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Back on the 6th of December, 1991, Jennifer Harbison and her coworker Eliza Thomas, both 17, were finishing their shift at the yogurt store where they were employed. Staying behind for a pickup were Jennifer’s younger sister, Sarah Harbison, aged 15, and Sarah’s friend, 13-year-old Amy Ayers.

Just before midnight, a fire at the shop drew firefighters and police, who found a horrific scene: the four girls had been restrained, killed, and showed indicators of assault. The blaze destroyed nearly all evidence, aside from a cartridge that had ended up in a drain and tiny traces of biological evidence, notably traces under Ayers’ fingernails.

The Crime That Stunned Texas

These horrific killings traumatized the community in Austin and were branded as one of the best-known unsolved mysteries in America. Over many years of dead ends and wrongful convictions, the killings eventually led to a federal law signed in the year 2022 that allows victims' families to petition cold cases to be reinvestigated.

Yet the killings stayed unresolved for nearly 34 years – before this development.

A Major Breakthrough

Police authorities revealed on recently a "major development" made possible by new technology in firearms analysis and DNA analysis, announced the city's mayor at a media event.

Genetic matches indicate Robert Brashers, who was named following his demise as a serial killer. More murders could be linked to him as forensic technology become more advanced and more commonly used.

"The only physical evidence found at that scene has been linked to him," stated the top law enforcement officer.

This investigation remains open, but this represents a "major step", and Brashers is considered the sole perpetrator, authorities confirmed.

Healing Begins

The sister of Eliza Thomas, Sonora Thomas, expressed that her thoughts were divided after her sister was murdered.

"One portion of my brain has been demanding, 'What took place to my sister?', and the other half kept saying, 'I will never know. I'll pass away without answers, and I need to make peace with it,'" she said.

After discovering of this progress in the case, "the conflicting thoughts of my brain started melding," she explained.

"Now I understand the events, and that does ease my anguish."

Mistaken Arrests Corrected

The breakthrough not simply bring resolution to the victims' families; it also definitively absolves two suspects, who were teens then, who insisted they were pressured into confessing.

Robert Springsteen, a teenager at the time when the murders occurred, was given a death sentence, and Scott, aged 15 at the time, was received a life sentence. Both men asserted they admitted involvement after hours-long interrogations in the late 1990s. In the following decade, the two were set free after their convictions were thrown out due to legal changes on admissions absent tangible proof.

Prosecutors withdrew the charges against the two men in the same period after a forensic examination, called Y-STR, indicated neither man aligned against the genetic material left at the crime scene.

Scientific Breakthrough

The DNA signature – suggesting an unidentified male – would in time be the decisive factor in cracking the investigation. In 2018, the DNA profile was submitted for retesting because of technological advancements – but a nationwide inquiry to other police departments returned no genetic matches.

During the summer, Daniel Jackson handling the case in 2022, came up with a thought. Time had gone by since the bullet casings from the shell casing had been uploaded to the NIBIN database – and in the interim, the system had undergone major upgrades.

"The system has gotten so much better. In fact, we're using advanced modeling now," the detective stated at the news event.

They got a match. An unsolved murder in Kentucky, with a comparable method, had the identical kind of shell casing. The detective and a colleague consulted the Kentucky detectives, who are actively pursuing their unnamed case – and are testing materials from a forensic kit.

Building a Case

The new lead prompted further inquiry. Was there further clues that might match against cases in other states? He thought immediately of the Y-STR analysis – but there was a problem. The Codis database is the federal genetic registry for law enforcement, but the yogurt shop DNA was not complete enough and limited to submit.

"I suggested, well, several years have gone by. Additional facilities are conducting this analysis. Systems are expanding. I proposed a nationwide search again," the detective explained.

He sent out the years-old Y-STR results to investigative units across the United States, requesting them to review individually it to their local systems.

There was another hit. The genetic signature corresponded precisely with a DNA sample from a city in South Carolina – a killing that occurred in 1990 that was resolved with assistance from a genetic genealogy company and a celebrated genealogist in 2018.

Identifying the Killer

The genealogist developed a ancestry profile for the offender and found a kinship connection whose genetic material suggested a direct relationship – probably a close relative. A magistrate ordered that the deceased individual be removed from burial, and his genetic material corresponded against the forensic proof from Austin.

Normally, this expert is puts behind her solved cases in order to work on the new mystery.

"Yet I have {not been