On December 6, 1991 in Austin, Texas, shortly before midnight a police officer on patrol noticed the “I Can’t Believe it’s Yogurt!” shop off of W. Anderson Lane going up in flames and called it in to the fire department, to which AFD arrived and put the fire out. Once the fire was out, AFD noticed that there was much more to all of this than just a run of the mill fire – they found the bodies of four females inside the shop. The victims were Amy Ayers (13 years old), Eliza Thomas (17 years old), and sisters Sarah Harbison (15 years old) & Jennifer Harbison (17 years old). All four had been shot execution style and piled on top of each other, though Amy’s body was found away from the other three – the bullet missed her brain (they found a second bullet wound in her head which the other girls were lacking) which seems to suggest that she moved herself from the pile. Eliza Thomas & Jennifer Harbison were employees of the yogurt shop, while Sarah Harbison and Amy Ayers were said to be visiting Sarah’s sister at work (and they were going to get a ride home with her). These murders have haunted the city of Austin for over 3 decades and have come to be known as the Yogurt Shop Murders.

**If you are more of a watcher than a reader, here is a YouTube video about this case that I did with Brandy of Brandy Burrow Tarot & Astrology. Also, some of this blog post was published in April 2021 (some of it might look familiar). Some of this post is new – I just merged the old post with some new stuff.

There were so many fuckups with this case – so, so many. I’ll link some articles below if you want to read about this case in further depth (since the case is long at nearly 30 years old at this point, I won’t be covering all of the history here). APD was already starting with a fucked crime scene since AFD had to put the fire out (this isn’t their fault – the fire fighters had no idea they would find four bodies in the aftermath of the fire) – and as far as I’m concerned, APD’s biases and just wanting SOMEONE to hang for this crime fucked the case further.

Two men ended up going to prison for this – Michael Scott (who was essentially coerced into confessing – a picture of Scott having a gun held to his head during the 18-hour interrogation by some piece of shit detective that worked for APD showed up online) and Robert Springsteen confessed to these murders. This was 8 years after the murders occurred in September 1999, though these men were on APD’s radar in the early years of the investigation…and it’s like APD just couldn’t let them go – even though there wasn’t any forensic evidence actually linking these guys to the crime. Both Scott and Springsteen were convicted of these murders (in 2002 and 2001 respectively), with Scott getting a life sentence and Springsteen being sentenced to death. In June 2009, both men were released on bond from prison, and in October 2009, both men had the charges against them dropped and they were exonerated. The reasons for such had to do with the coerced confession, the lack of DNA evidence (there was DNA found at the scene that didn’t match either of these men), and the major one – Scott and Springsteen’s confessions were used against one another at their trials which was found to violate the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment.

So, nearly 30 years later, the families and the city as a whole still have no idea who actually committed this particularly heinous crime – snuffing out the lives of 4 teenage girls whose lives hadn’t even really had the chance to begin yet feels particularly tragic and unnecessary. And I guess this is where myself and people who engage in this kind of astrology come into play … to try to give answers to events that are long overdue for fucking answers.

Since we only know the exact date and that the fire was called in shortly before midnight, I set the chart to 11:45 pm on December 6, 1991. Why 11:45? I don’t know, honestly it’s just the time that I felt instinctually inclined to use as far as when the fire was probably called in by the patrolling officer. A picture of the event chart is found below:

The first thing I notice about this chart is that the chart ruler is Mercury Rx! This stands out because this WHOLE CASE was handled so fucking poorly from the start, and just feels very Mercury Rx in nature. WAY too much BULLSHIT NOISE (which Mercury Rx is known for) across the board. The next thing that stands out to me obviously are the angles (which is what you should always look at first when reading a chart this way).

