Police authorities in Texas provided details at a press briefing on Monday on how they linked an individual, previously connected to crimes in other states, to the unsolved 1991 murders of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop. They disclosed that a breakthrough in the case was achieved through DNA evidence, shedding light on a heinous crime that has long troubled the state’s capital and baffled investigators.
The Austin police revealed that a reexamination of DNA evidence in June led them to Robert Eugene Brashers, who took his own life in 1999 during a confrontation with law enforcement in Missouri. Following his death, he has been associated with multiple homicides and sexual assaults in various states.
The tragic murders at the yogurt shop deeply shook the city of Austin and became infamous as one of the region’s most notorious criminal incidents. Over the years, investigators and prosecutors grappled with the case, sifting through a multitude of leads, false confessions, and compromised evidence from the fire-damaged crime scene.
The identification of Brashers as the perpetrator of the crimes was officially announced on Friday.
The victims, Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, and Sarah Harbison, were found bound, gagged, and shot in the head at the yogurt store where two of them were employed. Subsequently, the establishment was set ablaze on December 6, 1991.
Barbara Wilson, the mother of the Harbison sisters, expressed gratitude at the press conference, remarking on the long-awaited closure. Investigators believe that during closing hours, an assailant entered through the rear entrance, attacked the girls, and set the fire, with the bodies discovered amidst firefighting efforts.
The autopsy report revealed the brutality of the attack, with the victims’ hands bound with underwear and mouths gagged with cloth. Ayers had sustained two gunshot wounds, and evidence indicated she had put up a fight, with DNA found under her fingernails crucial in identifying the suspect.
Sonora Thomas, Eliza’s sister, acknowledged the support from the community but emphasized that the tragic loss of their loved ones remained unchanged despite the recent revelations.
In 1999, four individuals were arrested on murder charges, with two of them, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, initially confessing and incriminating each other after prolonged interrogations. However, both recanted their statements, claiming they were coerced by law enforcement.
Despite their convictions, subsequent retrials were ordered as new DNA tests revealed another male suspect not previously identified in 1991. Springsteen and Scott were released in 2009 due to the lack of physical evidence linking them to the crime scene.
Brashers had a history of violent offenses in multiple states, including a conviction for shooting a woman in Florida in 1985 and involvement in other crimes before the Austin murders. Missouri authorities linked him to the 1998 murders of Sherri Scherer and her daughter, as well as other violent incidents in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Investigators confirmed that Brashers acted alone in his criminal activities, and there is no evidence suggesting an accomplice in the Austin case. Authorities noted that his presence in Austin remains unexplained, although he was apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso shortly after the yogurt shop murders, possessing a firearm later connected to the homicides.
Brashers’s daughter expressed shock and remorse upon learning about her father’s involvement in additional deaths. She conveyed apologies to the affected families and disclosed that she was an infant at the time of the Austin murders, unaware of her father’s actions.
The recent developments in the case coincided with the airing of an HBO documentary series, “The Yogurt Shop Murders,” renewing public interest in the long-standing investigation.