Yogurt shop murders solved: 1991 Austin cold case finally linked to serial killer

The 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders that shocked Texas for decades have finally been solved, bringing long awaited answers to grieving families.

The case is revisited in a new episode of 20/20 titled Yogurt Shop Murders, airing February 27 on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

“When the yogurt shop murders took place, it changed Austin forever... [it] really took our innocence away,” former prosecutor Mindy Montford told 20/20.

On December 6, 1991, Amy Ayers, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison and Eliza Thomas were killed inside the shop after closing.

The teens were found shot and the building was set on fire. Police initially focused on four teenage boys, who later recanted confessions.

DNA eventually ruled them out, and charges were dismissed.

In 2021, a renewed cold case effort led by Detective Dan Jackson uncovered a breakthrough. Ballistics linked evidence from the yogurt shop to a 1998 Kentucky case.

YSTR DNA testing connected the crime to Robert Eugene Brashers, a violent offender who died in 1999.

“What are the odds that the same Y profile comes back to a serial killer? And when you start researching this guy, you find out that these are similar crimes, this M.O. is very similar to yogurt shop on more than one occasion,” Jackson told 20/20.