Unmasking the Zombie Hunter | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] when you think of the Phoenix Desert you definitely aren't thinking of a
[Music] waterfront the canal system goes right through the center of Phoenix the more people that were moving to the
area the more that the trails along there were being used for walking running biking there are not many crimes that
are like this one you had women riding bicycles along the canal on a typical Phoenix
evening ambushed stabbed multiple times police are looking for whoever killed 22-year-old Angela braso Angela braso
dismembered decapitated police are looking at this scene and thinking what on Earth
happened and who did this 10 months later a 17-year-old Junior at ARC hadia High School Melanie
bernus this is the high school that Steven Spielberg attended Melanie Bern's mother goes out
to dinner and Melanie decides to go on a bike ride and the following morning a woman
is riding her bike right here there was just a big puddle it looked different as
I rode through it and all of a sudden I'm like that is blood so she called the police the
police saw saw a blood trail and they see Melanie Bernice's body at the bottom of the
canal my time in my life froze at that very moment the day we found out I made a promise to
myself I just never stopped talking about her these murders became widely known as
the Phoenix Canal murders my name is Clark schwarzkoff and I was assigned to the C case unit
investigating the canal murders I think there was over 600 Persons of Interest I said okay give me the
list in this mound of information of all these people and all these possible suspects I believed our killer was
listed eventually detective schwarzkoff found his prime suspect on that list and
discovered that the alleged Canal killer had a second identity a man who dressed
up like a comic book superhero and Cruis The Valley in a decorated car dripping with fake blood the public knew this man
as the zombie hunter what was his life as the zombie hunter like what did he do he would go
to like parades and festivals and and show off this car and kind of be a part of the excitement if you
will your assignment was to find this guy and you have found him yeah he is accused of being a killer but here he is
posing with police officers before they discovered what he'd [Music] done it was almost like a slap in the
face like I'm here but you don't know it it was like he was hiding and playing sight
[Music] [Music] it's one of those cases that you just don't forget you can't unsee what happened to those girls you
just can't long before the Man known as the zombie hunter became the prime suspect in the canal murders Clark
Schwarz cof was a detective with the Phoenix Police Department's cold Cas Squad his mission was simple but pointed
find the killer responsible for those vicious murders of two young women from the early
1990s to this day I'm still not exactly sure about what happened on those bike paths the case began on November 8th
1992 Angela bro a tech worker who had recently moved to Pho was taking advantage of beautiful
weather to get in a little exercise says Brianna Whitney the True Crime reporter
for the CBS affiliate kph in Phoenix each night she would go out for her evening bike ride just at Golden
hour at Sunset the best time to be riding out here Angela was only hours away from turning 22 years old and like
a lot of locals she liked to bike on the the paths that ran alongside the city's
distinctive canals says schwarzkoff a 48 Hours consultant are there places that are
sort of natural Ambush sites if somebody wants to attack someone yeah they are there's a lot of tunnels that go
underneath the interstate that November evening in 1992 Angela left her apartment around 7 p.m.
her boyfriend Joe later told police he said he stayed home to bake Angela a birthday cake and didn't expect her to
be gone long hours go by and Joe grows concerned Angela hasn't come home and that's not
like her Joe told police he took his bike out three times that night frantically searching for Angela on the
canal paths he spoke to her friends even her mother back in pencilvania finally he reported Angela missing to
police the next morning morning Searchers Came Upon a horrific scene Angela bro's torso was found in a field
next to the trail that she had been riding her bike on Angela had been stabbed to
death some 10 days after Angela's headless body was discovered a man fishing along this section of the canal
spotted her head stuck on a grate and from what we have heard from Witnesses the head was in amazingly good
condition especially considering this was days after the murder I'm Morgan low and I'll take you Morgan low an
investigative reporter who also works at kph and is a consultant for 48 hours has
been working on the canal killer case for more than a decade we've heard that the head looked
like it had been preserved served like it was a momento for the killer Angela's purple mountain bike was also missing
there were no solid leads and the case went quiet until September of 1993 some 10 months after Angela's murder when the
mother of 17-year-old Melanie bernus returned from a dinner date to find her daughter had broken her curfew and was
not home she then noticed that Melanie's bicycle was missing Melanie decides to go on a bike ride by
around 10:30 when Melanie did not return her mother started calling her friends is Melanie there well my mom took the
phone call said that Melanie's mom was frantic and like nervous Rachel Shep maker was one of
Melanie's close friends in high school so initially when you hear that her mother's looking for her you're not
thinking something terrible has happened to your friend definitely not I thought
she was with a friend and just forgot to communicate with her mom where she was early the next morning Charlotte
pole a local resident happened to be riding along the canal with her young daughter in a bicycle seat just as they
