Ex-wife of ‘Zombie Hunter’ testifies about his confession of another attack
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Bryan Patrick Miller is on trial for the Phoenix Canal Murders from the 1990s. His ex-wife, Amy, told the judge more about another stabbing attack he’s never been charged for. It’s a woman Arizona’s Family has talked to before. So why was he never charged in that case?
The defense team is saying Miller is not guilty by reason of insanity due to having dissociative amnesia. They claim he didn’t know what he was doing at the time was wrong when killing Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas.
So, if Amy is shedding light on other possible victims and circumstances surrounding other attacks, this is something the judge could heavily weigh when it comes to a verdict. “Are you aware of something that happened in Washington?” asked the prosecutor. “Yes,” said Amy.
Miller and his ex-wife Amy were living in Washington in the early 2000s before they moved back to Phoenix. While in Washington, he stabbed a girl but was acquitted of self-defense.
Amy told the court that just months after they moved back to the Valley, he confessed about another girl he said he stabbed on a walking trail near their Washington apartment. “He had driven his car, parked it at the end around the corner from the trail, walked down the trail, and hid in the bushes waiting for somebody to walk by. When she did, he came out and had attacked her with a knife,” Amy recalled.
When Miller was arrested for the Canal Murders in 2015, thanks to DNA and genealogy, Phoenix Police tracked his history in Washington. “Phoenix Police came up and said this is who I think it is,” said Victoria Mikelsen.
In September 2021, Arizona’s Family investigative team traveled to Washington to meet with Mikelsen. In October of 2000, she was just 14 years old, walking to her friend’s house before school, when she was attacked by a man hiding in brush along the walking trail. “He came up behind me and put his arm around both of my shoulders and got me in the neck,” Mikelsen said. “He stabbed me twice in the back and strangled me until I passed out.”
Phoenix Police told Victoria they believed Miller was her attacker. They discovered Miller and Mikelsen lived in the same apartment complex at the time of the attack. After showing Mikelsen pictures of Miller, she said she recognized his facial features immediately, though her attacker had long hair.
Amy told the courtroom this week her ex-husband cut all his hair off the day after the attack and remembered why he seemed to stop short of killing the girl. “He said he had actually stopped the attack when she said to him, ‘Please, I don’t want to die,’ or ‘please, don’t kill me,’” Amy testified.
Mikelsen barely survived. When asked if she was sure Miller was her attacker: “Not a single doubt. Not a single doubt,” said Mikelsen. “You cannot forget a face when it’s buried in your memory that much.”
We reached out to Mikelsen recently but never got a response. Why were charges never filed against Miller in Mikelsen’s case? She was attacked in 2000, and he wasn’t arrested for the Canal Murders until 2015. Because of the statute of limitations in Washington, Miller will never face charges in that attack, even if police believe it was him.
Amy also told police about another victim here in Phoenix. She hasn’t testified about it and likely won’t, but she told Phoenix Police about another attack and victim from the early 90s, which police believe was 13-year-old Brandy Myers. Amy told police Miller confessed to her about killing a little girl collecting money in the neighborhood, then chopped up her body and disposed of it.
Brandy lived in Miller’s neighborhood and disappeared in May 1992 while collecting money for her school book-a-thon. She was last seen two doors down from Miller’s house, and her body was never found.
Phoenix Police have recommended murder charges to the county attorney against Miller for Brandy’s murder, but they’ve declined to prosecute the case due to lack of evidence.
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