October 2, 2025 • 42 mins
Right now In true crime: Donna Adelson update, Diddy sentencing.
In 1991, 4 girls lost their lives at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. The case has had many twists and turns including false confessions and 2 men even being arrested and convicted with the murders. They were later released once DNA excluded them. Now in 2025 investigators have named their suspect, Robert Eugene Brashers. In this episode I discuss the press conference and how they came to discover Robert Brashers was responsible and also discuss his other crimes. Rest in peace to Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayres.
Sources for episode:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Eugene_Brashers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_murders
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/austin-yogurt-shop-murders-linked-known-serial-killer-rapist-through-dna.amp
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/01/yogurt-shop-murders-update/86445603007/
Press conference link: https://youtu.be/klSIXwTezr8?si=OSJze_M-_-wMNHK6
https://share.google/images/D0pZmLe1z8vFVQk4T
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as
talk of sexual assault. Please listen with discretion.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Well, mister Harris had been living there for some time
and some months had passed where he hadn't paid his rent.
They knock, nobody answered. They're concerned. The apartment was locked
and the alarm was on, so they go inside. Realized
something really bad has happened here.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
In October afternoon in two thousand and seven, Memphis deputies
were called to check on a tenant who hadn't paid rent.
What should have been a routine welfare check quickly spiraled
into something far more disturbing.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
You have some blood around the house. You have disheveled paperwork.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
The ac was blasting, dozens of candles were burned to
the wick, air fresheners stripped from outlets. Then they saw
a towel jammed under the bedroom door.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
So the police go in and what they encounter is
a horrible crime suit.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
A man was dead, and within two days multiple arrests
were made. On paper, it looked like swift justice. But
when I started looking, things didn't add up, and some
people were counting on no and noticing.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
It's just want to go the most poorly investigated cases
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It. Don't have no dealings with them. Don't let them live.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
We don't let them come in your house and they'll
rob your blind No, she's got just so you're gonna
sit there and tell us a pole face live.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You're gonna sit there line that fucking face.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know. He told me like, I just didn't do this,
and he was so convincing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
That's what worries me is that I am not ready
for the story to be out of the world, because
once that happens, I lose control of the narrative.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
This is more than an investigation into a murder. It's
about who we choose to believe, what gets ignored, and
the fact that looking the other way is still a choice.
I'm choosing not to. I'm Stephanie Timsley, and this is
everything they missed.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You're asking questions about me for what that shit was
glowed years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well it's open again. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together
we are going to work on warming up some cold cases.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's Kylie.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
We are going to go ahead and get into a
really quick right now in True Crime, and then we're
going to get into today's episode because it is huge
breaking news over the last week that the Austin yogurt
shot murders have been officially solved, and I cannot wait
to get into the details because my favorite part of
covering these cold cases is when there is breaking news
(03:06):
that one of them has been solved, and once we
talk about how they solved it, it is truly amazing
and it's just one of those things that really fires
me up.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So I cannot wait to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So a couple things I want to talk about right
now in True Crime. I don't know if I spoke
about this on the episode of last week, but Donna
Adelson was not granted a new trial, so thank god
we don't have to sit through all of that again,
because it truly was a hot mess on the defense
side for sure. And what comes next for Wendy that's
(03:43):
really the big question. So we are kind of in
a holding pattern there. I do think that they have
enough evidence to bring charges against her, but if it's
going to happen remains to be seen.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So we will be sure to stay on top of that.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And the last thing I want to talk about is
did it He is going to be sentenced on Friday,
so likely if you're listening to this Friday afternoon, over
the weekend, he has been sentenced. So they're asking for
eleven years and three months, which I guess in the
grand scheme of.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Things, is better than nothing.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I think he should be there for the rest of time,
but I'm not in charge, so it's going to be
interesting to see what happens.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I hope he gets some amount of time.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I want at least five years. I would love more,
but he was not found guilty on a lot of
his charges, so we are going to have to take
what we can get. But I will be sure to
keep you guys updated on that on social media. Be
sure you're following me over there on Instagram and Facebook,
(04:48):
and I will be sure to post when the sentence
is dropped.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's going to be very interesting, for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So I'm sure there's more going on in the true
crime world this week, but I have been so hyper
fixated on Austin yogurt chop being solved because this is
a big case, a huge case, I was actually just
talking about it with a couple of my friends a
few weeks ago, I think like two weeks ago, honestly,
and we were talking about everything, and you know, the
(05:20):
way that the case went down and how they always
thought that it was more than one suspect, And now
with everything that has come out in this press conference,
I have totally changed my mind on that because even
when they first announced that they had a suspect, I
said only one person. I feel like there was more
than one person. But after listening to the press conference,
which we're going to get into soon, I fully do
(05:43):
believe that this person acted alone because their mo was
very much what happened in Austin yogurt shop. But we're
going to get into all of that. I have been
trying to stay on top of everything as far as
any new type of developments in the Austin yogurt chop case.
The press conference happened the other day, and we are
(06:04):
going to go ahead and get into it now.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So let's go.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So we start off the press conference with Mayor Kirk Watson,
and he starts it off with a moment of silence
for the four victims, which is the most important part
of this whole case. Everything we're going to be talking
about today. We're gonna, unfortunately talk a lot about the suspect,
the perpetrator, the horrific human who did this to four
(06:30):
innocent girls. But starting off with the moment of silence
for Amy Airs, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, and Sarah Harbison
is really the whole reason that we're even talking about
this today because their case has been unsolved for so
long and it finally has a little.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Bit of resolution.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So he then goes on to say that there is
an official breakthrough in the case and that detectives are
going to outline everything for us during the press conference,
and their investigation is reliable and it has used technology
that was not available to them back when this crime
first occurred in nineteen ninety one. Then we get into
(07:16):
all of it, so we hear from Daniel Jackson, who
goes by Dan. He is the lead detective on the
case since twenty twenty two and ultimately one of the
people that helped solve this case with twenty twenty five eyes.
It really, honestly, listening to the press conference gave me
chills because some of the things that Dan said, which
(07:37):
we'll get into, very much proves what I say all
the time that technology is always advancing and you might
not be able to solve it in twenty twenty four,
but you're going to solve it in twenty twenty five.
So that, to me, I think is so promising for
so many of these cold cases that do have DNA,
it's just a matter of getting the right technology and
(08:00):
hitting on it at the right time. So let's get
into everything that Dan said. So for those of you
that aren't familiar with the case. In December of nineteen
ninety one, four teenage girls were found murdered in I
can't believe It's yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. The victims
were thirteen year old Amy Airs, seventeen year old Eliza Thomas,
(08:23):
seventeen year old Jennifer Harbison, and Jennifer's fifteen year old sister, Sarah.
