Susana Morales (June 24, 2006 – c. July 26, 2022) was a 16-year-old girl from Gwinnett County, Georgia, who was the victim of a kidnapping and homicide on the night of July 26, 2022, when she was abducted while walking home from a friend's house. She was initially reported as a missing person, and police approached her case as if she were a juvenile runaway. In February 2023, over six months after her disappearance, a man discovered her body in a wooded area near Dacula, Georgia, more than 20 miles from the location where the abduction took place. Police theorized that Morales' murderer killed her within, at most, four hours of abducting her.
When authorities investigated the location where Morales' body was left, they could not determine a cause of death for Morales, but they found an undischarged pistol nearby that was registered to Miles Bryant, then a 22-year-old police officer working for the Doraville, Georgia, police department; Bryant had reported the gun as stolen the day after Morales' abduction and murder. Upon looking into Bryant's history, Gwinnett County officials confirmed that on the night of and the morning after the murder, Bryant had visited the scene where Morales' body was later located. Gwinnett County officials subsequently interrogated him and then placed him in custody, initially charging him only with concealment of a corpse and false report of a crime due to Bryant's disproven assertion that his gun was stolen. Later, his charges were upgraded to murder, kidnapping, and attempted rape. In June 2024, Bryant was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and false report of a crime, while he was acquitted of attempted rape. Bryant was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. , Bryant is appealing his conviction and sentence.
Background
Susana Morales Susana Morales was originally from Norcross, Georgia. Morales was her mother's youngest child. Her mother said that she had aspirations of being a detective, and her family said she was a singer who was artistically and musically inclined. She was a student at Meadowcreek High School.
Miles Bryant Before becoming a police officer in Doraville, Georgia, Miles Bryant served in the Army National Guard. When not on duty, he worked as a "courtesy officer" at the Sterling Glen Apartments in Norcross, where he lived. The apartment complex was also Morales' last known location. As a courtesy officer, Bryant's job was to patrol the area. In 2020, Bryant worked as a jailer in Forsyth County, Georgia; from March 2020 to May 2021, Bryant was a sworn sheriff's deputy in Forsyth County. In 2021, after undergoing an extensive background check, he became a Doraville police officer, a position he held until he was arrested in Morales' case. Bryant expressed on at least one occasion that he aspired to eventually join the Gwinnett County Police Department. A performance review by one of Bryant's supervisors completed of Bryant before the murder stated that other officers liked Bryant and stated that Bryant could potentially be "an exemplary police officer."
During Bryant's trial for Morales' murder, one of Morales' friends testified that Morales and Bryant had superficially interacted before when Bryant approached Morales and her friend, despite both girls being underage at the time, and offered to drive them in his car to a pizzeria, give them illicit drugs and edibles, and supply them with alcohol. Morales' friend testified that they refused the offer because Bryant was an adult. Another of Morales' friends testified that Bryant had seen the two of them walking and offered them a ride before, which they refused; however, the second friend testified that she did not find the offer to be strange. Police did not believe Morales and Bryant had significant interactions before the murder, and they had no relationship before the murder. Morales' sister corroborated the lack of a relationship between Bryant and Morales, confirming Bryant only happened to live and work at the same apartment complex where Morales was last seen alive.
Allegations of inappropriate behavior and misconduct In 2018, while a student at Berkmar High School in Lilburn, Georgia, Bryant, then 17 years old, allegedly broke into a 16-year-old female high school classmate's Norcross home and stole pairs of her underwear. The victim was Bryant's neighbor and lived on his street. The girl said she and her family recognized Bryant on their surveillance footage but that they discussed the situation with Bryant's parents, who "talked [the victim's family] out of making a police report." Neither she nor her family pressed charges against Bryant. In 2023, they said they no longer had access to video footage of the break-in, but they were attempting to locate a copy of the footage with the help of the Gwinnett County police department. The former classmate also expressed regret in hindsight for not pressing charges against Bryant, speculating that he used his position of authority as a police officer to "gain Susana's trust". She also stated in 2024 that an "unidentified law enforcement officer" had allegedly contacted her shortly after the alleged burglary incident, telling her Bryant "had a promising career in both the military and police and charges against [Bryant] would jeopardize those plans"; she suggested this phone call further deterred her from pressing charges against Bryant.
In February 2018, Bryant, still 17, allegedly unsuccessfully attempted to break into another Berkmar High School classmate's home. When caught, he claimed he was attempting to review homework with the girl. That second classmate also expressed that she did not want to press charges against Bryant for the alleged attempted burglary, although her family requested that Bryant be trespassed from their home.
