HBO‘s The Yogurt Shop Murders isn’t over yet, even if the case is now closed.
On Friday, May 22 (at 9 p.m. ET/PT) the documentary series will launch a surprise fifth episode, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The new series finale, titled “The End of Wondering” and directed by Margaret Brown, will document what happened in the weeks following the events of episode four. The original cutoff was… pretty unfortunate timing.
Or perhaps it was the popularity of The Yogurt Shop Murders that put a little giddy-up into the investigation. Three weeks after The Yogurt Shop Murders (first) concluded on HBO, the 34-year-old cold case was finally solved. So yeah, nada for 1,768 weeks, then the docuseries runs, and then three weeks later the Austin Police Department (APD) say they have the real murderer: serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers. And he’s dead anyway.
Using DNA evidence, Brashers was identified as the killer after the Austin PD got the wrong man — er, men. Well, really they were teens at the time: at various points, the police got confessions from Forrest Welborn, Maurice Pierce, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott. The confessions are now believed to have been coerced through intensive interview techniques. Springsteen served three years on death row and a decade overall in prison before being exonerated; Scott had previously received a life sentence.
“The End of Wondering” opens with the APD convening a sudden press conference to announce the big break in the quadruple homicide, which took the life of four teenage girls way back in 1991. It features cold case detective Dan Jackson, APD lead investigator (1991-1994) John Jones, APD lead investigator (1997-2002) Paul Johnson, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, filmmaker Claire Huie, falsely accused suspect Forrest Welborn, and the widow and daughter of another falsely accused suspect Maurice Pierce. The families of each of the four murdered teenage girls also participate.
The HBO Documentary Films series is produced by A24, Fruit Tree, and Pig Village. It is executive produced by Brown, Emma Stone, Dave McCary, Mickey Stanley, Beth Garrabrant, Ali Herting, Avi Belkin, Limor Gott Ronen, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Sara Rodriguez. The Yogurt Shop Murders is produced by Alice Henty and Michael Bloch.
Watch the new episode’s trailer below: