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Thread: Bryan Patrick Miller - Arizona Death Row

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    Bryan Patrick Miller - Arizona Death Row



    Angela Brosso, 22, and Melanie Bernas, 17



    Bryan Patrick Miller after his arrest


    Bryan Patrick Miller’s death row mugshot


    Former Everett resident arrested in Arizona murder cold case

    PHOENIX, Ariz. -- A man who lived in Everett, Wash., has been arrested in the murders of two young women whose bodies were found in the Arizona Canal 20 years ago.

    Previous:

    http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/22...r-still-sought

    Phoenix police on Tuesday night announced the arrest of Bryan Patrick Miller, 42, as the suspect in the slayings of 22-year-old Angela Brosso and 17-year-old Melanie Bernas.

    A public records search shows Miller lived in Everett for the past 15 years until at least November 2014.

    Industrial lamps illuminated the backyard as police scoured Miller's family home well into the night at Seventh Street and Mountain View Road, several blocks southeast of North Mountain Park.

    Authorities said they tied the cases to Miller through DNA, but a police official declined to say how investigators obtained the sample.

    Both women, one of them a senior in high school, had gone missing while riding their bikes.

    Brosso had failed to return from a bike ride in November 1992 and police were just beginning to search for her when someone discovered the headless body of a woman near 25th Avenue and Cactus Road in Phoenix.

    Police would confirm it was Brosso by the end of the week. Her head was found in the Arizona Canal 11 days later.

    Brosso's murderer went on to kill again.

    The next victim was Bernas, an Arcadia High School student who was also on a bike ride near the Arizona Canal when she was murdered in September 1993. Bernas' corpse was discovered floating in the Arizona Canal near where the canal goes under the Black Canyon Freeway, about a half-mile north of Dunlap Avenue.

    A turquoise bodysuit was found nearby.

    It took six months for investigators to connect the murders of Brosso and Bernas through forensic evidence — but the killer remained elusive.

    In 2012, as the 20th anniversary of Brosso's brutal murder approached, Phoenix police investigators with the Cold Case Homicide Unit tried to renew interest in the case and asked the public for help, hoping someone who lived in the area would recall an odd neighbor with a unique set of characteristics.

    Investigators believe, given the brutal nature of the murders and the speed with which the victims were executed, that the killer had specialized training in the military and that he collected "trophies" from the victims.

    Neither Brosso's purple, 21-speed Diamondback mountain bike nor Bernas' green SPC Hardrock Sport mountain bike had been found.

    On Tuesday night, police were seen carrying an old bicycle from a rusted tin shed in the backyard of the Miller family property. Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman, said it wasn't immediately clear if the bike belonged to either victim.

    http://www.king5.com/story/news/crim...case/21757175/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Phoenix police never forgot West Shore woman beheaded in 1992

    PHOENIX — For retired Phoenix police detective Leo Speliopoulos, 22 years faded away in an instant. Although he had left the force more than a decade before, he found himself back in the middle of a bustling crime scene amid one of the highest profile cases in Phoenix crime history.

    Only this time, it was for all the right reasons.

    After more than two decades of bitter frustrations, police on the department’s celebrated cold case squad had made an arrest in the brutal beheading murder of 22-year-old Angela Brosso, of Lower Allen Township, and the stabbing death of 17-year-old local high school student Melanie Bernas.

    The prime suspect, Bryan Patrick Miller, aka the Arizona "Zombie Hunter", stands charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in each homicide. He was arrested Tuesday, but detectives and crime lab techs are still sifting through his belongings in the small, ramshackle house on the outskirts of Phoenix, located in the shadows of the famous camel-back hump mountains that ring the city.

    In wake of the arrest, Phoenix police brass summoned the retired Speliopoulos to the scene. He was granted access to the inner sanctum of the newly ignited investigation.

    The homicide detectives were huddled inside a mobile command center. A debriefing was being held as Speliopoulos entered.

    The faces of the detectives had all changed since his time on the case, when he served as the public information officer on what had become known as the "Arizona Canal murders," igniting a media frenzy and heightening public fears.

