Police in Texas held a press conference on Monday to reveal how they connected a man, previously tied to crimes in other states, to the unsolved 1991 killings of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop. DNA evidence was described as a “significant breakthrough” in the long-standing case that has puzzled investigators for years.
The Austin police disclosed that reanalyzed DNA tests in June led them to identify Robert Eugene Brashers, who died by suicide in 1999. Brashers has since been linked to multiple homicides and sexual assaults in various states.
The heinous murders, known as one of the most infamous crimes in Texas’ capital, shocked the community. Investigators and prosecutors had struggled with the case for decades, sifting through numerous leads, false confessions, and severely damaged evidence from the crime scene.
The revelation of Brashers’ connection to the crimes was made public on Friday. The victims, Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, and Sarah Harbison, were found bound, gagged, and shot in the head at the yogurt store where two of them worked. The store was then set ablaze in the December 1991 incident.
Barbara Wilson, the mother of the Harbison sisters, expressed gratitude during the press conference, stating, “I’m full of gratitude. It has been so long.”
According to investigators, the assailant entered the store through the back door during closing time, attacked the girls, and started the fire. The bodies were discovered while firefighters were battling the flames.
Details from the autopsy report indicated the brutality of the attack, with the victims’ hands tied with underwear and mouths gagged with cloth. Ayers had been shot twice, and evidence suggested she had fought back, with DNA retrieved from under her fingernails crucial in identifying the suspect.
Sonora Thomas, Eliza’s sister, acknowledged the support from the community but lamented the loss of a future with her sisters. She expressed, “We have been robbed of a life of nieces and nephews and grandchildren, and with sisters to grow old with.”
Brashers, previously convicted in Florida for a 1985 shooting, was linked to the 1998 murders of Sherri Scherer and her daughter in Missouri. Authorities also connected him to other violent crimes in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Officials stated they were unaware of Brashers’ purpose in Austin but noted he was apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso shortly after the yogurt shop murders, carrying a firearm later linked to the homicides. Additionally, a bullet casing from the crime scene matched fragments from an unsolved homicide in Kentucky.
Brashers’ daughter expressed surprise and remorse upon learning about her father’s connection to the recent deaths. She conveyed apologies to the affected families.
The announcement coincided with the release of an HBO documentary series, “The Yogurt Shop Murders,” renewing interest in the case.
