Life360 Uncovers Teen Girl's Horrifying Disappearance

Hi, I'm Karen Slaughter. If you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened, I think you'll love "The Good Daughter." Charlie, go! Sam! Now my best-selling novel is finally coming to life, and I got to write every episode. You should have died in them woods. Your father should have been a better shot. Starring Rose Byrne, Megan Fahey, and Brendan Gleeson. From page to screen, don't miss "The Good Daughter," now streaming only on Peacock. I'm here, Charlie, and I'm not going away. On "Prime Crime." She was out front. She was there. Everything was fine. A young teen gone without a trace. They could not find a single thing that pointed to anyone in her life. As her family desperately seeks answers. No disrespect, I'm really getting-- you know, I say perp vibes. He's been like, like, suspect vibes and that. Why? The way-- you know, the way y'all talking is-- We're just talking. We're just talking. We're just talking. We're just talking. They're left grappling with the unknowns of what happened and who may be responsible. This is not just an effect on you. This is an effect on all officers ever. I know. It's not me. If I killed somebody, I would know that. If he was smart, and he obviously wasn't, he would have KYD, BMS. He would have kept his damn big mouth shut. Hey there, everybody. I'm Jesse Weber, and welcome to Prime Crime, where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. The disappearance of a young teenager sets off a months-long investigation with friends, family, law enforcement clinging to the hope of finding anything that could bring her home. But as time passes, it becomes clear that may not be possible. And the evidence soon points-- to an unexpected suspect. On July 26th of 2022, Susana Morales was walking home from a friend's house back to her mother's home where she lived. And she was just a couple hundred feet from her house. She had told her mom that she was going to one friend's house. And then ultimately, she went to a different friend's house, which I think anyone that's been a teenager before or has a teenager, it's not unusual. But the family of 16-year-old Susana Morales, who live just outside Atlanta, Georgia, start to panic when she doesn't come home. Her phone was equipped with an application called Life360, which is an application where friends and family members can monitor real live location. What the Life360 application showed was that she had gotten back to the road where she lived at, but then almost immediately upon arriving at that road, her phone began to travel in the opposite direction. She was out front. She was there. Everything was fine. And then there was a text, apparently from her, but at least from her phone, that said, I'm on my way home. Never arrived. According to her phone, she's walking. But then all of a sudden, she's no longer walking, but she's traveling at a speed at or about 40 miles an hour. She's now in a vehicle of some sort that doesn't make sense. She did not drive. She did not have a vehicle. And from all of her friends and family, nobody was expecting to pick her up. A search was conducted by her family that night. Around 10:30 at night, one of her friends received a crash alert from the Life360 application. Subsequently, her phone records show her phone never moved from that location. The phone died there the next morning, and we never were able to recover it. Susanna's family contacts authorities. Over the coming days, it seems like police really didn't have many leads as to where she was. They had created a tip line for information related to returning her safely. Her family's hunt for answers leads them to a nearby community center, where a key piece of evidence surfaces. It's literally not 46. That is her. That's her. She's safe. Wow. Thank God. Oh, my God. There was one video camera that captured her as she was walking back to her home on Singleton Road. Showed her unharmed walking. There were traffic cameras around Gwinnett County, but certainly not at every intersection. Without knowing what vehicle to look for, it's looking for a needle in a needle stack. Unfortunately, that's where the trail ends. A lone video of Susanna walking by herself along the side of the road. On July 26, at approximately 6:00 PM, we know that Susanna Morales left her home and walked a short distance to the Sterling Glenn apartment complex. And at about 10:00, she began her trek back to her house. Susanna was not seen or heard from again. Poof. She's not where she needs to be. So it's now thrown in my lap as law enforcement. What is it I need to do? There's a magic word. It's called everything. Where was she? Who did she interact with? Who was she with? And what was her interaction with whoever she might have been with? But the investigation grinds to a halt with no new evidence nor leads. There were concerns that perhaps, you know, she had been abducted and brought into the sex trafficking world. Now, Gwinnett County Police Department conducted an entire undercover investigation. They deployed drones, aerial surveillance, thermal imaging to look for her in wooded areas and on the roadways around the area. Probably one of the toughest things that the family had to go through here was the months of