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Back on December 6, 1991, Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, both seventeen years old, were closing up at the dessert shop where they worked. Remaining for a lift were Jennifer’s younger sister, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and her friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers.

Moments before 12 AM, a blaze at the business attracted first responders, who found a horrific scene: the young victims had been tied up, killed, and showed indicators of assault. The fire wiped out most of the forensic clues, except for a cartridge that had rolled into a drain and tiny traces of DNA, among them traces beneath Amy Ayers' nails.

The Crime That Stunned Texas

These horrific killings profoundly shook the city of Austin and evolved into one of the best-known unsolved mysteries in America. After years of false leads and wrongful convictions, the homicides in time led to a federal law signed in 2022 that allows victims' families to petition cold cases to be reviewed.

But the murders continued to baffle investigators for nearly 34 years – before this development.

A Major Breakthrough

Police authorities disclosed on Monday a "significant breakthrough" powered by new technology in ballistics and genetic testing, said the city's mayor at a press conference.

Forensic clues suggest Robert Eugene Brashers, who was named following his demise as a serial killer. More murders could be attributed to him as genetic testing evolve further and broadly applied.

"The sole forensic clue located at the yogurt shop corresponds directly to him," stated the top law enforcement officer.

The murders hasn't reached conclusion, but this is a "significant advance", and the suspect is believed to be the lone killer, officials said.

Healing Begins

Eliza's sister, Sonora, shared that her mind was split after the tragedy occurred.

"One half of my brain has been yelling, 'What occurred to my sister?', and the other part kept repeating, 'I'll never learn the truth. I will die not knowing, and I need to make peace with it,'" she stated.

When she learned about this progress in the case, "the conflicting thoughts of my brain began merging," she said.

"I know now what happened, and that lessens my pain."

Mistaken Arrests Corrected

The news doesn't just bring resolution to the victims' families; it also definitively absolves two suspects, teenagers at the time, who insisted they were coerced into admitting guilt.

Robert Springsteen, who was 17 when the murders occurred, was sentenced to death, and Scott, a 15-year-old then, was sentenced to life. The two said they gave confessions after extended questioning in the late 1990s. In 2009, they were freed after their convictions were overturned due to legal changes on statements lacking physical evidence.

The district attorney's office dropped the charges against the defendants in that year after a DNA analysis, known as Y-STR, indicated neither man corresponded against the genetic material recovered from the yogurt shop.

Modern Technology Solves Case

The Y-STR profile – suggesting an unknown man – would eventually be the decisive factor in cracking the investigation. In 2018, the profile was reexamined because of improved methods – but a nationwide inquiry to other police departments returned no genetic matches.

During the summer, an investigator working on the investigation in 2022, came up with a thought. Time had gone by since the bullet casings from the spent round had been submitted to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network – and in the interim, the registry had been significantly improved.

"The system has gotten so much better. I mean, we're talking like 3D stuff now," he stated at the press conference.

There was a hit. An open homicide case in another state, with a identical pattern, had the identical kind of bullet casing. The detective and a colleague met with the Kentucky detectives, who are actively pursuing their unidentified investigation – and are testing materials from a sexual assault kit.

Connecting the Dots

The apparent breakthrough prompted further inquiry. Might there exist any other evidence that might match against investigations elsewhere? He considered right away of the Y-STR analysis – but there was a obstacle. The Codis database is the national DNA database for police, but the yogurt shop DNA was too fragmented and minimal to submit.

"I said, well, several years have gone by. More labs are performing these tests. Systems are expanding. Let's do a nationwide search again," he stated.

He distributed the historic genetic findings to law enforcement agencies nationwide, asking them to check by hand it to their local systems.

They found another match. The profile aligned exactly with a DNA sample from another state – a 1990 murder that was closed with the aid of a DNA firm and an expert in genetic genealogy in 2018.

Genetic Genealogy Success

The researcher developed a ancestry profile for the offender and located a relative whose biological evidence indicated a immediate family link – probably a sibling. A judge authorized that the deceased individual be exhumed, and his genetic material matched against the forensic proof from Austin.

Typically, this expert is can move on from resolved crimes in order to focus on the new mystery.

"However I have {not been