AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — For more than three decades, the four men and their families had insisted they were innocent of one of Austin’s most gruesome and notorious crimes: the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop that was set on fire.
No one listened. Not when Robert Springsteen was sent to death row. Not when Michael Scott was sentenced to life in prison. Or when Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce, though never convicted, struggled through life under dark clouds of suspicion that they were murderers.
Their pleas were finally heard Thursday. A judge formally declared the men innocent after an emotional court hearing where prosecutors apologized and admitted they were wrongly accused of a crime that haunted the city for decades. Investigators determined last year that the murders were committed by a previously unknown culprit who died in 1999.
Scott and Welborn sat in the crowded courtroom packed with family members to hear state District Judge Dayna Blazey formally tell them “you are innocent.” She called her order “an obligation to the rule of law and the obligation to the dignity of the individual.”
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The hearing included lengthy statements from the men and their families about the struggles of incarceration, broken relationships, constant harassment by investigators and homelessness.
Springsteen did not attend. Through tears, Marisa Pierce addressed her father, who died in 2010 in a confrontation with police after a traffic stop.
“Daddy, you have your name back,” she said. “The world knows what you were trying to say all along.”
Killings shocked Austin and confounded investigators
Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged and shot in the head at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” store where two of them worked. The building was set on fire.
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Investigators chased thousands of leads and several false confessions before the four men, who were teenagers when the girls were killed, were arrested in late 1999.
Springsteen and Scott were convicted based largely on confessions they insisted were coerced by police. Both convictions were overturned in the mid-2000s.
Welborn was charged but never tried after two grand juries refused to indict him. Pierce spent three years in jail before the charges were dismissed and he was released.
Prosecutors wanted to try Springsteen and Scott again, but a judge ordered the charges dismissed in 2009 when new DNA tests that were unavailable in 1991 and the previous trials revealed another male suspect.
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“Let us not forgot that Robert Springsteen could be dead right now, executed at the hands of the state of Texas,” Springsteen attorney Amber Farrelly said.
In a statement his attorney read in court, Welborn said he lost friends, struggled to keep jobs and was at one time homeless. Scott testified that his arrest, conviction and prison sentence ultimately broke up his family.
“I lost my family. I lost my youth. My daughter was 3 years old when I was arrested. We had just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I lost the chance to build a family,” Scott said. “Every day I have carried the weight of a crime I did not commit.”
The formal declaration of innocence could also be a key step for the men and their families if they seek financial compensation for years they spent incarcerated or struggled to live under a cloud of suspicion.
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“My son’s name has finally been cleared after more than 25 years of being called the monster, the murderer and everything else,” said Phil Scott, Michael Scott’s father. “Son, be proud.”
Connection to a new suspect revealed
After Scott and Springsteen were released, the case effectively went cold until 2025, when an HBO documentary series attracted new public attention to the unsolved crime.
Then investigators made a stunning announcement last September: New DNA science and reviews of old ballistics evidence pointed to Robert Eugene Brashers as the sole killer.
Since 2018, authorities had used advanced DNA evidence to link Brashers to the strangulation death of a South Carolina woman in 1990, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee and the shooting of a mother and daughter in Missouri in 1998.
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The link to the Austin case came when a DNA sample taken from under Ayers’ fingernail came back as a match to Brashers from the 1990 killing.
Austin investigators also found that Brashers had been arrested at a border checkpoint near El Paso two days after the yogurt shop killings. In his stolen car was a pistol that matched the caliber used to kill one of the girls in Austin.
Police also noted similarities in the yogurt shop case to Brashers’ other crimes: The victims were tied up with their own clothing, sexually assaulted and some crime scenes were set on fire.
Brashers died in 1999 when he shot himself during an hourslong standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.
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“Over 25 years ago, the state prosecuted four innocent men … (for) one of the worst crimes Austin has ever seen,” Travis County First Assistant District Attorney Trudy Strassburger said. “We could not have been more wrong.”
