Solved: The Yogurt Shop Murders

October 2, 2025·58 min·5 clips

Under Amy Ayers' fingernails, detectives found DNA with 2.5 million to one odds, solving the case 34 years later.

After nearly 34 years, the answer comes in pieces. The host names Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Sarah Harbison, and Jennifer Harbison first, keeping the girls in view before the case turns to the evidence. Then the lab work tightens. At the South Carolina State Lab, a legal review and forensic confirmation leave investigators in a brutal two-week wait. They know they have someone, just not yet a name. On August 22nd, they get it. The profile is a perfect 27-for-27 YSTR marker match to an unknown profile from the yogurt shop. The name is Robert Eugene Brashers. When Detective Jackson calls Greenville, the first question is whether the victims were bound with their own clothing, a detail that makes the timeline colder. Then Amy's evidence moves to the front. Investigators retest fingernail clippings from 13-year-old Amy Ayers using the newest sensitive technology, and the result puts Brashers' DNA underneath her nails. It is awful, and it is clear. The stated probability, 2.5 million to one that the DNA belonged to Brashers versus an unknown individual, turns Amy's final resistance into the case's strongest identification. Amy had fought back. Detective Jackson's apology lands because it holds relief and failure at once: he says it took 34 years, but they are here now. The host calls Amy a hero. From there, the story traces Brashers' movements after the murders, including a stop less than 48 hours later near El Paso in a stolen truck. There was also a firearm. The excerpt says an AMT-380 pistol was in his possession, the same make and model ballistics identified as the weapon used to kill Amy. The episode keeps the focus where it belongs: the DNA breakthrough, Amy's final moments, the girls' names, and the wait Austin carried for decades.

As heard by us

A careful true-crime resolution built on evidence, patience, and grief.

Sarah Turney treats the Yogurt Shop murders as a case that has spent decades drifting between uncertainty and partial answers before finally settling on a name, a match, and something close to resolution.

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Why you'd press play

For listeners who want a cold case finally tied to a name.

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