DNA evidence links dead man to 1991 Texas yogurt shop murders

AUSTIN, Texas — DNA evidence has helped identify a man who died decades ago as a new suspect in the 1991 killings of four teenage girls at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop, authorities announced Friday. Investigators said the DNA linked Robert Eugene Brashers — who died in 1999 during a Missouri standoff — to multiple killings in other states, marking a significant breakthrough in a case that long resisted resolution. The Austin Police Department said the Yogurt Shop murders case remains open and scheduled a news conference for Monday to detail the findings. The release came amid renewed attention on the case with the release last month of The Yogurt Shop Murders, a documentary series on HBO.

On the night of the 1991 killings, four teens were inside the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt store in central Austin: Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 1; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15. The victims were bound, gagged and shot in the head, and the building was later set on fire, authorities said. The case shocked the city and became one of the area’s most infamous crimes. 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 later recanted, saying their statements were made under pressure by police. Their convictions were overturned and they were set for retrial about a decade later. A judge ordered both men freed in 2009 when prosecutors said new DNA tests that weren’t available in 1991 had revealed another male suspect. In 2018, Missouri authorities said DNA evidence linked Brashers to the strangulation of a South Carolina woman in 1990, and the shooting 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 had died in 1999 when he shot himself during an hours-long standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.

Police said the new DNA linkage does not close the file. Investigators stressed the case remains open and ongoing, with the objective of reviewing the full body of evidence and determining what steps, if any, remain possible. Because Brashers is deceased, prosecutors acknowledged there may be limits to what can be pursued in court, but they cautioned that the DNA connection provides a renewed framework for understanding the 1991 murders and their place in a broader pattern of offenses linked to the same individual.

The development comes as renewed public interest surrounds the case following HBO’s documentary series, which has shined a new light on the investigation’s history, including long-simmering questions about leads that were pursued and discarded over the years. Austin police said they will present details at the Monday briefing, including how the DNA evidence was obtained, the scope of the testing, and how it ties Brashers to the 1991 crime scene and other cases in multiple states. Officials noted the Yogurt Shop murders remain unsolved in terms of formal charges against living suspects, and that the focus remains on assembling a complete timeline and record of the evidence collected since 1991.

The Yogurt Shop murders stunned Austin when a routine stop at a popular downtown location turned into one of the city’s most enduring mysteries. Four teenage girls were found dead after being bound, gagged and shot, and the building was later burned in what authorities described as a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence. Over the years, investigators pursued thousands of leads, faced missteps and endured the scrutiny of a case that generated intense public interest and immense pressure on the legal process.

While the newly identified suspect is no longer alive, the DNA connection provides a fresh lens for revisiting the tragedy and how it relates to other crimes attributed to Brashers in Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina. Law enforcement officials emphasized that the pursuit of facts continues, and the department remains committed to transparency and to pursuing any additional information that could clarify what happened that night in 1991 and how the case fits into a broader historical pattern of violence associated with the same individual.

In the meantime, the Yogurt Shop case remains a focal point of Texas’ capital-area criminal history and a touchstone for conversations about how cold cases are revisited with advances in forensic science. As investigators prepare new materials for Monday’s briefing, they urged anyone with information to come forward, noting that even decades-old evidence can yield new insights when reexamined through the lens of modern DNA technology.