How a 'Yogurt Shop Murders' Victim’s Final Struggle Led Police to a Serial Killer Suspect 34 Years Later By Christina Coulter

For decades, the “Yogurt Shop Murders” — four teenage girls bound, gagged and killed in a brutal 1991 crime that baffled investigators — cast a shadow over Austin, Texas. Now, police say DNA and ballistics evidence point to a long-dead suspect with a violent past.

On Sept. 29, the Austin Police Department announced that Robert Eugene Brashers, a suspected serial killer who died by suicide in 1999, has been identified as the man responsible for the murders of Jennifer Harbison, 17; her sister Sarah Harbison, 15; Eliza Thomas, 17; and Amy Ayers, 13, according to a press release.

The teens were killed on Dec. 6, 1991, inside an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop, where two of the girls worked, per the department.

That night, a patrol officer spotted flames rising from the shop, the agency said. When firefighters went inside, they made a horrifying discovery: four teenage girls bound, gagged, stripped nude and shot to death. The blaze had scorched their bodies, making the crime even more agonizing for families — and harder for police to solve.

Detectives chased thousands of leads over the years, including multiple false confessions, the Associated Press reported. In 1999, police arrested four men who were juveniles at the time of the crime.

Two of them, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, confessed and implicated each other, but later recanted and said their statements were coerced, per the outlet. Both were convicted, but the convictions were overturned, and the charges were dropped in 2009 after DNA evidence excluded them.

“This case stole decades of my life, but the truth has finally come to light,” Scott said in a statement issued through his attorney, per the AP.

In 2022, Detective Daniel Jackson of APD’s cold case unit began a fresh review of the evidence, according to the department. He and forensic experts selected items for retesting, including a .380 cartridge collected from the yogurt shop crime scene.

When the cartridge was reexamined through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network in June 2025, it matched an unsolved 1998 crime in Kentucky. Jackson said that case had similarities to the Austin murders, though he did not provide details, the AP reported.

Authorities then began comparing DNA from the Austin evidence with profiles connected to violent crimes in other states. In August, officials in South Carolina told APD that advanced DNA tests on a sample taken from under Amy Ayers’ fingernail matched Brashers, who had also been linked to a 1990 murder in Greenville, per the release and The New York Times.

“Amy’s final moments on this Earth were to solve this case for us,” Jackson said at a press conference, according to the AP. “It’s because of her fighting back.”

Brashers was also linked by DNA and other evidence to violent crimes in Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee, including the 1990 strangulation of a South Carolina woman, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee, and the 1998 murders of a Missouri mother and daughter, the AP reported.

Brashers himself died in January 1999, when he shot himself during a standoff with Missouri police. The gun he used was the same make and model as the weapon used in the Austin killings, according to APD.

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Travis County District Attorney José Garza said the “overwhelming weight of the evidence” points to Brashers as the killer and to the innocence of the men previously arrested.

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“If the conclusions of APD’s investigation are confirmed, as it appears that they will be, I will say: I am sorry, though I know that that will never be enough,” Garza said, per the AP.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office said its Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit played a critical role in the investigation, working with local and out-of-state labs to confirm Brashers’ identity.

“My team has worked tirelessly on this case for years, and this development is a testament to their dedication and hard work,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis called the development “a significant breakthrough in one of the most devastating cases in our city’s history.”

The announcement brought a measure of resolution to families who have waited nearly 34 years for answers.

“Austin lost its innocence the night those young souls became victims,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said. “Today was a long time coming.”

Relatives of the victims spoke after Monday’s press conference. Sonora Thomas, sister of Eliza Thomas, said she had long feared she would never live to see the case solved.

“I now know what happened, and that does ease my suffering,” she said.

Barbara Wilson, mother of Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, echoed that sentiment: “We never wanted anyone to go to jail or be charged with anything that they didn’t do,” she said. “Vengeance was never it. It was always the truth.”