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Shown in these undated file photos from left are: Eliza Hope Thomas, 17; Amy Ayers, 13; Jennifer Harbison, 17; and Sarah<\/p>\n
Handout\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
For more than three decades, Austin has wondered what happened inside an \u201cI Can\u2019t Believe It\u2019s Yogurt!\u201d shop. The murders of Jennifer Harbison, 17; Sarah Harbison, 15; Eliza Thomas, 17; and Amy Ayers, 13, on a December night in 1991 became a wound revisited through trials, overturned convictions and endless speculation.<\/p>\n
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Now, HBO\u2019s \u201cYogurt Shop Murders\u201d series<\/a> returns with a fifth and final episode that asks a different question: What happens after the wondering ends?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The new episode arrives months after Austin police announced deceased Robert Eugene\u00a0Brashers as a suspect<\/a>. The revelation upended decades of assumptions about the case and formally cleared the four men long accused in the murders<\/a>.<\/p>\n Closure in this episode is not presented as neat or complete. Instead, it examines the emotional aftermath of finally having an answer in a case that many believed would never truly be solved.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lightness that was not there before,\u201d director Margaret Brown said in an interview about the families featured in the documentary. \u201cAll of the family members felt better knowing who did this, even though the person who did it is a serial killer.\u201d<\/p>\n The documentary series is streaming on HBO Max.\u00a0Episode 5, titled “The End of Wondering” premieres on the platform Friday at 8 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Man linked to crimes across the country identified as suspect in yogurt shop murders<\/p>\n With a photo of sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison in the background, Austin Police Department Cold Case Detective Daniel Jackson speaks at a news conference at City Hall about the 1991 I Can\u2019t Believe It\u2019s Yogurt murder investigation on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n The final episode follows Austin cold case detective Daniel Jackson as he reexamines the decades-long case. Jackson, who joined the cold case unit in 2022 and inherited the yogurt shop file on his first day, told the Statesman he intentionally avoided reviewing the confessions that once sent two men to prison.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to put myself in a position where I had a confirmation bias,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI just wanted to see what we could do with the physical evidence to get it resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That decision is one of the defining threads of Episode 5. Instead of focusing on interrogations that influenced public opinion for years, Jackson focused on an unresolved piece of evidence: male DNA recovered from one of the victims.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have male DNA inside of a young girl where it shouldn\u2019t be,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cUntil we figured out the identity of that DNA, the case would remain unresolved.\u201d<\/p>\n In the episode, Jackson walks viewers through forensic techniques like\u00a0Y-STR DNA analysis and genetic genealogy used to identify Brashers, a transient offender linked to crimes across several states before his death by suicide in 1999.<\/p>\n This undated photo provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol shows Robert Brashers. Austin police believe the serial killer who died by suicide in 1999 is responsible for the murders that shook Austin in 1991. (Missouri State Highway Patrol via AP)<\/p>\n Missouri State Highway Patrol\/via AP<\/p>\n Jackson said investigators resisted announcing the breakthrough prematurely because of the case\u2019s long history of collapsing leads and failed certainty.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis is yogurt shop,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time you think you\u2019ve got it resolved or a good lead or a good suspect, it falls apart.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time police publicly identified\u00a0Brashers, investigators believed the evidence was overwhelming. Brown noted the DNA probability reached \u201c3.7 billion to one,\u201d a level of certainty she said mattered deeply.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a moment where Dan could have broken the story and said, \u2018We solved it,\u2019\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut he waited. I think that\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Bob Ayers, left, father of Amy Ayers, hugs Austin Police Department Cold Case Detective Daniel Jackson at a news conference at Austin City Hall about the 1991 I Can\u2019t Believe It\u2019s Yogurt murder investigation at City Hall on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Jackson also revisited one of the case\u2019s lingering witness tips: a report from the night of the murders that described a man behaving strangely inside the yogurt shop before the killings. The witness recalled a man lingering around the business, going into the bathroom and never seeming to leave. Jackson told the Statesman the account remains one of the tips that feels most credible to him.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cKnowing\u00a0Brashers, knowing the way he operates, that sounds just like him,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cIn my heart, I think that probably was him, but we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n The damage left behind<\/p>\n The emotional center of Episode 5 lies in the people still carrying the weight of the case. Brown described filming conversations with Brashers\u2019 daughter as among the most difficult interviews of her career.<\/p>\n \u201cI just saw beauty in her heart,\u201d Brown said. \u201cShe saw a lot of pain that her father had caused and wanted to address that somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The documentary also revisits the damage caused by the original investigation and the years of suspicion placed on Robert\u00a0Springsteen IV, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn after police obtained confessions later challenged in court. Springsteen was once sentenced to death before his conviction was overturned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marisa Pierce, daughter of Maurice Pierce, speaks during a hearing to clear her father\u2019s name in a Travis County courtroom in Austin, TX on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2026. The judge has formally cleared four men in the decades-old Austin quadruple homicide at the end of a landmark exoneration hearing.<\/p>\n Chris Lamarca\/Pool<\/p>\n Interviews with Pierce\u2019s family in the episode touch on the lingering trauma they believe followed him after years of interrogation and public scrutiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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