Can anybody confirm if it is conclusive that Brashers sexually assaulted/raped all four girls?
Found this from The Austin Chronicle, which confirm at least 3 of the girls were assaulted. From what I remember of Beverly Lowry’s book, I believe there was some evidence that Eliza was also assaulted, but she was more badly burned I think so not sure how conclusive the evidence was
“The discovery of unknown male DNA inside Ayers, the youngest victim, was a surprise to everyone. “If you’d asked me in April of 2008 if I’d have thought that in March we’d have [discovered] a new donor,” Lehmberg said recently, “I’d have said, ‘I think not.'” The discovery came after prosecutors submitted DNA from a vaginal swab last spring for contemporary testing with the most current and precise methods. What they found was a complete male profile that does not belong to any of the original four suspects. At first, prosecutors said that they likely already knew the source of the DNA – implying that Ayers had perhaps been sexually active or that somehow, someone at the crime scene or in the county’s medical examiner’s office had contaminated the swab. That theory was systematically dismissed: After testing more than 100 men, including acquaintances of the suspects and emergency workers at the crime scene and at the medical examiner’s office, the D.A.’s Office has failed to identify the donor, leaving him still entirely unknown.
The negative results prompted defense attorneys to seek additional testing on additional pieces of physical evidence, including vaginal swabs from the Harbison sisters and samples from a ligature used to bind Thomas. That evidence revealed even more complicating results – including that the same male donor found inside Ayers was also found inside Jennifer Harbison. While the state’s DNA expert, academician Mitchell Holland, from Penn State University, disagreed with some of the results obtained by the defense’s experts,
he did agree that the unknown male DNA in Ayers was also found inside Jennifer Harbison.
Importantly, also found inside Sarah Harbison were traces of her sister’s boyfriend, Sam Buchanan, with whom Jennifer Harbison had recently had consensual sex. Buchanan was never, and is not, a suspect in the crime, but the fact that his DNA was found in Sarah is also significant, argues attorney Sawyer: It demonstrates that the unknown male is likely also to be found inside Jennifer*. Moreover, he said,
it suggests that at least three of the victims (beginning with Ayers) were sexually assaulted by an unknown male. “It even tells you the sequence of assaults,” he said.”
Although their case has hit a dead end, prosecutors of the yogurt shop murders say they're determined to find the 'unknown suspect' – and to retry Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen
www.austinchronicle.com
