AUSTIN, Texas — In 1991, Austin still had a bit of a small-town feel.

The idea that something so terrible could happen in a city where violent crime was rare, and in a nice neighborhood where four young girls would die under such horrific circumstances, led many to say that the city that had "lost its innocence."

“Things like that just never happened in Austin,” former KVUE newscaster Dick Ellis said in a 2019 interview. “People were scared. They were worried it could happen to their children.”

Austin was grieving. Funeral services for the four girls brought hundreds to a North Austin church, where a priest spoke of the loss and anger the city was feeling.

Several months later, the grief was channeled into action as students and parents mobilized to help police find clues. Across t

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