Phoenix police believe they have the man responsible for the Canal Murders that shocked and horrified the valley more than 20 years ago.
The suspect, Bryan Patrick Miller, 42, was arrested Tuesday night after some creative detective work to get a DNA sample.
Investigators are combing through a home they say Miller shared with his teenage daughter. The small house at the corner of 9th Street and Mountain View, police say, was once owned by "a grandmother." When the woman died, Miller and his daughter moved back to Phoenix to live in the home described by police as a hoarding site.
The Canal Murders shocked and horrified the community starting in the fall of 1992.
Angela Brosso was the first victim. Police say Brosso disappeared on the eve of her 22nd birthday. On Nov. 8, 1992, Brosso went for a bicycle ride along the canal near 25th Avenue and Cactus Road. A day later, investigators found her mutilated body. Other remains were later discovered in the canal a short distance away.
On Sept. 22, 1993, 17-year-old Melanie Bernas disappeared in the same area while also riding her bicycle. Police would find Bernas' mutilated body not far from the first crime scene.
Police told us that there was no DNA at the time of the killings, but in 1999 the Phoenix Police Department crime lab was able to identify suspect DNA from evidence taken at the original crime scenes. Their research also determined the same suspect was connected to both Canal Murders.
An FBI database revealed no matches and, while the trail went cold, Phoenix detectives pushed on.
In 2013 investigators said they were going to take the Canal Murders to a society of experts on the East Coast to see if they could offer guidance. We've been told that group's expertise helped cold-case investigators focus on Brian Miller.
Last week, undercover detectives obtained a DNA sample from the suspect and scientists say it matches DNA from both killings.
"When you've worked on a case this long, when you've gone back and forth through these kinds of cases," said Phoenix Police Department Sgt. Trent Crump, "to be able to at least make notifications to two mothers that we have made an arrest in a case that has changed their lives forever is part of why these guys do this. It is part of why they go back through these cases."
Police would not say how the undercover officer got the DNA from Miller but we may learn more in the coming days as investigators push forward with the first-degree murder case.
Detectives say they could be at the home searching for days in what they've described as a hording situation. There's a chance bicycles from the victims and other items taken from the women may have been held there in the more than 20 years since the killings.
Investigators also confirm that Miller left Phoenix shortly after the killings. They say his juvenile criminal record helped identify Miller as a suspect, but the now-42-year-old man had no known criminal history as an adult.
Police will investigate whether the Canal Murders suspect could be linked to other crimes now that they have a DNA profile.
