HBO
The almost 34-year-old “Yogurt Shop Murders” – the subject of a recent HBO documentary – appear to have finally been solved by Austin, Texas police. With this new development, the families of the four young girls who were fatally shot, then burned in a I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop on Dec. 6, 1991 may finally now have some peace.
The case recently gained attention thanks to the recent release of a four-part HBO documentary called The Yogurt Shop Murders about the murders of Jennifer Harbison (17), her sister Sarah (15), Eliza Thomas (17), and Amy Ayers (13). It also highlighted the wrongful arrests of four young men for the crime, one of which, Robert Springsteen IV, was sentenced to death, but later released when his conviction was overturned.
“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,” Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said about the four men who were previously charged with the crime.
The killer finally revealed?
According to Austin city officials, the new suspect, Robert Eugene Brashers, was never considered a suspect in the murders during the initial investigation. Brashers, who had no personal connection to the city of Austin, was a serial killer linked to at least other three murders, including the 1990 killing of Genevieve Zitricki in Greenville, South Carolina, and the 1998 killing of Sherri Scherer and her daughter, Megan, near Portageville, Missouri.
Brashers’ criminal record also included attempted murder, burglary and impersonating a police officer. He died by suicide in 1999, shooting himself during an hours-long standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri, eight years after the yogurt shop girls’ murders.
Austin Police Department statement
The Austin Police Department told the Austin American-Statesman that Brashers was identified using genealogy DNA and ballistic evidence.
“Austin Police have made a significant breakthrough in the 1991 I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt murder case and we have new information,” the police department said in a statement. “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 of Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers, all innocent lives taken senselessly and far too soon. We have identified a suspect in these murders through a wide range of DNA testing. The suspect is Robert Eugene Brashers, who committed suicide in 1999. This remains an open and ongoing investigation.”
Neither Austin Police, nor city officials, have been able to provide a motive as to why the four girls were murdered in 1991, but did say that “at this point there is no evidence [Brashers] had an accomplice.” They also revealed that “less than 48 hours after the murders, he was stopped by Border Patrol agents near El Paso” and a run of his license plates showed the car he was driving had been reported stolen. Police seized a .380 pistol during the stop, but Brashers fled from the agents. The gun was eventually turned over to Brashers’ father. It was the same one he used to kill himself.
Suspect’s daughter speaks
Deborah Brashers-Claunch, the daughter of Robert Eugene Brashers, who was an infant at the time of the “Yogurt Shop Murders” spoke to KXAN News.
“I am very sorry to every family that my father hurt,” she said. “I know that it is not my place at all to tell you I am sorry, but someone has to because he was not sorry for it and half of my DNA is the person that hurt you the most, so I want to tell you sorry, and I am so sorry for everything. But I am finally glad that you are getting answers.”
She also mentioned that she didn’t know why he ended up in Austin, other than he worked in construction, but she wouldn’t be surprised if more crimes perpetrated by her late father are eventually uncovered.