CHAPTER 37
Friday, August 6, 1999
Austin Police Department Cold Case Unit
Clayton Lane—Twin Towers
Austin, Texas
The Cold Case Unit headquarters was located in the gold Twin Towers, off Interstate 35 north, less than five miles away from the West Anderson yogurt shop location. The placid outward appearance of the buildings—well-manicured lawns covered with groomed shrubs, large oak trees that provided vast quantities of shade, and a relaxing eight-sided water fountain—belied the horrors that hid inside the second-floor location.
To reach the Cold Case Unit offices, Detective Paul Johnson would park his car in the parking lot, walk past the spraying fountain into the West building on the left-hand side, walk past a few small businesses on the first floor, head to the elevators, get off on the second floor, and take a quick left down the hallway. The view was uninspiring—a parking lot.
Detective Johnson strode confidently into his office. The seasoned twenty-one-year veteran officer had solved several high-profile cases throughout his career. Probably the most notorious case Johnson worked on became known nationwide as the “Condom Rape Case.” Johnson arrested Joel Rene Valdez for the rape of a young woman. Valdez claimed that he had engaged in consensual sex with the victim because she requested he wear a condom. Johnson’s police work led to a forty-year sentence for the rapist.
Another well-known case that the forty-five-year-old Johnson worked was the 1997 abduction and murder of two young men, Brandon Shaw and Juan Cotera, whose bodies were discovered inside the trunk of a car in Town Lake. Johnson helped nail Ahmad McAdoo and Derrick Williams with the murders.
Johnson and fellow detective J. W. Thompson had been working on the yogurt shop case since 1996. Johnson was responsible for organizing the voluminous files of paperwork that had accumulated over the years. Thompson’s duties included following up on any new tips that surfaced.
Due to the smaller number of homicides—only ten were committed during the first seven months—the APD determined it was time to reevaluate a few cold cases. There were more than one hundred unsolved homicides in Austin since 1967.
The yogurt shop murders were one of those cases.
Johnson felt confident because six new law enforcement officers were assigned to assist in trying to solve the case. They were Detectives Ronald Lara, Robert Merrill, John Hardesty, and Manuel Fuentes; Texas Ranger Sal Abreo; and ATF agent Chuck Meyer. The additional manpower could only help to lighten Johnson’s overwhelming load. When he was handed the case two years earlier, he received two filing cabinets and numerous boxes of material related to the case: tips, leads, all sorts of paperwork.
As Johnson and Thompson organized the case files, they pulled out their most intriguing tips. By the time the new task force was created, the two officers had set aside the top sixty leads. These were the people on whom the new yogurt shop murders task force would focus their attention.
The first name, literally pulled out of a hat, belonged to Maurice Pierce. The same Maurice Pierce who was arrested at Northcross Mall on December 14, 1991, for carrying a gun, which he claimed was used in the murders. The same person who stole a Nissan Pathfinder off the Town North Nissan lot near the yogurt shop the night after the murders.
Also included in the Maurice Pierce tip file were the names of three of Pierce’s buddies: Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen IV, and Michael Scott.
CHAPTER 38
Maurice Pierce was born on September 3, 1975, in Houston, Texas, to William and Fonda Pierce. He was the only boy in a family of four children. Pierce came from a close-knit family that watched out for one another and shared a loving bond. He was especially close to his sister, Annette, with whom he spent much of his time.
Pierce’s years at the Christian Academy elementary school were unremarkable. The young boy stayed out of trouble and was an average student. He went to class, did his schoolwork, and made decent grades.
According to William Pierce, he and Fonda divorced in 1983. Maurice’s mother relocated to Austin. Despite the breakup, Pierce and his family still managed to stay close to one another. He and his father would visit his mother in Austin almost every other week. He maintained a loving relationship with his mother, father, and sisters. He also kept up his grades.
After elementary school, William and Maurice Pierce packed up their belongings and moved to Austin. William Pierce wanted his son to be closer to his mother. The younger Pierce was excited about the move.
The excitement was short-lived.
One day, Maurice came home from Lamar Middle School very upset. When his father came home from work, Maurice informed him that a gang of black kids had tried to sell him drugs. They had also tried to pick a fight with him.
His father, incensed, wrote a letter to Governor Ann Richards. He wanted her to know that drugs were being sold in the schools and that young kids’ minds were potentially ripe for corruption. He eventually received a letter from the governor, who told him to encourage his son to keep working hard.
William Pierce would have none of it. He immediately pulled Maurice out of school and away from the bad influences.
Soon thereafter, Maurice started taking drugs. According to probation records, Pierce started using “pot, coke, [and] acid” by the age of twelve. He claimed that he stopped taking drugs three years later, when he was fifteen. He claimed that he only drank on special occasions. And he only drank beer.
From twelve to twenty-four beers, that is.
Maurice eventually returned to school in 1989. He transferred to Dobie Middle School, where he met a girl named Kimberli. They were an instant item and it was not long before if you saw one, you saw both of them. William Pierce described them as “24/7.”
