After more than three decades, investigators have finally identified a suspect in a Texas cold case involving a quadruple murder.
Austin police announced on Friday that they connected Robert Eugene Brashers to the brutal slaying of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in 1991 using DNA evidence.
Brashers, who took his own life in 1999, was previously considered a potential serial predator, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman.
In 1985, he was convicted of attempted murder for shooting a woman in the head, resulting in a 12-year prison sentence.
However, he was released early in 1989 after only three years behind bars, according to the Statesman.
Following his release, he ended his life after a standoff with police at a motel where he was hiding with his family, whom he had released prior to his suicide.
Posthumously, DNA analysis also linked Brashers to three separate rapes and murders in Missouri and South Carolina, including cases involving a mother and daughter, as well as a rape in Tennessee.
During the early 2000s, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott – both teenagers during the original crimes – were charged and found guilty of these murders.
Springsteen and Scott received sentences of death and life imprisonment, respectively, but their convictions were later vacated on appeal due in part to the lack of DNA evidence linking them to the crimes.
The case, which has come to be known as the “Yogurt Shop Murders,” continues to shock the Austin community and remains officially unsolved.
HBO launched a docuseries titled “The Yogurt Shop Murders” last month, highlighting the tragic events surrounding these killings.
The victims, Amy Ayers (13), Eliza Thomas (17), and sisters Jennifer (17) and Sarah Harbison (15), were found bound, gagged, and shot in the head at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” store where two of them worked; the building was then subsequently set ablaze.
“Our investigative team never stopped pursuing this case,” stated the Austin police in a release on Friday.
A conference is set for Monday, where officials will present the newly uncovered evidence related to the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
