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[Music] when you think of the Phoenix Desert you definitely aren't thinking of a
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[Music] waterfront the canal system goes right through the center of Phoenix the more people that were moving to the
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area the more that the trails along there were being used for walking running biking there are not many crimes that
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are like this one you had women riding bicycles along the canal on a typical Phoenix evening
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ambushed stabbed multiple times police are looking for whoever killed 22-year-old Angela braso Angela braso
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dismembered decapitated police are looking at the scene and thinking what on Earth
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happened and who did this 10 months later a 17-year-old Junior at arcade tadia High School
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Melanie bernes this is the high school that Steven Spielberg attended Melanie Bernice's mother goes
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out to dinner and Melanie decides to go on a bike ride and the following morning a woman
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is riding her bike right here there was just a big puddle it looked different as
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I rode through it and all of a sudden I'm like that is blood so she called the police the
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police a a blood trail and they see Melanie Bernice's body at the bottom of the canal my time in my life froze at that
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very moment the day we found out I made a promise to myself I just never stopped talking
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about her these murders became widely known as the Phoenix Canal murders my name is Clark schwarzkoff and I was
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assigned to the C case unit investigating the canal murders I think there was over 600
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Persons of Interest I said okay give me the list in this mound of information of all
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these people and all these possible suspects I believed our killer was listed eventually detective schwarzkoff
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found his prime suspect on that list and discovered that the alleged Canal killer
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had a second identity a man who dressed up like a comic book superhero and Cruis
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The Valley in a decorated car dripping with fake blood the public knew this man as the zombie
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hunter what was his life as the zombie hunter like what did he do he would go to like parades and festivals and and
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show off this car and kind of be a part of the excitement if you will your assignment was to find this
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guy and you have found him yeah he is accused of being a killer but here he is posing with police officers before they
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discovered what he' [Music] done it was almost like a slap in the face like I'm here but you don't know it
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it was like he was hiding in playing sight [Music] [Music] it's one of those cases that you just
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don't forget you can't unsee what happened to those girls you just can't long before the Man known as
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the zombie hunter became the prime suspect in the canal murders Clark Schwarz cof was a detective with the
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Phoenix Police Department's cold Cas Squad his mission was simple but pointed find the killer responsible for those
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vicious murders of two young women from the early 1990s to this day I'm still not exactly
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sure about what happened on those bike paths the case began on November 8th 1992 Angela braso a tech worker who had
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recently moved to Phoenix was taking advantage of beautiful weather to get in a little exercise says
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Brianna Whitney the True Crime reporter for the CBS affiliate kph in Phoenix each night she would go out for
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her evening bike ride just at Golden hour at Sunset the best time to be riding out here Angela was only hours
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away from turning 22 years old and like a lot of locals she liked to bike on the
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paths that ran alongside the city's distinctive canals says schwarzkoff a 48 Hours
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consultant are there places that are sort of natural Ambush sites if somebody wants to attack someone yeah they are
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there's a lot of tunnels they go underneath the interstate that November evening in 1992
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Angela left her apartment around 7 pm. her boyfriend Joe later told police he said he stayed home to bake Angela
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birthday cake and didn't expect her to be gone long hours go by and Joe grows concerned
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Angela hasn't come home and that's not like her Joe told police he took his bike out three times that night
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frantically searching for Angela on the canal paths he spoke to her friends even
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her mother back in Pennsylvania finally he reported Angela missing to police the next morning
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Searchers Came Upon a horrific scene Angela bro's torso was found in a field next to the trail that she had been
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riding her bike on Angela had been stabbed to death some 10 days after Angela's headless body was discovered a man
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fishing along this section of the canal spotted her head stuck on a grate and from what we have heard from
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Witnesses the head was in amazingly good condition especially considering this was days after the murder I'm Morgan low
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and I'll take you Morgan low an investigative reporter who also works at kph and is a consultant for 48 hours has
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been working on the canal killer case for more than a decade we've heard that the head looked
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like it had been preserved like it was a momento for the killer Angela's purple mountain bike was also
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missing there were no solid leads and the case went quiet until September of 1993 some 10 months after Angela's
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murder when the mother of 17-year-old Melanie bernus returned from a dinner date to find her daughter had broken her