    Yet in that moment inside the mobile command center, there was a straight line through time to Nov. 9, 1992, for Speliopoulos.

    That was the grim morning the detective could never shake. The day when Brosso's headless body was discovered near the Arizona Canal, where she had been riding her bike the evening before, never to return. Her head would be found in a canal grate

    11 days later. And then 10 months hence, Bernas' body would be found floating in the canal waters. She had been stabbed and sexually assaulted after going for a bike ride.

    Worse still, the heinous, high-profile case would remain open for the next 22 years, despite the best efforts of Phoenix police — a stone cold who-done-it and a wound that would just never heal.

    Finally, at long last, Phoenix law enforcement had made good on its oath pledged to all homicide victims, the ones who can no longer speak for themselves. Police had arrested a suspect in the Brosso and Bernas homicides.

    “I almost cried,” admitted the rough-hewn ex-Marine, age 67.

    “There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t thought of Angela,” he said in an exclusive interview with PennLive.

    On Monday, PennLive will take readers inside the 22-year police investigation into the Brosso and Bernas homicides.

    What went wrong? Why did it take so long to close in on a suspect? And what finally went right, resulting in the cold case arrest of Bryan Patrick Miller?

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Inside the 22-year hunt for beheaded West Shore woman's brutal killer in Phoenix

    PHOENIX — The case was different right from the start, down to the call that went out over police radios: A report of a headless body near the Arizona Canal and the bike path that snake through the city.

    Schooled by 20-plus years on the Phoenix force, Detective Leo Speliopoulos dismissed the initial report as erroneous, even as he headed to the scene. There was often a wide gulf between initial calls and actual events, he knew.

    But anointed as the department’s public information officer — and more importantly, as ears, eyes and right hand to the police chief — it was Speliopoulos’ job to trudge out to all homicides and other high-profile incidents. A call of a decapitated victim surely fit the bill. Without doubt, it would bring out the media throng that it would be Speliopoulos’ task to corral.

    As he drove to the scene, Speliopoulos was anxious to obtain the actual facts in order to get the correct information out to the media, and thus, the public, as quickly as possible. Upon arrival, however, he soon learned it was just as the caller had reported.

    No. Actually, it was worse. Much worse.

    The woman’s nude, decapitated and mutilated boy lay in a small, open field sandwiched between the canal and a park. There was nothing else around, except an apartment building in the distance.

    From the beginning, the Phoenix Police Department threw everything it had at the case. All homicide detectives available the morning of Nov. 9, 1992, were there, Speliopoulos recalled. It was at least three to four homicide squads consisting of five to six detectives, each, he said.

    Initially, however, only the two lead detectives ventured onto the crime scene. Sterile booties covered their shoes as they walked slowly toward the victim. Their trained eyes scanned the ground for any sign of evidence — footprints, a blood trail, an article of clothing.

    Standing at a distance, huddled with the other detectives clad in their suits and ties, Speliopoulos can still see those initial steps in the investigation — so tentative, so careful, so full of portent.

    No one would have believed then that the journey to justice in this heinous, high-profile crime would take 22 years.

    “Every homicide is a tragedy, but I can honestly say that this was one of the most horrific murders to ever occur in the history of this city.”

    And it was only the beginning.

    No witnesses

    These days, Speliopoulos, age 67, is long retired from the Phoenix PD. But he still keeps confidences when discussing sensitive aspects of the case that he monitored daily as public information officer.

    For example, he won’t say what, if any, evidence detectives found at the scene. But he painstakingly describes how multiple teams of the department’s best sleuths and crime scene techs worked it. Namely, day and night, with just enough time off for a shower and a shave.

    They went that way around the clock for the next three days straight. Yet, there was little to show for the department’s professional, painstaking crime scene work.

    Speliopoulos won’t say what evidence was collected, but he is blunt about what they didn’t find: No witnesses, no description of any possible suspects, no weapon, and no victim belongings.