unknown. And not knowing where their child was, not knowing whether their child was safe, whether she had run-- - Hi, I'm Karen Slaughter. If you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened, I think you'll love "The Good Daughter." - Charlie, go! - Sam! - Now my best-selling novel is finally coming to life, and I got to write every episode. - You should've died in them woods. - Your father should've been a better shot. - Starring Rose Byrne, Megan Fahey, and Brendan Gleeson. - I'm here, Charlie, and I'm not going away. - This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like "All I Want". Right, okay, we can't afford that. You know what, forget the music budget. We're gonna stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. - Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only, greater than 50 gigabytes, may slow when network is busy. See terms. Wait. - For the next weeks and months, her family and the police got reports of sightings of her across the country. And there were hundreds, if not thousands of tips where people would claim they saw her in Detroit or in Nashville or in Gatlinburg and across the state of Georgia. The police followed up on all of those. - There were some tips that came in that probably gave that family some hope. And then ultimately, that hope was unfortunately dashed away. - Six months after Susanna's disappearance and miles away, a grim discovery. - February 6th of 2023, at about six o'clock in the evening, the Gwinnett County Police Department received an emergency call from a concerned citizen. He had been off-roading in a remote area when he stumbled across human remains. They were completely skeletal. At that time, we had no idea who this person was. - It is the worst possible thing to not have closure. I think my daughter may be alive. I hope my daughter's alive, but I don't know. Emotionally debilitating is not the right two words to use. It's worse than that. - February the sixth, a citizen who was walking in the area of Drowning Creek Road and Highway 316 happened upon skeletal remains. And they were positively identified as having belonged to Susanna Morales. - These scenes are a lot different than a normal homicide because there's no flesh, there's no body to find forensic evidence on. There were no traces of any fibers, clothing, or anything. Clothing, flesh or skin, muscle. It appeared that this person was unclothed. There were no traces of any fibers whatsoever. We also found that the body had been disturbed by apparent animal activity. - Because there were no clothes at the scene, law enforcement had to immediately treat it as though there was some type of foul play. When you have someone dropped off in a secluded area, but not far away from a very highly trafficked area, it shows some haste in the crime, some level, probably, of panic. It made it pretty evident that they had a crime on their hands, not just a runaway. Susana was your typical 16 year old girl. She was very kind, had a reputation of being very friendly. Everybody described her as an extremely outgoing, extremely loving and kind individual. She loved to spend time with her friends. She loved to sing. Her mother would talk about her singing in the house and she loved music. She had recently picked up playing the ukulele. Like many teenage girls, she spent a lot of time doing her makeup and would spend a lot of time in her room with makeup tutorials. She was the baby of the family and everybody adored her. A promising life cut tragically short and while Susana Morales' family finally has some answers, this investigation is far from over. I know that your gun was stolen. We did find your gun, actually. Yeah, so that just like raises suspicion even more. Right now, we'll just go up there. You got any guns or anything on you right now? No, I don't. You don't? No. Okay, can I pat you down just to make sure? What's going on? You're good. It's our policy, man, you know how it is. As Georgia detectives continue their investigation into the death of 16 year old Susana Morales when her remains are discovered more than 20 miles away from where she was last reportedly seen, six months after her death. What started as a missing persons case becomes a homicide investigation. They investigated every single person in her life to see if they had anything to do with it. They could not find a single thing that pointed to anyone. The only remaining theory was that this was a stranger. Somebody took her from the street as she was walking and that's every parent that's ever been in a relationship with a child. Investigators get a major break when a key piece of evidence is located near her remains, sparking new questions and possibilities. We located a firearm that had been reported stolen on July 27th. This is the same day that Susana was reported missing. This is a heavily wooded area with a lot of foliage on the ground, leaves and sticks. About 100 feet away from Susana's body, an officer found a Glock 19 pistol that was abandoned on the ground. It wasn't buried or hidden. It looked like it had been dropped. Because law enforcement was so thorough in going over it piece by piece, inch by inch, they came across a handgun. Now what does that tell you? It tells you that you can buy that weapon, but you