How an undercover sting at a Phoenix Chili’s restaurant led to the seize of Bryan Patrick Miller, the canal killer

Chilly case Detective Clark Schwartzkopf was working a double homicide case from the early Nineties and had organized to satisfy an individual of curiosity at a Chili’s restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. The thought was to get the potential suspect’s DNA so forensic investigators may decide if it matched male DNA discovered on the our bodies of the 2 feminine victims, Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas.

These unsolved murders had turn into often called the canal murders as a result of each girls had been attacked whereas taking bike rides alongside town’s distinctive canal paths.

It was Jan. 2, 2015, and Schwartzkopf was assembly with a man named Bryan Patrick Miller. The detective had discovered that Miller was one thing of a neighborhood superstar. He favored to attend in style zombie walks and different festivals in Phoenix dressed as a personality often called the Zombie Hunter, and followers and law enforcement officials posed with him.

When he was in character, Miller wore a home made costume with goggles and a menacing masks and carried a pretend Gatling gun. He additionally drove and tricked out an outdated Crown Victoria police automobile, splashed it with pretend blood and put the identify Zombie Hunter on the again. He additionally typically put a ghoulish model within the again seat behind bars.

The day they met for dinner, Miller had pushed his distinctive automobile to Chili’s. That actually caught Schwartkopf’s consideration, however the detective nonetheless did not imagine Bryan Miller was the canal killer. One of many causes he was a possible suspect was as a result of a genetic genealogist had matched the identify Miller to the crime scene DNA.

However Schwartzkopf remained skeptical that this 42-year-old divorced dad elevating a teenage daughter alone and dealing at an Amazon warehouse could possibly be the killer.

Schwartzkopf instructed “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant that he basically needed to cross this Miller off his checklist. “I used to be actually extra about simply getting his DNA,” Schwartzkopf stated, “clearing him and shifting on as a result of my dialog with him, he was the final particular person I ever thought can be answerable for this. He was mild-mannered.”

Van Sant studies on the case in “Unmasking the Zombie Hunter.”

The detective’s doubts had been bolstered as he noticed the best way Bryan Miller handled his teenage daughter whom he had introduced alongside for the meal at Chili’s. “He had rapport along with his daughter.”

Van Sant requested, “Was he bodily imposing? He seemed like a man who may overpower individuals?” 

The canal killer had ambushed Brosso and Bernas whereas they had been every out on nighttime bicycle rides. Someway, the killer had stopped them, after which stabbed and sexually assaulted them. The killings had been significantly vicious and Brosso had been beheaded.

“He is an even bigger man, however he is extra smooth,” the detective stated. “Large enough to the place he may actually overpower girls, however not somebody you would be actually terrified of on the road.”

Schwartzkopf had organized to be seated in a quiet part of Chili’s. Undercover detectives watched employees take the silverware and plates out of the dishwasher after which detectives positioned them on the desk to make sure they might not be contaminated, Schwartzkopf instructed “48 Hours.”

Miller ordered a burger and a glass of water. “He swallows his hamburger, in like, 5 bites, Schwartzkopf stated. “Will not take a drink of his water. And I am sitting there going, ‘Are you positive you…don’t need…one thing else to drink? You simply bought water.’ ‘No, no, I am good, I am good, I am good.'” 

However then to Schwartkopf’s reduction, Miller lastly took a sip of water: “That is once I knew that, OK, now we have not less than bought his DNA.”

As quickly as Miller walked out, undercover detectives secured the glass Miller had used. Miller then gave Schwartzkopf a fast tour of his Zombie Hunter automobile earlier than he left.

Eleven days later, the detective bought a go to from the top of the forensic lab. Schwartzkopf instructed Van Sant what occurred. “She leans right down to me, she goes, ‘It is him.’ I am going ‘What?’ She goes, ‘Bryan Miller, it is him.’ … Properly, the blood rushed from my head. … I type of sat again and I went, ‘You have gotta be kidding.'”

Miller was arrested instantly and denied he had killed anybody. The case took nearly eight years to get to trial, however Miller was convicted of murdering Brosso and Bernas and obtained the dying penalty in June 2023.

Below Arizona regulation, Miller will obtain an automated attraction.