Latest on the suspect identified in the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders in Texas
(CBS, KYMA) - There's been a breakthrough in a 34-year-old Texas case known as the Yogurt Shop Murders.
In 1991, four teenage girls, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer and Sarah Harbison and Amy Ayers were tied up, shot and set on fire at the Austin shop.
Over the years there were arrests, convictions, and even a death sentence, but all were overturned.
Recently, new technology connected Robert Eugene Brashers with the only physical evidence left at the scene: DNA found under the fingernails of one of the girls.
His DNA had already linked him to three other murders in South Carolina and Missouri. In 1999, Brashers shot and killed himself during a standoff with police.
Family members of the girls welcomed the closure, but say there will always be pieces of them missing.
"Our reality doesn't change after today. Our families are still too small. Still missing innocent, essential ingredient. And we are lesser for it. We have been robbed of a life with nieces and nephews and grandchildren. And sisters to grow old with," said Sonora Thomas, Eliza Thomas' sister.
The families thanked the Austin Police Department for never giving up on the case.
The district attorney says once the investigation is officially closed, he will apologize to the men who had been wrongly convicted for the murders.
