Amy Jacobson 
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GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga – On February 6, 2023, Doraville Police Officer Miles Bryant was arrested for the murder of 16-year-old Susana Morales of Norcross after her remains were found by a passerby off Highway 316.
Susana Morales Vanishes
At 6:00 p.m. on the evening of July 26, 2022, Susana left her home on Santa Anna Drive in Norcross and walked to a friend’s house. According to the Live 360 app she and her friends used, Susana was at Sterling Glenn Apartments from 7:28 p.m. to 9:58 p.m. Through testimony, we learned she met up with friends Alysa and Kelly at Alysa’s apartment. There they smoked marijuana, did piercings on Alysa’s sister-in-law, and hung out until around 9:30 p.m. when Kelly and Susana left to go home. Kelly and Susana part ways at the back entrance of the apartments. Susana walks down Singleton Road. That is the last time anyone sees Susana alive.
“Her family had to endure 196 days of no information,” the prosecution opens the trial on June 5 with a picture of the pain the family of Susan Morales endured in the time they waited and searched for their loved one with no answers or clues as to her whereabouts. It took from July 26, 2022 when Susan was last seen by friends, until February 6, 2023 when a passerby, Matthew Gilbert, decided to go off-roading in his Suzuki Samurai while driving Highway 316 and came across Susana’s remains where she was left less than 100 yards off the main road while taking a phone call with his sister. Gilbert immediately hung up his call with his sister and called 911 to report what he found.
Officers responded to the sight where they confirmed that what was found were human remains. They immediately taped off and secured the scene while waiting for detectives and the crime scene unit to arrive. The remains, consisting of nothing more than a skeleton, black hair with blonde tips, and nails painted black, were later identified to be those of Susana Morales using dental records. While conducting a search of the area, a Glock 19 with a flashlight attached was found in close proximity to the remains. The gun was registered to Police Officer Miles Bryant who reported it stolen out of his truck on the morning of July 27, 2022.
On the morning of July 27, 2022, Bryant called 911 to report an “entering an auto report”. Detective William Merkley (then a uniformed officer) received a call to report to 3258 Windscape Village Lane at the Sterling Glenn Apartments. There, he was met by Bryant who told him that he noticed the day before that his wallet was missing and, despite driving around the complex, was unable to locate it. That morning, July 27, he noticed his holster on the floor of his truck, the gun missing despite the gun and holster always being kept together.
The court was shown body camera footage showing Bryant not acting too concerned and letting Merkley know that he “just wanted the gun reported stolen and didn’t want detectives looking for it”. Merkley found this “odd” since they had the serial number and could have the gun returned to Bryant. Merkley called GCIC to report the gun stolen. Bryant never followed up on either the gun or the wallet.
A Mother’s Anguish
The state’s first witness was the mother of Susana, Maria Morales. Maria described her daughter as “very joyful. Always smiling.” Susana liked to listen to music, play music (she played piano, guitar, ukelele, and sang), eat, and dress up.
Maria recalls calling her daughter around 9:30 p.m. on the evening of July 26 to pick her up. There was no answer. Susana had never not come home or called before so “after she didn’t answer, [Maria] thought something was wrong…even if her phone was off, [Susana] would call from her friend’s phone]. Maria then called Susana’s friend Esmeralda, with whom she believed her daughter to be with, but there was no answer. That’s when she called Esmeralda’s mother who told her Susana had never arrived at her home.
Early the next morning, Maria went out to look for her daughter. After she was left without answers and no sign of her daughter, she called the police to report her missing. She was told she would have to wait 72 hours for a missing person report. This is when she, her daughter Jasmine, and Susana’s boyfriend Axel took matters in their own hands. They walked the area, looked for camera, and put missing persons flyers around the several different locations. Though they went months with no answers, neither she nor Susana’s friends and family gave up the search.
