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00:00:00An all-new 2020 starts right now.
00:00:43When Susanna walked out the back gate of Sterling Glen Apartments, there's a sidewalk
00:00:53there that would take her straight to her residence.
00:00:56Where can I see her last known location?
00:00:58I have a screenshot.
00:01:00You have a screenshot?
00:01:03They could see that she was walking back from the apartment complex down Singleton Road.
00:01:08And all of a sudden, she goes in the opposite direction in the car.
00:01:11And that's when I started panicking.
00:01:13Something happened to her on the way home.
00:01:15This case is just, it's unreal.
00:01:17She walked that way.
00:01:18Cunha County police are hoping that you can help them find a teenager, 16-year-old Susanna
00:01:22Morales.
00:01:23Police now believe that she may have gotten into a car that night, July 26th.
00:01:27She was a young, full-of-life teenager who vanished pretty much out of thin air.
00:01:32You know why we're here?
00:01:34What do you want me to see, girl?
00:01:35We just thought about the worst.
00:01:37They needed to do something.
00:01:49Oh!
00:01:52Brushes, brushes!
00:01:54Aw!
00:01:56Susanna was the baby.
00:01:58She would get everything that we wanted when we were at her age.
00:02:01Necklace, earrings.
00:02:03Necklace, earrings.
00:02:03Yes, yes.
00:02:04She was definitely spoiled.
00:02:07Y'all really went out.
00:02:08This is cute.
00:02:10I like this.
00:02:11Our best moments is laughing together as a family.
00:02:15Oh, chicle!
00:02:20Susanna Morales was very close to her family.
00:02:26They lived in Norcross here in Gwinnett County.
00:02:30We are a large county just north of Atlanta.
00:02:35And we are one of the most diverse counties in the United States.
00:02:40Where are you from originally?
00:02:42Mexico.
00:02:43What were you looking for?
00:02:45Vivir mejor, verdad?
00:02:48Three daughters?
00:02:49Tres hijas?
00:02:50Tres hijas.
00:02:51Julissa, Yasmin, and Susanna.
00:02:57Her name was Susanna, but you called her?
00:03:00Susie.
00:03:03Me and Susanna had a ten years difference.
00:03:05Me being the oldest, I used to take care of them.
00:03:10Susanna was very outgoing.
00:03:13I was a little closer to Susanna probably because
00:03:15three-year age gap between us.
00:03:17She was always making TikTok videos.
00:03:20She loved to record music videos of herself singing.
00:03:29Susanna's best friends that I've known since middle school,
00:03:32for her was Kaya and Esrada.
00:03:35Shumbaya.
00:03:37They were very, very close.
00:03:39We had fun together.
00:03:42We didn't have to do much to be happy around each other.
00:03:45She was a very bubbly person.
00:03:48Remember Susanna.
00:03:50She was very sweet, very nice.
00:03:52Susanna's hair was very curly.
00:03:54She loved exploring new colors with it.
00:03:56She had dyed her hair green, red, and blonde at one point.
00:04:01She worked with her mother at a local McDonald's.
00:04:05She loved music.
00:04:07She loved to play a ukulele that had been given to her.
00:04:11She loved to sing.
00:04:11So won't you save me.
00:04:15Your location that's focused on communicating.
00:04:24Take me through that day, July 26, 2022.
00:04:33Susanna didn't really like fish and didn't want to eat that.
00:04:36So she asked her mother if she could go to her friend Esmeralda's home.
00:04:42How close was that house?
00:04:45Six minutes.
00:04:47She told her mom she got to her friend's house safe.
00:04:49And that was around 7, 19 p.m.
00:04:51I just want to know if you got there.
00:04:53Uh-huh.
00:04:54And she responds.
00:04:55Si.
00:04:56Si.
00:04:56With a thumbs up.
00:04:57Uh-huh.
00:04:57Yeah.
00:05:03Later that night, approximately 9.40ish p.m., Susanna's mom starts calling Susanna and asking
00:05:10her to come home because it's getting late.
00:05:12You were going to go pick her up.
00:05:21Susanna's mom reached out for Susanna to be like, hey, where are you?
00:05:24And she texts her and texts her and texts her.
00:05:26And she said, Susanna, do you want me to go for you?
00:05:28Please.
00:05:31My daughter, please answer.
00:05:34Because Susanna's mother was not able to get in touch with her, she reached out to
00:05:38Esmeralda and her family.
00:05:40She called me asking if Susanna was at my house.
00:05:44Susanna had actually never come over there.
00:05:47Of course, that's my best friend, so I will back her up.
00:05:50I told her that Susanna was leaving while I was able to get enough time to get a hold of
00:05:54Susanna.
00:05:54Initially, Esmeralda, being a teenage friend, was trying to cover for Susanna.
00:06:00I contacted her, calling her.
00:06:03No response.
00:06:03So I texted her and told her that her mother was looking for her and she better be on her
00:06:07way home before I get in trouble.
00:06:09Susanna's mother recalls talking to Esmeralda's mother who told her Susanna was never there.
00:06:17So mom at that point is worried and like, hey, why was my daughter not where she said she was?
00:06:25I remember getting a call from my mom like around 9 or 10 p.m. at night.
00:06:30And she was just asking me if I heard from Susanna or if I had talked to her because she
00:06:34wasn't answering her phone.
00:06:36Susanna's mother was continuously contacting people, trying to figure out where Susanna might be.
00:06:42She had a very good relationship with her sisters and her mom, so that was not characteristic if she did
00:06:47not get in contact with her mom.
00:06:48I told my mom that maybe Susanna's phone had died or that she fell asleep and that she's awake till
00:06:53morning to hear from her.
00:06:56You realize there's something really wrong here.
00:07:06One of Susanna's friends gets a crash alert on her cell phone.
00:07:11Susanna's in a moving vehicle and there's a serious crash.
00:07:27That's Susy, huh?
