GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The murder case of a 16-year-old Gwinnett County girl will go to trial later this year, with an ex-police officer charged in the killing.
Susana Morales went missing in the summer of 2022, and it would be months until her remains were found in the woods.
The unsettling details of the case included police accusing Miles Bryant - a Doraville police officer who was terminated upon being arrested in early 2023 - of dumping Morales' naked body in the woods. Gwinnett Police later detailed a timeline of how they believed she was killed by Bryant after she'd gone to visit a friend the night of July 26, 2022.
Few other details about the killing itself have emerged, with Gwinnett Police Chief J.D. McClure saying last year: "We don't definitively know (how she died); we're still investigating. What we do know is she died at the hands of Miles Bryant."
Here's where the case stands:
Miles Bryant Georgia murder trial update
Court records in Gwinnett County show a scheduled trial date starting on June 3, 2024. These scheduling dates can sometimes change.
Bryant faces four charges: Murder, felony murder, kidnapping and false report of a crime (the fourth charge relates to an alleged false report on July 27, 2022 that his personal car had been broken into and a gun had been taken from inside.)
Where the case stands
Bryant is in jail and has been denied bond twice, most recently in May 2023.
Since his arrest, police have released a tentative outline of events:
- On July 26, 2022, Susana Morales went to visit a friend in a nearby apartment complex, and she was taken between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. while returning home. Police believe that she was killed sometime by 2 a.m.
- Susana Morales was reported missing the next morning, July 27, at 9 a.m.
- "By the time she was reported missing we have every reason to believe that Susana was deceased," McClure said.
- He also said there was "no indication" Susana had been shot to death.
Who is Miles Bryant?
- He was a Doraville Police officer. That department said Bryant was no longer employed with them after his arrest, calling him a "now former police officer."
- Bryant lived on Windscape Village Lane in Norcross, near the location where Susana Morales lived and originally went missing.
- He also lived and served as a courtesy officer at the apartment complex where Susana had gone to visit.
- Chief McClure previously said that investigators have not established if Morales and Bryant knew each other prior to her death.
- In a press conference last year, McClure acknowledged previous incidents involving Bryant - pointing to one in 2018, in which he had allegedly tried to enter a neighbor's home through the window. Additionally, there were allegations in December 2022 that Bryant tried to enter a residence where a woman said he was stalking her.