Ex-Georgia cop is charged with kidnapping and killing girl, 16, and dumping her naked body in woods
A suburban Atlanta police officer has been charged with the kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old girl abducted last July, and hiding the victim’s naked body for months. In a forest.
Miles Bryant, a 22-year-old former cop with the Doraville Police Department, is now being held without bail in the girl’s death, and faces additional charges of conspiring to conceal his alleged crimes after the fact.
The charges center on the disappearance of 16-year-old Susanna Morales, who police say was not related to Bryant but lived within a few miles of the disgraced officer.
His skeletal remains were discovered and identified by police last month in woods near Dacula, an Atlanta suburb less than 20 miles from his last known location. So far, detectives have remained silent on the motive, but have said the defendant “is known or suspected of” rape, murder and other serious crimes.
Over the weekend, Bryant was hit with another unrelated burglary charge after a former classmate accused him of harassing her and breaking into her home in a recorded encounter in 2019.
Miles Bryant, a 22-year-old former cop with the Doraville Police Department, is now being held without bail and faces charges of conspiring to hide his crimes after the fact.
The charges center on the disappearance of 16-year-old Susanna Morales, who police say was not related to Bryant but lived within a few miles of the disgraced officer.
Since his police credentials were taken and he was taken into custody, Bryant faces charges of concealing the death of another person, filing a false crime report, murder and kidnapping.
As of Sunday, police have not filed any charges related to the rape. Meanwhile, the cover-up charge is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The initial charges against Bryant came less than three weeks ago, after investigators confirmed Morales’ naked remains were found in a wooded area along Highway 316.
That discovery came nearly six months after Morales’s family reported him missing, prompting an Atlanta-wide search that yielded little until last month when police provided an update on the investigation.
On Monday, February 6, 2023, shortly after 6:30 p.m., Gwinnett Police responded to Highway 316 between Drowning Creek and the Barrow County line after receiving a call from a passerby stating that they saw what they believed they were human remains in the forest. ‘ wrote police officers in Gwinnett County at the time.
“Detectives and CSI responded to the scene, and the Gwinnett Medical Examiner’s Office took possession of the remains,” added the department, located just a few miles from Doraville, noting that the force was “investigating the manner and cause of Morales’ death, who was identified from his dental records.
Over the weekend, Bryant was indicted on another unrelated count of robbery, after a former teammate accused him of stalking her and breaking into her home in a recorded encounter in 2019 (a photo of which can be seen here).
The body was found, police said, after officers received a call from a passerby who said he had seen what he believed to be human remains in the brush on the side of the highway, which links Atlanta communities.
Police added that Morales’s family told the department that when the teen disappeared on the night of July 26, her cell phone and video footage showed her walking home, but police have reason to believe she may have gotten on to a vehicle.
Meanwhile, Bryant lived in Norcross – ‘very close to [the] victim and dumped her naked body in the woods,’ Gwinnett Detective Angela Carter said in announcing her arrest as the sole suspect in the case less than two weeks later.
An initial warrant request would see the relatively inexperienced Georgia peace officer, who has a work history in the Army National Guard, a deputy at the Forsyth County Jail and various security jobs, charged. with one count of concealing the death of another person and one count of false reporting of a crime.
Bryant is being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Adult Detention Center (pictured) on charges of concealing the death of another person, filing a false crime report, murder and kidnapping.
The false reporting of a felony charge, a misdemeanor and a cover-up charge, police said, originated when Bryant attempted to conceal Morales’s death for a period of time between July 26, 2022, at 10:20 a.m. p.m. and 1:40 a.m. 27, 2022.
During those hours, the detectives alleged, the police officer, who may have had a history of harassment of women that was not controlled, unlawfully ‘hindering the discovery of whether or not said person was unlawfully killed’.
Police added that Bryant also filed a false police report claiming his gun was stolen after his car was broken into. The officers did not explain how the charges are connected to the Morales case.
Bryant remained in jail Sunday after a judge denied him bail earlier in the week, with a local judge citing investigators’ belief that the officer, who was fired after the charges, is a danger to community.
As police continue to build a case against Bryant, more of his alleged misdeeds have begun to come to light, as he faces new charges in connection with the alleged harassment and robbery of another woman, Elesha Bates, Bryant’s former classmate. which claims the suspect showed up at her home in Snellville unannounced in May 2019 and on several other occasions.
As police continue to build a case against Bryant, he faces new charges in connection with the alleged harassment and robbery of another woman, Elesha Bates, who claims the suspect showed up at her home in Snellville unannounced multiple times in 2019.
Bates submitted Ring camera video of the terrifying encounter to both the Gwinnett County Police Department and the Doraville Police Department in December as evidence, after she told police that Bryant, who was working with the Doraville police at the time, was harassing her.
In response to the neighbor’s account, the Doraville Police Department revealed that it conducted an administrative investigation into the incident, but closed the Bates case for “lack of leads.”
Doraville police said Bates was told to report any possible criminal charges to the Gwinnett County Police Department, because the apartment complex is in their jurisdiction.
That said, late last month, as new information about Bryant’s other cases came to light, an investigation into Bates’ allegations was reopened, the department confirmed Sunday.
Police said Bryant allegedly tampered with a locked room window during the raid, which was recorded on a neighbor’s doorbell camera. He now faces charges of first degree robbery in addition to charges of murder, kidnapping and concealment, and remains incarcerated.
Police said Bryant allegedly tampered with a locked room window during the raid, which was recorded on a neighbor’s doorbell camera. He now faces robbery charges in addition to murder, kidnapping and concealment charges, and remains incarcerated.