An Officer’s Determination
The family and friends were not the only people that refused to give up on finding Susana. Lieutenant Xavier Biggers, of the Gwinnet County Police Department, gave testimony on day 2 of the trial. Biggers was the on-call sergeant when the call reporting Susana was received. He received a call from Susana’s sister, Jasmine, wanting to discuss what happened to her sister. He would meet with both Jasmine and her mother, Maria.
When asked what got to him about this case, he responded by speaking of the anguish and sadness Maria posed, “it really touched me, and I felt it was my duty to find [Susana].” He went on to tell how he is married to a Latina woman and “I couldn’t get enough o it. I would see my daughter’s face and immediately think of Susana.” Biggers broke down on the stand, the emotions still so raw. “I assured Jasmine I had taken this on at a personal level.”
Biggers would go on to do his own investigation into the case. It was when he noticed that there were no interactions with the exception of Susana’s friends trying to reach out to her. This troubled Biggers and at this point that he got homicide involved. Though he would not stay the lead on the case, Biggers stayed invested, and on February 13, 2023, he was at the scene when the defendant, Miles Bryant, was arrested and a search warrant of his home executed.
The Investigation Continues
In January of 2023, Corporal Matthew Conway, of the Gwinnett County Police Department, became the lead investigator on Susana’s case. He conducted several interviews himself, along with assigning other officers to conduct interview. Kelly, Axel, Esmeralda, Kya, and Alysa, who were the close circle of friends of Susana, were all interviewed, and their phones searched. The phones corroborated the testimony of each and each of their testimony was consistent with each other’s. There was nothing suspicious found in connection with any of the friends.
A Live 360 crash alert was sent out from Susana’s phone around 10:26 p.m. the night of her disappearance. This can mean there was a car crash or possibly the phone was thrown. This alert, according to several witness testimonies, is very rare to receive and they had only ever seen one once, on the night Susana disappeared. The sight of the “crash” was at Oak Loch Trace. This was the last update on Susana’s location and it would remain active until the phone either died or was turned off.
Conway used metal detectors near the location of the crash alert to attempt to locate the phone or anything else related to the case. Nothing was located. Susana’s phone has never been located. He also put out requests for drone and helicopter searches. The helicopter was used to photograph the area and to look for heat signatures. Nothing was found during the aerial search.
A Tragic Ending
During the evening hours, Officer Stephen Breer, of the Gwinnett County Police Department, received a call to respond to the finding of human remains off Highway 316. He was told there was “suspicious activity, random person found what he believed were human remains.” Breer and his supervisor reported to the scene with one other officer. There he was shown what stood out to him to be human remains. They immediately taped off and preserved the crime scene and stayed until other officers showed up to relieve them for shift change. The next morning, Breer returned for a grid search outside the crime scene tape while the medical examiner worked inside the tape.
It was at this point a firearm was found. He made sure it wasn’t disturbed while the crime scene unit photographed and carefully collected the gun. The gun was identified as a Glock 19 Generation 5 with a full magazine and flashlight attached. The serial number was then run and returned as owned and reported stolen by the defendant, Miles Bryant.
The trial is now 3 days in and several more state’s witness are to come. The defendant is expected to take the stand in his own defense. Stay tuned for continued coverage on the case of Georgia v. Miles Bryant, former police officer.
Brief timeline of events on July 26, 2022 surrounding the disappearance of Susana Morales:
- 6:00 p.m. – Susana left home on Santa Anna Drive in Norcross, walked to a friend’s house
- 7:28 p.m. – 9:58 p.m. – Live 360 shows Susana at Sterling Glenn Apartment where her friend lives
- 10:00 p.m. – Susana has not arrived home
- 10:07 – 10:21 p.m. – Susana goes from walking on Singleton Road to moving at a speed of 40 mph, leaving investigators to believe she entered a vehicle at this point
- 10:21 p.m. – 10:26 p.m. – Live 360 sends out a crash alert, her last known location is shown as Oak Loch Trace near Steve Reynolds – This location shows until her phone either dies or is turned off
