Who Killed These Girls?

Cold Case: The Yogurt Shop Murders

By: Beverly Lowry

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

From the author of Crossed Over, another masterful account of a horrible crime: the murder of four girls, countless other ruined lives, and the evolving complications of the justice system that frustrated the massive attempts--for twenty-five years now--to find and punish those who committed it.

The facts are brutally straightforward. On December 6, 1991, the naked, bound-and-gagged bodies of the four girls--each one shot in the head--were found in an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas. Grief, shock, and horror spread out from their families and friends to overtake the city itself. Though all branches of law enforcement were brought to bear, the investigation was often misdirected and after eight years only two men (then teenagers) were tried; moreover, their subsequent convictions were eventually overturned, and Austin PD detectives are still working on what is now a very cold case. Over the decades, the story has grown to include DNA technology, false confessions, and other developments facing crime and punishment in contemporary life. But this story belongs to the scores of people involved, and from them Lowry has fashioned a riveting saga that reads like a Russian novel, comprehensive and thoroughly engrossing.

Critic reviews

“Beverly Lowry is rapidly becoming the Zola of Central Texas. Her character studies only get better.” —Larry McMurtry

“An epic story: everyone touched by it was broken in some way. A vivid depiction of the upheaval these tragedies unleash, and the fallacy of closure.” —Dave Cullen, author of Columbine

“Compulsively readable, a real nail-biter, Beverly Lowry’s latest foray into true crime is as much a finely layered study of locale as an examination of the inexplicable violence of the human animal. Detail by detail, in beautifully turned, nuanced sentences, she uncovers and probes with patient skill this tragic communal wound.” —Phillip Lopate

“Lowry looks deep into the horrors of four unsolved killings in Austin in the early 1990’s with a detective’s mind and a novelist’s heart. The result is a book that is gripping, moving, and as good as any depiction of a murder case that’s been published since In Cold Blood. Is true crime not your thing? It isn’t my thing either, but this transcends the genre. Brilliant.”—Ann Patchett

Great book on a sad topic

This was an excellent listen on a topic that tears at your heart. The author does a good job of relaying the facts and gives even coverage from all sides.

Interesting, Compelling, Shocking

How is it that so many supposed professionals can look at a confession that has every indication of being coerced continue with a prosecution? It's unbelievable to me that so many detectives, prosecutors, district attorneys, judges, and jurors can be so incompetent that they can't use common sense when deciding someone's life. If a detective has to feed details of the crime to a person making a confession so that his confession matches the evidence, that is not a confession. If there is not one shred of physical evidence to back up that confession, it's a false confession.

The same pattern repeats over and over again. One or more individuals is tried and convicted based on nothing more than a false confession. Years later, most often through DNA testing, it is discovered that DNA found at the scene doesn't match any of the people convicted of the crime. So what do the prosecutors and detectives and judges responsible for the mistake do?

A story like this takes years to run its course. Author Beverly Lowry spent eight years working on this book. She examines the crime, the murder and rape of four young girls in Austin, Texas on December 6, 1991, from every possible perspective. Through a very careful review of the record, she paints a clear picture of how so many people got so much wrong. If you stick with the evidence, it is almost certain that the two men responsible for this heinous crime were in the yogurt shop as the girls were closing up. They committed the crime. Are you sure?

I wanted to read this book because I lived in Austin most of the years that this was going on. I wanted to know the outcome. It's very compelling. The Audible was better than the book I thought.

Tragic

Great story with a lot of details I didn’t know before about these murders. The narration was quite difficult to get used to. It did sound very computerized.

Important, Exhaustive Treatment

This book isn’t for a casual reader. Rather, it’s for someone interested in every nuance of the Austin yogurt shop murders. It’s even-handed and very well researched. A tough listen, to be sure.

Incomplete

A very sad story that is incomplete to thus day. Hopefully there will someday be Justice for these young girls