Jennifer and Eliza had both worked at the yogurt shop,
and Sarah and her friend Amy basically went to the
yogurt shop to get a ride home with Jennifer after
closing at eleven. About an hour before closing time, there
was a man who was allowed to use the public
(08:45):
bathroom that was in the back of the restaurant, and
they did suspect that at this point in time he
might have jammed the back door open for easy access
to the restaurant after it closed. That was just a
speculation by law enforcement. And there was a another couple
of men sitting at a table and they were just
kind of acting, I guess, a little suspicious according to
(09:06):
some witnesses.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And this was just before closing time.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So around midnight, there was a policeman kind of patrolling
the area and he reported that he saw a fire
coming from the yogurt chop.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
He called that in.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Of course, first responders went and that's when they discovered
the bodies of the four girls inside. They had all
been shot and at least one of them had been
sexually assaulted. There was two murder weapons, which were a
twenty two and a three eighty pistol, and law enforcement
did speculate that the perpetrator likely exited through a back
(09:41):
door because that door was found unlocked. That was the
same door that they think the perpetrator initially could have
used to gain entry into the business after the girls
had closed it down. One thing that really stood out
to investigators about this crime was the manner in which
they were found. They were all tied up, but they
were tied up with their own clothes. There were a
(10:03):
couple of false confessions along the way, along with incarceration
of innocent people, which we're going to get into because
they talked about it in the press conference. So of course,
a lot of the evidence from the crime was destroyed
by the fire and of course the water that it
took to put the fire out. So this person that
did this knew what they were doing. They committed four
(10:26):
homicides and then they set fire to the place to
essentially wipe clean all of the evidence. And something else
I say all the time is you don't just wake
up one day and become a quadruple murder psychopath. You
do things in your life that lead you to this point.
And that's why for me, it never made sense that
(10:48):
the four teenagers that they suspected were a part of this,
because this was obviously somebody that knew what they were
doing unfortunately, and had a lot of knowledge, and they
were able.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
To get away with it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So I don't think four teenagers any day of the
week would be able to pull that off in such
a way where they would seemingly go unnoticed for such
a long time.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It just doesn't make sense to me. Okay, so let's
get back to the press conference.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
So Dan starts talking about everything how they came to
the conclusion.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That this suspect is the guy that did this.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So he said, all four victims had vaginal swabs that
were taken at both the scene and at autopsy. Now,
he said, this proved to be critical to solving the investigation. Now,
it was nineteen ninety one and investigators didn't really know
what technology was going to be coming in the.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Next few years. But luckily they did.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
They took the evidence, they did what they were supposed
to do, and that's what helped solve the case.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
In twenty twenty five. Dan went on to.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Say that there was also one three eighty fired cartridge
that was found in a floor drain at I can't
believe it's yogurt. And there were not an a twenty
two shell casings left behind. Now, like I said, all
four of the girls were shot, So the fact that
there was only one shellcasing that was left behind, I
think is significant because it tells you that the guy
(12:17):
who did this, knew what he was doing and picked
up the shell casings, but as fate would have it,
one went into this drain and he didn't realize it,
so that one was left behind, and that's part of
what helped nab this guy all these years later. So
he then goes on to talk about how the fire did,
of course destroy a lot of the evidence, which was
his plan, and that made it very difficult to process
(12:40):
the crime scene. He said at that point in time,
thousands of tips came in, and then he goes into
the false confession that was given from a teenager, Nae
Maurice Pearce. He was only sixteen years old at the time,
and eight days after the murders, he was taken in
because he had a twenty two gun in his ways
(13:00):
band at the mall.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So they took him.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
In to the station to kind of question him on
all of this, and he ended up saying that he
gave the gun to his friend who was named fors Welburn,
and fors Welburn is the one who killed the girls.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
So then when Forrest was.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Questioned, he said that his friends Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott,
along with Maurice, had all left.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Austin and gone to San Antonio the night after the murders.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So with this, they were all implicated in this four
person homicide. Young kids at this point they're teenagers. Police
did interview all four and they were pretty quickly eliminated
as suspects. Now really all they had was the ballistics.
So they did ballistics on the twenty two gun that
(13:49):
Maurice had and they tried to match them back to
the scene and the different fragments that were left, but
they were inconclusive. There was nothing that they could really
do to say if it was or wasn't the gun
that was used. The case pretty much stalled, and in
nineteen ninety nine a new task force was formed and
went back and looked at everything with the Maurice Pierce
(14:12):
confession and they went and reinterviewed the four people. So
in this Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott confessed. However the
other two did not, so they arrested and charged them
all with capital murder. In nineteen ninety nine, Forrest ended
up not being charged by the grand jury, and Maurice
(14:36):
Pierce ended up having his charges dropped, but Michael Scott
and Robert Springsteen were both sent to trial separately, and
they were both found guilty. Michael Scott was sentenced to
life in prison and Robert Springsteen was sentenced to the
death penalty.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So this is real serious stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
We're talking life in prison and death penalty based on
a confession alone. No other evidence tied them to yogurt Chop,
so that's all they had.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Now, they both.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Appealed their guilty verdicts and during this process they ended
up both being granted a new trial due to a
here say.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Clause that had come out.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And at this point in time, prosecutors realized, we need
to actually have something to tie these boys to the
Austin yogur Chot murders because they don't have anything. They
really needed that DNA evidence to link them. And again
this is happening years down the line, so they do
(15:39):
have a lot more capabilities and all with DNA testing.
So they go through that process and through this they.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Were able to figure out that these boys had nothing
to do with this.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
The DNA did not match, and in two thousand and nine,
the charges against the two were dropped, but Michael and
Robert spent a significant amount of time in jail and
Robert was on death row. So this just goes to
show you how easily a a false confession can happen
and be how the justice system will just kind of
(16:13):
sweep it through so they can call it solved and
call it a day. But these are people's lives, and
they were young when this happened. They were teenagers. The
brains weren't even fully developed yet. And then there's the
whole false confession of it all. And if you know
the West Memphis three, you know everything you need to
know about police tactics when interviewing and how these false
(16:38):
confessions come to be. So with them being released, they're
kind of back to square one trying to figure out
what they have and what they can do with what
they have. So they continued with the DNA that they had,
and they continued to test it with their new technology,
and they kept trying to identify the profile of the
(16:59):
DNA mar they had. Now they had a profile of
male DNA, but they did not have an identity for it.
But this mail profile was significant because they were finding
it on the other victims as well. It was a
ystr profile from the swabs that were taken from the victims.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So like I said.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
The case was inherited by Dan in twenty twenty two
and him and his team met with experts in DNA
and they went through everything, what they had, what they
didn't have, and what they could do with what they had.
So fast forward to June twenty twenty five. Dan said
he was kind of looking at the spent shell casing
(17:41):
and was trying to figure out what else they could do,
and he realized that it had not been resubmitted into
the Ballistic Information Network. He kind of explained this as
like a CODUS network, but for ballistics. If you add
a spent shell casing to this database, it could come
(18:04):
up that it was tied to other crimes across the
United States essentially, so very much like a database for DNA,
but for ballistics tied to crimes and other things.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Which is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So he said it had been submitted before, there was
never any hits, but there had new technology and you know,
updated to their software. So they said, yeah, let's go
ahead and run it. Let's go ahead and put it
back in. And they went ahead and put it in
to resubmit it, and they sent it on July second,
(18:39):
and they had a hit. And this was a hit
to an unsolved murder out of Kentucky. Now, they didn't
go into details about this unsolved murder in Kentucky, but
they said that the same gun that was used at
the yogurt chop is the same gun that was used
in this Kentucky unsolved crime. So they essentially collaborated with
(19:01):
these Kentucky investigators to try and solve these cases. Now
I don't know the status on the Kentucky case. I
still think that there is some things that they are
waiting to.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Come out on that.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
But they were able to say that that bullet that
was in that drain is the same bullet that was
used in this Kentucky case. So who does this bullet
belong to? So they have the other aspect, which is
the DNA, which, in my opinion, the DNA doesn't lie.
