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The Yogurt Shop Murders have left Austin scarred for more than 30 years. Four teenage girls named Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, and Amy Ayers were brutally killed inside an "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt" store in the December of 1991, leaving the city distressed and investigators struggling to find the answers.
After years of false leads, overturned perspectives, and multiple dead ends, police now say they have finally identified the man behind the crime: serial offender Robert Eugene Brashers.
The information comes through newly advanced DNA testing. So, have the Yogurt Shop Murders been solved at last? Well, the authorities believe they have exposed the truth, but the case still officially remains open.
How investigators finally named Robert Brashers in the case of the Yogurt Shop Murders
For years on end, there were detectives who tried their best to decipher the mystery of the Yogurt Shop Murders, but the evidence never quite fit right. The turning point for the case came from a tiny DNA sample collected way back in 1991.
However, at the time, technology wasn't advanced, and they couldn't do much with it. But if you fast forward the tape 30 years later, we get advanced Y-STR testing, giving the investigators a genetic profile strong enough to make a match with the killer.
In September 2025, the Austin Police Department revealed that the DNA pointed to Robert Eugene Brashers. Brashers was already tied to several other violent crimes in the 1990s, including the r*pe of a 14-year-old girl and multiple murders across the South.
However, Brashers never stood trial for the Austin case, and he died by s*icide in 1999. The Austin police said the following in a public statement:
"This remains an open and ongoing investigation...Our team never gave up working this case. For almost 34 years they have worked tirelessly and remained committed to solving this case for the families."
Their announcement offered the most definitive link yet between the crime scene and a suspect long overlooked.
A crime that scarred Austin and the nation
The horror started off on December 6, 1991, when firefighters rushed to put out a fire at the yogurt shop. It is there that they discovered the bodies of four girls, with ages ranging from 13 to 17. They had been tied up, gagged, shot in the head, and lastly had been left inside the burning building. The brutality of these murders shocked Austin, and soon the Yogurt Shop Murders became national news.
Early in the investigation, police did arrest four young men named Maurice Pierce, Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, and Forrest Wellburn. Under intensive cross-questioning, some gave confessions that they later withdrew, claiming intimidation from the police.
Springsteen and Scott were convicted in the early 2000s, but those verdicts didn't last. DNA tests later showed the samples did not match any of them, leading to their release in 2009.
Detective Dan Jackson spoke to Deadline in August 2025, and he reflected on how the case had been stalled for so long. "We're cautiously optimistic about what we can do," he said, pointing to new DNA testing methods that gave them hope. Those tests, which were impossible back in the 1990s, finally cracked open the door to Brashers.
The HBO documentary and why the case stayed alive
While science played the key role in finally naming Brashers, public pressure also kept the Yogurt Shop Murders from fading into silence. In August 2025, HBO released a four-part documentary directed by Margaret Brown.
The mini-documentary not only revisited the twists and turns of the investigation but also gave space to the pain and torment that were and still are being carried by the victims' families.
Through interviews with detectives, lawyers, and family members, the documentary painted a full canvas of how the case had stayed in limbo for decades on end. Retired detective John Jones told CBS's 48 Hours that the gun Brashers used to kill himself in 1999 matched a casing found inside the yogurt shop's drain. The detail had long been buried but gained new weight as DNA evidence placed Brashers firmly in the picture.
The series reminded viewers that the Yogurt Shop Murders were never just a cold case file. They were a wound that shaped Austin's memory. By the time the police linked Brashers to the case, the groundwork had already been laid in the public eye, keeping the pressure alive for justice even if delayed.
So, have the Yogurt Shop Murders finally been solved? For the families, hearing Robert Brashers' name offers hoped-for clarity, though it cannot undo the years and years of pain that has been put on them. For now, the police have confirmed a DNA match, but they continue to call the case "open and ongoing."
In other words, a chapter may have been closed, but not the book. What is conclusive is that the persistence of detectives and the unbreakable strength of agonized families finally brought a measure of truth to one of Austin's darkest nights in December.
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