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curfew and was not home she then noticed that Melanie's bicycle was missing Melanie decides to go on a bike ride by
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around 10:30 when Melanie did not return her mother started calling her friends is Melanie there well my mom took the
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phone call said that Melanie's mom was frantic and like nervous Rachel Shep maker was one of
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Melanie's close friends in high school so initially when you hear that her mother's looking for her you're not
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thinking something terrible has happened to your friend definitely not I thought
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she was with a friend and just forgot to communicate with her mom where she was early the next morning Charlotte
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pole a local resident happened to be riding along the canal with her young daughter in a bicycle seat just as they
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came out of one of those tunnels that ran under the interstate she spotted a puddle there was just a big puddle of of
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something ended up riding right through it and having it Splash over me Charlotte says something about the
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puddle bothered her so a few minutes later she doubled back that's when she made that horrible realization I could
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tell that it was a puddle of red that it was a puddle of blood and all of a sudden as I'm looking at it I noticed
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that there are some drag marks that went along over here toward that tree towards
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that tree yes and then went around the tree and was drugged back you could see the drag marks right here to the canal
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Charlotte went home and called police later that night the local news reported that a woman's body had been found in
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the Canal close to where Angela bro's head had been located they found the body in a
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teal bodysuit I was told by um some other friends that Melanie did not own that it
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can't be her Rachel went to sleep convinced the body in the canal was not Melanie but the next day I'm at school
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my friends just come up to me crying and saying it was [Music] Melanie detective strongly suspected
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Melanie had been targeted and stabbed in the back by the same person who had killed
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Angela police believe that somehow the killer got her off of her bike whether he knocked her off of her bike or
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whether he asked her a question Clark says the evidence indicates the killer approached the women from behind
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both the KN WS were the exact same position investigators say the killer dragged Melanie's body off the canal
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path removed her clothes and dressed her in that teal bodysuit similar to this one obtained by
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police along with the stabbing and the dismemberment there was another component to these murders wasn't there
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yeah both women were sexually assaulted and that meant investigators had a crucial piece of evidence
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DNA when the DNA from melany scene was finally tested later it matched to Angela scene so we knew for sure that we
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were dealing with the same perpetrator investigators noted that the initial stab wounds to the backs of each woman
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were fatal and so precise that detectives suspected the killer might be a surgeon the details about what
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happened were the kinds of things that kept parents from letting their kids out when the sun went down
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[Music] the murders of Angela braso and Melanie bernus in the early 1990s created fear
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in Phoenix that lasted for a generation you know there's some guy out there and you don't know where he
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is they watched the news and read the newspaper every day hoping that police would make an arrest and it just kept
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going on and nothing and nothing and nothing investigators had collected matching male DNA from both the
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victims but more than two decades passed and the canal murder cases went cold then science finally caught up with the
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calendar it's in 2014 Phoenix police detectives are at a DNA conference and a forensic genealogist from California is
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also also at the conference coling Fitzpatrick founder of identif finders International was there to meet with law
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enforcement and she goes up to these detectives and says hey I can take Y chromosomes and create these DNA
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profiles and try to match with genealogy to help solve criminal cases Fitzpatrick's company had developed
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software that could mine public genealogy databases searching for matches to Crime Scene DNA the
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detectives heard her out and then several weeks later they sent me the y d profile from the crime scene for the
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Phoenix Canal murders Fitzpatrick's company started crunching the data hoping to provide Phoenix detectives
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with a name we entered the numbers from the forensic profile into our software and
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that's where I came up with six matches to the name Miller while the genetic genealogy search produced the name
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Miller it is is also one of the most common last names detective schwarzkoff started digging you check your files and
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what do you find I think there were a total of six Millers that were on what I called my master list and I went down
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through the list got to Brian Patrick Miller but who was Brian Patrick Miller records show he was 42 years old with a
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Phoenix address that name was just one of more than 600 Persons of Interest Who had lived in those case files for
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years police at the time seemingly never pursued Miller we discovered his file downstairs police learned Brian Miller
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had a record dating Back to Before the canal murders in May of 1989 when he was just 16 years old Miller crossed paths