So this is when we get into the DNA analysis
(19:34):
of it all. So, like I said, they had this
Y profile of their suspect, but they really needed to
pull this all together and figure out who.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
This person was. So a ystr profile uses short tandem
repeat markers on the Y chromosome to create a DNA
profile for males, allowing for identification and tracing of paternal lineage. Why.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Str profiles are particularly useful in forensic investigations involving male
and female mixtures such as sexual assault cases, and they
specifically target and detect male DNA within these samples. They're
also used in kinship testing and identifying missing persons. So
with that they had this unknown male profile, they reached
(20:23):
out to all of the state crime labs to see
if they could manually search and compare against this unknown
male Y profile that they had on the suspect. Because
nothing was hitting in CODIS, nothing was coming up, so
he thought, what if they go in and the manually
search in all of their systems to see if anything
(20:45):
pops up. And with that, one crime lab in South Carolina,
the South Carolina State Lab, had a match. Now this
was a one hundred percent match. It matched twenty seven
out of twenty seven of the markers. Now, it took
two weeks to record and make sure that everything was
(21:06):
correct on this because of course they want to make
sure that everything is lining up. And sure enough it
was so on August twenty second, they discovered that it
was this same DNA mail profile from a sexual assault
and murder from nineteen ninety out of Greenville, South Carolina.
This person was a match one hundred percent. When he
(21:30):
talked to this investigator from the nineteen ninety case, the
guy from South Carolina said, I don't know anything about
the case that you are working, but did the victims
get tied up with their own clothes? And with that statement,
Dan said that the hair on his neck stood up
because he was just absolutely shocked that that was the
(21:53):
same thing that had happened to the four girls in Austin.
So that is when they were able to come up
with the suspect, who is named Robert Eugene Brashers, And
no shock here.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
He's a serial killer. He's done a lot of really.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Bad things over his span of life. He never should
have been out of prison, which that's a story we'll
get into in a little bit. So who is Robert
Eugene Brashers. We're going to talk a little bit about him.
He was born in March of nineteen fifty eight. He
was born in Newport News, Virginia, and he had two
(22:30):
older siblings.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I believe when Robert was young.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
His family moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and he spent his
whole childhood there. He reportedly didn't have any offenses or
crimes that he committed as a teenager.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
He wasn't an alcohol or drug user.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And then after high school, he enlisted in the army
and he also served in the Navy for several years.
So we don't know his experience as far as those
two things went. Who knows if something turned in him
during that time, because somewhere along the lines he became
a very evil human. In the early eighties, he resigned
(23:09):
from the army and went ahead and moved to Louisiana
and lived in New Orleans. And in the nineteen eighties
he left Louisiana and moved to Fort Myers, Florida, and
got married in the early nineties. Ended up having a
daughter with his wife in nineteen ninety one, the same
year that he killed the girls. So his first documented
(23:31):
reported crime was in November of nineteen eighty five, and
he was arrested in Florida on charges of assaulting a
twenty four year old woman who was named Michelle Wilkerson,
and investigators said that Robert had met Michelle in Fort
Pierce and asked her to accompany him to a bar,
(23:53):
so they went there hot a good evening and then
he took her to a dark alleyway attempted to make
sexual advances towards her, and she wanted no part of
it and attempted to leave Robert's vehicle. They ended up
fighting and then Robert ended up shooting her twice in
the neck and head. Now, miraculously, this woman ends up
(24:17):
surviving and ends up hiding in a culvert under the road,
and he ends up going to the beach.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
He threw his gun into the water.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And then he attempts to leave, but then his truckets
stuck in the sand. Divine intervention, Michelle is able to
report this to the police. She gives a description and
shortly after that they are able to find Robert Brashers
and take him in. So he was convicted the following year,
(24:49):
and he was sentenced to twelve years of prison and
for whatever reason, he was parolled for good conduct on
of nineteen eighty nine, twelve years only served for obviously
this was attempted murder. He shot her twice and he
(25:09):
served four years. So after Robert was released in May
of nineteen eighty nine, he moved around a lot. He
moved around from South Carolina to Tennessee to Georgia, and
he was just kind of a wanderer. He kind of
bounced around to and from We know that he was
in Austin in nineteen ninety one. Investigators have said they
(25:32):
don't know why he was in Austin, what ties he
had to Austin.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
They haven't been able to figure that out yet.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
In February of nineteen ninety two, he was arrested in
Georgia for grand theft, auto, unlawful possession of a weapon,
and theft. In this case, he ended up making a
plea deal with the prosecutors and he pled guilty to
most of the charges and most of the other ones
were dropped and he was sentenced to five years prison
(26:00):
for this, which he served and was released in February
of nineteen ninety seven. And then after his release, for
the next two years he moved between Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri.
In April of nineteen ninety eight, he attempted to break
into the home of a woman that he had been
employed by previously, and this was an Arkansas and he
(26:22):
basically had cut the wires leading to her home and
was armed at the time of his arrest. He ended
up being taken into custody, but was later released after
somebody posted his bail, because this guy just can't stay
behind bars for long and all. So in nineteen ninety nine,
there was a stolen vehicle that had been parked in
(26:43):
the parking lot of a Super eight hotel in Missouri,
and they spoke with hotel personnel and they discovered that
it was Robert Eugene Brasher's and his family that had
come to the hotel in that vehicle days earlier. They
obviously know that this guy has some priors. He is
(27:04):
probably not the most upstanding human. He has stolen this car,
So they ended up breaking down the door to his
hotel room and they found him hiding under a bed
with a loaded gun. They of course attempted to make
entry and arrest him, but he resisted and opened fire
at them, and the officers were of course forced to
(27:26):
retreat and they ended up calling for backup. He then
proceeded to take his wife, daughter, and his two stepdaughters,
who I also believe he had adopted, hostage, and they
negotiated with him for four hours, so he released the
four hostages, which is probably the nicest thing this man
has ever done. And then shot himself in the head.
(27:47):
He did remain alive for six more days, but did
succumb to his injuries and passed away on January nineteenth
of nineteen ninety nine. So when he died, all they
really knew about was the initial crime that happened in
nineteen eighty five and the other couple of little charges
of car theft evading all of that.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
So once he passed away, they.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Discovered multiple unsolved murders and sexual assaults were linked to him.
Investigators at this point in time realized that they did
have a serial killer on their hands. In twenty eighteen,
all of the unsolved cases that they had suspected him
in were able to officially tie to him using genetic genealogy.
(28:33):
So Robert Eugene Brashers had multiple fake identities, multiple different aliases,
and he also at one point even faked his own
obituary and had it published in the paper.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So this guy was a con artist through and through.
So genealogist C. C.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Moore had a big part in identifying a lot of
the other cases that he was involved in. They even
ended up exhuming him in twenty eighteen to extract the
DNA from the bones of the remains of Robert Eugene Brashers.
So the DNA testing revealed that he was essentially a
(29:12):
perfect match for the person who killed twenty eight year
old Genevieve ZiT Ricky, and she had been bludgeoned, sexually assaulted,
and strangled with pantyhose at her apartment in Greenville, South Carolina.
That is the case that I talked about earlier that
ultimately ended up connecting Brashers to Austin. So that is
really the case that ended up helping solve the Austin case,
(29:35):
which is so wild. He was also linked to the
double murder of a thirty eight year old mom, Sherry
Sirr and her twelve year old daughter who is named Megan,
and they were both found shot in their home in
Missouri in March of nineteen ninety eight. They had both
been tied up and Megan had been sexually assaulted before
(29:56):
the awful Robert Eugene Brasher shot and killed both of
them with a twenty two caliber gun. Then two hours later,
he broke into another home in Tennessee where he attempted
to assault a twenty five year old woman and she
fought back resisted and he ended up fleeing the crime scene.
