Canal killer trial offers justice, but no closure, for murdered women after 30 years

Angela Brosso was murdered the day before she would have turned 22.

It was less than a week after Bill Clinton was elected president. The first time. Seventeen-year-old Melanie Bernas was murdered 10 months later.

Their killer, Bryan Miller, was found guilty of murder on … Tuesday.

Thirty years.

The weight of those words, those years, is like a stone. Like an anchor.

I spoke with Angela’s mother, Linda, back in 1992, not too long after her daughter’s body was found. I spoke to her a number of times after that.

But you know how it is.

For those who grieve, 'every day is 9/11'

Those of us not personally impacted by a tragedy move on. Not just with our lives, but on to the next tragedy. And the next. And the next.

It’s different for those who lose someone.

For them, everything stops, even as the days and weeks and months and years move forward.

It’s that way for those who are impacted by history-making calamities and those whose personal tragedies come and go in a single news cycle, or who get no media coverage at all.

At start of trial: Man accused in Phoenix canal killings goes to court

On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks I heard from a woman whose son had been killed in a hit-and-run automobile accident on the same day that terrorists flew hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers.

“Once a year the rest of the world remembers what happened in New York,” she told me. “I’m glad that we recognize that anniversary. And I don’t feel like I’m any more special than anybody else. It’s just that, for me, every day is 9/11.”

Dealing with life's 'non-negotiable' moments

I’ve spoken to a lot of people like her.

In 1986 I met a woman named Dolores Heil, whose daughter Susan Dina, 25, was shot and killed while in the Valley to attend a wedding.

For years afterward I spoke to her on the anniversary of her daughter’s death.

“It’s this deep pain way inside you that you can’t get at,” Dolores told me, “and it just keeps throbbing and throbbing.”

In 1996 I went with Dan Levey to the schoolyard near 13th Avenue and Osborn Road where his brother, Howard, was murdered while waiting to play a weekly game of basketball with friends. We’ve spoken many times over the years.

He told me once, “I’ve heard it described as one of life’s non-negotiable moments. You would do anything to change it. To go back. To trade places. But you can’t.”

Justice, but don't 'ever say anything' about closure

It is the same for a father I met who lost his daughter to a drunken driver.

And for a couple who lost their child to a randomly fired weapon. And for three children – now adults – who lost their father to a jealous man with a gun.

It’s that way for the loved ones of Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas.

I’ve heard from friends and relatives of both since Miller was arrested. Cold case detectives with Phoenix Police linked him to the murders using DNA technology.

He’ll either spend the rest of his life in prison or get the death penalty.

Justice, finally.

Years ago, however, Linda Brosso told me, “I don’t want anyone to ever say anything to me about closure. Never. To normal people like us, this can never make sense. Something like this changes you. You become sad, you know? Just sad. And you know that for the rest of your life it’s going to be that way.”

In a job like mine you learn from people like Linda about life’s uncertainties. And about its certainties. Two of them, anyway.

Every day is someone’s 9/11. While for others, 9/11 is every day.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Canal killer trial offers justice for murdered women, but no closure