Teenage Girl Vanishes After Encounter With Creepy ‘Underwear Bandit’ Cop | Morales Analysis

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Hello, this is Dr. Grande. Today I will analyze the case of Susanna Morales and Miles Bryant. First, I'll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis. Susanna Morales was born on June 24, 2006, and lived in Norcross, Georgia. She resided with her mother in a 1700 foot house on Santa Ana Drive. As far as employment, she and her mother both worked at a McDonald's restaurant.

[00:00:30]Susanna would occasionally use illegal substances, including methamphetamine and marijuana. Miles Dwayne Bryant was born in 2000 and also lived in Norcross, Georgia. He served in the National Guard and worked as a police officer for the city of Dorville. Miles lived in the Sterling Glenn Apartments on Singleton Road. He was a courtesy officer for the apartment complex, which meant that he provided security in exchange for discounted or free rent. Susanna would sometimes visit friends in the apartment complex. According to one of those friends, the girls encountered Miles on at least one occasion. He offered them drugs and a ride in his vehicle. Other than this, there is no evidence that Susanna and Miles knew each other. Now, moving to the timeline of the crime. On July 26, 2022, 16-year-old Susanna Morales left her home on Santa Ana Drive at 6:00 p.m. She had told her mother that she was going to see a friend who lived 6 minutes away. In reality, Susanna walked 15 minutes to visit a friend named Kelly who lived in the Sterling Glenn apartment complex. This is the same apartment complex where Miles lived and worked as a courtesy officer. Susanna never returned home from visiting her friend. On the next day, July 27th, Susanna's mother and sister reported her missing to the police. Here's what the police found during the course of their investigation. Susanna had an app on her phone called Life 360, which recorded data on the night of her disappearance.

[00:02:06]At 10:07 p.m., the phone was moving at a speed consistent with a walking pace toward her home. At 10:21 p.m. when she was close to her house, the phone started moving in the opposite direction and traveling at 40 miles per hour. This was consistent with Susanna entering a motor vehicle. Clearly, she was not walking at that speed. Shortly after getting into the vehicle, the phone abruptly stopped. This stop was so sudden, the Life 360 app recorded the incident as a vehicle collision. A crash alert was sent to Susanna's friends. At this time, the phone was near Oak Lock Trace, about 4,000 ft to the east of where Susanna was picked up. The phone remained there until it was deactivated, destroyed, or ran out of power.

[00:02:55]Investigators believe that Susanna's killer threw her phone from the vehicle, which subjected it to forces similar to a motor vehicle collision. The police searched the area but did not find any trace of the phone or Susanna. On February 6, 2023, a man named Matthew stopped his vehicle on the side of Georgia Highway 316 in Dacula. He started walking through a wooded area and stumbled upon human remains. Matthew notified the police and reported his discovery. When the police arrived, they found these skeletal remains of an adolescent female. The medical examiner identified the remains as belonging to Susanna Morales. Their cause of death was undetermined. The wooded area where her body was found was over 20 m from where Susanna was last seen. There were no clothes near her remains. Therefore, investigators believe that she was not wearing any when her body was dumped there. On February 7, one day after Susanna's remains were discovered, the police conducted a grid search of the wooded area and found a Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol chambered in 9mm Luger. It appeared as though the weapon had been there for a long time.

[00:04:06]Investigators learned that Miles Bryant had reported this pistol missing on July 27, 2022, the day after Susanna disappeared. Miles claimed that the weapon, as well as his wallet, had been stolen out of his pickup truck while it was parked at the Sterling Glenn apartment complex. In a curious move, he requested that a detective not be assigned to investigate the disappearance of his weapon or his wallet. The police examined data from his phone. On July 27, between 12:45 a.m. and 1:00 a.m., his phone was in the wooded area where Susanna's remains were found. Data from his police issued cell phone were also examined. This phone was in the same wooded area between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. Miles returned to the wooded area not long before 10:00 a.m.

[00:04:56]on July 27, about 1 hour before he reported his weapon stolen.

[00:05:01]Investigators believe that he was searching for the weapon he had left behind. On February 13, 2023, the police interviewed Miles. He claimed that he did not know Susanna, had never seen her before, and had nothing to do with her disappearance. On the night she disappeared, he had not driven to the wooded area where the body was found.

[00:05:22]This, of course, contradicted the cell phone data. Later, Miles changed his story and said he was actually there.

[00:05:30]His girlfriend had accused him of cheating and they argued. He became angry and started to drive without any specific destination. He ended up parking on the side of Highway 316 and called his girlfriend. When the interview was over, Miles Bryant was arrested and charged with misdemeanor false report of a crime. Later, he was charged with murdering Susanna Morales.

[00:05:54]In June 2024, Miles Bryant was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and false report of a crime.

[00:06:02]The state had also accused him of attempting to conduct a sexual assault against Susanna, but the jury found him not guilty of that offense. Miles received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus one year. Now, moving to my analysis, here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case. Item number one, after Miles was arrested, a long history of bizarre and disturbing behavior was revealed as the investigation progressed. Here are a few examples. In February 2018, over four years prior to Susanna's death, Miles went to the home of a 17-year-old girl who had been his classmate at one time.

[00:06:42]He tried to open her bedroom window, which caused her to call the police.

[00:06:47]Miles told officers that he was just there to go over homework. The family of the girl did not press charges. On another occasion, sometime around 2018 or 2019, Miles allegedly broke into the home of a 16-year-old girl who had been his classmate at one time. Numerous pairs of her underwear were missing. No charges were filed because she was contacted by a law enforcement officer who told her that Miles had a promising career in the military. If he was charged with the crime, it would jeopardize that career. In May 2019, a woman in nearby Snellville, Georgia, reported that her home was burglarized.