That is not as straightforward as it might sound, as one former No 10 official described it. “There’s no good, clear correlation between wealth and energy bills.” An elderly person might live alone with a tiny income, in a draughty, big old family home that costs a fortune to heat, while a big family with a middle-sized income might live in a modern, well-insulated flat.
Police and paramedics were called to Whessoe Road, near the North Road Industrial Estate, on around 10.55pm on Friday (March 13).
The incident – which involved a Honda CRF motorcycle carrying two people – left one of the riders with serious injuries.
They were taken to hospital for treatment, whether they remain today.
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No other vehicles were involved.
Durham Police said the other rider is believed to have made off from the scene and officers are keen to trace them as they may have also suffered serious injuries and require medical treatment.
If you are this person, or know who they are, you are asked to call police on 101, quoting incident number 547 of March 13, go to a police station, or email to sciu@durham.police.uk
Scotland try to hit back with a maul of their own but it’s not as effective, though they’ve shown plenty of patience before…
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And Ireland steal it in their own 22!
A great tackle from McCloskey forces the turnover but Ringrose can’t break away, and the hosts settle for clearing it.
Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:30
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TRY! Ireland 14-7 Scotland
Ireland hit back again! They make this one look simple, Sheehan taking the ball from the back of the maul before sneaking over from close range.
Another conversion and we’re at 14-7.
Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:26
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Ireland 7-7 Scotland
Graham is penalised for offside and Crowley finds touch, taking his side five metres out with a lineout.
Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:23
TRY! Ireland 7-7 Scotland
Oh, what a try that is! 18 phases and Scotland are within touching distance again.
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Great hands out of the ruck on that final phase, with Russell and Kinghorn showing superb decision-making and great hands to release Darcy Graham in the corner.
Russell slots a difficult conversion and we’re level!
Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:22
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Ireland 7-0 Scotland
A quick start in Dublin as Scotland look to hit back. The visitors have edged into the Ireland 22 with some patient carrying from the forwards.
13 phases, 14…15 as Steyn is held up…
Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:20
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TRY! Ireland 7-0 Scotland
There it is! The hosts hit first, a ruthless opening try as they run through a phase before Doris threads it through to Jamie Osborne, who goes down unchallenged under the posts.
Crowley lands the conversion for maximum points.
(Getty Images)
Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:18
Ireland 0-0 Scotland
Scotland penalised in the scrum and Ireland kick for touch. This’ll be the first chance at a try today…
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Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:16
Ireland 0-0 Scotland
The kick is collected by Scotland and Ben White clears.
The hosts come again, with the back line getting their hands on the ball for the first time, and while Crowley does well to break the gain line early on, he ends up knocking it forward in the tackle.
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Chris Wilson14 March 2026 14:16
KICK-OFF! Ireland 0-0 Scotland
We’re underway at the Aviva! Which of these sides will stake their claim for the Six Nations title today?
Donald Trump has said his forces carried out a bombing raid on Iran’s “crown jewel” Kharg, a small island in the north of the Persian Gulf, on Friday.
The five-mile-long coral island – twice the size of London’s Heathrow Airport – is in the north of the Persian Gulf, 16 miles (26km) from Iran’s coast and roughly 300 miles (483km) north of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway through which 20% of global oil flows, that Tehran has shut down.
President Trump said US forces “obliterated” military targets on Kharg Island, but significantly said he chose not to “wipe out” the island’s oil infrastructure. He threatened that this could change if Iran interfered with the safe passage of ships through the strait.
Tehran warned of a new level of retaliation if the oil infrastructure on Kharg was damaged, vowing on Saturday that Iranian forces would destroy the oil and gas infrastructure of companies cooperating with the US in the region if its sites were targeted, according to Iranian state media.
But why is the island so important?
Image: Kharg Island. Pic: Planet Labs PBC via AP
Why was no oil infrastructure hit?
Kharg is the export terminal for 90% of Iran’s oil shipments and has the capacity to load around seven million barrels a day.
