DNA Evidence Finally Links Deceased Suspect to 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders of Four Teenage Girls

Four teenage girls were shot in the head at the "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt" store in 1991.

Austin, Texas:

Police identified a deceased man Friday as a new suspect in the 1991 unsolved murders of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop, stating that DNA evidence provided a "significant breakthrough" in the brutal crime that has haunted Texas' capital and challenged investigators for decades.

In an official statement, Austin police revealed that DNA tests connected investigators to Robert Eugene Brashers, who died by suicide in 1999 during a standoff with law enforcement. Since his death, Brashers has been linked to multiple killings and sexual assaults in other states.

The announcement coincided with renewed interest in the case following the release of "The Yogurt Shop Murders," an HBO documentary series last month. Police indicated that the investigation remains active and scheduled a Monday news conference to share their findings.

The murders shocked Texas' capital city and became notorious in the area's criminal history. Austin police investigators and prosecutors had struggled with the case for years, processing thousands of leads, several false confessions, and severely damaged evidence from the burned crime scene.

"Our team never gave up working this case," Austin police stated.

Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged, and shot in the head at the "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt" store where two of them worked. The building was subsequently set ablaze.

Investigators determined that around closing time, someone entered through the back door, attacked the girls, and started the fire. Firefighters discovered the bodies while still combating the flames.

The autopsy report revealed poignant details about the teenage victims: Ayers wore small, white earrings. Sarah Harbison had on a gold necklace and a Mickey Mouse watch. Jennifer Harbison wore a high school ring and a Timex watch.

It also depicted the horror: their hands were bound with underwear and their mouths gagged with cloth. Ayers had been shot twice.

In 1999, authorities arrested four men on murder charges. Two of them, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, were teenagers when the murders occurred. They initially confessed and implicated each other, but both quickly recanted, claiming their statements were coerced by police.

Both men were tried and convicted. Springsteen initially received a death sentence, which was later reduced to life imprisonment.

Their convictions were overturned, and they faced retrial a decade later.

A judge ordered both men released in 2009 when prosecutors announced new DNA tests, unavailable in 1991, had revealed another male suspect.

In 2018, Missouri authorities reported that DNA evidence linked Brashers to the strangulation of a South Carolina woman in 1990 and the shooting deaths of a mother and daughter in Missouri in 1998. The evidence also connected him to the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee.

Brashers died in 1999 when he shot himself during an extended standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.