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with Celeste Bentley I was 24 and I was going to work I had just noticed a young boy on the
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bus Celeste says she and the boy got off at the same stop moments later she felt
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something in her back he had ran by me I thought he had just hit me I just yelled
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at him I was like why'd you do that you know and then I reached back and touched
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my back and realized that it was blood I had been stabbed with a single knife wound to her upper back Celeste screamed
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and managed to make it to the store where she worked a coworker called for help a about 30 minutes later when
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Celeste was in the back of an ambulance the police came and said they found him and they wanted to bring him to the
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ambulance to show him to me Celeste identified her as salent Brian Miller was charged with aggravated assault they
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said that if he had held the blade the other way he would have gone straight through my ribs and I could have died
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Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to juvenile detention until he turned 18
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it was a far cry from where Miller's life had [Music] begun he was living in Hawaii for a
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while as a kid with his mom and his dad but his dad died early on in a motorcycle
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accident years later Miller and his mother Ellen moved to Phoenix so for most of his life and early years it was
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Brian Miller and his mom while Miller was in juvie his mother made a disturbing Discovery Brian Miller's mom
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was looking through his stuff and she found a note that he wrote the pages detailed a Sinister plan kidnap the girl
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tie her up in the truck and cut her clothes off this note spelled out how he wanted to find abduct rape murder and
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dismember a young woman and Brian's mom was so disturbed by this piece of paper that she took it
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to Phoenix police it was Miller's 18th birthday and he had just been released as an adult Chief fed out told police at
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the time that she was really scared for her safety and that she was not going to
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allow him to come home so after his release Miller ended up at this Phoenix halfway house when schwarzkoff read that
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note in 2014 he was struck by something there was a lot of things in there that were close or similar to what
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happened specifically to Angela including a description of decapitating a victim and preserving the
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head Phoenix police wanted to locate Miller luckily he was very easy to find [Music]
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in December 2014 Phoenix police continued digging into potential suspect Brian Miller who they discovered was
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actually a local celebrity everybody at the time in the Phoenix area knew Brian Patrick Miller as this character called
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the zombie hunter zombie hunter like a comic book character yeah like a comic book character like a good guy fighting
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the bad guys Miller's Alter Ego was a costume figure who participated in parades and festivals around town
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thousands of zombies taking over the streets of Downtown Phoenix he wore this long trench coat with these goggles and
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helmet and had this large Gatling gun and if you're going to hunt zombies you need a way to get
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around he bought an old police car and tricked it out wrote The Zombie Hunter on it and it had a full-size zombie
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mannequin in the back and blood on the side friend Eric Braverman says Miller's zombie hunter Persona attracted a big
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fan base including law enforcement officers who lined up to pose with him collected pictures of himself with the
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cops like trophies they're all smiling big with him leaning on the car Eric says Miller's superhero
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character was the opposite of what Brian was like when he wasn't in costume he seemed like a harmless marshmallow that
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was immersed in this goofy lifestyle he's just that unassuming guy but could Miller be the canal
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killer the only way to find out was to get his DNA investigators began to surveil Miller who worked at an Amazon
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Ware housee every day when he got there Miller parked the zombie Mobile in the same spot he would come out for his
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15-minute break blast his music really loud lunchtime came out to the car same thing blast this god- awful music
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Schwarz cough came up with an elaborate plan to get his DNA I went up and introduced myself to mil in his car why
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did you introduce yourself I introduce myself as a security consultant schwarzkoff told Miller that thieves had
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been stealing goods from a warehouse across the way I said would you be interested in working for me as a
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security officer watching the building while you're outside did his eyes light up yeah cuz it was a good paying job I
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said look I I'll pay you 20 bucks an hour on January 2nd 2015 Schwarz cof met Miller at this Chili restaurant to fill
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out a job application the Cold Case unit was behind the scenes ready to bag anything that had Miller's
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DNA on it such as utensils or a glass they set a table for me and Mr Miller away from everybody else in a part of
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the restaurant where nobody else is at Miller arrived with a surprised guest his 15-year-old daughter Sarah Miller
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was a divorced single dad he was very gentle and caring about his daughter he often brought his daughter where he
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would be going the trio sat down and ordered hamburgers when the food arrived he swallows his hamburger in like five
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bites won't take a drink of his water and I'm sitting there going you sure you want something else to drink cuz you
