Forrest Welborn, one of four men wrongly accused in the 1991 “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” murders in Austin, now lives in Manchaca on the southern edge of Travis County, where he owns a honky-tonk called the Manchaca Springs Saloon.1Yahoo News. Where the Four Former Yogurt Shop Suspects Are Now He is 49. On February 19, 2026, a Travis County judge formally declared him innocent, and in May 2026 the Austin City Council approved a settlement that gives him $4.85 million.2Fox 7 Austin. Austin Yogurt Shop Murders City Approves $35M for Four Wrongfully Accused Men If you’re wondering where Forrest Welborn is now, that’s the short version. The longer one is a 27-year fight to clear a name he never should have had to defend.
How His Name Got Attached to the Case
On December 6, 1991, four teenage girls were bound, sexually assaulted, shot, and left inside the burning “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!” shop on West Anderson Lane. The victims were Jennifer Harbison, 17, Eliza Thomas, 17, Sarah Harbison, 15, and Amy Ayers, 13.3City of Austin. Significant Breakthrough Made in 1991 I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt Murders
Within a week, 16-year-old Maurice Pierce was arrested carrying a gun of the same make and model as one used in the killings. Under interrogation, Pierce said he had lent a .22-caliber firearm to his friend Forrest Welborn, and he named Welborn as the shooter. Detectives later concluded Pierce’s confession didn’t match the crime scene, and ballistics on the seized gun were inconclusive.3City of Austin. Significant Breakthrough Made in 1991 I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt Murders That accusation, retracted or not, followed Welborn for the next 27 years.
In 1999, a reopened task force arrested Pierce, Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott. All four had been teenagers at the time of the murders. Springsteen and Scott confessed after what they described as coercive interrogations and later recanted; a police photo from one session showed an officer holding a gun to Scott’s head.4American Bar Association. Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott Welborn never confessed. Lead detective Dan Jackson has said investigators were unable to get a statement from him.5CBS Austin. What Happened to the Original Four Suspects in the Yogurt Shop Murders Two separate grand juries declined to indict him,6Death Penalty Information Center. City of Austin To Pay $35 Million To Compensate Men Wrongfully Convicted in Decades-Old Murder Case and in 2000 the charges against him were dropped.7KUT. Austin Yogurt Shop Murders Exonerated Suspects Reach $35 Million Settlement
The Years Between the Dropped Charges and the Exoneration
Being dropped from a case is not the same as being cleared of one. At the time of his arrest, Welborn owned a mechanic shop and has said that, had he never been arrested, he likely would have kept running it. Instead, he spent nearly three decades fighting his public association with the killings, going through stretches of homelessness and being blacklisted from jobs.8Austin American-Statesman. Yogurt Shop Murders Exoneration Hearing
The legal case against the others collapsed in stages. DNA testing unavailable in 1991 produced a Y-STR profile from sexual assault kit evidence that excluded all four original suspects, and the remaining charges against Springsteen and Scott were dismissed in October 2009.4American Bar Association. Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott Still, no court had ever said the four men were innocent. That took another 17 years.
The DNA Match That Changed Everything
In September 2025, the Austin Police Department announced that cold case detectives had matched the crime scene Y-STR profile to Robert Eugene Brashers, a serial killer and rapist who died by suicide in January 1999 during a standoff with police at a Missouri motel.9CBS News. Suspect Identified in Infamous Texas Yogurt Shop Murder Case DNA found under Amy Ayers’ fingernails matched a profile tied to a 1990 sexual assault and murder in Greenville, South Carolina, that had also been attributed to Brashers.10ABC News. Haunting Yogurt Shop Quadruple Killings Solved Three Decades Later Investigators also determined that the .380-caliber handgun Brashers used to kill himself was consistent with a bullet casing recovered from a drain inside the yogurt shop.
The February 2026 Exoneration
On February 19, 2026, state District Judge Dayna Blazey held a hearing in a packed Austin courtroom and declared all four men innocent. Travis County First Assistant District Attorney Trudy Strassburger opened by saying, “Over 25 years ago, the state prosecuted four innocent men for one of the worst crimes Austin has ever seen. We could not have been more wrong.”11CBS News. Texas Yogurt Shop Murders Wrongfully Accused Men Exoneration District Attorney José Garza apologized directly to the men: “You were wrongfully accused, and you are innocent. I am so sorry for the role our office played in that tragedy.”12CBS Austin. Travis County Judge Set To Exonerate Four Men in 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders
Welborn attended with family. An attorney spoke on his behalf. Judge Blazey dismissed all charges with prejudice and addressed the men directly: “You are innocent.”12CBS Austin. Travis County Judge Set To Exonerate Four Men in 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders
His Share of the $35 Million Settlement
On May 28, 2026, the Austin City Council approved a $35 million settlement resolving federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and related common-law claims.13KXAN. Austin Approves $35M Settlement for Men Exonerated in Yogurt Shop Murders The money was split by the severity of what each man endured. Springsteen and Scott, who spent years in prison, each received $9.85 million. Pierce’s estate and family received $10 million. Welborn, who was arrested and publicly named but never tried, received $4.85 million.2Fox 7 Austin. Austin Yogurt Shop Murders City Approves $35M for Four Wrongfully Accused Men
As part of the agreement, the Austin Police Department agreed to ban unsupervised interrogations of underage suspects, a reform the Innocence Project of Texas pushed for during the exoneration effort.7KUT. Austin Yogurt Shop Murders Exonerated Suspects Reach $35 Million Settlement
Life in Manchaca
In 2025, Welborn used money saved from construction work to buy the Manchaca Springs Saloon, a honky-tonk bar south of Austin. Even that didn’t give him a clean start. He has said sales dropped sharply once customers connected him to the yogurt shop case.8Austin American-Statesman. Yogurt Shop Murders Exoneration Hearing His stepmother told reporters she wished his sister had lived to see his name cleared.14Austin American-Statesman. Former Suspects in Yogurt Shop Murders
The February 2026 ruling and the May 2026 settlement closed a fight that took up most of his adult life. He runs the saloon, and for the first time since he was a teenager, the public record says what he always has: he had nothing to do with the killings.