‘Zombie Hunter’ trial reveals Miller’s voice for the first time in interrogation video

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — For the first time, we’re hearing the voice of the man known as the “Zombie Hunter.” Bryan Patrick Miller is on trial for the “Phoenix Canal Murders” of two women in the 1990s. In court Thursday, they played hours of his interrogation tape from 2015 after he was arrested for the crimes.

What stands out here is Miller’s flat-out denial of killing these girls during this interrogation, yet his defense team has already conceded that he committed these crimes; he was just insane at the time. The video is something the judge will likely take into major consideration when it comes to deciding a verdict.

“How can you explain to me that your DNA is there?” the officer asked in the recording. “I can’t. I can’t remember everything I did back then, but I know I didn’t kill anyone,” Miller replied.

Decades later, officials matched his DNA to DNA at both crime scenes, and evidence of sexual assault with both girls. “I’ve never killed anyone. You know, when I was a teenager, I stabbed that woman. That haunted me for years,” Miller said.

He’s referring to an incident when he stabbed a woman near the Paradise Valley mall years before Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas were killed. He told the officer in this video he blacked out when he did that. The officer asks about that possibility with Angela and Melanie. “Is it possible you could have blacked out and could have done something like that to somebody and not recalled?” the officer asked. “No, because I knew I had done something when that happened. And I used to remember her name,” Miller replied.

Miller refers to not knowing Angela or Melanie’s names. The officer said knowing their names doesn’t matter, but Miller leans further into that. “I think the hard part for me to believe is that my semen was with someone, well two people, that are dead,” he said. “That’s pretty strong evidence. That places you with these women. And you can’t explain that?” the officer asked. “I don’t even recall. I don’t know their names,” he said.

The officer says Miller’s ex-wife told them sex involving bondage would get out of hand and that Miller’s mom provided them with a “sexual diary” Miller wrote, both of which show a tendency toward violence, but Miller says it was all consensual. He does talk about his “Zombie Hunter” character that many saw around town. “I wore a gas mask and had a nerf gun, and I think I wore a trench coat. If you’ve been cyberstalking me, you’ve seen the costume,” said Miller.

The officer kept bringing the conversation back to his DNA at the crime scenes, though, and asked Miller if he understood what DNA was. “DNA can be in semen, blood, saliva, it makes up our – you know – it’s our ID, it tells our body what hair color we have, what eye color we have,” he said.

“I don’t know what happened,” Miller said later in the tape. “You have to know what happened because your semen was there. The only person that does know is you,” the officers said.

At one point Thursday, the defense attorney tried to call for a mistrial because some of the interrogation video that was supposed to be redacted was not. But since there is no jury and it’s only a judge who decides Miller’s fate, she said that was declined and this trial will continue. It is a death penalty case.

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