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just got water no no I'm good I'm good I'm good Schwarz started to worry this operation would be a
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bust what does he finally do that makes this mission accomplished we finally took a drink from the water glass that's
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when I knew that okay now we've least got his DNA despite knowing about Miller's juvenile record as their meal
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ended the veteran detective's gut told him Miller was not their man seeing him with his daughter I just don't see this
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guy as being the monster in 1992 and 93 that would do this to these women Miller gave schwarzkoff a quick
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tour of his Zombie Hunter mobile and the two parted ways with a detective saying
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he'd be in touch the Cold Case unit sent Miller's water glass off to the crime lab 11 days later we got a call from the
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lab and we're sitting there and like what is this all about and in this meeting these Phoenix detectives say as
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a joke H they must have solved the canal murders but detective schwarzkoff says it was no joke when the head of the lab
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arrived she leans down to me she goes it's him and I go what she goes Brian Miller it's
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him well the blood rushed from my head I kind of sat back and I went you've got to be kidding Brian Miller's DNA from
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that water glass matched the DNA recovered from Angela braso and Melanie bernes more than 20 years
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before Miller was arrested within hours during a police interview shortly after Miller was told why he'd been taken into
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into custody in connection with the canal murders we have DNA that links you to those two
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ladies see how that's possible he just kind of went through it in his Dopey kind of I don't know what you're kind of
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talking about would help you get it off your chest you did something like that I
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didn't kill anyone you didn't kill anybody no investigators got a search warrant for Miller's house the home he
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shared with his teenage daughter and just about everything thing he'd ever collected in his life I can remember
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like it was yesterday walking up to the front door and everybody going you can't
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get in that way it's full of crap Brian Miller's house was like it came from the show hoarders there was a
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little path where you could get to a bathroom in the kitchen and where the TV was and that's it everything else is
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just stacked to the roof with garbage did you look around and go this is madness not only man it's like go this
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is a nightmare Schwarz and his investigators would have to sift through all of it looking for other possible
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evidence detective schwarzkoff also focused on a new source someone Miller himself had ominously singled out in his
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interview it's the one person on face of the earth I could probably honestly say
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I hate Miller's ex-wife Amy who would end up revealing gruesome details from Miller's violent past he had told her
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about the murder of a young girl who' come to his door [Music] accidentally what do you think motivated
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Brian Miller to dress up as the zombie hunter see more of the case on Facebook at 48 hours
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in January 2015 more than 21 years after the canal murders Brian Miller was charged with first-degree murder in both
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Angela braso and Melanie Bernice's deaths Melanie's friend Rachel Shep maker says she felt a wave of relief a
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very joyous moment of oh my gosh this is what we've been waiting for for decades
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upon decades detective schwarzkoff wanted to talk to the one person who probably knew
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Miller best his ex-wife Amy they had been married for eight years there was a divorce Amy told schwarzkoff that she
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was just 19 when she met Miller in 1996 they married less than a year later and moved to Everett
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Washington Amy had a shocking Revelation for the detective she told Schwarz Miller had revealed a gruesome secret to
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her that he had killed a young girl in Phoenix years earlier before he'd ever met Amy Schwarz says Amy never reported
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it to police before for a number of reasons she didn't know if it was true she was afraid of Miller and she said
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she wanted to be a good wife you support your man no matter what detective schwarzkoff says Amy told him
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what Miller had said that a young girl had come to his door that he had grabbed this young
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female pulled her in killed her immediately Amy said Miller told her he dismembered the girl and disposed of her
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remains in trash left on the curb although Amy claimed Miller never told her the child's name investigators
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Ed the information Amy provided to piece together who Miller may have been talking
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about 13-year-old Brandy Meyers was a little girl collecting money for a school book ofon in her North Phoenix
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neighborhood going door too I was a tomboy and she was a girly girl bry's sister Kristen Dennis so she
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would try to learn how to climb trees or jump fences because she wanted to play with me she was my best friend it was
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May 26th 1992 6 months prior to the murder of Andre Le braso Miller was living in the
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halfway house following his time in juvenile detention for the aggravated assault of Celeste
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Bentley this is one block from our school his home and then three blocks is our house so every single day we walked
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right by here Kristen says Brandy left home alone that evening never to return she was last seen two doors down from
