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Phoenix Canal Killer /// Part 1 /// 775
00:47:02
Phoenix Canal Killer /// Part 1 /// 775 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com Dismemberment killings are rare. We hear of them as these types of stories, make the news and headlines that get clicks. This is partially because of the rare nature of these types of crimes. Even amongst those who kill, many simply do not posses the ability to carry out such a horrific act. In Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, those communities experienced three such murders in just a twelve month timeframe. After the first, the Tucson police Captain told the local news “I think the person who did it, will probably do it again.” Beer of the Week - Dos Equis Lager Especial Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps More True Crime Garage can be found on Patreon and Apple subscriptions with our show - Off The Record. Catch dozens of episodes of Off The Record plus a couple of Bonus episodes and our first 50 when you sign up today. True Crime Garage merchandise is available on our website’s store...
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Sam. Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me, as always, is a man who is helping you to learn how to survive. When law gets lawless. Here is the captain.
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Punch him right in the nuts. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
This week we are very happy to be featuring Dos Equis Lager Especial. Dos Equis Lager Especial is a golden pilsner style beer made from spring water and the choicest of hops with a balanced composition and a smooth clean finish. Garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five. And let's do some shout outs to some of our friends who are especial. First up, we have Mali Hawk in Polo, Illinois. And last but certainly not least, we have Catherine Buchanan up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to truecrimegarage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fund. And for that we thank you.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
All right everybody, gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer.
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Narrator (True Crime Story Introduction)
In the fall of 1992, the state of Arizona had a problem. 120 miles apart, two women were snatched, abducted, murdered and dismembered. While police say there is no evidence
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
telling them that there is a direct
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Narrator (True Crime Story Introduction)
connection in the two cases to the public, it didn't matter. Women were afraid and rightfully so. The first case was on October 24th when the severed arms of Diana Vacari were found in a dumpster near downtown Tucson. Fakari, a 19 year old college student, was last seen wearing a purple blouse, faded jeans and purple shoes. Just 16 days later on November 9, the decapitated and disemboweled body of Angela Brasso was found in a vacant field in northwest Phoenix. Brasso, a 22 year old trainer at a communications company, was riding her purple bike when she disappeared the night before her body was found. The bike was not recovered, but her head was 11 days later, one and a half miles away, found in a canal in Phoenix, Arizona. This is True Crime Garage.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Today we go out to the great state of Arizona. Unfortunately, as you heard in the trailer, we have some particularly gruesome and horrific crimes to discuss in this week's true crime story. The first is that of 19 year old Diana Vacari. She was at the Tucson Community center at about midnight on Thursday, October 22, 1992. Her car was found abandoned near the Laosa street the following Monday due to traffic, parked cars and statements from residents in the area. It was quickly determined by police that Vicari's car had been parked in that spot since early Friday morning. Okay, so she goes missing, last seen around midnight on that Thursday, October 22nd. Her vehicle is found on Monday morning. But they're able to kind of backtrack that and figure out that the vehicle had been there since early Friday morning. So shortly after she is last seen. Diana Vacari was missing at the time, so was her car. So police are out looking for both on Saturday in the meantime. So this is during the weekend in the meantime, on Saturday, October 24, two severed arms were found wrapped in plastic bags in a dumpster. This is near downtown Tucson and not terribly far from where she was last seen. It would take some time, but police would later confirm that the arms were that of the missing 19 year old college student, Diana Vacari. This location of where her vehicle was found would quickly become of interest to police, obviously because that same very night, the last night that she was seen, there was a rather large house party there in the area. We have a witness, Captain, that comes forward trying to help out police. This is an acquaintance of the victim. His name is Troy Olson. Troy tells police that on the night of October 22, the night that Vicari was last seen, he had actually spoke with her. Troy Olson worked as a bartender at the New Orleans nightclub and bar. This is located in Tucson. He said that Vicari was with some guy that he didn't know. Vicari mentioned