Missouri State Highway PatrolRobert Eugene Brashers mugshot For 34 years, a brutal crime haunted the city of Austin, Texas. The so-called Austin yogurt shop murders occured in December 1991, when an unknown assailant murdered four teenage girls at an I Cant Believe Its Yogurt outlet before setting the store on fire. But despite the brutality of the crime, the killer was not identified until 2025. Then, DNA evidence linked the murders to a man named Robert Eugene Brashers. A violent criminal with a long rap sheet, Brashers was convicted of multiple crimes before he died by suicide in 1999. Yet the full breadth of his crimes was not fully understood until recent years. In addition to the Austin yogurt shop murders, DNA evidence also connected to Brashers to a number of other unsolved rapes and homicides which occurred across the South. So who was Robert Eugene Brashers? This is the full story of the murderer and rapist whose terrible crimes went undiscovered for far too long. The First Documented Crime Of Robert Eugene BrashersRobert Eugene Brashers was born on March 13, 1958, in Newport News, Virginia. Not much is known about his childhood, but the Austin American-Stateman reported that he was known as intelligent, manipulative, and skilled with tools and weapons.But what is known is that Brashers first documented crime occured in 1985. That November, Brashers met 24-year-old Michelle Wilkerson at a bar in Fort Pierce, Florida. According to reporting at the time, the two left the bar together and drank several more beers. But when Brasher made a sexual advance, Wilkerson rejected him. Then, when she tried to leave, he shot her in the head and neck with his .25 caliber automatic pistol.Missouri State Highway PatrolA suspect composite sketch from 1998 connected to a crime committed by Robert Eugene Brashers.Incredibly, Wilkerson not only survived but remained conscious. She was able to flee and hide until Brashers gave up looking for her, at which point Wilkerson sought help. She was able to offer a description of her attacker to the police including his car, the color of his shirt, and his type of cigarettes and detectives were able to almost immediately track Brashers down. A year later, Robert Eugene Brashers was found guilty of the assault and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. However, he was released from prison for good behavior on May 4, 1989. And he would soon go on to attack others. Robert Eugene Brashers Life Of Crime And His 1999 SuicideOver the next ten years, Robert Eugene Brashers was arrested multiple times for a variety of crimes. According to Greenville Online, he was next arrested in February 1992 for having a stolen pistol and a stolen vehicle. Brashers also had a police scanner, a police jacket, burglary tools, and a fake Tennessee license, and was subsequently sent back to prison until 1997. Once again a free man, Brashers returned to a life of crime. He was arrested again on April 12, 1998 while trying to break into the house of a woman for whom hed done handiwork in Paragould, Arkansas. Though Brashers had cut the phone lines, and was arrested with a video camera and other tools he was released shortly after being taken into custody. At the same time, Brashers family had started to notice a startling change in his behavior. According to his daughter Deborah, who had been born in the summer of 1991, her grandmother often told her mother you let the devil in when you met this man. And after Brashers returned from prison in 1998, Deborah recalled to KFVS 12 that her father started acting crazy. In one chilling incident, Deborah remembered her father making an audio recording of himself as he cut himself with a knife. Deborah BrashersRobert Eugene Brashers with his family in an undated photograph.Never screamed, she recalled. Never yelled. Never showed an ounce of pain. [Of] anything in the tape whatsoever.Then, on Jan. 13, 1999, Robert Eugene Brashers life of crime came to an end. After stealing a car, he drove his family to a Super 8 motel in Kennett, Missouri. When police were notified about the stolen vehicle, they came to investigate. Brashers, armed with a gun, eventually agreed to release his family. But he would not emerge from the motel room, and, four hours later, he shot himself in the head. Brashers was alive for six more days, but he died of his injuries on Jan. 19, 1999.As it would turn out, Robert Eugene Brashers crimes were far more extensive than authorities realized when he was alive. Advances in DNA technology would connect Brasheres to a number of brutal rapes and murders, including the unsolved Austin yogurt shop murders of 1991. The Main Suspect In The Austin Yogurt Shop MurdersIn 2018, Robert Eugene Brashers body was exhumed for DNA testing. Advances in DNA technology were then able to connect Brashers to a number of crimes which stretched back to 1990. That October, the Missouri State Highway Patrol announced Brashers had raped and murdered Sherri Scherer and her 12-year-old daughter Megan in Portageville, Missouri. DNA evidence also connected him to the rape of a 14-year-old girl in Memphis, Tennessee, and the 1990 rape and murder of Genevieve Zitricki in Greenville, South Carolina. Then, in September 2025, investigators were able to connect Brashers to the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders, a shocking quadruple homicide. HBOThe four young victims of the Austin yogurt shop murders. On December 6 of that year, four teenage girls 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, her sister 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, and 13-year-old Amy Ayers were brutally murdered at an I Cant Believe Its Yogurt Shop in Austin, Texas. Some of the girls had also been sexually assaulted, and their nude, bound bodies were found in a back room of the shop, which their killer had set on fire. The Austin yogurt shop murders became one of the most agonizing cold cases in Austins history, and though two men were arrested and even convicted for the crimes, they were both later released. Then, decades later, investigators were able to connect Rogert Eugene Brashers to the brutal crime through his DNA. When Brashers daughter, Deborah Brashers, was asked about this revelation, she told Austin radio station KXAN: My first thought was I was born in 1991 August where was he at then?Deborah also said she thinks her father will be tied to even more crimes in the future and she was right. As recently as October 2025, investigators announced they were looking into a connection between Brashers and a homicide in Kentucky, in which a woman was raped and shot. I held my father on a pedestal for a very long time because I did not think he was an evil person, Deborah remarked. I just thought he had mental health issues and he couldnt deal with it anymore. I never knew that he had psychotic issues that he dealt with that we didnt know about.Indeed, Robert Eugene Brashers seemingly lived a chilling double life until his 1999 suicide. And if it werent for advances in DNA technology, the true extent of his crimes might have remained forever unknown. After reading about the serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers, discover the macabre story of infamous killer Ed Gein. Then, learn about the most infamous American serial killers.The post The Chilling Story Of Serial Killer Robert Eugene Brashers, The Main Suspect In The 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders appeared first on All That's Interesting.