DNA Breakthrough Identifies Serial Killer In Austin’s Yogurt Shop Murders After 34 Years

Thirty-four years after four teenage girls were murdered at a frozen yogurt shop in Austin, Texas, in a case that shocked the community and captured the nation’s attention, detectives believe they finally have an answer. Police in Austin announced yesterday, that the man they think is responsible for the murders, which became known as the “Yogurt Shop Murders,” name is Robert Eugene Brashers, a convicted serial killer and rapist who killed himself in 1999, identified through DNA and ballistics testing.

It was on the night of December 6, 1991, when firefighters were dispatched to a fire at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!” store located on West Anderson Lane. There they found the bodies of four teenagers Eliza Thomas, 17, Jennifer Harbison, 17, Sarah Harbison, 15, and Amy Ayers, 13, who were bound, gagged, and burned beyond recognition. Police determined that each had been shot in the head before the store was set on fire.

Detectives spent more than three decades searching through thousands of leads and chasing down a host of suspects but failed to solve the case. They first questioned a group of four teenage boys at the time of the murders, named Maurice Pierce, Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen, and Forrest Welborn. It would not be until years later, when Maurice got caught on other offenses and confessed under dubious circumstances, that police were able to make an arrest. By the early 2000s Maurice and Forrest were convicted of the murders, but both later recanted their confessions, saying they had been coerced by police into providing false statements – dropping their charges. After no physical evidence could be found that linked Michael and Robert to the crime, both convictions were overturned, and charges ended up being dropped against all four by 2009.

The breakthrough came thanks to advancements in DNA technology and the use of forensic investigative genetic genealogy. Investigators were able to extract a male-only DNA strand from evidence collected in 1991, material once too small and degraded to be useful. By building out a genetic profile and comparing it against open-source genealogy databases such as GEDmatch, genealogists were able to trace family connections and narrow the field of potential suspects. Ultimately, that DNA trail led to Robert Eugene Brashers, whose violent history matched the crime’s brutality. Ballistics evidence confirmed the link, which was the weapon Brashers used to kill himself in 1999 being consistent with a bullet casing found in the yogurt shop. His suicide was after a four hour standoff – holding his wife, and daughter hostage.

Brashers was finally identified in 2018 when DNA from a rape kit exhumed from his body was used to connect him to the crime, which occurred 21 years before his death. He was eventually linked to at least three murders and one other rape of a 14-year-old girl in another case that stretched from South Carolina to Missouri. The news this week came only weeks after HBO released a four-part docuseries, The Yogurt Shop Murders, which cast a renewed spotlight on the case and the families’ decades-long fight for justice.

Brashers is deceased, however, the Austin Police Department has not ruled out that multiple weapons are believed to have been used during the night of the murders, and they are still treating this as an ongoing investigation – with an upcoming press conference coming Monday.