don't know unless and until you can perform ballistics. It creates more questions than answers. We had a really difficult time trying to figure out what happened to Susana. The medical examiner did perform an autopsy of Susana. There were no obvious signs of a bullet defect, where a bullet would have struck one of her bones or knife wounds. A majority of Susana's body was recovered, about 95% or so. But there were several bones that were found missing. A majority of Susana's body was found missing. Because of that, cause of death was unknown. The chances that a firearm would be found that close to her remains was just very unlikely that it would. If you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened, I think you'll love The Good Daughter. Charlie, go! Sam! You should've died in them woods. Your father should've been a better shot. From page to screen, don't miss The Good Daughter, now streaming only on Peacock. This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. If you're looking for a better way to save on electricity, both night and day, look no further than TXU Energy Free Nights and Cool Summer. It gives you free energy all night, every night, all year long, plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use every summer. It's the only plan that lets you use free energy to get more savings. So while nights are always free, summer days are now always discounted. With savings like that, you'll never look at a free night's plan the same way again. Learn more at TXU.com, rep number 10004. Be related in some way. And that really was the very first significant lead that we had. And strangely enough, wait till you hear who reported the gun stolen. Yesterday. Oh. I don't know what time, man. I went running around here. I did a bunch of stuff yesterday. And I came back and went to the store and everything. I had it at the store and I came back. I can't find my wallet. And then this morning I looked on my floorboard and my Glock 19 holster is on the floorboard. The gun has been reported stolen. Who was the owner of the gun? Oh, it's Miles Bryant. Wait a minute. He is a sworn police officer. Oh, I hate to say, I think I left my, they didn't smash the window or nothing. I left my door unlocked. So that's definitely missing. I get kids going to the pool all the time when it's closed. Oh, yeah. That cut back there leads to like behind that little grocery store right there. Oh, yeah. We've had people actually rob the grocery store and come run through here. Finding the gun immediately tied Mr. Bryant to the case. Whether he was the one responsible or somebody took his gun. That gave us a name very quickly, which was critical. Police need to track down 22-year-old Miles Bryant. They locate him at his apartment and immediately ask if he knows anything about Susanna. When she first was missing, I was talking to the neighborhood team, stuff like that. They didn't really know anything. What are the neighborhood kids saying? I haven't talked to them in a minute, but when she first was missing, it was like it was just with her. I haven't heard anything, actually. Me and my girl was talking about it, stuff like that. It was like, it's just weird. They said she was walking home and she just, you know. Mr. Bryant. Mr. Bryant. Mr. Bryant was a courtesy officer. Now, what a courtesy officer means is that essentially you are living in an apartment complex and in exchange for some type of either reduced rent or payment, you agree to help patrol that apartment complex. So he was likely very familiar with the folks that live there and the regular things that were happening. You got some time for us to come up to our headquarters and just talk about, you know, what you see on a daily basis and stuff like that? Yeah. Can it be today? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now? We're literally talking to everyone here, so we're just trying to document every, you know, we got no leads, man. Hopefully with your, you're in the know, um, with everything that's going on in the complex and everything, maybe put some pieces together. They take Bryant into the station, and before the lead detective arrives, a few investigators start asking questions. I got you. This one's sad, bud. It's terrible. What department are you working for? City of Doraville Police Department. Doraville, that's right. Okay. You're just a courtesy officer. How long have you been living here? Maybe a year. Mr. Bryant was an active-duty police officer with the Doraville Police Department, just one county over from Gwinnett County, where Susanna lived. We also learned that Mr. Bryant lived at the apartment complex that Susanna went missing from, the Sterling Glen Apartments. I know you're the courtesy officer for the leasing office. Did anyone come up to you, approach you? Did you get caught, uh, contacted by the police? Like, I don't, you know, that's been-- Wait, this incident? Yeah, like, I lived with this missing girl. Mm-mm. Not at all. I'm seeing it on the news, I hear about it on the news, people talking about it, stuff like that. She was a frequent visitor there. She walked from the Sterling Glen Apartments back to her home, which was a very short trip, maybe about half a mile or so, which was a common thing for her. You said earlier