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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 closing up at the dessert shop where they worked. Staying behind for a pickup were Jennifer's sister, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and her friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers.

Just before midnight, a blaze at the business attracted emergency crews, who uncovered the tragedy: the four girls had been tied up, fatally attacked, and showed indicators of assault. The blaze wiped out most of the forensic clues, aside from a shell casing that had fallen into a gutter and tiny traces of genetic material, including traces beneath Amy Ayers' nails.

The Murders That Rocked Austin

The frozen yogurt shop case traumatized the city of Austin and became one of the best-known unsolved mysteries in the nation. Following decades of dead ends and wrongful convictions, the killings ultimately led to a U.S. law approved in 2022 that allows loved ones to ask for unsolved investigations to be reinvestigated.

Yet the crimes remained unsolved for nearly 34 years – until now.

Significant Progress

Police authorities revealed on Monday a "significant breakthrough" powered by modern methods in bullet matching and forensic science, stated the Austin mayor at a press conference.

Forensic clues point to Robert Eugene Brashers, who was identified following his demise as a multiple murderer. More murders are likely to be added to his record as genetic testing evolve further and widespread.

"The sole forensic clue found at that scene has been matched to him," explained the head of police.

This investigation isn't closed yet, but this represents a "huge leap", and the suspect is believed to be the only attacker, authorities said.

Healing Begins

A family member, a therapist, said that her thoughts were divided after the tragedy occurred.

"One portion of my brain has been demanding, 'What occurred to my sister?', and the remaining part kept insisting, 'I will never know. I will die not knowing, and I need to make peace with it,'" she stated.

Upon hearing of this breakthrough in the investigation, "the conflicting thoughts of my mind started melding," she explained.

"Finally I comprehend what happened, and that relieves my anguish."

Mistaken Arrests Corrected

This development not only bring closure to the victims' families; it also fully exonerates two men, minors when arrested, who maintained they were coerced into confessing.

Robert Springsteen, a teenager at the time during the crime, was sent to death row, and Scott, who was 15, was given life imprisonment. The two stated they only confessed following marathon interviews in the year 1999. In 2009, the two were set free after their convictions were thrown out due to legal changes on admissions absent tangible proof.

Legal authorities abandoned the prosecution against Springsteen and Scott in the same period after a DNA analysis, referred to as Y-STR, revealed neither man matched against the samples recovered from the yogurt shop.

Scientific Breakthrough

This genetic marker – pointing to an unknown man – would ultimately be the decisive factor in cracking the investigation. In recent years, the genetic data was sent for reanalysis because of improved methods – but a national search to investigative bodies yielded no results.

This past June, an investigator working on the case in recently, had an idea. It had been since the firearms evidence from the cartridge had been submitted to the national ballistic system – and in that time, the registry had seen substantial enhancements.

"The system has advanced significantly. In fact, we're dealing with advanced modeling now," he stated at the news event.

The system identified a link. An open homicide case in the state of Kentucky, with a identical pattern, had the identical kind of bullet casing. The detective and a cold case expert met with the law enforcement there, who are continuing to investigate their unnamed case – and are processing samples from a sexual assault kit.

Connecting the Dots

This development got Jackson thinking. Could there be additional proof that might match against crimes in different locations? He thought immediately of the Y-STR analysis – but there was a obstacle. The Combined DNA Index System is the national DNA database for police, but the yogurt shop DNA was not complete enough and minimal to enter.

"I said, well, several years have gone by. A growing number of laboratories are performing these tests. Databases are getting bigger. We should conduct a nationwide search again," the detective stated.

He distributed the historic genetic findings to law enforcement agencies around the country, requesting them to review individually it to their internal records.

There was another hit. The genetic signature corresponded precisely with a sample from Greenville, South Carolina – a 1990 murder that was closed with help from a DNA firm and an expert in genetic genealogy in 2018.

Genetic Genealogy Success

The expert built a family tree for the murderer from that case and found a relative whose DNA sample suggested a direct relationship – likely a sibling. A judge approved that the deceased individual be removed from burial, and his biological samples aligned against the evidence from the yogurt shop.

Normally, the genealogist is puts behind her closed investigations in order to work on the next one.

"Yet I have {not been