Officials announce solving of 20-year-old murder

NEW MADRID, Mo. — Slowly and methodically, law enforcement have followed the clues to solve the horrific 1998 murder of a mother and her 12-year-old daughter at their rural home near Portageville.

In a press conference Friday morning, New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens and investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control announced through a DNA match they could now identify the man responsible for the murder of Sherri and Megan Scherer on March 28, 1998.

The assailant was identified as Robert Eugene Brashers, 40. Brashers killed himself during a standoff with Kennett police on Jan. 13, 1999.

Law enforcement officers have steadily mined for clues to solve the shooting death of the mother and daughter.

Their first clue came some two hours after the discovery of the bodies, when a 25-year-old woman and her children were approached at their home in Dyersburg, Tenn., by an unknown white male asking for directions. The suspect drew a revolver and shot her after he tried to gain entry into her home.

The case and the Scherer double murder were linked by ballistics.

Then in 2006, investigators received an alert through the Combined DNA Index System, that the suspect's DNA found during the Sherer investigation matched an unknown suspect's DNA entered into CODIS by Greenville, S.C., detectives.

Investigators from the New Madrid County Sheriff's Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol went to Greenville and met with detectives. They learned that on April 4, 1990, Genevieve Zitricki was attacked while she slept in her apartment in Greenville. Autopsy results revealed she had been sexually assaulted and the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

In May 2017, another piece of the puzzle was discovered when the New Madrid County Sheriff's Office received an alert that the suspect's DNA from the Scherer murders as well as the South Carolina murder matched an unsolved rape case in Memphis, Tenn., that occurred on May 11, 1997

During that incident, three women and a female juvenile were assaulted after an unknown white male knocked at the front door of their residence in Memphis. The suspect used a ploy before displaying a revolver and forcing his way inside the residence. The suspect bound the females before he sexually assaulted the juvenile.

This year, investigators sought the services of Parabon NanoLabs (Parabon), a DNA technology company. Parabon's Snapshot® DNA Analysis technology combines DNA testing and genetic genealogy analysis to establish the relationship between an individual and their ancestors. Parabon’s process provided leads to law enforcement investigators that, when combined with traditional investigative techniques, led to the identification of Robert Eugene Brashers, a white male, date of birth March 13, 1958, as a suspect for the previously mentioned cases. Brashers has been deceased since 1999. Investigators obtained DNA samples from his surviving family members. Traditional forensic STR test results indicated Brashers was, with very little doubt, responsible for the crimes.

On Sept. 27 Brashers' remains were exhumed pursuant to a court order. Additional DNA samples were collected and laboratory testing confirmed Brashers' DNA matches the suspect DNA in the aforementioned crimes.

Brashers' extensive criminal history included attempted murder, burglary, impersonating a police officer, and unlawful possession of a weapon.

— Brashers was convicted in November 1986 of attempted second degree murder stemming from an incident in Saint Lucie County, Florida, which occurred Nov. 11, 1985.

— April 12, 1998: Brashers was arrested in Paragould, Ark. Brashers was attempting to break into a residence of a single female.

— Jan. 13, 1999: Kennett, Mo., Police Department officers contacted an associate of Brashers in a room at the Super 8 Motel in Kennett, during a stolen license plate investigation. A four-hour standoff ensued, with Brashers armed with a semi-automatic pistol. Officers learned during the standoff that Brashers had active warrants for his arrest stemming from the 1998 incident in Paragould. The standoff ended when Brashers shot himself in the head. He died from his injuries on Jan. 19, 1999.

These cases were solved through the cooperation of many federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Lieutenant Colonel Eric T. Olson, acting superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, would like to recognize the hard work and dedication of those agencies and their officers.

Check back with the Standard Democrat for details from the press conference.