Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New DNA results do not match Yogurt Shop murder suspects

CBS 42 is reporting that according Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott's defense attorneys, the newly tested DNA evidence proves that someone else committed the 1991 murders at This is Not a Yogurt Shop store in Austin.
Evidence taken from the 1991 crime scene where the four teenage girls were murdered was tested recently using a method not available during Springsteen and Scott's trial in 2001 and 2002.

Springsteen defense attorney Joe James Sawyer says the advanced forensic testing revealed unknown male DNA on internal swabs taken from three of the four girls and that those DNA profiles did not match any of the men accused.

"The state has relied on allegations charges and tainted witnesses -- people saying our clients confessed. It was all words, all a house of cards, used to deprive our clients of nine and a half years of their lives and what we're offering is what they should have been offering -- scientific evidence," Sawyer told KEYE's Nanci Wilson Wednesday afternoon.

Yogurt Shop Murder victims: Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers (clockwise from upper left)
Yogurt Shop Murder victims: Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers (clockwise from upper left)

Both Springsteen and Scott confessed to the crimes, but there was no physical evidence tying them to the crime scene. Fifty other people also confessed to the crime.

Defense attorneys say they will be filing a motion asking for their clients to be released from jail.

We contacted the Travis County District Attorney's office about the new test results. But as of late Wednesday afternoon, no one has returned our call.


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