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Back on a Friday in December 1991, seventeen-year-old Jennifer Harbison and her coworker Eliza Thomas, each aged 17, were finishing their shift at the dessert shop where they were employed. Waiting for a lift were Jennifer’s younger sister, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and Sarah’s friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers.

Just before midnight, a blaze at the store drew emergency crews, who found a horrific scene: the young victims had been bound, killed, and showed indicators of assault. The configration destroyed nearly all evidence, aside from a shell casing that had rolled into a drain and tiny traces of DNA, notably traces under Ayers’ fingernails.

The Murders That Rocked Austin

The frozen yogurt shop case traumatized the community in Austin and evolved into one of the best-known cold cases in the United States. Following decades of false leads and wrongful convictions, the killings ultimately led to a U.S. law signed in 2022 that enables loved ones to ask for cold cases to be reopened.

But the crimes stayed unresolved for almost thirty-four years – until now.

Key Development

Investigators revealed on Monday a "major development" made possible by modern methods in firearms analysis and forensic science, stated the city's mayor at a news briefing.

Genetic matches suggest Robert Eugene Brashers, who was identified posthumously as a multiple murderer. Further crimes are likely to be added to his record as forensic technology become more advanced and broadly applied.

"The sole forensic clue recovered from that scene has been linked to him," stated the head of police.

The case isn't closed yet, but this is a "huge leap", and the suspect is considered the only attacker, authorities said.

Closure for Loved Ones

A family member, Sonora, shared that her thoughts were divided after her sister was murdered.

"One part of my mind has been yelling, 'What happened to my sister?', and the remaining part kept insisting, 'I will never know. I'll go to my grave unaware, and I must accept that,'" she stated.

After discovering about this breakthrough in the investigation, "the conflicting thoughts of my brain started coming together," she explained.

"Finally I comprehend the truth, and that does ease my anguish."

Mistaken Arrests Corrected

The breakthrough doesn't just bring peace to the loved ones; it also definitively absolves two individuals, minors when arrested, who maintained they were forced into giving false statements.

Robert Springsteen, a teenager at the time when the murders occurred, was given a death sentence, and Scott, who was 15, was given life imprisonment. Both men said they gave confessions following extended questioning in the late 1990s. In the following decade, they were released after their verdicts were thrown out due to legal changes on confessions lacking forensic proof.

Legal authorities abandoned the charges against the defendants in that year after a forensic examination, known as Y-STR, indicated neither man corresponded against the DNA samples recovered from the yogurt shop.

The Investigation Advances

The Y-STR profile – pointing to an unidentified male – would in time be the crucial element in cracking the investigation. In 2018, the DNA profile was submitted for retesting because of scientific progress – but a countrywide check to investigative bodies yielded no results.

In June, an investigator working on the investigation in 2022, considered a new approach. Several years had passed since the firearms evidence from the cartridge had been entered to the NIBIN database – and in that time, the system had been significantly improved.

"The software has gotten so much better. Actually, we're dealing with 3D stuff now," Jackson commented at the news event.

There was a hit. An unsolved murder in Kentucky, with a similar modus operandi, had the identical kind of shell casing. Jackson and a cold case expert consulted the law enforcement there, who are still working on their open file – and are analyzing evidence from a forensic kit.

Linking Multiple Crimes

The new lead got Jackson thinking. Was there further clues that might correspond to investigations elsewhere? He considered right away of the Y-STR analysis – but there was a problem. The Combined DNA Index System is the countrywide system for investigators, but the evidence from Austin was insufficiently intact and limited to submit.

"I thought, well, time has passed. More labs are conducting this analysis. Databases are getting bigger. Let's do a countrywide check again," the detective said.

He circulated the long-standing Y-STR results to police departments nationwide, instructing them to manually compare it to their own databases.

A second connection emerged. The DNA pattern matched perfectly with a DNA sample from another state – a killing that occurred in 1990 that was closed with the aid of a genetic genealogy company and an expert in genetic genealogy in 2018.

Genetic Genealogy Success

The expert built a genealogical chart for the murderer from that case and found a kinship connection whose biological evidence indicated a direct relationship – likely a brother or sister. A magistrate approved that the deceased individual be exhumed, and his genetic material matched against the forensic proof from Austin.

Typically, this expert is able to set aside closed investigations in order to work on the following case.

"But I have {not been