TRUE CRIME ATLAS
← Back to all cases

Yogurt Shop Murders

New releasePublished April 23, 2026Updated April 23, 2026
UnsolvedVisual case overview

Four victims · two overturned convictions · one forensic reversal

A case rewritten by its evidence

Confession-driven prosecutions gave way to exclusions, overturned convictions, and a later convergence of Y-STR DNA and ballistics around a different suspect.

Read the full case overview

On December 6, 1991, four teens—Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers—were found bound, gagged, and shot inside the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop on West Anderson Lane in Austin, which had been set on fire. Police arrested four local youths in 1999, leading to two convictions in 2001–2002, but appellate rulings and new DNA evidence prompted their release in 2009 and formal exonerations in February 2026. In September 2025, Austin police named deceased serial offender Robert Eugene Brashers as the likely perpetrator based on DNA and ballistics, yet the case remains officially unsolved.

Follow the full timelineCompare theories
Yogurt Shop Murders Victims Ap

The victims

Four lives at the center of a decades-long case

The scale

The case in four numbers

4
victims
Jennifer, Sarah, Eliza, and Amy
2
convictions overturned
after appeals and DNA review
35
years to innocence ruling
from 1991 to 2026
5
theories mapped
including excluded and supported paths

An investigation in reversals

The case changed direction more than once

Early arrests led to convictions, later DNA undermined them, and new ballistics and Y-STR work eventually pointed investigators toward a different suspect.

See all 2 mapped locations →
  1. 01

    Dec 6, 1991

    Four girls are murdered at the yogurt shop

    Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers were found bound, gagged, sexually assaulted, and shot inside the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop, which had been set on fire.

  2. 02

    Jan 1, 1999

    Task force arrests four former teenage suspects

    A revived task force re-interviewed the original four young men and arrested Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott in 1999.

  3. 03

    Jan 1, 2001

    Scott and Springsteen are convicted in separate trials

    Michael Scott was convicted and sentenced to life, and Robert Springsteen was convicted and sentenced to death, with the prosecutions relying heavily on confession evidence rather than physical evidence.

  4. 04

    Jan 1, 2009

    Charges are dropped after DNA review and appeal reversals

    The state dropped the remaining charges after appellate rulings and Y-STR testing excluded the original suspects from the unknown male profile recovered from the scene.

  5. 05

    Sep 29, 2025

    Austin police publicly identify Brashers as the likely killer

    Austin police announced that DNA, ballistics, and modus-operandi evidence pointed to deceased serial offender Robert Eugene Brashers as the likely perpetrator, while the case remained open because he was dead.

  6. 06

    Feb 19, 2026

    Judge declares the four previously accused men actually innocent

    A Travis County judge declared Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott actually innocent of the yogurt shop murders.

How the case turned

Confessions gave way to physical evidence

1
Strongly supported

The 2001–2002 prosecutions of Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott relied heavily on confession evidence rather than corroborating physical evidence.

2
Strongly supported

Y-STR testing reviewed in 2009 excluded the four previously accused men from the unknown male profile, leading to dismissal of remaining charges that year.

3
Strongly supported

A fired .380 cartridge casing recovered from a floor drain at the scene was resubmitted to NIBIN in July 2025 and returned a same-day hit to another homicide, indicating the same firearm was used in more than one crime.

4
Strongly supported

On September 29, 2025, Austin police publicly identified Robert Eugene Brashers as the likely perpetrator based on DNA, ballistics, and modus operandi.

Yogurt shop murders evidence
.380
cartridge caliber

One casing outlasted the original theory

A casing recovered from a floor drain later produced an interstate NIBIN link, adding firearm evidence independent of the confession-driven prosecutions.

Compare the evidence and theories →

Where certainty changes

Not every event carries the same weight

Open each layer to see what the archive treats as core, contested, or unresolved.

01EstablishedThe original prosecutions no longer stand
The convictions were overturned, charges were dismissed, DNA excluded the four accused men from the unknown male profile, and a judge declared them actually innocent in 2026.
02Strong leadDNA and ballistics point toward Robert Eugene Brashers
Austin police named Brashers as the likely perpetrator after Y-STR, ballistics, and cross-jurisdictional evidence converged. Because he is deceased and cannot be prosecuted, the attribution is not a trial-tested resolution.
03Open questionWhy does the case remain officially unsolved?
A lineage-DNA match and strong investigative attribution do not automatically satisfy every legal or clearance standard. The case remains open despite the major 2025 breakthrough.

Go deeper

Choose your path through the case

This overview is the map. The case tabs hold the underlying events, people, media, locations, and source material.

10 events 10 people 5 theories 2 locations 8 images Case documents