beerad12man said:

---

Like someone on the thread said, the dna was a 2.5 million to 1 chance.

I don't think they necessarily need the shell casing to confirm, but it helps paint the picture more. Especially considering he took his own like with it, and that he had a 380 on him on December 8 1991 when he was pulled over by border patrol in texas. Too bad they didn't have the means to connect things like that. Nowadays I think they would look into someone and have the communication fast enough that if someone got pulled over 48 hours later crossing a border with the same gun as a violent crime, they'd hold him.

---

Of course. They can find stuff like that right away now. Obviously DNA has been a game changer. But I think the Adam Walsh case was a harbinger or wakeup call for law enforcement to work together better. Maybe someone else has a better timeline or rationale to share.

I look at this company Palantir, and it's such a joke. It's basically these Silicon Valley grifters patting each other on the back because they wrote...a database? So much corruption...welcome to 1982.

That's because the interrogators were giving them the answers.

Have you seen or read the interviews in their entirety?

flown-the-coop said:

---

This article seems to indicate the break in the case was from a shell casing being tested / compared to a national DB leading to brasher…


https://www.fox7austin.com/news/austin-yogurt-shop-murders-linked-known-serial-killer-rapist-through-dna

Quote:

---

Serial Killer Connection:
In June 2025, Detective Jackson determined that a .380 cartridge found in a drain at the scene had not recently been submitted to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). In July, a "hit" was received, linking the cartridge to an unsolved 1998 murder in Kentucky. The similarities in the cases led to a collaborative investigation between Austin and Kentucky detectives.

Evidence Against Brashers

Further investigation revealed that Brashers, the newly named suspect, committed suicide in 1999 using the same make and model weapona .380 pistolused to shoot victim Amy Ayers. Even more compelling, Brashers was stopped by Border Patrol on December 8, 1991, less than 48 hours after the murders, at a checkpoint between El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was driving a stolen car and was in possession of a .380 pistol that has since been confirmed to be the same gun he used to commit suicide in 1999, as the serial numbers match.

Further DNA testing is continuing, with final results expected in the coming weeks or months.

Stopped with a pistol in a stolen car? Was he just let go?

---

---

Yeah, they didn't really offer "only the killer could know" without being fed it - or at least fed some part of it. Or in some cases it took an extreme stretch to translate what they said into something that fit the scene.

Don't talk to cops. Get a lawyer

It's hard for the average person to understand false confessions. But take a bit of a dummy, subject them to hours and hours of tormenting questions and pressure, and they'll say anything to get out of that room

Bunk Moreland said:

---

Yes. It underwent a renovation not too long ago and now has a pretty awesome view of downtown as it's perched over the Murchison hill

---

Ran up and down that hill hundreds of times in football practice.

Maybe I missed it in this thread. Did anyone mention what brought Brashear to Austin in the first place?

Burdizzo said:

---

Maybe I missed it in this thread. Did anyone mention what brought Brashear to Austin in the first place?

---

Haven't seen anything yet. He seemed to be jobless and would disappear for weeks at a time. So my guess is he was basically passing thru, committing horrible crimes, and then leaving that area throughout the south. Why he got away with so many of these for so long.

They specifically mentioned in the press conference that they do not know why he was in the Austin area.

DannyDuberstein said:

---

Yeah, they didn't really offer "only the killer could know" without being fed it - or at least fed some part of it. Or in some cases it took an extreme stretch to translate what they said into something that fit the scene.

Don't talk to cops. Get a lawyer

It's hard for the average person to understand false confessions. But take a bit of a dummy, subject them to hours and hours of tormenting questions and pressure, and they'll say anything to get out of that room

---

Also, spending a year of college tuition just because someone accuses you a crime is a hard thing to do.

And even competent public defenders are often so intimidated by the judges that they can't do their jobs.

94chem said:

---

DannyDuberstein said:

---

Yeah, they didn't really offer "only the killer could know" without being fed it - or at least fed some part of it. Or in some cases it took an extreme stretch to translate what they said into something that fit the scene.