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Brian's walking in the direction of his house despite an extensive search bry's body was never found schwarzkoff says
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even though Amy couldn't provide a name the clues in her account add up to just one conclusion I believe that person is
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in fact Brandy Myers her sister believes that as well Brandy went to the landfill like some thing of no
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importance even with Amy's account investigators did not have enough evidence to charge Miller in bry's
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disappearance so the fact that she was disposed of there's just nothing physical nothing forensically to grab on
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to 48 Hours contacted Miller who said he had no involvement in bry's disappearance and never confessed to Amy
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that he had killed a young girl but there is another case in Miller's past in 2002 a woman named Melissa Ruiz
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Ramirez is walking down the street in Everett at night somebody pulls over it was Brian Miller Melissa would later
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tell police she'd seen him before talking to a friend of hers Melissa said she got in Miller's car and told him she
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needed to make a call and he drove her to his workplace so she could use the phone
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she tells police she's on the phone and from out of the clear blue Brian Miller comes running out with a 12in serrated
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kitchen knife and stabs her in the back they fight over the weapon Melissa said she escaped and
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contacted police they picked up Miller shortly after he didn't deny stabbing Melissa but claimed it was
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self-defense he said he was at work when Melissa walked in off the street and asked to make a
00:31:02
call he said she goes to use a phone and then all of a sudden now they clear blue
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she tries to rob him with a knife Miller was arrested and charged with first-degree assault with a deadly
00:31:13
weapon he was jailed from May 2002 until his December trial the jury just didn't buy Melissa's
00:31:22
story it was a he said she said and they acquitted him of the charge Amy Says a chilling change followed
00:31:30
Miller's return home she said it began with the letters she'd received from her jailed husband
00:31:38
while he awaited trial they first started out as professing his innocence and then it
00:31:43
would turn into sexual deviance like here's what I'm going to do when I get out to you Amy told Schwarz coff that
00:31:52
Miller followed up his words with action she said he came back with an unbel unable ugly dark sexual deviant side
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that she'd never seen before there were times where there was sex between him where he held a knife to
00:32:08
her throat Amy told schwarzkoff that Miller claimed something happened to him as a
00:32:14
child something that would become the Cornerstone of his defense for murdering Angela braso and Melanie
00:32:22
bernes his unique defense call her first witness his mother had created a [Music]
00:32:46
monster at the start of Brian Miller's trial for the murders of Angela braso and Melanie bernes in October
00:32:54
2022 his attorneys opened with a start in defense they admitted their client was the canal killer they had to concede
00:33:05
right off the bat that he is the actual killer but that he was not guilty by reason of insanity his defense attorneys
00:33:13
say Miller was tortured by his mother Ellen as a child and that led to his violent sexual behavior she died in
00:33:23
2010 if you imagine the making of a monster this is kind of the household that Story begins in Miller told
00:33:33
investigators after his arrest that the beatings began when he was just 5 years old she was a detention officer
00:33:42
discipline in their house was mental as well as physical she used her security belt so it was like a law
00:33:50
enforcement belt and usually I hit got hit by the buckles the defense opted for a bench trial which meant there would be
00:33:59
no jury his lawyers told judge Suzanne Cohen that Miller's mother also exposed her young son to violent sexual
00:34:08
content he was exposed to her interests in pornography and extremely violent films Miller's lawyers said his mother's
00:34:19
abuse caused Miller to develop severe mental health problems he feels like there are different TVs playing in his
00:34:28
head psychologist Bethany bran testified that Miller developed a condition known
00:34:34
as dissociative Amnesia an inability to remember some traumatic events Morgan low summed up the defense argument there
00:34:44
were two Brians there's the one you see over there at the defense table who's a fairly normal person who has friends who
00:34:52
had a job who was a dad who was a a husband and then there's the Killer there's bad Brian and Miller claimed his
00:35:00
attorneys had no memory none of the two murders he was charged with prosecutors undermine the defense claim that Miller
00:35:10
has no memory of the killings they point out that he does remember details related to other
00:35:18
stabbings remember Miller admitted stabbing celest Bentley when he was 16 years old and in 2002 he had also
00:35:27
testified about the stabbing of Melissa Ruiz Ramirez in Washington to show Miller's deviant side
00:35:36
prosecutors called the only person in the world Miller said he despised his ex-wife Amy the judge did not allow
00:35:45
cameras to record her face under questioning by prosecutor Elizabeth reamer Amy testified that
00:35:53
later in their marriage Miller grew increasingly viol ENT during sex did you ever say anything to him
00:36:03
about wanting it to stop because it was scary no why not I was avoiding any confrontation
00:36:14
with him at all at that point and wanted to be as compliant as possible so that I
00:36:25
would stay will he love me enough not to kill me did he ask permission prior to using
00:36:36
needles on you no did he ask permission prior to tying you up no what percentage
00:36:45
of your sex life after he got out of jail in Washington included bondage the pins or
00:36:58
other uh things that were not the normal sex you'd been having early in your marriage probably at least
00:37:08
95% the trial continued and after 6 months and 36 Witnesses the judge delivered her verdict as to count one
00:37:19
first-degree murder Angela braso as follows guilty as to count to First Dee murder
00:37:28
victim Melanie bernes as follows guilty how did Brian Miller react to the guilty verdict he didn't react he didn't
00:37:41
give any real emotion but Angela's mother who addressed the court remotely was emotional the defendant broke my
00:37:50
heart took all hope and light from me and my family the whole in my heart is so big
00:37:59
and empty Melanie's older sister Jill also spoke remotely about how painful it was
00:38:08
that Melanie's life ended violently at the age of 17 for 30 years now we've had to live
00:38:17
without Melanie because the defendant murdered her words cannot even begin to describe the level of excruciating pain
00:38:24
we experienced with the news of her horrific death Miller who didn't take the stand during
00:38:30
his trial was allowed to give a statement before he was sentenced I not looking for sympathy today this time is
