The last meteor shower of 2025, the Ursid meteor shower, arrives each year around the winter solstice. While it isn’t as impressive as the recent Geminid shower, it’s still worth seeing.
What You Need To Know
The Ursid meteor shower peaks in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 22
The average number of meteors per hour is 5-10. On rare occasions, there have been bursts near 100
The Ursid meteor shower originates from the debris trail of Comet 8P/Tuttle
What causes most meteor showers?
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through debris left over from a comet or asteroid. This debris material is usually no bigger than a large grain of sand. When these particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up, leaving bright, sometimes colorful streaks of light in the night sky.
In the case of the Ursids, the debris trail is left over from Comet 8P/Tuttle. This comet was first discovered in 1790 by Pierre Mechain from Paris, France. Later, in 1858, Horace Tuttle of Harvard University rediscovered the comet when its orbit took it back through the solar system.
When and where to meet watch
The Ursids range from Dec. 13 to 24. The peak arrives on the evening of December 21st through dawn. Make sure you dress warmly and find a dark location, away from lights. A country area is ideal. Allow your eyes to adjust to the night sky, which takes up to 30 minutes. The best time to watch the sky is from around 1 a.m. EST until dawn.
All annual meteor showers have a radiant point from which they originate. With the Ursids, they radiate from the area of the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. (Big Dipper & Little Dipper). More specifically, from the star Kochab in the Little Dipper constellation. Look for the Big Dipper and the star Kochab well to the north-northeast.
Keep in mind, you don’t need to look directly at the radiant point (near the star Kochab in the Little Dipper); looking about 30 to 40 degrees away often yields longer, more impressive meteor trails across the sky.
Here is the cloud forecast across the nation during the peak viewing time:
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
The last meteor shower of 2025, the Ursid meteor shower, arrives each year around the winter solstice. While it isn’t as impressive as the recent Geminid shower, it’s still worth seeing.
What You Need To Know
The Ursid meteor shower peaks in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 22
The average number of meteors per hour is 5-10. On rare occasions, there have been bursts near 100
The Ursid meteor shower originates from the debris trail of Comet 8P/Tuttle
What causes most meteor showers?
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through debris left over from a comet or asteroid. This debris material is usually no bigger than a large grain of sand. When these particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up, leaving bright, sometimes colorful streaks of light in the night sky.
In the case of the Ursids, the debris trail is left over from Comet 8P/Tuttle. This comet was first discovered in 1790 by Pierre Mechain from Paris, France. Later, in 1858, Horace Tuttle of Harvard University rediscovered the comet when its orbit took it back through the solar system.
When and where to meet watch
The Ursids range from Dec. 13 to 24. The peak arrives on the evening of December 21st through dawn. Make sure you dress warmly and find a dark location, away from lights. A country area is ideal. Allow your eyes to adjust to the night sky, which takes up to 30 minutes. The best time to watch the sky is from around 1 a.m. EST until dawn.
All annual meteor showers have a radiant point from which they originate. With the Ursids, they radiate from the area of the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. (Big Dipper & Little Dipper). More specifically, from the star Kochab in the Little Dipper constellation. Look for the Big Dipper and the star Kochab well to the north-northeast.
Keep in mind, you don’t need to look directly at the radiant point (near the star Kochab in the Little Dipper); looking about 30 to 40 degrees away often yields longer, more impressive meteor trails across the sky.
Here is the cloud forecast across the nation during the peak viewing time:
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
TEXAS — Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space exploration company, will launch New Shepard mission 37, or NS-37, on Thursday, Dec. 18.
The mission is set to launch at 10 a.m. CDT and will send six new astronauts into space.
Blue Origin has also released the mission patch, which includes a nod to each of the travelers.
According to the Blue Origin website, a few of the symbols embedded include:
The DNA symbolizes the importance and impact of science to Neal Milch.
The hippo represents Michaela (Michi) Benthaus’ favorite animal. Her plush hippo, which comforted her in the hospital after an accident, will join her in space. The tennis ball symbolizes another of Michi’s competitive passions.
A baobab tree, iconic to South Africa, represents Adonis Pouroulis’ roots.
A spiral galaxy symbolizes Joey Hyde’s astrophysics research.
A dog-bone shape, stars in the crew capsule windows represent the number 201 and “K” are in memoriam of Jason Stansell’s brother.
The shards represent Blue Origin’s commitment to breaking down the barriers to accessing space, including cost, nationality and ability.
Mission NS-37 will mark the first manned mission since Oct 8.
The New Shepard spacecraft, named for pioneering Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard who was the first American in space, is a fully reusable, suborbital rocket system that takes passengers on an 11-minute journey to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Joe Ely, the influential Texas-born singer-songwriter whose blend of honky-tonk, rock and roadhouse blues made him a favorite among other musicians and led to collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, has died. He was 78.
Ely died in Taos, New Mexico, of complications from Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s and pneumonia, with his wife and daughter by his side, according to a post on his Facebook account Monday night and later confirmed by his representatives.
Ely was considered a key figure in the progressive country music movement as a founder of the influential country-rock band The Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, and later as a solo artist.
“Joe Ely performed American roots music with the fervor of a true believer who knew music could transport souls,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“But his true measure came through in the dynamic intensity of his powerhouse live performances, where he could stand his ground aside fellow zealots Bruce Springsteen who recorded duets with Ely, and the (Rolling) Stones and the Clash, who took Ely on tour as an opening act,” Young said.
After signing with MCA, Ely released his first solo album in 1977. He would release more than 20 albums over his career, including “Love and Freedom” earlier this year.
Born in Amarillo, Texas, Ely stayed connected to his Texas roots through decades of recording and performing that lacked a mainstream breakthrough but made him a favorite of other artists.
“Every time I start a new album I head up to West Texas and drive around, you know, drive on those old cotton roads and in the wide-open spaces, and every once in a while I’ll come across a place where I’ve spent some time,” Ely told Texas Monthly in 2011.
It was a soundcheck for a show in London that led to the collaboration with British punk band the Clash. Ely would later open for the Clash at several shows and sang backup vocals for their hit song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $1.25 billion after no one matched all six numbers for the 43rd drawing in a row Monday night, game officials announced.
Wednesday’s jackpot will be the second-largest Powerball prize this year, behind the $1.787-billion prize won in Missouri and Texas on Sept. 6, according to a Powerball news release. Wednesday’s jackpot has an estimated cash value of $572.1 million.
This is also the second time the game has produced back-to-back billion-dollar jackpots.
“Powerball has only seen back-to-back to billion-dollar jackpots twice, and this one has arrived just in time for the holidays,” Matt Strawn, Iowa Lottery chief executive and Powerball Product Group chair, said in the release.
Two tickets were last sold in Missouri and Texas a few months ago that split the previous $1.787-billion prize.
On Monday, two tickets were sold in Arizona and California that matched all five white balls to win $1-million prizes, according to the release. Neither, however, matched the red Powerball number. There were also 43 tickets that won $50,000 prizes and 14 tickets that won $200,000 prizes.
If someone wins Wednesday’s jackpot, they can choose between an annuitized prize of about $1.25 billion or a lump sum payment estimated at $572.1 million before taxes, according to the release. If the winner picks the annuity option, they will get one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that go up by 5% every year.
Republicans and Democrats squared off in court Monday in a high-stakes battle over the fate of California’s Proposition 50, which reconfigures the state’s congressional districts and could ultimately help determine which party controls the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms.
Dozens of California politicians and Sacramento insiders — including GOP Assembly members and Democratic redistricting expert Paul Mitchell — have given depositions in the case or could be called to testify in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles over the next few days.
The GOP wants the three-judge panel to temporarily block California’s new district map, claiming it is unconstitutional and illegally favors Latino voters.
An overwhelming majority of California voters approved Proposition 50 on Nov. 4 after Gov. Gavin Newsom pitched the redistricting plan as a way to counter partisan gerrymandering in Texas and other GOP-led states. Democrats acknowledged the new map would weaken Republicans’ voting power in California, but argued that it would just be a temporary measure to try to restore the national political balance.
Attorneys for the GOP cannot challenge the new redistricting map on the grounds that it disenfranchises swaths of California Republicans. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that complaints of partisan gerrymandering have no path in federal court.
But the GOP can bring claims of racial discrimination. They argue that California legislators drew the new congressional maps based on race, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment, which prohibits governments from denying citizens the right to vote based on race or color.
Republicans face an uphill struggle in blocking the new map before the 2026 midterms. The hearing comes just a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas to temporarily keep its new congressional map — a move that Newsom’s office says bodes poorly for Republicans trying to block California’s map.
