Portageville cold case solved after 20 years

NEW MADRID, Mo. � Persistent detective work and breakthroughs in DNA technology led to the solving of a cold case in New Madrid County.

Sheriff Terry Stevens announced Friday one of the �most heinous crimes ever in the history of New Madrid County� is now solved, and the perpetrator, called a serial rapist and killer, died in 1999 after a standoff with police.

Robert Eugene Brashers

Stevens was joined by investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol�s Division of Drug and Crimes Control along with an officer from Dyer County, Tennessee, to identify Robert Eugene Brashers, 40, as the man responsible for the March 28, 1998, murder of Sherri Scherer, 38, and her daughter, 12-year-old Megan Scherer, of rural Portageville.

�We have identified the killer,� Stevens said. �Make no mistake about this gentleman; he was a serial rapist and a serial killer, but no more.�

On Jan. 13, 1999, Brashers had his last brush with the law.

As Kennett (Missouri) Police Department officers were conducting an investigation into a stolen license plate, a four-hour standoff ensued with Brashers, who was armed with a semi-automatic pistol. The standoff ended when Brashers killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

According to Master Sgt. Bud Cooper with the highway patrol, it was nearly 15 years later when significant advances in DNA testing led to evidence from the Scherer murders being resubmitted to the patrol�s Crime Laboratory. A full-suspect DNA profile was developed and entered into CODIS resulting in a match to the April 6, 1990, murder of Genevieve Zitricki of Greenville, South Carolina.

With the DNA match, Cooper said, investigators from South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri worked together to investigate more than 1,200 leads.

In May 2017, officers received another DNA match through CODIS to a March 11, 1997, rape of a 14-year-old girl in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 2018, investigators sought the services of a DNA technology company that 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,� Cooper said. �Investigators obtained DNA samples from Mr. Brashers� surviving family members. Traditional forensic STR test results indicated Mr. Brashers was, with very little doubt, responsible for the crimes.�

This was confirmed Sept. 27, when Brashers� remains were exhumed and additional DNA samples were collected. Cooper said laboratory testing confirmed Brashers� DNA matches the suspect DNA from the Scherer murders as well as the murder in Greenville and the rape in Memphis.

Cooper noted Brashers had an extensive criminal history including attempted murder, burglary, impersonating a police officer and unlawful possession of a weapon.

He was convicted in November 1986 of attempted second-degree murder stemming from an incident in Saint Lucie County, Florida, which occurred Nov. 11, 1985. Also on April 12, 1998, Brashers was arrested in Paragould, Arkansas, as he was attempting to break into a residence of a single female.

During the news conference, Stevens noted similar news conferences were underway in Greenville and Memphis. He went on to express his thanks to the many men and women who were involved in the investigation.

�No telling how many hours have been put into this investigation,� he said. �Without their assistance and the tools they bring to the game, we wouldn�t have accomplished this.�

The sheriff added the case was always at the forefront for his officers and others.

�We were never going to let it drop, get pushed to the side or forgotten about because it was too important to the Scherer family and the community of Portageville,� he said. �... We have worked it. New leads would come in; old leads would come in that we had already checked, but we wouldn�t treat them as old leads. We would recheck them and recheck them a third and a fourth time to make sure we hadn�t missed anything. The tenacity of these officers standing behind me is what got this case solved.�

Portageville police chief Ronnie Adams said local residents welcomed the news of the solving of the crimes.

�This has brought closure for the family, closure for our city, our community,� he said. �I�m glad it has finally happened.