Greater than 30 years after Austin police discovered 4 teenage ladies brutally murdered inside a neighborhood yogurt store, HBO is re-examining the case in its upcoming documentary sequence The Yogurt Store Murders.
Typically described because the case that stripped Austin of its innocence, the tragic 1991 killings despatched shockwaves via the neighborhood for years because the investigation dragged on. To today, the affected households search solutions about what really occurred to Amy Ayers, sisters Jennifer Harbison and Sarah Harbison, and Eliza Thomas.
“I used to be in Austin within the late 90s, and the billboards have been up all over the place, and you’d go to events, and other people would discuss their theories about what occurred,” director Margaret Brown, an Alabama native, tells Deadline.
By means of a mixture of archival footage and up to date interviews with the investigative groups, the victims’ mother and father and siblings, and the 2 males who served time for the crime, the sequence raises necessary questions on regulation enforcement practices and the facility of public notion in addition to provides a poignant statement concerning the endurance of grief.
Within the interview under, Brown speaks extra concerning the challenge.
DEADLINE: I perceive you reside in Austin, so what was your understanding of this case earlier than you took on this documentary?
MARGARET BROWN: I used to be in Austin within the late 90s, and the billboards have been up all over the place, and you’d go to events, and other people would discuss their theories about what occurred. I’ve numerous mates who’re reporters, and they’d all discuss it. My greatest pal is a reporter, and once I advised her I used to be contemplating doing this challenge, she was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the craziest unsolved crime in Texas, and there’s so many twists and turns…’ In Austin, folks discuss it and have for years. I simply have this reminiscence of seeing these billboards all over the place and simply them being actually haunting.
DEADLINE: When you have been on board, how did you begin to determine the easiest way to inform this story, which as you talked about is already very notorious?
BROWN: I didn’t need to do the challenge till I noticed the archival footage, as a result of, to me, it’s a lot about that point interval. Austin was actually completely different. I imply, I wasn’t there then within the early 90s. I used to be there within the late 90s, [and] it was completely different sufficient then. So I actually needed to verify I had the fabric to sort of seize that feeling. They despatched me what they’d, and it was fairly evocative. I instantly felt a transportive sort of feeling to the previous. I might hear the music that may go along with these photographs, and even how I’d gentle it. It was such a particular vibe. There was one thing uncanny about it. Then I met the households, and it actually shifted, and I spotted I couldn’t go as stylized as I needed to, as a result of I didn’t need to take away from the emotional connection. I believed if I’m going too far in that course, it kind of strips away a few of emotions I received once I was simply sitting with them. So I nonetheless stylized it, however I undoubtedly scaled it again.
DEADLINE: The documentary is kind of telling two tales, since you’re explaining the years-long investigation whereas additionally underscoring the entire trauma the households have gone via during the last three a long time. How do you discover the proper steadiness there?
BROWN: I imply, I simply tried to go in and emotionally reply with out judgment as a lot as I might to regardless of the particular person in entrance of me was saying. I used to be actually taken by how affected folks have been by this particular occasion. Claire Huey, who made the the movie that by no means received completed, she was one of many first folks I met. She gave us all that. She gave the manufacturing all this footage and and it utterly modified her life. She was a filmmaker like me, and he or she stopped making motion pictures after that, and that was how a lot the story impacted her. She simply couldn’t get her head round it. I feel that the facility of what occurred actually hit folks. I simply tried to go in and hear and never decide.
DEADLINE: Talking of Claire, we do hear from her within the documentary. What do you suppose her perspective provides to this story?
