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Phoenix Woman Disappears on Eve of Her 22nd Birthday After Going for Bike Ride · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's dive into a case today that really it
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perfectly captures this slow, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately inevitable march
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of forensic science towards justice.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a compelling one.
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Speaker 1: We're taking you straight to Phoenix, Arizona. You know, you
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picture this city, sunshine, suburbs, routines.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, sprawling communities, people commuting, exercising, finding, you know, simple
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pleasure in that desert landscape.
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Speaker 1: But for a couple of devastating years back in the
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early nineteen nineties, that whole veneer of routine. It was
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just brutally stripped away.
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Speaker 2: And the terror didn't strike like in some dark alley.
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It hit along the city's huge network of canals.
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Speaker 1: Right, these paths built for irrigation, but used all the
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time by joggers, cyclists, people just looking for a bit
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of solace, maybe some self care. And the victims at
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the very heart of this deep dive are twenty one
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year old Angelo Brasso and seventeen year old Melanie Burness.
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Speaker 2: Two young women, both cycling the same stretch of canal.
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Speaker 1: Path, and bothvictims of a predator who just vanished, stayed
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invisible for decades until his well his ultimate public reappearance
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earned him this chilling, almost unbelievable name, the Zombie Hunter.
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Speaker 2: It sounds like something out of fiction, doesn't it.
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Speaker 1: It really does.
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Speaker 2: So our mission today really is to unpack this investigation
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it spanned three decades, and not just look at it
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as a tragedy, which of course it was, but as
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a crucial case study in how forensics evolved. Okay, we're
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going to examine how a case that was completely stalled
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by you know, nineteen nineties technology, basic DNA analysis, hardly
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any leads, how it was finally.
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Speaker 1: Cracked through what persistence?
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Speaker 2: Persistence, absolutely scientific persistence, these evolving databases, And this is
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key a really decisive moment of police and tuition years
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down the line. We need to get into the technical
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hurdles they face back then and how they eventually painstakingly
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overcame them.
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Speaker 1: And what jumps out at me right away just from
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the initial book is the painful irony of that setting
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the canal path. Yeah, it's meant to be this place
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of freedom and escape. Yeah, right, a ribbon of green
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through the dry city exactly, So when that familiar, intimate
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space becomes the backdrop for such horrific violence, It fundamentally
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changes how a whole community sees its daily life.
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Speaker 2: It has to.
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Speaker 1: And for you, the listener of the relevance here is
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seeing how preserving just one single piece of evidence, even
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when you don't have the tools to fully analyze it yet,
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how that can change everything thirty years later.
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Speaker 2: That foresight is incredible.
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Speaker 1: So let's start with Angelo Brosso. November nineteen ninety two.
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Speaker 2: Right, Angelo Brosso. She was twenty one, originally from upstate
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New York, not an Arizona native, moved out there looking
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for new opportunities, warmer.
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Speaker 1: Weather maybe, And how is she described?
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Speaker 2: Everyone who knew her said she was just exceptionally vibrant, intelligent,
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fiercely independent and had that kind of innate street smart quality.
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Self assured, ambitious ambition seems like the keyword there.
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Speaker 1: Her life was all about moving forward. The source is
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really stressed. At November ninth, ninetheen ninety two wasn't just
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any day. It was going to be your twenty second birthday. Yeah,
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And the very next morning she was set to lead
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this major customer training session. She was a software instructor.
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Speaker 2: A huge step for her career.
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Speaker 1: Her coworker, Jill Kelly, actually underlined this, calling it and
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this is a quote, the most important moment of her
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young professional life. Hmmm, she was right on the.
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Speaker 2: Verge that professional promise. It just makes the tragedy of
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that Sunday evening, November eighth, even sharper.
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Speaker 1: So what happened?
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Speaker 2: She went out for a bike ride along the canal path,
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just a routine thing for her, a way to decompress
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self care before this big week in her boyfriend, her boyfriend, Joe.
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He was at home baking her a birthday cake. Actually,
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just this normal domestic scene.