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The island can handle as many as 10 supertankers at the same time, as its waters are deep enough to enable the docking of tankers that are too large to approach mainland Iran’s shallow coastal waters.
Before the war, the island handled most of Iran’s roughly 1.7 million barrels of crude exports per day, with the majority of it going to China.
Image: Pipelines transferring crude oil from storage on the hills of Kharg Island to tankers in the eastern dock in 2016. Pic: AP
Iranian oil accounts for 11.6% of China’s seaborne imports so far in 2026, according to tanker tracker Kpler. “Therefore, if [Mr Trump] was to take that out, he might risk the ire of China,” Sky News’ military analyst Sean Bell said.
Hitting Kharg’s oil infrastructure would also likely lead to oil prices surging even further, after they hit a four-year high on Friday.
Oil exports continuing despite war
In the week before the war broke out, Kharg shipped a record of 3.79 million barrels per day, and operations on the island have continued despite the conflict.
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About 13.7 million barrels of oil have been exported from the island since the US-Israeli strikes were launched on 28 February, at a rate of 1.1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day, according to maritime intelligence company TankerTrackers.com and Kpler data.
Multiple tankers were still loading there on Wednesday, according to satellite pictures from Tanker Trackers.
Kharg has storage tanks in the south, along with housing for thousands of workers. It has a storage capacity of roughly 30 million barrels, and held about 18 million barrels of crude as of early March, according to a JP Morgan report citing Kpler data.
Trump posts footage of strikes after Kharg Island attack
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Critical to funding of Iranian government
The island has long been seen as a key vulnerability that would provoke a severe response by Tehran if attacked.
Kharg is critical to funding Iran’s government and military, and if Iran were to lose control of the island, it would be difficult for the country to function, according to Petras Katinas, an energy researcher at the Royal United Services Institute.
Mr Katinas said a takeover would give the US leverage over negotiations with Iran because the island is “the main node” of its economy.
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While there has been speculation that the US could be tempted to seize Kharg Island, experts say that would almost certainly require troops on the ground, making it extremely risky.
One Iranian politician has reportedly already threatened US troops with capture if they attempt to seize its crucial oil hub.
JP Morgan’s global commodity research team stressed the wider economic implications of a direct strike on the island, warning before the US struck military targets on Kharg that strikes would “immediately halt the bulk of Iran’s crude exports, likely triggering severe retaliation in the Strait of Hormuz or against regional energy infrastructure”.
“You take out Kharg infrastructure, then you take two million [barrels per day] out of the market for good – not until the Straits get fixed,” added Dan Pickering, chief investment officer for Pickering Energy Partners.
Is the attack on Kharg Island significant?
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Damage to the island
Iranian state media reported that no oil infrastructure was damaged in the US strikes, adding that air defences, a naval base, airport control tower, and a helicopter hangar were targeted.
The US “successfully struck” more than 90 military targets, including naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers, the US Central Command said.
The 55 crude oil storage tanks, which can hold more than 34 million barrels, are “most likely unscathed”, Tanker Trackers said.
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Former Royal Navy chief on Kharg Island’s importance
“Although the island has some offshore oil production, the bulk of the oil actually derives from the mainland via multiple pipelines,” the tracking service said.
“The island first began exporting oil during the summer of 1960 and was built to [accommodate] 7 million barrels per day in exports, to reflect the potential in oil production. Iran hit 6.6 [million barrels per day] in production back in 1976.”
The maritime intelligence company added that satellite imagery from Saturday showed two new tankers began loading 2.7 million barrels of crude oil there.
Activities on the island, including exports and imports, are “proceeding normally” after the strikes, the deputy governor of Bushehr, a port city close to Kharg, said, adding that no military personnel, oil company employees or island residents were killed.
Was the island targeted before?
Despite being viewed as a critical vulnerability, the island has rarely been directly targeted.
The last time was during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, but it did not stop crude oil exports from Kharg.
