A police officer from a suburb of Atlanta has been charged with the kidnapping and murder of a girl who went missing last July after her naked body was found hiding in a forest.
Miles Bryant, a 22-year-old ex-Doraville Police Department cop, is now being held without bail in the death of the 16-year-old girl – and is facing additional conspiracy charges to retrospectively conceal his alleged crimes.
The indictment focuses on the disappearance of 16-year-old Susanna Morales, who police say had no relationship with Bryant but lived a few miles from the disgraced officer.
Her skeletal remains were discovered and identified last month by police officers in woods near Dacula, a suburb of Atlanta, less than 20 miles from her last known whereabouts. Detectives have not yet commented on a motive – but said the accused was “known or suspected” of committing rape, murder and other crimes.
Over the weekend, Bryant was hit with another unrelated burglary charge after a former classmate accused him of stalking her and breaking into her home in a taped encounter in 2019.
Miles Bryant, a 22-year-old ex-Doraville Police Department cop, is now being held without attachment – and is charged with conspiring to hide his crimes after the fact
The indictment focuses on the disappearance of 16-year-old Susanna Morales, who police say had no relationship with Bryant but lived a few miles from the disgraced officer
Since Bryant was stripped of his police credentials and taken into custody, he has faced charges of concealing the death of another, filing a false report of a felony, murder and kidnapping.
As of Sunday, police have not filed any charges of rape. The charge of concealment is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The first charges against Bryant came less than three weeks ago after investigators confirmed Morales’ remains were found naked in a wooded area along Highway 316.
This discovery was made almost six months after Morales’ family reported her missing, sparking a search across the Atlanta area that bore little – until last month, when police provided an update on the investigation.
“On Monday, February 06, 2023, just after 6:30 p.m., Gwinnett Police on Highway 316 between Drowning Creek and the Barrow County Line responded after receiving a call from a passerby stating that they had seen what they believed to be human remains in the woods,” Gwinnett County police officers wrote at the time.
“Detectives and CSI responded to the scene, and the Gwinnett Medical Examiners’ Office took possession of the remains,” the department — which is located just a few miles from Doraville — added, noting that the force was “determining the nature and cause of death examined by Morales”, who was identified from their dental records.
Over the weekend, Bryant was hit with another unrelated burglary charge after a former classmate 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 they had spotted what they believed to be human remains on the side of the freeway connecting Atlanta’s communities .
Police added that Morales’ family told the department that when the teenager disappeared on the night of July 26, her cell phone and video footage showed her walking to her home, but police have reason to believe that she may have gotten into a vehicle.
Bryant, meanwhile, lived in Norcross – “close by [the] victim and dumped her naked body in the woods,” Gwinnett told Detective Angela Carter when announcing his arrest as the sole suspect in the case less than two weeks later.
On an initial warrant application, the relatively green Georgia peace officer — a man with work experience in the Army National Guard, a deputy at the Forsyth County Jail and various security jobs — would face one charge of covering up the death of another and one charge of falsely reporting a crime.
Bryant is being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Adult Detention Center (pictured) on charges of concealing the death of another and filing a false report of a felony, murder and kidnapping
The false report of a felony, misdemeanor and cover-up allegations, police say, came from Bryant, who attempted to determine the death of Morales between 10:20 p.m. on July 26, 2022 and 1:40 a.m. on July hide 27th, 2022.
During those hours, detectives claimed, the officer — who may have had an unchecked history of stalking women — unlawfully “obstructed the discovery of whether or not any such person was unlawfully killed.”
Police added that Bryant also falsely filed a police report claiming his gun was stolen after his car was broken into. Cops did not explain how the charges were related to the Morales case.
Bryant remained in jail Sunday after a judge denied him bail earlier in the week. A local judge cited investigators’ belief that the officer – who was fired after his indictment – posed a danger to the community.
As police continue to build a case against Bryant, more of his alleged misdeeds are coming to light as he faces new charges related to the alleged stalking and burglary of another woman, Elesha Bates, a former classmate of Bryant’s, who alleges this The suspect showed up unannounced at her home in Snellville in May 2019 and on several other occasions.
As police continue to build a case against Bryant, they face new charges related to the alleged stalking and burglary of another woman, Elesha Bates, who alleges the suspect turned up unannounced at her Snellville home multiple times in 2019
Bates submitted ring-camera video of the creepy encounter as evidence to both the Gwinnett County Police Department and the Doraville Police Department in December after she told police that Bryant, who was on the staff of the Doraville Police Department at the time, called her pursued.
In response to the neighbor’s report, the Doraville Police Department said it was conducting an administrative investigation into the incident but had dropped Bates’ case for “lack of leads.”
Doraville Police said they directed Bates to report potential criminal charges to the Gwinnett County Police Department because the apartment complex is within their jurisdiction.
However, an investigation into Bates’ allegations was reopened late last month as new information about Bryant’s other cases came to light, the department confirmed on Sunday.
Cops said Bryant allegedly tampered with a locked bedroom window during the burglary, which was recorded by a neighbor’s doorbell camera. He now faces first-degree burglary charges in addition to the murder, kidnapping and concealment charges and remains jailed.
Cops said Bryant allegedly tampered with a locked bedroom window during the burglary, which was recorded by a neighbor’s doorbell camera. He now faces burglary charges in addition to the murder, kidnapping and concealment charges and remains jailed