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Speaker 1: Oh wow. And then she doesn't come back.
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Speaker 2: Right by eight pm. She hadn't returned. Joe's concern, you know,
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it quickly turned into this raw vistral panic.
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Speaker 1: You went looking for her.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. He searched the path himself first, then finally called
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nine one one around midnight. Sources describe his voice as
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just cracking with feet, realizing something was terribly terribly wrong
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right on the eve of her birthday.
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Speaker 1: That's cut wrenching and the search.
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Speaker 2: The search culminated the next morning, November ninth, her actual birthday.
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Divers they pulled her body from the Arizona Canal. The
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scene told a story her bike was found nearby mangled.
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It clearly indicated an ambush, a struggle.
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Speaker 1: So walk us through those initial crime scene details. What
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did the emmy and the first investigators find that really
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set the stage for this decades long pursuit.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so the autopsy confirmed sexual assault and strangulation. But
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the really distinguishing factor, the immediate sign that this was
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a crime of frenzied maybe personal rage, what was it?
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It was the distinct human bite marks on her body?
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Speaker 1: Bite marks? Okay, how significant was that in ninety two?
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Speaker 2: Well back then, forensic odontology, that's the analysis of light marks.
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It was a highly respected field, complex, sure, but considered
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strong evidence. The fact the attacker left such speci zific
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intimate physical marks suggested a loss of control, a kind
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of personalized rage that went beyond just the act itself.
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Speaker 1: And disposing of the body in the canal, what does
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that suggest? Panic calculation?
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Speaker 2: Probably a bit of book the canal. It's an attempt
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to wash away or scatter evidence, right, water degrades, DNA
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moves bodies, but some thinking involved. It shows an attacker
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with some presence of mind. Yeah, enough to check and
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destroy evidence, but clearly not enough self control to avoid
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leaving those incredibly specific bite marks.
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Speaker 1: Which immediately brings us to the first big hurdle for
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the investigation.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, they had Joe the boyfriend, but he had an
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ironclad alibi. Couldn't have been him.
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Speaker 1: So they looked elsewhere.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they questioned transients, ex partners, other local known individuals.
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Every led just went cold. Nothing panned out.
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Speaker 1: And this is where the technology really limited them. Right,
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what was the state of DNA tech in nineteen ninety two.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was early days in ninety two. They were
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mostly relying on something called RFLP, a restriction fragment like
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polyme morphism. Okay, it required pretty large amounts of DNA
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and the sample had to be in good condition relatively pristine.
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Speaker 1: Which isn't always the case, especially after being in water.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, they were just starting to transition towards str short
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tandem repeat analysis, which needs much less sample material. But
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the databases CODAS wasn't really a thing yet, not nationally.
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Databases were tiny, localized if they existed at all.
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Speaker 1: So they had the evidence but couldn't really use it.
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Speaker 2: They had semen samples, they had other forensic evidence, but
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without an existing suspect's DNA already on file. To compare
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it to that sample was just well, it was just
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a set of data points filed away. They knew who
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they weren't looking for, maybe, but they had no idea
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who they were looking for.
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Speaker 1: So the communities just left reeling their safe space violated,
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the attacker gone, and the police, despite having physical evidence,
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are basically handcuffed by the technology of the time.
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Speaker 2: Precisely, the shockwaves through Phoenix were huge. This wasn't just
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another crime. It felt like an invasion of their shared
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public space. People held vigils. There was this sudden, sharp
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realization that evil wasn't somewhere else, It was right there
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on their doorstep, using the same paths.
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Speaker 1: And tragically this was only the beginning.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, less than a year later, the city's absolute worst
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fears came true. Ten months, that's that's a quick ten
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months after Angela's murder. September twenty sixth, nineteen ninety three,
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a seventeen year old high school junior, Melanie Burnass vanished.
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Speaker 1: Oh God, similar circumstances.
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Speaker 2: Eerily similar. She was described as athletic, bubbly. She left
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for an evening bike ride while her mother Marlene was
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out to dinner, same kind.
