Who is ‘The Zombie Killer’ who was found guilty of two murders from the 1990s?

Trigger Warning: abuse of a corpse, sexual assault

The brutal killings of two young women in the vicinity of a well-traveled bike trail in Phoenix, Arizona left law enforcement and true crime sleuths puzzled for over two decades. A man known as “The Zombie Killer,” has been charged with their murders and sentenced to death.

Bloody trails led investigators to the crime scenes where Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas met their gruesome fates in the early ’90s. Brosso’s decapitated body was discovered, while Bernas had been sexually assaulted and dressed in a children’s leotard. Despite the horrific nature of their deaths, the cases remained unsolved and morphed into an eerie urban legend until advancements in DNA technology pointed law enforcement toward Bryan Miller.

Publicly known as “The Zombie Killer,” Miller embraced the macabre persona, often posing with officers in costume in front of a bloodied police vehicle. His audacious presence perplexed investigators, who were ultimately led to him by the very DNA evidence he had eluded for years.

Angela Brosso’s tragic demise unfolded on November 8, 1992, when her boyfriend reported her missing after a bike ride. Following a blood trail along the Arizona Canal bike trail, police discovered her headless body with signs of sexual assault. The crime scene suggested a brutal attack, with attempts to sever her body. Despite creating a suspect DNA profile, authorities couldn’t find a match.

Approximately ten days later, a tip led police to discover Brosso’s head in the canal, indicating a macabre method of preservation. The chilling scenario remained unresolved until ten months later when a similar crime occurred. Melanie Bernas, found floating in the canal, exhibited parallels to Brosso’s murder – stabbed in the back, dragged, sexually assaulted, and dressed in a child-size bodysuit.

Although DNA evidence was collected, it wasn’t until six years later, in 1999, that the murders were officially linked. Yet, suspects remained elusive until 2011 when a local news update prompted a reopening of the cold cases. Leveraging genealogy databases, forensic genealogists identified Bryan Miller as a potential suspect in late December 2014.

Miller’s disturbing history emerged, including an overlooked tip linking him to a child-size bodysuit. Earlier, in 1989, he had reported witnessing a stabbing, claiming it was a manifestation of a plan he detailed in a letter found by his mother. Despite the letter’s contents, Miller was released in 1990, only for his disturbing tendencies to resurface years later.

Married and living in Washington state, Miller faced another stabbing accusation, claiming self-defense. Acquitted, his DNA remained unregistered. Divorced in 2006, Miller returned to Phoenix, adopting a steampunk persona as “The Zombie Hunter.” The breakthrough came when investigators, posing as potential employers, obtained Miller’s DNA from a water glass.

During his 2022 murder trial, Miller’s ex-wife testified about their troubling sex life and violent roleplay involving knives. Despite his defense citing a troubled childhood, the jury found him guilty on April 11, 2023, of the murders, kidnappings, and sexual assaults of Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas. Miller received a death sentence, and is poised to appeal his conviction. As Phoenix police detective Stuart Somershoe aptly noted, “This is our version of Jack the Ripper.”