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Back on the 6th of December, 1991, Jennifer Harbison and her coworker Eliza Thomas, both seventeen years old, were wrapping up at the yogurt store where they were employed. Remaining for a pickup were Jennifer's sister, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and Sarah’s friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers.

Shortly before the clock struck twelve, a inferno at the shop summoned firefighters and police, who uncovered the tragedy: the four girls had been restrained, killed, and showed evidence of sexual violence. The blaze wiped out the bulk of physical proof, with the exception of a cartridge that had rolled into a drain and trace amounts of genetic material, including material under Ayers’ fingernails.

The Crime That Stunned Texas

The yogurt shop murders profoundly shook the city of Austin and evolved into one of the best-known unsolved mysteries in America. Over many years of investigative roadblocks and false accusations, the murders ultimately led to national legislation enacted in recent years that allows families of the deceased to request cold cases to be reviewed.

Yet the crimes remained unsolved for over three decades – before this development.

Significant Progress

Police authorities disclosed on recently a "significant breakthrough" made possible by new technology in bullet matching and DNA analysis, announced the local leader at a press conference.

The evidence suggest Brashers, who was confirmed after his death as a multiple murderer. Further crimes could be added to his record as DNA analyses evolve further and broadly applied.

"The sole forensic clue located at the yogurt shop corresponds directly to him," stated the top law enforcement officer.

This investigation hasn't reached conclusion, but this represents a "huge leap", and the suspect is believed to be the sole perpetrator, authorities said.

Healing Begins

Eliza's sister, Sonora, shared that her psyche was fractured when the tragedy occurred.

"One portion of my consciousness has been yelling, 'What took place to my sister?', and the other half kept saying, 'It will remain a mystery. I'll go to my grave unaware, and I have to be OK with that,'" she stated.

Upon hearing of this development in the investigation, "both sides of my brain started coming together," she noted.

"I know now what happened, and that does ease my anguish."

Mistaken Arrests Corrected

The news doesn't just bring peace to the loved ones; it also fully exonerates two men, minors when arrested, who maintained they were forced into confessing.

Robert Springsteen, then 17 years old at the time of the killings, was sentenced to death, and Scott, a 15-year-old then, was given life imprisonment. Both men asserted they only confessed after hours-long interrogations in the late 1990s. In the following decade, both men were released after their guilty findings were thrown out due to new precedents on confessions absent tangible proof.

The district attorney's office dropped the charges against the defendants in the same period after a DNA analysis, known as Y-STR, revealed neither individual matched against the genetic material recovered from the crime scene.

The Investigation Advances

This genetic marker – indicating an mystery suspect – would ultimately be the key in cracking the investigation. In 2018, the profile was reexamined because of improved methods – but a nationwide inquiry to investigative bodies yielded no results.

This past June, an investigator working on the case in 2022, considered a new approach. It had been since the ballistics from the cartridge had been uploaded to the national ballistic system – and in the years since, the database had been significantly improved.

"The system has gotten so much better. I mean, we're talking like advanced modeling now," the detective commented at the press conference.

They got a match. An open homicide case in Kentucky, with a similar modus operandi, had the matching variety of cartridge. Jackson and a cold case expert consulted the law enforcement there, who are actively pursuing their unidentified investigation – which involves analyzing evidence from a sexual assault kit.

Building a Case

The apparent breakthrough got Jackson thinking. Might there exist further clues that might match against investigations elsewhere? He thought immediately of the genetic testing – but there was a obstacle. The Codis database is the countrywide system for police, but the yogurt shop DNA was insufficiently intact and limited to submit.

"I thought, well, time has passed. Additional facilities are conducting this analysis. Registries are growing. I proposed a countrywide check again," the detective stated.

He circulated the years-old Y-STR results to investigative units around the country, requesting them to check by hand it to their own databases.

They found another match. The DNA pattern matched perfectly with a DNA sample from a city in South Carolina – a 1990 murder that was solved with the aid of a DNA firm and an expert in genetic genealogy in 2018.

Genetic Genealogy Success

The researcher developed a genealogical chart for the offender and found a relative whose DNA sample suggested a direct relationship – probably a close relative. A magistrate authorized that Brasher's body be exhumed, and his DNA corresponded against the forensic proof from Austin.

Normally, she is can move on from closed investigations in order to work on the new mystery.

"However I have {not been