that, like, some of the neighborhood kids, or, like, the other teenagers, they, like, talked to you about it. They all was at the pool. I remember that day, man. It was like, "Hey, you're about to miss a girl." But nothing referenced the incident. Do you remember anything, like, any context of what they were saying about how she went missing? Like, did they have any speculation? No, they didn't have any of that. They did, like, a walk and look for her. I remember that. They did what? They said they was looking for her and they didn't see anything. Do you know when she went missing? Mm-mm. I know it was July. July was the last one. So I'm like, "Oh, god dang it. I don't know. I don't know what's that piece." So I'm a little nervous. The detectives are asking him, since he was this go-getter, courtesy officer, about anybody in that community, anyone else that maybe they should be paying attention to for this disappearance. Was there anyone else there that they should be targeting? Are there any, like, suspicious people that are commonly going through? Because I know we've got a couple of apartment complexes that have, like, the same homeless dude walk around and hang around. You got anybody weird like that? Yeah. I mean, I haven't seen him, but it's a couple. Him and his girlfriend used to live on a property, but he's a gangbanger. He caused a lot of issues on the property, like drug deals, he's been on the property. Apparently, I think he's a crip. Mm-hmm. That's from what I heard. Do you know his neighbor or anything? Oh, god. I don't know his name. He kind of went through and gave a few kind of broad-based, "Well, there's people that walk through the community. There's some rough people. There's traffic that comes in and out of here," but not really any direct specifics. That area of Norcross, you know, there are gangs present. There are places nearby in that apartment complex that have lots of reports of crime and vehicle break-ins. and knowing that there's no connection whatsoever between that person and Susana. He was just throwing anything he could at the wall to see what would stick. - There's a lot of foot traffic, a lot of foot traffic at night. They probably use it as a cut-through, right? Isn't it like a side gig? - Yes. - He was a gung-ho courtesy officer, as he self-described, but seemed to have very little knowledge about a missing child that had been in his community. - The first red flags for these detectives that were gonna interview him was, yeah, he knows more than he's telling us already. - With limited clues, investigators pursue any possible leads, but the case soon narrows with a potential suspect in their sights and in their interrogation room. - Come on, man, let's go. - All right. - You found my gun out there? - Yeah, and you said you've never seen her? Are you familiar with her at all? - Mm-hmm. - It sounds like, you know, a perp, like, "Hey, hey, hey, what do you know, you know?" Like, suspect vibes and that kind of thing. - Why? - The way y'all talking sounds like that. - We're just talking. - Yeah, I know. - As Georgia law enforcement investigate the possible kidnapping and murder of teenager Susanna Morales, local police officer Miles Bryan finds himself in an interrogation room, and that's when detectives drop a bombshell. - I actually saw the next day, like, someone broke into your car. - Yeah. - We're thinking it's probably gonna be related because it was kind of the same night. Like, the person who probably did that to you may know something. - I looked everywhere. I looked in the house. My girlfriend be making jokes nonstop. I saw somebody took their gun. - Do you know if it was located or anything yet? - No, I've already been. - I haven't run it yet. I want to check that really quick and see if it was found. - We as viewers, we watch the news, and a lot of times we go, "Man, why aren't the police telling us more?" This is an example of why, because there's certain elements to a crime that they don't want to be public so that when they have the opportunity to interrogate or interview someone about it, they're gonna be able to go in with it. - Hi, I'm Karen Slaughter. Sam! - This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. It gives you free energy all night, every night, all year long. Plus, a 25% discount. - That's right. - A 25% bonus toward your daytime use every summer. Learn more at TXU.com, rep number 1-0-0-0-4. - Information that the suspect doesn't know that they know. And his gun was a key component to this. They didn't let him know that they had it. - We did find your gun, actually. Yeah, so that just raises suspicion even more. Not with you, but I think it's the same person. You watch the news, you know we found Giovanna. But there was actually a gun found out there, too. - For real? - Yeah. And it's the same serial number, he just verified it. - That's crazy. - I know. - I think that was probably one of the first moments for him to realize they know a lot more than I know they know. - Detectives focus on Bryant, pressing him about the night of July 26th, 2022. - I need you to think really hard, though, with me, I'm depending on you right now. Look, I wanna be like, "Doraville police officer helped us solve the Susanna Morales case." Think of anybody that was out