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Speaker 1: Of routine along the canal path again, the.
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Speaker 2: Very same path. The parallels were just horrifyingly immediate, same routines,
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same location, same victim profile, young active women and Melanie's mother, Marlene.
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Her anxiety must have been instant. The memory of Angela
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Brosso was still so fresh, so painful for everyone in Phoenix.
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Speaker 1: In the discovery the next morning, I gather it was
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tragically similar, but also worse.
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Speaker 2: It was there was a local mother, Charlotte Pottle, cycling
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with her daughter the next morning. They spotted it, a
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large pool of blood and clear drag marks leading right
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to the edge of the same Arizona canal.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's chilling.
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Speaker 2: Poddle later described this eerie feeling she had, calling nine
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one one, like she knew instinctively. She wasn't just reporting
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some disturbance. She was confirming the return of the canal killer.
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Speaker 1: But the brutality this time, you said, it escalated staggeringly.
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Speaker 2: So the sources are graphic, but it's important. Divers retrieved
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Melanie's body from the canal, but it was decapitated.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god.
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Speaker 2: Her head was found later miles downstream. It had been
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wrapped in trash bags. This wasn't just murder anymore. It
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was an extreme, profound display of violence and dehumanization.
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Speaker 1: That escalation. What does that tell you from a forensic
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or psychological standpoint.
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Speaker 2: It's crucial The killer returns to the same environment, which
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suggests a psychological tie, maybe a comfort zone or a
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compulsion related to that specific location. Yeah, the violence is
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significantly magnified.
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Speaker 1: So investigators immediately saw the.
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Speaker 2: Link, immediately undeniable. Young athletic women on bikes ambushed from
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behind the canal as the disposal site. It was a
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clear pattern, and.
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Speaker 1: The physical evidence did it match Angela's case?
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Speaker 2: It did, and this was definitive. Forensic analysts quickly confirmed
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Melanie had also been sexually assaulted and strangled and.
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Speaker 1: Critically the bite marks.
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Speaker 2: The bite marks found on her remains were a near
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perfect match to those found on Angela Brosso's body ten
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months earlier.
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Speaker 1: Wow, so that wasn't just a pattern anymore.
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Speaker 2: That was a signature, absolutely, a confirmed serial signature. That
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confirmation cemented who they were looking for in terms of
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behavior and method, Even if they didn't have a name.
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The physical evidence, those unique dental impressions now linked definitively
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to two separate victims. They knew they had a highly
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dangerous serial predator operating.
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Speaker 1: And the media public reaction it exploded.
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Speaker 2: The term Canal murders was coined. Fear just rippled through
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the city. Residents quoted in the sources genuinely recalled that
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the tragedy changed how we lived. Parents stopped letting kids
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go out alone, especially near the canals. Those recreational paths
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became symbols of fear.
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Speaker 1: Let's just pause here, though, and acknowledge the foresight of
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the investigators back in ninety three, even with the limitations
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of DNA tech, right.
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Speaker 2: They formed a dedicated task force, and they meticulously preserved
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the biological evidence, the semen samples found on both women.
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Speaker 1: Why was that so important?
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Speaker 2: They had this belief, this almost necessary optimism. You could
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say that future advancements in science would eventually give them
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the key. They were banking on technology catching.
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Speaker 1: Up, so they saved the crucial pieces.
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Speaker 2: They secured the physical DNA samples. They also had a
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composite sketch circulating based on some vague witness sightings near
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the canal around the time of the second murder, described
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as a white male maybe in his twenties.
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Speaker 1: But after Melanie's murder nothing.
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Speaker 2: He went completely silent, just vanished, melted back into the
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rapidly growing population of Phoenix. The case, despite having a
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confirmed serial killer and physical evidence, was forced into a
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long cold freeze.
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Speaker 1: And the decades just ticked by. It's hard to imagine
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the family's pain during that time.
