Police are investigating two serial killers, the Zombie Hunter and the Babyseat Rapist, after they identified the remains of a young girl found in the Arizona desert in 1992.
Apache Junction police said they had used genetic genealogy to identify the remains of 15-year-old Melody Harrison, who was reported missing in June 1992.
Her body was found in August 1992, in the desert south of the US 60, but it took three decades to identify her.
Authorities are now investigating how she died, including the possibility that she was the victim of a serial killer.
There were two serial killers active in the area at the time of her death: the 'Zombie Hunter',BryanPatrick Miller, and the 'Babyseat Rapist' Scott Lehr.
Remains found in the desert in August 1992 have been identified as belonging to 15-year-old Melody Harrison from Phoenix, Arizona
Authorities are now investigating how she died, including the possibility that she was the victim of a serial killer Bryan Patrick Miller who drove a tricked-out squad car around Phoenix, Arizona prior to his arrest
Police investigator Stephanie Bourgeois told CBS: 'We will definitely follow up on all the leads we have, including these two.'
A police statement said: 'Melody’s decomposed remains were found in a remote desert area of Apache Junction on the northwest corner of Idaho and Baseline Roads on Aug. 6, 1992, sparking a thorough forensic investigation to determine her identity and cause of death.
'Although she has been identified, the investigation continues as to how she ended up in the far east portion of the Valley, more than 40 miles away from her residence.'
Melody's family hadfiled an initial missing person report through Phoenix Police in June 1992.
But as people came to the family and said they had seen Melody alive, they believed had started a new life and did not want to go home.
She was removed from the missing person’s database in August 1996.
The case was revived in 2008 after Apache Junction police investigator Stephanie Bourgeois took over, but DNA testing at that time was unsuccessful.
Then in 2018, Bourgeois hired the DNA Doe Project, a volunteer research group that specializes in forensic genealogy analysis.
Angela Brosso, 22, and Melanie Bernas, 17, disappeared 11 months apart. Brosso's head was later found in the canal where Bernas's body was discovered
It took their team five years to find the breakthrough in Harrison's case when a second test comparing DNA from the likely family members confirmed that "Apache Junction Jane Doe" was Harrison.
Bourgeois said in a statement: 'There is peace of mind having found Melody's identity and sharing with her family, but there isn't closure surrounding the circ*mstances of her death. We are still searching to find out how she might have passed away.'
One of the possibilities that the police are examining is that Harrison was murdered by a serial killer - there were two active serial killers in the area at the time.
The 'Zombie Hunter', BryanPatrick Miller, 42, was found guilty ofmurdering 22-year-old Angela Brosso and 17-year-old Melanie Bernas and was sentenced to death inJune 2023.
The womendisappeared 11 months apart while riding their bikes through Phoenix. Brosso was decapitated, with her head found in the canal where Bernas's body was later discovered.
'That's the million-dollar question,' Miller wrote in an email to a 48 Hours producer when asked to explain how his DNA ended up on the bodies of both women.
'If I had a provable answer for that I wouldn't be in this situation now, would I?'
He added: 'It is a question that I would like answered and everyone is so convinced that I did so it will go unanswered.'
Miller was convicted in June for the murder of two women and sentenced to death
The convicted killer's trial took place nearly 30 years after the first murder, and he has since expressed frustration with the justice system, asking:'How is a person supposed to defend themselves...for a crime that happened decades ago?'
Miller is spending his sentence at a Special Management Unit at the Eyman Prison Complex in Florence, Arizona.
Investigators took six months to link the deaths of Brosso and Bernas to Miller and failed to make a breakthrough until his arrest in January 2015.
The horror-obsessed killer had acquired a decommissioned police car in Washington and drove it around Phoenix, deeming himself 'The Arizona Zombie Hunter.'
On a Facebook page dedicated to his hobby, Miller wrote: 'Keeping Arizona safe from the things that go bump in the night. Also available for your event.'
It later emerged that the former Amazon delivery driver had a checkered past - including the 2002 stabbing of a different woman in Everett, Washington.
The woman, Melissa Ruiz-Ramirez, accepted a ride from Miller, who took her to his workplace and stabbed her in the back with a 12-inch serrated knife.
Charges were dropped after Miller argued that Ruiz-Ramirez had tried to rob him, claiming self-defense.
Scott Lehr was found guilty in 1997 for the murders of Margaret Christorf, killed in 1991, and Michelle Morales, killed in 1992 as well as multiple assaults and rapes
The other convicted serial killer who was active in the area at the time was Scott Lehr.
Lehr was convicted of murdering three women whose ages ranged from 19 to 40 years old in 1997.
He was also charged with several rapes and brutal attacks on women and girls one as young as 10-year-old between 1991 and 1992.
He offered women rides in his car and would then drive them to the desert to rape them, before murdering some of them.
He was known as the Babyseat Rapist because surviving victims said he had a baby seat in his vehicle.
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Christie Applegate
Update: 2024-06-18
