On a December night in 1991, four teenage girls were found bound, gagged, and burned inside an Austin yogurt shop, a crime so brutal it stunned the nation. For years, police pursued a tangled investigation that led to false confessions, overturned convictions, and lingering doubt. Decades later, advances in DNA testing would upend everything, pointing not to the four accused young men, but to an unknown perpetrator whose identity remains elusive. In this episode, we revisit the case that defined a generation of true-crime skepticism, unpack the missteps that derailed justice, and explore how the cosmos of that night mirrored the tension between illusion and truth, a tragic reflection of innocence lost and faith in the system forever shaken.

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SOURCES:

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Associated Press. "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Murders: The DNA Breakthrough." AP National Wire, 27 Sept. 2025.

City of Austin. "Austin Police Make Significant Breakthrough in 1991 I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Murder Case." AustinTexas.gov, 26 Sept. 2025.

District Attorney's Office of Travis County. Yogurt Shop Murders Case Resolution Notice. Public statement by District Attorney José Garza confirming DNA match to Robert Eugene Brashers, Sept. 2025.

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Greenville News. "DNA and Genetic Genealogy Link Robert Brashers to Zitricki Murder Across Three States." GreenvilleOnline.com, 5 Oct. 2018.

KFVS-TV. "'My Father Was a Serial Killer': Robert Brashers' Daughter Speaks Out." KFVS12.com, 5 Feb. 2019.

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Missouri State Highway Patrol Records Archive. Incident Report: Self-Inflicted Gunshot Death of Robert E. Brashers, Kennett, MO, Jan. 1999.

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