The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders, recently covered in a HBO docuseries, have been solved

A suspect has been identified in the 1991 murders of four teenage girls in an Austin, Texas, yogurt shop, according to retired Austin detective John Jones, one of the original investigators who worked the case.

That suspect is Robert Eugene Brashers, who is deceased. Brashers is a serial killer and rapist who committed at least three murders between 1990 and 1998 in the states of South Carolina and Missouri. He died in January 1999 by suicide during a standoff with police. The gun he used to shoot himself is believed to be consistent with a bullet casing found in a drain inside the yogurt shop, says Jones. DNA recovered from the victims was used to ID Brashers.

On Dec. 6, 1991, 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. At least one of the girls had also been raped. The person responsible had also set the shop on fire, compromising much of the evidence.

Eliza and Jennifer had been working at the yogurt shop that night. They were getting ready to close when Jennifer's sister, Sarah, and their friend, Amy, met them there to head home.

In 1999, four men, Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn, were arrested and charged with the murders. The men were only teenagers at the time of the crime and intense interrogations got confessions from the boys after hours of questioning. While charges against Pierce and Welborn were dismissed, Springsteen was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 and Scott was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. DNA evidence found on victims Ayers and Jennifer Harbison later cleared all four.

The Yogurt Shop Murders, a 2025 American documentary miniseries produced by Emma Stone aired on HBO in August 2025 with interviews from the investigators, locals and the victims' families.