00:07:28Your screenshot on her 15th birthday.
00:07:34For her quinceanera, what did she want more than anything?
00:07:37Mami, quiero tacos.
00:07:39Tacos?
00:07:40Tacos, Susy.
00:07:42All she wanted was great tacos.
00:07:44She wanted us to buy her a mini quinceanera dress, a pink,
00:07:49sparkly,
00:07:49sparkly,
00:07:50short kissing in her dress.
00:07:52Susanna was always hanging out with her friends.
00:07:59None of them drove, so they all were young and would walk to each other's house.
00:08:07On July 26th, 2022, while Susanna's mother was attempting to locate her and worried about where Susanna was,
00:08:17Susanna's friend, Kaya, had gotten a notification on her phone through a mobile application on their phone called Live 360.
00:08:26It's an app where you can add people to your circle.
00:08:29You can add friends, family members, and it'll tell you their location.
00:08:33It also provides other safety features, like parents can track their kids.
00:08:37It shows how fast they're driving.
00:08:39It shows if the phone battery's low, things like that.
00:08:45Around 10.30 p.m., Susanna's friend, Kaya, had gotten a notification on her phone that Susanna's phone had been
00:08:54involved in some kind of crash.
00:08:57Kaya gets what they call a crash alert on her phone. To get a crash alert, there has to be
00:09:03serious force with that phone.
00:09:06Susanna could have potentially been involved in a car accident.
00:09:12Once Kaya got the Live 360 notification crash alert, she contacted Esmeralda.
00:09:19So her friends at that point are worried about Susanna, and Susanna didn't drive.
00:09:25After speaking with Esmeralda, she went out there and checked it out because we were thinking she got into a
00:09:30car accident.
00:09:31They had the location of where the alert was sent from. So they went to that location and started looking
00:09:37for Susanna.
00:09:38I was on the phone with Kaya. My sister had Susanna's phone number.
00:09:42My sister was calling her phone to see maybe we could find it or find any debris of any sort
00:09:47of car crash.
00:09:48But that road in that neighborhood was very quiet that night, so obviously there was no car crash.
00:09:55There's no signs at all of a vehicle crash, no signs of Susanna, and no signs of her phone.
00:10:00She couldn't find any debris or anything, so we just assumed that she was sleeping over at a friend's house,
00:10:07and we slept on it.
00:10:14The next day, I received a terrifying call from my mom where she was sobbing, and I was like, what
00:10:20happened?
00:10:22My mom called me and told me that she was going to call the police because she hasn't heard from
00:10:25Susanna.
00:10:26And I turned her away from me, and I left work.
00:10:28I don't think I was really worried until I got the screenshots from the Live 360, and that's when I
00:10:34started panicking.
00:10:35And it basically showed the trip of her walking home, and all of a sudden she goes in the opposite
00:10:40direction in the car.
00:10:42And it was like a notification of the 360 that Susanna might have been in a crash.
00:10:48She's heading down Singleton Road in the direction of back home.
00:10:54Then we see about five minutes later, her direction pattern change, and she's going the exact opposite way away from
00:11:03her house.
00:11:04And here, we see she's now driving in a vehicle at a top speed of 40 miles an hour.
00:11:13Ultimately, we get the crash alert at that location.
00:11:17That's the last known location where Susanna phones pings.
00:11:23Once we got the screenshots, we realized that Susanna had gone to a different friend's house.
00:11:28She actually had gone to her friend Alyssa and Kelly's apartment complex.
00:11:36Kelly is a girl that Susanna's mom, for whatever reason, didn't like.
00:11:40She didn't want Susanna to be around certain friends because she believed they were a bad influence.
00:11:48Susanna knew that her mom was going to say no about her going to Kelly's house.
00:11:52So she asked, can I go to Esmeralda's house?
00:11:56So that's where Maria thought she was going to go.
00:11:58But instead, she ended up going to Kelly's house, which she lived in the Sterling Glen Apartments.
00:12:04The Sterling Glen Apartments is a fairly typical apartment complex for that area.
00:12:10A lot of different buildings that have multiple apartment units in them.
00:12:14There is a clubhouse and a pool.
00:12:17Because of the crime in the area, they also employ a courtesy officer to help patrol the area.
00:12:26The family have at this point reached out to all of their friends of Susanna.
00:12:31No one knows where she is, so they reach out to the Gwinnett County Police and make a report.
00:12:52Maria speaks Spanish.
00:12:54So just to have that clear communication, if we can, we send officers that speak Spanish.
00:13:09Her friend has her on Life 360, you know that is?
00:13:11Mm-hmm.
00:13:12But it's not like renewing her location.
00:13:15And once the officer arrived at the house, we were just letting them know what was going on,
00:13:18that Susanna hadn't made home since last night, and she wasn't answering any calls.
00:13:22So where can I see her last known location?
00:13:27Have a screenshot.
00:13:29We were showing him the screenshots from the Life 360 on the messages that we had,
00:13:33and they asked us to send that to them, so we did.
00:13:39When you're looking at the 360 of her being in a car, it can be someone took her, or it
00:13:46can be that she ran away.
00:13:49Whose car is she in? What happened? Is she okay?
00:14:12My name is Xavier Biggers. I've been in policing for 20 years.
00:14:19I've always wanted to be a police officer since I was five years old.
00:14:24At the time of Susanna Morales' disappearance, my title was a sergeant over at the Special Victims Unit.
00:14:31Initially, I had nothing other than what the officers on the scene had given me.
00:14:40You showed him something on your phone?
00:14:42La photo. La photo de Susy.
00:14:48Que tenia puesto cuando esa fue?
00:14:50Eso se miraba el día.
00:14:51Ahí.
00:14:55Jeans, a yellow tank top. They show Susanna's hair.
00:15:00She had black fingernails.
00:15:02That's something that stood out as something descriptive for her.
00:15:20They gave us a report number.