(30:17):
And in that one there was no evidence really left behind,
but they were able to use forensic ballistics and they
were able to prove that the same gun that was
used in that break in was tied to the murder
of the Shurs. He also was linked to the March
nineteen ninety seven sexual assault of a fourteen year old
(30:37):
girl in Tennessee. So in that case, the victim was
in a home with four other people. He knocked on
the door, went inside, was able to subdue them all
and then tied them up, which, if you think about Austin,
a lot of people always thought that this was more
than one person, because how could one person control four people,
(31:00):
But when you think about the way that this man
moved and the way that he did things, he always
had two weapons on him and he was able to
do it.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
In this Tennessee case, he.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Went into a home with five people, was able to
tie up four of them while he attempted to sexually
assault this fourteen year old girl. So this is a
very very dangerous human and he successfully did that, and
that was in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
In nineteen ninety one, less.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Than forty eight hours after the murders at the yogurt shop,
Robert was stopped at a border patrol checkpoint between El
Paso and Los Crusis, and the border patrol agent didn't.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Really like the way that Robert was apting.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Some of his answers were just a little not right,
So he went ahead and ran his plates and realized
that the car that he was in was reported stolen
out of Georgia. He also had a three eighty pistol
on him. Now this was kind of a very specific
type of gun, and this was the same kind that
(32:06):
was used in the Austin yogurt Chot murders. So as
they are questioning him, he of course evades them, and
they think that at this point in time he dumped
anything that he probably had that could have linked him
to the yogurt chop. But at some point in time
(32:27):
they end up giving the gun back to Robert Brasher's father.
I don't know why they gave the gun back, because
they had the gun, but eventually the gun made its
way back to Robert Brasher's and that was the gun
that was used to kill Amy, and it's also the
gun that Robert Egene Brashers used to basically kill himself
(32:53):
in nineteen ninety nine. Another thing investigators did with this
newfound knowledge of Robert egen Braws is they took the
fingernail clippings from Amy Ayres and they tested it against
Robert Brasher's and it was two and a half million
to one that this was their guy. The Kentucky case
(33:14):
at the time is still pending, but he can't be
excluded as the perpetrator of that, so hopefully more to
come as far as that goes. So, like I said,
when I first heard about them having a suspect, I thought,
I'm sure this guy was.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Involved, but there's probably somebody else.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
But after I listened to this press conference, they very
much said that he was the type of guy that
always acted alone. He was never known to have anybody
else that would help him with his crimes. He always
traveled and worked with two guns, which was kind of
I guess, maybe a way to throw investigators off. I'm
(33:54):
not really sure, but I think he knew what he
was doing. And Dan goes on to say that this
very much is a case that could not have been
solved until twenty twenty five, meaning all of this new
technology that is available to investigators now, from the ballistics
database to the DNA aspects of it all, from them
(34:16):
going in and manually searching for this Y profile that
matched their Y profile. It's just wild that this was
able to happen and that they were able to solve
this case after so so many years. And I fully
believe that this guy is going to be tied to
a heck of a lot more things because look at
(34:38):
all of the horrible things he did in his time,
and it really frustrates me. It frustrates me so much
that this man should have been in jail at the
time that these four girls were killed.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
All of his other crimes too. None of those people
should have ever been victims because he should have been
locked away, and he wasn't. He was out and about
creating fake identities, writing fake obituaries, adopting kids, act in
a fool and I just don't even have words.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
So there was just a Hulu documentary that was released
on the Austin yogurt Chot murders. We got to hear
from a lot of the family members of the victims,
and you got to hear from the initial detectives on
the case. And we hear from John Jones, who was
one of the first people at the scene that day,
And this was just really touching for me because I
(35:37):
just never thought it was actually gonna happen. In the documentary,
they showed, you know, photos of him from that day
when he went there to investigate the scene and see
what was going on. He was in a like neon
green and white striped shirt, like vertical striped shirt, really
(35:57):
small stripes, and it was just, you know, a dress shirt.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
He had a jacket on over it, whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
And he always said that the next time he wears
that shirt is going to be when this case is solved.
He made a vow that he was never going to
put that shirt on again until this case was solved.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
And here we are in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Five and he showed up to the press conference in
this green and white shirt. It is just so significant
that all of these years later he is able to
put the shirt on and celebrate the fact that they
have finally named a suspect in these murders. I think
it's just such a full circle moment. And if you
(36:41):
have not watched the Hulu documentary, you definitely should and
then go watch the press conference because you get to
hear from these families. I got so fired up listening
to Angie Ayers, who is married to Amy's brother Sean,
so Angie is Amy's sister in law, and Angie he
is the type of woman you want on your side.
(37:02):
You want her to be there by your side, helping
you along the way if you ever have a situation
like this, because she very much took this on, took
on her sister in law's unsolved homicide and the unsolved
homicide of these three other girls, and she never let
(37:23):
investigators let their foot.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Off the gas.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
And I think that that is so powerful when you're
talking about these decades long cold cases. You can't ever
let your foot off the gas, even when it's hard.
And Angie is a true testament to that. Hearing her
speak at the press conference, she said, you can't let
investigators put your loved one's case at the bottom of
(37:49):
a box under their desk and never look at it again.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
You have to fight back.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Even when it's hard, even when you're getting door shut
and your face you have to keep fighting. And I
think that that was so powerful because if it wasn't
for her and the other family's commitment and the investigators
staying on top of it and forming these different task
forces and just going through all of the evidence time
(38:18):
and time and time again, we probably wouldn't be having
this conversation today.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So at the end of the day, that's really what's important.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
And if you want to hear everything that she said,
everything that the other victims' family said, they're really powerful words.
And this is huge in the cold case world because
it really does prove that with a little bit of
determination and a little bit of luck and a lot
of twenty twenty five DNA technology, time is running out
(38:47):
for these people who are committing these crimes and getting
away with it.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Even though Robert E.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Gene Brasher's is no longer living, at least the family
knows who is responsible for taking their loved ones. And
that's at the end of the day, all that at
this point can be done. So that is the update
at the end of the day. I know we talked
a lot about suspect in this case, but I really
(39:14):
wanted to give a full rundown on everything that this
horrible human has done, all the bad things.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
How he should have been locked up.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But the most important we have Amy Airs we have
Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, and Eliza Thomas, and the fact
that Amy fought so hard and got that DNA underneath
her fingernails is really what helped slam dunk this case.
(39:45):
Besides the other DNA, there's no denying that evidence underneath
Amy's fingernails is one of the things that helps solidify
that Robert Eugene Brashers is the one that committed this crime.
There are no other male DNA profiles that were found
except for his. So the girls seemingly solved their own case.
(40:07):
And it might have taken a long time, it might
have taken many decades, but we officially have resolution in Austin,
Yogurt Chap and I think at the end of the day,
that is really amazing that they were able to do
all of this and the way that they did it.
(40:28):
And I think the families of the victims should be
really proud of everything that they did to help us
get here, because I don't think without them that it
would ever be where it is today. And all the
investigators that work the case, I think everybody did what
they could with what they had, but they did need
twenty twenty five technology to solve this and that's exactly
(40:52):
what happened. Rest in peace to Jennifer, Sarah, Amy, and Eliza,
and I hope and pray for peace for their families
after all of this time. So that is the update
on the Austin Yogurt shop. And I truly never thought
i'd see the day that this one would be solved,
but I am so glad that I am able to
(41:13):
make this episode. Two and a half years into doing
this podcast, I did Austin Yogurt chop, I think in
my first six months as a podcaster, and I am
so glad that I'm able now to do the solved
Austin Yogurt Shot murders episode for you guys. So thank
you so much for listening. I appreciate all of the support.
