DNA evidence links a dead man to the 1991 killings of 4 girls at Texas yogurt shop
Sep 26, 2025, 4:34 PM | Updated: 5:18 pm
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — DNA evidence has helped to identify a new suspect in the unsolved killing of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in 1991, a man who died by suicide in 1999, police said Friday.
In a statement, police said they had made a “significant breakthrough” and that DNA tests have led investigators to Robert Eugene Brashers. Police said the case known as the “Yogurt Shop Murders” remains open and scheduled a Monday news conference to detail their findings.
Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 1; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were 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 set on fire.
The murders stunned Texas’ capital city and became known as one the area’s most notorious crimes. Two men who were teenagers at the time of the murders were later tried, convicted and sent to death row and life in prison before their convictions were eventually reversed on appeal.
The case was also the subject of a recent documentary series on HBO.
