Robert Eugene Brashers

Robert Eugene Brashers (March 13, 1958 – January 19, 1999) was an American serial killer, mass murderer, and rapist. He committed at least eight murders from 1990 to 1998 in the states of Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas. During his lifetime, Brashers was not identified as a suspect in any of his murders, and he remained in relative obscurity. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1999 to avoid arrest for an unrelated crime after a standoff with police. It wasn't until decades after his death, due to advances in investigative genetic genealogy, that he was tied to a series of violent crimes. Investigators then linked him to several unsolved violent rapes and murders committed against women and young girls. Police in Austin, Texas, later identified him as the perpetrator in the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders. Four teenage girls were murdered in the attack, which initially led to the prosecution against several men who later were exonerated.