Who Killed These Girls?

Cold Case: The Yogurt Shop Murders

By: Beverly Lowry

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

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 25 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 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 sounds like a Russian novel - comprehensive and thoroughly engrossing.

©2016 Beverly Lowry (P)2016 Random House Audio

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)

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.

Sad on several levels.

this case is always been pretty interesting to me and when I saw there was a book about it I was excited to read it. I never heard the story of the multiple trials and things of that nature. But hearing what the Austin Police Department detectives did especially to one of the suspects you could tell was not very intelligent I'd say close to handicapped. And the fact that they coerced him into saying what they wanted and it really answers the question of how could you confess to something you didn't do. But the saddest thing of all of it is what happened to those four girls and what their parents continue to go through

Excellent coverage of a horrible tragedy

This is a great book. I've read other reviews that said they didn't like the narration, but I thought Carlin's performance was wonderful. It sounds like a real person reading a real account of a real tragedy. I found her inflection and clearly emotional reaction to some of the grizzlier details to be humanizing and welcomed.

I am very familiar with the case through personal research (I have "internet obsessions" which lead me to do a lot of research on the following; 1). Yogurt Shop 2). EAR/ONS GSK 3). West Memphis Three 4). Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders 5). The 1989 McRae / Horton - Gulf Power / Worthy murders

This devastating crime in Austin, TX in December 1991 took the lives of far more than just the four innocent young ladies who were killed on the ICBY premises. It ruined the lives of many more people, including the first detective on scene, firefighters, and the community at large.

I think this book is better than "Murdered Innocents" by Corey Mitchell (which covers the same murders and investigation and was written earlier) - and certainly contains more emotional insight from those involved.

If you're only going to read / listen to one of the accounts of the crime, investigation, trials, and aftermath, this is the better choice, in my opinion.

Incomplete

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

A lot of information, horrible narration.

Good book with lots of details involving the case, but the awful narration was hard to get past.

Excellent book for true crime junkies like me.

Excellent coverage of a true crime that has affected so many from my state, Texas.

Decent Read Only

⭐⭐⭐ SOLID 3 STARS Well, first of all, what a frustrating story! Sounds like a lot of people on this case dropped the ball. The book focuses A LOT on the details of the trial and overall happening of these murders. It definitely could use more talk of the victims and their lives before their death. The narration was a bit unpleasant, but I have heard much worse, so it is tolerable in comparison. The book was way too long and it did at times repeat itself. Overall, a decent true crime read. Leaves much to be desired though, with just a bit too much detail and law/court politics with not enough heart and soul.

It was thorough, but probably too much so.

It was too long, imo. I didn't care for the reader's voice, tbh. It was thorough, but I got lost in too much detail.