Over on the media review wing of League of Melbotis, The Signal Watch, we recently discussed the HBO documentary The Yogurt Shop Murders. Before continuing here, I'd recommend jumping over to that post to get the context, if you're unfamiliar with unsolved murder of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas in 1991.
It is, and has been, a haunting tragedy that seemed to have no end to it. I expected that I'd go to my grave with the crime unsolved.
However, on Friday, September 26th, the Austin Police Department announced that they had a suspect in the case. Apparently they have DNA evidence and ballistics evidence, which is very promising, obviously.
And if the Golden State Killer can be identified through similar means decades on, it sure seems possible to do the same here.
The problem is that the APD and investigators have announced their momentous discovery on the tail of the release of the HBO documentary that both embarrassed them, and called into question any motive for coming forward *now* with an answer. It seems terribly convenient that APD and Travis County prosecutors suddenly have an answer, and that the named perpetrator is not around to poke any holes in their story.
That said - follow the science on this one - as should have happened all along. A DNA lab is unlikely to just make things up that would discredit them forever. And - it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense that a monster like Brashers committed the crime than four teenage boys with no motive, and no prior or subsequent penchant for violence.
I just finished reading about another series of horrors in Austin, The Midnight Assassin, a non-fiction book covering a series of murders by a possible serial killer in Austin the 1880's. And, yes, it's a real reminder that no one knows what they're doing, and we're all making it up as we go along, complete with our personal baggage as we come to solving a complex puzzle.
Some folks are just wired to skip over the reality of what they're looking at and want to start using the crime to punish people they already don't like. In a town where not much happens, like late-20th Century Austin, that included police and prosecutors targeting four young men, mostly for being punk kids.
I tend to believe that they got it right or they wouldn't go public. If there were opportunity they got it wrong, man, would that get people fired. And the science of how they sort this out with DNA is our best chance at a definitive answer.
On Monday we'll get more details, and I hope they can also definitively place the suspect in Austin at the time.