Could a DNA pattern from greater than 30 years in the past remedy the notorious yogurt store homicide case?

The Yogurt Shop Murders: A Case Update

In September 2025, one of the original investigators in the Austin, Texas, yogurt shop murders told “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty exclusively that Robert Eugene Brashers, a serial killer and rapist who is deceased, has been identified as a suspect in the case. This new development brings renewed hope to a case that has gone unsolved for over 30 years.

On December 6, 1991, four teenage girls, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, and two sisters, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison and 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, were found gagged, tied up with their own clothing, and shot in the head in an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop in Austin. The crime scene was further compromised by a fire, which was set by the perpetrator(s), destroying much of the evidence.

Inside the yogurt shop were the charred bodies of four teenage girls ranging from 13 to 17 years old. The victims, clockwise from top left: Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Sarah Harbison and Jennifer Harbison.
AP Images

The investigation into the yogurt shop murders was one of the largest and most extensive in Austin’s history. In 1999, four men, Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce, and Forrest Welborn, were arrested and charged with the murders. However, their convictions were later overturned on constitutional grounds, and the charges against them were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.

The DNA Evidence

In 2009, the Travis County District Attorney’s office decided to use a new type of DNA testing called Y-STR testing to search for and extract male DNA only. The testing was conducted on vaginal swabs taken from the victims at the time of the murders. As a result, a partial male DNA profile was obtained from one of the girls, but it did not match any of the four men who were arrested.

In October 1999, nearly eight years after the yogurt shop murders, Austin police announced the arrest of four suspects in the case. Pictured clockwise from top left are Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott. All four men had been questioned within days of the murders, but the lack of any hard evidence connecting them to the crime meant that none of them were charged at the time.
AP Photos

Despite the lack of progress in the case, officials have continued to pursue new leads and technologies. In 2017, an Austin police investigator searched a public online DNA database used for population studies and found a potential match. However, the sample in the database had been submitted anonymously by the FBI, and the agency would not provide a name, citing privacy laws.

Key Moments in the Investigation

Over the years, the investigation into the yogurt shop murders has been marked by several key moments, including the initial arrests and convictions of the four men, the overturning of their convictions, and the subsequent DNA testing. More recently, the case has seen new developments, including the identification of Robert Eugene Brashers as a suspect.

Key moments in the investigation of Austin’s yogurt shop murders
19 photos

According to Congressman Michael McCaul, who has been involved in the case, the DNA sample from the crime scene still exists, although it is limited. He hopes that advances in DNA technology will eventually lead to a breakthrough in the case. “It’s everything,” he says.

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