00:38:39
for the family and the friends of the victims I cannot imagine what pain they have endured for all these
00:38:47
years I know I am different I thought it had to do with what my mother did to me
00:38:53
defense counsel RJ Parker urged judge Cohen to show Mercy before she delivered her judgment on Miller's sentence life
00:39:02
in prison or death you do not have to kill Brian in order to see Justice Done judge Cohen agreed with the centerpiece
00:39:12
of the defense case the defendant's abuse as a child was proven but 8 months after the trial
00:39:21
began Miller's abuse at the hands of his mother did not dissuade judge Cohen from
00:39:27
handing down the ultimate sentence there is no question that what the defendant did deserves the death
00:39:36
penalty Mr Miller anything you wish to say to the court I just thanks for listening to
00:39:43
everything that was said and giving us at least the opportunity to try and convince you
00:39:52
otherwise Justice was carried out in this case Det itive schwarzkoff hopes family
00:39:59
and friends of Angela and Melanie might finally find some [Music] peace people like Rachel ship maker just
00:40:12
knowing that Justice was served it doesn't make anything easier how do you want your good friend
00:40:24
be remembered she's the All-American good kid I want her family to know that we haven't forgotten
00:40:37
her she's changed us all for the better she was a gift [Music] [Music] a knock at the door by a clown an evil
00:41:03
clown the evil clowns you see in the movies well it came to life who comes calling with balloons flowers and a gun
00:41:09
I heard bang I saw her fall this was an assassination who isn't afraid of a killer clown 48 hours Saturday on CDs
00:41:17
and screening on Paramount Plus [Music] welcome to 48 Hours postmortem I'm CBS News correspondent and Marie green and
00:41:43
today we are talking about an episode that truly sent shivers down my spine unmasking the zombie hunter so joining
00:41:52
me now are 48 Hours correspondent Peter vanent and producer Paula Rosa who reported on and produced this episode
00:42:00
welcome gentlemen hi thanks for having us hey and Marie happy Halloween it's a perfect episode for
00:42:06
Halloween it says it in the name right the zomie hunter but before we get into the episode Let's Play a clip from the
00:42:14
show there are not many crimes that are like this one you had women riding bicycles along the canal on a typical
00:42:22
Phoenix evening ambushed stabbed multiple times Brianna Whitney the True Crime reporter
00:42:30
for the CBS affiliate kph in Phoenix says the first victim was 21-year-old Angela braso whose body was found in
00:42:39
November 1992 police are looking at this scene and thinking what on Earth happened and
00:42:47
who did this 10 months later the body of 17-year-old Melanie bernus was found in
00:42:54
one of the city's canals investig ators found the same DNA at both scenes says detective Clark schwarzkoff I think
00:43:03
there was over 600 Persons of Interest after some 20 years investigators zeroed in on 42-year-old Brian Patrick Miller a
00:43:13
divorced father raising his teenage daughter as schwarzkoff soon learned Miller had a unique Alter Ego everybody
00:43:23
in the Phoenix area knew Brian Patrick Miller as this char character called the zombie hunter schwarzkoff secured
00:43:30
Miller's DNA days later the head of the forensic lab had some news she leans down to me she goes it's him and I go
00:43:41
what she goes Brian Miller it's him um Peter what stood out to you about this case that made you want to do it uh
00:43:53
well first the zombie killer I I looked it up you know a zombie is relentlessly aggressive reanimated human corpse right
00:44:01
so you have that component uh which I found fascinating and then for me personally I lived in Phoenix for four
00:44:08
years I worked in local news there this was just before these Canal murders I left but my home was about 3 miles from
00:44:16
where these murders occurred I used to jog along the Arizona canal and back then it was a hub of people on the canal
00:44:24
when we went and shot this it's amazing there's no one on there anymore that's how how Lifestyles were changed in this
00:44:30
I also have this NeverEnding curiosity about why do people kill it's one of the reasons why I do this job it's one of
00:44:37
the reasons why I love to try to talk to the accused to get inside their head and
00:44:43
look at the head of this man was in this costume like a comic book character instead of going off and hiding under a
00:44:50
rock somewhere this alleged killer uh was was out in the public posing with photograph s with police officers for
00:44:58
goodness sakes going to these sci-fi conventions and he sounds like such a psychologically complicated person where
00:45:07
you hear these stories of him being a sweet loving father to his daughter friends who thought he was engaging they
00:45:15
never sense danger with this man sometimes he was a bit odd but he had this jeck and hide personality like
00:45:22
Peter said that's what's fascinating about murder it's these two sides and in this case
00:45:27
you know Brian's lawyers said he had two sides that he had a trauma side and he had a normal side he was not the zombie
00:45:34
hunter when he committed the murders of Angela and Melanie back in the early 9s and they were vicious I mean these
00:45:40
aren't these women are women who went out for nighttime bike rides um along this busy Canal path in Phoenix in good
00:45:49
weather and um you know Angela was the first victim and her head was cut off she was beheaded and head was not found
00:45:58
until 10 days later so and she was eviscerated I mean these are horrible horrible crimes and um Melanie you know
00:46:08
she was found stabed to death so um so because of the nature of the crimes the cops always felt that it had to be a
00:46:18
surgeon who did them or someone with special forces training and uh there's a military base in Phoenix and they just
00:46:26
didn't believe it could be Brian Patrick Miller who was around 21 or 22 years old
00:46:30
at the time of these murders and when you meet him he's like a marshmallow people describe him as a marshmallow he
00:46:36
couldn't do one push-up his friend said um he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could commit these horrible crimes
00:46:45
can we talk about how Melanie was discovered this was a story that um Paul managed to find a Woman by the name of
00:46:51
Charlotte pottle and this was literally as we were finishing up our hour we'd already written in the show and most of
00:46:58
our editing was done but Charlotte pole was worth the the effort back in in 1993
00:47:04
she was riding along the canal when she drove through a a dark puddle she instantly felt like something's not
00:47:12
quite right here that was really bizarre she rode for just a few minutes and decided to double back and realize that
00:47:18
it was a pool of blood and she got off of her bicycle and Charlotte noticed that there were drag marks in the dirt
00:47:27
the first drag marks went off away from the canal to a single tree she said the body had been moved around that little
00:47:34
tree and there was a small pool of blood there the body is then dragged back across the path to the edge of the canal
00:47:42
where it apparently was was thrown in and so Charlotte pole she later called police and she called them on an
00:47:50
emergency tip line that was not supposed to reveal the identity of the caller and
00:47:56
she described her experience and told cops you should go out there and check it out for yourself well sometime later
00:48:02
she gets an unexpected call from a homicide detective and the homicide detective said in a very demanding way
