Solved: The Yogurt Shop Murders

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1:58discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

2:09Today, I'm discussing the murders of 13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, and sisters 15-year-old Sarah Harbison and 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, whose collective murders are most often referred to as the yogurt shop murders. We are interrupting our regular newscast with some important breaking news that so many may have waited decades to hear. Authorities are telling us that it's a resolution to one of the defining events in Austin's history. Yeah, KVU News has confirmed investigators with the Austin Police Department believe they have solved the infamous yogurt shop murders after nearly 34 years.

2:50Finally, an answer to this question that has haunted Austin for decades. Who killed these girls? This is the case of the Ogre Shop murders. In Austin, Texas in 1991, the city was on the verge of becoming the place we know today, a tech hub, a cultural destination. But back then, it was still a big town that felt small, a place that believed itself safe from the kind of darkness that haunted bigger cities. At the Hillside Strip Mall on West Anderson Lane, there was a shop called I Can't Believe It's Yogurt. It was really a symbol of that everyday American life. A place for after-school treats, first dates, and first jobs.

3:36A place of simple, ordinary innocence. But on the cold night of December 6th, 1991, this symbol of innocence became the scene of an unspeakable crime, an act of such brutal violence that it would steal four young lives and leave a wound on the soul of the city that would fester for nearly 34 years. Amy, Eliza, Jennifer, and Sarah would become permanently etched into the city's memory. Their story became a decades-long quest, not just for a killer, but for the truth. It was a quest marred by false starts, thousands of dead-end leads, wrongful convictions that sent innocent men to prison, and ultimately, a scientific breakthrough that no one, not the investigators, not the families, not the city of Austin, ever saw coming.

4:26What happened inside the yogurt shop on that cold December night? And how did one of the most infamous cold cases in Texas history finally find its answer? In this episode, I'll provide a basic overview of the crimes, and delve deeper into how they were solved. If you are brand new to this case and want to learn more about the crimes themselves, you can listen to my three-part coverage on this case that was published a few years back. I'll have the links in this episode's description. Now, before we descend into the darkness of that December night, it's essential to understand the light that was extinguished.

5:04To truly understand the magnitude of the loss that Austin suffered, we must first know the vibrant, promising lives that were taken. These weren't just names on a case file. They were daughters, sisters, and friends, each with a future full of possibility. Jennifer Harbison, age 17, and Sarah Harbison, age 15, were inseparable sisters. Their lives intertwined through family and shared passions. Both were active and dedicated members to the Future Farmers of America, or FFA, and together they were raising sheep for an upcoming livestock show. Jennifer, a popular and outgoing senior at Lanier High School, was a tiny girl, standing at just 5 feet tall and weighing only 86 pounds.

5:50But she was a force of nature. She was a relay runner on the varsity track team, and a leader, serving as the district vice president of the FFA and president of her school's chapter. Her younger sister Sarah was a sophomore who played both volleyball and basketball. Just three weeks before her murder, her new boyfriend had given her his senior ring, a powerful symbol of young love that she wore proudly on the night she died. Eliza Thomas, age 17, was one of the employees working at the yogurt shop that night. An FFA member alongside the Harbison sisters, she and Jennifer had both just been nominated for FFA Queen.

6:31a testament to their shared standing in the community. But Eliza's passions were wide-ranging. She was an avid reader with a natural talent for language, and many believe she was destined to be a writer. She was also mechanically inclined, pouring her earnings from the yogurt shop into her beloved 1971 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. She worked on the car herself, a classic she'd chosen because its bright green color matched her emerald birthstone. She was bright, determined, and independent. Amy Ayers, at just age 13, was the youngest of the four victims. Described as a quiet, religious country girl, she had a profound love for horses and animals and dreamed of one day becoming a veterinarian.

7:17She'd been riding since she was three years old and was so comfortable on her family's ranch that she was known to put leashes on pigs and take them for walks. It was her close friendship with Sarah Harbison that brought her to the yogurt shop that night, a bond forged in the shared camaraderie of the FFA. Their lives were filled with the simple joys and complex dreams of youth, vibrant and full of promise, until a senseless act of violence cut them tragically short. On the night of Friday, December 6, 1991, the girls were closing up the I Can't Believe It's yogurt shop. It was a routine they knew well, but shortly before midnight, a patrol officer on duty spotted smoke and fire coming from the strip mall.