a party that night to Troy and said that Troy should meet her there. So Vicari wrote down the address of this house party, gave it to her friend, and then she left the New Orleans Club. Troy Olsen said that he had not seen Diana Vicari since. So police find her car in the vicinity of that party. Her arms were found in a dumpster in Tucson. They were able to determine a couple of things based on the recovery of the arms. Evidence indicated the arms had been severed from the body after death. The medical examiner determined that two different instruments were used to sever the arms. And what the ME referred to as a heavy knife was used for the bones and a sharp serrated knife was used for cutting the flesh. So this is not part of an attack. This is a cleanup and conceal project by whoever killed her. The medical examiner was able to determine that the victim had in fact been killed and dismembered. But the rest of the remains have never been found. Then we go to approximately 120 miles away, but only 16 days later. This is only 16 days after the. The gruesome discovery of the arms in the dumpster in Tucson. This is when the body of Angelo Brasso, 22, age 22, was found in a vacant field near her home in northwest Phoenix. She had been stabbed in the back, decapitated and disemboweled. Authorities speculated that it appeared as if the killer had attempted to cut her in half. The body also showing evidence the killer likely tried to skin the victim. Eleven days after the body was recovered and found, her head, which had been severed cleanly below the chin, was found in a canal in the Phoenix area. And as said in the trailer, Angela's purple bike was not located. In fact, this case is from 1992. That bike has never been found to this very day.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Anytime law enforcement finds a victim with severed body parts and within a short time period, again, we have a distance here, but short time period. You would think that law enforcement is going to try to connect these cases on. On some level.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Yeah. Well, and with this. That's exactly right, Captain. And these cases, as said, are about 120 miles apart. That is a significant distance. The distance alone is suggestive that these murders are not connected. The dismemberment is different. It's very different. And the dismemberment might indicate and be suggestive that the cases are in fact connected because it's such a rare thing that somebody goes through these lengths to dispose of a body afterward. And we get the opportunity here to hear some of the thoughts and remarks about these two cases from some experts. So first we have captain Michael Ulinchney of the Tulsa police department in the early stages of the Vicari homicide investigation. The captain says, not our captain. The Tucson police department's captain says, quote, at this point, there doesn't appear to be a tremendous amount of similarities in the two cases. But he did say the police department is not discounting any possibilities. Now, when asked if he thought that it could be possibly that vicarious murderer is a serial killer, this answer doesn't make. Doesn't add any comfort to anyone's thoughts or fears at the time. His answer says, quote, I think the person who did it will probably do it again, end quote.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
There's a certain level of piece of shit that becomes a murderer. There's another level to that piece of shit. It's kind of like a spicy taco piece of shit that will dismember their victims.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Shout out to the Tucson citizen newspaper and the at the time, assistant city editor Gabrielle Fimbres, they were smart enough to send the newspapers write up of each of these cases to a garage hero. This is the late, great Robert Wrestler. So the other expert opinion we're going to have here is one of the original mindhunters. The news media was really honing in on the idea of a serial killer working in the state of Arizona. Okay, so we have to kind of remember everybody about the times here, right? This is 1992. And keep in mind that just the year prior, the country saw two big things, right? The, the release of the forever popular movie Silence of the Lambs in 1991, which had everybody talking in 92. You and I were little kids back then, but however, I'm sure you can remember everybody talking about that movie.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
And I remember I had a full beard back in 92.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
I remember trying to figure out how the heck could I watch that movie, right? Like, I'm like, I know I'm way too young to watch it. I know my parents would never allow me to watch something like that. And I remember trying to strategize on how I could figure out how to watch that movie. So not only was that movie talked about because of how gruesome, and it was like taking a slasher film, but making it very real life, making it incredibly realistic. And then on top of that, it wins the Oscar movie of the year, so. And several other Oscars as well. So it was an incredibly popular movie that's an understatement. But then on top of that, months later, you have the discovery and the arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Oh, Jeffrey.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
