The Austin Police Department (APD) Cold Case Homicide Unit has made a major development in the 1991 I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt murder case. Through a wide range of DNA testing, Robert Eugene Brashers has been identified as a suspect in these murders. Brashers committed suicide in 1999 in Missouri.  

“After 34 years, the Austin Police have made a significant breakthrough in one of the most devastating cases in our city’s history. This unthinkable crime has weighed heavily on the hearts of our community, the families of the victims, and our detectives who have tirelessly pursued justice,” said Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis.

Shortly before midnight on Friday, December 6, 1991, an Austin Police patrol officer observed fire coming from the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! (ICBY) shop located at 2949 West Anderson Lane and reported it to dispatch. The Austin Fire Department responded to the fire and, upon extinguishing it, firefighters discovered the bodies of 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, and 13-year-old Amy Ayers. All four girls were nude, had been shot, bound, and gagged.  

Jennifer and Eliza were both employees at the shop. Sarah and Amy were in the store with them as they closed up for the evening. Due to the damage from the fire and water from the automatic sprinklers in the shop, evidence was difficult to collect. APD Homicide Detective John Jones, now retired, processed the scene along with Crime Scene Investigators and collected as much evidence as possible.  

APD received thousands of tips and dozens of “confessions”, but most led nowhere. Within a week of the murders, 16-year-old Maurice Pierce was arrested for bringing a gun to Northcross Mall. The gun happened to be the same make and model as one of the guns used in the murders. After hours of interrogation by APD Homicide Detective Hector Polanco, now retired, he confessed to the murders of the four girls. The following morning, Detective Jones interviewed Pierce again but realized his confession did not match the details of the crime scene. Additionally, ballistics analyzed the .22 gun that was seized from Pierce at the mall to determine if it was the same weapon used in the murders and the results were inconclusive.

In 1999, the Yogurt Shop Task Force re-visited the case and reviewed the original case files in further detail. The Task Force interrogated four subjects that had been identified as possibly being involved, Maurice Pierce, Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, and Forrest Welborn. During the interrogations, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott confessed and both implicated each other in the murders. Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce did not confess. At the time, the Task Force’s theory was that Welborn waited outside in the car as the look out. Forrest Welborn never confessed to the murders.  

All four subjects were arrested for Capital Murder in 1999.

Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen were put on trial, and both were found guilty based on each other’s confessions implicating one another. Michael Scott received life without parole and Robert Springsteen received the death penalty. Forrest Welborn was no billed which means a decision was made by the grand jury not to indict Welborn for the crime because there was not enough evidence to support a formal charge. The charges against Maurice Pierce were dropped. No physical evidence at the scene was ever linked to any of the subjects.

Due to a new ruling Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004) the Court of Criminal Appeals granted a new trial for Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen. In preparation for the new trial, further DNA evidence was reviewed. Fairfax Labs processed swabs from the Sexual Assault kit and developed a 16-marker unknown Y-STR profile. All four of the original suspects were excluded as contributors for the unknown Y-STR profile. All charges were dropped pending further investigation. Over the next several years, hundreds of reference samples were collected as elimination samples or suspect DNA profiles.  

On December 23, 2010, Maurice was stopped for traffic and fled on foot. APD Officer Frank Wilson caught Pierce and the two struggled. Pierce removed Officer Wilson’s knife from his belt and stabbed him in the neck. Officer Wilson shot and killed Pierce. Officer Wilson survived his injuries.  

Over the years DNA testing continued and only advanced throughout time. In 2022, APD Detective Daniel Jackson was assigned to the case. Detective Jackson met with several Subject Matter Experts (SME) on DNA/genealogy and a tiered list of items from the scene were identified for potential retesting.  

In June 2025, Detective Jackson determined that a .380 cartridge that was found in a drain at the scene had not been submitted into NIBIN in many years, and software had greatly improved. In July 2025, they received a “hit” to an unsolved 1998 murder in Kentucky. As the cases had similarities, Detective Jackson began working with detectives in Kentucky to determine whether there were more similarities.

In August 2025, Detective Jackson requested a Y-STR keyboard (manual) search from all labs in the U.S. that keep Y-STR profiles. They found several labs hit on the manual search, but with only 16-17 markers out of the current 27-marker profile. The South Carolina State Lab was the only lab that found a complete 27 allele Y-STR “match” to our unknown Y-STR profile. The results were reviewed for accuracy by the South Carolina Legal Department before the profile was released to APD.  

On August 22, 2025, Detective Jackson received the South Carolina Lab report that linked the Yogurt Shop unknown Y-STR profile to a known Y-STR profile from a 1990 Greenville, South Carolina Sexual Assault and Murder. The profile belongs to known serial killer and rapist, Robert Eugene Brashers, White male, born March 13, 1958.

Further testing is still occurring, and we hope to share those final results in the coming weeks and/or months. Robert Eugene Brasher committed suicide in 1999 with the same make and model of weapon used to shoot Amy Ayers, a .380 pistol.  

Detective Jackson also learned that on December 8, 1991, less than 48 hours after the Yogurt Shop murders, Brashers was stopped by Border Patrol at a westbound checkpoint between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was driving a stolen car out of Georgia and was in possession of a .380 pistol. We have confirmed that this is the same gun he used to commit suicide in 1999, as the serial numbers match.

For almost 34 years, our detectives have continued to work this investigation and have never given up on solving this case for the families of Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers. This remains an open and ongoing investigation, and we ask for your patience as we continue this process and remain mindful of the many people whose lives have been deeply affected by this case.

“Today, I’m hopeful. My hopefulness is that we can turn a page as a community – and hopefully the final page – on this horror that marked a very different time in Austin’s history,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said. “We can take heart in our growth and progress and strength as a city. And we can go to sleep knowing that while the threat of this kind of evil may never pass in this world, we are far, far better able to prevent it before it happens and solve it when it does.”

We are asking anyone that may have information about Robert Eugene Brashers to please contact the Texas Attorney General’s Office via the Cold Case and Miss­ing Per­sons Unit Tipline: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/coldcasetips, Austin Police (APD) at YogurtShop@austintexas.gov, and the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program at austincrimestoppers.org, (512) 472-8477 (TIPS).  

More information about the Yogurt Shop Murders can be found here: I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Murders | AustinTexas.gov.