Link is posted above. It was at 10 am.

MsDoubleD81 said:

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Link is posted above. It was at 10 am.

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I know, I was simply notifying people that it was going

Im curious how/why he was in Austin? They were unable to answer that at the PC.

I didn't see the presser…has APD closed the case now?

Just now read thread... I handled the two juveniles certification hearings for transfer to adult court. Met with both while they were in jail. One was just normal goofy kid, the other i wouldn't turn my back on...

Which one should we not turn our back on? Call it doing a public service. You can just post Dunder-Mifflin or the Boss if you prefer not to name names

Wellborn was the normal goofy kid...the other one that I wouldn't turn my back on was shot and killed by APD,I believe in 2009, after running from cop and cutting cop with knife....

So this guy killed himself in 1999 with a gun that was linked back to the yogurt shop murders? Was that link not established for 26 years? Seems like that would have been established quickly and this person publicly identified as a suspect, if not the murderer, many years ago. What am I missing here?

I grew up north of Austin and graduated HS in the early 90s. I remember this event very clearly. Was a huge news item for months.

Tyrannosaurus Ross said:

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So this guy killed himself in 1999 with a gun that was linked back to the yogurt shop murders? Was that link not established for 26 years? Seems like that would have been established quickly and this person publicly identified as a suspect, if not the murderer, many years ago. What am I missing here?

I grew up north of Austin and graduated HS in the early 90s. I remember this event very clearly. Was a huge news item for months.

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I think they said the bullet casing was never entered in the national database until recently.

hoosieraggie said:

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Wellborn was the normal goofy kid...the other one that I wouldn't turn my back on was shot and killed by APD,I believe in 2009, after running from cop and cutting cop with knife....

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Ah, yeah, Maurice Pierce was nuts. I thought you meant the two that were convicted and still alive

If his DNA was entered in 2018 and we had DNA since 2009, why was a match not made in 2018?

From what I understand the DNA sample wasn't able to be analyzed fully enough until recently. Technology finally caught up enough to enable the genealogy DNA trace.

MaroonSpirit said:

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If his DNA was entered in 2018 and we had DNA since 2009, why was a match not made in 2018?

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The DNA APD has had since 2009 is only a Y-STR profile which is good for eliminating suspects, but many men can share the same Y-STR profile so it's not common to search for a Y-STR match. Brashers' Y-STR is shared by 0.12% of the US population. There was not enough DNA evidence at the scene to get a full DNA profile.

The Y-STR profile found at the scene of the Yogurt Shop Murders was last submitted for a nationwide search in 2018, but resulted in no hits. It's possible that even though a full DNA profile had been identified for Brashers in 2018, his Y-STR profile was not known or not available in any database, due to it not normally being used to search for suspects.

This year, the Y-STR profile was resubmitted for a nationside search and a match was found by the South Carolina State Lab. It's unclear how long the South Carolina State Lab has had this Y-STR profile in their system, but it was known to match to Brashers due to the additional DNA testing done on Brashers in 2018.

Earlier this month, APD went all-in on Brashers, submitting what little additional DNA evidence they had for testing. They knew they wouldn't be able to get a full DNA profile with the quantity they had, but now they only needed enough to compare to Brashers DNA rather than to do a search.

They were able to get enough DNA evidence from Amy Ayers' fingernails to conclude that there is a 2.5 million in one match to Brashers' DNA.

This DNA evidence combined with other evidence related to the .380 casing and Bashers' MO in other crimes was enough to conclude he was the killer in the Yogurt Shop Murders.

That's crazy.

I lived in Austin off 2222, and we went to that yogurt shop on a semi-regular basis. We moved away in October and the murders happened in December.

I hope this gives the families some comfort and closure. That was a horrible tragedy.

What an EVIL PIECE OF *****!! Burn in hell *******.

Another thing that makes it worse was this POS was on parole when he murdered the girls. He did 4 years of a 12 year sentence.

I am grateful the Austin Police Department (APD) Cold Case Homicide Unit used new DNA techniques to identify Robert Eugene Brashers as the suspect in the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders. I hope this gives the victims' families some comfort and closure. I have lived in Austin since January 2019, but I have never been to an ICBY.

Do any of you who have read about this extensively think one person did this by themselves?
I haven't read that much about it but it seems like a lot to do for just one person. There may be some other POS out there.

CStewTAMU said:

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Another thing that makes it worse was this POS was on parole when he murdered the girls. He did 4 years of a 12 year sentence.

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Also, 2 defendants were wrongly imprisoned for many years due to a corrupt interrogator. When they were released, 3 years after the conviction for one of them was overturned (!), no apology was given, "because the defendants couldn't prove that they didn't do it."

1991 Austin yogurt shop murders - Wikipedia

MD20/20 said:

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Do any of you who have read about this extensively think one person did this by themselves?
I haven't read that much about it but it seems like a lot to do for just one person. There may be some other POS out there.

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I've had the same thought.
Is it possible? Yes it is.
Who knows what he told those girls to make them comply until they realized that this wasn't just a robbery.
The one thing that's still giving me a little agita is that aside from the .380, there was also a .22 used in the commission of the crime. Clearly, Brasher could've been carrying two pistols but it just seems odd to me.

MD20/20 said:

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Do any of you who have read about this extensively think one person did this by themselves?
I haven't read that much about it but it seems like a lot to do for just one person. There may be some other POS out there.

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It is rare for serial kills to have a partner (yes, it does happen now and then, Dean Coril being probably the most infamous one who had help), but even rarer for them to have a partner for one crime and no others.

Unless there is evidence of a partner at other crimes he is linked to, then there likely isn't one for the Austin murders either.

94chem said:

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no apology was given, "because the defendants couldn't prove that they didn't do it."