“In letting Texas use its gerrymandered maps, the Supreme Court noted that California’s maps, like Texas’s, were drawn for lawful reasons,” Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in a statement. “That should be the beginning and the end of this Republican effort to silence the voters of California.”
In Texas, GOP leaders drew up new congressional district lines after President Trump openly pressed them to give Republicans five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. A federal court blocked the map, finding racial considerations probably made the Texas map unconstitutional. But a few days later, the Supreme Court granted Texas’ request to pause that ruling, signaling that they view the Texas case — and this one in California — as part of a national politically motivated redistricting battle.
“The impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California),” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued, “was partisan advantage pure and simple.”
The fact that the Supreme Court order and Alito’s concurrence in the Texas case went out of their way to mention California is not a good sign for California Republicans, said Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law.
“It’s hard to prove racial predominance in drawing a map — that race predominated over partisanship or other traditional districting principles,” Hasen said. “Trying to get a preliminary injunction, there’s a higher burden now, because it would be changing things closer to the election, and the Supreme Court signaled in that Texas ruling that courts should be wary of making changes.”
On Nov. 4, California voters approved Proposition 50, a measure to scrap a congressional map drawn up by the state’s independent redistricting commission and replace it with a map drawn up by legislators to favor Democrats through 2030.
On Monday, a key plaintiff, Assemblymember David J. Tangipa (R-Fresno) — who serves on the Assembly Elections Committee — testified that the legislative panel was given only four days to analyze the redistricted maps and was not allowed to vote on them.
“In the language of the bill, it actually states that the Assembly and Senate election committee prepared these maps,” Tangipa said. “This was a lie.”
Tangipa claimed his Democratic colleagues repeatedly brought up increased Black, Latino and Asian representation to further their argument for redistricting.
“They were forcing, through emergency action, maps upon us to dismantle the independent redistricting commission,” Tangipa said. “They were using emotionally charged arguments, racial justifications and polarized arguments to pigeonhole us.”
Defense attorneys, however, referenced multiple instances in depositions and online posts where Tangipa had claimed that there was some “partisan” or “political” purpose for the existence of Proposition 50. Tangipa denied this and maintained that he believed that the redistricting effort was race-conscious since his conversations on the Assembly floor.
The hearing began with attorneys for the GOPhoming in on the new map’s Congressional District 13, which currently encompasses Merced, Stanislaus as well as parts of San Joaquin and Fresno counties, along with parts of Stockton. When Mitchell drew up the map, they argued, he overrepresented Latino voters as a “predominant consideration” over political leanings.
They called to the stand RealClearPolitics elections analyst Sean Trende, who said he observed an “appendage” in the new District 13, which extended partially into the San Joaquin Valley and put a crack in the new rendition of District 9.
“From my experience [appendages] are usually indicative of racial gerrymandering,” Trende said. “When the choice came between politics and race, it was race that won out.”
Defense attorneys, however, pressed Trende on whether the shift in Latino voters toward Republican candidates in the last election could have informed the new district boundaries, rather than racial makeup.
The defense referenced a sworn statement by Trende in the Texas redistricting case: the Proposition 50 map, he said then, was “drawn with partisan objectives in mind; in particular, it was drawn to improve Democratic prospects” to neutralize additional Republican seats.
Many legal scholars say that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Texas case means California probably will keep its new map.
“It was really hard before the Texas case to make a racial gerrymandering claim like the plaintiffs were stating, and it’s only gotten harder in the last two weeks,” said Justin Levitt, a professor of law at Loyola Marymount University.
Hours after Californians voted in favor of Proposition 50, Tangipa and the California Republican Party filed a lawsuit alleging that the map enacted in Proposition 50 for California’s congressional districts is designed to favor Latino voters over others.
The Department of Justice also filed a complaint in the case, contending that the new congressional map uses race as a proxy for politics and manipulated district lines “in the name of bolstering the voting power of Hispanic Californians because of their race.”
Mitchell, the redistricting expert who drew up the maps, is likely to be a key figure in this week’s battle. In the days leading up to the hearing, attorneys sparred over whether Mitchell would testify and whether he should turn over his email correspondence with legislators. Mitchell’s attorneys argued that he had legislative privilege.
Attorneys for the GOP have seized on public comments made by Mitchell that the “number one thing” he started thinking about was “drawing a replacement Latino majority/minority district in the middle of Los Angeles” and the “first thing” he and his team did was “reverse” the California Citizens Redistricting Commission’s earlier decision to eliminate a Latino district from L.A.
Some legal experts, however, say that is not, in itself, a problem.
“What [Mitchell] said was, essentially, ‘I paid attention to race,’” Levitt said. “But there’s nothing under existing law that’s wrong with that. The problem comes when you pay too much attention to race at the exclusion of all of the other redistricting factors.”
Other legal experts say that what matters is not the intent of Mitchell or California legislators, but the California voters who passed Proposition 50.
“Regardless of what Paul Mitchell or legislative leaders thought, they were just making a proposal to the voters,” said Hasen, who filed an amicus brief in support of the state. “So it’s really the voters’ intent that matters. And if you look at what was actually presented to the voters in the ballot pamphlet, there was virtually nothing about race there.”
One of Michigan‘s most enduring sagas in the Upper Peninsula — the grounding of a Russian cargo jet marooned near Marquette for 16 years — may soon come to an end after years of lawsuits, police investigations and feuding over ownership.
The tale that touches Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Pakistan and Texas and involves expired visas, an unpaid mechanic, multiple financiers, the local sheriff and the FBI may soon end with the plane flying again.
All thanks to wars in Gaza and Ukraine that a representative of the plane’s owner says have dramatically boosted the aircraft’s value to $50 million from $12 million.
“There’s been an uptick in activity, simply because of the ongoing things in the Gaza Strip and likewise with the war in Ukraine and Russia, so there’s companies out there that are investing and purchasing all kinds of air cargo airplanes,” Dwight Barnell, a broker who has maintained the plane through its multiple owners over the years, told Bridge Michigan.
It never took off. Half of its crew was detained by immigration officials that night, including the pilot, and the local court ordered the plane grounded while at least six creditors both foreign and domestic fought over who should control the aircraft.
Barnell said the plane’s owners have for years spent about $1,000 a month storing the plane in Gwinn amid an ownership struggle.
Now, the plane has a clean title and its current owner, Philadelphia consulting firm Meridican Inc., is readying it for sale. He said two to three entities have expressed interest in the aircraft.
The Ukrainian engineers needed to inspect the plane have been caught in the backlog of visa applicants since the weeks-long government shutdown that ended in mid-November.
Once those engineers inspect the plane, a sale can be finalized, and then it’ll take three to four months to get it ready for flight, Barnell said.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Barnell said. “We’re excited to get it off to its next chapter of life.”
“It’s something that’s well-known about … so I’m sure it’s something that people will know that it’s gone,” David Erhart, manager of the Marquette airport, told Bridge Michigan.
“To see it have new life is what we’d hope for for the aircraft owner.”
‘Cop cars coming out of everywhere’
The messy affair came to the Upper Peninsula when the phone rang at the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office at 11 a.m. July 17, 2009.
An attorney representing a Texas mechanic told a Marquette County deputy that a Russian plane had landed despite a Grayson County, Texas, judge’s order that the plane stay in Texas. The Texas mechanic had sued the plane’s owners over unpaid bills, according to police records Bridge Michigan obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
As well, the caller said, some of the plane’s crew were Ukrainians in the country on expired visas.
Barnell said that, when he and his crew disembarked in Gwinn, “all of a sudden, the whole airport lit up, cop cars coming out of everywhere.”
When police interviewed the pilot, he told them the crew had stopped in Marquette to refuel and was enroute to Iceland and eventually Pakistan.
Barnell told Bridge he had a lease on the plane at the time and was rightfully headed to Pakistan, where it would be used in military training. He said nobody told him the mechanic hadn’t been paid. They’d landed in Gwinn to buy $100,000 worth of fuel and to hand paperwork to US Customs that would allow the plane to leave the country.
Later that day, a lawyer for the plane’s owner, a Delaware outfit called Air Support Systems, called police to say the plane had been stolen and its owners “had no idea who was even flying the cargo jet,” according to the police reports.
Police initially determined they had no jurisdiction because the Texas court case was a civil matter. When calls kept coming in from Texas, however, the Sheriff’s Office decided to call the FBI.
The FBI interviewed the crew and then called US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who detained five of the nine-member crew — including the pilot — for expired paperwork and took them to Sault Ste. Marie for processing. The plane couldn’t go anywhere.