(41:37):
Please see the show notes below. I'm going to link
a couple of sources. I'm also going to link the
entire press conference on YouTube if you want to go watch.
And I will see you guys next week for a
brand new unsolved case, one that is so so important
to me and I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
To share it with you. So I will see you then. Bye.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
APTN
Warning.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as
talk of sexual assault. Please listen with discretion.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Well, mister Harris had been living there for some time
and some months had passed where he hadn't paid his rent.
They knock, nobody answered. They're concerned. The apartment was locked
and the alarm was on, so they go inside. Realized
something really bad has happened here.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
In October afternoon in two thousand and seven, Memphis deputies
were called to check on a tenant who hadn't paid rent.
What should have been a routine welfare check quickly spiraled
into something far more disturbing.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
You have some blood around the house. You have disheveled paperwork.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
The ac was blasting, dozens of candles were burned to
the wick, air fresheners stripped from outlets. Then they saw
a towel jammed under the bedroom door.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
So the police go in and what they encounter is
a horrible crime suit.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
A man was dead, and within two days multiple arrests
were made. On paper, it looked like swift justice. But
when I started looking, things didn't add up, and some
people were counting on no and noticing.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
It's just want to go the most poorly investigated cases
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It. Don't have no dealings with them. Don't let them live.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
We don't let them come in your house and they'll
rob your blind No, she's got just so you're gonna
sit there and tell us a pole face live.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You're gonna sit there line that fucking face.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know. He told me like, I just didn't do this,
and he was so convincing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
That's what worries me is that I am not ready
for the story to be out of the world, because
once that happens, I lose control of the narrative.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
This is more than an investigation into a murder. It's
about who we choose to believe, what gets ignored, and
the fact that looking the other way is still a choice.
I'm choosing not to. I'm Stephanie Timsley, and this is
everything they missed.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You're asking questions about me for what that shit was
glowed years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well it's open again. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together
we are going to work on warming up some cold cases.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's Kylie.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
We are going to go ahead and get into a
really quick right now in True Crime, and then we're
going to get into today's episode because it is huge
breaking news over the last week that the Austin yogurt
shot murders have been officially solved, and I cannot wait
to get into the details because my favorite part of
covering these cold cases is when there is breaking news
(03:06):
that one of them has been solved, and once we
talk about how they solved it, it is truly amazing
and it's just one of those things that really fires
me up.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So I cannot wait to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So a couple things I want to talk about right
now in True Crime. I don't know if I spoke
about this on the episode of last week, but Donna
Adelson was not granted a new trial, so thank god
we don't have to sit through all of that again,
because it truly was a hot mess on the defense
side for sure. And what comes next for Wendy that's
(03:43):
really the big question. So we are kind of in
a holding pattern there. I do think that they have
enough evidence to bring charges against her, but if it's
going to happen remains to be seen.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So we will be sure to stay on top of that.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And the last thing I want to talk about is
did it He is going to be sentenced on Friday,
so likely if you're listening to this Friday afternoon, over
the weekend, he has been sentenced. So they're asking for
eleven years and three months, which I guess in the
grand scheme of.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Things, is better than nothing.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I think he should be there for the rest of time,
but I'm not in charge, so it's going to be
interesting to see what happens.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I hope he gets some amount of time.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I want at least five years. I would love more,
but he was not found guilty on a lot of
his charges, so we are going to have to take
what we can get. But I will be sure to
keep you guys updated on that on social media. Be
sure you're following me over there on Instagram and Facebook,
(04:48):
and I will be sure to post when the sentence
is dropped.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's going to be very interesting, for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So I'm sure there's more going on in the true
crime world this week, but I have been so hyper
fixated on Austin yogurt chop being solved because this is
a big case, a huge case, I was actually just
talking about it with a couple of my friends a
few weeks ago, I think like two weeks ago, honestly,
and we were talking about everything, and you know, the
(05:20):
way that the case went down and how they always
thought that it was more than one suspect, And now
with everything that has come out in this press conference,
I have totally changed my mind on that because even
when they first announced that they had a suspect, I
said only one person. I feel like there was more
than one person. But after listening to the press conference,
which we're going to get into soon, I fully do
(05:43):
believe that this person acted alone because their mo was
very much what happened in Austin yogurt shop. But we're
going to get into all of that. I have been
trying to stay on top of everything as far as
any new type of developments in the Austin yogurt chop case.
The press conference happened the other day, and we are
(06:04):
going to go ahead and get into it now.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So let's go.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So we start off the press conference with Mayor Kirk Watson,
and he starts it off with a moment of silence
for the four victims, which is the most important part
of this whole case. Everything we're going to be talking
about today. We're gonna, unfortunately talk a lot about the suspect,
the perpetrator, the horrific human who did this to four
(06:30):
innocent girls. But starting off with the moment of silence
for Amy Airs, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, and Sarah Harbison
is really the whole reason that we're even talking about
this today because their case has been unsolved for so
long and it finally has a little.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Bit of resolution.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So he then goes on to say that there is
an official breakthrough in the case and that detectives are
going to outline everything for us during the press conference,
and their investigation is reliable and it has used technology
that was not available to them back when this crime
first occurred in nineteen ninety one. Then we get into
(07:16):
all of it, so we hear from Daniel Jackson, who
goes by Dan. He is the lead detective on the
case since twenty twenty two and ultimately one of the
people that helped solve this case with twenty twenty five eyes.
It really, honestly, listening to the press conference gave me
chills because some of the things that Dan said, which
(07:37):
we'll get into, very much proves what I say all
the time that technology is always advancing and you might
not be able to solve it in twenty twenty four,
but you're going to solve it in twenty twenty five.
So that, to me, I think is so promising for
so many of these cold cases that do have DNA,
it's just a matter of getting the right technology and
(08:00):
hitting on it at the right time. So let's get
into everything that Dan said. So for those of you
that aren't familiar with the case. In December of nineteen
ninety one, four teenage girls were found murdered in I
can't believe It's yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. The victims
were thirteen year old Amy Airs, seventeen year old Eliza Thomas,
(08:23):
seventeen year old Jennifer Harbison, and Jennifer's fifteen year old sister, Sarah.
Jennifer and Eliza had both worked at the yogurt shop,
and Sarah and her friend Amy basically went to the
yogurt shop to get a ride home with Jennifer after
closing at eleven. About an hour before closing time, there
was a man who was allowed to use the public
(08:45):
bathroom that was in the back of the restaurant, and
they did suspect that at this point in time he
might have jammed the back door open for easy access
to the restaurant after it closed. That was just a
speculation by law enforcement. And there was a another couple
of men sitting at a table and they were just
kind of acting, I guess, a little suspicious according to
(09:06):
some witnesses.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And this was just before closing time.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So around midnight, there was a policeman kind of patrolling
the area and he reported that he saw a fire
coming from the yogurt chop.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
He called that in.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Of course, first responders went and that's when they discovered
the bodies of the four girls inside. They had all
been shot and at least one of them had been
sexually assaulted. There was two murder weapons, which were a
twenty two and a three eighty pistol, and law enforcement
did speculate that the perpetrator likely exited through a back
(09:41):
door because that door was found unlocked. That was the
same door that they think the perpetrator initially could have
used to gain entry into the business after the girls
had closed it down. One thing that really stood out
to investigators about this crime was the manner in which
they were found. They were all tied up, but they
were tied up with their own clothes. There were a
(10:03):
couple of false confessions along the way, along with incarceration
of innocent people, which we're going to get into because
they talked about it in the press conference. So of course,
a lot of the evidence from the crime was destroyed
by the fire and of course the water that it
took to put the fire out. So this person that
did this knew what they were doing. They committed four
(10:26):
homicides and then they set fire to the place to
essentially wipe clean all of the evidence. And something else
I say all the time is you don't just wake
up one day and become a quadruple murder psychopath. You
do things in your life that lead you to this point.
