Pretrial hearings for an alleged Arizona killer who brutally murdered a Pennsylvania woman and a teenager, are finally underway after four years of delays.
In 2015, Bryan Patrick Miller was apprehended over 20 years after the 1992 and 1993 Phoenix murders once a DNA sample – obtained by investigators via an item discarded by Miller – positively linked Miller to DNA found on the victims.
In 1992, Angela Brosso, originally from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, went for a bike ride at night behind her apartment complex in a park adjacent to the Arizona Canal. When she didn’t return hours later, police were called.
After hours of searching using heat-seeking technology, Brosso’s mutilated body was found the next day in a field behind her apartment complex. Her head would be found two weeks later in the canal adjacent to the field.
Brosso’s nude and mutilated body was found on her 22nd birthday. Her bicycle had been taken.
In 1993, nearly 10 months after Brosso’s murder, 17-year-old Melanie Bernas left for an afternoon bike ride in the same area. Her body was later found in the same canal.
Miller’s fantasy life and alleged real life intersected – playing out with gory props and photos of Miller with fake dismembered body parts and human organs.
He drove an old police car with bloody hand prints and was known locally and by those in the world of Cosplay (costume play), as the “Zombie Hunter.”
Miller had a history of violent behavior, but was able to evade police for years as he hopscotched between Arizona and Washington State, where he lived for 10 years following the Arizona murders. Some similar homicides, while not linked to Miller, remain unsolved in Arizona.
As a teenager, Miller stabbed a woman and was sent to a juvenile correctional facility. After the Phoenix murders, he moved to Washington where he later stabbed a woman in 2002 at his office complex. Miller was later exonerated on a “self-defense” claim.
Years after Miller returned to his home in Phoenix, he was surveilled and positively linked to the killings through DNA. Detectives issued a search warrant of his home to look for evidence connected to the murders. Miller was living with his teenage daughter at the time.
Court records show that Miller’s defense attorney resigned in 2016, leading to additional delays for the impending trial. Records also show that Miller was found unconscious in his jail cell that year. A review of video of the occurrence led to additional delays due to more court proceedings.
According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Miller is being charged with two counts of first degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, one count of attempted sexual assault, and one count of sexual assault.
Arizona state prosecutors are asking for the death penalty. A pretrial meeting is set for December. The trial for the murders is set for June 2020, but could be modified due to additional delays. This is a developing story.