8:01He called it in, and the Austin Fire Department was dispatched to the scene. What the firefighters discovered inside was a scene of unimaginable horror. As Detective Daniel Jackson would later recount, the four girls were found in the back of the shop. They were nude, bound, and gagged with their own clothing used as ligatures. Each of them had been shot execution-style in the head. An autopsy would reveal that the youngest, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, had been shot twice, with two different caliber pistols, a.22 and a.380. The perpetrator had then set the building on fire before fleeing. The immediate challenges for investigators were immense.

8:45The intense heat of the fire, followed by the high-pressure water used to extinguish it, had decimated the crime scene. As Detective Jackson explained, this, quote, basically destroyed pretty much anything else that you were going to try to collect. End quote. Most of the physical evidence was lost forever. In the immediate aftermath, the only key piece recovered was a single, spent 380 shell casing, found preserved by chance in a floor drain. This single shell casing, and really the fragmented memories of the last customers, where all investigators had to go on. It was the beginning of a massive and frustrating investigation, one that was about to go down a tragically wrong path almost immediately.

9:32In the aftermath of a crime that had, in the words of Austin's mayor, stolen the city's innocence, the pressure to find a killer was crushing. This immense public pressure combined with a near total lack of physical evidence created the perfect storm for a flawed investigation. In the absence of forensic proof, detectives were forced to rely on tips, and most perilously, on confessions. The Austin Police Department was inundated with thousands of tips and dozens of false confessions from people all over the country. This created a chaotic environment, a fog of misinformation that made it difficult to discern any real leads.

10:14Then, just eight days after the murders, police got what they thought was their first major break. A 16-year-old named Maurice Pierce, who was with his friend Forrest Welburn at the time, was arrested at the nearby North Cross Mall for carrying a.22 caliber pistol. After several hours of interrogation, Pierce confessed. In his statement, he implicated three of his friends, Forrest Welburn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott. At the time, police interviewed all four teenagers. However, ballistic tests on Pierce's pistol came back inconclusive. With no other evidence to hold them, all four were eliminated as suspects and released.

10:59The lead went cold. For years, the case stalled, and the families were left without answers. But investigators would eventually revisit this initial flawed lead, a decision that would lead to one of the darkest chapters in the history of Austin's justice system. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Money is this invisible thread that ties us all together. It's something everyone has to deal with. That's why teaching kids about money isn't just smart, it's essential. Greenlight is a debit card and money app for families. It's a safe way to teach kids and teens about money. With Greenlight, parents can send money quickly, get spending notifications, and even assign chores.

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13:27In 1999, a new task force re-interrogated Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welburn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott. After lengthy and intense interrogations, both Springsteen and Scott delivered confessions implicating each other in the crime. Springsteen confessed after five hours. Scott confessed after an 18-hour interrogation, which was part of a questioning period that spanned four days. Based on these statements, all four were arrested for capital murder. Their fates diverged from there. A grand jury no-billed Forrest Welburn, and charges against Maurice Pierce were eventually dropped. But Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott were tried, convicted, and sent to prison.

14:14Scott received a sentence of life without parole. Springsteen was sentenced to death. Crucially, as District Attorney Jose Garza would later state, there was never any physical evidence linking any of the four men to the yogurt shop. Their convictions rested entirely on the confessions. As Garza himself declared, quote, The overwhelming weight of the evidence points to the innocence of Maurice Pierce, Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen IV, and Forrest Welburn, end quote. But before that truth could be acknowledged, two men would spend nearly a decade in prison for a crime they did not commit, waiting for a legal and scientific turning point to set them free.

14:58Now, the first domino to fall was a legal one. The landmark 2004 Supreme Court case Crawford v. Washington fundamentally changed the rules of evidence, barring the use of one defendant's taped or written confession against another in court. And since the convictions of Springsteen and Scott relied heavily on using their separate, recanted confessions against one another, both men were granted new trials. It was in preparation for these retrials that science delivered the final, decisive blow to the prosecution's case. Investigators decided to re-examine the sexual assault kits from the 1991 crime scene using a new technology called YSTR testing.

15:40This more advanced test specifically looks for the genetic information on the male chromosome, making it a powerful tool for identifying male DNA in a sample. And the results were stunning. The test developed a clear profile of an unknown male whose DNA was present at the crime scene. And when this profile was compared against the DNA of the four men who'd been arrested, all four were explicitly excluded. In 2009, with the scientific evidence irrefutably pointing away from them, all charges against Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen were dropped pending further investigation. After nearly a decade behind bars, they were finally free.

