HBO’s Yogurt Shop Murders director Margaret Brown calls the case “uncanny” to film

The Yogurt Shop Murders dropped on HBO Max on August 3, 2025, and resurfaced the crime that took place more than 30 years ago in the country. The tragedy involved four girls whose lives were ended at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas in 1991.

Now that HBO has revived this case and put Margaret Brown at the helm, she recalls living through the time when the news and media were constantly circling The Yogurt Shop Murders. There were calls for help from the public to identify the shooters, a the whole city was on alert. Sitting down for an interview with Deadline, Margaret talked about what it was like making the series from scratch and seeing all the footage from back then. Describing the experience as "uncanny", she recalled:

"They sent me what they had, and it was pretty evocative. I immediately felt a transportive kind of feeling to the past. I could hear the music that would go with those images, and even how I would light it. It was such a specific vibe. There was something uncanny about it. Then I met the families, and it really shifted, and I realized I couldn’t go as stylized as I wanted to, because I didn’t want to take away from the emotional connection."

Margaret Brown has lived in Austin and was young back then when the murders happened. She said there was a lot of chatter about the case and everyone had theories as to who might have done it, even her reporter friends labelled the case as "the craziest unsolved crime in Texas" with "so many twists and turns." 

While working on the HBO series, The Yogurt Shop Murders, the main aim of Margaret was to recreate the feelings and emotions she had felt while living during that era. The time when billboards were put up about the case and everything felt "really haunting" to her.

What really happened? A look at the tragic incident shown in The Yogurt Shop Murders

Jennifer and Eliza, two of the four victims, were working at the yogurt shop on December 6, 1991, while Jennifer's sister Sarah and her friend Amy were waiting in the shop to go back home together. They had decided to leave as soon as the shop closed at 11 PM. 

However, some men entered, and firing of shots were fired by a policeman. Later, it was found that the four girls had been shot with a gun at the back of their heads and were found without clothes on their bodies, inside the yogurt shop.

 

 

 

 

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One of them had been s*xually abused as well. An intensive investigation was launched by the police in order to find who might be behind this case, but no one was pinned down. There were suspects, but each was released after no evidence supported their involvement. The reason behind the tragedy is still unknown. 

The Yogurt Shop Murders can be streamed online via HBO Max.