In 2019, Bryant, then 18 years old, allegedly broke into a third female high school classmate's home in Snellville, Georgia, walked around, and tampered with a lock on a window, although he did not steal anything. The family did not recognize Bryant from their security footage until he was arrested in Morales' case, at which point they contacted police. Subsequently, in 2023, after his arrest and jailing in Morales' case, Bryant was separately charged with first degree burglary.
While employed as a Doraville police officer, Bryant had some disciplinary infractions on his record. He was suspended for 12 hours after being "disrespectful" to a fellow officer, and he was formally reprimanded in 2022 for not submitting a missing persons report within a mandated time limit of two hours, instead waiting three days to complete the report.
In December 2022, one of Bryant's former childhood friends filed a formal complaint with Gwinnett County police concerning an incident that month where Bryant "tried to break into her apartment." The woman's neighbor owned doorbell footage that showed Bryant attempting to open the door to the former friend's apartment despite not being welcome at her property; her neighbor had additional footage showing Bryant made attempts on three separate occasions to enter the woman's apartment without permission. That former friend said she was afraid of Bryant due to his profession as a police officer and his prior military history. Bryant was questioned about this incident, but he was not charged, although he promised to not contact the woman further. Police accused the woman of "misinterpret[ing] his gesture to check on her well-being" and insisted Bryant was stopping by her apartment because she had made "a questionable post on social media that worried [Bryant]." After Bryant's arrest, the woman said that Bryant had been stalking her for a year prior and had damaged her door by kicking it in an attempt to gain entry in March 2022. After Bryant's arrest, Gwinnett County police acknowledged making a mistake in not assigning a detective to the stalking case. They also announced that they reopened the stalking case because of Morales' murder. Bryant's former friend later testified against him at his trial as a character witness by discussing his alleged attempted break-ins as evidence of "prior bad acts".
Kidnapping, murder, and early investigation At 9:40 pm on July 26, 2022, Morales texted her mother that she was walking home from a friend's house. Between 10:07 and 10:21 pm, a location-based phone app and surveillance cameras detected Morales walking away from the Sterling Glen Apartment complex in Norcross and towards her house. At some point during her walk, she suddenly started moving in the opposite direction at approximately 40 miles per hour, which suggested that Morales was in a vehicle. Her phone tracked her between 10:21 pm and 10:26 pm traveling at driving speeds on nearby roads until it suddenly stopped tracking her, signifying that its battery died or it was turned off. Investigators later theorized that Bryant threw the phone out of the car window at that point.Papp, Jozsef. "Ex-Officer Kidnapped, Killed Teen, Jury Finds". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 2024-06-14. pp. A1 and A6 – via Newspapers.com. Shortly afterwards, the app sent out a "crash alert", signifying that Morales' phone was involved in an event that caused sudden, violent movement. Her family later visited the site of the "crash alert" yet noted there were no signs of a car crash. Morales' phone was never located.Hughes, Rosana. "Trial Starts for Ex-Doraville Cop Accused of Killing Girl". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 2024-06-03. pp. A1 and A6 – via Newspapers.com.
Investigators believe that Bryant kidnapped Morales around 10:21 pm on July 26, 2022, and drove her to a secluded, wooded area by Highway 316 near Dacula, Georgia. Investigators believe Bryant murdered Morales within, at most, four hours of kidnapping her; Gwinnett County Police Chief J.D. McClure stated that authorities believe she was dead by 2:00 am on July 27, 2022. Bryant then allegedly abandoned Morales' unclothed body in that same wooded area by Highway 316.
Later on the morning of July 27, 2022, Morales' mother and sister formally reported her missing. The police originally treated Morales as a runaway rather than a kidnapping victim; this designation led her family members to accuse police of "not [taking] her disappearance seriously." The designation precluded officers from investigating her case for 48 hours. Morales' family stated that they did not believe Morales would have voluntarily disappeared without making any contact with her boyfriend or family.
By August 2022, a month after Morales' disappearance, Gwinnett County police announced they needed the public's help to close Morales' case but still had not ruled out that she was a runaway, considering that they could not find evidence of abduction or physical assault. In late January 2023, a Crime Stoppers chapter for the Metro Atlanta area offered a $2,000 reward for information on Morales' whereabouts. During the time that Morales was missing, her relatives organized several rallies and walks in her honor.
Discovery and arrest At 6:30 pm on February 6, 2023, over six months after Morales' disappearance, a man riding his off-road vehicle through a forested area off of Gwinnett's Highway 316 discovered part of Morales' skeleton in the forest. He called police, and police discovered additional bones, as well as black-painted fingernails. The fingernails they found matched the black-painted fingernails Morales had in the final photograph taken of her alive on the day of her disappearance, and authorities also identified Morales through her dental records.