The Victims – Ascendant @ 7° 28′ Virgo
The Victims are always indicated by the Ascendant and the chart ruler (in this case, the chart ruler is that Mercury Rx I mentioned before in Sagittarius in the 4^th House). By dispositions, you would then go to Jupiter (since it rules Sagittarius) in the 1^st House in Virgo conjunct the Ascendant. That means that Mercury and Jupiter go back and forth in a mutual reception (or what feels like back and forth) – so there is no final dispositor for the girls’ side of things but instead the mutual reception between the two. Also, it should be noted that Mercury Rx and Jupiter are in an applying square aspect between one another (it would be applying here since Mercury is moving retrograde/backwards), making it a more insidious square aspect. It should also be noted (which I will talk more about in the Perps section) that Jupiter is the traditional ruler of the Descendant, which makes Jupiter one of the representations OF the perp/perps in this case. This makes this particular square aspect even more insidious since we see tension between the victims and the perp(s), moving closer together in motion.

With the chart ruler in the 4^th House, this makes me think that the girls were comfortable and familiar with where they were when this happened, in the Yogurt Shop. I almost get the feeling that the perp/perps were patrons of the shop earlier in the night and came back right before closing at 11 pm, claiming that someone had left something in the shop (a wallet, a pager, a passport or something, perhaps?). The chart being ruled by Mercury RX makes my mind go this way. I also think this patron, or these patrons (and I’m inclined to think that there IS more than one perp here) were people that Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas had served in the store before (or at least ONE of the perps were known to at least ONE of these two girls as someone who came to the shop somewhat often). Harbison and Thomas, one or both of them, didn’t feel threatened by this person (or these people) normally – though all the girls were clearly in more danger than they would’ve thought since Mercury happens to be “under the Sun’s beams” in this chart (Sun & Mercury are within 3-degrees of one another and moving closer together with Mercury being Rx which can indicate the victim(s) being in immediate danger). I have this feeling that they let this person/these people into the shop shortly before closing (hell, maybe this was even AFTER they’d locked the doors and closed up shop) to retrieve this item that was claimed to have been left behind. Once inside, this person/these people attacked, probably surprising the fuck out of them. Another possibility might be a door in the back having been left unlocked on accident (forgotten about, as how Mercury Rx can function – or even NOT forgotten about but just unlocked for the purpose of carrying out closing duties like taking out the trash, etc.), leaving them vulnerable to someone attacking them once they’d closed the shop for the night. I could even see a mix of the two occurring – a patron Harbison and/or Thomas knew comes (back) to the store shortly before or after closing claiming they left something behind in the store (from earlier that day or even some other day – wanting to search the stores “lost and found”). The girls let this person in – they know him as a patron and aren’t concerned. In the meantime, someone comes into the back of the shop (through a back door or some shit that was left unlocked) to keep the girls from escaping once they realized that the person up front wasn’t there to retrieve anything.

The Perpetrator(s) – Descendant 7° 28′ Pisces

In these kinds of charts, the perpetrator(s) are indicated by the Descendant. We are talking about a Pisces Descendant, which makes this chart have TWO planetary rulers for the perp(s), Jupiter by traditional rulership and Neptune by modern rulership (though I will say that since this crime occurred at night, I would give Jupiter a little more weight here). Jupiter falls in Virgo in the first house conjunct the Ascendant, which means that this perpetrator surprised the girls with his actions in a big way (probably by drawing some weapon they weren’t expecting once he was in the shop) and was up in their space. From there by way of dispositions we go to Mercury in the 4^th in Sagittarius (since Mercury is the planetary ruler of Virgo), which will then dispose of itself back to Jupiter in Virgo in the mutual reception mentioned in the Victim’s section.