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This sort of thing makes my blood boil. I'm 100% for the harshest of penalties for violent criminals, but it's the prosecutor's job to prove that the defendants did do it. Innocent until proven guilty is the foundation of our legal system.

Also, as an aside, f*** Jose Garza and the horse that f***ed him before he rode in on it.

I have just assumed someone somewhere in law enforcement was involved as this case has always been weird. I also would assume one person committed the crime or the others were killed shortly thereafter otherwise this crime was too notorious for someone not to talk to someone. It gives me some peace that those children were able to do enough to bring some closure to this case.

There are true monsters in this world.

Hank the Grifter said:

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MD20/20 said:

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Do any of you who have read about this extensively think one person did this by themselves?
I haven't read that much about it but it seems like a lot to do for just one person. There may be some other POS out there.

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I've had the same thought.
Is it possible? Yes it is.
Who knows what he told those girls to make them comply until they realized that this wasn't just a robbery.
The one thing that's still giving me a little agita is that aside from the .380, there was also a .22 used in the commission of the crime. Clearly, Brasher could've been carrying two pistols but it just seems odd to me.

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I too have struggled with the "one attacker" scenario, but APD was pretty clear in indicating that he had committed at least one sexual assault where he had to take 4 different females and subdue them on his own, and even used their own clothing to tie them up...

APD also noted that he had committed acts previously with two different weapons, by himself...

Where I do struggle is with knowing where this yogurt shop was...born and raised in Austin, and I was in high school myself when this happened...it wasn't exactly a tucked away spot...the strip center faces Anderson Lane which, at this time of night, was still regularly traveled with traffic...it's literally only two blocks from Mopac...

How this one dude was able to pull this off by himself and not get noticed...well it's hard for me to wrap my mind around it...but that doesn't make it impossible...

It's very clear that only ONE mystery DNA was found at the scene, and it belonged to Brasher...

Agreed.

My God these poor families.

Quote:

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I too have struggled with the "one attacker" scenario, but APD was pretty clear in indicating that he had committed at least one sexual assault where he had to take 4 different females and subdue them on his own, and even used their own clothing to tie them up...

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Not hard to do if one has a gun on the victims.

He likely forced one of the girls to tie up the other three, then tied her up.

Rapier108 said:

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Quote:

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I too have struggled with the "one attacker" scenario, but APD was pretty clear in indicating that he had committed at least one sexual assault where he had to take 4 different females and subdue them on his own, and even used their own clothing to tie them up...

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Not hard to do if one has a gun on the victims.

He likely forced one of the girls to tie up the other three, then tied her up.

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No, I get the logistics of it...

I'm just saying that the location of this would make it very challenging to own the room and keep all 4 quiet, especially with cars and foot traffic that would still have been in the area at that time...I DO struggle with no one hearing the shots...

I'm not saying it's impossible...far from it...just saying it would have its challenges...

Glad they identified the killer. But I still can't just ignore some of the confessions from those kids. There was information in there that no one else would have known. There were very minor details between all the confessions that make it very unlikely they just made it all up.

It sort of faces Anderson, at least the end cap does. The yogurt shop was an in-line space that faced more to Rockwood. It also happened late at night, in a time when security cameras weren't all that common. He likely staked out this location and had a plan for a secluded escape.

Mikeyshooter said:

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Glad they identified the killer. But I still can't just ignore some of the confessions from those kids. There was information in there that no one else would have known. There were very minor details between all the confessions that make it very unlikely they just made it all up.

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"Good" interrogators have ways of feeding you information to make you say things that you know aren't true but you say them anyways.

HTownAg98 said:

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It sort of faces Anderson, at least the end cap does. The yogurt shop was an in-line space that faced more to Rockwood. It also happened late at night, in a time when security cameras weren't all that common. He likely staked out this location and had a plan for a secluded escape.

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I grew up there...I know the strip center...the yogurt shop itself is very visible from Anderson Lane...

And this was a Friday night at 11PM...Anderson Lane was a main drag in North Austin (and this area was considered North Austin in 1991) back then and still quite active on a typical Friday night...even this late...

If I recall correctly, weren't 3 of the girls tied up in a back room? From what I remember reading, none of the foul play that occurred would have been visible from the outside.

What business now occupies the space that was once the yogurt shop?

Wasn't there a C&W dance place that was across Anderson?

Slicer97 said:

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If I recall correctly, weren't 3 of the girls tied up in a back room? From what I remember reading, none of the foul play that occurred would have been visible from the outside.

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Yes, but it's not clear where they were when the attack initiated…

As I recall, the FD found that, though most of the front dining area chairs had been stacked on tables, at least a couple of them were still down on the floor at one table as if they were still in use when things went down…

Could those have been occupied by a couple of the girls at the time who were not employees? Could the assailant have been occupying one of the chairs (perhaps using an "I'm still finishing my yogurt" excuse to remain inside after closing?

At the end of the day, though, no matter how challenging (yet not impossible) I personally think this would have been to pull off by a single person, the fact remains that only one unknown DNA was present at the crime scene…Brasher's…

If there is no other physical evidence to connect a second person to what happened that night, then we have to assume it was Brasher alone…

FireAg said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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It sort of faces Anderson, at least the end cap does. The yogurt shop was an in-line space that faced more to Rockwood. It also happened late at night, in a time when security cameras weren't all that common. He likely staked out this location and had a plan for a secluded escape.

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I grew up there...I know the strip center...the yogurt shop itself is very visible from Anderson Lane...

And this was a Friday night at 11PM...Anderson Lane was a main drag in North Austin (and this area was considered North Austin in 1991) back then and still quite active on a typical Friday night...even this late...

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Yeah, that part of town was pretty busy during that time. Dallas night club was right around the corner.