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Speaker 2: Unimaginable. The Brasso family, for instance, they refused to let
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Angela just become a cold case file. They held annual
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birthday memorials for her. Every year. They'd go to the
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canal path and release pink ribbons apparently that was her
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favorite color.
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Speaker 1: Wow. A beautiful but just heartbreaking ritual, a symbol of
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their grief but also their persistence.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. And then as the years rolled into the two thousands,
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technology finally started to catch up. CODIS, the FBI's centralized database,
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the combined DNA index system became fully operational, much more robust.
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This was the moment everyone involved in the case had
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been hoping for.
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Speaker 1: So they retested the old samples.
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Speaker 2: Yes, those meticulously preserved samples from Angela and Melanie were
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retested using the newer, much more sensitive SDR technology, and
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this time they got partial profiles, profiles that could finally
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be searched against nationwide criminal databases.
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Speaker 1: Finally a real chance for a match.
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Speaker 2: But still nothing initially, Yes, still frustration. No matches were
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found right away.
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Speaker 1: Why not if codis was this big leap forward.
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Speaker 2: Well, Cotis is incredibly powerful, but it's only as good
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as the data put into it. It primarily contains DNA
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profiles from people already convicted of serious felonies or, in
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some states, arrested for specific offenses.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So if the canalcular had managed to avoid conviction for
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other serious crimes, or maybe committed offenses in places that
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didn't mandate DNA collection at the time of arrest, his
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profile wouldn't be in the system to match against.
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Speaker 1: So they had a partial profile. They used some key
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genetic markers, but without a match in the database, it
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was still just data floating out there.
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Speaker 2: Exactly data waiting for a match that hadn't been uploaded yet.
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Speaker 1: Which brings us to this really critical near miss in
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two thousand and six. It seems like a huge moment.
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Speaker 2: It was a DNA sample collected from a complete, separate,
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seemingly unrelated sexual assault case in Tempe, near Phoenix, Okay,
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that sample produced a profile that was close to the
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partial profiles from the Canal murders.
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Speaker 1: Close How close?
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Speaker 2: Close enough to identify a potential suspect, a twenty six
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year old man named Brian Patrick Miller.
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Speaker 1: Brian Patrick Miller, So they had a name finally linked,
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albeit partially. Why wasn't he charged then? Why was it
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not strong enough?
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Speaker 2: This is a really tough point in the investigation, and
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you have to understand the legal thresholds. The two thousand
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and six DNA connection was a partial match. It meant
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they shared some common genetic markers, but it didn't meet
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the strict number of matching low side usually thirteen or
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more back then required for a definitive prosecutable identification in
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court for those murders.
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Speaker 1: So close wasn't good enough legally.
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Speaker 2: Not for the Canal murders. No, Miller denied any involvement
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in the Tempe assault, and he denied any knowledge of
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the Canal murders. Since the partial profile didn't meet the
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legal standard for probable cause for the Canal cases, and
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maybe the Tempe case itself.
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Speaker 1: Had issues, he walked free.
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Speaker 2: He walked free. Investigators almost certainly knew he was a
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strong person of interest, probably the person of interest, but
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legally their hands were tied. They had nothing definitive enough
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to hold him on for the murders, they had to
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watch him go.
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Speaker 1: So for the next decade, almost the killer, or at
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least their prime suspect, was known to police, but legally
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untouchable because the evidence just wasn't quite there yet.
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Speaker 2: That's the agonizing reality of it.
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Speaker 1: So let's talk about Brian Patrick Miller during this time.
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Who was he okay?
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Speaker 2: Brian Patrick Miller born in Vermont back in nineteen sixty eight.
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Records show he led a pretty nomadic life, drifted around critically,
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He was working odd jobs right there in Phoenix during
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the early nineties.
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Speaker 1: Policing him exactly in the right place at the right
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time for both.
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Speaker 2: Murders, exactly geographically temporarily it fit, and his background wasn't clean.
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There is a juvenile record reports of aggression attacking a
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girl at a party, apparently volatile behavior but also sometimes
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described as charismatic.