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“When Saddam Hussein raided the island numerous times 40 years ago and destroyed a number of storage tanks, Kharg Island was still able to export over 1.5 million barrels per day,” Tanker Trackers said in a post on X.
The scene on Manchester Road in Over Hulton has seen a small area of woodland which backs onto an open field closed off, with police tape stopping the public access and a police community support officer (PCSO) also guarding the scene.
At around 1.30pm, Greater Manchester Police confirmed that a man had died following a ‘concern for welfare incident’.
At it height, the police scene included at least four cars, a crime scene investigation van, a police helicopter, and an air ambulance, according to witnesses.
Forensics officers wearing full body suits could be seen entering the woodland with equipment.
The pattern is this: Ferrari’s strong starts and superior cornering speed puts them in the mix in the early laps, and the new hybrid engine with their “boost” and “overtake” modes leads to switching of positions for a while.
But the longer the race goes on, the more Mercedes’ inherent advantage pays off.
Hamilton said: “Definitely feeling thirsty on power when we’re behind them. It’s really, really hard to keep up and you could tell they just have more grunt, they’re just pulling for longer.
“That’s why I died this morning [in the sprint]. I was just trying to make it up through the corners, but it just wasn’t making any difference, so just killing my tyres.”
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Hamilton praised Antonelli’s new record as “an amazing achievement” and predicted that it was “going to take a while for someone to ever get close to that one”.
Seven-time champion Hamilton appears rejuvenated by the new 2026 cars, and seems back to something close to his previous form before the ground-effect cars of the past four years, with which he was never comfortable.
And Russell is still wary of the Ferraris’ potential to disrupt.
“It has been great opening few laps for the last two races. We know Ferrari are quick off the line and we’ve got them in P3 and P4, which is the first time of the season, and Lewis was obviously great at the beginning of the race this morning, so I am sure it’s not going to be straightforward.”
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He says he has been enjoying the scraps with Ferrari.
“With the overtake mode, the driver behind can use the boost button up to I think 330km/h, where the guy in the front can only use it to 290km/h,” Russell said.
“It seems to work quite well. It isn’t DRS, but it works in a similar pattern for the speed delta.
“It’s been quite interesting, quite fun, and I think even some diehards maybe aren’t disliking it as much as they did maybe a week ago. We just still need to give it a chance.”
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The McLarens qualified fifth and sixth, Oscar Piastri ahead of world champion Lando Norris. Can they mix it with the Ferraris?
Norris said: “We have a better power unit than the Ferrari. Our advantage is that we just have more straight-line speed.
“But they’re still a car that drives around the corners quicker than even a Mercedes. So, to keep up with them in the corners and then try to get them in the straight is difficult.
“So, between Mercedes and them they have different places they’re strong.
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“But we’ll see. I mean they have better tyre management, they have more grip. And therefore it’s much easier for the car if the tyre is that way.
“We have to push like hell in the corners to keep up and then we can obviously catch up in the straight. That’s kind of the wrong end of the stick you want to be on in a race situation at times.
“But never say never. If we can improve on some things from this morning, then we’re certainly not out of the picture of racing them.”
It said the areas most affected are King’s Staith in York and riverside areas from Lendal Bridge to Millennium Bridge.
King’s and Queen’s Staith under water this afternoon (March 14) (Image: Kevin Glenton)
This afternoon, parts of South Esplanade were under water, and closer to the Ouse Bridge, King’s Staith was also covered in river water, along with Queen’s Staith on the opposite bank.
Parts of Tower Gardens close to the river were flooded and St. George’s Field Car Park was open.
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Tower Gardens were under water in parts close to the River Ouse this afternoon (March 14) (Image: Kevin Glenton)
At the Viking Recorder in North Street Gardens at 1.15pm, the River Ouse levels were 2.93 metres and falling, above the top of the normal range of 1.9 metres.
The EA says flooding is possible above three metres and the levels are predicted to fall back to normal levels till tomorrow morning.