00:15:26Good morning, GPSP.
00:15:28Good morning. I need to list a juvenile missing.
00:15:32When Susanna's mother called us to report her missing, she was put on the system by the officer that made
00:15:39the report as a missing person.
00:15:42On that day, I was the on-call sergeant.
00:15:45They called me and let me know that they went door-to-door trying to get more information about her
00:15:49disappearance.
00:15:50They went to Sterling Glen Apartments, where Kelly lives.
00:15:56Hello.
00:15:57Hello.
00:15:58They spent about a good three to four hours at that apartment complex looking for her.
00:16:02She here?
00:16:03She's working right now.
00:16:04And they actually spoke with Kelly and talked with her.
00:16:08You know why we're here?
00:16:13What can you tell us about her?
00:16:15Um, I, um, she left me, uh, ten.
00:16:20And then there was only one day.
00:16:23Right.
00:16:24This is so strange.
00:16:30Susanna ended up walking over to her friend Kelly and Alyssa's home at the apartment complex.
00:16:39We were actually able to locate social media videos that were taken of Susanna and her friends that day.
00:16:46We were doing a belly piercing, just taking videos.
00:16:49We were just hanging out.
00:16:52We ended up walking to the back of the gate to the apartments.
00:16:55And then I just said goodbye.
00:16:57Around 10 p.m., Kelly said that she took Susanna to the exit of the Sterling Glen Apartments on Singleton
00:17:05Road.
00:17:07Singleton Road is located in a pretty populated area.
00:17:11There are residential areas as well as businesses.
00:17:14Even at night, there's a lot of foot traffic as well as vehicles.
00:17:19Susanna had walked on that road numerous times, so she was familiar with it.
00:17:24However, once you pass the businesses, it is a very dark walk back to Susanna's house.
00:17:38This is where Kelly basically walked Susanna out to the back gate and Susanna went home this way from the
00:17:46back gate.
00:17:48From Sterling Glen Apartments to Susanna home is probably only about a 15 minute walk.
00:17:55To get home, Susanna would have exited the Sterling Glen Apartments through the back gate, taken a left onto Singleton
00:18:00Road,
00:18:01and then traveled down Singleton Road and taken a left onto Santa Ana Drive, where her home was located.
00:18:09I was a homicide detective with Gwinnett County Police at the time of Susanna Morales' disappearance.
00:18:15I worked on the same floor as the Special Victims Unit.
00:18:17I heard them talking about it, so of course I jumped in and I was asking questions.
00:18:23There was something up with this that wasn't a typical case.
00:18:28Somewhere after she walked past this parking lot, her phone changed directions and began going back towards the Sterling Glen
00:18:38Apartments at a speed that's consistent with her being in a vehicle.
00:18:41And within less than a mile, a crash alert is received.
00:18:48So this is the direction the 360 application was showing.
00:18:53Susanna was going in at 40 miles per hour.
00:18:56Then this is the area that it pretty much crashes out and round about here.
00:19:02We checked to see if there were any accidents in that area.
00:19:05There was no accidents reported in that area.
00:19:09Given that there's no actual evidence of a car crash,
00:19:12our assumption is that her phone is thrown out the window out of a moving vehicle and that the phone
00:19:18is damaged or broken to cause the crash alert.
00:19:21When you're looking at the 360 of her being in a car, you can see it from both ways.
00:19:26And I saw it from both ways.
00:19:27It can be someone took her or it can be that she ran away.
00:19:39I knew she didn't run away. She was on the way home and something happened.
00:19:45Just because of the information that we had about hanging out with Kelly,
00:19:50and the fact that she told her mother that she was going one place and she ended up going somewhere
00:19:54else,
00:19:55we was thinking maybe that she had thrown her cell phone away or got rid of it because she knew
00:20:00she was going to get in trouble.
00:20:01So we linked this as possibly while she was running away.
00:20:08Even with that, we were working the case as a regular missing person by gathering the information we had as
00:20:16far as her friends,
00:20:19her social media and doing the things as our policy has stated and working at that point.
00:20:24Did you ever think she would run away?
00:20:27No, no.
00:20:28I never, never, never thought she would run away.
00:20:32Never.
00:20:36She didn't take her trotter.
00:20:38She didn't take clothes.
00:20:39She didn't take anything.
00:20:40So we were really, really scared at that moment.
00:20:44And that's when we as a family start looking for her.
00:20:50They needed to do something.
00:20:52Susanna is nowhere to be found.
00:20:53They go out.
00:20:54They start canvassing.
00:20:56Then, the family thinks they found something.
00:21:00That's her, that's her.
00:21:02That is her.
00:21:03That's her.
00:21:14Just be honest, we don't throw out search parties unless it's a critical person.
00:21:21Diabetic.
00:21:22Can't live by their own.
00:21:24Something that will have exigent circumstances for us to find this person.
00:21:29She's 16, right?
00:21:31Yeah, let me make a couple phone calls.
00:21:34After filing the police report, we said that we weren't going to wait.
00:21:37We had to do something.
00:21:38And so using the screenshots that we had, we kind of retraced her steps.
00:21:46We started looking for her in the exact point where the app shows where the incident was.
00:21:54The ping hit at this area right here.
00:21:58Her family came here, and it was unfortunate that this was not the location where Susanna was at.
00:22:04It was just the last area where her cell phone pinged at.
00:22:08We tried to retrace her steps that we thought that she would take.
00:22:11So we started at Kelly's apartment.
00:22:15We were the detectives.
00:22:26They needed to do something.
00:22:28Susanna is nowhere to be found.
00:22:30They go out, they start canvassing as well.
00:22:32We were asking all the businesses to see if they had any cameras.
00:22:37And we got to a daycare.
00:22:41The camera system that that place had, it was super old, so it was like an hour ahead or behind.
00:22:47I'll tell you the time it is.
00:22:49At first we couldn't get anything until he went back to the right hour.