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Speaker 1: The kind of person who could potentially hide a darker.
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Speaker 2: Side precisely fits the psychological profile as someone capable of
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maintaining a facade and.
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Speaker 1: This hidden nature later in life. It morphs into something
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truly bizarre, this public identity, the Zombie Hunter.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is where the case takes a turn into
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the truly strange and frankly chilling. By the mid twenty tens,
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Miller hadn't just faded away. He'd adopted this very public persona.
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Speaker 1: Would that evolve?
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Speaker 2: He would go to comic conventions, steampunk events, things like that,
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dressed in a specific costume trench coat, mask, goggles sometimes,
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and he carried this elaborate prop a fake.
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Speaker 1: Gatling gun as the Zombiehunter.
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Speaker 2: As the Zombie Hunter, this wasn't just a Halloween costume.
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It became a whole identity. He was locally recognizable. People
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took photos with him.
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Speaker 1: What does that level of audacity tell us a man
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who likely committed these horrific murders now actively seeking public attention,
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interacting with the very community he terrorized as a monster.
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Speaker 2: It suggests I think a profound level of arrogance, maybe disassociation.
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The Zombie Hunter persona. It's a fantastic, almost literal mass
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hiding him plain sight exactly. He's pretending to be this
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fictional kind of monster, drawing everyone's attention to a false
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form of violence. All while hiding the reality that he
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is potentially a very real, very vicious killer.
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Speaker 1: And the sources mentioned he even posed for photos with
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police officers at these events.
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Speaker 2: Yes, that detail is just stunning. Posing for pictures with
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cops who had no idea who he really was or
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what he was suspected of years earlier. He was literally
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mocking the investigation, hiding right there under their noses, protected
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by the fiction he'd wrapped himself in.
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Speaker 1: It's the ultimate psychological count, using spectacle to cover up
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this dark reality. Yeah, so what finally changed? He walked
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free in two thousand and six because the DNA wasn't
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quite enough. What happened between then and twenty sixteen when
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police finally zeroed back in.
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Speaker 2: This is where we see that crucial scientific pivot that's
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resolving so many cold cases today. While the police always
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had that two thousand and six partial match nagging at them,
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technology continued to advance. Specifically, techniques like advanced investigative genetic
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genealogy or familial searching were becoming viable in the twenty tens.
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Speaker 1: Explain that of it.
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Speaker 2: Okay, So these techniques allow law enforcement to upload an
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unknown DNA profile like the partial one from the canals
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to public genealogy databases sites where people upload their own
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DNA for ancestry research to find relatives. Exactly, to find
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distant relatives of the unknown subject. Even if they couldn't
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legally charge Miller based only on that two thousand and
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six partial sample, this newer technology might have been used
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behind the scenes to independently point back towards the Miller
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family line. It could give investigators a powerful new scientific
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reason to re examine him, the guy who almost matched
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years ago.
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Speaker 1: So the technology quietly does its work, narrowing the field
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back down to him, and then human intuition gets another
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chance to play its part.
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Speaker 2: That's exactly the dynamic we see unfold next.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so fast forward to twenty sixteen. Right enter cold
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case Detective Jim Schwartzkoff.
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Speaker 2: Right. Detective Schwartzkoff sources say he was obsessed with solving
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this case. It had haunted the department for years. He
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happened to attend one of these conventions or events where
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Miller was.
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Speaker 1: Present in his Zombie Hunter get up.
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Speaker 2: In the floor Gallia. Now, Schwartzkoff wasn't necessarily there on
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official police business related to Miller. Initially, but he saw him,
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and he later said that something about the man's demeanor,
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maybe a specific look in his eyes, a coldness under
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the costume, and just nagged at him, a gut feeling.
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Speaker 1: That police intuition we talked about.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, that gut feeling, probably now fueled by the background
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knowledge of the two thousand and six near miss and
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potentially newer genealogical leads pointing his way. It prompted Schwartzkoff
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to act decisively.
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Speaker 1: What did he do?