Barnell said the crewmembers had overstayed their visas by a few days and they turned in the proper paperwork in Gwinn.
“We did everything absolutely, positively correctly,” he told Bridge.
Meanwhile, the Texas mechanic hired a Marquette lawyer who obtained a restraining order from a Marquette County judge saying the plane had to stay put.
Police called the airport manager, who provided two sander trucks and a runway snowplow to box the plane in.
Police pinned a notice of the restraining order to the door of the plane.
The fight was just beginning.
Heavy debt and a battle for control
By the time the plane landed in the UP, the drama was already four years old.
North American Tactical Aviation, a Delaware company headed by Barnell, bought the plane for about $4 million from Tashkent Aircraft Production Corp., a Ukrainian company, in July 2005, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
The plane — with a 165-foot wingspan, 152 feet long and 48 feet tall, weighing capable of hauling nearly 375,000 pounds — is designed for mid-air refueling but, when the big fuel tanks are removed, it becomes a large, versatile cargo plane capable of hauling large vehicles.
Barnell told Bridge Michigan he couldn’t find work for the plane. He explored using the plane for firefighting, but “the last thing that would ever happen is allowing a Russian tanker to come in and take away business from existing companies that utilize 100% American airplanes,” so he abandoned that idea and decided to sell the plane.
Air Support Systems bought the plane in 2005.
In September 2008, Air Support Systems took out a $1 million loan from Headlands Limited, a Gibraltar company that has business in everything from tech to restaurants, and put the plane up as collateral, according to the FAA records.
But Headlands was just one of several companies who said Air Support Systems owed them money. By the time the case landed in Marquette County courts in 2009, a half-dozen outfits were clamoring for control of the plane.
It would take eight years to sort it all out and for a judge to give Headlands the right to sell the aircraft. Meridican bought it in 2019.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, air cargo business dried up again, and Meridican sat on the plane for several more years.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine.
Then Hamas attacked Israel, and Israel reciprocated.
“The value has skyrocketed in the last, I would say, 2 ½ years,” Barnell said.
In the interim, Meridican hired Barnell to look after the plane.
It’s regularly inspected, powered up to make sure the systems work, the engines “cold turned” with a wrench to make sure they aren’t seized up. Still, it’ll take about $500,000 to run through all the factory inspections to make sure the thing can fly again.
“It’s in long-term preservation storage, and, even though it looks like crap on the outside, there is no major corrosion of any kind, whatsoever,” Barnell said. “We’re flying a very safe airplane, doing everything in accordance with the manufacturer.”
When he bought the plane 20 years ago, it had been sitting for 10 years, Barnell said. He went through the same exercise then to get it from Ukraine, and he had no doubts the plane would someday soon take to the skies.
“I would not use the word ‘might,’” Barnell said. “It will take off.”
This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CASE UPDATE: In September 2025, the Austin Police Department identified Robert Eugene Brashers, a serial killer and rapist, as the suspect in the Yogurt Shop murders. Brashers, who is deceased, was tied to the murders through DNA testing. In December 2025, the Travis County D.A.’s office filed a motion to begin the process of exonerating the four men who were wrongfully accused of the murders.
This story previously aired on Aug. 27, 2022.
More than three decades ago, four teenage girls were brutally murdered in an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas. The horrific crime has haunted their families, the city, and the investigators who chased every lead in the case to a dead end. Could new information finally help solve the case?
“I can see them, I can still see the inside of that place,” John Jones, the first investigator on the case, tells “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty. “That stuff’s … indelibly burned in my mind.”
The story starts on Dec. 6, 1991, when Eliza Thomas, Sarah and Jennifer Harbison and Amy Ayers were tied up and shot. The yogurt shop was then set on fire. For decades, investigators worked to find suspects. There were eventually arrests and even convictions. But those convictions were overturned, leaving the case unsolved today.
“There is a kind of torture that continues by the fact that it’s unsolved and it’s ongoing,” says Sonora Thomas, who was 13 when her sister Eliza was killed.
“It’s always there,” says Jones.
There may be some positive news, however. A small sample of male DNA was found on one of the victims. With DNA research advancing, investigators hope there will be a match that solves the case.
“Do you believe that there is right now, some evidence that could lead to the killers?” Moriarty asks Texas defense attorney Joe James Sawyer.
“Yes,” Sawyer says.
“Is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?” Jones asks.
THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS
It’s been more than 30 years since John Jones began the painstaking search for the killers of four teenage girls in an Austin, Texas, yogurt shop.
He has long since retired from the Austin Police Department and moved out of Texas. But copies of some of the case files moved with him.
“Every year marks another year … you know, that there’s no closure,” retired Austin Detective John Jones told “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty. “I still have insomnia, 30 years after the fact.”
CBS News
Erin Moriarty [with Jones in his home office]: What is all of this here?
John Jones: These are my notes. … Oh, that’s the big book … this one is really from day 1 … hypnosis, polygraph, confessions.
Erin Moriarty: (picks up coffee mug) You know, I notice this sitting here.
John Jones: Yeah.
Erin Moriarty (reads coffee mug): “We will not forget.” You haven’t.
John Jones: Nope. I can’t.
The images of Dec. 6, 1991, remain all too vivid.
John Jones: I can definitely still see it.
It started with that call from dispatch to go to a scene of a fire, that would turn into something far worse:
JOHN JONES: What do you’ll got out there? I’m en route … airport 35.
DISPATCH: We’ve got a fire …
JOHN JONES (1991 on radio): OK. I’m copying the fire part, but you cut out on the first part of that though.
DISPATCH: … apparently a robbery and homicide. There’s, uh, three fatalities.
JOHN JONES: That’s 10-4, we’re en route (turns on siren).
John Jones: And then about halfway out there, they call again on the radio and said we found a fourth body.
A local TV news crew happened to be filming Jones on a ride along that night.
JOHN JONES (on radio): What place of business is this at?
DISPATCH: It’s the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt.
JOHN JONES: OK.
John Jones: The fire department had just knocked down the fire. … there was still a lot of water in there … a lot of smoke still. … it was all muted grays, blacks there was no color in there with the exception of the girls.
The girls were quickly identified. Two had been working at the shop, closing up that night: Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison were both 17 years old. Jennifer’s 15-year-old sister, Sarah, and their friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, had met them there to head home.
Inside the yogurt shop were the charred bodies of four teenage girls ranging from 13 to 17 years old. The victims clockwise from top left, Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Sarah Harbison and Jennifer Harbison.
AP Images
The four girls had been gagged, tied up with their own clothing, and shot in the head. Investigators would learn at least one of the victims had been sexually assaulted. The yogurt shop had also been set on fire, destroying potential evidence.
John Jones: There was smoke and soot on every surface, kind of made fingerprinting kind of difficult.
This was a crime like none Austin had seen before. Jones knew he needed help, and from the scene, contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, The FBI, and Texas Department of Public Safety.
John Jones: As soon as we knew what type of guns we were looking for, that information went out nationwide.
Gunshot wounds showed that two different types of guns were used, leading investigators to believe there were at least two killers on the loose.
Erin Moriarty: What were the two guns?
John Jones: .380 and a .22. … And we recovered all of the rounds.
The weapons, though, were not found, and a task force worked to come up with potential suspects.
John Jones: They were from all spectrums. I mean, we looked at everybody from family members to drifters.
And while police tracked down leads, the families and the City of Austin grieved.
The Harbison family lost their only children: daughters Jennifer, a hard-working high school senior, and Sarah, who was enjoying sports and clubs as a high school freshman. Their mother, Barbara, spoke with “48 Hours” in 1992.
Barbara Harbison: My life was focused around them from here to eternity. Someone took eternity away from me.
Bob Ayers is the father of the youngest victim, Amy, a country girl with a love for animals.
Bob Ayers: I lost my daughter. I lost my first dance. … I won’t see her graduate. I won’t see her become a veterinarian. … She was a Daddy’s girl.
Sonora Thomas, 13 years old when her only sibling, Eliza, was murdered, had a hard time dealing with the loss of the sister she looked up to.
Sonora Thomas: I remember the shock … I remember fantasizing for days that my sister had somehow escaped and run away and … she was going to come back … And so that’s what I was kind of holding onto.
Her parents struggled as well.
Sonora Thomas: My family never talked about my sister after she died.
Erin Moriarty: Never?
Sonora Thomas:No. It’s too, it’s too painful.