    But police soon would confirm the identity of the unfortunate female, despite the fact that her head was still missing. That would be found 11 days later in a canal grate.

    Police wouldn’t need it to identify their victim, however. As is often the case in these kind of homicides, a missing person report came in the evening before.

    The report was filed by the victim’s then-boyfriend, identified as Joseph Krakowiecki. Despite numerous attempts, including visiting his last-known address outside of Phoenix, PennLive could not reach him for comment.

    His report to police, made nearly 22 years ago on Nov. 8, 1992, helped give a face to the headless victim in what would become known as the Arizona Canal murders.

    The man’s missing girlfriend was Angela Brosso, originally from the Harrisburg area.

    She would remain at the heart of the case for the next 22 years.

    Happy-go-lucky

    Angela Brosso turned 22 the very day her promising life was taken. She was a former Lower Allen Township resident and a 1989 graduate of Cedar Cliff High School. Fresh from college and eager to begin her life, Brosso settled in fast-growing Phoenix with her boyfriend. She had recently landed a job.

    According to the Arizona Republic, she lived with her boyfriend in an apartment not far from Metrocenter, near 25th Avenue and Cactus Road. She worked as a trainer at Syntellect, a communications company. She was described by her family as “happy-go-lucky” and fearless.

    The future was bright.

    Then, everything changed. On the night of Nov. 8, Angela didn't return home. Her purple Diamond Back mountain bike, which she took out for a ride along the canal, was also gone by the time her boyfriend phoned police to report her missing, the newspaper reported.

    For the next 22 years, Angela’s missing bike would remain part of the case’s perplexing puzzle.

    A palpable presence

    For a homicide detective worth his or her salt, the victim is never just a name on a report or the subject of stark crime scene photos. Among the best of them, the victim is the very reason they do the job. The good ones feel a scared mission to speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves.

    Speliopoulos believes this because he both lived it and saw it on the Angela Brosso case. He came to know her, and so did the detectives working the case.

    “She was a big presence,” Speliopoulos recalled of Angela. “We couldn’t help but think about her. She had everything going for her. She had a good job. She was doing all the things every parent would want their child to do.”

    So much so, Speliopoulos would recall that terrible anniversary every Nov. 9th. With each succeeding year, the date mocked him, even long after he had left the department. The haunting case was the first subject any time he checked in with colleagues.

    Alas, there was never any good news to share.

    Phoenix came to know Angela, too.

    From back in Harrisburg, Pa., Angela’s mother, Linda Brosso Strock, made sure of this. She kept an open line with Phoenix police. She wrote letters to the Arizona Republic, and she granted repeated interviews over the years to local reporters and columnists. All to ensure that Angela would never be forgotten and in hopes that her killer would be some day be brought to justice.

    “She was engaged. That’s the best way to put it,” Speliopoulos said of Angela’s mother, who has declined to speak to PennLive in wake of last week’s arrest in her daughter’s case.

    “Her mother did a good job bringing up her daughter,” the father of two added. “Angela came here to begin her life, and she ends up in a dirt field in Phoenix, Arizona. Angela’s mother was brave enough to let her go. What a horrific thing for a family. It wore on me. It wore on everybody that was there. It all comes back to people who have families. In those situations, I always think of my own family, my own kids, my own wife.”

    Police weren’t the only ones taking the case personally. In his Arizona Republic column last week, writer E. J. Montini made clear just how palpable a presence Angela became in Phoenix, much of it thanks to her Harrisburg-area mom:

    I've written about Angela Brosso more than a dozen times over the years. It mattered most in November, 1992, one of the first times I spoke with her mother, Linda. It seemed back then that police would never find a suspect in her daughter's murder.

    When I spoke to Angela's mother in 1992 she said it had been weeks since she had read a newspaper or watched the TV news. The grisly details of her daughter's death were repeated again and again. It was too much. She told me at the time, "I only wish (people) could know more about Angie. Even just a little.''

    I told her I would try to do so.

    I figure it's time I tried again.