And that's why for me, it never made sense that
(10:48):
the four teenagers that they suspected were a part of this,
because this was obviously somebody that knew what they were
doing unfortunately, and had a lot of knowledge, and they
were able.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
To get away with it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So I don't think four teenagers any day of the
week would be able to pull that off in such
a way where they would seemingly go unnoticed for such
a long time.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It just doesn't make sense to me. Okay, so let's
get back to the press conference.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
So Dan starts talking about everything how they came to
the conclusion.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That this suspect is the guy that did this.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So he said, all four victims had vaginal swabs that
were taken at both the scene and at autopsy. Now,
he said, this proved to be critical to solving the investigation. Now,
it was nineteen ninety one and investigators didn't really know
what technology was going to be coming in the.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Next few years. But luckily they did.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
They took the evidence, they did what they were supposed
to do, and that's what helped solve the case.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
In twenty twenty five. Dan went on to.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Say that there was also one three eighty fired cartridge
that was found in a floor drain at I can't
believe it's yogurt. And there were not an a twenty
two shell casings left behind. Now, like I said, all
four of the girls were shot, So the fact that
there was only one shellcasing that was left behind, I
think is significant because it tells you that the guy
(12:17):
who did this, knew what he was doing and picked
up the shell casings, but as fate would have it,
one went into this drain and he didn't realize it,
so that one was left behind, and that's part of
what helped nab this guy all these years later. So
he then goes on to talk about how the fire did,
of course destroy a lot of the evidence, which was
his plan, and that made it very difficult to process
(12:40):
the crime scene. He said at that point in time,
thousands of tips came in, and then he goes into
the false confession that was given from a teenager, Nae
Maurice Pearce. He was only sixteen years old at the time,
and eight days after the murders, he was taken in
because he had a twenty two gun in his ways
(13:00):
band at the mall.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So they took him.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
In to the station to kind of question him on
all of this, and he ended up saying that he
gave the gun to his friend who was named fors Welburn,
and fors Welburn is the one who killed the girls.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
So then when Forrest was.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Questioned, he said that his friends Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott,
along with Maurice, had all left.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Austin and gone to San Antonio the night after the murders.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So with this, they were all implicated in this four
person homicide. Young kids at this point they're teenagers. Police
did interview all four and they were pretty quickly eliminated
as suspects. Now really all they had was the ballistics.
So they did ballistics on the twenty two gun that
(13:49):
Maurice had and they tried to match them back to
the scene and the different fragments that were left, but
they were inconclusive. There was nothing that they could really
do to say if it was or wasn't the gun
that was used. The case pretty much stalled, and in
nineteen ninety nine a new task force was formed and
went back and looked at everything with the Maurice Pierce
(14:12):
confession and they went and reinterviewed the four people. So
in this Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott confessed. However the
other two did not, so they arrested and charged them
all with capital murder. In nineteen ninety nine, Forrest ended
up not being charged by the grand jury, and Maurice
(14:36):
Pierce ended up having his charges dropped, but Michael Scott
and Robert Springsteen were both sent to trial separately, and
they were both found guilty. Michael Scott was sentenced to
life in prison and Robert Springsteen was sentenced to the
death penalty.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So this is real serious stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
We're talking life in prison and death penalty based on
a confession alone. No other evidence tied them to yogurt Chop,
so that's all they had.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Now, they both.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Appealed their guilty verdicts and during this process they ended
up both being granted a new trial due to a
here say.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Clause that had come out.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And at this point in time, prosecutors realized, we need
to actually have something to tie these boys to the
Austin yogur Chot murders because they don't have anything. They
really needed that DNA evidence to link them. And again
this is happening years down the line, so they do
(15:39):
have a lot more capabilities and all with DNA testing.
So they go through that process and through this they.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Were able to figure out that these boys had nothing
to do with this.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
The DNA did not match, and in two thousand and nine,
the charges against the two were dropped, but Michael and
Robert spent a significant amount of time in jail and
Robert was on death row. So this just goes to
show you how easily a a false confession can happen
and be how the justice system will just kind of
(16:13):
sweep it through so they can call it solved and
call it a day. But these are people's lives, and
they were young when this happened. They were teenagers. The
brains weren't even fully developed yet. And then there's the
whole false confession of it all. And if you know
the West Memphis three, you know everything you need to
know about police tactics when interviewing and how these false
(16:38):
confessions come to be. So with them being released, they're
kind of back to square one trying to figure out
what they have and what they can do with what
they have. So they continued with the DNA that they had,
and they continued to test it with their new technology,
and they kept trying to identify the profile of the
(16:59):
DNA mar they had. Now they had a profile of
male DNA, but they did not have an identity for it.
But this mail profile was significant because they were finding
it on the other victims as well. It was a
ystr profile from the swabs that were taken from the victims.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So like I said.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
The case was inherited by Dan in twenty twenty two
and him and his team met with experts in DNA
and they went through everything, what they had, what they
didn't have, and what they could do with what they had.
So fast forward to June twenty twenty five. Dan said
he was kind of looking at the spent shell casing
(17:41):
and was trying to figure out what else they could do,
and he realized that it had not been resubmitted into
the Ballistic Information Network. He kind of explained this as
like a CODUS network, but for ballistics. If you add
a spent shell casing to this database, it could come
(18:04):
up that it was tied to other crimes across the
United States essentially, so very much like a database for DNA,
but for ballistics tied to crimes and other things.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Which is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So he said it had been submitted before, there was
never any hits, but there had new technology and you know,
updated to their software. So they said, yeah, let's go
ahead and run it. Let's go ahead and put it
back in. And they went ahead and put it in
to resubmit it, and they sent it on July second,
(18:39):
and they had a hit. And this was a hit
to an unsolved murder out of Kentucky. Now, they didn't
go into details about this unsolved murder in Kentucky, but
they said that the same gun that was used at
the yogurt chop is the same gun that was used
in this Kentucky unsolved crime. So they essentially collaborated with
(19:01):
these Kentucky investigators to try and solve these cases. Now
I don't know the status on the Kentucky case. I
still think that there is some things that they are
waiting to.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Come out on that.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
But they were able to say that that bullet that
was in that drain is the same bullet that was
used in this Kentucky case. So who does this bullet
belong to? So they have the other aspect, which is
the DNA, which, in my opinion, the DNA doesn't lie.
So this is when we get into the DNA analysis
(19:34):
of it all. So, like I said, they had this
Y profile of their suspect, but they really needed to
pull this all together and figure out who.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
This person was. So a ystr profile uses short tandem
repeat markers on the Y chromosome to create a DNA
profile for males, allowing for identification and tracing of paternal lineage. Why.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Str profiles are particularly useful in forensic investigations involving male
and female mixtures such as sexual assault cases, and they
specifically target and detect male DNA within these samples. They're
also used in kinship testing and identifying missing persons. So
with that they had this unknown male profile, they reached
(20:23):
out to all of the state crime labs to see
if they could manually search and compare against this unknown
male Y profile that they had on the suspect. Because
nothing was hitting in CODIS, nothing was coming up, so
he thought, what if they go in and the manually
search in all of their systems to see if anything
(20:45):
pops up. And with that, one crime lab in South Carolina,
the South Carolina State Lab, had a match. Now this
was a one hundred percent match. It matched twenty seven
out of twenty seven of the markers. Now, it took
two weeks to record and make sure that everything was
(21:06):
correct on this because of course they want to make
sure that everything is lining up. And sure enough it
was so on August twenty second, they discovered that it
was this same DNA mail profile from a sexual assault
and murder from nineteen ninety out of Greenville, South Carolina.