And keep in mind, this is 1992, when these two murders took place, when the Brasso and Vacari murders take place. This is the peak of power. Days of magazine sales. Newspaper sales were huge at the time, and local news ratings were extremely important. There was no streaming back then. So the things that were selling, the headlines that were selling papers and magazines and the images that were selling magazines and the stories that were getting people to tune into the local news, unfortunately, were serial killer stories because it was on the mind, the minds of the people of the nation. So you have the newspapers here, the local media from Tucson and from the Phoenix area trying to hone in on this idea of they're connected and that there. There's a serial killer at work here. So they reached out to big bad Bob Wrestler to get his expert opinion, and this is what he had to say. So while Tucson and the Phoenix police are saying early on that there is no evidence that the cases are connected, what the paper referred to as one nationally known expert on such crimes says he would take a strong look to see whether the two could be related. Ressler said he has studied dozens and even hundreds of dismemberment murders. While Ressler cautioned that he was speaking in general terms and was not very familiar with the Arizona cases, he said the proximity in time and location of the slayings would cause him to investigate whether they could be related. Wrestler said killers dismember their victims for different reasons. Some killers chop up their victims to make it more difficult for police to discover that a murder has been committed. Quote, it's easier to dispose of a body that has been dismembered by, end quote. He also said police have a harder time identifying bodies that have been dismembered. And there also are killers who simply, quote, get a thrill out of the dismemberment. Some killers leave dismembered bodies in locations where they are likely to be found to shock society. He said it's a feeling of power, control, and authority.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
My first thought when looking at this is not connected based on the locations two hours away. But you have this dismemberment, and that is not common. But the scarier question is, if they're not connected, do we have two serial killers happening at the same time in a pretty, pretty close proximity to each other?
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Well, I like what you're saying there, Captain. Like, that was my reaction based off of initial research on each one of these two cases. Right. Like you have to have that conversation. Right. The newspapers are right. The, the Tucson police captain is right by saying, hey, we don't have any evidence to suggest that they're connected. But we're not ruling out that possibility. We're not going to discount that possibility. Wrestler, he's being interviewed, he's in Virginia at the time, I believe and he's being interviewed from thousands, a thousand miles away saying that you have to consider it and in large part you do because of dismemberment is such a rare thing. And we'll get into some of that psychology here with wrestlers comments in a minute. But to what you're saying, I want to add to that because my feeling is these are not connected because of the type of dismemberment and I apologize for this being an extra gruesome and horrific episode. But we're reporting the facts of these crimes and there's no way getting around it. To me, when I look at the Vicari murder, her severed arms are found in, wrapped in plastic in a dumpster
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
like somebody's trying to hide evidence.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
That's like I said earlier, that's a clean up and conceal job. That's somebody who is. While they're not above dismembering a victim, they appear to be doing it for the purpose of hoping that the victim's never found. You go to the Brasso case, 16 days later, 120 miles away, she's found in a vacant field not far from, from a rather busy part of town.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah. So the, the first murder is like you're saying it's to cover up, to conceal evidence. And the arms are probably not the only part of the victim that was possibly spread throughout the, the rest of the city. But in the second victim it's like it's not to conceal because the body wasn't concealed.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Yeah. And you don't even have to take our word for it. I mean listen to what wrestler.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
We just don't take our word for it.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Some of what wrestler just said and he's somebody who's reviewed hundreds of these dismemberment cases. He's saying at one party says quote, it's easier to dispose of a body that has been dismembered. And he also says that police have a harder time identifying bodies that have been dismembered. So that seems to 100% apply to the Vicari murder. And then he ends that question by saying and there are some killers who simply get A thrill out of the dismemberment. That to me describes the Brasso murder.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah, to me, this is black Dalia.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Thank you. I'm glad you said that, because that's where my mind went immediate, like it was somebody attempting to recreate the black Dalia, but. But couldn't do it because they were. They had to do. It appears to me that everything that was done to that poor victim, Angela Braso, was done out in the open, was done in or around where she was found, because. And we'll get into her timeline a little bit later, but the. The thing with her case is she very likely was abducted, attacked, and murdered all within a very small area. And very likely all of this took place outside. With the Vicari case, we have no indication at all of where the dismemberment or any of that took place.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