16:25Years later, reflecting this entire ordeal, Michael Scott said, quote, this case stole decades of my life, but the truth has finally come to light, end quote. Four men were now free, but the case was colder than ever. The city of Austin and the victim's families were left with one haunting question. If it wasn't them, who was the unknown man whose DNA was found all over the crime scene? While Austin investigators spent years chasing false leads and prosecuting the wrong men, a prolific and violent predator was cutting a path of terror across the country. He was a man whose name had never once surfaced in the yogurt shop investigation.

17:07Really, a ghost in the system, whose horrific crimes would only be connected decades after his own death. His name was Robert Eugene Brashers. His known history of violence was extensive. In 1985, he was arrested in Florida for shooting a woman named Michelle Wilkerson after she rejected his sexual advances. Luckily, she lived. He was then sentenced to 12 years in prison, but served only four and was released on parole in May 1989. It was only after his death that his DNA would link him to a string of more brutal crimes. the 1990 sexual assault and murder of a woman in Greenville, South Carolina, named Genevieve Zitricki, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee, and the 1998 shooting of a mother and her 12-year-old daughter in Missouri, Sherry and Megan Scherer.

18:04As Detective Jackson noted, between 2006 and 2017, they knew they had a serial killer in these different jurisdictions. They just didn't know who he was. The DNA had clearly linked the crimes, but the killer remained unknown It wasn't until 2018, through the power of genetic genealogy, that the investigators in those states were finally able to identify him After tracing his family tree, they received a judge's order to have his body exhumed from a cemetery in Arkansas, confirming his identity The final chapter of Robert Brasher's life was written in 1999. During an hours-long standoff with police at a motel in Missouri, he died by suicide.

18:47In a moment of staggering, dramatic irony, the real killer of the four girls in Austin was dead before the yogurt shop four were even put on trial. As investigators from multiple states began to piece together Brasher's violent history, a clear and chilling M.O. emerged. Once they really began putting all this together, the patterns of his crimes painted this portrait of a meticulous and ruthless predator. He was known to carry multiple weapons. He was also known to tie up his victims, often using their own clothing as bindings. He was known to sexually assault young female victims when given the opportunity.

19:29He often shot his victims in the head. and he was never known to have an accomplice. During a 1997 home invasion in Memphis, he was able to control four women entirely on his own. Of course, this established M.O. mirrored the horrific details of the Austin Yogurt Shop crimes. The use of two different caliber pistols, the victims bound with their own clothing, the sexual assault, the execution-style gunshots, and the fact that a lone actor overpowered four victims. These were connections that investigators wouldn't make for nearly 34 years. Josie, it's your new nanny, Polly. The hand that rocks the cradle, a Hulu original.

20:18What do you know about her? Now streaming. You think if you try hard enough, you can stop bad things from happening, but you can't. Good help. Get out! is hard to find. You need me to do this. A Hulu original, the hand that rocks the cradle. Rated R, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. For bundled subscribers, terms apply. The pinnacle of this 34-year saga began in 2022, when Austin police cold case detective Daniel Jackson inherited the case. His fresh perspective, combined with the incredible advances in forensic technology that were not available to his predecessors would finally provide the key to unlock one of America's most stubborn cold cases.

21:06So how did it happen? Well, the first crucial step came in June 2025. Detective Jackson decided to re-examine the single piece of evidence that had survived the fire, that 380 shell casing recovered from the floor drain. He resubmitted it to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN. Although the casing had been entered before, years had passed, and the software powering the system was now vastly more powerful and sophisticated, using 3D imaging to compare the markings. And on the morning of July 2, 2025, the system returned a hit. The NIBIN database linked the shell casing from the Austin yogurt shop to a weapon used in an unsolved 1998 murder in Kentucky, that crime shared a disturbingly similar MO, including the fact that the store had been set on fire to destroy evidence.

22:02For the first time in years, investigators had a tangible lead. With the Kentucky connection established, Detective Jackson took another innovative step. He knew that the unknown male YSTR DNA profile was the key to this case, So he initiated a nationwide manual search, reaching out to every crime lab in the country that conducted YSTR testing and asking them to search their local databases against the profile from Austin. I want to reiterate that this was not an automated process. It required an analyst at each lab to run the comparison by hand. And only one lab in the entire country responded with a potential match, the South Carolina State Lab.

