The Yogurt Shop Murders on HBO Max: The Story Behind Robert Eugene Brashers
The fourth episode of the documentary series reveals the murderer behind the brutal killings in Austin in 1991
What is the series about?
The Yogurt Shop Murders on HBO Max is a documentary series directed by Margaret Brown, which over four episodes examines one of the most notorious cold cases in Texas history. The series focuses on the murder of four young girls — Amy Ayers (13), Eliza Thomas (17), Jennifer Harbison (17), and Sarah Harbison (15) — that took place in December 1991. In the fourth and final episode, 'Resolution and Closure', the ultimate breakthrough in the investigation is depicted, which after more than three decades led to the identification of the real perpetrator through groundbreaking forensic genealogy.
The real case
The real case behind the series began on December 6, 1991, when the Austin fire department responded to a fire at a yogurt shop. There, the four victims were found, bound, gagged, and shot in the back of the head with a .22 caliber pistol. The crime scene was marked by extreme brutality, and the shop was subsequently set on fire to cover up the evidence. The investigation was plagued for years by dead ends and controversial police methods. In 1999, four young men were arrested, and two of them, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, were later convicted. However, their convictions were overturned in 2009 when new DNA analyses from one of the victims did not match any of the convicted, leaving the case open and unresolved for another 16 years.
Timeline of the case
The breakthrough presented in the documentary's finale came in 2025. Using advanced DNA technology, investigators were able to link biological material from the crime scene to Robert Eugene Brashers. Brashers was a serial criminal with a violent history that included both assaults and murders. However, he evaded prosecution for the yogurt shop murders during his lifetime, as he committed suicide in 1999 during a shootout with police in Missouri. The identification of Brashers has finally provided answers to the relatives, but also leaves questions about how the investigation could misidentify the original suspects for so many years. You can read more about similar cases in our archive of Robert Eugene Brashers and