So it goes back to what I was saying or the question I was posing it. If these aren't connected, then do we have two serial killers? Because to me, these don't seem like first time murders. This seems like escalation.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
I would think that it would be too hard to make that come to that conclusion in the investigation of either of these cases, but I would think that those are suspicions that you have to have looking at both of these. And yeah, I would say that anybody. Look, anybody capable of murder is capable of murder. Again, if you tell me that they did these things to the bodies after the fact. And we don't know how much of this trauma took place to Brasso before she was in fact dead, which is a whole nother scary and sad thing to think about. But yeah, there's no way that you can't think of serial killers or a serial offender with. With this type of behavior and these type of actions that have been taken. Now, Ressler goes on to say that dismemberment murders are usually stranger killings, killings in which the victim did not know the killer. He goes on to add, in studying the cases, it is crucial to know whether the murder scenes or scenes where the bodies were dumped are organized or not. He says a killer who leaves a disorganized crime scene or a scene that is left in disarray is more likely to be psychotic. But cases like the one in Phoenix where the victim's clothing was piled next to the body are more organized in his opinion. And he says if Vicari's arms were meant to be found, that could indicate that the killer. That the killing was also organized. He says it does not look like a psychotic person who is Flipping out and doing these things. That's interesting because he's saying that it's.
- [22:36]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
You would think that you'd have to be psychotic to dismember a body.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Absolutely. But I think it's. What kind of monster are we dealing with here? Like, are we dealing with. With one who can organize, plan and, and form a strategy and carry it out. Right. Even somebody in a total frenzy and who's totally off the rails could have a plan. The problem is they can't carry it out. And what I think he's saying here and suggesting here that from what he's been able to see, the information that was sent to him in his review is in the Vicari murder. Somebody very cold and callously calculatedly tried to conceal this body. So that shows some form of organization. And then with this other case, with the Brasso case, it appears the same thing, that the killer came prepared to the scene. Think of when we discuss all of those injuries and everything that we kind of. We went through very quickly on purpose. But when you think about that, all of that stuff takes, would take a good deal of time if the person that was attempting to perform those acts did not do it in a, in a sort of matter of fact, strategic way. This is taking place out in the open. This is. This person could be spotted, could be seen. And unfortunately that's not what happened. They weren't seen doing any of this.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
There was no eyewitness.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
And not only that, they were able to leave the scene themselves and not put themselves under any suspicion.
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Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah, this guy's a real butt licker wrestler.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Went on to say that it isn't unusual for serial killers to move from city to city. And in cases when body parts are missing, it is possible that they were disposed of as well and have not been found. He also said the killer or killers could have a morbid desire to keep a souvenir quote. People who do these things are losers. They've been through the system before and they are getting back at the system. They are throwing out a challenge. So they're a profound quote at the end of the interview from one of the best to have ever done it, Robert Ressler. Now, like with most things our audience understands it's a numbers game. You review the numbers and you play the percentages. Looking at some numbers here to find a dismemberment case in the city of Tucson. There had been none in over a decade prior to. To the Vicari case. There was a case in 78, 1978. They caught and convicted the guy who did it. The last case to go unsolved prior to Vicari's dismemberment murder was in 1975, and that was a male victim. And unfortunately that victim remains unidentified and obviously no conviction.
- [25:48]
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- [31:09]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
All right, we are back. Cheers mates. Tall cans in the air.