    Angela grew up in Camp Hill, Pa., outside Harrisburg. Linda told me she was shy as a little girl.

    ''And she always wore dresses as a girl,'' Linda said. ''Angie wasn't the tomboy type. She had long, blond hair that I always put into French braids and pigtails and buns.''

    When she got older Angela thought of becoming a veterinarian.

    ''She loved animals,'' Linda said. ''After Rusty, there were many other guinea pigs. And rabbits. In high school, Angie spent practically all the money she earned at Kentucky Fried Chicken, which wasn't much money, trying to save a sick bunny. She was heartbroken when it died.''

    During a career-day program in high school Angela heard a presentation by a representative from the DeVry Institute of Technology and decided to enroll. She attended DeVry Institute not far from Newark, N.J., for two years. She then transferred to the Los Angeles DeVry, from which she graduated with honors. Not long after that, she took a job with Syntellect Inc., a Phoenix electronics company. She lived here with her boyfriend and a pet ferret.

    She went for a bike ride one day and disappeared.

    ''I would have preferred her closer to home,'' Linda told me in 1992. ''But I guess all mothers are like that. You couldn't hold Angie back, though. She was a force. One of the things her father said about her was that she changed the nature of a room when she entered it. And it's true, you know? She really did. She was like a light going on. So funny. And witty. That's what we'll miss. That light.''

    Today, Angela would be 45 years old, Montini noted. If only.

    Dead end

    There is little question that the Phoenix homicide squad worked long and diligently in its attempt to speak for Angela Brosso. But nearly a year into the case, all the department had to show for it was rising internal anguish and unending questions from the media and the public.

    In short, it was not the kind of publicity a public information officer like Speliopoulos would ever want.

    The pressure was intense. Yet no one was harder on the stalled investigation than the detectives working the case.

    “The real pressure is brought on by the detectives to do whatever they can to speak for the victim,” Speliopoulos said. “We want to do anything we can to give the family some peace. That causes the pressure, and it is self-imposed.”

    But if the dilemma of a stalled, high-profile homicide investigation seemed bad, there aren’t words to describe the dark turn the case was about to take.

    On Sept. 22, 1993, ten months after Angela Brosso’s gruesome homicide, the stabbed body of 17-year-old Melanie Bernas was found floating in the Arizona Canal. Police would soon learn that the last time she had been seen, the local high school student had set off for a bike ride along the canal. Once again, her bike was missing.

    Police are trained to never leap to conclusions. But as Phoenix homicide detectives swarmed the eerie-similar scene, there was no hesitation, Speliopoulos recalled. In the guts of nearly every detective, a sick, sinking feeling told them that the two brutal murders of young women out for a bike ride amid Arizona’s great outdoors were connected.

    “It looked the same,” Speliopoulos recalled thinking. “Everyone went there; you had to.”

    Worse, the failure to close the Angela Brosso homicide had allowed the killer to strike again, this time claiming a local high school student.

    Yet as a public information officer trained in damage control, Speliopoulos’ mind was going to even darker places. He now admits to thinking that day that the string of murders would not stop with two. The only question in his mind was how high the death toll would climb:

    “Three? Four? Five?” he said.

    If there was media interest in the case before, it was now a full-out frenzy. Public concern had ratcheted up to fear. And even the department was issuing tips for the public to protect themselves — buddy up on walks and bike rides and always let someone know of your whereabouts.

    The pop culture capper was the fact that the Hannibal Lecter serial killer saga, “The Silence of the Lambs,” was all the rage at the time.

    A perfect storm, in other words. At the center was a stone-cold who-done-it swirling around the grisly slayings of two young women.

    Evidence, but not enough

    The snap conclusions of both police and the public that the two murders were connected was borne out by the evidence — evidence that Speliopoulos still will not discuss. Publicly, Phoenix police have said that DNA tied the two victims together, but they have offered no specifics, other than to say that Melanie Bernas was sexually assaulted.

    “There is a link,” was all Speliopoulos would say on the subject.