22:48What followed was an agonizing two-week wait as the lab's legal department reviewed the request, and forensic analysts worked to confirm the findings. They knew they had someone, but they didn't have a name. Finally, on August 22nd, the confirmation came. The South Carolina lab had a perfect match from a sexual assault and murder case they'd solved in 1990 out of Greenville. The YSTR profile was a perfect 27 for 27 marker match to the unknown profile from the yogurt shop. The name of their suspect was Robert Eugene Brashers. When Detective Jackson got on the phone with the Greenville detective, the first question he was asked sent a chill down his spine.

23:34Quote, Your victims, were they bound with their own clothing? End quote. With Robert Brashers now identified as the prime suspect, there was one final, irrefutable piece of evidence that would cement the case. And in my opinion, one of the most heartbreaking. Using the newest, most sensitive technology available, investigators retested one last item from the 1991 autopsy of 13-year-old Amy Ayers. Her fingernail clippings. The result was stunning and definitive Underneath Amy's fingernails, they found Brasher's DNA And the statistical probability was staggering It was 2.5 million to 1 that the DNA belonged to Brasher's versus an unknown individual In her final moments, Amy had fought back against her attacker Scratching him and collecting the very evidence that would identify him 34 years later As Detective Jackson very powerfully stated, quote, I'm sorry that it took 34 years for us to get here, but we're here now.

24:47And you know, Amy's final moments on this earth were to solve this case for us. It's because of her fighting back. End quote. Amy Ayers is truly a hero. Investigators then connected this to Brasher's movements. Less than 48 hours after the murders, he was stopped at a border checkpoint near El Paso, Texas, driving a stolen truck. In his possession was an AMT 380 pistol, the same make and model identified by ballistics as the weapon used to kill Amy. Decades later, investigators confirmed it was the very same gun rashers used to die by suicide in the Missouri standoff in 1999. The serial number was a perfect match A75213 The case was solved All that remained was to tell the world And most importantly, to tell the families who'd waited over three decades for this day The press conference on September 29, 2025 Was a moment of profound public and private catharsis For the city of Austin, it was the closing of a painful 34-year-old wound For the families of the four girls, it was the end of a lifetime of not knowing.

26:06One by one, they stepped to the podium, their voices filled with a complex mix of grief, relief, and gratitude. First was Barbara Wilson, the mother of Jennifer and Sarah Harbison. I'm really excited about being here. It's been a crazy couple of days, and I just really came here to say I'm full of gratitude. It has been so long, and all we ever wanted for this case was the truth. We never wanted anyone to go to jail or be charged with anything that they did not do. Vengeance was never it. It was always the truth. and I'm here to really talk about the police department and how involved and supportive they have been from the very beginning.

26:58We have Mike Huckabee, and please keep him in your prayers. His health is bad. And him and John Jones, they were the first people that we fell in love with on the force because they told us about what had happened. And starting with those guys, 34 years ago. They have been in our lives and our families all of this time. And every officer that I see in Austin that has been there for us and loved us and what they have done, people don't understand how hard they work. Everybody is concerned for the solving of the case. Everybody was concerned about all of us here because they know the tragedy was so painful and continues to be.

27:44But I really just came to say thank you for the Austin Police Department and all the love and support that you have given us over these 34 years. And I thank you for that. Next was Sonora Thomas, the sister of Eliza Thomas. Ten years ago, my mom died I went to the cemetery on Hancock To fill out the paperwork And the clerk behind the desk When she looked up the location Of my mom's plot Paused And then she said I've lived in Austin for so long Please know that your family Has always been in my prayers I hadn't lived in Austin for 20 years at that point But it was such a comfort To hear this woman's words Without even saying anything to her about who I was The outpouring of love From strangers because of these tragic circumstances Has taught me about the nature of humanity Living through something like this You would think that I'd feel worse about humanity, but instead I feel better.

29:05When I think about those early days, I think about Nell Meyers, Bernoulli Carr, from people against violent crimes coming to our house, taking us out to lunch. They even took me, a 13-year-old girl, clothes shopping.

29:29Don and Susan Cox From the Christie Center Let my mom sleep on the couch When she was too scared to go home