Ex-officer charged in Susana Morales' death to ask judge for bond
Miles Bryant (FOX 5 Atlanta)
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - Miles Bryant, the former Doraville police officer accused of killing Gwinnett County's 16-year-old Susana Morales, is asking the court for bond.
According to court documents, Bryant’s attorneys will be asking for the defendant to be released from the Gwinnett County Jail on bond. He is being held on several counts without bond.
The motion for bond hearing is scheduled for May 1.
Morales' family members told police they hadn't seen her since the evening of July 26, 2023. That night, detectives said Morales texted her mom at 9:40 p.m. to tell her she was on her way to her home on Santa Anna Drive. Officials confirmed an app on Morales' cell phone showed that she was walking in that direction on Singleton Road from Windscape Village Lane between 10:07 p.m. and 10:21 p.m., but detectives said they have reason to believe she had actually gotten into a vehicle.
Susana Morales poses for pictures with her family. (Supplied) (Supplied)
Between 10:21 p.m. and 10:26 p.m., her phone indicated that she was in the area of Oak Loch Trace and Steve Reynolds Boulevard. Her phone pinged that location until it either died or was turned off. Morales never made it home.
A breakthrough in the case came on Feb. 6, when officers responded to the area between Drowning Creek and Barrow County after someone reported seeing what they believed were human remains in the forest.
The Gwinnett Medical Examiners' office tested the remains and said the DNA matched Morales' dental records. The site was about 20 miles from where the teen was last seen.
Susana Morales poses for pictures with her family. (Supplied) (Supplied)
In the warrant application, officials allege that Bryant lives close to where Morales was last reported on Windscape Village Lane and dumped her naked body in the woods.
In the warrant, police accuse Bryant of falsely reporting that his vehicle had been broken into and that his gun was stolen.
Prior to becoming a Doraville police officer, Bryant had been a sworn sheriff's deputy in Forsyth County from March 2020 to May 2021.