    However, the second victim and the second shot at solving the case that it had offered Phoenix police did not result in much forward momentum toward identifying a suspect.

    Once again, there were no witnesses, no reliable descriptions of a suspect, and the girl’s bike also was missing. Leads that came in on public tip lines led only to dead ends. The list of usual suspects that any police department has on file didn’t fit the bill, according to Speliopoulos.

    Months went by. Then years. Then decades.

    “It’s a feeling of deflation,” Speliopoulos admitted. “I was thinking that it was impossible to make progress, as hard as we tried. It was sickening.”

    Cold case gets hot

    The decline in violent crime rates experienced by most metropolitan areas have had an unintended benefit for the rolls of unsolved homicides on the books at major police departments across the country. Quite simply, there are more resources and time to work cold cases. This has given rise to dedicated cold case squads in many cities, including Phoenix.

    If ever there was a case that could put a cold case squad on the map, it was the Arizona Canal murders. In Phoenix, the cold case squad publicly announced that it was tackling the brutal, befuddling case in 2012, the 20th anniversary of Angela Brosso’s murder.

    Once again, there was a flurry of media publicity. Angela Brosso was introduced to a new generation of Phoenix residents, as the metro area had grown by nearly 1 million people since she had been beheaded. Two decades later, the story grabbed headlines and led the evening news again.

    There was a strategy to all of this, too. The Phoenix cold case squad was stirring the pot in hopes of shaking loose new leads. Apparently, it worked.

    Speliopoulos won’t say how a local warehouse worker, police aficionado and self-proclaimed "Zombie Hunter" named Bryan Patrick Miller made in onto police RADAR. Phoenix police are remaining mum about the big break in the case, as well.

    In interviews with a half-dozen neighbors of Sunny Slope, the small, humble community where Miller lived in an unkempt, dollhouse-sized residence that was stuffed to the rafters with belongings, it appears that police had been watching their suspect for sometime. Keen-eyed neighbors said they spotted regular activity among what they described as plain-clothed detectives in the weeks leading up to Miller’s Jan. 13 arrest.

    The lynchpin in the case appears to be obtaining Miller’s DNA, then matching it to the samples that linked the two victims all those years ago. Police will not say how they obtained Miller’s DNA, nor what led them to scrutinize him in the case.

    Even the judge at Miller’s initial court appearance, which was conducted behind jail walls and made public on closed-circuit TV, questioned the lack of detail about the DNA evidence in initial police documents and court filings.

    This is key because the prosecutor is pressing a charge of sexual assault against Miller in connection to Melanie Bernas, but not in connection to Angela Brosso. In addition, Miller is charged with two counts of first-degree homicide and kidnapping in each case. He remains jailed without bond.

    With Miller’s arrest last week, the long-dormant case has entered a fast and furious second stage, Speliopoulos said. From here on, it is all about the upcoming trial and the all-consuming effort to convict Bryan Patrick Miller of first-degree murder.

    What is more, early indications are that prosecutors don’t intend to simply convict Miller. They have signaled that they plan to treat this as a capital case, meaning that if found guilty, Miller could pay with his life.

    Speliopoulos, for one, is confident the case will be proven.

    “From beginning to end, they worked over every shred of evidence,” he said of the long line of his police colleagues from 1992 through to the present. “Now we need to safeguard the evidence. We have a trial to go through here. There is no way to speak about some of these issues without damaging the case, itself. This will all be brought out in court.”

    Yet, troubling questions remain:

    Could Miller have been caught earlier, as reports out of Washington state, where Miller lived in the 2000s and stabbed a woman but was acquitted, might suggest?

    Should he have been on the police RADAR sooner due to a high school incident in which he randomly stabbed a woman at a Phoenix mall, but only served time until age 18?

    “That surprises me,” Speliopoulos admitted of Miller’s previous brushes with the law.

    Perhaps most troubling is whether Miller will be be linked to any other crimes during those 22 years since Angela Brosso was beheaded, as some experts suggest he will.