00:22:54And we saw Susanna.
00:22:59That is her.
00:23:02That's her.
00:23:04We were like, oh my God.
00:23:06That's her.
00:23:06That's her.
00:23:08In the video, Susanna is wearing the yellow tank top, jeans, and white Crocs.
00:23:14She's alone.
00:23:15There's no cars near her, no strangers.
00:23:18She appeared to be walking towards the direction of her home, and nothing was wrong at that moment.
00:23:23Susanna walked this way.
00:23:25She walked past the cameras coming right there.
00:23:28She walked down this pathway here.
00:23:33Once we saw that, our mind was thinking, you know, that maybe she got kidnapped, she's being raped, she's trafficking.
00:23:39We just thought about the worst.
00:23:47It was a bad feeling, because we knew for sure something had happened, because she was on the way home.
00:23:56How did you feel?
00:24:20How did you feel?
00:24:25How did you feel?
00:24:25We have close to 40 to 50 missing persons reports in our system a month.
00:24:31And I would say a majority of those, they come back home within the first week.
00:24:37all hands are on deck when it comes to a person that's been abducted versus someone is just being
00:24:42missing because you have to show that foul play is actually involved and at that time we didn't
00:24:49have any information that Susanna was abducted by anyone however I had taken a case as a personal
00:24:55matter and I was looking for her like someone had taken her my daughter's 16 at the time when this
00:25:04occurred I looked at this as if she was my daughter because every day I saw my daughter I saw
00:25:12her so I
00:25:14was working harder every day because
00:25:32I came over here to the extra store space knowing that Susanna was continuing her walk but
00:25:38unfortunately the video camera only caught the brush at the bottom of here it didn't capture the
00:25:44sidewalk we actually checked the buses cameras doing that time frame when she went missing we
00:25:52didn't see any footage of her on any of the buses at Sterling Glen apartments the only cameras that
00:26:01they have are on top of the building those are considered like live feed cameras which means live
00:26:06on my feed not recording once Susanna was reported missing and nobody was able to find any location for
00:26:22her or any information about where she had gone Susanna's family and her friends and the community
00:26:28began to launch a campaign to try and find Susanna we decided we would make these big posters and say
00:26:36have you seen her can you please call this number and we were posting all over social media
00:26:43I remember I got a call from this woman she was saying I have your sister I have your sister
00:26:50in that moment my heart dropped especially nowadays with social media people do things to make you
00:27:00feel like a moment of hope and false hope and that's what happened it was just not messing with me
00:27:11unfortunately there are evil people out there and they prey on this
00:27:20the family is begging and pleading with anyone to find Susanna we just don't know what happened
00:27:27we don't know she got picked up we don't know she got lost she wouldn't just go out and like
00:27:30not tell
00:27:31us this was a case that grabbed so much attention you're talking about a teenager and all of a sudden
00:27:37she goes missing it blows your mind we did receive a lot of tips from people who were genuine and
00:27:47did
00:27:47care and tried to give potential sightings of her one tip brings her family to the brink someone saw
00:27:56Susanna's bright curly hair at a hotel police are dispatched to the scene what do they find
00:28:20me and my mom were going out every single day if we would get a tip at two in the
00:28:25morning we would
00:28:25be out looking for her at two in the morning I remember that we would get a lot of like
00:28:32sightings
00:28:32of her and so we would always go and check out at one point a tip comes in that someone
00:28:40saw Susanna's
00:28:41bright curly hair at a hotel and when we went we were just like driving around the hotel and then
00:28:52in
00:28:52one of the windows we saw like a silhouette of two women and one had super curly hair and we
00:28:59were like
00:29:00for sure that it was Susanna so we called the police we had officers go to the hotel because they
00:29:06were
00:29:06actually waiting in the parking lot saying that Susanna was actually there they were taking forever
00:29:11to get there and once the police got there they went inside and they were able to talk to one
00:29:16of
00:29:16the woman that was there but we didn't have left was the one with curly hair and so we were
00:29:21like oh my
00:29:22god what if that was her so we were left with that doubt if that lady was her or not
00:29:34they never gave up hoping I lived off their hope after my eight hours of work I would still spend
00:29:41two
00:29:41to three more extra hours during I would call it Susanna time just driving around just to seeing if I
00:29:49could see Susanna sitting on a stoop or sitting at the playground hoping that I would possibly see her
00:29:59just walking down the sidewalk I mean my car doesn't really look like I mean a police guard so I
00:30:09would
00:30:09actually go in plain clothes and just like camp out at some of these hotels and after a while some
00:30:16of the
00:30:16criminals who who do a lot of prostitution start noticing who I was this is the RV camp someone said
00:30:26that they had thought they saw her saw a sighting of her over here and then I just got into
00:30:30a routine
00:30:31that I would do the exact same thing and I would go from the hotels to here to the businesses
00:30:38to the
00:30:40apartment complex to Sterling Glen I just kept doing the exact same thing over and over because I just
00:30:49felt that if I didn't do it that will be the day that someone saw her it was a super
00:30:56hard time I was
00:30:58honestly really just trying to be strong for my mom
00:31:18the longer that Susanna remained missing the bigger of a story this became in the local community
00:31:25it's been more than a month since anyone in Susanna Morales's family has heard from the 16 year old
00:31:31this flyer is all across Norcross in Gwinnett County today Gwinnett police said they can't
00:31:36find her alone honestly we're just tired of not knowing that's like the hardest part but our goal
00:31:41was just to make sure that everybody knew her face if anybody were testing her they would call us
00:31:46Gwinnett police on Monday said they have exhausted all options and need the public's help to find her
00:31:50the Meadow Creek High student is not believed to be in any danger what's the evidence for them to think
00:31:55that or do they have evidence that show otherwise while we're going through the fall
00:32:00police don't have any updates on it and during that time I also I was pregnant I couldn't eat I
00:32:07couldn't sleep all I do was cry I got pregnant before I couldn't do anything and so mainly I
00:32:12felt guilt for not being able to look for her more
00:32:20as the investigation began to month after month turn up no results the special victims unit turned
00:32:29the case over to the homicide unit what's interesting about this case is there's a team with the first 48
00:32:40TV
00:32:40show that was embedded with police during this investigation into this disappearance
00:32:48of a teenage girl as to use them working a missing juvenile case for going on actually six months
00:32:55today I was asked to come in and assist and I just got kind of pushy I guess not in
00:33:02a bad way
00:33:02I just kind of hijacked the case Carter is just man she's a she's a warrior and she knows she