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Speaker 2: He went back Pold Miller's old records again confirmed his
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presence working those odd jobs in Phoenix back in the
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early nineties. Suddenly, all those circubstantial pieces, the geography, the timing,
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the partial DNA for O six, they weren't just nagging
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feelings anymore. They were screaming potential guilt.
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Speaker 1: But they still needed that final piece, the definitive, absolutely
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prosecutable DNA sampling, precisely.
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Speaker 2: And they needed it clean. They needed a sample collected
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in a way that was completely beyond reproach, especially knowing
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the defense would attack the chain of custody on evidence
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that was now decades old.
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Speaker 1: So how did they get it?
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Speaker 2: This required some careful planning meticulous police work. They couldn't
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just arrest him based on suspicion or the old partial match,
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So they requested a voluntary meeting with Miller, and they
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chose a very public place at Chili's restaurant.
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Speaker 1: Chili's okay, why there?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 1: And how did they ensure the sample was clean? This
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meeting sounds legendary.
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Speaker 2: It is pretty legendary in police circles. For its execution,
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it was basically a surveillance operation disguised as a casual chat.
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Undercover officers were already inside. They watched like hawks. As
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one report put it, they watched everything Miller touched, especially
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anything that might carry saliva, like what cutlery, a glass exactly.
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They needed an object he had discarded, something he'd put
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his mouth on, ideally a straw, maybe a mug, cutlery.
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They observed carefully noting what he used. They let him
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finish the meeting and leave the restaurant completely unaware.
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Speaker 1: And then they moved in.
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Speaker 2: Only then, as soon as he was gone, they swooped
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in and discreetly collected the specific items like a used
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mug or straw, that they had observed him using. This
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incredible attention to detail securing abandoned DNA was designed specifically
20:32
to preempt any defense claim later on about evidence planting
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or contamination.
20:36
Speaker 1: That is some serious careful work.
20:38
Speaker 2: Did it pay off chromatically? In twenty seventeen, the lab
20:41
results came back from the items collected at Chile's conclusive
20:45
Brian Patrick Miller's DNA was an absolute perfect match to
20:48
the Seaman samples recovered from both Angelo Brosso in nineteen
20:51
ninety two and Melanie Burness in nineteen ninety three.
20:54
Speaker 1: Wow, after all that time, that's the moment.
20:57
Speaker 2: That's the moment the case breaks wide open. But they
20:59
didn't stop. They knew they had another powerful piece of
21:02
evidence from way back when the bite marks the bite marks.
21:06
This is where forensic odontology meets modern computing power. They
21:10
utilized advanced overlay technology.
21:12
Speaker 1: How did that work?
21:13
Speaker 2: They took highly detailed molds and digital scans of Miller's teeth,
21:17
his unique dental pattern. Then, using specialized software, they digitally
21:22
overlaid these patterns onto the high resolution forensic photographs of
21:26
the bitemark injuries preserved on the victim's bodies from all
21:29
those years ago.
21:30
Speaker 1: And what did that advanced comparison show? Did it hold up.
21:32
Speaker 2: It provided irrefutable physical certainty. You know, bitemark evidence alone
21:37
can sometimes be debated in court arguments about skin elasticity, degradation,
21:41
over time, subjectivity, But here, when combined with the definitive.
21:45
Speaker 1: DNA match, it became undeniable.
21:47
Speaker 2: Undeniable. The advanced overlay technology confirmed with an extremely high
21:51
degree of probability that Brian Patrick Miller's specific teeth were
21:55
the sort the exclusive source of those vicious personal wounds
21:59
found on both young women.
22:00
Speaker 1: Detective Schwartzkoff's reaction.
22:02
Speaker 2: He described the discovery perfectly, saying it was like a
22:05
ghost coming back to life. The decades old evidence had
22:08
finally spoken and it had named its tormentor.
22:11
Speaker 1: So Miller was arrested. The zombie hunter was finally unmasked.
22:14
And the trial must have been huge.