Eliza Thomas, right, was 17 when she was murdered inside the yogurt shop. In this photo taken a few months before her death, Eliza is seen with her younger sister Sonora who was 13 when her sister died. In 2021, Sonora told “48 Hours, “I remember fantasizing for days that my sister had somehow escaped and ran away and was hiding … I was constantly fantasizing that she was going to come back.”
Sonora Thomas
Sonora did as best she could, picking up some pieces of her sister’s life. Eliza, an animal lover, had a pig she planned to enter in livestock show. Just a few months after the murders, Sonora took over those duties.
While Sonora may have seemed to be coping, the reality, she says, was far different.
Erin Moriarty: You had to grow up quickly.
Sonora Thomas: Very quickly … I would say I fell apart under that pressure.
John Jones: We knew they were hurting because, you know, we were hurting too.
Jones, a parent himself, felt the families’ grief. He promised to do all he could to help them.
John Jones: We told them what we could. And … I assured them that we would keep them apprised as to everything that was happening, and we did.
Jones also made a pledge to the families involving the shirt he wore on the night of the murders.
John Jones: I kind of made a promise to them … that the next time they saw me with that green and white shirt on that that was a signal to them that, you know, we knew who did it.
And Jones seemed assured they would find the killers.
John Jones: We stayed in constant contact with the behavioral science unit at the FBI in Quantico … they said that I should, as the face of the investigation, I should project an air of confidence … that would cause the bad guy to shiver in his boots. … So look in the camera and be confident.
And, when we followed him working the case in 1992, he did just that.
JOHN JONES: Let me just say this, whoever you are out there, you are going to be mine one of these days….
But trying to figure that out was daunting.
“48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty and Detective John Jones in 1992.
CBS News
John Jones (at police station in 1992): 342 people that have been listed as suspects, but we’re looking at pages and pages of suspects here.
One of those early suspects was a teenager named Maurice Pierce. He was arrested eight days after the murders at a mall near the yogurt shop, carrying a .22 caliber gun, the type used in the murders.
John Jones: The .22s were unmatchable.
Erin Moriarty: So, you can’t say it wasn’t his gun? But there was no way to match it.
John Jones: No.
Erin Moriarty: But there was no way to match it.
John Jones: — to prove that it was his gun. He gave a statement, matter of fact, I took his statement. And he implicated three other boys.
Soon after the yogurt shop murders, detectives questioned four teenage boys. Maurice Pierce, top left, was arrested for having a gun at a local mall. Forrest Welborn, top right, Michael Scott, bottom left and Robert Springsteen were the friends Pierce was hanging out with that day. They were all questioned and released.
AP Photo
Jones says Maurice Pierce claimed he was driving a getaway car and that three acquaintances, Forrest Welborn, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, were involved in the murders. But Pierce’s story began to fall apart.
John Jones: It started to crater when we wired him up to go talk to Forest. And we were listening in on the wire, and it was pretty obvious Forest didn’t know what Maurice was talking about.
And when Welborn, Scott and Springsteen were brought in for questioning, they too denied any involvement. It was decided there was not enough evidence to charge them and the search for other suspects continued.
CHASING LEADS
Two months after the yogurt shop murders, with no viable suspects, police were chasing leads — no matter where it took them.
The task force became aware of a counter-culture type group of local residents known to be into the supernatural.
DET. MIKE HUCKABAY [at roundtable, 1992]: They’re into vampires, the occult, graveyard rites. … They go out and dance and take pictures on tombstones.
And investigators began to hear that this group might be connected to something far more serious.
John Jones (2021): The — the tips were that they were talking about the murders.
Erin Moriarty: Talking about the yogurtshop murders.
John Jones: The yogurt shop murders, yes.
There was one woman in particular whose name kept coming up in connection with these tips. The task force planned a raid on her home, hoping to see if any evidence might be found there.
John Jones: It was creepy in there.
John Jones: But as it turns out, a lot of that stuff was rat bones and theatrical parts. But … it was a good lead. … Till we finally figured out that, uh, they’re just living a make-believe life (shaking his head).
The raid may have been a bust, but it wasn’t long before the task force had its eyes on another person of interest.A police sketch shows a man that multiple eyewitnesses told police they saw sitting in a car outside the yogurt shop on the night of the murders.
John Jones: And it was somebody we really wanted to talk to. … So, we put it out there.
And the response they got came from an unexpected source.
John Jones: A couple of other investigators from the Sex Crimes Unit came up and go … “We have a sketch that looks just like that.”
Investigators say one of the suspects in a sexual assault, left, bore a striking resemblance to that man witnesses reported sitting in a car outside the yogurt shop the night of the murders.
Austin Police Department
Threeweeks before the yogurt shop murders, a young woman in Austin had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Police had released a sketch of three men wanted in connection with that crime.One of those suspects bore a striking resemblance to that man witnesses reported sitting in a car outside the yogurt shop.
John Jones: You know, I just kind of went zip when I saw the — the composite.
A tip came in that the men wanted in the kidnapping and sexual assault case had fled to Mexico. Two were caught and arrested; one who resembled the person of interest in the yogurt shop sketch. The development made national news.
In the fall of 1992, two men wanted for an unrelated kidnapping and sexual assault in Austin were arrested in Mexico. The man on the right bore a striking resemblance to someone witnesses reported seeing outside the yogurt shop on the night of the murders. When questioned by Austin investigators the men initially denied any involvement in the yogurt shop murders, but when interrogated by Mexican authorities they confessed. However, details they gave didn’t match the evidence found at the crime scene and when Austin detectives requestioned the men they recanted.
Austin Police Department
John Jones: When they got caught in Mexico, we went down there … to interview them. Jones’ team questioned the men. And so, too, did the Mexican authorities.
John Jones: But the Mexican government … announced to the whole world that … they confessed, and they were going to try them for the murders down there.
Erin Moriarty: They confessed to the yogurt shop murders?
John Jones: Yes, they did.
But Jones learned those confessions had details that didn’t match the crime scene. Even the caliber of guns they claimed to use was wrong.
John Jones: There were too many inconsistencies in the … confession.
So, Jones’ team reinterviewed the men, and he says this time they recanted just about everything. It made Jones and the other investigators wonder if those confessions were coerced by the Mexican authorities. The once promising lead fell apart .
John Jones: (exhales) It was depressing.
Over the following years, there would be other confessions, ones that were willingly given.
John Jones: You know, we faced six confessions.
Erin Moriarty: Six people who confessed?
John Jones: Yeah. Written.
Erin Moriarty: That confessed to this crime?
John Jones: Yes, they did.
Erin Moriarty: And they didn’tdo it?
John Jones:Nope.
In 1994, after nearly three years of leading the investigation, John Jones was moved out of the homicide division. He says it was a mutual decision. Austin Police wanted fresh eyes working the case, and Jones felt it was time to move on. Other detectives took over and, as time passed, the victims’ families were left wondering why no one had been arrested. Amy Ayers’ mother Pam spoke to “48 Hours” in 1996.
Pam Ayers [fighting back tears]: They’re probably out there leading a life as normal as they’ve ever had. And ours is never going to be the same.
That same year, Eliza Thomas’ mom moved away from Austin … and the painful reminders.
Maria Thomas (1996): Running into people who were constantly asking how the case was going was very hard on me, and especially my daughter Sonora.
Sonora’s life had taken a downward spiral.
Sonora Thomas: In my high school years, things really deteriorated. … Drugs, using alcohol, being hospitalized, going to a boarding school for, you know, disturbed teenagers, things like that.
The case seemed stalled, until October 1999.
RADIO NEWS REPORT: Some breaking news — Austin police have arrested four men in connection with the yogurt shop murders of 1991.
“The whole city was in shock … Everywhere we drove, you know, there were these billboards with a picture of my sister on it,” Sonora Thomas aid of her sister, Eliza.
CBS News
There were finally arrests, but would it answer the question on the billboard that had been haunting Austin for nearly a decade?
SUSPECTS ARRESTED
NEWS REPORT: After nearly eight years, Austinites are getting some answers in the case of the yogurt shop murders…
MAYOR KIRK WATSON (at 1999 press conference): I want to start off by thanking y’all for joining us here today. … For almost eight years, we’ve all waited to hear the words that our police department is close to a point of solving a crime that has haunted our very souls. … Today, we finally get to hear those words.
When four men were arrested in the fall of 1999 for the yogurt shop murders, relief was felt citywide.
MAYOR KIRK WATSON (at press conference): Sarah, Jennifer, Amy, Eliza, we did not forget.
The girls’ families struggled to take it all in.
Sonora Thomas: There had been so many false leads for such a long time. It was hard to know how to think about it and how to feel about it.