    “I honestly don’t know,” the detective answered.

    Only time will tell.

    The answers will unfold in the coming weeks and months, Speliopoulos said. He expects that a trial will answer many of these questions. Others may never be answered. But beginning with Miller’s arrest, some pieces are already falling into place. For among the items officers could be seen removing from Miller’s rusted shed was an old bicycle.

    “I have never seen the department come together as much as they did on this case to come to a just conclusion,” Speliopoulos said.

    “I don’t think anyone can sit back and say that the Phoenix Police Department didn’t do all the right things in the Angela Brosso investigation from the very beginning and concluding with the arrest of Mr. Miller,” he added.

    After all these years, they have finally spoken for Angela.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Records: Phoenix canal murder suspect felt 'chills' after '89 stabbing

    The man Phoenix police have accused in the 1990s canal murders told authorities he stabbed a woman in 1989 to see what it felt like and said the act sent chills up his spine, according to recently released juvenile court records.

    Bryan Patrick Miller stabbed the 18-year-old woman in the back as she walked to work near Paradise Valley Mall, records show. Miller pleaded guilty to attempted second degree murder and was released from juvenile prison in October 1990 after he turned 18 - about two years before Angela Brosso's body was discovered.

    Phoenix police arrested Miller on January 13 at a home near Ninth Street and Mountain View Road because investigators believe he murdered Brosso and Melanie Bernas. Police have described Miller's home as a hoarding site and said detectives had to sift through thousands of items after serving a search warrant on the property.

    Miller, 42, stabbed the woman in the spring of 1989 about two months after he was released from the juvenile department of corrections where he served time for criminal damage, according to court records.

    A treatment plan released with Miller's juvenile court file said he functioned in a "superior" intelligence range, but that he had a history as a runaway with violent behavior, according to juvenile court records.

    The treatment plan, which was completed about four months before the stabbing, said Miller managed his feelings through fantasy and escapism and described him as emotionally immature, frustrated, angry, destructive and depressed.

    The plan said Miller needed to "work through major issues dealing with sexuality" and a juvenile court judge had "strongly" recommended he be considered for the juvenile sex offenders program, records show.

    Brosso, 22, failed to return home from riding her bicycle along a canal in November 1992. A headless body was found at 25th Avenue and Cactus Road. Eleven days later, her head was found in the Arizona Canal.

    Bernas, 17, the second victim, who also had gone for a bicycle ride, was found dead nearly a year later, in September 1993. Her body was found floating in the canal near Interstate 17 and Dunlap Avenue.

    Miller faces allegations of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Bernas, according to court documents. Prosecutors also charged Miller with the attempted sexual assault of Brosso, according to court records.

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...ords/22230819/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
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    Man Pleads Not Guilty In 20-Year-Old Cold Case Killings Of 2 Women

    A Phoenix man has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in two cold case killings from the early 1990s.

    Bryan Patrick Miller was arrested Jan. 13 in the 1992 killing of 22-year-old Angela Brosso and the 1993 slaying of 17-year-old Melanie Bernas. Police say recently collected DNA evidence linked 42-year-old Miller to the deaths.

    Both women disappeared on bike rides near Phoenix's canal system. Brosso's decapitated body was found near an apartment complex, while Bernas' body was discovered about 1½ miles away floating in the water.

    Miller was arraigned Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court. He is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and kidnapping and one count each of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_6595734.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Search warrants released in Canal Murders

    PHOENIX (KSAZ) - A judge unsealed the search warrant documents in the canal murder cases.

    Bryan Patrick Miller is accused of killing Angela Brasso and Melanie Bernas in the early 1990's.

    He was arrested earlier this year after cold case detectives connected him to the killings.

    Investigators spent nearly a week sifting through each room, box, bin, and bag at the house.

    Miller, it appears, was a hoarder, and detectives logged more than 400 items as evidence.

    What they found is detailed in the search warrant that is 60+ pages long.

    A lot of the items were blacked out, investigators decided not to reveal certain pieces of evidence.