00:33:11just
00:33:11have a knack for stuff there was zero communication coming from Susanna after that crash alert literally
00:33:23zero activity nothing she's a teenager that's unheard of we did have hope that somebody new was coming to
00:33:31the case and hopefully they were able to see something that nobody else saw I started from
00:33:38scratch we took metal detectors where her phone was last seen on life 360 and attempted to locate it
00:33:48we're just gonna check that center median I really want to find this we didn't find the phone we just
00:34:00tried I spoke to friends I spoke to family you treat this just like a real homicide case not just
00:34:08a person just
00:34:09walked away everyone is now considered a suspect at this point throughout those investigations the police
00:34:15realized that absolutely none of them had any information whatsoever as to Susanna's disappearance so I asked for
00:34:22another media release to be sent out just to keep her name relevant and we had no suspects at that
00:34:27time we
00:34:28don't know who's watching this is 16 year old Susanna Morales a teenager who's been missing since summer cell phone
00:34:35data and cameras show her last known location was in Gwinnett County walking home we needed either someone come
00:34:42forward with some information or Susanna come home if you have information please call Gwinnett County police and then within
00:34:52about two weeks or so we had a break in the case I receive a call saying did you hear
00:34:58the news they found your sister
00:35:00y'all really went out nobody expected to still be looking for her Gwinnett County police department out of
00:35:15police they said they have exhausted all options looking for this missing high school student
00:35:24we had the meeting where it was decided like I would kind of take over the case and then we
00:35:28just started
00:35:29doing all these other search warrants and we got a call
00:35:38he was driving he noticed on the side of highway 316 a trail that went into the wood line he
00:35:48had a small
00:35:49kind of off-road vehicle and he liked to adventure and find different trails and so he took that trail
00:35:54down the side of highway 316 he ultimately said that he got a phone call got out and began to
00:36:01walk around the
00:36:02woods as he was on the phone I was just out walking through the woods off the side of 316
00:36:08but I found a
00:36:10human skull all right we're gonna have an officer head out that way a patrol officer sent check out
00:36:21those remains the immediate assumption is hey it's probably an animal it's a skull
00:36:35oh it's going how are you doing that way a little walk it's going 100 yards
00:36:41sure officers arrive and they meet the man who made the 911 call from on the side of the highway
00:36:47and he kind of leads them into the woods where he found it is it off like this road or
00:36:51is it a little
00:36:52the way there's no stores there's no real residence it's just literally the side of a highway not a place
00:37:03that people normally would pull over and just walk around or there's no reason for someone to be there
00:37:07we see on that officer's body cam when he gets there the officer sees a skull and the remains are
00:37:18too big to
00:37:19be a small animal and it's clearly they are human and there's more I walked straight that way
00:37:27step back a little bit see how far we got to cordon this off I got some taping back in
00:37:30my car too
00:37:33so the Gwinnett County Police Department confirmed that they did appear to be human remains and so the
00:37:38Gwinnett County Medical Examiner homicide unit and crime scene specialists responded to the area
00:37:46we were called out because a citizen discovered skeletal remains this is just all wooded there's
00:37:52nothing out here yeah this general area right here is where the remains were located this is gonna be
00:37:59all night yeah the first thing that I saw when I got here was a human skull on the ground
00:38:04right now
00:38:05they're collecting some of the larger bones of the foot we've retrieved a significant portion of the
00:38:10skeleton the skulls complete there's no clothing there's no wallet there's no you know possessions
00:38:17no effects police look and there's absolutely nothing to identify the person not even any
00:38:25indication if they're male or female adult child nothing I have not seen any sharp force injuries to the
00:38:34bones right now we don't have a cause of death we don't have an identity looking at it the growth
00:38:42place is not fused he said tibia younger 17 18 inch the first words from the forensic pathologist when
00:38:52she sees what we have are do you have any missing teenage girls so the medical examiner Dr. Terry she's
00:39:00was able to tell that they're female and that is when red flags start going off in our heads could
00:39:06this be Susanna as we were sifting through the the topsoil and recovering some of the small bones of
00:39:14the hands one of the medical examiner investigators he recovered some fingernails we found some fingernails
00:39:24it was pink that was peeling off of them right yeah like the black this started missing as soon
00:39:31as I saw the nail polish on the fingernails I recalled a photo that Detective Carter had shown me of
00:39:36Susanna
00:39:38in that photograph her her nails were painted black it kind of put a chill in my spine
00:39:45something you took note of was that the remains that we were able to actually recover indicated
00:39:50that her clothes were not with her at the time she was killed I definitely remember thinking that whoever
00:39:57this girl turned out to be you know it was immediately obvious that she didn't walk out into the woods
00:40:02as
00:40:03thick as it was she didn't walk out here in the nude with no shoes on that was immediately suspicious
00:40:11by the time the medical examiner process the scene it was completely dark in the middle of the woods
00:40:18our immediate concern at that point was trying to verify if in fact these were Susanna
00:40:26could it really be Susanna all of ours hearts break because of course we still hope she's alive
00:40:35I made arrangements to have uniformed officers out here so that there would be the bodies all night
00:40:41guarding this perimeter making sure that no evidence could be tampered with to come back
00:40:45out here the next day to search for additional items just because it was too dark to perform that
00:40:50thorough of a search hey y'all hold up recruits found a gun it felt really strange that a firearm
00:41:00would be out here probably 30 yards past when the skeletal remains were found
00:41:20I was just out walking through the woods off the side of 316 but I found a human skull
00:41:27so I walked straight that way and there's a few more over there
00:41:33so we went that next morning out to the remains
00:41:42so just make sure that you're scanning carefully because they're going to be small pieces that you're
00:41:46looking for in addition to clothing shoes something like that all right y'all go ahead
00:41:52let's go form the line from here down to the guard rail let's fill in any gaps so we line
00:41:58up police
00:41:58officers to do a grid walking through the woods near that remains to see is there anything that could
00:42:06have been left there hey y'all hold up
00:42:12what was that coming from the center we found a gun probably 200 feet off the highway here was a
00:42:20black
00:42:20pistol just barely covered with pine straw it was a nine millimeter firearm that had a flashlight
00:42:28attached to the firearm as well,
00:42:31and it appeared it had been there for some time.
