Nearly 34 years after his 13-year-old sister died during the 1991 Austin, Texas, yogurt shop massacre, Shawn Ayers and his wife, Angie, have launched a national cold case effort while still seeking answers about the attack and whether an accomplice is out there.
Angie, along with Shawn, whose sister Amy was among four girls killed in the attack, have joined former prosecutors Mindy Montford and Anne Marie Schubert to establish the unsolved homicide investigations, train investigators and support victims’ families.
"Due to what we've gone through and seen, not only from our own experience, but from listening to other families struggle throughout this process, years ago, we had wanted to start a nonprofit," Angie told Fox News Digital.
Amy; Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, both 17; and Jennifer’s sister, Sarah Harbison, 15, died in the attack at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop on West Anderson Lane on Dec. 6, 1991.
On the night of the killings, Jennifer and Eliza were working the closing shift, while Sarah and Amy waited for them to finish, so the four could head to a sleepover.
Shortly before midnight, authorities received a report of a fire at the shop. The blaze and water from the sprinklers altered the crime scene and diluted evidence, Golden State Killer to justice. The Ayers couple met Schubert at a 2023 cold case conference in Marble Falls, Texas, where the idea for the nonprofit took shape.
Now, they want to help other families find that kind of support.
"It is up and running now ... to provide funding and training for law enforcement, to have tools that they need to investigate cold cases, to be able to collect and report accurate data on unsolved cases and connect law enforcement agencies around the world, and to have peer-to-peer family support and communication," Angie added.
"Right now, funding … for us is a big thing, so we can get the first cases up and running."
Shawn said they have spread awareness by attending cold case conferences in several states, including California, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina.
For the couple, the work extends beyond families still waiting for answers. Solving those cases could also identify killers who remain free.
"There could be a killer living, right next to somebody," Shawn said. "You can walk right past them and never know."