    The house where Bryan Patrick Miller lived sits empty.

    The secrets found inside remain secrets.

    Detectives reportedly seized clothes, dozens of pairs of shoes, photographs, comic books, necklaces, brushes, cassette and VHS tapes, movie posters, computers, laptops, hard drives, cell phones, cameras, glasses, anything that could tie Miller to victims Angela Brasso and Melanie Bernas.

    Both women disappeared while riding their bikes near canals, they were stabbed to death, one was decapitated.

    What the search warrant doesn't make public are the specific items detectives found inside the home that could link Miller to the murders. For instance, we don't know if detectives found knives, the murder weapons, or even the victims bikes at the home.

    Dozens of items were redacted from the public version of the search warrant. An affidavit indicated police had hoped to find knives, photos of the scene, men's boots and dress shoes, and cell phones. Investigators also searched Miller's car and locked at the Amazon Warehouse where he worked. The redacted pieces of evidence likely won't be revealed until Miller's trial.

    Miller pled not guilty to the killings. He is facing charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault.

    The trial is scheduled to begin September 30, 2015.

    http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/29...-canal-murders
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #7
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Prosecutors to seek death penalty in Phoenix canal killings

    PHOENIX (AP) — Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing a young woman and a teenager in the early 1990s if he is convicted of first-degree murder.

    The Maricopa County Attorney's Office filed the sentencing notice Friday in the case pending against Bryan Patrick Miller.

    He was arrested and charged earlier this year in the November 1992 killing of 22-year-old Angela Brosso and the September 1993 killing of 17-year-old Melanie Bernas.

    Both were killed while bicycling along the Arizona Canal. Both were stabbed and Brosso was decapitated.

    Prosecutors listed several factors that could justify a death sentence, including that each killing was committed in "an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner."

    Miller has pleaded not guilty and police have said he's denied any involvement in the killings.

    http://azdailysun.com/news/state-and...0ea00d9ec.html

  8. #8
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    Murder victim's light still shines after 23 years

    By EJ Montini
    The Arizona Republic

    Time darkens it.

    We shine a light on a tragedy and it stays there for a little while, but we move on, we need to move one, the horrors of the day occur one after next after the next. We show as much sympathy as we can, as much empathy as we can, but we move on.

    We forget. We need to forget.

    And so we'll forget, again, a young woman named Angela Brosso.

    (In fact, that voice inside your head already is saying, "Who?" And that's okay.)

    Regular folks like us have memory lapse after memory lapse. It's not our job to remember.

    But local police and prosecutors, working from one generation to the next, don't forget.

    Twenty-three years ago Angela Brosso's mother told me that her murdered daughter, Angie, was "a force." She said that when Angela entered a room it was "like a light going on."

    The story of Angela's death was the biggest story in town for weeks. The media shined our big spotlight everything about the case.

    But time darkened it. For us, anyway.

    Not for police. Not for prosecutors.

    Earlier this year authorities arrested Bryan Patrick Miller for the murders of Brosso, who was 22 when she was killed, and Melanie Bernas, only 17.

    Brosso went out for a bicycle ride in late 1992. Her torso was found later near 25th Avenue and Cactus Road. Her head was discovered in the Arizona Canal.

    It's impossible to imagine the horror she went through or the horror her parents have lived with all these years.

    Bernas's body was found in a canal about a year after Brosso's murder.

    I kept up with Angela's family on an off for the first couple of years after her murder, but not so much after that. Other tragedies come along, and keep coming along.

    Besides, it seemed as if investigators would never solve the case.

    But technology improved, and officials say they linked Miller to the crimes through DNA evidence.

    That's good news for the victims' families, but it doesn't end things.

    Prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty. That complicates the trial process. Among other things it means Miller will have to be mentally evaluated. Which takes time. And so it has been decided that his trial won't take place until late April 2017.

    That's a long while from now, and 25 years after Brosso was murdered.

    Angela would be in her mid-40s today. She was only beginning her career with a Valley tech company when she was killed. She had a boyfriend. She had a future.