Don't talk to cops. Get a lawyer

It's hard for the average person to understand false confessions. But take a bit of a dummy, subject them to hours and hours of tormenting questions and pressure, and they'll say anything to get out of that room

---

Also, spending a year of college tuition just because someone accuses you a crime is a hard thing to do.

And even competent public defenders are often so intimidated by the judges that they can't do their jobs.

---

There was a pretty lengthy debate here years ago about the guilt/innocence of Steven Avery up in Wisconsin (see: Making a Murderer on Netflix). One of the big takeaways from the series was how the cops manipulated his clueless nephew into confessing and how his mother was foolish enough to let her mentally-challenged, minor, son be interviewed by the police without an attorney present.

94chem said:

---

DannyDuberstein said:

---

Yeah, they didn't really offer "only the killer could know" without being fed it - or at least fed some part of it. Or in some cases it took an extreme stretch to translate what they said into something that fit the scene.

Don't talk to cops. Get a lawyer

It's hard for the average person to understand false confessions. But take a bit of a dummy, subject them to hours and hours of tormenting questions and pressure, and they'll say anything to get out of that room

---

Also, spending a year of college tuition just because someone accuses you a crime is a hard thing to do.

And even competent public defenders are often so intimidated by the judges that they can't do their jobs.

---

I don't disagree. The issue is the more you talk on your own, the more that legal fund tab is going to increase in the long haul in addition to higher risk you end up in prison

Lawyer or not, the main thing you can do is shut up. That's free.

wow that's amazing.

I don't have many memories from childhood but do remember walking back home from Doss the day President Reagan was shot (1981).

is Murchison Junior High below Doss like below the picture here?


I went to AS Johnston for two years and then my family moved to Ohio in 1987, and all the neighborhood kids were then transferred to Anderson HS.

are there still Mr.Gattis in Austin?!?! childhood was so much fun back in the 80s in Austin.

There's at least half a dozen in the greater Austin area. The Gattitown at 79/35 in Round Rock is still going strong.

LMCane said:

---

wow that's amazing.

I don't have many memories from childhood but do remember walking back home from Doss the day President Reagan was shot (1981).

is Murchison Junior High below Doss like below the picture here?


I went to AS Johnston for two years and then my family moved to Ohio in 1987, and all the neighborhood kids were then transferred to Anderson HS.

are there still Mr.Gattis in Austin?!?! childhood was so much fun back in the 80s in Austin.

---

Mr. Gattis is still rocking. Honestly, a minor miracle with all the options in this town now.

On the radio this morning, it sounded like he was arrested for that and the guns confiscated. But they belonged to his dad and he reclaimed them and when the guy got out of prison, he got hold of the guns again and committed suicide with the same gun.

I was in the area today for work and I had some time before my next appointment. The top picture is the original and the bottom is as of about five minutes ago.

This isn't a modern store front with floor to ceiling glass windows, and you can only see the entrance for about 50 yards if you were driving west down Anderson, and the road curves. Unfortunately, it wasn't inconceivable that no one saw anything while it was happening.

Is that a memorial next to the oak tree?

Looks like the double door was replaced with a single door, and nothing else changed on the outside.

Yes. Theres a plaque in the ground there and people leave flowers and other things there on occasion.

DannyDuberstein said:

---

94chem said:

---

DannyDuberstein said:

---

Yeah, they didn't really offer "only the killer could know" without being fed it - or at least fed some part of it. Or in some cases it took an extreme stretch to translate what they said into something that fit the scene.

Don't talk to cops. Get a lawyer

It's hard for the average person to understand false confessions. But take a bit of a dummy, subject them to hours and hours of tormenting questions and pressure, and they'll say anything to get out of that room

---

Also, spending a year of college tuition just because someone accuses you a crime is a hard thing to do.

And even competent public defenders are often so intimidated by the judges that they can't do their jobs.

---

I don't disagree. The issue is the more you talk on your own, the more that legal fund tab is going to increase in the long haul in addition to higher risk you end up in prison

Lawyer or not, the main thing you can do is shut up. That's free.

---

True, but they can also turn off the cameras and beat the hell out of you.