In October 1999, nearly eight years after the yogurt shop murders, Austin police announced the arrest of four suspects in the case: Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott. All four men had been questioned within days of the murders, but the lack of any hard evidence connecting them to the crime meant that none of them were charged at the time.
CBS News/AP
But there were finally names and faces to blame: Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen. To the task force, they were familiar names and faces. They were the same young men that John Jones and his investigators questioned just eight days after the murders and ultimately released for lack of evidence.
John Jones: I was confident and remain confident to this day that we got as far with them as we could then. But that doesn’t mean that … there wasn’t something developed later that would cause them to actually go out and arrest them. So, I was going, “yes, good job.” … I was ready to dig out the hideous green and white shirt.
But before that shirt could come out of the closet—the one he promised the girls’ families he would wear when the case was solved — Jones wanted to know more about what led to the arrests.
Joe James Sawyer: There was no physical evidence. Nothing.
Joe James Sawyer was appointed as Robert Springsteen’s attorney.
Erin Moriarty: What made them go back and charge these guys?
Joe James Sawyer: Because the new officers, when they reopened the cold case, convinced themselves that “we let them slip through our fingers. We had to have had the murderers in the beginning.” In part, they decided that because they had nothing else.
There was no new physical evidence suddenly tying any of the four men to the crime, but what police did have were two newly obtained confessions— one from Michael Scott and another from Sawyer’s own client, Robert Springsteen. Michael Scott’s confession came first. He was questioned over four days:
Michael Scott, seated right, is pictured in 1999 being questioned by Austin Police. His 20-hour interrogation took place over the course of four days, during which Scott confessed to taking part in the yogurt shop murders. Days later, Robert Springsteen also confessed under questioning. Despite both men later claiming their confessions were coerced, they would eventually be convicted.
Austin Police Department
OFFICER (1999 interrogation): Come on Michael, you’re doing good. Tell us. Let’s do this today. Let’s do it.
MICHAEL SCOTT: I remember seeing girls. … I remember one girl screaming, terrified.
Scott told investigators that he and the others only intended a simple robbery. He said they cased the yogurt shop earlier that day. And then, after dark, he said, they came back armed with two guns.
MICHAEL SCOTT (interrogation): I hear the gun go off. I only pulled the trigger once…. I hear another gun go off.
Investigators claimed that Springsteen later corroborated much of what Scott said. But after intense questioning, he went further.
OFFICER (interrogation): You f——g know if you f——g raped her, just say it.
ROBERT SPRINGSTEEN: I stuck my d— in her p—- and I raped her.
Springsteen told them he shot one girl and raped her.
Joe James Sawyer: He was so tired of this. He’d already been questioned. He’d already been through that mill. He thought, you know what? I’ll tell you any damn thing you want.
Sawyer maintains his client is innocent and says the confession was coerced. In 2009, Robert Springsteen explained to “48 Hours” why he would admit to doing something so horrible—something he says he didn’t do.
Robert Springsteen speaks to Austin police in 1999. “Until they obtained what it was they wanted to hear, they were not going to allow me to leave. And I basically — they broke me down,” Springsteen told “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty.
Austin Police Department
Robert Springsteen: I was berated and berated and berated by the police officers. Until they obtained what it was they wanted to hear, they were not going to allow me to leave. And I basically— they broke me down.
Erin Moriarty: Let me just ask you, did you have anything to do—
Robert Springsteen: No. I did not.
Erin Moriarty: — with the murders at the yogurt shop?
Robert Springsteen: No. Never.
Even though Joe James Sawyer didn’t have Michael Scott as his client, he says he has serious concerns about his confession, too.
OFFICER (INTERROGATION): Is that the gun you shot somebody with, Mike? Is that the gun you walked up behind somebody with and shot in the head?
Joe James Sawyer: I frankly couldn’t believe it. … They terrorized him. And he was afraid to say no.
Forrest Welborn denied having anything to do with the murders, but police were convinced he was the lookout that night and Michael Scott placed him at the scene. Erin Moriarty spoke to Welborn in 1999 in jail shortly after his arrest.
Erin Moriarty: Were you there that night?
Forrest Welborn: No.
Erin Moriarty: Were you there as a lookout?
Forrest Welborn: No. I’m innocent.
Erin Moriarty: You had nothing to do with this?
Forrest Welborn: Nothing at all.
Forrest Welborn had been questioned multiple times by investigators over the years, and he never wavered. “Were you the lookout?” asked Erin Moriarity. “No. I’m innocent,” Welborn replied.
CBS News
Welborn had been questioned multiple times by investigators over the years, and he never wavered. He, like the others, first came on police radar when, in 1991, just days after the murders, Maurice Pierce had been caught with that .22 caliber gun at the mall near the yogurt shop. Pierce told the detectives back then that he had given the handgun to Welborn and that it had been used in the yogurt shop murders.
Erin Moriarty: Why would he say that?
Forrest Welborn: I don’t know.
Welborn has always maintained his innocence despite pressure from the police.
Forrest Welborn: They would get right in my face and, you know, tell me everything I said was a lie.
Remember, false confessions in this case were nothing new. Jones said that six written false confessions were obtained when he was in charge. So, when he learned that the two confessions were all the new investigators seemed to have, it gave him pause.
John Jones: I go, well, maybe I shouldn’t get that shirt out just yet.
It wasn’t long before the case against the men began crumbling. Charges against Forrest Welborn were dismissed after two grand juries failed to indict him. And later on, charges were dropped against Maurice Pierce for lack of evidence. Everything fell apart except the cases against Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen. And with Scott and Springsteen’s confessions, the victims’ families felt prosecutors had a strong case.
Barbara Ayres-Wilson (outside courthouse, 2010): These young men have been implicated and they have confessed. And they can withdraw it, but the truth is, they actually were there, and they actually did the murders.
A DNA BREAKTHROUGH?
In 2001, nearly 10 years after the murders of Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers and Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, the yogurt shop murder trials began. Both defendants — Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott — faced the death penalty.
Joe James Sawyer: The only thing that ever tied Robert or Mike Scott to that crime scene were their confessions.
Confessions that both defendants said were coerced. The two were tried separately. Springsteen’s trial was first. Neither of the men would testify against one another. So instead, prosecutors used their confessions against one another, reading parts of the confessions to the juries. Springsteen’s lawyer, Joe James Sawyer, was frustrated that he couldn’t cross-examine Scott.
Joe James Sawyer: I thought the trial was massively unfair to my client and that it was being done systematically and with deliberation.
The trial lasted three weeks. The jury deliberated for 13 hours and then, reached a verdict.
JURY FOREPERSON: We the jury find the defendant Robert Springsteen IV guilty of the offense of capital murder …
Guilty. Springsteen was condemned to death row.
In 2002, Michael Scott went on trial. He was convicted as well. He was sentenced to life in prison. But the case didn’t end there. Fifteen years after the murders, came a shocking turn of events.
NEWS REPORT: In a 5-4 decision, the court behind me said that Michael Scott’s constitutional rights were violated during his trial and therefore should get a new one.
Both Scott and Springsteen’s convictions were overturned on constitutional grounds. The Sixth Amendment gives defendants the right to confront accusers — and remember, in Scott and Springsteen’s trials, their confessions were used against one another, but they weren’t allowed to question each other in court.
Joe James Sawyer: And the relief … the relief was incredible.
But that relief for the defendants came as a devastating blow to the victims’ families. We later spoke to Eliza Thomas’ mother, Maria, about that moment.
Maria Thomas: Every time I hear those words, “that their rights were violated,” I just feel like I’m going to go insane. … Their rights are violated. Our girls were murdered.
Sonora Thomas: It ruins your sense of fairness. It ruins your sense of — that we live in a just world.
Even though their convictions were overturned, Scott and Springsteen were not released. A new district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, was determined to retry them. In an effort to find more evidence, her office had ordered DNA tests on vaginal swabs taken from the victims at the time of the murders. It’s called Y-STR testing — and was fairly new in 2009 when “48 Hours” spoke with D.A. Lehmberg.
Rosemary Lehmberg: This technology searches for male DNA only
A partial male DNA profile was obtained from one of the victims believed to have been sexually assaulted. And no one expected what it would reveal.
Erin Moriarty: Does that DNA match any of the four young men who were originally accused and two of them who’ve been convicted?
Rosemary Lehmberg: It does not.
The DNA did not match any of the original four suspects, including Scott and Springsteen. And that’s significant because Springsteen, in that confession he said was coerced, told investigators he raped one the girls.
CeCe Moore is a DNA expert and genetic genealogist whom we asked about the case and the role of Y-STR DNA in criminal cases.
