A convicted killer known as the ‘Zombie Hunter’ has opened up about life on death row and double down on his claims he was not involved in two brutal killings.
Bryan Patrick Miller, 42, was found guilty of murdering 22-year-old Angela Brosso and 17-year-old Melanie Bernas and was sentenced to death in June 2023.
Under Arizona law, the case will be automatically appealed.
The women disappeared 11 months apart while riding their bikes through Phoenix. Brosso was decapitated, with her head found in the canal where Bernas’s body was later discovered.
‘That’s the million-dollar question,’ Miller wrote in an email to a 48 Hours producer when asked to explain how his DNA ended up on the bodies of both women.
Bryan Patrick Miller, 42, was convicted over the 1992 murders of two young women nearly 30 years later
Angela Brosso, 22, and Melanie Bernas, 17, disappeared 11 months apart. Brosso’s head was later found in the canal where Bernas’s body was discovered
Miller, deemed the ‘Zombie Hunter killer,’ drove a tricked-out squad car around Phoenix, Arizona prior to his arrest
‘If I had a provable answer for that I wouldn’t be in this situation now, would I?’
He added: ‘It is a question that I would like answered and everyone is so convinced that I did so it will go unanswered.’
Miller is spending his sentence at a Special Management Unit at the Eyman Prison Complex in Florence, Arizona.
‘It is better than county jail, but it is obvious that isolation has taken its toll on many people here,’ he said.
‘From what I saw of people in county jail compared to here, the majority of the people here are by far not what I would consider the worst of the worst.’
He described the unit as ‘far safer than anywhere else in prison,’ even though those sentenced to death ‘have nothing really to lose anymore.’
However, Miller had plenty to complain about when it came to the conditions.
‘I am even more isolated from those I care about and also my legal team, the food is still not great and the cells are getting very cold now that temperatures are falling,’ he wrote.
The horror-obsessed murderer complained about the conditions in the prison where he is currently being held on death row
Miller (right) claims ‘the food is still not great and the cells are getting very cold now that temperatures are falling’
The convicted killer’s trial took place nearly 30 years after the first murder, and he has since expressed frustration with the justice system, asking: ‘How is a person supposed to defend themselves…for a crime that happened decades ago?’
The 42-year-old was arrested in 2015 in connection to the murders, at the time a divorced father with a teenage daughter
The 42-year-old also voiced frustration about his trial, which took place almost 30 years after the 1992 murders.
‘How is a person supposed to defend themselves and prove anything for a crime that happened decades ago?’ he wrote.
Miller’s defense lawyers claimed he suffered from dissociative amnesia and couldn’t remember his role in the killings.
They also said his mother, who died in 2010, had abused him as a child, leading to mental health problems – something that the judge in the trial agreed to after hearing evidence.
‘My mother was not a very good person in so many ways, but what helped was that when I was an adult, she acknowledged that she did horrible things to me and apologized,’ Miller wrote. However, he insisted: ‘I maintain I did not do the murders.’
Miller expressed that his biggest regret was not seeing his daughter, who was just a teenager at the time of his arrest.
‘What I miss most is spending time with my daughter and friends,’ he said.
He says his biggest regret is not being able to spend time with his daughter and friends
Investigators took six months to link the deaths of Brosso and Bernas to Miller through forensic evidence
They failed to make a breakthrough until his arrest in 2015. Pictured: police tape surrounding his home
Miller was revealed to have a sordid history with violent crime and stabbed a different woman in 2002 after offering her a ride. He was cleared of those charges when he claimed she had tried to rob him
Investigators took six months to link the deaths of Brosso and Bernas to Miller and failed to make a breakthrough until his arrest in January 2015.
The horror-obsessed killer had acquired a decommissioned police car in Washington and drove it around Phoenix, deeming himself ‘The Arizona Zombie Hunter.’
On a Facebook page dedicated to his hobby, Miller wrote: ‘Keeping Arizona safe from the things that go bump in the night. Also available for your event.’
It later emerged that the former Amazon delivery driver had a checkered past – including the 2002 stabbing of a different woman in Everett, Washington.
The woman, Melissa Ruiz-Ramirez, accepted a ride from Miller, who took her to his workplace and stabbed her in the back with a 12-inch serrated knife.
Charges were dropped after Miller argued that Ruiz-Ramirez had tried to rob him, claiming self-defense.