FireAg said:

---

Physically, I can see him being able to do it…sure…

But that creek right behind the strip center was a notorious teenage hoodlum hangout spot, especially on a Friday night at that time…

I'm shocked no one heard the shots…

Unless…someone did hear the shots, but that person(s) was part of the initial victim round up (but didn't stick around to commit the assaults and murders)…

But again, only one mystery DNA was present, and also again, it has been identified now as belonging to Brasher…

So if someone did assist Brasher at any point in this, we are never going to know…

---

It was a .380 - they aren't loud to begin with, and when you combine that with the fact that it was done inside a commercial building that had thicker walls that were insulated, it's really easy to understand that nobody heard the shots.

Or even if they did, most folks aren't identifying muffled noises with a guy murdering 4 girls in the back room of a business. Unless you are specifically listening for something like a gunshot, muffled noises aren't going to come across as one in a normal every day scenario.

TacosaurusRex said:

---

I was in the area today for work and I had some time before my next appointment. The top picture is the original and the bottom is as of about five minutes ago.

This isn't a modern store front with floor to ceiling glass windows, and you can only see the entrance for about 50 yards if you were driving west down Anderson, and the road curves. Unfortunately, it wasn't inconceivable that no one saw anything while it was happening.

---

When the murders happened, I was a freshman at UT. I honestly never knew exactly where the yogurt shop was, so I looked it up yesterday. Looking back, we didn't have the internet in 1991, so I couldn't just google it, and I would have just read about it in the paper or heard about it on the radio. Plus, it happened right about finals, so I would have been testing and leaving campus for the semester. Guess I never thought to look it up once we had the internet.

I always thought the location was over close to Highland Mall/Threadgill's. I have driven by the actual shopping center a million times, but never realized it.

Maybe investigators can confirm if Brashers was involved in some other cold cases throughout the south. In particular, I'd like to know if he was in East Texas in early January of 1992. The still unsolved missing person / murder case of Kelly Wilson in Gilmer TX, has met one dead end after another.

• December 6,1991: The yogurt shop murders occur in Austin, TX, four females killed; two employees in the process of closing the store by themselves and two siblings. Brashers is the killer.
• December 8, 1991: Brashers is pulled over outside of El Paso, TX
• January 5, 1992: Kelly Wilson goes missing in Gilmer, TX, a female employee at closing time at the video store where she worked and closed that night by herself.
• February 18, 1992: Brashers is arrested in Cobb County, GA

If Brashers drove from El Paso/New Mexico to Georgia, sometime between, say, December 9 and February 17, then there's a good chance he drove through East Texas. This may be nothing, but it's damn sure worth looking into if there was even a chance he was in the vicinity of where Wilson went missing. Also, Gilmer isn't near a main road but it's not unthinkable that Brashers would have avoided I-20 or Highway 80 and instead would have taken backroads since he would very likely have been driving a stolen vehicle.

Watch Evil Lives Here. Season 10, Episode 8. "I Still Love My Daddy". About Brashers.

More on Brashers.

Minor correction.

2 female employees closing up shop. The other 2 girls were the younger sister of one of the employees and her best friend who were just there to get a ride home from the older sister.

Slicer97 said:

---

Minor correction.

2 female employees closing up shop. The other 2 girls were the younger sister of one of the employees and her best friend who were just there to get a ride home from the older sister.

---

Correct

Maybe the Travis County DA was looking to discuss something other than this.

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/kendrex-white-release-update/269-6c0c2f05-3916-460a-86d5-64d36e072c26

BREAKING: Four men charged in 1999 with Austin’s infamous yogurt shop murders eight years earlier have been declared innocent, ending a dark chapter in Austin’s history.

— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) February 19, 2026

Forrest Welborn has spent 27 years fighting for his reputation and livelihood after he was charged with three other men in 1999 with the murders of four girls at an Austin Yogurt shop.

Now officials are taking steps to rectify what many consider one of Texas’ gravest injustices.… pic.twitter.com/TdCkEM5wVR

— San Antonio Express-News (@ExpressNews) February 18, 2026

I'm hoping the people that did the Yogurt Shop documentary will do a couple of follow-up episodes now. It was really well done.