- [31:14]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Cheers to you Colonel Squatty cans in the air too. These two horrific homicides, are they related or not? Well the the the good news for these investigations here. Looking at this from far away many years later, there are a couple of obvious points that I want to make do so now. One, these are larger cities, right? Two different investigative agencies, both with a lot of resources. So that's that's going to be good for your investigations. Two, it's 1992 so you have 90s technology to help you with physical evidence collected at the scenes. Physical evidence from the victim's car in the Vicari case. You're hoping to find something there and a Better understanding of forensics in general. And the not so obvious good news is, in both cases, we have a suspect, a suspect for each case, both right from jump street. So while the media was busy hunting for a connection, law enforcement is working these cases as not connected and both working on a different suspect.
- [32:25]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Well, sadly, I think the media looks for those connections because it makes a better story.
- [32:31]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Let's not try to tear the media apart for doing so, because, you know, we've said this dozens of times. If you. If this is your first time listening to the garage warning. We've said this dozens of times. John Walsh taught all of us in the early 80s that the best thing that you could do for any of these victims is to keep the story alive and keep it in the media. And if. If making a connection and trying to create a story that there's a serial killer working in Arizona, if that gets people to put their eyeballs on a story and put their earballs on a story and read a story and watch it. Watch a news clip for. For the evening news, even better. As long as people are paying attention, that's good. So if that's. If that's what the media is providing here, then God bless them.
- [33:23]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
But I think the scarier story is that it's not one killer, that we have multiple serial killers.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Well, in the scarier thing that you're getting at, that we need to kind of underline here is if, in fact, these two are budding serial killers or active serial killers. That's the scary thing. They're both operating in large cities at the same time, and that needs to put everybody on high alert, especially females.
- [33:52]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Nobody safe. Hide your kids. Hide your wife. Hide your husbands, too.
- [33:57]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Lock your doors. For the Vicari murder. They are looking for the man that was with Diana Vicarious the night that she went missing. Right. That's obvious. Right. We have the. The friend. They have a description of this man, but no name for this man. The friend that saw the two of them together at the bar when she invited the friend to the party. We got to figure out who that dude is, Right? He's not come forward to say I was with her that night. This is where I dropped her off, or this is where I last saw her. The last reported sighting that we have of our victim is from her acquaintance, friend, bartender at that New Orleans nightclub. So we need to figure out who that dude is. Police were looking to figure out who that guy was.
- [34:43]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Well, and potentially if she went to the party with that victim, because we know her car was found by that party, then we'd have a lot of other eyewitnesses that might not have a name, but might have detailed descriptions of this individual.
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Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
With the reporting, the constant reporting that the last sighting of her was at that nightclub, that's indicative to me that she never made it to that party.
- [35:06]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
But why was her car found by the party?
- [35:09]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Because you have a cunning killer who decided to place her vehicle there. Or maybe that was the abduction site. Maybe he rode with her to the or followed her there and she never made it indoors. Very interesting that that's either your abduction site or he was smart enough to place her vehicle there, knowing because in his presence. In his presence, if the dude that she was with that night at the bar was the killer, in his presence, she handed the address to the bartender. And if he's going to go to the lengths to cut her up and drive around town and put her in different dumpsters, which is what I think happened here.
- [35:49]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah, absolutely.
- [35:50]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
We shouldn't gloss over the fact that it was probably pretty easy for him to know that address and to, to do something about it, to put, to put something there to. He's clearly trying to cover up and conceal the murder.
- [36:04]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah, I think that's a great point. He's trying to conceal the murder, but then he's also trying to create a separate narrative that maybe she did make it to that party, whether or not people remember seeing her. Now we have another location and now we have other individuals that we have to question. And if he's not at that party, then he then doesn't become a suspect.
- [36:26]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Yeah, and. And police are looking for a breadcrumb trail. Why not give them several false breadcrumbs to follow?
- [36:32]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah, he seems very organized.