This person was a match one hundred percent. When he
(21:30):
talked to this investigator from the nineteen ninety case, the
guy from South Carolina said, I don't know anything about
the case that you are working, but did the victims
get tied up with their own clothes? And with that statement,
Dan said that the hair on his neck stood up
because he was just absolutely shocked that that was the
(21:53):
same thing that had happened to the four girls in Austin.
So that is when they were able to come up
with the suspect, who is named Robert Eugene Brashers, And
no shock here.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
He's a serial killer. He's done a lot of really.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Bad things over his span of life. He never should
have been out of prison, which that's a story we'll
get into in a little bit. So who is Robert
Eugene Brashers. We're going to talk a little bit about him.
He was born in March of nineteen fifty eight. He
was born in Newport News, Virginia, and he had two
(22:30):
older siblings.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I believe when Robert was young.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
His family moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and he spent his
whole childhood there. He reportedly didn't have any offenses or
crimes that he committed as a teenager.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
He wasn't an alcohol or drug user.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And then after high school, he enlisted in the army
and he also served in the Navy for several years.
So we don't know his experience as far as those
two things went. Who knows if something turned in him
during that time, because somewhere along the lines he became
a very evil human. In the early eighties, he resigned
(23:09):
from the army and went ahead and moved to Louisiana
and lived in New Orleans. And in the nineteen eighties
he left Louisiana and moved to Fort Myers, Florida, and
got married in the early nineties. Ended up having a
daughter with his wife in nineteen ninety one, the same
year that he killed the girls. So his first documented
(23:31):
reported crime was in November of nineteen eighty five, and
he was arrested in Florida on charges of assaulting a
twenty four year old woman who was named Michelle Wilkerson,
and investigators said that Robert had met Michelle in Fort
Pierce and asked her to accompany him to a bar,
(23:53):
so they went there hot a good evening and then
he took her to a dark alleyway attempted to make
sexual advances towards her, and she wanted no part of
it and attempted to leave Robert's vehicle. They ended up
fighting and then Robert ended up shooting her twice in
the neck and head. Now, miraculously, this woman ends up
(24:17):
surviving and ends up hiding in a culvert under the road,
and he ends up going to the beach.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
He threw his gun into the water.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And then he attempts to leave, but then his truckets
stuck in the sand. Divine intervention, Michelle is able to
report this to the police. She gives a description and
shortly after that they are able to find Robert Brashers
and take him in. So he was convicted the following year,
(24:49):
and he was sentenced to twelve years of prison and
for whatever reason, he was parolled for good conduct on
of nineteen eighty nine, twelve years only served for obviously
this was attempted murder. He shot her twice and he
(25:09):
served four years. So after Robert was released in May
of nineteen eighty nine, he moved around a lot. He
moved around from South Carolina to Tennessee to Georgia, and
he was just kind of a wanderer. He kind of
bounced around to and from We know that he was
in Austin in nineteen ninety one. Investigators have said they
(25:32):
don't know why he was in Austin, what ties he
had to Austin.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
They haven't been able to figure that out yet.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
In February of nineteen ninety two, he was arrested in
Georgia for grand theft, auto, unlawful possession of a weapon,
and theft. In this case, he ended up making a
plea deal with the prosecutors and he pled guilty to
most of the charges and most of the other ones
were dropped and he was sentenced to five years prison
(26:00):
for this, which he served and was released in February
of nineteen ninety seven. And then after his release, for
the next two years he moved between Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri.
In April of nineteen ninety eight, he attempted to break
into the home of a woman that he had been
employed by previously, and this was an Arkansas and he
(26:22):
basically had cut the wires leading to her home and
was armed at the time of his arrest. He ended
up being taken into custody, but was later released after
somebody posted his bail, because this guy just can't stay
behind bars for long and all. So in nineteen ninety nine,
there was a stolen vehicle that had been parked in
(26:43):
the parking lot of a Super eight hotel in Missouri,
and they spoke with hotel personnel and they discovered that
it was Robert Eugene Brasher's and his family that had
come to the hotel in that vehicle days earlier. They
obviously know that this guy has some priors. He is
(27:04):
probably not the most upstanding human. He has stolen this car,
So they ended up breaking down the door to his
hotel room and they found him hiding under a bed
with a loaded gun. They of course attempted to make
entry and arrest him, but he resisted and opened fire
at them, and the officers were of course forced to
(27:26):
retreat and they ended up calling for backup. He then
proceeded to take his wife, daughter, and his two stepdaughters,
who I also believe he had adopted, hostage, and they
negotiated with him for four hours, so he released the
four hostages, which is probably the nicest thing this man
has ever done. And then shot himself in the head.
(27:47):
He did remain alive for six more days, but did
succumb to his injuries and passed away on January nineteenth
of nineteen ninety nine. So when he died, all they
really knew about was the initial crime that happened in
nineteen eighty five and the other couple of little charges
of car theft evading all of that.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
So once he passed away, they.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Discovered multiple unsolved murders and sexual assaults were linked to him.
Investigators at this point in time realized that they did
have a serial killer on their hands. In twenty eighteen,
all of the unsolved cases that they had suspected him
in were able to officially tie to him using genetic genealogy.
(28:33):
So Robert Eugene Brashers had multiple fake identities, multiple different aliases,
and he also at one point even faked his own
obituary and had it published in the paper.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So this guy was a con artist through and through.
So genealogist C. C.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Moore had a big part in identifying a lot of
the other cases that he was involved in. They even
ended up exhuming him in twenty eighteen to extract the
DNA from the bones of the remains of Robert Eugene Brashers.
So the DNA testing revealed that he was essentially a
(29:12):
perfect match for the person who killed twenty eight year
old Genevieve ZiT Ricky, and she had been bludgeoned, sexually assaulted,
and strangled with pantyhose at her apartment in Greenville, South Carolina.
That is the case that I talked about earlier that
ultimately ended up connecting Brashers to Austin. So that is
really the case that ended up helping solve the Austin case,
(29:35):
which is so wild. He was also linked to the
double murder of a thirty eight year old mom, Sherry
Sirr and her twelve year old daughter who is named Megan,
and they were both found shot in their home in
Missouri in March of nineteen ninety eight. They had both
been tied up and Megan had been sexually assaulted before
(29:56):
the awful Robert Eugene Brasher shot and killed both of
them with a twenty two caliber gun. Then two hours later,
he broke into another home in Tennessee where he attempted
to assault a twenty five year old woman and she
fought back resisted and he ended up fleeing the crime scene.