22:16
Speaker 2: Oh, it was stretching from twenty twenty two into twenty
22:19
twenty three. It became a massive media circus. As you'd expect.
22:22
The prosecution's case was built on that powerful, meticulous forensic convergence,
22:27
the DNA match from Chile's, the confirmation from the bitemark overlays,
22:31
and the inescapable geographical and temporal links.
22:35
Speaker 1: What was the defense strategy, what could they even argue?
22:37
Speaker 2: Predictably? They tried to cast doubt. They attacked the age
22:40
of the evidence, questioned the preservation techniques from the nineties
22:44
suggested possible contamination over the years, argued coincidence, standard defense
22:48
tactics when facing strong forensic evidence.
22:50
Speaker 1: But the prosecution had something else, didn't they? Something beyond
22:53
the technical evidence.
22:54
Speaker 2: They had an absolute bombshell testimony that transcended the science.
22:57
Speaker 1: Who was it?
22:58
Speaker 2: It was Brian Patrick Miller's own own adult daughter.
23:01
Speaker 1: Wow, that must have been incredibly difficult. What did she reveal?
23:05
Speaker 2: She testified very emotionally about repressed memories that had surfaced,
23:09
memories of a drive she took with her father way
23:12
back around the year two.
23:13
Speaker 1: Thousand and During that drive.
23:15
Speaker 2: She recounted in excruciating graphic detail, how her father had
23:19
confessed to the murders. He described the attacks, how he
23:23
killed the women, details that only the actual killer could
23:26
possibly know.
23:27
Speaker 1: That's devastating for her and for the defense case.
23:31
Speaker 2: It was the final nail. It provided the emotional and
23:33
factual anchor that just sunk the defense. It proved the
23:36
DNA wasn't just pointing at him. He had privately admitted
23:40
his guilt years and years earlier.
23:42
Speaker 1: So the long, agonizing road to justice finally reached its end.
23:46
March twenty twenty.
23:47
Speaker 2: Three, Miller was convicted two counts of first degree murder,
23:51
two counts of kidnapping, two counts of sexual assault, Guilty on.
23:55
Speaker 1: All charges, and the sentencing followed in April.
23:57
Speaker 2: Yes, he received two consecutive life scent to with no
24:00
possibility of parole.
24:02
Speaker 1: Any statement from the judge.
24:03
Speaker 2: A remarkably strong one. The judge looked directly at Meller
24:06
and declared, quote, you are the embodiment of evil.
24:09
Speaker 1: Powerful words. And the families did they get to speak?
24:13
Speaker 2: They did. It was their moment, finally, after thirty years,
24:16
to address the man who had shattered their lives. Angel's
24:19
brother spoke about the profound, unfillable void her murder left,
24:23
emphasizing the vibrant, ambitious future Miller had stolen.
24:27
Speaker 1: And Melanie's mother, Marlene she woulit et it so long.
24:31
Speaker 2: Marlene Burness, who had lived with this nightmare for three decades,
24:34
described the conviction and sentencing as bringing partial solace, maybe
24:39
not complete closure, how could it be? But a measure
24:41
of justice finally delivered. The zombie Hunter who hid behind
24:45
that bizarre mask of fiction was finally locked away by
24:48
the undeniable reality of science and testimony. You know, if
24:52
we just step back and look at the entire sweep
24:54
of this case from ninety two right three to twenty
24:56
twenty three, it's such a powerful showcase. It really underscores
24:59
the abs legal and ethical necessity of preserving evidence even
25:03
when you don't immediately have the tools to unlock it.
25:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, that really stands out.
25:07
Speaker 2: This case is pretty much the definitive example of that
25:09
old saying justice delayed but not denied. You think about
25:12
those analysts back in the early nineties carefully bagging up
25:15
those microscopic.
25:16
Speaker 1: Samples, having no idea if they'd ever lead anywhere exactly.
25:20
Speaker 2: They didn't have the tech to read them effectively then,
25:23
but they were making this profound bet on the future
25:26
of science, a bet that paid off decades later.
