AUSTIN (KXAN) — After 34 years, a break in Austin’s most infamous cold case led to the identification of the suspect believed to be linked to the Yogurt Shop Murders, whom police called a “serial killer.”
The suspect was identified by officials as Robert Eugene Brashers, who is connected with several other violent crimes across the southeast U.S. He died by suicide in 1999.
Fighting a fire at an Austin yogurt shop turned into a homicide investigation when first responders found four bodies in the burning shop called “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” in north Austin on Anderson Lane on Dec. 6, 1991.
The victims, all teenage girls, whose deaths rocked the community were 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, her sister, 15-year-old Sarah, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas and 13-year-old Amy Ayers.
Brashers had a lengthy criminal history with various violent crimes.
Brashers was initially charged for shooting and beating a woman in Florida. He met the woman in a public parking lot on Nov. 22, 1985. The woman then went with Brashers to a remote citrus grove, where he told her he was the devil before shooting three time, including in the head, before she was able to run away according to The Fort Pierce Tribune. He was convicted of attempted murder in 1986, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a 2018 news release.
According to the Pierce Tribune, Brashers was expected to receive 12 years in prison for the attempted murder in Florida. However, he only served three and a half years in prison and was released in 1989, according to The Greenville News.
In 2018, advancements in DNA evidence helped investigators link Brashers to three other murders. He was accused of murder in the 1990 death of a South Carolina woman.
In 1992, Brasher was arrested in Georgia for the possession of a stolen pistol and stolen vehicle. He also “had a scanner, police jacket, burglary tools and a fake Tennessee license when he was arrested.” He was sentenced in connection with the possession charges and was then released in February 1997, according to The Greenville News.
He was also linked by Memphis police to the rape of a Memphis teen, according to previous reporting from WREG in Memphis, Tennessee. Authorities also accused Brashers of a 1998 double homicide in Missouri.
Then, in 1999, Brashers died by suicide after a standoff with police that lasted four hours at a motel in southeast Missouri, according to The Lake Sun Leader.
Officers tracked Brashers down after checking on a vehicle that had stolen license plates. Police then went to the motel where he was at, along with his family.
Police were able to convince Brashers over the phone to allow his wife and three children out of the motel room. Negotiations with Brashers continued until police heard a single gunshot. He was found with a gunshot wound to the head, and he later died at the hospital, according to The Lake Sun Leader.
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