AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police nominated the deaths as new suspects Friday in the unsolved murder of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop in 1991, saying DNA evidence led to a “serious breakthrough” in a brutal crime that struck Texas capital and fasted investigators.
In a statement, Austin police said DNA testing led investigators to Robert Eugene Brashers, who died of suicide in 1999 during a conflict with law enforcement. He’s been like that ever since Linked to some killings Rape in other states.
The announcement came amid the recent attention of the incident with the release of last month’s HBO documentary series The Yogurt Shop Murders. Police said the incident remains open and they are scheduled for a press conference Monday to detail their findings.
The murders surprised the Texas capital and became known as one of the region’s most infamous crimes. Investigators and prosecutors for the Austin Police Department have been stumbling over the lawsuit for many years as they walked through thousands of leads, several false confessions and badly damaged evidence from burnt-out crime scenes.
“Our team never gave up on the job in this case,” Austin police said.
Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, tied their heads, spitting and shot at a store where they both worked, “I can’t believe it was yogurt.” The building then burned up.
Investigators say that around closing time someone entered the store through the back door and attacked the girl and set the fire on it. The bodies were found while the firefighters were still fighting the flames.
The autopsy report gave us a glimpse into the lives of teenage sisters and friends. Ayers wore small white earrings. Sarah Harbison wore a gold necklace and a Mickey Mouse watch. Jennifer Harbison wore a high school ring and a Timex watch.
It also suggested fear: their hands were tied up in underwear and their mouths were monkeyed with cloth. Ayres was shot twice.
In 1999, authorities arrested four men on murder charges. Two of them, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, were teenagers at the time of the murder. They initially confessed and involved each other. However, both men quickly left, saying their statement was made under police pressure.
Still, both were tried and found guilty. Initially, Springsteen was sent to death row inmate, but his sentence was reduced to life in prison.
Their conviction was overturned and was scheduled to be re-received in 10 years.
The judge ordered that both men were released in 2009 when prosecutors said a new DNA test that was unavailable in 1991 revealed another male suspect.
In 2018, Missouri officials said that DNA proved that its Flasher linked to strangling a South Carolina woman in 1990 and a mother and daughter shooting in Missouri in 1998.
brashers He passed away in 1999 When he shot him during hours of standoffs with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.
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This story was revised to show that Eliza Thomas is 17, not 1.