The highest recorded level here was 5.40 metres in November 2000.
At the Foss Barrier close to the confluence of the two principal rivers in York, the level at 1.30pm was 7.83 metres and steady, above the top of the normal range of 7.9 metres.
The highest level recorded here was 10.2 metres on November 4, 2000.
All areas are being assessed by the Environment Agency throughout the day, it said.
In the first extracts of Tom Bower’s forthcoming book, Betrayal: Power, Deceit And The Fight For The Future Of The Royal Family, it is claimed the Prince and Princess of Wales also considered Meghan “a threat” as tensions escalated prior to the Sussexes’ decision to quit Britain for the United States.
The final round of what has been a dramatic 2026 edition of the northern hemisphere’s premier international rugby competition promises to be eventful, with three teams still in contention for the title.
Two of them clash in Dublin to kick off proceedings as Ireland and Scotland go head to head at the Aviva Stadium, both needing to win and hope that they get a huge favour from England in Paris later on.
Ireland, two points behind their rivals at the start of the afternoon, have the confidence of having won 11 straight games against Scotland, who have never previously lifted the Six Nations trophy. The winner of their game will clinch at least some silverware in the form of the Triple Crown.
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Their massive points difference advantage means that France will retain their title with a bonus-point win over England regardless of what happens in Dublin, though exactly what they need to do will be clear ahead of kick-off in the final game.
The middle match on Super Saturday is in Cardiff, where improved Wales are desperate to avoid another winless campaign against an Italy team looking to produce their best finish in the competition after a historic first victory over England.
Position
Team
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P
W
D
L
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PF
PA
PD
B
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Pts
1
France
4
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3
0
1
163
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84
+79
4
16
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2
Scotland
4
3
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0
1
122
101
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+21
4
16
3
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Ireland
4
3
0
1
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103
87
+16
2
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14
4
Italy
4
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2
0
2
62
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86
-24
1
9
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5
England
4
1
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0
3
107
103
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+4
2
6
6
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Wales
4
0
0
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4
59
155
-96
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1
1
Six Nations fixtures and results
Ireland vs Scotland (2:10pm, Aviva Stadium, ITV1)
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Wales vs Italy (4:40pm, Principality Stadium, BBC One)
The 64-year-old, who was born in Pontypridd, Wales, was best known for being Motorhead’s guitarist from 1984 until they broke up in 2015. The band are known for hits Ace of Spades, Overkill, and Born to Raise Hell.
In a statement posted on Facebook, his children shared he died on Friday evening, adding: “His legacy, music and the memories he created with so many will live on forever.”
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The full statement reads: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Philip Anthony Campbell, who passed away peacefully last night following a long and courageous battle in intensive care after a complex major operation.
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“Phil was a devoted husband, a wonderful father, and a proud and loving grandfather, known affectionately as ‘Bampi.’ He was deeply loved by all who knew him and will be missed immensely. His legacy, music and the memories he created with so many will live on forever.
“We kindly ask that our family’s privacy is respected during this incredibly difficult time.”
Fellow band member Lemmy died in 2015 after a battle with prostate cancer. Phil recently toured with his own band Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, featuring his three sons.
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The music legend started playing guitar when he was 10 years old, inspired and influenced by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. By the age of 13 he was playing semi-professionally in gigs around south Wales and first met Lemmy after a Hawkwind gid when he asked the singer for his autograph.
When Motorhead held auditions for a new guitarist in 1984, he went along was was hired along with Michael Burston.
The band called it a day after Lemmy’s death saying: “We will not be doing any more tours or anything. And there will not be any more records. But the fire survives, and Lemmy lives on in the hearts of everyone.”
In April 2020, Campbell opened up about how hard it was to see Lemmy struggle towards the end of his life saying that Lemmy “wasn’t quite himself” and that he had been “ageing a little bit more” on Motörhead’s final tour. He also admitted that the end of Motörhead was not easy to adjust to at first.
