'Zombie hunter' canal killer who slaughtered two young women faces death penalty

06 August 2023 , 06:01

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Sadistic killer Bryan Patrick Miller (Image: PennLive file photo)

The Arizona Canal running through the suburbs of Phoenix is a popular route for cyclists. But in the early 1990s it was the hunting ground of a brutal killer who sexually assaulted, mutilated and murdered two young women.

The evening before her 22nd birthday, Angela Brosso left the home she shared with boyfriend Joe Krakowiecki to go for a bike ride. She never returned. Angela, who worked for an electronics company, and Joe often cycled along the canal. But that night, 8 November, Joe stayed at home to bake her a birthday cake. When she wasn’t home an hour later, he began to worry. They always watched US comedy In Living Color together on Sunday evenings and it wasn’t like Angela to be late. So Joe went out searching and called friends and the police.

The next morning, bloody drag marks were discovered on the canal path. They led up an incline to where Angela’s body was found in a field near her apartment building. She had been decapitated – and her head was missing. Her body was mutilated, she was naked, apart from her trainers, and she’d been stabbed in the back.

A post-mortem revealed she‘d been sexually assaulted and died from a stab wound that pierced her lung and aorta. Her head was found in the canal, a mile and a half away, 11 days later. It was assumed Angela had been attacked as she rode along the path. DNA was found on her body, but the police had no leads.

Angela Brosso was decapitated by Miller (PennLive file photo)

Second victim Melanie Bernas

Then 10 months later the killer struck again. Melanie Bernas, 17, was a pupil of Arcadia High School, but on 21 September 1993, had been ill and stayed home. Her mother, Marlene, went out for dinner, leaving her daughter on the sofa at about 7pm. Marlene was only out for a few hours, but when she returned Melanie was missing. Her bike had also gone. While Melanie wasn’t allowed to cycle by the canal at night, she was sporty and active and had ridden there in the daytime with friends.

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The next morning a cyclist rode through a pool of blood by an underpass, close to where Angela’s head had been found, and called 911. Investigators found drag marks that pointed to a body having been thrown into the water. Melanie’s body was found caught up in vegetation, 12ft down. The teenager had a stab wound to her back, that had pierced her lung and aorta. She also had a cut to the neck and the letters WSC carved into her chest. Like Angela, she had been sexually assaulted. But Melanie was dressed in a turquoise bodysuit that wasn’t hers.

The two deaths were linked by the DNA on their bodies and neither of the bikes was ever found, suggesting the killer kept them as trophies. The mutilations seemed a particularly macabre feature.

Angela and Melanie were buried and mourned, and the killings became cold cases. But more than two decades later, in January 2015, advances in DNA technology led police to a suspect – Bryan Patrick Miller. He’d lived close to the site of the killings and admitted he had ridden along the same canal paths. But he denied being a killer.

Police searching the Arizona Canal where Angela’s head was found (PennLive file photo)

Miller was well known in the sci-fi and horror convention community. A self-styled “zombie hunter”, he was inspired by video game and movie franchise Resident Evil and was known for driving a modified police car, complete with fake blood stains, through Phoenix.
He immersed himself in his character and would turn up at cosplay events [where people dress as characters from works of fiction]
in helmet, mask and goggles, and carrying a large fake gun.

The divorced single father, who lived in Phoenix with his daughter, was an Amazon delivery driver who would have been about 20 at the time of the killings. And when his DNA was compared with that found at the crime scenes, it was a match.

However, his case would take eight years to get to trial. Proceedings were delayed because of the difficulties arising from the amount of time that had passed since the killings – and the Covid pandemic. It also took years for Miller to be declared mentally competent to stand trial.

When the court case began in October last year, he admitted he’d killed Angela and Melanie, but pleaded not guilty to murder by
reason of insanity. Unusually in a capital case, the hearing was a bench trial in which a judge sits without a jury to consider the evidence before deciding the defendant’s fate.

Miller patrolled the streets as a “zombie hunter” (PennLive file photo)

The court was told that Miller had stabbed the young women in the back and sexually assaulted and mutilated them as they were dying or after they were dead. His defence argued that Miller had been in a “dissociative trauma state” when he’d committed the crimes, due to childhood abuse he’d suffered from his mother.

The prosecution, however, argued that Miller was a sexual sadist who enjoyed hurting his victims. Evidence he watched violent porn and had engaged in BDSM sex with former partners was presented to the court. It was also shown that he’d planned the murders before attacking the women in the dark, with a knife. He dressed Melanie in the bodysuit he’d taken with him. The prosecution said that the insanity defence was nonsense and told the judge, “This defendant at his core is a sexual sadist. He enjoys hurting people for his own sexual pleasure. That’s who he is. That’s who he was in 1992 and 1993.”

In April this year, Judge Suzanne Cohen found 50-year-old Miller guilty of murder, kidnapping and the attempted sexual assault of Angela and Melanie. Two months later he was sentenced to death. Ordering that Miller die by lethal injection, the judge said, “The defendant did not just murder them, he brutalised them. And he evaded capture for over 20 years.”

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Melanie’s sister, Jill, said her family experiences “excruciating pain every day” as they struggle to go on without her. “We live without her smile, her hugs, her companionship. We live without her love,” she said.

Angela’s mother, Linda, revealed that she felt she couldn’t wake up from a horrible dream and remains tortured by the fact that she couldn’t protect her daughter from the evil inflicted on her. “With his actions on that night, he murdered my angel, he ripped my heart, and I will never, ever be the same,” she said.

In a statement to the court, Miller said, “I am not looking for sympathy today. This is time for the family and the friends of the victims. I cannot imagine what pain they have endured for all these years.” Two young women, with hopes and dreams for the future, lost their lives as they took a bike ride. They were preyed on by the “zombie hunter” who now faces death for his horrific crimes.

Gail Shortland