(30:17):
And in that one there was no evidence really left behind,
but they were able to use forensic ballistics and they
were able to prove that the same gun that was
used in that break in was tied to the murder
of the Shurs. He also was linked to the March
nineteen ninety seven sexual assault of a fourteen year old
(30:37):
girl in Tennessee. So in that case, the victim was
in a home with four other people. He knocked on
the door, went inside, was able to subdue them all
and then tied them up, which, if you think about Austin,
a lot of people always thought that this was more
than one person, because how could one person control four people,
(31:00):
But when you think about the way that this man
moved and the way that he did things, he always
had two weapons on him and he was able to
do it.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
In this Tennessee case, he.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Went into a home with five people, was able to
tie up four of them while he attempted to sexually
assault this fourteen year old girl. So this is a
very very dangerous human and he successfully did that, and
that was in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
In nineteen ninety one, less.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Than forty eight hours after the murders at the yogurt shop,
Robert was stopped at a border patrol checkpoint between El
Paso and Los Crusis, and the border patrol agent didn't.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Really like the way that Robert was apting.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Some of his answers were just a little not right,
So he went ahead and ran his plates and realized
that the car that he was in was reported stolen
out of Georgia. He also had a three eighty pistol
on him. Now this was kind of a very specific
type of gun, and this was the same kind that
(32:06):
was used in the Austin yogurt Chot murders. So as
they are questioning him, he of course evades them, and
they think that at this point in time he dumped
anything that he probably had that could have linked him
to the yogurt chop. But at some point in time
(32:27):
they end up giving the gun back to Robert Brasher's father.
I don't know why they gave the gun back, because
they had the gun, but eventually the gun made its
way back to Robert Brasher's and that was the gun
that was used to kill Amy, and it's also the
gun that Robert Egene Brashers used to basically kill himself
(32:53):
in nineteen ninety nine. Another thing investigators did with this
newfound knowledge of Robert egen Braws is they took the
fingernail clippings from Amy Ayres and they tested it against
Robert Brasher's and it was two and a half million
to one that this was their guy. The Kentucky case
(33:14):
at the time is still pending, but he can't be
excluded as the perpetrator of that, so hopefully more to
come as far as that goes. So, like I said,
when I first heard about them having a suspect, I thought,
I'm sure this guy was.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Involved, but there's probably somebody else.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
But after I listened to this press conference, they very
much said that he was the type of guy that
always acted alone. He was never known to have anybody
else that would help him with his crimes. He always
traveled and worked with two guns, which was kind of
I guess, maybe a way to throw investigators off. I'm
(33:54):
not really sure, but I think he knew what he
was doing. And Dan goes on to say that this
very much is a case that could not have been
solved until twenty twenty five, meaning all of this new
technology that is available to investigators now, from the ballistics
database to the DNA aspects of it all, from them
(34:16):
going in and manually searching for this Y profile that
matched their Y profile. It's just wild that this was
able to happen and that they were able to solve
this case after so so many years. And I fully
believe that this guy is going to be tied to
a heck of a lot more things because look at
(34:38):
all of the horrible things he did in his time,
and it really frustrates me. It frustrates me so much
that this man should have been in jail at the
time that these four girls were killed.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
All of his other crimes too. None of those people
should have ever been victims because he should have been
locked away, and he wasn't. He was out and about
creating fake identities, writing fake obituaries, adopting kids, act in
a fool and I just don't even have words.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
So there was just a Hulu documentary that was released
on the Austin yogurt Chot murders. We got to hear
from a lot of the family members of the victims,
and you got to hear from the initial detectives on
the case. And we hear from John Jones, who was
one of the first people at the scene that day,
And this was just really touching for me because I
(35:37):
just never thought it was actually gonna happen. In the documentary,
they showed, you know, photos of him from that day
when he went there to investigate the scene and see
what was going on. He was in a like neon
green and white striped shirt, like vertical striped shirt, really
(35:57):
small stripes, and it was just, you know, a dress shirt.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
He had a jacket on over it, whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
And he always said that the next time he wears
that shirt is going to be when this case is solved.
He made a vow that he was never going to
put that shirt on again until this case was solved.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
And here we are in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Five and he showed up to the press conference in
this green and white shirt. It is just so significant
that all of these years later he is able to
put the shirt on and celebrate the fact that they
have finally named a suspect in these murders. I think
it's just such a full circle moment. And if you
(36:41):
have not watched the Hulu documentary, you definitely should and
then go watch the press conference because you get to
hear from these families. I got so fired up listening
to Angie Ayers, who is married to Amy's brother Sean,
so Angie is Amy's sister in law, and Angie he
is the type of woman you want on your side.
(37:02):
You want her to be there by your side, helping
you along the way if you ever have a situation
like this, because she very much took this on, took
on her sister in law's unsolved homicide and the unsolved
homicide of these three other girls, and she never let
(37:23):
investigators let their foot.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Off the gas.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
And I think that that is so powerful when you're
talking about these decades long cold cases. You can't ever
let your foot off the gas, even when it's hard.
And Angie is a true testament to that. Hearing her
speak at the press conference, she said, you can't let
investigators put your loved one's case at the bottom of
(37:49):
a box under their desk and never look at it again.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
You have to fight back.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Even when it's hard, even when you're getting door shut
and your face you have to keep fighting. And I
think that that was so powerful because if it wasn't
for her and the other family's commitment and the investigators
staying on top of it and forming these different task
forces and just going through all of the evidence time
(38:18):
and time and time again, we probably wouldn't be having
this conversation today.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So at the end of the day, that's really what's important.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
And if you want to hear everything that she said,
everything that the other victims' family said, they're really powerful words.
And this is huge in the cold case world because
it really does prove that with a little bit of
determination and a little bit of luck and a lot
of twenty twenty five DNA technology, time is running out
(38:47):
for these people who are committing these crimes and getting
away with it.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Even though Robert E.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Gene Brasher's is no longer living, at least the family
knows who is responsible for taking their loved ones. And
that's at the end of the day, all that at
this point can be done. So that is the update
at the end of the day. I know we talked
a lot about suspect in this case, but I really
(39:14):
wanted to give a full rundown on everything that this
horrible human has done, all the bad things.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
How he should have been locked up.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But the most important we have Amy Airs we have
Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, and Eliza Thomas, and the fact
that Amy fought so hard and got that DNA underneath
her fingernails is really what helped slam dunk this case.
(39:45):
Besides the other DNA, there's no denying that evidence underneath
Amy's fingernails is one of the things that helps solidify
that Robert Eugene Brashers is the one that committed this crime.
There are no other male DNA profiles that were found
except for his. So the girls seemingly solved their own case.
(40:07):
And it might have taken a long time, it might
have taken many decades, but we officially have resolution in Austin,
Yogurt Chap and I think at the end of the day,
that is really amazing that they were able to do
all of this and the way that they did it.
(40:28):
And I think the families of the victims should be
really proud of everything that they did to help us
get here, because I don't think without them that it
would ever be where it is today. And all the
investigators that work the case, I think everybody did what
they could with what they had, but they did need
twenty twenty five technology to solve this and that's exactly
(40:52):
what happened. Rest in peace to Jennifer, Sarah, Amy, and Eliza,
and I hope and pray for peace for their families
after all of this time. So that is the update
on the Austin Yogurt shop. And I truly never thought
i'd see the day that this one would be solved,
but I am so glad that I am able to
(41:13):
make this episode. Two and a half years into doing
this podcast, I did Austin Yogurt chop, I think in
my first six months as a podcaster, and I am
so glad that I'm able now to do the solved
Austin Yogurt Shot murders episode for you guys. So thank
you so much for listening. I appreciate all of the support.
(41:37):
Please see the show notes below. I'm going to link
a couple of sources. I'm also going to link the
entire press conference on YouTube if you want to go watch.
And I will see you guys next week for a
brand new unsolved case, one that is so so important
to me and I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
To share it with you. So I will see you then. Bye.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
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