**With Jupiter being opposite the Descendant, I’m thinking that we’re dealing with someone much more deliberate than he appeared to them normally – he may have appeared more harmless, maybe a little spacey normally (perhaps like he wasn’t always “on Earth”). I actually think this perp is someone who was probably college aged at the time, and maybe it’s Jupiter’s influence, but I’m thinking they may have attended a religiously affiliated university. Here in Austin, St. Edwards University and Concordia University come to mind, though with Pisces on the Descendant we might be dealing with someone who actually went to school somewhere else – there could be a foreign element at play here, too, or they could’ve just been a transplant to Austin. The foreign element could make them an actual foreigner as well. With Jupiter in Virgo, it makes me think of someone pretty tall and lanky. Jupiter tends to indicate something “big” about the person, but here this feels more height related than anything else.

Even though I would give Jupiter more weight as the main Descendant ruler in this case, I still want to look at Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces. Neptune falls in the 5^th House in Capricorn. Perhaps it is common sense (it does seem like to corral 4 girls you would need to have at least two people involved in the crime), but it’s also the dual nature of Pisces that makes me think two perpetrators (this isn’t universal with a Pisces Descendant, but fuck, I feel it here). I feel like Jupiter is representative of one perp, and Neptune is representative of the other. The second perp – I have to wonder if this person had some kind of addiction issue. Pisces on the Descendant definitely plays into this train of thought, for sure, but so does Neptune falling in the 5^th House (the 5^th House is, like, the pleasure house, among other things). It’s in Capricorn, which almost makes me think of someone who represses some kind of addictive urge until they just can’t anymore. This could be an addiction to anything, though with the ruler of the 7^th in the 5^th House, and something sexual in nature being a hallmark of this disposition (and there was evidence that one of the girls had been raped), I’m almost wondering if this Neptune in Capricorn person was a serial rapist (or at the very least, this wasn’t their first rodeo with rape), or some other kind of sexual deviant. Supposedly the police found the motive to be “robbery,” but I’m gunna go on out here on a limb and say I think the motive of this crime was really for the person signified by Neptune in Capricorn to “have a good time” (though I don’t think this was necessarily the motive of the Jupiter in Virgo person).  Next in line with the dispositions is Saturn in Aquarius (since Saturn is the planetary ruler of Capricorn), also in the 5^th House, which kind of reinforces that this person wanted to have a good time and have a weird kind of control over the girls (or that is how it feels to me here). From here you would go to Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, which also falls in the 5^th House in Capricorn. This is where this chain of dispositions stops since it would bounce back to Saturn in Aquarius, being part of the mutual reception between both planets.
-I have the feeling that the actual brains behind this whole thing was probably the person represented by Neptune in Capricorn. I actually don’t think the Jupiter in Virgo person knew exactly what the plan was when they surprise attacked the girls (maybe this person just thought it would be a robbery) – but the Neptune in Capricorn person had other plans…and the Jupiter in Virgo person didn’t resist them. The Jupiter person just feels more out of the loop to me, and I don’t think they were really in any control – though I do think they were absolutely how the Neptune in Capricorn person got their foot in the door.  

The 5^th House has even more importance here than just being where one of the rulers of the descendant falls – in crime charts when you’re dealing with victims who are underage (I tend to look at victims under 16 as being part of this house), you want to look at the 5^th House and its rulership since the 5^th House tends to also represent children. The 5^th House has Capricorn on the cusp, which makes its planetary ruler Saturn in Aquarius. This makes me feel like the girls felt powerless to what was going on around them. Saturn in Aquarius would then dispose of itself to Uranus in Capricorn (where they would go back and forth in a mutual reception in the 5^th House). You could technically stop with Saturn in Aquarius (since Saturn is the traditional ruler of Aquarius), but I like to look at BOTH traditional and modern rulership.