    All of that will come up in the trial a couple of years from now.

    In the meantime, chances are we'll forget about her. Again.

    But we'll be reminded about her, again, by the prosecutors and the police.

    And by Angela herself, who has not allowed time to completely darken her memory.

    As her mother told me about Angie all those years ago, "She changed the nature of a room when she entered it. And it's true, you know? She really did. She was like a light going on. So funny. And witty. That's what we'll miss. That light."

    It's still there.

    In 2017, when the trial of Bryan Patrick Miller finally gets underway, it will shine.

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/ejmon...alty/28671531/

  9. #9
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    PD: missing teen case linked to alleged "Canal Killer"

    PHOENIX (KSAZ) - A Phoenix man charged with killing two women in the early 1990's is under investigation in the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl.

    Bryan Patrick Miller has already pleaded not guilty to the two murders, both of which took place along a valley canal.

    13-year-old Brandy Lynn Myers disappeared in May of 1992. Police searched the area where she was last seen, near 5th St and Hatcher but found nothing, until the arrest of Bryan Miller.

    Investigators believed they had a break; the girl vanished in the same area that the accused serial killer lived.

    "Ultimately we have another disappearance of a young girl, same kind of age and time frame, and close proximity to his home. He very quickly became an investigative lead," said Sgt. Trent Crump.

    Police are now looking to charge Miller with Myers murder. He's already been linked to the murders of Angela Brasso and Melanie Bernas.

    "We have learned a lot of new information since Bryan Miller was taken into custody," said Crump.

    Police won't detail exactly what evidence they have linking Miller to the disappearance of Myers, but they say she may not be the only additional victim. Police are checking other missing person cases in the area to see if they are linked.

    "We have detectives from the cold-case squad that are working this case as hard as they did in 1992," said Crump.

    http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/ari...50745523-story

  10. #10
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    Forensic genealogist helped solve Phoenix canal murder cold cases

    PHOENIX - A California forensic genealogist with a Ph. D. in nuclear physics helped Phoenix police solve one of its most notorious cold cases.<o:p></o:p>

    In January 2015, police arrested Bryan Patrick Miller at his Phoenix Sunnyslope neighborhood home for the “canal killings” of the early 1990s. Two women were found slaughtered 10 months apart, their bodies stashed in the Arizona Canal, which runs through Phoenix.<o:p></o:p>

    According to public records provided by the Phoenix Police Department Wednesday, forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders International used a research strategy she developed to cross-reference the suspect’s DNA profile with publicly available DNA databases.<o:p></o:p>

    “Genealogists post this information all over the internet," Fitzpatrick said. "There are 8 to 10 thousand of those databases. Some are big, some are small. You just have to know how to navigate them to find the matches."<o:p></o:p>

    Her discovery was made possible by matching the Y DNA profile. Y DNA follows the male line of the family and is usually attached to a family surname. Many genealogy enthusiasts post their Y DNA profiles to public internet databases in the hopes of connecting with distant relatives. The databases are a treasure trove for researchers like Fitzpatrick.<o:p></o:p>

    “It’s like a Bingo game," Fitzpatrick said. "and I look for a Bingo match."<o:p></o:p>

    In late 2014, Phoenix police provided Fitzpatrick the Y DNA profile of the suspect extracted from the 1992-1993 crime scenes. Fitzpatrick went to work. Within a couple of weeks, she identified the surname “Miller” as a possible name associated with the Y DNA profile. <o:p></o:p>

    Phoenix police detectives reviewed records of previous contacts related to the case. They identified Bryan Patrick Miller as someone on a long list of potential leads. Phoenix PD then independently collected DNA evidence from Miller and matched it against the suspect DNA. The match was positive and prompted police to make the arrest.<o:p></o:p>

    Miller has pleaded not guilty. He is scheduled to go on trial in April 2017 and if found guilty, he could face the death penalty.

    http://www.12news.com/news/local/val...case/359838007
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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