CeCe Moore: It is a tool that can eliminate almost everyone … It should eliminate everybody but the suspect.
Erin Moriarty: If their Y-STR does not match, they did not contribute that DNA?
CeCe Moore: Because of … where that DNA was found, yes, in this case, it’s very important.
The district attorney was focused on finding the source of that DNA — she wondered if Springsteen and Scott had another partner.
Rosemary Lehmberg: I remain really confident that … both Springsteen and Scott were responsible for killing those four girls.
In 2009, with no matches on that DNA, D.A. Lehmberg dropped charges against Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott. After nearly 10 years behind bars, they were released — but not exonerated,
AP Photos
But in 2009, with no matches on that DNA, Lehmberg dropped charges against Springsteen and Scott. After nearly 10 years behind bars, they were released — but not exonerated, leaving open the possibility they could be retried at a later time.
ROSEMARY LEHMBERG (at press conference): This was a difficult decision and one I’d rather not have to make.
The question remained though: whose DNA was it?
Amber Farrelly: I know who it is.
Joe James Sawyer: The killer’s.
Erin Moriarty: You’re convinced that that —
Amber Farrelly: That is a certain truth.
Amber Farrelly was part of both Scott and Springsteen’s defense teams. She came up with a theory that the mystery DNA might belong instead to two never-identified men who witnesses reported seeing sitting in the yogurt shop just before it closed.
Amber Farrelly: Those two men were described wearing fatigued-colored jackets. …They were very slouched over, whispering, like they were — it was a very close conversation in a booth.
Officials tried to track down those two men as well as the source of the DNA. And then, in 2017, an Austin police investigator searched a public online DNA database to see if he could get a hit. And, unbelievably, he did.
Michael McCaul: I thought, my God, we actually have a chance, a shot to solve this crime after so many years.
WHO KILLED THESE GIRLS?
Congressman Michael McCaul: I really thought this was it – I really thought we had a chance to solve it.
United States Congressman Michael McCaul, like so many others from Austin, hoped that the recently uncovered DNA in the Yogurt Shop murder case might finally bring answers to the victims’ families.
Congressman Michael McCaul: We’ll never forget that tragic day. It’s stained in my memory.
Twenty-five years after the murders, the Austin Police Department went searching for a match to the Y-STR DNA that had been found on the yogurt shop victim believed to have been sexually assaulted. And, in 2017, they got a break. On a public DNA database used for population studies, investigators thought they had found a match.
Congressman Michael McCaul: I’ve seen DNA … prove homicide cases. … the DNA evidence is really the key here.
But that sample from the crime scene was not a complete DNA profile, it was just Y-STR — the male portion of DNA. And, it was not a very detailed sample, having just 16 markers.
CeCe Moore: Sixteen STR’s is not a very powerful match … there could be millions of people with that same profile … So, in genetic genealogy … We usually use 67 or 111 markers, or maybe even more.
Erin Moriarty: But isn’t it a place to start?
CeCe Moore: It is … It’s not absolute, but if there’s nothing else to work with, it is certainly something to look into.
Still, it seemed to be the most promising lead in years. But there was a problem: the seemingly matching sample on the public database had been submitted anonymously by the FBI. It belonged to a federally convicted offender, arrestee, or detainee, but had no name attached to it. When Austin authorities tried to get a name, the FBI would not provide it, citing privacy laws.
Congressman Michael McCaul: There are some restrictions on privacy … And so, it gets into some very sort of, dicey issues.
Frustrated, officials reached out to Congressman McCaul for help.
Congressman Michael McCaul: And so, I pressed the FBI very hard.
Finally, in early 2020, the FBI agreed to work with the Austin Police Department to see if further testing could be done on that Y-STR DNA from the crime scene.
Congressman Michael McCaul: I was very excited about it. The idea that we could bring this case to closure for the families and bring those responsible to justice.
More advanced testing came up with additional markers: 25 instead of the original 16. But as so often happened in this case, what seemed so promising, turned into disappointment.
Some of the additional markers did not match the FBI sample. In other words, what seemed to be a match, was not. In a letter to Congressman McCaul, the FBI explained the new results “conclusively exclude the male donor of the FBI’s sample … as such, the FBI Y-STR profile is not an investigative lead.”
Congressman Michael McCaul: And that was the greatest disappointment because we really thought we had it.
Erin Moriarty: If it didn’t match that individual, doesn’t it still mean there’s somebody out there — this DNA belongs to somebody, right?
Congressman Michael McCaul: It does. It does. And that’s why we’re not going to rest till we find the match.
Erin Moriarty: How important then, is this DNA profile that exists … to solving this case?
Congressman Michael McCaul:I mean, it’s everything.
With DNA research advancing so quickly, there is real hope that one day, that sample of DNA obtained 31 years ago, may finally solve this case. Still, it will not erase the pain or loss of lives.
Sonora Thomas: Every year that goes by, I get farther and farther away from my sister, yeah. And I worry about losing memories.
“There is a kind of torture that continues by the fact that it’s unsolved and it’s ongoing,” says Sonora Thomas, who was 13 when her sister Eliza was killed.
CBS News
Sonora Thomas struggled for years with panic attacks and physical pain, until, with the help of therapy, she realized it was connected to the murder of her sister Eliza. With a unique understanding of what trauma victims experience, Sonora wanted to help others like her, and became a therapist.
Sonora Thomas: There’s so many moments, you know, when your heart is open, you know, you’re joyful. But there’s also this loss that’s always accompanying your life.
Sonora found it helpful to look for ways to remember Eliza.
Sonora Thomas: When we got married, we had a flower and an empty chair at our ceremony, and my sister was mentioned.
Compounding Sonora’s pain, her mother died in 2015. Maria Thomas passed away with so many unresolved questions about the murder of her daughter.
Sonora Thomas: There is a kind of torture that continues by the fact that it’s unsolved and it’s ongoing.
John Jones (shaking his head): It’s always there.
“I’ll always be associated with that case. There’s no getting away from that, said retired Austin Detective John Jones. “I just hope one of these days we can put this thing to bed.”
CBS News
John Jones is still haunted by the fact that the case is unsolved, and by what he saw that gruesome night. He has suffered from PTSD through the years.
John Jones: I had completely shut down to where all my energy was directed at the case.
Erin Moriarty: It took a toll on you, didn’t it John, even 30 years afterwards?
John Jones: Well, yeah. It would on anybody, I think — not as much as the families, you understand.
Erin Moriarty: I know.
John Jones: Whatever pain I’m having pales in comparison to what they’re going through.
These days, Jones finds solace singing in his church choir.
John Jones: I can relax when I’m in church.
Erin Moriarty: Leave the world behind? Leave outside?
John Jones: No, I know it’s just past the door.
And when he’s in that outside world, the families of Amy Ayers, Jennifer and Sarah Harbison and Eliza Thomas, are never far from his thoughts.
John Jones: I feel bad for them. That it’s still not solved.
But Jones has hope. He has kept that shirt he wore the night of the murders — the shirt he promised to never wear until the case was solved. More than 30 years later, it’s still sitting in there.
And sometime soon, John Jones looks forward to wearing it again.
John Jones: I just hope one of these days we can put this thing to bed, for the families’ sake.
If you have information about the Yogurt Shop Murders, call 512-472-TIPS.
Produced by Ruth Chenetz, Stephanie Slifer and Anthony Venditti. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Marlon Disla and Michelle Harris are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
FIRST ON FOX:Texas Senate candidate Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, challenged House colleague Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, to a debate after Crockett entered the race earlier this week.
Hunt, who faces incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a competitive Republican primary, was quick to challenge Crockett to a debate, saying that if the new contender agreed it would be “must-see TV.”
“Jasmine Crockett and I see two different Americas. She defines this country by victimhood. I define it by hard work, grit, and determination,” Hunt told Fox News Digital.
Sources close to the campaign told Fox News Digital that Crockett approached Hunt on Capitol Hill to discuss a potential debate. Hunt’s campaign team confirmed to Fox News Digital that this is the first conversation the two have ever had.
Rep. Wesley Hunt challenged Rep. Jasmine Crockett to a debate in the newly shaken-up Texas Senate race, emphasizing their stark political differences and framing it as “must-see TV.”(Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Should Crockett or Hunt be elected to the Senate seat, it would be the first time a Black American has been elected to a state-wide office in the Lone Star State. The Texas Republican pointed this out, telling Fox that he cares more about being an American than he does a Black man.
“I’m the great-great-grandson of a slave,” Hunt told Fox. “Our family story is one of going from a plantation to West Point, combat, and the United States Congress. That’s the story of American progress.