**This part is pure visualization, but as I was typing all of this up, I envision someone banging on the shop door/windows after they’d closed up shop for the night. This person was known to at least one of girls that worked there and seemed frantic yelling through the glass that they thought they forgot something in the store (earlier that same day/night or even a day or two earlier). Since Mercury Rx feels so important to the overall tone of the chart, beyond just representing the victims, I have to wonder if they were yelling about forgetting a pager in the store or something like that (it was 1991 after all and I’m thinking that something communication related may have been involved), or even a driver’s license (since Mercury deals with cars and transportation). Other things that seem likely are something Jupiter related – maybe a textbook or something along those lines, or even something like a passport. Whether this item correlates more with the Mercury or Jupiter (or even both) doesn’t really matter. I do think something along these lines transpired. I also think that the girls had been doing their nightly closing routine of taking out the trash and all that shit, and probably left the back door unlocked as they were doing this. If something like this happened, it would’ve given the other perp the opportunity to sneak in the back door and hide in the back of the store. After the perp got inside that claimed to have forgotten something, he probably pulled a weapon on the girls, and they really weren’t expecting this. Some of them probably tried running to the door at the back of the shop, where they were surprised by the second perp lying in wait who was then able to corner them further. **

The I.C/4^th House @ 5° 54′ Sagittarius and the Moon @ 26° 42′ Sagittarius

The 4^th House ruler and the 4^th House in general is also something you want to look at in these charts. The Moon is another planet that you always want to look at in charts like these, for it operates as co-ruler. In this chart, the Moon is in Sagittarius in the 4^th House loosely conjunct Mercury (and by proxy, the Sun). Something like the Moon falling in the 4^th House backs up the notion that the girls were in familiar surroundings and comfortable at the Yogurt Shop. The Moon, even though it isn’t tightly conjunct the Sun, would still be considered “under the sun’s beams” (any planet within 17-degrees of the Sun is considered as such), which also backs up the idea that the girls were in much more danger than they realized. Since we’re talking about the 4^th House, and we have the Moon and the ruler of the 12^th House (the Sun) there, this can show the start of a death pattern (since the 4^th House is very much “cradle to the grave” energy).

Another thing to notice about this house is the fact that Mars is damn near dead-ass conjunct the IC, and Mars is also the ruler of the 8^th House (which can also point to a death pattern, with the ruler of the 8^th House in the 4^th House). Mars can be incredibly violent and aggressive, which definitely fits here by the way that these girls were murdered. This could definitely show something like fire being used somewhere in the crime, though while the crime feels a little more planned out overall, the fire part almost seems like it was done on the fly.

The 10^th House @ 5° 54′ Gemini

The 10^th House can represent a few different things in a chart like this. It can represent the way that the public reacts to the case. It can also represent law enforcements handling of the case. The planetary ruler of this house is Mercury Rx in the 4^th House in Sagittarius. First, this shows that the girls were in a public place (10^th House ruler in the 4^th can show this, and they were in a public place – this is reinforced further since Mercury Rx is also the chart ruler representing the girls). Beyond that, though, you’re looking at a case that would make the public very curious (which it did and still does). Scattered and lack of good communication would also be great ways to describe this case (and the handling of it). The Austin Police Department, as far as I’m concerned, were far too dogmatic in a very backwards way (per that Mercury Rx in Sagittarius) about who was to blame for this all of this. They were too inflexible about looking about other leads, getting too fucking hung up on the noise surrounding the case and trying to make what the officers thought happened fit the case at hand.

Here’s my advice to APD….if y’all happen to read this, go back to the original case files and look at the crime as if it just happened. I know that’s hard to do after 30 years, and really, I’d pull some new blood into this – new eyes that don’t have any bias regarding the case. I would bet a little money THEY HAVE ONE OF THE PERPETRATORS NAMES IN THE FUCKING CASE FILE. This may not have ever been an actual person of interest, but I would imagine that names of patrons who went to the Yogurt Shop in the days/weeks/months/etc. leading up to this event were taken down – THEY NEED TO GO THROUGH THESE FUCKING NAMES. I also think they need to probably have a lead detective on this case that’s pretty intuitive/leads by intuition (will kind of roll with hunches they have and see where they lead while not becoming to set on any one hunch). Mercury Rx needs to learn to trust it’s intuition, so it would make sense that this case would be served well by someone who does trust their intuition (not making arrests and bullshit based on intuition only but is comfortable with exploring intuitive hunches). THIS WHOLE CASE NEEDS TO BE WORKED FROM THE VERY BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN. Crime scene photos also need to be poured over in massive detail. I really think APD has exactly what they need to nail the correct person/people to wall for this crime (assuming this person/these people are still alive – a lot can happen in 30 years’ time). The details of this case got super fucked by too much of what feels like mental dogmatism in all the wrong areas and towards all the wrong leads (per Mercury Rx in Sagittarius). They have all the details they need to solve this mother fucker. They just need to do it.