came out of one of those tunnels that ran under the interstate she spotted a puddle there was just a big puddle of of
something ended up riding right through it and having it Splash over me Charlotte says something about the
puddle bothered her so a few minutes later she doubled back that's when she made that horrible
realization I could 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 notice that there are some drag marks that went along over here toward that tree towards that tree yes and then
went around the tree and was drugged back you could see the drag marks right here to the canal
Charlotte went home and called police later that night the local news reported that a woman's body had been found in
the Canal close to where Angela bro's head had been located they found the body in a teal
bodysuit I was told by um some other friends that Melanie did not own that it 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 my friends just come up to me crying and
saying it was [Music] Melanie detective strongly suspected Melanie had been targeted and stabbed in
the back by the same person who had killed Angela police believe that somehow the
killer got her off of her bike whether he knocked her off of her bike or whether he asked her a question Clark
says the evidence indicates the killer approached the women from behind both the KN BS were the exact same
position investigators say the killer dragged Melanie's body off the canal path removed her clothes and dressed her
in that teal bodysuit similar to this one obtained by police along with the stabbing and the
dismemberment there was another component to these murders wasn't there yeah both women were sexually
assaulted and that meant investigators had a crucial piece of evidence DNA when the DNA from melan scene was
finally tested later it matched to Angela scene so we knew for sure that we were dealing with the same perpetrator
investigators noted that the initial stab wounds to the backs of each woman were fatal and so precise that
detectives suspected the killer might be a surgeon the details about what happened were the kinds of things that
kept parents from letting their kids out when the sun went [Music] down the murders of Angela braso and Melanie
bernes in the early 1990s created fear in Phoenix that lasted for a generation you know there's some guy out there and
you don't know where he is they watched the news and read the newspaper every day hoping that police
would make an arrest and it just kept going on and nothing and nothing nothing and
nothing investigators had collected matching male DNA from both the victims but more than two decades passed
and the canal murder cases went cold then science finally caught up with the calendar it's in 2014 Phoenix police
detectives are at a DNA conference and a forensic genealogist from California is
also at the conference Carling Fitzpatrick founder of identif finders International was there to meet with law
enforcement and she goes up to these detectives and says hey I can take Y chromosomes and create these DNA
profiles and try to match with genealogy to help solve criminal cases Fitzpatrick's company had developed
software that could mine public genealogy databases searching for matches to Crime Scene DNA the
detectives heard her out and then several weeks later they sent me the y d profile from the crime scene for the
Phoenix Canal murders Fitzpatrick's company started crunching the data hoping to provide Phoenix detectives
with a name we entered the numbers from the forensic profile into our software and
that's where I came up with six matches to the name Miller while the genetic genealogy search produced the name
Miller it is also one of the most common last names detective schwarzkoff started
digging you check your files and 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 through the list got to Brian Patrick Miller but who was Brian Patrick Miller
records show he was 42 years old with a Phoenix address that name was just one of more than 600 Persons of Interest Who
had lived in those C case files for years police at the time seemingly never pursued
Miller we discovered his file downstairs police learned Brian Miller had a record dating Back to Before the
canal murders in May of 1989 when he was just 16 years old Miller crossed paths with Celeste
Bentley I was 24 and I was going to work I had just noticed a young boy on the us
Celeste says she and the boy got off at the same stop moments later she felt something in her back he had ran by me I
thought he had just hit me I just yelled at him I was like why'd you do that you
know and then I reached back and touched my back and realized that it was blood I
had been stabbed with a single knife wound to her upper back Celeste screamed and managed to make it to the store
where she worked a coworker called for help about 30 minutes later when Celeste was in the back of an ambulance the
police came and said they found him and they wanted to bring him to the ambulance to show him to me Celeste
identified her as salent Brian Miller was charged with aggravated assault they said that if he had held the blade the
other way he would have gone straight through my ribs and I could have died Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to juvenile detention until he turned 18 it was a far cry from where Miller's life had
[Music] begun he was living in Hawaii for a while as a kid with his mom and his dad
but his dad died early on in a motorcycle accident years later Miller and his mother Ellen moved to Phoenix so for
most of his life and early years it was Brian Miller and his mom while Miller was inun juvie his mother made a
disturbing Discovery Brian Miller's mom was looking through his stuff and she found a note that he wrote the pages
detailed a Sinister plan kidnap the girl tie her up in the truck and cut her clothes off this note spelled out how he
wanted to find abduct rape murder and dismember a young woman and Brian's mom was so disturbed by this piece of paper
that she took it to Phoenix police it was Miller's 18th birthday and he had just been released as an adult Chief
Fred out told police at the time that she was really scared for her safety and that she was not going to allow him to
come home so after his release Miller ended up at this Phoenix halfway house when schwarzkoff read that note in 2014
he was struck by something there was a lot of things in there that were close or similar to what
happened specifically to Angela including a description of decapitating a victim and preserving the
head Phoenix police wanted to locate Miller luckily he was very easy to [Music] find
[Music] in December 2014 Phoenix police continued digging into potential suspect
Brian Miller who they discovered was actually a local celebrity everybody at the time in the Phoenix area knew Brian
Patrick Miller as this character called the zombie hunter the zombie hunter like
a comic book character yeah like a comic book character like a good guy fighting
the bad guys Miller's Alter Ego was a costume figure who participated in parades and festivals around town
thousands of zombies taking over the streets of Downtown Phoenix he wore this long trench coat with these goggles and
helmet and had this large Gatling gun and if you're going to hunt zombies you need a way to get
around he bought an old police car and tricked it out wrote The Zombie Hunter on it and it had a full-size zombie
mannequin in the back and blood on the side friend Eric Braverman says Miller's zombie hunter Persona attracted a big
fan base including law enforcement officers who lined up to pose with him collected pictures of himself with the
cops like trophies they're all smiling big with him leaning on the car Eric says Miller's superhero
character was the opposite of what Brian was like when he wasn't in costume he seemed like a harmless marshmallow that
was immersed in this goofy lifestyle he's just that unassuming guy but could Miller be the canal
killer the only way to find out was to get his DNA investigators began to surveil Miller who worked at an Amazon
warehouse every day when he got there Miller parked the zombie Mobile in the same spot he would come out for his
15-minute break blast his music really loud lunchtime came out to the car same thing blast this God awful music Schwarz
cof came up with an elaborate plan to get his DNA I went up and introduced myself to Miller was in his car why did
you introduce yourself I introduce myself as a security consultant schwarzkoff told Miller that thieves had
been stealing goods from a warehouse across the way I said would you be interested in working for me as a
security officer watching the building while you're outside did his eyes light up yeah cuz it was a good paying job I
said look I I'll pay you 20 bucks an hour on January 2nd 2015 Schwarz coff met Miller at this Chile's restaurant to
fill out a job application the Cold Case unit was behind the scenes ready to bag
anything that had Miller's 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 the restaurant where nobody else is at Miller arrived with a surprised guest
his 15-year-old daughter Sarah Miller was a divorced single dad it was very gentle and caring in about his daughter
he often brought his daughter where he would be going the trio sat down and ordered hamburgers when the food arrived
he swallows his hamburger in like five bites won't take a drink of his water and I'm sitting there going you sure you
want something else to drinkz it's just got water no no I'm good I'm good I'm good Schwarz started to worry this
operation would be a bust what does he finally do that makes this mission accomplished we finally
took a drink from the water glass that's when I knew that okay now we've at least
got his DNA despite knowing about Miller's juvenile record as their meal ended the veteran detectives gut told
him Miller was not their man seeing him with his daughter I just don't see this guy as being the monster in 1992 and 93
that would do this to these women Miller gave Schwarz coff a quick tour of his Zombie Hunter mobile and the
two parted ways with a detective saying 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 lab and we're sitting there and like
what is this all about and in this meeting these Phoenix detectives say as a joke huh they must have solved the
canal murders but detective schwarzkoff says it was no joke when the head of the
lab arrived she leans down to me she goes it's him and I go what she goes Brian Miller it's
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
that water glass matched the DNA recovered from Angela braso and Melanie bernes more than 20 years
before Miller was arrested within hours during a police interview shortly after Miller was told why he'd been taken into
custody in connection with the canal murders we have DNA that links you to those two ladies I don't 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 talking about would help
you get it off your chest you did something like that I didn't kill anyone you didn't kill anybody no investigators
got a search warrant for Miller's house the home he shared with his teenage daughter and just about everything he'd
ever collected in his life I can remember like it was yesterday walking up to the front door and everybody going
you can't get in that way it's full of crap Brian Miller's house was like it came from the show hoarders there was a
little path where you could get to a bathroom in the kitchen and where the TV was and that's it everything else is
just stacked to the roof with garbage did you look around and go this is madness not only manad it's go this is a
nightmare Schwarz and his investigators would have to sift through all of it looking for other possible evidence
detective schwarzkoff also focused on a new source someone Miller himself had ominously singled out in his interview
it's the one person on face of the earth I could probably honestly say I hate Miller's ex-wife Amy who would end
up revealing gruesome details from Miller's violent past he had told her about the murder of a young girl who'
come to his door [Music] accidentally what do you think motivated Brian Miller to dress up as the zombie
hunter see more of the case on Facebook at 48 hours in January 2015 more than 21 years after
the canal murders Brian Miller was charged with first-degree murder in both Angela braso and Melanie Bernice's
deaths Melanie's friend Rachel Shep maker says she felt a wave of relief a very joyous moment of oh my gosh this is
what we've been waiting for for decades upon decades detective schwarzkoff wanted to
talk to the one person who probably knew Miller best his ex-wife Amy they had been married for eight years there was a
divorce Amy told schwarzkoff that she was just 19 when she met Miller in 1996 they married less than a year later
and moved to Everett Washington Amy had a shocking Revelation for the detective she told Schwarz cof
Miller had revealed a gruesome secret to her that he had killed a young girl in Phoenix years earlier before he'd ever
met Amy schwarzkoff Says Amy never reported 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 she wanted to be a good wife you support your man no matter what
detective schwarzkoff says Amy told him what Miller had said that a young girl had come to his
door that he had grabbed this young female pulled her in killed her immediately Amy said Miller told her he
dismembered the girl and disposed of her remains in trash left on the curb although Amy claimed Miller never
told her the child's name investigators used the information Amy provided to piece together who Miller May have been
talking about 13-year-old Brandy Meyers was a little girl collecting money for a
school book ofon in her North Phoenix neighborhood going door too I was a tomboy and she was a girly
girl Brandy's sister Christen Dennis so she 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 May 26th 1992 6 months prior to the M of Angela
braso Miller was living in the halfway house following his time in juvenile detention for the aggravated assault of
Celeste Bentley this is one block from our school his home and then three blocks is
our house so every single day we walked right by here Kristen says Brandy left home alone that evening never to return
she was last seing two doors down from Brian's walking in the direction of his house despite an extensive search
Brandy's body was never found schwarzkoff says even though Amy couldn't provide a name the clues in her
account add up to just one conclusion I believe that person is in fact Brandy Myers her sister believes that as well
Brandy went to the landfill like some thing of no importance even with Amy's account
investigators did not have enough evidence to charge Miller in bry's disappearance so the fact that she was
disposed of there's just nothing physical nothing forensically to grab on to 48 Hours contacted Miller who said he
had no involvement in bry's disappearance and never confessed to Amy that he had killed a young girl but
there is another case in Miller's past in 2002 a woman named Melissa Ruiz Ramirez is walking down the street in
Everett at night somebody pulls over it was Brian Miller Melissa would later 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
needed to make a call and he drove her to his workplace so she could used the phone she tells police she's on the
phone and from out of the clear blue Brian Miller comes running out with a 12in serrated kitchen knife and stabs
her in the back they fight over the weapon Melissa said she escaped and contacted police they picked up Miller
shortly after he didn't deny stabbing Melissa but claimed it was self-defense he said he was at work when
Melissa walked in off the street and asked to make a call he said she goes to use a phone and
then all of a sudden now the clear blue she tries to rob him with a knife Miller
was arrested and charged with first-degree assault with a deadly weapon he was jailed from May 2002 until
his December trial the jury just didn't buy Melissa's story it was a he said she said and they
acquitted him of the charge Amy Says a chilling change followed Miller's return home she said it began with the letters
she'd received from her jailed husband while he awaited trial they first started out as
professing his innocence and then it would turn into sexual deviant like here's what I'm going to do when I get
out to you Amy told Schwarz cof that Miller followed up his words with action she said he came back with an
unbelievable ugly dark sexual deviant side that she'd never seen before there were times where there was
sex between him where he held a knife to her throat Amy told schwarzkoff that Miller
claimed something happened to him as a child something that would become the Cornerstone of his defense for murdering
Angela braso and melany bernes his unique defense call her first witness his mother had created a
[Music] monster at the start of Brian Miller's trial for the murders of Angela braso
and Melanie bernes in October 2022 his attorneys opened with a startling defense they admitted their
client was the canal killer they had to concede right off the bat that he is the
actual killer but that he was not guilty by reason of insanity his defense attorneys say Miller was tortured by his
mother Ellen as a child and that led to his violent sexual behavior she died in 2010 if you imagine the making of a
monster this is kind of the household that Story begins in Miller told investigators after his arrest that the
beatings began when he was just 5 years old she was a detention officer discipline in their house
was mental as well as physical she used her security belt so it was like a law enforcement belt and usually I hit got
hit by the Buckle the defense opted for a bench trial which meant there would be
no jury his lawyers told judge Suzanne Cohen that Miller's mother also exposed her young son to violent sexual
content he was exposed to her interests in pornography and extremely violent films Miller's lawyer said his mother's
abuse caused Miller to develop severe mental health problems he feels like there are different team TS playing in
his head psychologist Bethany bran testified that Miller developed a condition known as dissociative Amnesia
an inability to remember some traumatic events Morgan low summed up the defense argument there 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 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 attorneys had no
memory none of the two murders he was charged with prosecutors undermine the defense claim that Miller has no memory
of the killings they point out that he does remember details related to other stabbings remember Miller admitted
stabbing Celeste Bentley when he was 16 years old and in 2002 he had ALS also testified about the stabbing of Melissa
Ruiz Ramirez in Washington to show Miller's devian side prosecutors called the only person in
the world Miller said he despised his ex-wife Amy the judge did not allow cameras to record her
face under questioning by prosecutor Elizabeth reamer Amy testified that later in their marriage Miller grew
incre recently violent during sex did you ever say anything to him about wanting it to stop because it was
scary no why not I was avoiding any confrontation with him at all at that point and
wanted to be as compliant as possible so that I would stay will he love me enough not to kill me
did he ask permission prior to using needles on you no did he ask permission prior to tying you up no what percentage
of your sex life after he got out of jail in Washington included bondage the king
or other uh things that were not the normal sex you'd been having early in your marriage probably at least
95% the trial continued and after 6 months and 36 Witnesses the judge delivered her verdict as to count one
first-degree murder Angela braso as follows guilty as to count to first-degree murder victim Melanie
bernes as follows guilty how did Brian Miller react to the guilty verdict he didn't react he didn't
give any real emotion but Angela's mother who addressed the court remotely was emotional the defendant broke my heart
took all hope and light from me and my family the hole in my heart is so big and
empty Melanie's older sister Jill also spoke remotely about how painful it was that Melanie's life ended violently at
the age of 17 for 30 years now we've had to live without Melanie because the defendant
murdered her words cannot even begin to describe the level of excruciating pain we experienced with the news of her
horrific death Miller who didn't take the stand during his trial was allowed to give a
statement before he was sentenced I'm not looking for sympathy today this time is for the family and the friends of the
victims I cannot imagine what pain they have endured for all these years I know I am different I thought I
had to do with what my mother did to me defense counsel RJ Parker urged judge Cohen to show Mercy before she delivered
her judgment on Miller's sentence life in prison or death you do not have to kill Brian in order to see Justice Done
judge Cohen agreed with the centerpiece of the defense case the defendant's abuse as a child was
proven but 8 months after the trial began Miller's abuse at the hands of his mother did not dissuade judge
from handing down the ultimate sentence there is no question that what the defendant did deserves the death
penalty Mr Miller anything you wish to say to the court I gu thanks listening to
everything that was said and giving us at least the opportunity to try and convince you
otherwise Justice was carried out in this case detective schwarzkoff hopes family and
friends of Angela and Melanie might finally find some [Music] peace people like Rachel Shep maker just
knowing that Justice was served it doesn't make anything easier how do you want your good friend
be remembered so she's the All-American kid I want her family to know that we haven't forgotten
her she's changed us all for the better she was a [Music] [Music] gift [Music] a knock at the door by a clown an evil
clown the evil clowns you see in the movies well it came to life who comes calling with balloons flowers and a gun
I heard bang I saw her fall this was an assassination who isn't afraid of a killer clown 48 hours Saturday on CDs
and screaming on Paramount [Music] Plus

How police connected the murders of two young women to a man known as a zombie-fighting comic book hero. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

The episode details the Phoenix Canal murders and the arrest of Brian Miller, the infamous "Zombie Hunter," for the killings of Angela Braso and Melanie Bernus.

Key points

The Phoenix Canal Murders. Two young women were brutally murdered in Phoenix, sparking fear in the community.
The Zombie Hunter. The prime suspect in the canal murders led a double life as a local celebrity.
DNA Breakthrough. In 2014, DNA technology finally linked Brian Miller to the canal murders after decades.
Arrest After 21 Years. Brian Miller was charged with first-degree murder over two decades after the killings.
Miller's Gruesome Secret Revealed. Miller's ex-wife Amy reveals he confessed to killing a young girl years earlier.
Miller's Defense: Childhood Abuse. Miller's defense claims his violent behavior stems from childhood abuse by his mother.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was almost like a slap in the face.

Detective describing the killer's brazen behavior.

3:50WatchOct 27, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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