True crime is a popular genre of television, but not all docu-series lead to cases being cracked years after the crimes first took place. An exception was HBO’s The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst in 2015, and now, another true crime production has been followed by big development in the real-life case. The Yogurt Shop Murders, a docu-series that premiered on HBO back in August of the 2025 TV schedule, may have identified a suspect in the murders that were committed more than three decades ago.
The four-part documentary series arrived on HBO in early August (and is available to stream now with an HBO Max subscription). It tells the story of four teenage girls who were killed in 19991 at a frozen yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. Relying on news coverage, archival video, interrogation room footage, and audio tapes in the aftermath when four teenage boys were arrested, the episodes cover the murders themselves, the subsequent arrests, the questionable confessions, DNA evidence, and the efforts of the families to heal even decades later.
Ahead of its release, the series was touted by HBO as covering a case that “continues to mystify the police,” but that may not be the case anymore as of late September. On September 29, the City of Austin released a statement, revealing that the Austin Police Department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit determined through DNA testing that Robert Eugene Brashers had been identified as a suspect in the four murders. Brashers has been deceased since 1999, which is when he died by suicide in Missouri.
Further testing is ongoing, with the goal of releasing final results in the coming weeks or months. In the statement, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said:
After 34 years, the Austin Police have made a significant breakthrough in one of the most devastating cases in our city’s history. This unthinkable crime has weighed heavily on the hearts of our community, the families of the victims, and our detectives who have tirelessly pursued justice.
While the 1991 murders received new public attention in August thanks to the HBO documentary, progress was reportedly being made on the case before the first episode premiered. In 2022, a detective joined forces with DNA/geneaology experts to retest the DNA from items from the murder scene. Also, a development in June 2025 revealed that a piece of evidence found in a drain at the yogurt shop had not been reexamined in the years since software improved.
In July, police determined a link to an unsolved murder from 1998 in Kentucky. On August 22, just two days before the finale of The Yogurt Shop Murders, investigators received a DNA report that linked the four murders from 1991 to Robert Eugene Brashers, a known serial killer and rapist.
While the timeline suggests HBO’s release of The Yogurt Shop Murders in August didn’t prompt the new investigation into the available evidence, such a twist isn't unprecedented. Evidence from The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst reopened an investigation in 2015, and that was without the documentary including the most insane thing Durst allegedly did.
For now, it remains to be seen what comes next from the Austin Police Department regarding the murders of the teen girls all those years ago.
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