-As I’ve mentioned before, I really think they are looking at two perpetrators for this case, though only one might be in the case files. This part is more intuitive than anything, but I also think it’s very possible that there is an age difference between these two perpetrators. Exactly how much of a difference, I’m not sure, but maybe something like one of them having been college age in 1991 with the other being 10 or so years older.
-I also want to mention the possibility that one of the perps knew one of the victims’ families in a by proxy kind of way. Kind of like the perp knew one of the families of the girls but didn’t know them well (like a friend of a friend kind of thing). I make that mention because of the mutual reception between Mercury and Jupiter being in the 1^st and 4^th Houses. It at least seems like a possibility that should be explored if it hasn’t already.
-It would even include the possibility that one of the perps was an employee or a previous employee of another business in that same strip mall (or in the area close by). Perhaps because one of the rulers of the Descendant falls in the first house – it seems like one of the perps may have been very comfortable in the Yogurt Shop himself, and very comfortable with the area. They may have even lived in the area at the time this happened.  

I don’t normally mess with fixed stars in regular natal chart readings unless requested, but there were a few that really stood out in this event chart that I wanted to mention:
—Thuban is at 7° 27′ Virgo which is conjunct the Ascendant in the event chart. It can indicate “burning alive in one’s own house.” This feels very literal to me.
—Coxa is at 13° 25′ Virgo which is conjunct Jupiter. This fixed star is “good for voyages,” strength, and wisdom.
—Ras Algethi is at 14° 45′ Sagittarius, which happens to be conjunct the Sun in the event chart. This can indicate some kind of nefarious plan carried out (and this fixed star is a reason that I do think there was some pre-meditation to at least some of this crime).
—Manubrium is at 13° 36′ Capricorn which happens to be conjunct Uranus within a degree and within a couple of degrees of Neptune (both which have to do with the perp’s side of things). This fixed star can indicate fire, arson, or the burning of a body being involved.
–Sabik is at 17° 58′ Sagittarius, which is conjunct Mercury by a degree and the Sun by a couple of degrees. This fixed star is like the pervert of the bunch. One of these perps was a massive fucking pervert (and people like this should absolutely be on APD’s radar).  Anyone in the case file who before this crime or has since this crime had any kind of run in/arrest for being a fucking pervert, child-molester, rapist, etc. should most definitely be explored as a possible suspect. This fixed star can also represent wastefulness and lost energy; with Mercury also the ruler of the 10th House it seems like this could point to APD wasting their time on suspects that didn’t matter (in my opinion).
–Vega is at 15° 19′ Capricorn, and this one is really interesting because it happens to be EXACTLY Neptune, one of the planetary rulers of the Descendant. This might explain how they got so fucking lucky by getting away with this for so long – there is definitely a luckiness to this fixed star. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be caught, though.

If anyone has any information about this case, contact the Austin Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case division at 512-477-3588.

Do you want me to do an astrology reading for you? That can be done here 🙂
If you want me to look at the astrology surrounding an event, crime, or a missing person, shoot me an email and let me know.

Here are some links mentioned above (the ones from Texas Monthly are very good, but also *might* be behind a paywall):
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/under-the-gun/
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/remembering-the-yogurt-shop-murders/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_murders