there that night, 'cause I know you were out there patrolling that night. Think of anything. - That's all I can really think of. Me and my girlfriend were actually arguing that night. So I think I just was driving around. - What were y'all arguing about? - I got caught up with my son. I'm not at peace. - You've built a rapport with him and you've become essentially kind of like a colleague buddy. That's your baseline of his behavior when he is comfortable. The detective would then start to try to determine when he breaks that comfort level. - Did you work that night? - That night? - Were you off that night? - I don't know. Whatever day that I was arguing with my girlfriend or something like that, I wasn't working. - When you just run around, is it common for you to leave Norcross? I mean, I would think you would just drive around. - Yeah, I leave right around. I go to North, I go to Atlanta. - Mm-hmm. - Everywhere. I remember a little bit. Yeah, that night. Yeah, before that, I was with my girlfriend, actually. - Mm-hmm. - That night, I was running around. I don't know what night it is. If it's the night particularly. - If it's the night before you made the report with us. That should be memorable. - Yeah, I was just trying to think about it. God, I'm in that park. She tried to chase me. My girlfriend tried to chase me with her car. - Oh,. - Like the Jerry Springer episode. - I don't know if this would help, but she chased me into an apartment complex. - There were several times where questions were asked that he, failed to give an answer. They wanted to get his story out there, and they're gonna ask the same question multiple times in different ways, just to see if they're gonna get a different answer. - Susanna didn't live in your complex, but do you know kind of where she lived? - Mm-mm. From what I've seen, she lived nearby. - Like where? - I have no clue. She said she was walking home, and I don't know, she said she lived nearby. So I guess it'd be in the area. I don't think she lived in that apartment complex, though. - Mm-hmm. - But I remember, I was driving around that night, getting chased by my girlfriend. She was blocking my car right now, and I was hitting her car. - This was after y'all went out from there? - No, this is while, I guess, y'all was doing patrols on video or something like that. - Mm-hmm. - They had a lot of information that he was not aware that they had. Noticed they were on their phones a lot while they were in the room. That's likely because they were texting with detectives who were outside of the room watching the video, and were feeding them information about what was going on in the apartment complex. - And they had a lot of information. - As he begins to answer the questions, and they're not answered the way they should be, there's a difference. There's a little change here, a little change there. So piece by piece, in a very casual way, they try to come to a conclusion. And they also have to give credit to the fact it's been six months. So if possibly he's not the person who murdered her, it's not perfect. - Did you ever go out there where she, do you know where she was found? - Mmm, 3:16, somewhere in there. - Yeah, do you ever go in the woods and stuff out there? - In the woods, no. - Is there any reason why you would've dropped it out there, maybe? - No, no. - Do y'all do any training out there or anything? - No, not over there, at least. - Okay, so, I'm just curious, that's so crazy. - That is, that was crazy, yeah. - Detective Carter then chose to obtain phone records for Mr. Bryant, just to exclude him as a suspect and prove that he had nothing to do with Susanna's disappearance. He had two phones. He had a phone issued by the city of Doraville that was for work, and he also had a personal phone. Those phone records are able to help the police triangulate to a degree where somebody's phone is located at any given time. Detective Carter then started to analyze that data, figure out where Mr. Bryant's phone was at the night of July 26th and to the morning hours of July 27th. And what they found was fairly shocking. - You didn't go over where her body was found that night, right, to like in the woods or anything? - Mm-mm. - Okay, all right. - I didn't. I don't think her body was found. - Off 3:16. - No, I just drove around. - You didn't go in the woodland, contemplating life or anything, did you? I'm just joking with you. I'm making jokes. That's a creepy-ass place to walk to. - I drove everywhere, I'm not sure where I drove. - Y'all just played chase and boo until y'all went home? - Mm, no. - Who went home first? - I don't know, but I know I lost her and I just drove around. Where did I drive to? I went toward, God, this sounds bad. It sounds terrible, 'cause I remember being on the exit going that way, trying to lose her. I remember going up 85. Oh, man, that sounds bad. I just ordered my 3:16. - He's starting to feel pressure, and he's also hopefully going to feel in their eyes, relief. If he'll actually admit to what he did. - Just a few hours after Susana disappeared, Mr. Bryant's phone was used to make several phone calls between one and two o'clock in the morning on the morning of July 27th. And the phone towers that his phone communicated with were located out in