AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- For 34 years, the brutal killings of four Austin teenagers - Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Sarah Harbison, and Jennifer Harbison - have cast a shadow over the city of Austin. Monday, Austin Police announced a "significant breakthrough" in the 1991 yogurt shop murders.
"Today, I’m hopeful. My hopefulness is that we can turn a page as a community – and hopefully the final page – on this horror that marked a very different time in Austin’s history,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said. “We can take heart in our growth and progress and strength as a city. And we can go to sleep knowing that while the threat of this kind of evil may never pass in this world, we are far, far better able to prevent it before it happens and solve it when it does.”
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis confirmed that a match was found between the only physical evidence at the scene and Robert Eugene Brashers, who died by suicide in 1999.
"For the families... today marks a critical step forward in honoring, not only their memory, but getting at truth and accountability," Davis said, calling the case one of the "most devastating and haunting" in the city's history.
The four girls, two employees and two friends, were tragically shot at an "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" shop near Northcross Mall on West Anderson Lane on December 6, 1991. The building was set ablaze, and investigators believe at least one of the victims was sexually assaulted.
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Forensics and Closure
Lead investigator Detective Dan Jackson outlined how ballistics and cutting-edge DNA testing finally linked the cold case to Brashers, a man with a history of sexual assault, using multiple weapons, and tying his victims.
The key breaks came from connecting the .380 pistol shell casing to another cold case in Kentucky via the NIBIN database, and using an advanced Y-STR DNA profile in 2018 to link Brashers to a similar crime in South Carolina. Less than two days after the murders, Brashers was documented fleeing through El Paso with a stolen car and a .380 pistol matching the murder weapon's make and model.
"I’m sorry it took us 34 years to get here,” Jackson admitted. “But we’re here now.”
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The Long Road to Justice
The identification of Brashers not only addresses the central mystery of the murders but also acknowledges the devastating impact of the subsequent wrongful convictions in the case. In 1999, Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen were convicted based on confessions they later said were coerced. Both men were exonerated and released in 2009 after new genetic evidence came to light.
"This case stole decades of my life, but the truth has finally come to light,” Scott said in a statement released Monday.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza noted that while the primary suspect is deceased, the investigation remains ongoing to complete all "investigative steps."