Murder Arrest Made in Two Grisly Phoenix Cold Cases, but are There More Victims?

Melanie Bernas (Left) Angelia Brosso (Right)

Booking Photo of Bryan Patrick Miller

Phoenix, AZ—In 1992/1993 Melanie Bernas, 17 and Angela Brosso, 22 were savagely sliced up nearly a year apart in the same general Sunnyslope vicinity.

In November 1992 the Brosso girl went for a bicycle ride and never returned. Her live-in boyfriend reported her missing to police.

Brosso was soon found headless and her torso cut in half in a nearby park at 25th Avenue and Cactus. I saw raw and disturbing video of Brosso's naked and bloody body captured by a TV news photographer and it was indeed hideous. That video was heavily edited before it hit the airwaves.

Brosso’s severed head was subsequently located in or next to a canal some two miles away. Brosso’s bicycle has never been recovered and no viable suspect has ever been located.

Nearly one year later in September of 1993 the Bernas girl’s severed head was found near the Arizona canal and the Black Canyon freeway. Nearby floating in the canal the rest of her cut up remains were recovered.  Like the Brosso girl, Bernas was believed to be riding a bicycle that’s never been located.

Police claimed to have a DNA material believed left by the killer but until now they’ve not found a suspect for a match yet.

These two crimes have left an impression on me for two decades.  I can’t believe that this savage predator has not killed more young women. This killer is right out of a frightening horror movie.

Now Phoenix veteran police detective, Clark Schwartzkoph was able to locate a potential suspect and surreptitiously obtain DNA material from 42 year-old Bryan Patrick Miller.  Analysis of the DNA material matched Miller’s positively.

It turned out that as a juvenile Miller was arrested in 1989 and convicted of stabbing a woman at the Paradise Valley Mall.

Miller is now in custody charged with two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of sexual assault. He is being held without bond until a Jauary 21st court status conference.  

Reportedly Miller has denied involvement and police have spent the night serving search warrants on the property where it’s believed Miller lived at 844 E. Mountain View Rd. in Phoenix.  

Based upon the current evidence Miller appears to be a serial killer and there may well be more victims.

Since Miller moved to Everette, WA for a awhile after the Brosso/Bernas killings and police there will be looking into similar murder cases there.  

Brandi Lynn Myers

One case I suspect police are now re-examining is the May 1992 missing persons case of 13 year-old Brandy Lynn Myers who disappeared while walking through her Sunnyslope neighborhood to raise money for a school Read-a-Thon fundraiser.

No trace of the Myers girl has ever been found.



Miller called himself the Zombie Hunter and here's video of Miller's personal vehicle: