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"The Zombie Hunter" Brutally Kills Two Young Women Biking Along Phoenix Canal · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep Dive. Today, we're taking a stack
• 0:02
  of source material, really digging into one of the most
• 0:05
  I guess, brutal and baffling cold cases in recent American history.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're heading into, well, metaphorically speaking, the blistering heat
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  of Phoenix, Arizona.
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  Speaker 1: Right, But the focus isn't the desert itself. It's these
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  unlikely settings for murder. Oh, the cool concrete channels, the
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  city's huge network of urban irrigation canals.
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  Speaker 2: It's such an unlikely backdrop, isn't it for just pure horror.
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  I mean these canals, they're functional, utilitarian, moving water across
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  this desert sprawl.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, just moving water.
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  Speaker 2: But back in the early nineteen nineties they became something
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  else entirely. They turned into the hunting ground for a
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  well truly vicious serial predator.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about the Phoenix Canal murders, crimes that you
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  just lay unsolved for over twenty years, leaving this huge
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  wound on the community, a massive wound.
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  Speaker 2: And the man, the man eventually found at the center
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  of it all, is Brian Patrick Miller.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what makes this deep dive so compelling. I
• 1:01
  think it's the chilling duality of this guy. On the outside.
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  For decades, Miller seemed utterly unremarkable, totally.
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  Speaker 2: The high school dropout, described as mild mannered, a father,
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  bouncing between jobs, driving a city bus, that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 1: The sources we've looked at, they reveal something else entirely
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  brewing under that surface, a really profound need for what
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  attention exhibitionism.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, and it manifested, especially by the mid two thousands,
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  into this incredibly visible public persona. He became this local
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  celebrity in the Phoenix geek scene, known as the Zombie Hunter.
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  Speaker 1: The Zombie Hunter. It's just it's the core paradox we
• 1:41
  have to unpack for you. You've got the suburban dad, right,
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  and then you've got this Victorian era vigilante cause player, decked.
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  Speaker 2: Out props, brass goggles, fake blood.
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  Speaker 1: The works, hiding in plain sight, the spectacle, the sheer
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  absurdity of it all. It actually worked as camouflage. It
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  led him evade justice for two whole decades.
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  Speaker 2: It's the ultimate example of that, isn't it. Hiding right
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  there in front of everyone. Most people just saw them as,
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  you know, an odd ball, eccentric.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody suspected the darkness underneath the costume, not at all. Okay,
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  So let's really impact this. Our mission today for you
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  listening is to meticulously trace the journey here, the science,
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  the investigation, how they finally cracked this thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to look at the extreme violence of
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  the first crimes that signature brutality.
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  Speaker 1: And then analyze Miller's hidden history, the violence that went
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  way beyond these two murders.
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  Speaker 2: And definitely provide a detailed look at the tech involved,
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  that revolutionary technology, genetic genealogy that finally undeniably brought justice.
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  Speaker 1: Right. So to really get the crimes, you first have
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  to picture the setting. Phoenix Canals. Yeah, we're talking about
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  this huge network concrete channels basically.
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  Speaker 2: Designed to move water from the Colorado River. And they're
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  not small ditches, you know. They're wide, often pretty deep,
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  and they cut right through neighborhoods, commercial areas everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: But people use them right for recreation.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's crucial. They had paths alongside them, people jogged,
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  their cycled. It seemed like a quiet escape from the
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  city streets. Maybe a bit cooler too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: But those exact features, the darkness on the paths at night,
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  the underpasses where you lose sight. The easy access to
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  water for well.
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  Speaker 1: Disposal gave the killer everything he needed, cover, darkness, a
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  way to get rid of evidence.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe precisely, and the sources are clear on this. These
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  weren't random attacks, not spur of the moment. They were
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  calculated ambushes targeting vulnerable people.
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  Speaker 1: The terror really started November eighth, nineteen ninety two, with
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  Angela Brosso.
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  Speaker 2: Angela was just twenty one, so young, ambitious, a recent
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  college grad. She actually moved to Phoenix from Pennsylvania not
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  long before Chasing Dreams in graphic design.
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  Speaker 1: Friends described her as, you know, really outgoing, adventurous, just
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  full of life.
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  Speaker 2: And she was out riding her bike about eight pm
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  near her apartment in North Phoenix. That's when Miller attacked.
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  Speaker 1: The crime scene analysis it paints a picture of just
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  immediate brutal violence.
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  Speaker 2: It does. He overpowered her, dragged her into this vacant
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  field nearby off twenty eighth Street. The sources detail, well,
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  it's for frenzied sexual assault and then just horrific stabbings neck, chest,
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  back multiple times.
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  Speaker 1: But the detail that truly shopped everyone, the thing that
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  defined the sheer savagery here was the mutilation. Angela was decapitated.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that specific act for criminal profilers. It's incredibly significant.
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  Decapitation isn't just about rage, though there's rage there. It
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  speaks to this overwhelming need the killer has to what dehumanize,
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  to completely dehumanize the victim, Yes, to have absolute control
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  and to leave this terrifying, undeniable signature. It's a statement.
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  Speaker 1: Her body, her nude, headless body, was found the next day,
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  which was actually her twenty second birthday.
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  Speaker 2: Just heartbreaking, and her head wasn't found for over a week.
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  It was discovered floating in the canal on November nineteenth.
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  Speaker 1: So the initial.
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  Speaker 2: Investigation, it must have been huge, massive, But they were
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  working with the tools of the time. Remember the sources
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  mentioned clear defensive wounds on Angela. She fought back desperately, and.
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  Speaker 1: They collected semen evidence. They knew that was important.
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  Speaker 2: Even though, oh absolutely they knew it was critical. But
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  you asked about rudimentary DNA tech in ninety two, what
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  does that really mean?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? What could they actually do with it back then?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's a huge difference from today. Back then, they
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  were likely using techniques like RFLP restriction fragment length polymorphism RFLPER.
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  And the key thing about RFLP is it needed a
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  pretty large sample of biological material and it needed to
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  be in good condition, pristine.
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  Speaker 1: So degraded sample, small samples probably wouldn't.
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  Speaker 2: Work, often wouldn't know. It was labor intensive, incredibly slow
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  compared to now. They did manage to get a profile
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  from the semen evidence in Angela's case, which was crucial
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  for later but they couldn't do the kind of detailed
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  analysis on tiny samples we can today, So they had.
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  Speaker 1: A profile, but no one to match it to exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Detective Hunter, one of the original investigators, he described the
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  scene as just pure evil, a nightmare. They looked into
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  over eight hundred persons of interest, interviewed hundreds, but without
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  a DNA match in any database, the trail went cold.
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  Speaker 1: The city must have been terrified, holding its.
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  Speaker 2: Breath absolutely and then less than a year later, it
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  happened again.
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  Speaker 1: September twenty first, nineteen ninety three, Case two Melanie Burness.
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  Speaker 2: Melanie was even younger, only seventeen, a junior in high
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  school Cedar Cliff High. She was a cheerleader and aspiring artist,
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  just a kid really.
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  Speaker 1: And like Angela, She was riding her bike, a red
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  ten speed The reports say near twenty fourth Street, which
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  is really close to the first crime scene, right very close.
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  Speaker 2: Less than two miles away. She's coming back from a
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  church event, and she vanished just like Angela.
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  Speaker 1: Her body surfaced in the canal the next.
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  Speaker 2: Morning, confirming everyone's worst fears. The similarities were well horrifying,
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  but the brutality it seemed to have escalated. Melanie had
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  been stabbed over twenty times and her throat was severely.
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  Speaker 1: Slashed, and the signature did he try?
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  Speaker 2: He tried? The reports indicate he attempted to sever Melanie's head,
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  just like Angelis, but for some reason he abandoned the effort.
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  Maybe he was interrupted, maybe something else. We don't know.
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  Speaker 1: But there are other disturbing details, Yes, evidence of a
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  failed sexual assault.
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  Speaker 2: Her clothing was torn. In this specific chilling detail, her
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  wrists were bound with her own.
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  Speaker 1: Shoelaces, using her own things against her. That speaks to
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  control again, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: That absolute need for ultimate control over the victim. Yes,
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  finding with the victim's own possessions is a known signature
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  in some.
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  Speaker 1: Cases, but forensically this time, there was a breakthrough of sorts.
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  Speaker 2: A devastating one. Yes, the DNA semen found on Melanie's
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  body was tested and it matched the sample collected from
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  Angelo Brasso's murder scene, A definitive link, undeniable. It confirmed
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  they were hunting a serial predator. Detective Clark Schwarzkov noted
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  it immediately, the signature brutality, the mule or attempted mutilation,
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  the canal locations. It was the same person.
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  Speaker 1: For the community, the fear must have been immense. Two
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  young women attacked the same way, so close.
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  Speaker 2: Together, profound fear. But amidst that devastation, one person really
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  channeled it into action, Melanie's mother, Mary Brunas.
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  Speaker 1: The sources really highlight her role, don't they. She didn't
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  just grieve, She fought.
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  Speaker 2: She became this incredibly powerful visible advocate. She refused to
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  let Melanie become just another cold case file. She lobbied lawmakers,
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  pushed for funding for cold case units, demanded better investigative techniques.
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  Speaker 1: That determination, it must have kept the case alive in
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  a way absolutely critical.
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  Speaker 2: She was quoted years later saying her daughter deserved accountability.
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  Her refusal to let it go, along with Angela's family's pain,
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  It ensured that the evidence, especially that crucial DNA, was protected,
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  stored properly, waiting for the day technology could finally use it.
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  Speaker 1: So who was this guy, Brian Patrick Miller? When you
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  dig into his background pre Zombie Hunter, it's almost aggressively
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  normal or maybe mediocre.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a picture of working class Phoenix, Suburbs born
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  nineteen seventy two, dropped out of high school. He worked
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  these sporadic jobs, fast food things like that. Eventually drove
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  a city bus for a while.
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  Speaker 1: He got married, had a daughter, then got divorced in
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  the early two thousands. Nothing there, screams serial killer?
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  Speaker 2: Does it not on the surface. No, that the sources
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  reveal this deep volatility underneath, And Miller himself tried to
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  use that during his trial, right.
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  Speaker 1: The trauma defense, he blamed his mother, Barbara.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, he alleged severe abuse, beatings with extension cords. Belts
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  claimed this abuse led to dissociative episodes like violent blackouts
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  where he wasn't in control.
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  Speaker 1: His defense really hinged on. That, isn't it that famous
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  quote she broke me, suggesting the crimes weren't really.
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  Speaker 2: Him exactly, that they were these uncontrollable expressions of past trauma.
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  But this is where the legal and psychological experts really
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  pushed back hard.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the expert test stemonia offered a completely different picture.
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  Speaker 2: A stark counterpoint. Forensic psychologist doctor Joya Rougieriro testified that
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  Miller showed clear signs of antisocial personality disorder or APD.
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  Speaker 1: APD. That's not about blackouts, is it not?
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  Speaker 2: At all? APD is characterized by a persistent pattern of
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  disregard for other people's rights, manipulation, lack of empathy, often
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  a sense of grandiosity. Doctor Rugiro basically argued Miller was calculated.
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  Speaker 1: So thriving on control, not losing.
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  Speaker 2: It, precisely, thriving on control and violence. She essentially dismissed
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  the trauma narrative and the blackout claims as pure manipulation,
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  an attempt to dodge responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: The idea that these specific calculated ambushes, the locations, the
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  signature mutilation, that that could be the result of some
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  kind of uncontrolled associative state, It seems unlikely.
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  Speaker 2: Highly unlikely, And the court ultimately agreed the level of
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  planning and the consistent modus operandi just didn't fit that picture.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So if the abuse defense is questionable. What about
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  is actual hit history of violence, because the sources suggest
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  the Canal murders weren't isolated incidents at all.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely not. They were just two points, albeit horrific ones,
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  on a much longer, wider timeline of predatory behavior, Miller
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  seems to have been well honing his skills, perhaps across
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  state lines.
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  Speaker 1: Even moving between Washington State and Arizona.
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  Speaker 2: It appears so. Yeah, possibly linked to his job instability,
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  maybe just seeking new hunting grounds. But let's look at
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  this timeline of near misses and what some call the
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  forgotten victims, because it's crucial to understanding his pattern.
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  Speaker 1: This is where it gets really really disturbing.
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  Speaker 2: It really does. Back in nineteen eighty nine, Miller was
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  only seventeen, he was linked to stabbing another seventeen year
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  old girl. This was in Washington's stays were draft Yeah,
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  eventually dropped. He claimed self defense, but even that suggests
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  a history of violent encounters from a young age.
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  Speaker 1: Then nineteen ninety two, the same year he murdered Angelo Brosso, right, he.
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  Speaker 2: Attacked another young girl fourteen years old in stac Washington.
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  He slashed throat. Did she survive thankfully? Yes, she survived,
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  but because Miller wasn't identified at the time, the statute
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  limitations on that assault actually expired before investigators could connect
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  him decades later using the DNA from the Phoenix cases.
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  Speaker 1: So he got away with it purely because of.
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  Speaker 2: Time, purely because of time, And he didn't stop there
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  even after moving back to or spending more time in
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  the Phoenix area and committing the Canal murders.
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  Speaker 1: There was another untact lator.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, in two thousand, he was back up in Washington
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  State in Auburn, this time nearly killed another teenage girl,
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  again a stabbing, and again because of the time lapse
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  before he was identified, no charges were filed right away.
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  Speaker 1: This pattern crossing state lines, these violent attacks, it ran
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  parallel to his supposedly mundane life exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It suggests the Canal murders weren't some sudden psychotic break.
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  They were part of a long, escalating sequence of predatory violence.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's the really chilling testimony from his ex
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  wife suggesting the scope could be even wider.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that's the potential missing link, or rather another potential victim.
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  In twenty fifteen, during the investigation, Miller's ex wife, Amy,
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  gave some incredibly powerful and painful testimony.
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  Speaker 1: What did she reseal?
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  Speaker 2: She said that Miller had actually confessed to her, confessed
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  to killing a thirteen year old girl, a girl who
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  resembled Brandy Myers.
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  Speaker 1: Brandy Myers, she vanished from Phoenix in January nineteen ninety two,
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  right before angel Le Brosso was killed months before.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. Now, prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges specifically for
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  the Myers case against Miller, mostly because there was no
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  body recovered, no direct DNA link they could make.
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  Speaker 1: But the confession to his wife.
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  Speaker 2: It underscores this terrifying possibility that his predatory activity, maybe
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  even murders, started earlier in nineteen ninety two than investigators
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  initially realized. It just widens the scope of bovinchel harm.
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  Speaker 1: So, while all this this darkness and violence was happening
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  mostly hidden, Miller starts cultivating something incredibly public, his alter ego,
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  the zombie Hunter. Why did that really kick off?
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  Speaker 2: That started build up in the mid two thousands. It
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  seemed rooted in steampunk aesthetics and zombie lore. This was
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  right around the time Phoenix's geek culture comic conventions cosplay
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  was really taking.
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  Speaker 1: Off, and he didn't just dabble, did he He went.
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  Speaker 2: All in, all in. He created this whole identity, a
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  Victorian era vigilante character whose mission was fighting the undead.
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  It wasn't just a costume, it was a persona. He lived.
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  Speaker 1: The level of detail in the costume and especially the car,
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  it is astounding when you read about it.
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  Speaker 2: It was almost professional level costplay, really heavy leather trenh coat,
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  top hats, those brass goggles, elaborate fake weapons, axes, chainsaws, props.
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  Speaker 1: The car, the Crown Victoria.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, the car was the centerpiece, a massive old nineteen
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  eighties Ford Crown Victoria. He completely tricked it out, covered
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  it in fake blood, Splider's zombie theme decals, and the
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  most bizarre touch, he installed a mannequin in a cage
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  in the back seat, as if he'd captured a zombie.
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  Speaker 1: It's just the irony is staggering. He became a local
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  celebrity doing.
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  Speaker 2: This, absolutely attending big events like Phoenix Comic Con, zombie walks,
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  that kind of thing, and the sources mention this detail
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  that's just mind blowing. Police officers working security at these
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  events they'd routinely high five the zombie hunter pose for pictures.
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  Speaker 1: With him completely unaware they were interacting with the prime
• 15:18
  suspect in Arizona's most brutal cold.
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  Speaker 2: Case, totally oblivious. It was the ultimate psychological cover. Miller
• 15:25
  himself later apparently confided that the alter ego made me
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  feel seen, made him feel less invisible.
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  Speaker 1: Which fits the psychological profile, doesn't It.
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  Speaker 2: Perfectly fits the APD profile. Doctor Ruggieriro described that mix
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  of narcissism and exhibitionism. The violence gave him power and
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  controlled and secret. The costume gave him the attention and
• 15:44
  validation he craved.
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  Speaker 1: In public, he masked absolute cruelty behind this layer of
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  theatrical absurdity.
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  Speaker 2: Ran that very absurdity, that outlandishness. It protected him. People
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  just dismissed him. Ah, that's just the weird zombie hunter guy.
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  He wasn't seen as a real threat because the persona
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  was so over the top.
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  Speaker 1: So for more than two decades, these case files just
• 16:03
  sat there, described as massive, thousands of pages.
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  Speaker 2: Silent in the cold case unit, time ticking away. But crucially, thankfully,
• 16:13
  those initial investigators back in ninety two to ninety three
• 16:16
  had meticulously preserved the physical evidence, especially the DNA.
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  Speaker 1: And then things started moving again. Detective scrat Troy Hillman
• 16:24
  took over the investigation in twenty eleven.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and Hillman wasn't just rereading old reports. His team
• 16:30
  was specifically looking at how they could leverage the huge
• 16:33
  leaps in forensic science that happened since the early nineties,
• 16:37
  and that.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Led them to retest the DNA evidence in twenty fourteen.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly, this is the real turning point. They decided to
• 16:43
  apply the power of genetic genealogy. They partnered with a specialist,
• 16:48
  doctor Colleen Fitzpatrick from Identified Ers International.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, genetic genealogy, we hear about it solving cold cases
• 16:54
  all the time now, but can you break down what
• 16:56
  they actually did with that old DNA sample. How do
• 16:59
  you get from a decade old sample to a specific
• 17:01
  name like Brian Miller. It's not like he was in
• 17:03
  a criminal database.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Right, No, he wasn't in CODIS or any criminal database.
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  That's the brilliance of this technique. They focused on the
• 17:11
  Y chromosome markers present in the seamen samples.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: The Y chromosome passed down the paternal line.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, passed almost unchanged from father to son, and critically
• 17:22
  in many Western cultures, the surname has also passed down
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  that same paternal line, so the YDNA profile can strongly
• 17:29
  correlate with the specific surname.
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  Speaker 1: So they took this YDNA profile and uploaded it where.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: To public genealogy databases places like ged match, where people
• 17:39
  voluntarily upload their own DNA test results to find relatives
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  and build family trees. They weren't looking for Miller himself initially,
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  they were looking for distant relatives, second, third, fourth cousins,
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  maybe even further out, who shared enough of that specific
• 17:52
  y DNA profile.
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  Speaker 1: So they're essentially building a family tree backwards and outwards
• 17:57
  from these distant matches.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: That's exactly it. They used additional genealogy birth records, death certificates,
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  census data, combined with the DNA matches to reconstruct the
• 18:05
  Killer's family tree generation by generation until the different branches
• 18:09
  start to converge.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And in this case, the tree converged on the surname Miller.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: It led them directly to the Miller surname line. Then
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  the crucial step was cross referencing the potential male Millers
• 18:21
  generated by that tree with specific geographic information who lived
• 18:26
  in or near Phoenix around the time of the murders, and.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: That narrowed it down considerably.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: It narrowed it right down to just five men named
• 18:32
  Brian Miller in the relevant area, and Brian Patrick Miller,
• 18:35
  the formal bus driver, the zombie hunter, was right at
• 18:38
  the top of that very short list.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, so the DNA points strongly to a Brian Miller
• 18:42
  in Phoenix that they needed more and they found it,
• 18:45
  didn't They in the old files?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, just phenomenal. Police were connecting the old and the new.
• 18:50
  They entersed this crucial decades old police report from nineteen
• 18:54
  ninety three.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: What did it say?
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: It documented that Brian Patrick Miller there, Brian Miller had
• 18:58
  crashed his car into a canal bank right near where
• 19:01
  Melanie Burness was attacked. And his excuse at the time,
• 19:05
  he claimed he'd suffered a blackout while driving a.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Blackout, the same excuse he tried to use for the
• 19:10
  murders later, the.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Exact same narrative. Suddenly they had this perfect storm of data,
• 19:16
  cutting edge genetic genealogy pointing to the name Miller and
• 19:19
  old fashioned police records placing this specific Miller behaving erratically
• 19:24
  right next to one of the crime scenes around the
• 19:26
  time it.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Happened still, as you said, a genealogical match. Even with
• 19:29
  that report, it's strong circumstantial evidence, but probably not enough
• 19:34
  for an rest on its own right. They needed his
• 19:36
  direct DNA Undeniably, they.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Needed fresh discard DNA, something they could directly compare to
• 19:42
  the crime scene samples with modern high certainty testing, and
• 19:46
  this led detective Hillman to devise this incredibly audacious plan,
• 19:50
  an undercover sting operation.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Audacious is right. What was the strategy?
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: The sources detail the thinking here. Hillman knew Miller was
• 19:57
  obsessed with true crime and probably with his own Zone
• 20:00
  Bombie Hunter persona, So what would Millar crave attention from
• 20:03
  someone interested in that world?
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So Hillman posed as as a true.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Corin podcaster or someone researching a book or show interested
• 20:10
  in the Zombie Hunter character and the Phoenix scene. He
• 20:14
  reached out to Miller, playing on that ego. The entire
• 20:17
  goal was just to get close enough to covertly collect
• 20:19
  a DNA sample Miller discarded without raising any suspicion.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: The meeting itself, it sounds like something out of a movie.
• 20:27
  January second, twenty fifteen at a Chile's restaurant in Tempe.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Yep A busy public place. Miller arrived, apparently in full
• 20:34
  zombie hunter mode, the trench coat, the goggles, driving that
• 20:38
  ridiculous tricked out Crown Victoria and incredibly, he brought his
• 20:42
  young daughter with him to the meeting.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Wow, so Hillman or the undercover team is there talking
• 20:47
  to him? How did they describe him.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: As charming and mild during the conversation, totally playing up
• 20:53
  the zombie hunter character, likely loving the attention. The tention
• 20:56
  for the undercover officers must have been unbelievable. They just
• 20:58
  needed him to eat or drink some thing and leave
• 21:00
  the cup, the straw, the napkin.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Anything, and he ordered a margarita.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: He did, and as he was sitting here sipping his drink,
• 21:08
  chatting away, likely feeling important, undercover officers managed to covertly
• 21:13
  swab the rim of his margarita glass right there in
• 21:16
  the restaurant after he set it down or discarded it.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: That one swipe, that was the moment, That.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Was the ballgame. They rushed the swab back to the
• 21:23
  lab and the result a definitive smoking gun. The fresh
• 21:27
  DNA profile obtained from that margarita glass was compared to
• 21:30
  the profile developed from the decades old Seaman samples from
• 21:33
  both angel Le Brasso and Melanie Burness. It was a
• 21:36
  perfect match.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: The statistical odds they presented just staggering.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: One in nine hundred and ten non one million, that's
• 21:43
  nine hundred and ten, followed by thirty zeros. It's a
• 21:46
  number so large it's effectively saying this DNA could only
• 21:48
  belong to Brian Patrick Miller or an identical twin which
• 21:51
  he didn't have legally, scientifically irrefutable.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: So they confronted him days later, and his reaction.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Despite that science, he feigned shock, total disbelief, sticking to
• 22:04
  his midivotive pattern, apparently seeing something like I don't see
• 22:07
  how that's possible.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: It was possible, and they arrested him.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: Arrested him in his apartment, which was described as incredibly cluttered,
• 22:14
  just pile high with cosplay gear, garbage, a chaotic scene.
• 22:19
  He immediately invoked his right to remain silent, refused to confess.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: But the evidence was overwhelming by then.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Absolutely the DNA match was the lynchpin. But now they
• 22:28
  had the whole package, the DNA, the old police report
• 22:31
  placing him near the scene, his history and pattern of
• 22:33
  violence in Washington, even survivor sketches from those earlier attacks
• 22:37
  that bore a resemblance to his tall, lanky frame. It
• 22:40
  was finally enough, and that.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Long, long road finally led to court. Twenty twenty three,
• 22:46
  thirty years after the murders, Miller's trial at the Maricopa
• 22:49
  County Superior Court.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: It must have been intense, oh, completely a total media circus.
• 22:53
  As you'd expect. The narrative was all about unmasking the
• 22:56
  zombie hunter.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: The prosecution, led by Rachel Mitchell, what was the argument?
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: They kept a laser focus on the calculated, predatory nature
• 23:04
  of the crimes. They meticulously laid out the modus operandi,
• 23:08
  how he overpowered the victims, the sexual assaults, the extreme
• 23:11
  signature mutilation. Their argument was clear, this wasn't blackouts or trauma.
• 23:16
  This was a cold, calculating statist who didn't just kill,
• 23:21
  but deliberately desecrated as victims, systematically dismantling that trauma defense and.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: The defense they stuck with the trauma narrative they did.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: They hammered on the alleged abuse by his mother, claiming
• 23:32
  it caused uncontrollable blackouts. Miller himself even took the stand.
• 23:36
  He testified yes, apparently tearfully recounting the alleged abuse, insisting
• 23:40
  he had zero memory of the killings, arguing that the
• 23:42
  whole zombie hunter thing was just his way of escaping
• 23:45
  that trauma, an escape, not a cover.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: But the judge and the jury they didn't buy it.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: They didn't the evidence of calculation, the specific locations, the
• 23:53
  consistent signatures, the attempt to conceal the bodies, the binding.
• 23:56
  It just flew in the face of the idea of random,
• 23:59
  uncontrolled blackout. The control element was too strong. So on
• 24:02
  April eleventh, twenty twenty three, Judge Susan Cohen found him guilty,
• 24:06
  guilty on all accounts.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Two counts of first degree murder, plus the kidnapping and
• 24:10
  sexual assault charges for both Angela and Melanie. All of it,
• 24:14
  and after the verdict the victim impacts statements, bringing those
• 24:18
  decades of pain right into the courtroom.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Incredibly raw and powerful moments. Angela Brasso's sister Jennifer addressed
• 24:24
  Miller directly, just said you stole her light, simple, devastating.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And Melanie's mother, Mary Bernas, after fighting for thirty years, Mary.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Bernaz demanded the ultimate accountability. Her words were, restitution is
• 24:38
  his death just channeling decades of pain in.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: The fight for justice and the sentence.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: On June seventh, twenty twenty three, Judge Cohen delivered it.
• 24:46
  She called the acts horrific, emphasizing the cruelty and planning involved.
• 24:50
  She sentenced Brian Patrick Miller to death. She explicitly stated
• 24:54
  she saw premeditation, not uncontrollable trauma driving the violence.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: The impact of this case it really goes far beyond
• 25:01
  just Phoenix, doesn't it.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: It changed things, Oh, absolutely, The sources confirm it. This
• 25:06
  case fundamentally revolutionized cold case work, especially in the US.
• 25:11
  It became this benchmark example of how new technology could
• 25:14
  be applied retroactively to solve seemingly unsolvable.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Crimes, particularly genetic genealogy exactly.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: The Miller case directly fueled legislative changes and intense debate
• 25:26
  about law enforcement access to public genealogy databases. It was
• 25:30
  this flashpoint for balancing the privacy of millions who upload
• 25:33
  DNA for ancestry research against the absolute need to solve
• 25:37
  violent crimes.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: And the success here really pushed the needle towards allowing
• 25:40
  access under specific conditions.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: It did. It demonstrated just how crucial this tool can
• 25:45
  be when all traditional leads are exhausted, and it sent
• 25:48
  a message to law enforcement everywhere preserve biological evidence meticulously,
• 25:53
  because even if you can't solve it today, the technology
• 25:56
  of tomorrow might Every piece of evidence holds potential.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: But Miller himself, well, he's still playing games, isn't he?
• 26:01
  Even on death row seems.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: So, he's awaiting execution at Perryville Prison. But in interviews
• 26:07
  conducted as recently as twenty twenty four, he apparently still
• 26:10
  denies guilt, clings to that idea that the zombie was
• 26:13
  real but not me.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: And he's even hinted at other crimes.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah reportedly musing about possible links to some unrelated nineteen
• 26:20
  nineties decapitation case back in Pennsylvania, just trying to muddy
• 26:24
  the waters, maybe maintain some control over the narrative, even
• 26:27
  from behind bars. It's quite chilling, and amidst all this,
• 26:30
  that one tragic, unresolved shadow still lingers. Brandy Myers, the thirteen.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Year old who vanished in early ninety two.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Her loved ones are still fighting, still petitioning the courts
• 26:40
  for searches for exhumations, based almost entirely on Miller's confession
• 26:45
  to his ex wife. They just need answers closure, even
• 26:47
  after all these decades hashtag tag tag outro.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: So when we step back and look at everything we've
• 26:51
  unpacked today, what does this all mean? I think the
• 26:55
  case of Brian Patrick Miller, the Zombie Hunter, it's just
• 26:58
  this powerful, almost unbelievable demonstration of convergence, the versus of
• 27:02
  what exactly of two critical things. First that cutting edge
• 27:05
  science genetic genealogy, and second just relentless determined police work
• 27:10
  like Sushet Hellman and his team pulling off that incredibly
• 27:14
  risky undercover sting.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: You needed both the tech and the tenacity.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: And it proves, doesn't it that time, even thirty years,
• 27:21
  it doesn't have to diminish the pursuit of justice, not
• 27:23
  if that biological evidence is kept safe.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and if we connect this to the bigger picture,
• 27:28
  you know, the lesson for law enforcement, for society really
• 27:32
  is crystal clear. The value of preserving biological evidence. It
• 27:36
  just cannot be overstated.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: What was basically unusable data in nineteen ninety two.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Becomes the absolute key, the non million to one proof
• 27:44
  in twenty fifteen. It forces agencies to view every piece
• 27:47
  of evidence from every cold case as a potential future solution,
• 27:51
  Never give up on it.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: The costumed killer has been unmasked. Justice in this case
• 27:55
  was served, albeit late, but we're left with this final
• 27:58
  lingering and frankly pretty haunting thought for you to consider.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this really raises that important question when you look
• 28:04
  at Miller's confirmed history, these violent attacks across multiple states,
• 28:08
  charges drop statutes, expiring victims who survived but couldn't identify
• 28:13
  him for years.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: And then you add in his alleged confession about Brandy Myers.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: The question the detectives like Hillman still ask. It just
• 28:20
  hangs heavy in the air, and it's one for you
• 28:23
  to mull over. How many more? How many other victims
• 28:26
  might there have been whose cases remain unsolved or were
• 28:29
  never even linked to him?
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Miller's story. It's just a stark, chilling reminder, isn't it.
• 28:34
  Some horrors wark costumes, they hide in plain sight, and
• 28:37
  the fight for accountability for every single victim, especially those
• 28:40
  whose cases are still cold, that fight has to continue