- [36:34]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
For the Angelo Brasso case. They were looking at Angela's boyfriend. So let's go back to the night on the Brasso case and examine the timeline, shall we? 22 year old Angela Brasso worked in the tech industry at a communications center. She is a transplant. She grew up in Pennsylvania. I believe she spent some time in California and then at the time of the murder, she was building a career in Phoenix, Arizona. She lived with her boyfriend Angela regularly and some reports say almost every night would go out for a solo bike ride. It's Arizona, so she preferred to ride around sunset time when it's, you know, starting to cool off, but it's not yet dark out, so she can still see. But she would ride her bike in the same area because it's scenic, it's convenient and it's near her home. And this is what is referred to as the Arizona Canal or the Phoenix Canal. So the canal, which spills from empty fields from more than 20 miles east, it winds through old Scottsdale, Arizona and Arcadia and then past the Biltmore Resort. It meanders through working class sunny Slope, which is a nearby town, skirts North Mountain and then starts its final run northwest. So the canal itself is man made, from my understanding, and it looks very man made if anybody's seen pictures of this or seen it on tv, even on a map, the canal winds through this busy metro area and at times it goes under bridges, goes under traffic, and even, even the interstate, Interstate 17. So when she goes out riding and you'll see like this area is popular for people walking, walking their dogs and riding bikes. A lot of bike riders out there. But what's cool and kind of creepy about this area, especially if it were to be dark out, like the cool part is that the path goes, it's a concrete path on both sides of the canal. It makes it very convenient in an obvious location for people to want to, to walk or to ride their bikes. So one could, one could ride next to the canal, make their trip turn around, and now you're riding on the other side of the canal if you want back or just simply turn around. But the creepy part to me would be if it's dark out. We talked about the canal going under traffic. So at some parts, the bike rider, Brasso, Angela Brasso, would. There's like these little tunnels, right, that, that still stay alongside of the canal. But now you can't see the canal, you can't see the traffic, you can't see the sky. You, you're down in this tunnel so that you can go underneath a major road or thoroughfare.
- [39:34]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
And she's riding through these tunnels.
- [39:36]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
She's riding through these tunnels. But keep in mind they're just, they're intermittent, right? There's you, you're riding along the scenic area next to this canal and then you have to go into this tunnel briefly and then you're back out.
- [39:47]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
What I say to that? Not today, Satan, not today.
- [39:52]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
But let's not fault our victim here because there's hundreds of people that do this, right?
- [39:56]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
No, I'm not faulting her. I'm just saying I'm a, I'm kind of a puss. I'm not, I'm not going through those tunnel.
- [40:02]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Well, keep in mind that's why her friends and family are telling police she'd like to ride at sunset because it's not dark out yet. She can still see and. But it's also not 110 degrees with the sun beating down on you. This is part of her regular routine. And this is where somebody abducted her from.
- [40:24]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Well, and like you said, Wrestler was saying, it's most likely because of the dismemberment, a stranger on stranger crime. But in this case, it's. With the Brasso case, it's because of her bike ride. You would go, well, who knows about this routine? People close to her. So is it possible that the suspect is somebody that knows her and knows her routine?
- [40:53]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Oh, yeah. As an investigator, you're not just taking Wrestler's word for it and eliminating everybody that knows her.
- [41:01]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
He's doing a great job with that.
- [41:03]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Oh, well, we've seen some bad jobs conducted. I'm here to tell you, I don't think a bad job was conducted here in this case at all or in the Vicari case either. Now, so on the evening of November 8th, she goes out on a bike ride. Her bike ride, as usual. I believe this was a Sunday. So she does not come home. She's. We know that later she's found dead the next day. The bicycle is never been found. But in the meantime, the boyfriend who lives with her says that he's at home when she went out. He says he's at home baking a cake. The two were going to be celebrating, I believe it was her birthday that they were going to be celebrating that night. And some reports state that the couple had planned to watch television together that evening. But when Angela didn't return, her boyfriend, he got worried, got concerned. He grabbed his bike. According to his statements to police, he grabbed his bike and then he went out looking for her.