00:42:35Probably 30 yards past
00:42:37where the skeletal remains were found.
00:42:41It's definitely suspicious.
00:42:43You want to run that really quick?
00:42:45I'm going to run a 10.9 block pistol,
00:42:47serial Bravo Romeo X-ray Battelle 074.
00:42:55It means it's stolen.
00:42:59The gun was loaded,
00:43:01but there was no evidence to say that it had been fired.
00:43:04That's where the gun is actually found,
00:43:06is where that dead end is.
00:43:08Definitely the close proximity that the gun was to the remains
00:43:12and then the gun being listed as stolen it,
00:43:14it doesn't take a rocket science
00:43:15to figure out that they're probably related.
00:43:17I want to talk to the guy who reported it missing.
00:43:23Police run that serial number of the firearm.
00:43:26They find out that that gun was reported missing by someone named Miles Bryant.
00:43:32Miles Bryant actually lived in the Sterling Glen Apartments.
00:43:37I pulled the report and saw that it had been reported stolen
00:43:40the same day that Susannah was reported as missing
00:43:45from the same location, Sterling Glen Apartments.
00:43:50She's last seen July 26, 2022, 10 o'clock PM.
00:43:56The next morning in the early morning hours,
00:44:00that gun's reported stolen from the Sterling Glen Apartments.
00:44:04Miles Bryant is the owner of that gun.
00:44:07He lives at the Sterling Glen Apartment Complex
00:44:10where Susannah was last seen.
00:44:12All of our evidence is coming back to Sterling Glen.
00:44:16Miles Bryant, the guy who reported a gun stolen
00:44:20the day after Susannah went missing.
00:44:23He reported from his courtesy officer job at Windskate Village.
00:44:26He was working in security, right?
00:44:30Oh, my gosh.
00:44:32He's a cop.
00:44:33Yeah.
00:44:36The moment that I found out that he was a cop,
00:44:38it was like, are you serious?
00:44:40What the heck?
00:44:42Like, it was kind of extremely shocking
00:44:46because you never think you're going to see that.
00:44:50He was, like, getting crazy.
00:44:52Where is he, the officer?
00:44:53Doraville.
00:44:54I learned that the person who reported the gun as stolen
00:44:58was Miles Bryant.
00:45:00From there, I started doing some research on him.
00:45:04Miles Bryant was working for the Doraville Police Department.
00:45:07Doraville is between our area in Gwinnett
00:45:11and the city of Atlanta, not far from us.
00:45:15His side gig was to do security.
00:45:18He was a courtesy officer for the apartment complex
00:45:21where he lived.
00:45:22And that's typical.
00:45:23You'll see officers live in different apartment complex,
00:45:25and they'll do security for them.
00:45:27He appears very young, and he is young.
00:45:30He was in his early 20s.
00:45:34Miles grew up here.
00:45:36He went to school here in Gwinnett County.
00:45:40Me and Miles Bryant grew up since I was in elementary school.
00:45:44We were best friends.
00:45:45He was kind of nerdy.
00:45:46He wore glasses.
00:45:47He liked me if he wasn't my type.
00:45:50So I just kind of threw him into the friend zone.
00:45:55Miles played football at Brookmore High School.
00:45:57He was a running back.
00:45:58His number was 23.
00:46:00He would post highlight videos of himself to his Huddle account.
00:46:08He's an ROTC in high school.
00:46:11He joins the Army National Guard.
00:46:13Miles was very proud of his National Guard service.
00:46:16He posted photos of himself in his uniform on social media.
00:46:20He always wanted to be a police officer.
00:46:29Detective Carter began to review that report of the missing weapon,
00:46:33believing that it was very possible somebody had stolen this gun
00:46:36and used it to abduct Susanna.
00:46:42What's up, man?
00:46:44Hey, Mr. Bryant.
00:46:44Y'all probably getting stabbed. I'm sorry.
00:46:46No, you're good.
00:46:47At that point, that's when we pulled that body cam video on the gun reported missing.
00:46:52So, yesterday, um, so I can't find my wallet.
00:46:57And then this morning, I looked on my floorboard and the, um...
00:47:02My Black 19 holster?
00:47:03Right.
00:47:04Oh, I hate to say it.
00:47:05I think I looked on my...
00:47:06They didn't smash the window or nothing.
00:47:08I left my door on lock.
00:47:09Miles Bryant reports that from his personal vehicle, his own truck,
00:47:13his wallet is taken and his gun is taken.
00:47:15I looked down this morning and saw my holster.
00:47:17I said, I can't find my wallet.
00:47:19My holster's there.
00:47:20My gun and holster's never separate, you know?
00:47:21Okay.
00:47:22Anyway, I'll list it in the truck just to say it's down on the report.
00:47:25Yeah.
00:47:27Um...
00:47:28I don't really care about, you know, the detectives, stuff like that.
00:47:30I just want to get on...
