Murder of Susana Morales

Susana Morales was a 16-year-old high school student from Gwinnett County, Georgia, originally from Norcross and a student at Meadowcreek High School. Her family described her as artistically inclined with aspirations of becoming a detective. On the night of July 26, 2022, Morales texted her mother that she was walking home from a friend's house near the Sterling Glen Apartments. Phone location data and surveillance video showed her walking toward home before her movement abruptly shifted to driving speed in the opposite direction, and her phone stopped transmitting a short time later. Investigators concluded she had been abducted around 10:21 p.m. and driven to a wooded area near Highway 316 outside Dacula, Georgia, and killed within hours, by approximately 2:00 a.m. the next morning.

Morales' mother and sister reported her missing the following morning, but police initially classified her as a runaway rather than a kidnapping victim, a designation her family said delayed a serious investigation. The case went unsolved for more than six months. On February 6, 2023, a man riding an off-road vehicle through the wooded area off Highway 316 discovered part of Morales' skeleton. Black-painted fingernails found with the remains matched the last photograph taken of her, and dental records confirmed her identity. Investigators recovered a pistol about 30 yards away that was registered to Miles Bryant, a Doraville, Georgia, police officer who lived at the Sterling Glen Apartments, Morales' last known location, and worked there as a courtesy officer.

Bryant had reported the gun and his wallet stolen from his car the morning after Morales' abduction. Cell tower records placed both his personal and work phones near the site that night and the next morning, and investigators found he had searched online for how long a body takes to decompose and had viewed the recovery site on Google Maps while Morales was still missing. During a three-hour interrogation, Bryant denied knowing Morales, then admitted being near the site but denied involvement; investigators arrested him. He was charged on February 13, 2023, with concealment of a corpse and false report of a crime and was fired from the Doraville police department; the charges were upgraded to include murder and kidnapping on February 22, 2023, and prosecutors added a charge of attempted rape in January 2024.

At trial, prosecutors argued Bryant had a sexual motive for the killing and presented cell tower data, his internet search history, and testimony from a jailhouse informant. A medical examiner testified that only 85 percent of Morales' skeleton was recovered and that no cause of death could be established, though the evidence pointed to homicide. Bryant did not testify, and the defense presented no evidence, arguing prosecutors had not proven the more serious charges. On June 12, 2024, a jury convicted Bryant of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and false report of a crime, and acquitted him of attempted rape. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, plus 12 months for the false-report conviction.

Bryant appealed the day after his conviction, arguing ineffective assistance of counsel; a judge denied a new trial in March 2026, and Bryant appealed that denial to the Supreme Court of Georgia, with a ruling pending as of May 2026. The case drew scrutiny of the Gwinnett County Police Department's initial runaway classification and its handling of cases involving Latino residents, prompting a protest and a community meeting with police. In April 2024, Morales' family sued the Sterling Glen Apartments, alleging the complex knew or should have known of Bryant's history of disciplinary issues and prior misconduct allegations before employing him as a courtesy officer.