- [41:58]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Well, not just tv, they were going to watch hbo, which is premium content.
- [42:02]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
And he searched, in his, in his words, for an extended period of time, and in fact, he says several hours to no avail. And then he notified the police. Okay, so she's found the next day in that vacant field. And from my understanding, Captain, it wouldn't have been too hard to spot her there. So that's going to be a red flag for police when, when you're told by this guy, he, he knows where she rides, he hopped on his bike and, and went out looking for her for several hours. He never discovered her. Okay, so that's going to be concerning for you if you're an investigator, but we should focus in on the timeline. If she is in fact riding at sunset during twilight, and it's going to be Dark. Soon, one could surmise that by the time he's out looking for her, it is, in fact, dark. She's not found on the bike path or directly near the bike path. She's found in this vacant field. That he just simply was looking for her and, as said, did not find her. The other problem, though, becomes his alibi is that he was out looking for her for hours. You're not going to have anybody to corroborate that alibi.
- [43:13]
Movie Trailer Announcer
Right?
- [43:14]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Right. So he could have been doing the right thing and not guilty of anything at all. But the alibi isn't solid either. If you're an investigator. And then, then this comes into play,
- [43:27]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
it just, it seems too vicious of a crime for somebody that's into baked goods.
- [43:33]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
The police say that the boyfriend became a suspect after telling the detectives that the relationship was great. And then they talked to some of Angela's friends and they told a different story. Right now, I want to be clear here because of. We need to make sure we are accurate on the details. None of the friends were saying that this guy was terrible, that he was abusive or anything like that. Keep in mind, Angela Brasso was 22 years old. Anybody that's been in a relationship in their early 20s. Look, sometimes you're just with the per. You live together and you discover maybe this is not the guy or girl for me. Yeah, right. Like, maybe we don't have as much in common or maybe we don't have the same interest or maybe we don't have the same goals for our life or family life. And it takes to living together to learn and understand that.
- [44:31]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah, not all boyfriends are going to be Ryan Gosling.
- [44:33]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Well, and while he says the relationship is great, it may have been great. It may have been great for him. Maybe, maybe Angela was bored or maybe she just.
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Movie Trailer Voice 2
She.
- [44:43]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
She's 22. She's young, you know, so she. She had told some friends that she was considering ending the. The relationship at some point. So this makes police wonder, did the boyfriend, in fact, do something?
- [44:58]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
When you're hearing two sides of the story, the question then becomes, is he telling us a fib?
- [45:05]
Movie Trailer Announcer
Right.
- [45:06]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
That. That's where it goes to me. If he's. If he's telling a fib or. And that's what you have to get to the bottom of, I think, when you're doing this investigation. Is he telling us a story? Is he just telling us what he thinks we want to hear? Or is this what he actually believed, what was going down in the relationship?
- [45:26]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
And the other thing we should point out here, too. And this is from the Phoenix Police Department statements. They. They said that at no time was he not cooperative with the investigation, that he. He cooperated with police. He. And anytime that they asked to interview him, anytime they asked to search the apartment with it where they lived, he always. He always followed through and allowed them to do that. He always sat down and discussed anything with them. So not. Not major red flags, but you have. You. You have to form a suspect poll, and that's naturally where it's going to start.
- [46:03]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Well, and again, the guy could be cooperating with you, but if he's telling you the truth, his truth still might not line up or it might not give.
- [46:15]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Not my line up with what his.
- [46:17]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
His truth that he's telling you. For example, when he says when they go, well, where were you while I was out looking for her? So that could be the truth, but there is no way to back up that story. So as far as law enforcement goes, you go, alibi doesn't have one.
- [46:36]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Yeah, yeah, of course.
- [46:38]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
That's all I'm saying.
- [46:38]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
That's something we talked about. But the thing that you. I believe you're trying to get to earlier, and this was an item of concern for me, a major item of concern for me here.
- [46:50]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Yeah.
