‘Monster with a badge’: How an officer was convicted in teen’s shocking murder

On July 26, 2022, 16-year-old Susana Morales vanished whereas strolling dwelling from a buddy’s home in Norcross, Georgia — a journey that ought to have solely been taken about quarter-hour.

She was final seen leaving the Sterling Glen Apartments earlier than a monitoring app detected her transferring in the other way at round 40 miles per hour, a troubling signal that Morales could have entered a car. virtually seven months later, her stays had been positioned in the woods close to a freeway greater than 20 miles away.

A brand new “20/20” episode, “Tracking Susana“ with John Quinones, toYoring Friday, May 8, at 9 pm ET on ABC and streaming the following day on Disney+ and Hulu, study the case.

You may get extra behind-the-scenes of every week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly collection proper in your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.

In an unique new interview with “20/20,” Morales’ sister Jasmine Perez described her love of music and inventive expression.

“Susana’s hair was very curly; she loved exploring new colors with it. She had dyed her hair green, red and blonde at one point,” Perez stated.

Her mom, Maria Bran, advised ABC News correspondent John Quiñones that she would go by the nickname Susi and how she wished to have a good time her Quinceañera by consuming her favourite meals.

“She tells me…mommy, I want tacos,” Bran stated.

When her skeletal stays had been found In February 2023, investigators decided, based mostly on the truth that no clothes fragments had been discovered close to her stays, that Morales’s physique had been left there bare.

Nails with black finger polish, like Susana wore on the eve of her vanishing, They had been discovered in the woods. It was the primary indication to authorities that they’d lastly discovered Susana.

However, investigators additionally positioned the important thing to trace down her killer 30 yards away — a black Glock 19 pistol.

Police found that the morning after Morales disappeared, Miles Bryant reported the gun lacking from his residence on the Sterling Glen Apartments, the place Morales was final seen.

Bryant, 22, was a native police officer of a neighboring city who additionally served deal with member of the Army National Guard and a courtesy officer on the Sterling Glen Apartments. He stated that the gun and his pockets had been stolen from his unlocked automobile, in line with authorities.

Morales’ buddy Alyssa Marvin would later testify that they’d beforehand met Bryant on the condo advanced, the place she stated he supplied them medicine and a journey in his automobile.

“He wanted to drink with me before he knew my age,” she stated on the stand. “But he still offered the edibles.”

Marvin additionally stated that Bryant supplied them “a ride to get pizza.”

“We said no because, ‘We’re underage, you’re grown,'” she stated. Marvin was 17 on the time the encounter occurred.

Obtaining his cellphone data, police found that his private and work telephones positioned him on the scene the place Morales’ stays had been discovered on the evening she vanished and the next morning. His web data additionally held searches of the wooded space and a Safari question for “How long does it take a body to decompose?,” authorities stated.

In an interview with police, Bryant stated he was in the world on the evening of Morales’ disappearance, however didn’t exit his car.

In an unique new interview with “20/20,” murder detective Angela Carter stated that Bryant was extraordinarily nervous.

“At that point, when I told him we found his gun, he does start shaking a little bit more,” Carter stated. “Interviewing him was just so frustrating because this poor girl didn’t deserve this. She didn’t. I just wanted him to take responsibility and actually tell us what happened.”

Despite his claims of innocence, Bryant was arrested and finally charged with malice murder, legal murder, kidnapping and false reporting of a crime, to which he pleaded not responsible.

At trial, Bryant’s protection argued that he had no involvement in the crime stressing that Morales’ reason behind demise couldn’t be decided as a result of decomposition of his physique.

“Is there any evidence of malice and murder? There is not,” protection legal professional Tracy Drake stated.

The prosecution argued that Bryant had encountered Morales earlier than and certain adopted her from the Sterling Glen Apartments, then both lured her with his badge or compelled her into his truck earlier than killing her and leaving her physique in the woods.

Special Prosecutor Brandon Delfunt known as him a “monster with a badge.”

Bryant was convicted in June 2024 of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor false report of a crime. he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 12 months.

He tried to enchantment the decision, however was denied a new trial in March. Bryant is now interesting that call to Georgia’s Supreme Court.

Morales’ sister Jasmine Perez nonetheless remembers her as a joyful and loving particular person.

“I would like her to recollect her by her snort, that she was a stunning lady and on the finish of the day, she was simply a sister, a daughter, a buddy, and that evening, she was on the way in which dwelling and no person had the appropriate to take that away from her,” she stated.