Chilly case Detective Clark Schwartzkopf was working a double homicide case from the early Nineties and had organized to fulfill an individual of curiosity at a Chili’s restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. The concept was to get the potential suspect’s DNA so forensic investigators might 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 develop into often known as 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 realized that Miller was one thing of a neighborhood movie star. He preferred to attend in style zombie walks and different festivals in Phoenix dressed as a personality often known as the Zombie Hunter, and followers and law enforcement officials posed with him.
Ben Garcia
When he was in character, Miller wore a selfmade costume with goggles and a menacing masks and carried a pretend Gatling gun. He additionally drove and tricked out an previous Crown Victoria police automobile, splashed it with pretend blood and put the title 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 definitely caught Schwartkopf’s consideration, however the detective nonetheless did not consider 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 title 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 might be the killer.
Schwartzkopf informed “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant that he primarily needed to cross this Miller off his listing. “I used to be actually extra about simply getting his DNA,” Schwartzkopf mentioned, “clearing him and transferring on as a result of my dialog with him, he was the final particular person I ever thought can be liable for this. He was mild-mannered.”
Van Sant stories on the case in “Unmasking the Zombie Hunter.”
The detective’s doubts had been strengthened 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 a great rapport along with his daughter.”
Van Sant requested, “Was he bodily imposing? He appeared like a man who might overpower folks?”
Cedar Cliff H.S./Maricopa County Courtroom 
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 comfortable,” the detective mentioned. “Large enough to the place he might definitely overpower girls, however not somebody you would be actually afraid 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’d not be contaminated, Schwartzkopf informed “48 Hours.”
Miller ordered a burger and a glass of water. “He swallows his hamburger, in like, 5 bites, Schwartzkopf mentioned. “Will not take a drink of his water. And I am sitting there going, ‘Are you certain you…don’t desire…one thing else to drink? You simply obtained 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 obtained 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 obtained a go to from the pinnacle of the forensic lab. Schwartzkopf informed 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.’ … Nicely, the blood rushed from my head. … I sort of sat again and I went, ‘You have gotta be kidding.'”
Miller was arrested instantly and denied he had killed anybody. The case took virtually eight years to get to trial, however Miller was convicted of murdering Brosso and Bernas and acquired the dying penalty in June 2023.
Underneath Arizona legislation, Miller will obtain an computerized enchantment.
