A breakthrough in the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders case collides with a devastating media leak. In Chapter 6 of Chasing a Ghost, Kathy Sweeney traces the hours when families learned that serial killer Robert Brashers is the new prime suspect and then watched the news spread before all loved ones were notified. Featuring Shawn and Angie Ayers, Det. Dan Jackson, and Mindy Montford, this chapter explores the human cost of leaks, the pressure of public disclosure, and what it will take to prove the case—beyond doubt.

A major breakthrough in the 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders identified Robert Eugene Brashers as the prime suspect... linking the brutal killings of Amy Ayers, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Jennifer Harbison to a transient serial killer whose crimes stretched across multiple states.

In Episode Five of Chasing a Ghost (“The Yogurt Shop Suspect”), veteran reporter Kathy Sweeney interviews Shawn and Angie Ayers as they process the shock of learning that DNA under Amy’s fingernails and ballistics evidence now point to Brashers. Cold case detective Dan Jackson and prosecutor Mindy Montford walk through the 2025 investigative dominoes: NIBIN shell-casing hits, Y-STR DNA matches to South Carolina, and new testing that strengthened the identification.

The episode also reveals a crucial timeline detail: less than 48 hours after the Austin yogurt shop murders, Brashers was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint near El Paso/Las Cruces in a stolen car with an AMT Back-Up .380 pistol. It was the same make and model tied to the crime scene.

If you’re following the decades-long push for answers in one of Texas’ most haunting unsolved cases, this chapter explores what “knowing” finally brings and what questions remain.

Content warning: This episode contains references to murder, sexual assault, and disturbing crime-scene details.

In Chapter Four of Chasing a Ghost, Kathy Sweeney reveals how the 1998 murders of Sherri and Megan Scherer were linked to a 1997 Memphis home-invasion sexual assault... after an untested rape kit sat for years before finally generating a CODIS hit. As investigators race to identify the unknown suspect, the case becomes one of the early multi-state breakthroughs powered by investigative genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore’s work leads authorities to Robert Eugene Brashers, and a 2018 exhumation confirms the DNA match—finally naming the killer and opening the door to even more victims.