“I’m proud to be Black, but I’m prouder to be an American, and a native Texan,” Hunt added. “I’m far more focused on being a father, a husband, a veteran, a servant leader, and a citizen than my skin color.”
Hunt’s campaign team shared a graphic with Fox News Digital they would use to promote the debate. (Wesley Hunt for Senate)
Crockett joining the field presents a unique situation for what has traditionally been a deep red state. Her congressional district encompasses a large portion of the Dallas metropolitan area, and her youthful energy and large social media presence differ from other Democratic contenders in the past.
Hunt also boasts a large social media presence, with his team telling Fox that they have over 4.1 million followers across multiple platforms including Instagram, X, Truth Social and others.
Crockett has 2.5 million followers on Instagram and roughly 500,000 on X.
The pair’s influencer-style approach to politics proved successful in winning their respective congressional seats, but securing victory over the Senate spot will be a challenge for both.
Rep. Wesley Hunt launched his campaign for senate at the beginning of October. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Crockett’s ambition to flip the traditionally red state to the Democrats will be quite the uphill battle. Senator Tim Sott, R-S.C., who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Democrats getting behind Crockett indicated the party has been “overrun” by a far-left agenda.
“I think it says something about who the Democrats are nationally, not just in Texas,” Scott told Fox News Digital earlier this week. “What it says is that they’ve been overrun by this radical left agenda that focuses on rhetoric, not reality.”
The winter solstice will occur at 10:03 a.m. ET on Dec. 21 this year, and even though the day of the winter solstice is the shortest of the year, the latest sunrise and earliest sunset do not occur on this day.
What You Need To Know
The solar day impacts sunrises and sunsets
A solar day is longer near the winter solstice
The sun rises later in the winter and sets later
Understanding a solar day
Solar noon is when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. The time from one solar noon to the next solar noon is called a solar day.
The length of a solar day changes throughout the year because of the tilt and position of the Earth. Because of this, a solar day can be more than or less than 24 hours depending on the time of the year.
The problem is that we count our days as exactly 24 hours. So, with the solar day being more than 24 hours near the winter solstice, this means solar noon will occur at a later time each day. The sun will also rise later and set later.
If the sun is setting later each day before the solstice, that means the earliest sunset has already happened.
Since the sun also rises later each day, this means the latest sunrise has yet to occur. The latest sunrise will happen a few weeks after the official start of winter.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks heading into this weekend.
What You Need To Know
Geminid meteor shower peaks the night of Dec. 13
Up to 150 meteors per hour
Known as one of the best meteor showers of the year
Every year in December, the night sky treats us to one of the best and brightest displays known as the Geminid meteor shower.
When to watch
The Geminids can be viewed in the night sky as early as 9 p.m. The best time to view the Geminid meteor shower will be in the pre-dawn hours between 1 and 3 a.m.
Tips for viewing
To see up to 150 meteors in one hour, you will need to be far away from city lights and tall buildings. Ideally, there will be clear skies for viewing on the night of the 13th.
After you arrive, avoid bright lights, such as phone screens, for 15–20 minutes so your eyes can adapt to the darkness.
A waning crescent moon will make viewing conditions even better because there will not be much moonlight to wash out the meteors, which are often bright and vivid.
Here is the cloud forecast through the weekend across the country.
Even though the peak is this weekend, you can still view the Geminid meteor shower through December 21st.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
Camp Mystic director hopes new flood alarms will help instill “confidence” after deadly floods – CBS News
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Months after a flash flood killed over two dozen campers and counselors in Texas, a new flash flood warning system is being installed at Camp Mystic. Jason Allen has the exclusive story.
Mega billionaire Elon Musk, in a friendly interview with his aide and conservative influencer Katie Miller, said his efforts leading the Department of Government Efficiency were only “somewhat successful” and he would not do it over again.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who also owns the social media platform X, still broadly defended President Donald Trump’s controversial pop-up agency that Musk left in the spring before it shuttered officially last month. Yet Musk bemoaned how difficult it is to remake the federal government quickly, and he acknowledged how much his businesses suffered because of his DOGE work and its lack of popularity.
“We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful,” he told Miller, who once worked as a DOGE spokeswoman charged with selling the agency’s work to the public.
When Miller pressed Musk on whether he would do it all over again, he said: “I don’t think so. … Instead of doing DOGE, I would have, basically, built … worked on my companies.”
Almost wistfully, Musk added, “They wouldn’t have been burning the cars” — a reference to consumer protests against Tesla.
Still, things certainly have turned up for Musk since his departure from Trump’s administration. Tesla shareholders approved a pay package that could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
Musk was speaking as a guest on the “Katie Miller Podcast,” which Miller, who is married to top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, launched after leaving government employment to work for Musk in the private sector. The two sat in chairs facing each other for a conversation that lasted more than 50 minutes and spanned topics from DOGE to Musk’s thoughts on AI, social media, conspiracy theories and fashion.
Miller did not press Musk on the innerworkings of DOGE and the controversial manner in which it took over federal agencies and data systems.
Musk credited the agency with saving as much as $200 billion annually in “zombie payments” that he said can be avoided with better automated systems and coding for federal payouts. But that number is dwarfed by Musk’s ambitious promises at one time that an efficiency commission could measure savings in the trillions.
BRAZORIA COUNTY, TEXAS — A lawsuit has been filed against SpaceX and New Gen Products regarding injuries sustained from an explosion of a Freeport valve in a machine shop.
The plaintiff in the suit, Humberto Benavides, filed the suit on Aug. 15 follwing the incident in July, according to court documents.
The injuries were life altering, according to Benavides, who sustained injuries to his ribs, internal organs and head. SpaceX and New Gen Products have both denied the allegations.
According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News, Benavides’ lawyers said that SpaceX and New Gen, the company that makes the Freeport valve, failed to hire or properly train qualified people. They also cite inadequate supervision, an unsafe work environment, failing to act to prevent the accident and violations of federal safety rules.
The trial is set to commence on Nov. 9, 2026, according to court documents. Benavides will be represented by Noah M. Wexler, a personal injury lawyer from Arnold & Itkin.
December’s full moon will appear in the sky this week. It’s the final full moon and third supermoon of the year, also known as the ‘Cold Moon.’ The Cold Moon gets its name from being closest to the winter solstice. It is also known as the ‘Moon Before Yule’ and the ‘Long Night Moon.’
It reached its peak illumination at 6:14 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 4, but it will be visible and appear full to the naked eye during the next couple nights.
What You Need To Know
December’s full moon peaks Thursday evening
It’s the final full moon and third supermoon of 2025
The next full moon will be the ‘Wolf Moon’ on Jan. 3, 2026
The Cold Moon will notably be the highest full moon of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun will be at its lowest point in the sky, which means that the moon will be at the opposite. That means that you will be able to see the bright Cold Moon for a longer period in the night sky.
What is a supermoon?
A supermoon is when the full moon happens at the same time the moon’s orbit is at its closest to Earth. The moon will appear brighter and larger than normal. This year’s Cold Moon will be the third supermoon of 2025, joining October’s ‘Harvest Moon’ and November’s ‘Beaver Moon’.
Moon phases
There are eight different phases of the moon. What phase follows a full moon?
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
December’s full moon will appear in the sky this week. It’s the final full moon and third supermoon of the year, also known as the ‘Cold Moon.’ The Cold Moon gets its name from being closest to the winter solstice. It is also known as the ‘Moon Before Yule’ and the ‘Long Night Moon.’
It reached its peak illumination at 6:14 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 4, but it will be visible and appear full to the naked eye during the next couple nights.
What You Need To Know
December’s full moon peaks Thursday evening
It’s the final full moon and third supermoon of 2025
The next full moon will be the ‘Wolf Moon’ on Jan. 3, 2026
The Cold Moon will notably be the highest full moon of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun will be at its lowest point in the sky, which means that the moon will be at the opposite. That means that you will be able to see the bright Cold Moon for a longer period in the night sky.
What is a supermoon?
A supermoon is when the full moon happens at the same time the moon’s orbit is at its closest to Earth. The moon will appear brighter and larger than normal. This year’s Cold Moon will be the third supermoon of 2025, joining October’s ‘Harvest Moon’ and November’s ‘Beaver Moon’.
Moon phases
There are eight different phases of the moon. What phase follows a full moon?
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
For the first time in a decade, there was no direct landfall on the U.S. from a hurricane. Despite no landfalls, it was still an active season overall with 13 named storms and three Category 5 hurricanes.