00:47:31We found it very odd that Mr. Bryant would not want detectives to follow up on a stolen gun report.
00:47:39Hey, I just want to document this, but you don't need to send it to detectives.
00:47:43You don't need to investigate that.
00:47:46That's unheard of.
00:47:47If you need anything, hit me up. I'm really willing to talk to you.
00:47:49Cool, man.
00:47:50Appreciate it, bro.
00:47:51Hey, hopefully you find your wallet and it's not actually...
00:47:53Yeah, I know.
00:47:54When the police department discovered that he was a police officer, they didn't want to believe that he was necessarily
00:48:02involved in this.
00:48:04But at the same time, it was very difficult to figure out and think about how his gun could have
00:48:11ended up in the woods where Susanna was last located.
00:48:1422 miles away from where he lived.
00:48:17I was, like, hardcore at that point.
00:48:19We need to talk to this person because they're definitely going to have information or some kind of involvement.
00:48:22We're literally talking to everyone here, so we got no leads, man. We're just running.
00:48:39Myself and Detective Carter went and got the dental records for Susanna.
00:48:46The medical exam was able to match them up and actually told us that it was Susanna.
00:48:54Me and Carter, we just sat there and cried for about 10 minutes because we, um, we didn't want to
00:49:14believe that it was her.
00:49:18We're about to go make death notification to the family.
00:49:23I'm not looking forward to it, but it has to be done.
00:49:34Break the horrible news.
00:49:40Do you guys want to go inside for a second?
00:49:42Yeah.
00:49:42Yeah.
00:49:45I remember going to my mom's house to wait for the police so I know Bakers and Carter were coming.
00:49:50And then that's when they informed us that they had found her remains.
00:49:54And I was like, what?
00:49:56They found my sister.
00:50:00I remember going to my mom screaming.
00:50:05And I was in shock.
00:50:06I was like, that can't be true.
00:50:08Like, that can't be true.
00:50:10My mom literally just fell to the ground.
00:50:13Her soul just left her body.
00:50:15It was the hardest thing that I've ever done.
00:50:18And to this day, it's still, obviously you can see that it still stick with me.
00:50:21The worst news is that someone killed as a mother, since Susana disappeared.
00:50:56Unfortunately, because of the way the body was disposed of, we have no indication of what happened to Susana.
00:51:07But what the medical examiner also determined very quickly was that there was also absolutely no evidence of any clothing
00:51:15that had been on Susana prior to her being left there.
00:51:19And that was significant because with an accidental death, it would be very unlikely, nearly unheard of for Susana to
00:51:27not be dressed, to not be clothed.
00:51:29And so that immediately told us that we suspected this was a homicide.
00:51:36Investigators in Gwinnett County just told us human remains found along Highway 316, that's in Gwinnett County, are those of
00:51:42a 16-year-old girl who disappeared in July.
00:51:47I remember Carter promising me that she would find out what happened and who did it.
00:51:54Looking at Miles, we're kind of wondering, you know, what his involvement may have been.
00:51:59Is he a true victim and had his gun stolen?
00:52:01And whoever stole it is responsible, you know, for maybe taking Susana?
00:52:05Or is this a ruse to distance himself from his gun being located out in the woods where the remains
00:52:12were found?
00:52:13They then obtained a search warrant for Mr. Bryant's cellular phone records.
00:52:21We just got phone records back on our suspects.
00:52:23He is in the wood line at 1 a.m., which is three hours later after Susana goes missing.
00:52:34Now, Miles Bryant was a police officer.
00:52:36He had two phones, a personal cell phone and a work cell phone.
00:52:40Both phones put him in that location, and he's in the same location at the same time as Susana's remains.
00:52:47Oh, I wanted to go arrest him. I wanted to go arrest Miles, like, right away.
00:52:50I wanted to leave that night and go get him because it was alarming.
00:52:55I'm like, he's in a position of power. I'm like, we can't just leave him like this.
00:52:58But this is a cop involved in this. We need to make sure we handle this correctly.
00:53:03I went out there and just waited for him to walk outside.
00:53:06And we just approached him asking for his help for our investigation on Susana.
00:53:12Hey, man, what's up? You doing all right?
00:53:15We're just down here. We're just trying to look for anybody helping us out with that missing girl.
00:53:20What?
00:53:20Yeah.
00:53:21You're the courtesy officer or something?
00:53:23Yes, sir.
00:53:23Cool, man.
00:53:24You know anything about that?
00:53:26Yeah, no, I don't.
00:53:27Miles' response to the information he had about Susana was a little surprising.
00:53:32He should be more informed with what's going on in his complex if he's a good courtesy officer.
00:53:36You know, you got some time for us to come up to our headquarters and just talk about, you know,
00:53:41what you see on a daily basis and stuff like that.
00:53:43Yeah, so at that time, there was no arrest warrants for Miles, so he really needed to come voluntarily.
00:53:49So we kind of just urged him that we needed his help.
00:53:52Yeah.
00:53:54Yeah.
00:53:56Now?
00:53:59I have to go meet my girlfriend and I have to work with him.
00:54:02Okay.
00:54:03What time is work at?
00:54:04Four.
00:54:05Yeah, it shouldn't be.
00:54:06We're literally talking to everyone here.
00:54:07We got no leave, man.
00:54:09We're just trying to document everything.
00:54:10That's all we are.
00:54:11No problem.
00:54:11Okay?
00:54:12You can get up front seat, all right, man?
00:54:15Yeah, we'll get you up there.
00:54:17Knock this out.
00:54:18We don't put him in the back of a patrol car.
00:54:20We actually let him sit up front in the police car, trying to make him feel comfortable.
00:54:25Make him see, hey, we're just police officers, one-on-one friends, talking to each other.
00:54:39So we brought Miles up here.
00:54:41He sat in this chair here.
00:54:43And we interviewed him.
00:54:45Hey, how you doing?
