A little background on the Yogurt Shop Murders
on February 9, 2012 at 1938
These are stories from the Austin-American Statesman on the days of December 7th, 8th, and 9th, 1991.
Why is this important?
Because on the night of the 6th four teenage girls were murdered in one of the gristliest crimes I’ve ever heard of. If you know nothing about it, here is good place to start: http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2011-12-16/scene-of-the-crime/
What do these articles have to do with it?
Well, the first two photos are of a front-page story — it is the story that people would have been picking up and reading in the morning, as news of the murders first started to spread through the city. It tells the story of federal investigators raiding a prominent Austin policeman, and arresting his best friend, looking for evidence of a child pornography ring that was being run out of the Austin Police Department in 1991. They had already arrested the chief of vice, “Bubba” Cates, because he was involved in prostitution, pornography, and shaking down other local sex workers for protection money. The last part was the real problem. Cates was as dirty as they come, and federal investigators had followed the trail back to his superior in the APD and his friend Kallestad. They actually raided APD HQ at 8th and I-35. Kallestad was in jail for videotaping sex with a 15-year-old local girl. This is front-page news.
The third photo is from the paper on December 8th. Mr. Kallestad and Mr. Shaw are off the front page. There is talk of little else besides the yogurt shop murders. People are uniting behind the police as they track down the criminals. There is no further mention of Mr. Kallestad on Monday, if you were wondering. He is off the front page and he stays off the front page.
The sidebar story on the third page is interesting when you think, hey, a bunch of cops just got arrested yesterday for having sex with teenage girls, and then a bunch of teenage girls were brutally murdered, and honestly isn’t this sort of wildly suspicious timing? I never heard of Ms. Jessica Rose Marie Reeves before today, and she does not appear on the internet. I do know that Killeen is not far from Austin at all, less than an hour north.
The next article is from the 9th of December. I put it in here as pure speculation, but it certainly jibes with other things. It is my speculation that the killers are dead, and have been dead since very shortly after the murders. I have no idea who these people in the article are either — again, today is the first time I ever heard of them. But I would not be at all surprised to find that the real killers met their fate something like this, and it’s interesting that it happened on the 9th. I would also not at all be surprised to hear that the killers were rich, and it says right there that they were well known at the golf club. I’d like to know more.
I’d also like to be clear that I believe the APD of 1991 and the APD of 2012 to be entirely different animals. The police were flagrantly corrupt in the early nineties, and it caused a public outcry that has molded them into a model of a professional police department. I do not agree with most things that the modern APD does, and I have major problems with their base philosophy, but I want to be clear that I am aware of no connection whatsoever between the modern APD and the days of “The Family,” when Shaw and Cates ran a brutal domain. In fact, I think there is a strong movement within the APD that is as horrified by killings as anyone, and wish to bring the story to light. There are a lot of people who know a lot about this story in Austin. If you talk to people who were around then, it’s not as much a “We have no idea what happened” story as a “we know and we don’t talk about it.” Make no mistake; this was a terrorist attack, and it scared the hell out of a lot of people.
If I haven’t been clear, here are my conclusions: corrupt elements within the APD in 1991 commited or conspired the deaths of those four girls as a terrorist attack to distract the city from their own malfeasance. They also killed other people to cover their tracks. Most of those “elements” are now dead, retired, in jail, and powerless, so the story is really gaining momentum.
Your conclusions are of course your own, but that’s what I’m taking away from this.
This the most interesting information I’ve read about the Yogurt Shop Murders. I’m from Austin and was 19 years old when these murders happened. I worked and lived in the area of the crime. The night of the murders I was working at The Northcross Movie Theater which is where the two younger girls had seen a movie before they went to the yogurt shop. My father was a very well know and prominent man in Austin at the time. He had contacts in the APD, FBI and CIA. Two weeks after the murders he told me that it was straight up a hit. He used the words money laundering which I didn’t understand at the time but he explained. Then he also said it was not a coincidence that both sisters were there. Even if this had nothing to do with money laundering this was a clear message being sent to someone. He told me the firefighters who found them were all going to a psychiatrist because of what they saw and how the girls were killed. Their hearts were cut out of them. This is a big reason why the autopsy report was sealed. I’m sure there were things he didn’t share with me but he told me enough to make me understand the severity of this case. Thank you for sharing your insights. Your correct in saying as time goes by we will learn more and more about what really happened.
Charlotte Beckwith Schnitzer
Wow, I saw this same reply in a subreddit. I’ won’t copy/paste the reply I made to this comment. I’m pissed off enough to chastise you again.
I really don’t like attention seekers. I see this all the time. Ppl who make themselves out to be Deep Throat but get almost nothing correct regarding the crime.
1. It was a “straight up hit”. This sounds like former ADA Eric Moebius and all of his unsubstantiated claims against nearly the entire judiciary of Austin. He lost his ADA position, was a terrible solo-practitioner before finally being disbarred.
He floated the claim of insurance fraud and the idea that the more bodies, the higher the payout. Seems a bit much, no matter the payout. And why the rape? Doesn’t matter, ICBY/Hillside insurance settled out of court for 12M to the victim’s families. 4M a family and all the heat in the state of TX…I don’t think so. Everyone I’ve spoken with who worked the case or was in trial(s) scoffs at this.
2. Money laundering scheme
Some criminal organization was using a yogurt shop to clean their dirty money? And what…they came to get their $543 they were owed? ICBY wouldn’t wash their money and were taught a lesson?
3. No coincidence both [harbison] sisters were there. Sounds like the unsubstantiated/offensive claims levied against Skip Suraci and his alleged plan to have his step children killed for insurance money. Guess Eliza and Amy were seen as being “in the way” so they had to be killed too (and raped, Amy throttled, and burned).
4. “This was a clear message being sent to someone”
Why do you think that? Brutal crimes happen everyday. Most simple explanation tens to be the correct one: robbery gone terribly wrong, and/or serial rapist(s) who had no intention of going back to prison.
5. The most ludicrous and patently false claim of all: “there hearts were cut out and that’s partially why the autopsies were sealed”.
Autopsies were sealed by judge Wisser almost immediately due to the severity of the crime and the lack of evidence. No evidence, interrogations are crucial. Anyone with $10 (per autopsy report) could have gone to the ME and obtained all those details about the crime would be on the street. Interrogations would be a nightmare. $100k reward had ppl attempting to confess to something they knew nothing about (ie Briones who had a sick sibling and wanted to help pay the bills—was willing to take the fall for the money). That reward may have done more harm than good.
Autopsies were unsealed in ‘01 (following conviction of Robert Springsteen). Reason: details came out in trial.
What wasn’t mentioned in trial, or autopsies (take a look): bodies weren’t missing organs or cut in any way. They were in/out in btw 25-35 minutes. So no.
“Holdback data”: information only the killers would know (bc they sealed autopsies for 10 yrs and put a gag order in place in an attempt to maintain integrity of interrogations.
Think that covers it.