Tequila, Georgia, on the side of Highway 316. Mr. Bryant's phone was in the woods, exactly where Susana's body was located, and it was located in the middle of the road. - I'm gonna be honest, I'm really sorry, okay? So, my gun was found in that area, you know. Tequila was in that area, stuff like that, you know. So, I mean, it sounds bad, but I don't know. - I don't think you got anything to hide. I think you're a good person. I mean, you're a police officer. Nobody wants to be a police officer that's. - As they begin to narrow down and see the discrepancies between what he says and what actually happened, they look us in and they realize that he's not telling the truth. At that point, it was obvious to myself and to the Gwinnett County Police Department that Mr. Bryant was involved. Listen to me, your device was the only one out there. She went missing. She died there. Your gun is there. Your phone is there. Okay? This is your moment to talk about it. All right, this looks bad. This looks terrible. Maybe you are a monster. Oh, hell no. Prove it wrong. I don't believe you. Right now, it's the only thing I'm thinking of and that's what everyone else is going to think, too. This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. Right. Okay, we can't afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes. May slow. When network is busy. See terms. The best holiday finds aren't always the ones you went looking for. At Ross, discover unexpected gifts, fashion, decor, and plenty of reasons to keep looking. Ross, expect the unexpected. With savings like that, you'll never look at a free nights plan the same way again. She has a baby. Look at her. A little baby. Yeah, I'm sure this is a big weight. Look at her. Look at her. It has nothing to do with this, though. I know, but she's so tiny. She's a little baby. Yeah, I know. All eyes are now on Georgia police officer and National Guard member Miles Bryan, the primary suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Susanna Morales. The pressure mounts in the interrogation room, but Bryan maintains his innocence. It's not a question about it. It's you or not, because we already know that. No. But listen, it's a question about what happened, okay? It's a question about if you are a cold-blooded killer or if you made a mistake. No, you're involved. No, we're not involved. No. I would not do that and say, well, maybe I messed up. No, none of that. I'm not involved. You could tell there was a drastic shift in that interrogation when they confronted him, and that's when all of his explanations began to just, no, I didn't do that. No, I didn't do that. I would never do that. If he was smart, and he obviously wasn't, he would have KYD BMS. What does that mean? Instead, his story unraveled, and it unraveled rather quickly. Do you black out sometimes when you get angry? No, I don't really. You said not really. What does that mean? No, I don't black out. I don't black out. I can't remember why I do stuff like that. Did you kill her? No. Were you with her when she died? No. Why did you dump her body there? I didn't dump her body there. Were you trying to help her, and she was already dead when you found her? No. I wasn't nowhere in the woods. I would not lie about that. Yes, you are. I'm not. You are. Along the way, one crucial detail emerged, that confirms investigators' suspicions. You also tried to get into a girl's apartment off Annistown. I did not do that. You did? Oh, your phone was just casually there, too? No, they had a whole investigation about that. I was there, but I didn't try to break in her apartment. She lied. Mr. Bryant, for years, dating back to 2018 that we were able to document, began preying upon women in high school. He started burglarizing homes belonging to classmates of his. This escalated even after Susanna's murder, with him trying to break into a young woman's apartment. He would just show up at her apartment, knocking on the doors, attempting to break in. We had him on video trying to break open her door while he was wearing his National Guard fatigues. Why was you hiding your head? It was raining. Oh, it was raining. Because you didn't want anyone to see your hat, because it has your name on the back of your head. She knew exactly where I was. She knew where I was. She didn't want you there. She didn't ever tell me that. You're just a victim in all this. You're just casually being in all these, like, victim situations where you're just casually in the wrong place at the wrong time. They uncovered things on his phone where he had been sending some inappropriate things from other females' phones to himself. He had an instance of a breaking and entering. He had taken some women's undergarments. He certainly had a history that would raise some red flags. Investigators have enough to charge Miles Bryant with concealing the death of another and false report of a crime for allegedly lying about the theft of his firearm found near Susanna's remains. He's arrested and held without bond. But now, the real work begins as prosecutors seek a murder charge. They can go back and see how he became emboldened piece by piece, step by step, doing all of the things that he should, not have been doing, but they're important because they're building blocks to where