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Gruesome murder unsolved


Judi Villa
The Arizona Republic
May 19, 2002 12:00:00

It has been more than nine years, but the pain is still obvious in Linda Brosso's voice when she talks about her slain daughter.


Her friends, perhaps afraid of upsetting Brosso, don't talk much about Angie anymore.

But Brosso can still hear her only daughter saying, "I can't wait to see you at Christmas."

She sees Angie posing with her brother, as small children, underneath a now-grown apple tree.

She remembers Angie, home on a school break, playing with the puppy that is now 11 years old.

"I still hope I'll wake up tomorrow and find out it was all just a dream," Brosso said from her Pennsylvania home.

Angela Brosso was beheaded and disemboweled in November 1992 after she left her northwest Phoenix apartment for her nightly bike ride through Cave Creek Park. The slaying was one of the Valley's most gruesome killings. It has never been solved.

"It makes me mad that that person is out there eating a steak dinner right now or drinking a beer," Brosso said. "It's just not fair."

Angela's body was found on her 22nd birthday on a bike trail near Cactus Road and Interstate 17. Her abdomen and chest had been cut open. Her head was found 11 days later in the Arizona Canal, between Dunlap and Peoria avenues. Her Walkman and her purple 21-speed Diamondback bike have never been found.

Police figured the killer was about Angela's age and familiar with the area. They searched the country for similar slayings but found none.

Then, 10 months later, in September 1993, another bicyclist was murdered.

The body of Melanie Bernas, 17, was fished from the Arizona Canal, at almost the same spot where Brosso's head was found. Bernas was not mutilated, and there was a clue: A turquoise bodysuit with a black zipper was near Bernas' body. It wasn't hers. Bernas' green, SPC Hardrock Sport mountain bike also has never been found.

In March 1994, biological evidence on the bodies linked the two slayings. Phoenix police Sgt. Randy Force said the killer's DNA profile is entered in a nationwide database.

"We're hoping someplace, some day, that DNA profile is going to pop up again and we'll have our guy," Force said.

Brosso is doubtful. "It's been so long," she said.

Sgt. Carl Richardson said detectives still get two or three tips a month, but none has led to the killer. Brosso would like to see an arrest so the killer can't enjoy his life anymore. But it won't bring her closure. She'll never have that.

"I do my happy act every day. Everybody thinks I'm fine," Brosso said. "But life now is just not looking forward to much. Everything's bittersweet. I think about Angie and when we were there. I miss her smiling face."

Angie's old room, with kittens on the wallpaper, is the same as it has been since she was 4 years old. Guests still aren't allowed to sleep in it. Brosso finds family gatherings too painful and avoids them. When she got married last year, it was in a courthouse with no family present. Angie should have been the maid of honor.

"I used to see things like this on TV, and they'd be interviewing the family, and I used to think 'How can that family ever be the same again?'

"Now I know it can never be the same," Brosso said. "I just hope people don't forget her."


Tips: Call Phoenix police at (602) 262-6141 or Silent Witness at 1-800-343-8477.


www.azcentral.com/news/sp...ror19.html