DNA links deceased Brashers to 1991 Austin yogurt shop killings

DNA testing has identified Robert Eugene Brashers as a new suspect in the 1991 killings of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop, Austin police announced Friday, saying the long-unsolved case remains open. Brashers, who died by suicide during a 1999 standoff with police in Missouri, was linked to the investigation by DNA tests, according to the statement. Officials said a news conference detailing the findings is scheduled for Monday.

On December 6, 1991, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, 13-year-old Amy Ayers and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, 17 and 15, were found bound, gagged and shot in the head inside an I Cant Believe Its Yogurt shop where two of the girls worked. The building had been set on fire, and damaged evidence and the blaze complicated early forensic work. The murders shocked the city and became one of the region's most notorious crimes.

Investigators pursued multiple leads over decades. In 1999, four men were arrested; two, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, later confessed and implicated one another, but recanted and said their statements were coerced. Both were convicted at trial but their convictions were overturned on constitutional grounds. A judge...