Maurice just skated by academically at Dobie Middle School. At the time, he sported a very 1980s-era mullet haircut—“business in the front, party in the back.” He enjoyed taking care of cars and was considered a bit of a neat freak.
He attended ninth grade at Robbins Academy, a learning facility for troubled kids and special-needs students, particularly special-education students, dropouts, and problem students.
Pierce was definitely experiencing his share of problems. He stole the Nissan Pathfinder on December 7, 1991. He later paid $350 for the damages to the vehicle. He was arrested on December 14, 1992, at Northcross Mall, for carrying a .22 revolver. He claimed that the gun was used in the yogurt shop murders; however, he was not involved in the crime. He was eventually written off the yogurt shop suspect list. In September 1992, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drunk-driving charge. He was sentenced to two years’ probation.
That same year, he received some good news. His girlfriend, Kimberli, gave birth to a baby girl. He was a father at the age of seventeen.
In 1993, he transferred to Anderson High School, but he only lasted three months. He dropped out in October 1993. He did not make the school yearbook.
After he dropped out of school, Pierce was arrested at least twice. Once, for public intoxication. The other time for acting as a lookout for a buddy who stole a car. Charges were dropped against him in both instances.
In 1995, Maurice, Kimberli, and their daughter moved to Lewisville, Texas, about twenty-five miles northwest of Dallas. Once they settled in, Pierce found employment at an industrial warehouse. He worked there for a few years and was considered a good employee. He fared so well that he was up for promotion as warehouse foreman. Pierce also lent his construction abilities to a Lewisville church, where he and his wife attended. He retiled the floors and tinted all of the windows in the church.
Pierce’s former buddy Forrest Welborn was born on August 21, 1976, to Sharon and James Welborn. Forrest’s parents divorced when he was in first grade at Blanton Elementary School. He and his sister, India, stuck together until their father remarried. The newly formed family now included a half brother, a stepsister, and two stepbrothers.
Yvonne Greer, a Blanton Elementary classmate of Welborn’s, recalled seeing Welborn riding by himself on the bus to school every day. She said he did not appear to have any friends.
Welborn’s mother described her son as the reserved type.
“He is a very quiet person and he also pretty much keeps his emotions to himself.”
Welborn’s academic career was rather uneventful. He went to class, passed his courses, and stayed out of trouble. In seventh grade at Lamar Middle School, he played the upright bass in the school band.
Welborn started at McCallum High School in the fall of 1991, three months before the yogurt shop murders. He did not necessarily attend school like he once had. He began skipping classes and hanging out. He eventually flunked ninth grade and was forced to repeat it.
“Basically, after our freshman year,” Yvonne Greer recalled, “we never saw him again.”
Welborn made it through another semester as a freshman until he dropped out of McCallum in March 1993. A neighbor of his described him as “kind of wild” during that period. He did not, however, get into any serious trouble, except for a “driving with a suspended license” charge in late 1996.
The year before, Welborn impregnated his girlfriend. She gave birth to a boy. Welborn doted on his son.
“Forrest is a really good dad,” said his sister, India Welborn. “He’s wonderful. He’s got a really good heart, and he’d do anything for anyone.”
Welborn spent most of his time working on motorcycles. His passion for mechanics led him into a career in automotive repair. He moved to Lockhart, about twenty-five miles southeast of Austin, in 1997. He lived in an RV park just south of town. In the beginning of 1999, he worked for Lockhart Muffler. The muffler shop went out of business, so Welborn decided to put up his own shingle, Lockhart Automotive, that April.
Welborn had grown substantially since 1991. He stood well over six feet tall. He had long brown hair, flowing down the middle of his back, and a full-blown beard. He looked as if he stepped out of the musical
Jesus Christ Superstar
. He was quite noticeable in the tiny town of Lockhart.
Robert Springsteen IV was born on November 26, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois, to Michelle and Robert Springsteen. His parents, who married in 1973, divorced in 1976. He and his mother moved to West Virginia that same year.
Robert Springsteen III allegedly did not keep in contact with his son. According to Andrew “Brett” Thompson, Springsteen’s stepfather, Springsteen III probably only saw his son three times in a span of twelve years. Robert Springsteen III, on the other hand, claimed to have visited his son at least one weekend every month when the boy was young. Eventually that dwindled down to two weeks out of the year.
As Springsteen grew older, he began to have serious problems at school and at home. Stonewall Jackson Junior High School former vice principal David Miller stated that Springsteen “wore out his welcome” there. Miller added that Springsteen was “not someone you wanted around a lot.” Springsteen did not stick around Stonewall Jackson a lot. He was transferred to Cabell Alternative Education High School, an alternative school for students who were unsuccessful in their academic achievements due to either learning difficulties or too many behavioral problems.
Springsteen’s favorite teacher at Cabell, Danny Decker, noticed that Springsteen did not fit in. “He was immature for his age, and he would do silly things to get attention.” She cited the fact that his wardrobe was rather outlandish, from Nehru jackets to doo rags. “Robby would go to the far extreme.”
Decker did, however, note Springsteen’s creative side. “Robby was very artistic. At an alternative school, you don’t have an opportunity to have an arts program, but he was very creative.”