he ended up. Through interviews, cell phone records and circumstantial evidence, Miles Bryant's charges are upgraded to include kidnapping, malice, murder, felony murder and criminal attempt to commit rape for the abduction and death of Susanna Morales. To believe that a police officer would kidnap and murder somebody they did not know for sexual gratification stretches the bounds of belief to some extent. We had a big obligation to put together a case that a jury would believe and understand and see who Miles Bryant really was. Not the awards and the uniforms and the military service and the police badge, but who he was underneath. Here's a question. Without any direct evidence tying Miles Bryant to Susanna's murder, is there enough to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt? The anguish and the sadness that the mother posed, it, um. I have a daughter the same age, and it really touched me that I felt that it was my duty to try to find her. The defendant doesn't get to escape. Justice, because he's good at committing a crime. Because he's good at covering his tracks. Maybe, could have, great suspicion is not beyond a reasonable doubt. With a suspect behind bars, prosecutors and defense attorneys build their cases. And on June 5th, 2024, almost two years after the kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Susanna Morales, Miles Bryant, the accused murderer, goes on trial. He was supposed to serve and protect. He is one of the people that we should trust to enforce the law. Somebody we should hold to a higher standard. But he didn't do any of those things. Instead, he abused the law. And he used his badge. And he used his position to satisfy his own sexual desires. When the police had the theory they needed, they had the defendant they knew had committed the crime, they had to be able to prove it. We spent months and months preparing to put together a cohesive trial that would tell how a police officer, of all people, somebody who was meant to serve and protect, who took an oath to serve and protect, who took an oath to serve and protect, who took an oath to do that, could possibly do something like this. But it was overwhelming that he was involved in some way. He is a cop who turned into a killer. Jurors listened to emotional testimony from Susanna's family, including her mother, who tearfully illustrated the agonizing hours and days following Susanna's disappearance. From the time that Susanna was taken, how long was it until you heard anything about finding her body? Almost seven months. What went through your mind at that moment when you heard? I did not want that news. I was waiting for her. I'm still waiting for her. And her sister, who describes searching for Susanna. Did you ever stop going after her? out and looking for your sister what went through your mind when you found out about the police finding her body a lot of things i i couldn't believe it i didn't want it to be true i wanted to see her i wanted proof that it was actually her i didn't want to believe that it was her because up to that point we're still expecting for her to come home and the moving statements from law enforcement showed the widespread impact of suzanna's disappearance jasmine called me on a daily basis i wanted her to call me at any time it was two o'clock in the morning um it didn't matter um i hi i'm karen slaughter if you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened i think you'll love the good daughter now my best-selling novel is finally coming to life and i got to write every episode you should have died in them woods your father should have been a better shot starring rose burn megan fahey and brendan gleason from page to screen don't miss the good daughter now streaming only on peacock i'm here charlie and i'm not going away the best holiday finds aren't always the ones you went looking for at ross discover unexpected gifts fashion decor and plenty of reasons to keep looking ross expect the unexpected i actually neglected my family because i made sure um that i i went hunting for and um it meant a lot to me so i would even do it on my own time because i just every time i see my daughter the first thing i thought of was suzanna so i just it was driving me to find her because i i mentally was telling myself that we are going to find her i made sure that i told jasmine that i will give my all detective keschler was communicating with me while i was at the other scene and telling me that they believed it was going to be um sorry a hispanic teenage girl it all lined up i really was hoping it wasn't her have you ever heard of any case involving a teenager's naked body was found in the woods and it was not a homicide no i have not one big question one big question on everyone's mind is whether or not bryant and suzanna had ever crossed paths before at the time that suzanna was missing one of the scenes killed y'all have been friends for about five years yes sir what was the last time that you saw suzanna in person before she was dating maybe two days prior had you ever met miles bryant i didn't know who he was at the time but i have met him before i would see him around the apartments every once in a while did you ever have any kind of conversation yes tell us about that there were there was