[00:07:27]She did not recognize the intruder who had been captured on a neighbor's video camera. Years later, when Miles was arrested, the woman's daughter identified Miles as the perpetrator of that burglary. In May 2022, when Miles was on duty as a police officer, he responded to a call about a 13-year-old girl who ran away. After he arrived at her home, the girl returned. On his body camera, he could be seen telling her that she could be kidnapped, murdered, and have her body dumped in the woods.

[00:07:58]This is exactly what happened to Susanna 2 months later. Before he left, Miles gave the girl his business card, saying that she could talk to him about anything, even if it was weird. In October 2022, 3 months after Susanna's death, Miles showed up uninvited on several occasions to a woman's apartment. He had known this woman for years. They drifted apart, but then reconnected. Ultimately, she rejected his romantic advances. In December 2022, he showed up at her apartment and attempted to force his way in. When he was questioned by the police, Miles said that he was just conducting a door check because the apartment had been burglarized in March 2022. The police found it curious that the burglary he was referring to occurred right after Miles and the woman had reconnected.

[00:08:51]Item number two, after Miles was arrested, the police searched his cell phone and made a troubling discovery. He had many video recordings and images of women in clothing challenged states.

[00:09:02]These women were performing various sex acts, often alone. It was clear that the recordings had been made by the women, not by Miles. The police spoke to the alleged victims. None of them had any idea that Miles had obtained their private video recordings. When asked how he may have done it, some of them did not know, but others were able to figure it out. Essentially, the primary tactic that Miles employed was to ask a woman if he could use her phone. Once she gave him access to the phone, he would search it for explicit videos and images and send those images to himself. Sometimes he would have the phone in his possession for a half hour. At other times, Miles used his position as a police officer to pressure women for their phones or simply to seize their phones. Item number three. In December 2023, Miles was living with a girlfriend. She confronted him about women's underwear she found in their apartment. The underwear did not belong to her. Miles claimed they were evidence in a burglary case he was working on. I guess one could argue that this was true in a sense. It seems likely that Miles was the burglar, so he was holding evidence for himself. Considering his fascination with undergarments, Miles may have been the rare offender whose criminal resume came with a delicate cycle. The police also discovered that Miles secretly recorded his girlfriend at their apartment. He made recordings of her in the shower and of him touching her while she was asleep. On one occasion, he engaged in selfservice activity and made a deposit of genetic material on her feet as she slept. Item number four, there isn't any real doubt that Miles Bryant is guilty of murder.

[00:10:49]His defense attorney told the jury, quote, "You will think he is the most callous, uncaring coward you've ever seen." "That's not exactly a glowing endorsement." The attorney also told the jury that Miles would tell them exactly what happened. However, he ended up not testifying. As a matter of fact, no defense witnesses were called to the stand. The defense made some harmful admissions about Miles. For instance, Susanna was in his pickup truck on the night she died and Miles left her in the woods. The argument for Miles being not guilty was based on this idea that there was no way to know how Susanna died. She was known to use drugs like methamphetamine and marijuana. Maybe she overdosed. Overall, the state's case was devastating for Miles. The case made by the defense was also pretty devastating.

[00:11:41]When defense arguments are indistinguishable from prosecution arguments, that's never a good sign for the defendant. Now, moving to my last item, number five. What do I think happened in this case? This is just a theory. My opinion, Miles Bryant was self-centered, impulsive, reckless, irresponsible, excitement-seeking, arrogant, deceptive, manipulative, nefarious, cold, callous, sadistic, grandiose, falsely believed he was special, had a sense of entitlement, and was exceedingly creepy. His obsession with sexual activity was intense and pervasive, and he appeared to possess a profound interest in teenage girls. He was also highly interested in becoming a police officer, probably because he craved authority and excitement. There's a chance that Miles could have gone on to be a serial killer. Many notorious serial killers had a desire to join law enforcement. Miles never should have been a police officer, but he managed to escape responsibility for all his alleged stalking behavior. He had an excuse for everything he did, like a powerful desire to complete homework and his commitment to safety through checking doors. On the night of Susanna's murder, Miles encountered her right before she made it home from the apartment complex. He probably saw her leaving the complex on foot and followed her in his vehicle. Somehow, he convinced her to enter his truck, probably by offering her drugs. Once she was inside the vehicle, he produced his firearm and threatened Susanna. He took her phone and threw it out of the window, causing the Life 360 app to register a crash event. At this point, Miles drove 20 m east and pulled over on Highway 316. He forced Susanna out of the truck and into the woods. The state believed that he committed an assault of a sexual nature, but he was acquitted of that offense. No DNA connected him to Susanna. It's not clear how Miles killed her. He may have strangled her. The police do not believe that he discharged his firearm. At some point during the crime, Miles dropped his pistol in the woods. He returned to the scene later, but he could not find the weapon. He was forced to report it missing. Not doing so would have looked even more suspicious. If Miles had been more responsible with his weapon, he never would have been caught. No one saw him with Susanna around the time of her disappearance, and no DNA connected him to her murder. He was not on the radar of law enforcement at all until they found his pistol near the body. It's frightening to think how easily he could have continued with his homicidal career. He almost escaped. This case exemplifies the dangers of allowing people with pronounced narcissistic traits to become police officers.

[00:14:31]Unfortunately, people who become officers for the right reasons and people who crave the badge for all the wrong reasons often enjoy the same institutional benefit of the doubt. In this case, that benefit helped Miles Bryant hide in plain sight until his own incompetence proved that his uniform and his character were miles apart. Those are my thoughts in the case of Susanna Morales and Miles Bryant. Thank you so much for watching. I'll talk to you soon.