rocks the city of Austin, Texas. Amy Ayers (13), sisters Jennifer Harbison (17) and Sarah Harbison (15), and Eliza Thomas (17) were at the yogurt shop where Jennifer and Eliza worked, at closing time but never returned home. They were found later that night in the rubble of the store which had been set on fire. One week after the murders, 16-year-old Maurice Pierce is arrested at a local mall carrying a gun. Under questioning, he implicates his friends Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott in the crimes. As the families grieve and the community comes together to find ways to heal, the police are thwarted in their investigations by a lack of hard evidence. Details Episode 2 Aired Aug 10, 2025 The Fifth Victim Trauma continues to haunt the community as family members search for healing, resolution, and ways to hold on to the memories of the girls. The initial suspicions around the four teenage boys lead nowhere. After several false leads and wrongful arrests, homicide supervisor Hector Polanco is found to have coerced a suspect into a false confession and is reassigned. Lead investigator John Jones is diagnosed with PTSD and is taken off the case, suffering guilt about the department’s inability to solve the murders. The family of Amy Ayers even turns to a private investigator in their frustration with the lack of progress. Eight years after the murders, new lead investigator Paul Johnson revisits the case and an interrogation video reveals Rob Springsteen claiming to have seen Maurice Pierce with a gun in his hand on the night of the murders. Details Episode 3 Aired Aug 17, 2025 Mental Evidence As the investigation revisits the young suspects more deeply, the police call them in for new videotaped interrogations, which reveal conflicting and ever-changing information. In October 1999, all four boys are arrested. Welborn is released quickly, followed by Pierce, who never gave a confession. However, Springsteen and Scott are charged with murder after having confessed to killing the girls and are sentenced to death and life in prison respectively. But in 2008, with new technology, a DNA sample from the crime scene turns the case upside down. Details Episode 4 Airs Sun Aug 24 In Your Time In 2009, Springsteen and Scott are released on bond and the charges are dropped. But the men still live in a state of presumed guilt by many, despite no physical evidence tying them to the murder scene and more being revealed about false confessions, and the mind’s susceptibility to confusion between truth and suggested truth. Three decades after the murders, a cold case detective continues to search for answers and closure for the families. Sonora Thomas, the sibling of one of the girls, works as a therapist, advocating storytelling to heal trauma and a way to change how memories live inside of us. Each of the families seeks solace in their own way as they grapple with their loss. Details
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The Yogurt Shop Murders — Season 1

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The Yogurt Shop Murders — Season 1

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Season Info

Director
Margaret Brown
Executive Producer
Nancy Abraham, Avi Belkin, Margaret Brown, Beth Garrabrant, Lisa Heller, Ali Herting, Dave McCary, Emily Osborne, Sara Rodriguez, Limor Gott Ronen, Mickey Stanley, Emma Stone, Nicole Stott
Network
HBO Max
Genre
Documentary, Crime
Original Language
English
Release Date
Aug 3, 2025