00:48:09
where are you right now and she goes well I'm I'm at my house stay put I'm on my way over to talk to you do not move
00:48:17
so she waits at home she said the detective uh shows up and he immediately accuses her Charlotte pole of being the
00:48:24
Killer and why because her Footprints were on both sides now of these drag marks out at the canal and he says I
00:48:34
know you did this she said I had nothing I just discovered it she thought she was
00:48:38
going to be arrested he leaves and she's convinced any moment she's going to be arrested as the canal killer she said
00:48:47
they never call again and they never showed up and she lived with this fear for months um but Charlotte did the
00:48:56
right thing yeah and um and luckily she wasn't charged that's an incredible story Peter you know you talked about um
00:49:05
the surgical Precision almost her head was pretty well preserved what do police believe happened with you can talk about
00:49:12
that so when this head is discovered according to detective Clark schwarzkoff he believed that that um the killer had
00:49:22
kept the head in a refrigerator it was a head that he may have considered a trophy and in the plan this
00:49:33
handwritten document that Brian Miller had had produced that his mother had discovered and turned over to
00:49:39
authorities one of the items on his list was to decapitate a victim and to keep the head and detective Clark schwarzkoff
00:49:48
believes that's exactly what happened here and that he wanted it discovered um because detective schwarzkoff believes
00:49:55
he wanted to get some Shock value from these murders so Paul how did you get to know him well I started writing him
00:50:03
emails and you know I couldn't reach him during the trial because his lawyers are
00:50:08
in the way and they obviously won't let him speak to a journalist during the trial but after the trial I took a
00:50:14
chance and there even when he's on death row but even on death row inmates have access to email which a lot of people
00:50:22
out there may not know and I didn't know if he'd write back or not and he WR the
00:50:26
first time wrote back he said he didn't like CBS News I said well I've been doing this a long time I have I've
00:50:32
worked at the show for 30 years so I've been doing this a long time and you can Google me and you can check me out and
00:50:37
you know I I I I'm I think I'm an upstanding journalist and I'm not going to lie to you or anything and he started
00:50:43
writing so we went back and forth and I started asking him simple questions at first like what do you miss you know do
00:50:50
you miss being the zombie hunter and he said you asked me simple questions so I'm going to answer you and I and we
00:50:57
just kept going on and on till eventually he started talking about the case more and more and I he said he
00:51:04
didn't commit these murders and I said well Brian that leads to the big question how is it that your DNA was
00:51:11
found on both women and he said that's the million-dollar question if I knew I wouldn't be sitting here would I wow so
00:51:20
let's talk about that because then there's these two murders there was a stabbing earlier but two murders and
00:51:24
then nothing Brian seemed to have cleaned up a little bit in the late 90s he married Amy he got married and she by
00:51:34
the way described as the perfect gentleman on their first date which was at an amusement park uh by the side of
00:51:40
the canal where they found one body and Angela's head so he married her and uh in Phoenix and then they um they moved
00:51:47
to Washington State where his mother lived they had a child and uh you know there's some video of them from the time
00:51:53
on a whale watching trip and they look like any young family you know and so we don't think Brian
00:52:00
really changed his ways he stabbed a woman up there he said it was self-defense and that case went to trial
00:52:08
and and Brian Patrick Miller was acquitted the jury believed him over the woman wow so the murders of Angela braso
00:52:18
and Melanie bernes went unsolved for decades and like so many of these cases that are only now getting solved the
00:52:26
real Smoking Gun in this one is the DNA evidence that pinned Brian to these murders but police almost didn't get it
00:52:34
let's take a listen to investigator Clark schwarzkoff describing just how they got the crucial
00:52:41
evidence at a Chili's of all places the Cold Case unit was behind the scenes ready to bag anything that had Miller's
00:52:48
DNA on it such as utensils or a glass they set a table for me and Mr Miller away from everybody else in a part of
00:52:58
the restaurant where nobody else is at Miller arrived with a surprise guest his 15-year-old daughter Sarah Miller
00:53:08
was a divorced single dad he was very gentle and caring about his daughter he often brought his daughter where he
00:53:15
would be going the trio sat down and ordered hamburgers when the food arrived he swallows his hamburger in like five
00:53:23
bites won't take a drink of his water and I'm sitting there go you sure you want something else to drink cuz he just
00:53:28
got water no no I'm good I'm good I'm good so good news is he's really hungry bad news is he's not thirsty that's
00:53:35
right and it was it went on and on and by the way the other people that were in that section of the restaurant were
00:53:41
undercover agents I wondered about that watching and the the manager of the Chili's uh a great citizen this woman
00:53:49
said I'll be the waitress so she played the waitress in in this scenario and finally finally he takes a sip from his
00:53:57
water glass and that's when schwarzkoff knew this was mission accomplished as we
00:54:02
said in the story uh that he got the DNA sample so Clark schwarzkoff you know was
00:54:07
a was a seasoned detective right this goes back to to The Duality of Brian Miller he had approached him at his
00:54:16
place of work reposed as a uh security guy he said would you like to work for us keeping an eye on the back part of
00:54:23
the factory here because there's been some theft I'll pay you $20 an hour well anyway he got to talking with him back
00:54:28
and forth right got a sense of the man then they have this lunch together brings in his daughter he seemed like a
00:54:34
loving uh father he seemed normal and despite what what schwarzkoff knew of his past he felt as though this guy this
00:54:45
nerdy softspoken man he couldn't possibly be the canal killer and so he gets the DNA sample and they send it off
00:54:55
but in his mind he goes he it's going to come back it's not going to be a match cuz there's no way based on my
00:55:00
experience that this guy is a killer he's just too nice a guy it's kind of extraordinary but it shows you the power
00:55:06
of His personality wow um so they get all the evidence they need they've got this DNA match and so they get a search
00:55:14
warrant for his house and it's like this guy has never thrown anything out he's basically a hoarder let's listen to a
00:55:21
clip from the show I can remember like it was yesterday walking up to the front door and everybody going you can't get
00:55:26
in that way it's full of crap Brian Miller's house was like it came from the show hoarders there was a
00:55:37
little path where you could get to a bathroom in the kitchen and where the TV was and that's it other else is just
00:55:43
stacked to the roof with garbage did you look around and go this is madness not only Madness I go this is a nightmare
00:55:51
yeah this was a nightmare they have to look through this stuff you know it's a house filled completely filled to the
00:55:57