But more often than not, Springsteen would get into trouble. Decker recalled a fight he had with another student, who was picking on him.
“Robby grabbed a desk and lifted it over his head and was going to throw it.” Decker yelled at Springsteen to put down the desk, to which he complied.
In addition to problems at school, Springsteen had several problems at home. He often fought with his stepfather. Decker claimed that the fights were sometimes violent. “He just didn’t listen to his stepfather,” the teacher observed.
Springsteen also resented that his mother attempted to keep him in line. A fight between him and his mother led to the sixteen-year-old moving to Austin to live with his father in the summer of 1991. He moved in next door to his father in his own condominium on Dry Creek Drive, near Mopac and close to Anderson Lane, about three miles away from the yogurt shop. The two condominiums were owned by Robert Springsteen III’s girlfriend, Karen Huntley.
Similar to Welborn, Springsteen attended McCallum High School, where he was enrolled as a sophomore. On December 4, 1991, he was reassigned to alternative-education classes, mainly because he had a propensity for skipping classes. Two weeks later, he dropped out of school.
By this time, Huntley had enough. She wanted him out of her condominium. Springsteen moved back to his mother and stepfather’s home in West Virginia in late December 1991. He worked several odd jobs through the years, including selling newspaper subscriptions, working as a manager of a McDonald’s in the Charleston Town Center, and being employed as a stock boy at Kroger.
One of Springsteen’s jobs was working with his stepfather, Brett Thompson, as a second chef at the Charleston Civic Center (CCC). Thompson recalled the evening when he, Robert, and Michelle worked at the CCC restaurant when Vice President Al Gore appeared in town. Thompson spoke of how his son fed the vice president.
“Robert put his plate right in front of him.”
Springsteen met an older woman, Robin Moss, through his mother. Moss was twenty-two years older than her new paramour.
On Valentine’s Day, 1999, the couple tossed back a few cold ones. Their landlady, Patti Eagle, stated the next thing they did was to up and get hitched. “They just went out and did it.”
Michael Scott was Robert Springsteen’s good friend in Austin. Scott was born on February 6, 1974, to seventeen-year-old Lisa McClain and her seventeen-year-old best friend on the island of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia island chain. Yap is considered one of the most exotic islands in Micronesia and in the world. The tiny island, thirty by fourteen miles, is a closely knit, cloistered landmass, with residents who all know one another. Needless to say, the islanders immediately fell in love with little blond-haired Michael.
Michael’s father did not stick around. Lisa, her parents, and some of their fellow islanders, however, took care of the young boy. Within a year, Lisa met a young man, Philip Scott, who worked for the United States Coast Guard. They met, romanced, and were married within three months. The wedding took place on February 28, 1975, in a little chapel on a hill in a Lutheran church. The ceremony was overseen by their friend who was a retired WWII combat pilot.
Michael finally had a father.
Philip Scott adopted the towheaded boy, gave him the last name of Scott, and cared for him as if he were his own.
Philip (or Phil), Lisa, and Michael enjoyed life on Yap. Michael became a water baby the minute he slipped his toes into the Philippine Sea. There were plenty of aquatic options for the family to choose from, such as fishing for tuna or swimming with dolphins. Yap is also known as the destination spot for divers to view majestic manta rays on a year-round basis.
Phil was an electronics technician for the U.S. Coast Guard. According to Lisa, one of the main reasons they married was because they both loved to travel and they both loved the water. Later in the year, Phil re-upped so they could travel to Europe. The family packed up their belongings and headed for Italy. They settled into the region of Calabria in the southernmost arch of the boot. The Scotts lived in the mountainous peninsula area until the spring of 1979 when they were transferred to the small, predominantly Hispanic town of Raymondville, located next to Harlingen, in the southernmost tip of Texas. It was quite a change from their previous exotic abodes.
The Scotts would be transferred one last time in 1980. They relocated to Austin, Texas. Lisa was pregnant and gave birth to her second son, Robert, at St. David’s Medical Center.
Michael now had a brother.
What should have been a happy occasion, unfortunately, was marred by the deteriorating relationship between Phil and Lisa. What Lisa described as “really rocky on a good day” would eventually tear the couple apart. She stated that they tried to stick together for the sake of the kids, but the couple continued to grow apart.
Lisa stated that “over twenty years of being married (they would not divorce until 1996), we probably lived together two seconds.” She further described the couple as “like oil and water together.” Eventually Phil left to go work in San Antonio and he took Robert with him. Lisa stayed in Austin with Michael. The couple did everything in their power to make sure the brothers spent time together and that each parent had time with both sons individually.
Despite the separation, Lisa spoke highly of Phil. She acknowledged that he was a good father who treated both boys wonderfully. He was an avid Cub Scout father who enjoyed outdoor activities, especially hiking. He would take Michael out to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, where they would venture off for a three-week backpacking excursion. If they only had a short period of time together, Phil would usually take Michael to Bastrop State Park, about thirty miles southeast of Austin. Father and son usually trekked the Lost Pines of east Central Texas, home to twelve miles of the most beautiful section used in the MS 150 benefit bicycle ride from Houston to Austin every year.