- [46:51]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Would be the victim's head. Okay. And I'm sorry, there's no nice way to talk about this stuff, but the victim's head was found, some reports state 10 days later after the body was recovered. Most say 11. So we're going to say 11 because it's like 90% of the reports say 11 days later the victim's head was found. And all reports say that the victim's head was found in the canal. Okay? We say it all the time. Water is the killer of evidence. Time is the killer of evidence. Do you want to know what everyone was saying when this item was recovered? That there is no way that this had been in the water for 11 days. No way that this is what everybody was saying. Now I'm just. I'm relaying it. So now I know that perverse and psychotic comes in all sorts of different kinds of packaging, but from a homicidal psychology perspective here, the boyfriend, the husband, when they are the killer. Rarely, rarely, rarely.
- [47:57]
Narrator (True Crime Story Introduction)
I can't.
- [47:58]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
I have a hard time of thinking of one case at all. Where they keep the victim's head. Where they keep the victim's head. That is what I think happened here with this. I think whoever did this kept the
- [48:11]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
head as a souvenir.
- [48:12]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
Yeah, that Is why it did not look like it had been in the water for all of that time. Because it wasn't. Someone kept it, but preserved it until things either got too hot or it no longer served its purpose, or they got too scared. So to further along that point, this is from the Arizona republic newspaper. Now, keep in mind, this case originated in 1992. That's a long time ago. So over the course of over three decades that this k. This case has been in the news. Reporters have come and gone. One great reporter who was on the case back in the day reported this about the head. This is from William Herman, a great reporter, and it states, 11 days later, a man named Mark Qualls spotted the rest of Brasso's remains in the canal near Metro Center. Qualls, 39 years old, was known to live outdoors and went by the nickname fisher King. Some suggested it had come from the Robin Williams movie shout out to Robin
- [49:23]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Williams, rest in peace.
- [49:25]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
But quals also successfully fished the canal. He was a fisherman of this canal. And this is very bizarre, this next part, and it's actually just going to keep getting more bizarre. His mother, this quals guy, his mother told him that she believed that he would find the slain woman's head, which, in fact, we know that he ended up finding him.
- [49:51]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
Oh, God.
- [49:52]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
She told the reporter William Herman, quote, it was just a strong feeling I had. Now, keep in mind, though, the fisher King, she. She's reading about this case in the newspaper, and the canal is right there. Her son is out there, from my understanding, day and night, fishing this canal. So if. If. If somebody. If you were to make, you know, this is sort of a great prognostication here, but also, again, playing the numbers. He's out there every day. If anyone were going to find it, he's got to be at the top of the list.
- [50:28]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
It sounds bizarre at first, but he's sitting there going, I'm fishing every day in this canal. If anybody's likely to find this item, it's going to be me.
- [50:40]
Nick (True Crime Garage Host)
So William Herman, one of the number one top reporters on the story at the time in 1992. Here is. This is his words from talking to police and from talking to the fisher King who found it. Quote, I was told her head was in too good of shape to have been in the canal all of that time. Herman said the killer either kept it in a refrigerator or an ice chest. Now we have a pretty good portrait of a 110% madman. He had two trophies, a head and a bike. And he put the head back. Another profound statement there now the case was drawing attention from other parts of the country as police searched for similar killings. And then the bad news just continues to get worse. In September of 1993, the discovery that seemed inevitable was made. Melanie Bernice's body was found in the water, and no one could ignore the coincidence. William Herman said one of the first questions he asked was whether Melanie Bernis was riding a bicycle before she was killed. His sources said she had a bike, a green SPC Hardrock Sport, and had been riding it along the canal. It was not found at the scene. A shiver went up my spine, herman said. Now we had two.
- [52:22]
Captain (Co-host or Guest on True Crime Garage)
So much more to get to in this case. For everything true crime, check out truecrimegarage.com and while you're there, sign up on our mailing list. Until tomorrow, be good, be kind, and don't litter.
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