ceiling with stuff and they looking for the women's bikes from back then he had he had a lot of bikes when they arrested
00:56:03
him but none were Melanie or Angela bikes they're looking for a murder weapon a knife they found a lot of
00:56:08
knives but not the murder weapon but they have but they did find a lot of pornography um some of it violent um
00:56:16
yeah so that was it's just a nightmare so still a lot more to talk about when we get back I want to talk
00:56:23
about Brian's ex-wife and his daughter Brian's juvenile record and of course the trial what will the zombie hunter
00:56:31
with his Larger than Life Persona what will he use as his defense strategy we're going to get into that after the
00:56:39
[Music] [Music] break welcome back uh when I look at this case I cannot help but to think
00:56:52
about the people in Brian's life can you tell me anything more about the ex wife
00:56:56
I was shocked that a man like this had custody of his teenage daughter how did that happen well um at the time I would
00:57:06
say that his ex-wife Amy was had lived a troubled life as far as I've learned she
00:57:12
did not come to the final custody hearing and the judge awarded Brian custody of his daughter um Brian always
00:57:20
treated his daughter Sarah with respect and kindness from what we learned she had an a fairly normal upbringing
00:57:27
although she did live with him in the house which was described as a hoarder house so you know that comes with its
00:57:34
own psychological underpinnings but um other than that living in a hoarder house they seem to have a really good
00:57:41
loving relationship in a way that brings me back to the ex-wife too because you know
00:57:46
he was a good husband until he wasn't according to her she must have told the court about her experience I mean she
00:57:54
was terrified of him one thing about Amy is that and she testified to this is that she felt um intense Duty as a wife
00:58:02
to do whatever her husband wanted her to do she said that at trial um you know it
00:58:08
was her duty to do what he wanted coupled with that is that she was really afraid of him and it's heartbreaking but
00:58:16
at one point in the trial the prosecutor says why didn't you object to all this stuff in the bedroom and she said well I
00:58:25
wanted to do it it because it's my duty as a wife and I wanted to be sure that he loved me enough not to kill me jeez
00:58:32
that's heavy and heartbreaking it is so that sort of sums up where she's coming from you got to feel great sympathy for
00:58:39
her completely um I want to ask about the juvenile record too how much access do investigators have to a juvenile
00:58:46
record typically well these juvenile records usually are kept under seal but these investigators were able to to get
00:58:54
that information about him um he had stabbed a woman in the back and been arrested for that and served time in
00:59:01
juvenile uh detention so Celeste Bentley worked at a mall and she took a public transportation uh to get to her job
00:59:09
she's on this bus and she notices this young man behind her a few rows she turned she noticed he was he was looking
00:59:16
at her and when she got off the bus uh she noticed that the young man got off as well and this was very early in the
00:59:24
morning and she's walking across an empty the parking lot headed toward the department store where she works and um
00:59:31
then all of a sudden he Sprints by and she feels this punch she thought on on her back and it hurt and she called out
00:59:39
to him why'd you do that and uh she put her hand back and discovered it was blood then she runs to uh the department
00:59:48
store there was a single door it was locked she's pounding on it luckily one of her colleagues is there lets her
00:59:53
inside and they call the police but she said the police told her that if he had turned the knife just a little bit one
01:00:01
way it would have gone right through and hit our a order also it could have been
01:00:04
a murder yeah could have been a murder so um the police found him found Brian dressed in different clothing so he had
01:00:12
planned this uh he changed his clothes they brought him over to that brought him over to the Celeste and she
01:00:19
identified him and um he eventually pled and he admitted to the cops that he had
01:00:25
stabbed her um you know there's various stories about why he did one was he said
01:00:31
he just wanted to see what it felt like and it's in chills down his spine there were other reports later that he stabbed
01:00:37
Celeste because she reminded him of his mother the thing about Celeste Bentley uh you know I interviewed her this is a
01:00:45
woman that has lived with this trauma obviously for her entire life it's so impacted her life she was afraid to be
01:00:54
in crowd she's always had her head on a swivel always looking around her and still does yeah um part of his
01:01:02
defense was to talk about his childhood um so looking at his childhood the abuse that he Alle alleges what
01:01:10
proof was provided well it began the fact that when he was 16 years old and he committed that attack it turned out
01:01:20
that he had told social workers back during the juvenile uh detention that he had he told these details of his
01:01:27
mother's abuse um and and so the fact that he had told with such detail and very uh specific about the kinds of
01:01:35
things exposing him to pornography uh exposing him to violent movies beating him he tells this story of being beaten
01:01:43
with a belt um experiencing violence psychological trauma physical trauma and then exposed to these horrible images um
01:01:55
is something that that he he he kept with the rest of his life um so that becomes kind of part of
01:02:03
the defense right let's just listen psychologist Bethany bran testified that Miller developed a
01:02:10
condition known as dissociative Amnesia an inability to remember some traumatic events Morgan low summed up the defense
01:02:21
argument there were two Brian there's the one you see over there at the defense table who's a fairly normal
01:02:28
person who has friends who had a job who was a dad who was a a husband and then there's the killer there's bad Brian and
01:02:37
Miller claimed his attorneys had no memory none of the two murders he was charged with keep in mind the
01:02:45
prosecutors disagreed they believe that that he he seemed to have memory of other traumatic events that he could
01:02:53
recall and say I didn't do that events in which people were stabbed but survived somehow he still remembered
01:03:01
that so I mean does the skeptical part of me uh still wonder about that of course it seemed um it seemed just too
01:03:12
convenient um Brian decided not to take the stand uh during the trial but he gave a statement let's just hear a
01:03:19
little what he had to say I'm not looking for sympathy today this time is for the family and the friends of the
01:03:27
victims I cannot imagine what pain they have endured for all these years I know I am different I thought it
01:03:35
had to do with what my mother did to me these kinds of cases the families involved uh This Man created um you know
01:03:44
torturous lies for so many people caused such profound harm yeah uh the horrors that
01:03:51
he did yeah to lose your child and to lose it under these circumstances where there was mutilation in things a family
01:03:59
never gets over that can't get past it another fascinating uh case another just in incredibly baffling character uh Paul
01:04:08
Peter thank you so much thank you and you're welcome thank you so be sure to join us next Tuesday
01:04:16
for another postmortem watch 48 hours Saturdays at 109 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount plus and be sure
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