Breakthrough in Cold Case: Suspect Identified in 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders
A suspect has been identified in the 1991 murder of four teenage girls in an Austin, Texas, yogurt shop. The suspect, Robert Eugene Brashers, who is deceased, was linked to the case through DNA evidence. Brashers was a serial killer and rapist who committed multiple murders between 1990 and 1998 in South Carolina and Missouri. The girls, Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers, Jennifer Harbison, and Sarah Harbison, were found tied up, gagged, and shot in the head at the yogurt shop. The case went cold until 1999 when four men were arrested and charged with the murders. Two of the men, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, were convicted based on their confessions, but their convictions were later overturned on constitutional grounds. Y-STR testing on DNA evidence from the crime scene did not match any of the arrested men, leading to new developments in the case.