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On a Friday in December 1991, seventeen-year-old Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, both seventeen years old, were closing up at the dessert shop where they were employed. Remaining for a ride home were Jennifer's sister, Sarah Harbison, aged 15, and Sarah’s friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers.

Moments before 12 AM, a blaze at the store drew firefighters and police, who made a grim discovery: the four teenagers had been restrained, murdered, and showed evidence of sexual violence. The fire destroyed the bulk of physical proof, except for a bullet casing that had rolled into a drain and trace amounts of biological evidence, notably material beneath Amy Ayers' nails.

The Case That Shook a City

The frozen yogurt shop case traumatized the city of Austin and became one of the best-known cold cases in America. Over many years of investigative roadblocks and mistaken arrests, the homicides eventually led to a federal law enacted in 2022 that allows families of the deceased to request unsolved investigations to be reinvestigated.

Yet the killings continued to baffle investigators for over three decades – until now.

Key Development

Law enforcement officials revealed on Monday a "major development" made possible by new technology in firearms analysis and DNA analysis, announced the city's mayor at a media event.

Genetic matches suggest Robert Brashers, who was named after his death as a multiple murderer. Additional killings are likely to be attributed to him as forensic technology evolve further and more commonly used.

"The only physical evidence recovered from the yogurt shop has been linked to him," stated the city's police chief.

The case hasn't reached conclusion, but this represents a "major step", and the individual is thought to be the only attacker, officials stated.

Healing Begins

The sister of Eliza Thomas, Sonora, shared that her thoughts were divided following her sister was murdered.

"One portion of my mind has been screaming, 'What took place to my sister?', and the other half kept repeating, 'It will remain a mystery. I will die not knowing, and I must accept that,'" she stated.

When she learned about this development in the investigation, "those two parts of my brain started coming together," she explained.

"I know now the truth, and that does ease my pain."

Wrongful Convictions Overturned

The breakthrough not only bring closure to the victims' families; it also completely clears two suspects, who were teens then, who insisted they were pressured into admitting guilt.

Springsteen, then 17 years old when the murders occurred, was sentenced to death, and Scott, aged 15 at the time, was received a life sentence. The two said they only confessed after extended questioning in the late 1990s. In 2009, the two were set free after their verdicts were overturned due to new precedents on statements lacking physical evidence.

Legal authorities abandoned the case against Springsteen and Scott in that year after a forensic examination, known as Y-STR, revealed neither individual aligned against the genetic material recovered from the murder site.

Modern Technology Solves Case

This genetic marker – suggesting an mystery suspect – would ultimately be the crucial element in cracking the investigation. In 2018, the DNA profile was sent for reanalysis because of improved methods – but a nationwide inquiry to other police departments yielded no results.

During the summer, the lead detective working on the investigation in 2022, had an idea. Several years had passed since the firearms evidence from the spent round had been submitted to the NIBIN database – and in the years since, the registry had been significantly improved.

"The software has advanced significantly. I mean, we're talking like 3D stuff now," Jackson stated at the press conference.

There was a hit. An unsolved murder in the state of Kentucky, with a similar modus operandi, had the same type of cartridge. Investigators and a colleague spoke to the local investigators, who are actively pursuing their open file – which involves testing materials from a sexual assault kit.

Linking Multiple Crimes

The new lead got Jackson thinking. Could there be additional proof that might link with cases in other states? He considered right away of the DNA profile – but there was a challenge. The national DNA registry is the countrywide system for police, but the yogurt shop DNA was not complete enough and scarce to upload.

"I suggested, well, time has passed. A growing number of laboratories are conducting this analysis. Systems are expanding. I proposed a countrywide check again," Jackson said.

He sent out the years-old genetic findings to police departments across the United States, instructing them to manually compare it to their internal records.

There was another hit. The DNA pattern corresponded precisely with a sample from Greenville, South Carolina – a homicide from 1990 that was resolved with assistance from a genetic genealogy company and a celebrated genealogist in recent years.

Genetic Genealogy Success

The expert developed a ancestry profile for the offender and located a kinship connection whose biological evidence indicated a direct relationship – probably a brother or sister. A judge ordered that the suspect's remains be exhumed, and his DNA corresponded against the crime scene sample.

Normally, she is can move on from resolved crimes in order to focus on the next one.

"However I have {not been