What You Need To Know
NOAA and Colorado State University forecasted above normal activity this year
First year since 2015 that no hurricane made a direct landfall on the United States
Hurricane Melissa was the most intense hurricane of the 2025 season, with winds of 185 mph and a pressure of 892 mbar
In the end, the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season was slightly above average with 13 named storms, five hurricanes and four major storms.
However, the season didn’t feel all that busy, and that’s because most of the storms stayed out to sea, with no direct landfalling hurricanes this year. Thanks to a persistent weaker Bermuda High, many storms came close to the coast but curved northward out to sea before making direct landfall.
Notable storms
Even though storms did not make landfall, that doesn’t mean they didn’t cause damage to the United States. Hurricanes Erin and Imelda came close to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, causing coastal erosion. In the past five years, at least 11 homes have toppled into the surf in Rodanthe, N.C.
Both storms ended up curving northward and then northeast out to sea.
Two houses sit out in the heavy surf as Hurricane Erin passes offshore at Rodanthe, N.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
Although no hurricanes made landfall in the U.S. this year, one tropical storm did—Chantal. It made landfall just one day after forming, moving inland near Litchfield Beach, South Carolina, as a tropical storm with winds of 60 mph on July 6.
Flooding from Chantal in Saxapahaw. (Spectrum News 1/Jordan Kudisch)
Heavy rainfall and flash flooding were the biggest impacts from Chantal. Radar-estimated rainfall totals up 9 to 12 inches were recorded in parts of North Carolina between Raleigh and Greensboro, causing significant flooding around Chapel Hill and nearby rivers.
Fujiwhara Effect
As Hurricane Imelda was churning off the coast of North Carolina, it was also about 400 miles from Hurricane Humberto, creating a semi-rare phenomenon called the Fujiwhara Effect. With the two hurricanes so close to each other, it looked as if a mega-hurricane was going to develop, but Bay News 9’s Chief Meteorologist Mike Clay said back in September, we should not be concerned about these storms colliding and forming a mega-hurricane.
“In the Atlantic, if two tropical systems are close enough, they can ruin the environment for both, just like we are seeing right now with Humberto and Imelda. There just isn’t enough ocean space.”
Hurricanes Imelda and Humberto are located about 400 miles from each other in the Atlantic. (NOAA)
The smaller or weaker storm will usually circle around the bigger one, as the larger storm will eventually dominate or potentially even fully absorb the smaller system. In this case, Imelda was the larger storm and fully absorbed Humberto.
Category 5 storms
Three hurricanes this year reached Category 5 status with wind speeds over 155 mph. Those storms include Hurricane Erin, Humberto and Melissa.
Erin formed in the western Atlantic on Aug. 11 and rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane on Aug. 16 with winds of 160 mph. It brushed past the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola before moving past the U.S., bringing life-threatening surf and dangerous rip currents up the East Coast.
Coastal flooding was worse along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, especially during high tide, forcing thousands to evacuate and closing Highway 12 on Hatteras Island, and tidal flooding led to rescues in Margate City, New Jersey.
A section of N.C. 12 at the north end of Buxton is flooding before the Tuesday afternoon high tide as Hurricane Erin continues moving northwest across the Atlantic Ocean. (N.C. Department of Transportation)
Hurricane Humberto became a hurricane two days after forming into a tropical storm. It rapidly intensified into a Category 4 storm and then, 24 hours later, it reached peak intensity as a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 mph. It moved between the United States and Bermuda and brought large swells and dangerous rip currents to the U.S. East Coast and squally weather to Bermuda.
Melissa was a late-season Category 5 hurricane and the most intense storm of the season. It became a tropical storm on Oct. 21 and by Oct. 25 it had undergone rapid intensification, becoming a Category 4 hurricane. Melissa nearly stalled in the Caribbean Sea and, thanks to favorable conditions, it achieved Category 5 status on Oct. 27.
The church of Lacovia Tombstone, Jamaica, sits damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
It reached peak intensity with winds of 185 mph and is now tied for third for the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record (since 1851) with a pressure of 892 mbar. It made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, on Oct. 28. Over 100 fatalities were reported due to Melissa.
Forecast models
The forecast for Melissa was notably a challenge. Weather models were showing inconsistent tracks run-to-run.
The National Hurricane Center, surprisingly, relied on Google’s DeepMind, a new AI weather model-over more traditional models. Data showed the AI model outperformed traditional physics-based models and aligned with the National Hurricane Center’s forecasts when came to track error.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
SAN FRANCISCO, December 1, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– Authorium, the cloud-based technology platform for government administrative operations, today announced that the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) will host the company’s technology in its Innovation Lab.
DIR’s Innovation Lab provides a secure and controlled environment where Texas officials and staff from all state agencies, higher education institutions, and local government entities can explore, demo, and utilize emerging technology in a no-risk environment before engaging in the procurement process. Authorium is making select components of its procurement workflow and AI-enhanced features available in the Lab.
“Authorium is honored to be selected for inclusion in the Innovation Lab as the DIR team is tasked with leveraging the world’s most powerful technology to solve critical challenges,” said Jay Nath and Kamran Saddique, Authorium’s Co-CEOs. “City, county, state, and federal government teams recognize and rely on Authorium’s solutions for increased efficiency, effectiveness, visibility, and compliance and we look forward to showcasing these values in Texas.”
Unlike commercial platforms adapted for government use, Authorium was designed exclusively for public-sector use and 60% of the public benefit corporation’s staff served in government themselves. The platform is hosted in AWS GovCloud, TXRAMP certified, and SOC 2 verified, ensuring compliance with the State of Texas’ highest security and data protection standards.
Authorium is fully cloud-based, allowing agencies to explore and test capabilities with no installation or IT overhead. Texas government employees looking to explore emerging technology in the DIR Innovation Lab can email innovation@dir.texas.gov for more information.
About DIR DIR’s mission is to serve the Texas government by leading the state’s technology strategy, protecting state technology infrastructure, and offering innovative and cost-effective solutions for all levels of government. Learn more about DIR at dir.texas.gov.
About Authorium Authorium is a no-code, cloud-based platform exclusively for government administrative operations. Government teams rely on us to support budget and grant administration, contract lifecycle management, HR processes, procurement, and legislative analysis. As a public benefit corporation, we serve the government workers that serve their communities, including Washington Technology Solutions, New York State Department of Motor Vehicles and Florida Department of Children and Families. Learn more at authorium.com.
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Troy Nehls announced on Saturday that he would not seek re-election at the end of the current congressional term.
“I have made the decision, after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday, to focus on my family and return home after this Congress,” Nehls said in a statement.
Nehls, a Texas Republican, said he spoke to President Donald Trump before making the decision.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto editing by Diane Craft)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas beat Texas A&M again in a bitter rivalry. And while any loss to the Longhorns stings, this one is likely to stick with the Aggies for a long time.
But the playoffs and a chance to play for a national title still await.
“There’s (still) a lot right now to be proud of,” Reed said, noting the Aggies won 11 games in the regular season for the first time since 1992. “There’s still a lot to work for … I think we believe that we can make it to the national championship. And so we’re just going to put our heads down and grind.”
The Aggies (11-1, 7-1 SEC, No. 3 CFP) are a solid bet to make the playoff for the first time. But a special season has definitely been saddled with a sour note after a second straight loss to the Longhorns after the rivalry resumed following a decade-long break.
“We’re just thinking about not getting the job done tonight,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. “Maybe coming out of this weekend, maybe we’ll regroup and figure out moving forward what the positives are of 11-1. Right now it just hurts that we lost to our rival.”
The Aggies had never been to the SEC title game since joining the league in 2012. Texas made it last season in its first year in the conference.
Texas started this season No. 1 and the Aggies had a chance to bury the Longhorns’ playoff hopes once and for all. By winning, the Longhorns can start lobbying to be let in.
“We want to go to the SEC championship. We’re tired of losing to the same team back to back years, tired of not winning that trophy,” Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York said. “ But, you know, (the playoffs), that’s the bright side, so we’ll look at it that way.”
Reed had a chance to solidify his Heisman resume, and looked like he might do it when he shook off an early ankle injury scare and led the Aggies to a 10-3 halftime lead.
But he was ultimately outplayed by his Texas counterpart Arch Manning. It was Manning who started the season as the Heisman favorite only to go through a stretch of poor games at the beginning of the season.
Reed’s star rose when he led the Aggies to a shock comeback against South Carolina two weeks ago. There was no rally in A&M this time.
The Aggies cut the Texas lead to 20-17 before Manning scored his clinching touchdown. Reed then threw two late interceptions that sealed it. He finished with 180 yards passing.
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