DNA Evidence Links A Dead Man To The 1991 Killings Of 4 Girls At Texas Yogurt Shop

DNA evidence has connected Robert Eugene Brashers, a man who died in 1999, to the 1991 killings of four teenage girls at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt store in Austin, Texas, authorities said Friday. Police described the development as a significant breakthrough and said DNA tests led investigators to Brashers. The Yogurt Shop murders remain open, and a news conference was scheduled for Monday to detail the findings.

The victims were Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; Jennifer Harbison, 17; and Sarah Harbison, 15. They were bound, gagged and shot in the head at the store, which was then set on fire. The case stunned Austin, with investigators wading through thousands of leads, several false confessions, and badly damaged evidence from the burned building. In 1999, authorities arrested four men on murder charges. Two of them, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, were teenagers at the time of the murders. They initially confessed and implicated each other, but both recanted, saying their statements were made under pressure from police. They were tried and convicted, but their convictions were later overturned and they faced retrial a decade later. A judge ordered them freed in 2009 after prosecutors said new DNA tests that weren’t available in 1991 pointed to another suspect.

In the years that followed, the case remained one of the capital city’s most infamous crimes, with investigators continuing to review leads and revisit old evidence. The renewed public interest came as the case gained attention again after the release last month of a television documentary focusing on the Yogurt Shop murders. While officers did not disclose new investigative steps, they stressed that the case remains open and that further updates would come at the upcoming news conference.

Brashers’ links to other crimes were highlighted by Missouri authorities in 2018, long after the Yogurt Shop investigation had cooled. DNA evidence tied him to the strangling of a South Carolina woman in 1990, and to the shooting of a mother and daughter in Missouri in 1998. The same DNA profile also connected him to the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee. Brashers died in 1999 during an hours-long standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri, killing himself as officers closed in. Prosecutors have said the pattern of linked offenses across multiple states helped shape the renewed interest in his identity as a suspect.

The Austin investigation has long referenced the 1991 fire and the reported confessions from Springsteen and Scott, both of whom had been teenagers at the time. Their cases underscored the difficulties in the early 1990s of solving highly charged, violent crimes with limited DNA technology. In recent years, advances in DNA analysis enabled authorities to revisit the case and consider Brashers, even though he was dead long before these modern techniques were applied. The new development does not by itself close the case, but it provides investigators with a potential link connecting several violent crimes across state lines.

As updates unfold, law enforcement officials said the Monday news conference would outline how the DNA evidence was collected, what comparisons were made, and which aspects of the case remain under review. The Yogurt Shop murders have left a lasting imprint on Austin’s memory, and city officials have repeatedly stressed the importance of pursuing every credible lead to bring accountability for the 1991 deaths. The renewed attention also reflects broader questions about how unresolved cases are revisited as scientific methods evolve and as producers of documentary projects draw public interest to long-dormant investigations.

The case has become a touchstone for discussions about cold-case review in Texas and across the country, illustrating how DNA evidence can reopen investigations years or decades after the fact. Police cautioned that even with new DNA links, investigators must proceed carefully, verifying all connections and ensuring that any claims of linkage are supported by corroborating evidence. The department did not indicate whether any new persons of interest had been identified, but officials stressed that the inquiry remains active and ongoing.

The Yogurt Shop murders took place at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop, a storefront in Austin, where the four teens were killed and the building subsequently damaged by a fire. The case's notoriety endured for years due to the brutality of the crime and the challenges of obtaining conclusive evidence in the era before contemporary DNA technology. The latest development adds a new dimension to the legacy of the murders and raises questions about how past cases might be reinterpreted in light of genetic data that spans multiple states.

The investigation will continue, and officials expect to provide additional details in the planned briefing. In the meantime, the community awaits clarity on how Brashers’ DNA connections fit into the broader pattern of violent crime linked to his name, and what that may mean for unresolved questions surrounding the 1991 killings. The case remains open, and authorities urged anyone with information to come forward to help close a chapter that has persisted in Texas history for more than three decades.