00:54:46In the interview room, we have seats where we put certain people.
00:54:49Like where a detective sits, where a suspect sits.
00:54:52We let him sit in a detective seat.
00:54:53We didn't change anything.
00:54:56We wanted him to be as comfortable as possible.
00:54:58I'm Detective Carter.
00:55:00We don't miss how to get a lot of with this case.
00:55:03So I got to start working a little bit more.
00:55:06So Detective Carter obviously wanted to build a rapport with him.
00:55:10They're both working for the same goal, trying to accomplish the same thing.
00:55:13And that's find a missing girl.
00:55:15Have you ever seen her?
00:55:16Mm-mm.
00:55:16She used to be older quite a bit.
00:55:18Okay.
00:55:19I haven't recognized the picture.
00:55:21I've recognized it.
00:55:22So the initial plan for the interview again, just go in there, be relaxed, ask him very open,
00:55:27and did questions.
00:55:28I asked him about his gun.
00:55:30Have you heard anything about the gun?
00:55:32And I played dumb.
00:55:34I know that your gun was dulled.
00:55:37Do you know that it was located or anything yet?
00:55:38No, I've heard anything.
00:55:39I haven't run it yet.
00:55:40We probably need to check that.
00:55:42And then at one point when I think I got as much information as I probably could get from him
00:55:47with just being super casual, I dropped that one bomb.
00:55:50Basically, my sergeant did confirm, so we did find your gun.
00:55:54Actually, yeah.
00:55:55You watch the news.
00:55:56You know we found Savannah.
00:55:58But there was actually a gun found out there, too.
00:56:01For real?
00:56:01Yeah.
00:56:02You've been shaking.
00:56:03Yeah.
00:56:03It's crazy, you know?
00:56:05I told you you were coming up, you know, we wanted your help and everything, and your hands
00:56:09were shaking in my car.
00:56:10All right.
00:56:11So bad.
00:56:26We had not disclosed prior to the interview with Mr. Bryant that we had found a firearm near
00:56:33Susana's body.
00:56:36So he learned that for the first time sitting there in the interview room.
00:56:41That's crazy.
00:56:42I found my gun.
00:56:43And it's the same serial number.
00:56:45He just verified it.
00:56:46That's crazy.
00:56:47I know.
00:56:48So help me walk through it a little bit.
00:56:50Do you know where she was found?
00:56:52Mmm.
00:56:53315 somewhere.
00:56:54At that point when I told him we found his gun, he does start shaking a little bit more.
00:56:58That's crazy.
00:56:59I found my gun.
00:57:00So...
00:57:00Something is involved?
00:57:02I mean, that's a crazy coincidence.
00:57:04Yeah.
00:57:04I think it got stolen from you the same day.
00:57:06So it was probably someone that was walking around out there.
00:57:08Yeah.
00:57:09Try to think hard with me.
00:57:10Did you know her at all?
00:57:12Or else?
00:57:13Nothing?
00:57:13Nothing at all.
00:57:15Look.
00:57:15Your gun was found there.
00:57:17Yeah.
00:57:17You know how this goes.
00:57:18We have to do like this, that, and a third to do everything.
00:57:22Um...
00:57:23Which we did.
00:57:24We got our due diligence.
00:57:25Yeah.
00:57:25So I did get your phone records.
00:57:26Mm-hmm.
00:57:27Um...
00:57:27So I had new...
00:57:28I know you were already up there.
00:57:30Mm-hmm.
00:57:30So kind of tell...
00:57:31You were there for a little while.
00:57:33So once Miles was confronted with the phone records, he changed his story to say that
00:57:37he got in this crazy chase fight with his girlfriend.
00:57:41I don't get...
00:57:42God, I mean that part.
00:57:43She tried to chase me.
00:57:44I'm gonna try to chase me.
00:57:45With her car.
00:57:46Yeah.
00:57:47I mean I was driving around.
00:57:48I was driving.
00:57:50And...
00:57:51I remember...
00:57:52I was driving.
00:57:53And I was still in our area.
00:57:54I remember I was driving.
00:57:55She tried to chase me.
00:57:57Yeah.
00:57:57Like that Jerry Springer episode.
00:57:58His story went from...
00:58:01There's no reason I...
00:58:02I would be there.
00:58:03I'm never there.
00:58:05To...
00:58:05Oh yeah, actually I was there.
00:58:07And I stopped and pulled over.
00:58:09And I was on the phone.
00:58:10Going up towards Ormsbury area.
00:58:11I think...
00:58:12Oh man, that sounds bad.
00:58:13It is over around 316.
00:58:14I mean you're saying that's bad.
00:58:16I mean...
00:58:16What are you...
00:58:17Lawrenceville is big.
00:58:18You're saying that's bad.
00:58:18You mean the area where...
00:58:20Yeah, that's...
00:58:21I'm gonna be honest.
00:58:22I'm really sorry.
00:58:22Okay, so...
00:58:23My gun was found in that area.
00:58:25You know...
00:58:26Technically was in that area.
00:58:27Stuff like that.
00:58:28You know...
00:58:30I mean...
00:58:31It sounds bad.
00:58:31But I...
00:58:32Miles ultimately, you know, says that he admits that he was out there.
00:58:36He kind of has to because his phone put him out there.
00:58:39But he said he was...
00:58:40Doesn't get out of his vehicle.
00:58:41Doesn't do anything in the woods.
00:58:44Like a small asset...
00:58:47I can't accept that.
00:58:47Where are they...
00:58:49People...
00:58:49You can get up.
00:58:52I can't see that.
00:58:53They have shown.
00:58:53No, no, no.
00:58:53Each time is being saved.
00:58:53I can stop.
00:58:53For some time, playing around me...
00:58:54Where are you standing near?
00:59:02Don't have to go.
00:59:03Like a small house called.
00:59:03No, I Rachis, or me, does Spencer.
00:59:11NSA and stuff like comedy.
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