an instance where me and suzanna were walking in the sterling glenn apartments he had stopped in a black truck asking us if we needed a ride we just kind of laughed it off and didn't talk about it when mr bryant was interviewed he steadfastly denied ever having seen her not just met her or talked to her or had any interaction with her he denied ever even laying eyes on her ever before and having people testify that that was an outright lie was very significant still to today we have never uncovered a single piece of evidence that mr bryant and suzanna ever spoke they never texted they never texted they never they were not friends on social media absolutely zero trace of any connection between the two of them with the prosecution having laid out their case the defense now takes center stage you don't have to like my mind and in fact at the conclusion of this trial you're going to think that he is the most callous uncaring coward that you have ever seen however he is not guilty what you have from the state is speculation we found this and we don't really know but this is what we think happened so let's just make him look really really bad and maybe you'll hate him enough that you will convict and they make some major admissions the only things we know for certain she was in the truck now we do know that he lied in his statement he said he wasn't in the woods we do know that miles left her in the woods we don't know if she was unconscious at that time or if she was dead we don't know that he did anything to her to cause that they had mentioned during opening that they were likely going to call the defendant to testify on his own behalf they later changed their minds on doing that they didn't do a whole lot other than cross-examine the prosecutor's witnesses and try to throw out other theories of how she died but they didn't have any proof of those theories being plausible one of the biggest strong points for him was they ultimately did not find any dna on her or him that linked the two of them or in his vehicles we know that suzanne was at least at a minimum experimenting with drugs outside of pot did she overdose it was never treated as a possible overdose because of the body being in the woods and not having clothes we had to overcome the fact that suzanna wasn't a perfect human being she had made journal entries that while she had tried meth it made her feel horrible and she was upset and disgusted with herself and she would never do it again the defense strategy in this case was to paint suzanna as a troubled youth as a young lady who had a drug problem who was a runaway and she was a young lady who was a runaway and maybe into risky behavior her friends said that suzanna was fine while they had smoked marijuana that night that was a common practice for them and this night was no different his counsel argued that without a cause of death we can't prove he killed her unfortunately we don't know how this young lady died if there is another theory it doesn't have to be more probable than something else but any reasonable theory means you must find him not guilty the defense calls no witnesses of their own and following days of testimony the case is handed off to the jury perhaps the most difficult part of any trial in my experience is the moment when the jury walks into the back to go deliberate the anxiety is through the roof the reality that if they don't convict him a killer is going to walk free after just two hours of deliberations the jury returns with their verdict count one malice murder we the jury found the defendant guilty count two felony murder we the jury find the defendant guilty kidnapping we the jury found the defendant guilty criminal attempt to commit rape we the jury found the defendant not guilty false report of a crime we the jury found the defendant guilty miles bryant is found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of suzanna morales he's sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole i knew at that moment that we got him that we had done our job no one's above the law and he got what he deserved everybody who encountered him had the same thing to say about him that he seemed very dutiful very conscientious of his job loved being a police officer but what was unseen was his dark side just like any profession you could run into having a bad egg as a law enforcement officer your job is to protect others who cannot be protected this is a very sad case apparently of an officer who was not doing it for the right reasons they found him guilty and they certainly should have he is someone who should never walk the streets again but that's not the end of the story now you see suzanna morales's family has filed a lawsuit against the sterling glenn apartments arguing they should have known about miles bryant's past and therefore not hired him as a courtesy officer in other words this may never have happened so their battle for justice for suzanna is far from over that's all we have for you here on this episode of prime crime everybody thank you so much for joining us i'm jesse weber and as always stay safe the best holiday finds aren't always the ones you went looking for at ross discover unexpected gifts fashion decor and plenty of reasons to keep looking ross expect the unexpected