![]() "While I remain confident that Springsteen and Scott are responsible for these murders, going to trial and risking a result that could forever prohibit future trials of these men is a risk I will not take." It would be unfair to the jury hearing the case, to our community, and most of all, unfair to the victims of these devastating crimes and their families, who have patiently endured all of these years," she read from a prepared statement. "Given that we now have unknown DNA evidence in the case, I believe it would be imprudent and, in fact, unfair to proceed to trial at this time. In short, it was becoming more and more difficult to explain away mounting evidence suggesting that prosecutors and Austin police had been wrong all along about their theory of the crime – not that Lehmberg was willing to publicly admit the possibility on that fall afternoon in 2009. Indeed, in subsequent testing by Springsteen's and Scott's defense attorneys, DNA from a second male, also unknown, was found on additional items of evidence. A Dead EndĪs testing continued through 2008 and into 2009, the fifth-man theory became harder to defend. A review of the case material suggests that there are likelier suspects to be considered – and a more likely scenario than an impulse crime by four teenage boys. Perversely, the prosecution's insistence that there is only one possible theory for the crime – and only one set of suspects – may be preventing them from finding the actual murderers. Nonetheless, even as Lehmberg stood before reporters that day, she and her prosecutors were still publicly adamant that the unknown male DNA belonged to someone known to the four men originally charged with the crime – in other words, they were now operating on a "fifth man" theory of the crime. It wasn't for a lack of looking that they couldn't identify the male donor since discovery of the DNA, prosecutors and police had tested more than 100 people without finding a match. Although she still believed Springsteen and Scott were responsible for the crime, she said – despite a lack of any physical evidence connecting them to it – she had concluded that she must drop the charges because prosecutors had no explanation for explosive new evidence discovered in 2008: unknown male DNA found on a vaginal swab collected at the 1991 crime scene from the youngest victim, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, that does not match Springsteen or Scott, nor the other two men officials say also took part in the crime, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn. "Make no mistake, this is a difficult decision for me, and one I would rather not have to make," she told a score of reporters. Ten years after city and county officials gathered to announce that they'd found the four men responsible for the grisly 1991 yogurt shop murders, Lehmberg had decided to dismiss all charges against the only two men ever tried for the crime, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott. ![]() She had convened a press conference to deliver big news. 28, 2009, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg stood solemnly behind a lectern choked with microphones. Clockwise from top left: Sarah Harbison, 15 Amy Ayers, 13 Eliza Thomas, 17 and Jennifer Harbison, 17, were found murdered inside the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop in North Austin on Dec.
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