25:29
Speaker 1: And I think this provides some really critical takeaways for
25:32
you the listener, especially if you're interested in how cold
25:35
cases actually get solved in this modern era. What stands
25:38
out for you, Well, first, you see that synergistic roll
25:41
of police intuition, Schwartzkof's gut feeling at that convention wasn't
25:45
just random, It was informed suspicion acting as a catalyst.
25:49
Speaker 2: Right, It pushed them to look again.
25:51
Speaker 1: Then there's the absolute necessity of forensic persistence, continuously retesting
25:56
old evidence with new methods as tr analysis, maybe familial
26:00
DNA searching playing a background role, keeping the case alive.
26:03
Speaker 2: Technologically, that persistence is key. Cold cases don't solve themselves.
26:07
Speaker 1: And finally, the sheer power of convergence. It wasn't just
26:11
the DNA. It was the DNA plus the advanced forensicodontology
26:15
confirming the bite marks, plus the geographical timing, plus the
26:19
daughter's confession testimony, all pointing in exactly the same direction.
26:22
Speaker 2: When all those different types of evidence align perfectly, it
26:25
creates an almost insurmountable case. And the legacy of this,
26:29
particularly in Phoenix, it's tangible. The community was deeply scarred
26:35
by these murders.
26:36
Speaker 1: Have things changed there on the canals?
26:38
Speaker 2: Yes, Safety measures have definitely been enhanced along those canal paths.
26:42
You see more lighting now, more security cameras, regular police patrols.
26:46
There's a conscious effort to reclaim that space and the families,
26:49
Families like the Brasos, they continue to advocate fiercely for
26:53
cold case funding, trying to ensure that other families don't
26:56
have to wait thirty years, that the resources are always
26:59
there to chase down even the faintest signal in a database.
27:02
Speaker 1: It feels like a transition, maybe from fear back towards tribute.
27:06
Angel le Braso she would have celebrated her fifty third
27:10
birthday recently. Yeah, and she's remembered now for her spark,
27:14
her energy, not just as a victim. Her friends apparently
27:18
still bike those canal paths in her.
27:20
Speaker 2: Honor, turning that space back into one of freedom, reclaiming
27:23
it right.
27:24
Speaker 1: One friend was quoted saying she wants to keep writing,
27:27
making sure the fear doesn't win.
27:28
Speaker 2: Ultimately, which is a powerful statement. But the whole story
27:32
also serves as this really chilling reminder about the masks
27:36
that dangerous criminals can wear.
27:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Miller wasn't hiding in a cave somewhere, not at all.
27:41
Speaker 2: He successfully integrated back into society for years, held jobs, socialized,
27:46
went to public events, and most audaciously presented himself as
27:51
this fictional monster, the Zombie Hunter, almost as a way
27:54
to deflect from his real.
27:55
Speaker 1: Monstrosity, interacting normally even posing with police officers while carrying
28:01
this horrific secret.
28:02
Speaker 2: For years and years.
28:03
Speaker 1: It really highlights this terrifying concept, doesn't it that some
28:06
of the most dangerous individuals aren't necessarily lurking in the shadows.
28:09
They hide in plain sight. They leverage normalcy, routine, even
28:13
spectacle as their greatest tools of evasion.
28:15
Speaker 2: Until something extraordinary happens.
28:17
Speaker 1: It took decades of scientific progress, grinding away patiently, combined
28:21
with that crucial moment of detective intuition, that gut feeling,
28:25
and let's not forget a remarkably well executed surveillance operation
28:30
at a Chile's restaurant.
28:31
Speaker 2: All converging to finally expose the shadow that had haunted
28:34
the canals of Phoenix for so long.
28:36
Speaker 1: So maybe the final thought for you, the listener, is
28:38
to consider that chilling reality, how many other zombie hunters,
28:43
metaphorical or otherwise, might be hiding in plain sight in
28:46
our own communities, just waiting, perhaps for the next relentless
28:49
detective or the next scientific breakthrough to finally bring their
28:53
hidden truths to light.