BROWN: I imply, I feel it’s a parallel to my expertise. Numerous instances I’d watch her footage and I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s precisely how I really feel. That is so overwhelming.’ It was a extremely onerous sequence to make, and it was simply such a world of darkness. I feel like understanding there was another person who knew what that was like — typically, I’d simply name her to speak about it, as a result of she lives across the nook. Now she’s like a meditation instructor. I’m making an attempt to encourage her to make motion pictures, as a result of I feel she’s wonderful, and he or she’s such a empath, and he or she’s she cares about folks so deeply. That’s what made it onerous for her, was as a result of she cared a lot. I feel, additionally, simply being a younger filmmaker, she was making it so a few years in the past, having the arrogance to know you possibly can put all of it collectively, as a result of it’s overwhelming story, there’s so many twists and turns, and you find yourself kind of again the place you began numerous the time if you’re making an attempt to piece it collectively. I’ve a complete workforce serving to me. She was a former scholar. I simply can’t even think about. It might be so onerous.
DEADLINE: You go very deeply into the ways in which this case has traumatized the households and others concerned and, for essentially the most half, keep away from any conspiracy theories about what might have occurred. What made you’re taking that route? And the way did working with these households form your notion of true crime usually?
BROWN: To be trustworthy, I don’t watch a complete lot of true crime…I didn’t actually need to cloud my head by a system. I did take heed to some podcasts, and I used to be so postpone by the tone of most true crime. Not all of them, however most true crime podcasts appeared to overlook that these have been folks.
While you meet the households, I don’t perceive how you might. It’s simply so painful to sit down with individuals who’ve gone via this. It actually takes a toll on you. Perhaps it’s as a result of they don’t have to satisfy the folks after they’re making them, they will simply hear. Folks wish to really feel like they’re determining issues. I imply, me too. I’m not making an attempt to say that’s not attention-grabbing to me, as a result of, in fact, it’s attention-grabbing to attempt to determine a puzzle, however on this particular sequence, I didn’t really feel like that. It’s unattainable, should you meet these folks, to make it that manner. You are feeling for them a lot.
DEADLINE: There’s a very affecting second within the remaining episode the place they dig up the time capsule for Amy Ayers. How was that so that you can witness?
BROWN: Most likely the way it was so that you can watch. I simply so felt for the Ayers household and, I imply, we actually consolidated that scene. They have been making an attempt so onerous to seek out it. We knew it was there. It turned like this kind of bonding expertise that day, as a result of so many individuals confirmed as much as assist. It was really actually shifting how many individuals simply actually cared concerning the Ayers household and them simply getting this ode to their daughter as much as the floor.
DEADLINE: As you set collectively this story, what emerged as essentially the most irritating a part of the case for you?
BROWN: What I’m thinking about is an exploration of what it means to be a human and undergo grief, and the way completely different folks grieve. Then there’s this insane story of all these twists and turns and rabbit holes, which the true crime viewers is thinking about. I’m not as thinking about that, however I’m thinking about it. You want a narrative to hold your hat on, proper? So this movie wouldn’t exist with out that loopy story. There’s a number of threads on my telephone with the producers and the editorial division and everybody speaking via theories. We have been all making an attempt to crack it indirectly, or comply with a unique concept, or comply with a unique rabbit gap, however it’s balancing that search to unravel the crime — which, for me to suppose I can resolve the crime when tons of of police departments and DNA specialists and all these individuals are making an attempt to unravel this crime, for me to suppose I can do that may be a little hubristic, I feel. However in fact, we nonetheless needed to. I feel, as I made it, what pulled me via the three and a half years of creating it was actually simply sitting with individuals who I feel had numerous knowledge round ache and residing life with ache, which all of us need to do. All of us undergo. These folks have gone via some actually f*cking excessive struggling, and I felt like I received rather a lot out of simply listening to those households speak and listening to Claire speak, and listening to a number of the investigators who gave their life and ruined their marriages to this case.
DEADLINE: For the reason that case stays unsolved, the story remains to be ongoing. How do you discover a pure conclusion for the story you are attempting to inform?
BROWN: Nicely, as a result of I used to be thinking about reminiscence and grief… I imply, with out once more giving a spoiler, there are some issues that occur within the fourth episode. I’d by no means name it closure, as a result of the households won’t ever have closure. However there are issues that approximate that.