Austin officials announced on a morning press conference that new forensic comparisons link Robert Eugene Brashers to the 1991 slayings of Amy Ayers, Jennifer Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Sarah Harbison at a north Austin yogurt shop.

"We now have evidence linking a specific individual to this case, Robert Eugene Brashers. The only, the only physical evidence located at that scene has been matched to him," Austin Chief of Police Lisa Davis said.

The announcement followed a multiagency review of decades-old evidence that combined expanded DNA testing, manual searches of Y-STR (male-line) profiles in state databases and a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) hit that connected a spent .380 cartridge found at the yogurt shop to at least one other unsolved homicide. Detective Daniel Jackson, who inherited the investigation in 2022, told reporters that the South Carolina State Laboratory returned a 27-marker Y-STR match to a profile developed from evidence in Greenville, S.C., and that a subsequent direct-comparison STR test on biological material from a victim's fingernail clippings matched Brashers with a reported statistical weight of about 2.5 million to 1 in favor of Brashers over an unrelated individual.

Dr. Dana Kadavy, director of Austin Forensic Science, said independent laboratories and different testing methods produced consistent results. "The DNA story never changed," she said, adding that the South Carolina lab's reference sample and a judge-ordered exhumation in 2018 provided the known standard that permitted direct comparisons to Austin evidence.

Detective Jackson described a long investigative timeline: investigators recovered a lone spent .380 cartridge from a floor drain at the scene in 1991; earlier testing produced a partial Y-STR profile that excluded earlier suspects; and repeated re-analysis with modern methods eventually produced the link. Jackson said the cartridge was resubmitted to NIBIN in 2025 and generated a presumptive match to a Kentucky case; one of the steps that led detectives to the South Carolina match was a nationwide manual query of Y-STR files.

Jackson and Dr. Kadavy cautioned that Y-STR results are limited: they examine male-line markers only and are inherited paternally, which means they are not unique to a single individual the way a complete autosomal STR profile can be. Jackson told reporters the particular Y-STR profile seen in this investigation is rare in population estimates (about 0.12 percent), but that the fingernail STR comparison provided much stronger statistical support in this instance.

Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said his office learned of the new results less than a week before the press conference and of the families' notification even more recently. "The overwhelming weight of the evidence points to the guilt of one man and to the innocence of four," Garza said, referencing Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, whose earlier convictions related to these killings were later overturned, and Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn, whose charges were dropped. Garza said the DA's office will review APD's investigation and pursue whatever legal steps follow, including processes that could help the men who were prosecuted in the 1990s.

Family members and survivors who spoke at the event emphasized relief and lingering grief. Barbara Wilson, mother of two victims, said the family had sought only the truth: "All we ever wanted for this case was the truth," she said. Angie Ayers, who led long-running advocacy for renewed investigation, urged other jurisdictions to re-examine cold-case evidence and to submit forensic evidence to modern databases.

Officials stressed there is additional work to do: ballistics "one-to-one" comparisons between shell casings and a definitive firearms examiner's report were described as pending, and APD said investigators will continue to coordinate with the Texas Attorney General's Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit and other agencies. Jackson said the gun tied by serial number to Brashers had been documented at times in evidence and that investigators are still attempting to locate any recovered firearm or casing that would permit a definitive match; he said Brashers was stopped by Border Patrol on Dec. 8, 1991, while carrying an AMT .380 backup pistol identified by a serial number that matches descriptions tied to other linked crimes, and that Brashers died by suicide in 1999 after a standoff in Missouri.

Attorney General office representative Mindy Monfort said the statewide cold-case unit will post tip lines and asked anyone with information about Brashers or similar crimes to contact law enforcement. Officials said they would work to make tip lines available and would continue to share results with the families.

What remains unresolved, investigators said, are final ballistic confirmation reports and some interagency comparisons. APD and the DA described the current status as an investigatory conclusion supported by converging forensic data, but they did not describe judicial filings or criminal charges tied to the new evidence; Brashers is deceased and cannot be prosecuted.

The announcement underscored both the limits and the reach of modern forensic methods when applied to older evidence. Jackson urged other agencies to re-submit older ballistic evidence to NIBIN and to preserve biological samples for retesting as methods improve. The DA said his office will work with the families and with law enforcement as the remaining laboratory work and any legal follow-up proceed.