Transcript of The After Show: Tracking Susana New

In the suburbs of DC, a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

911, which emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.

For the next 2 decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, everybody. Welcome to 20/20: The After Show. So good to have you with us as always. I'm Deborah Roberts, and as we always do, we're gonna dig a little deeper into our most recent episode of 20/20. And this one, if you saw it, I'm sure you haven't forgotten it. And if you haven't, you're gonna hear some details about the heartbreaking story of the murder of 16-year-old Susana Morales. Now, those who knew her described her as somebody who was full of light, somebody who loved loved music, and she was living sort of a classic immigrant story. Her mother came here from Mexico, setting out to live the American dream, and then only to find a nightmare. On July 26, 2022, Susanna vanished while walking home from a friend's house in Norcross, Georgia. And it wasn't really until a chilling discovery made almost by chance in the middle of the woods that led police to a shocking realization.

Of who might have been responsible for the murder. It is one that that community just couldn't shake. Well, my colleague and friend John Quinones covered the story for 20/20, and as always, he just does an expert job of bringing us into all those details and all the humanity of these stories. And John is here to help us put the pieces of this puzzle together with some exclusive details from what happened inside the investigation. And he's going to give us a chance to see some clips that you didn't get a chance to see on Friday night. Interviews also with law enforcement and Susanna's family. John, as always, it's good to see you. I wish you were here in the studio, but good to see you there.

Great to be here, Deb. Thank you.

Yeah, you and I always have such an interesting time talking about stories because we go way back and have such perspective with so many stories that we've covered over the years. And I have to say, the first thing that came to mind, you know, in talking to you about this one is you're a father, you've got a daughter. I'm a mother, I've got a daughter. And the death of a young girl, a teen girl, and the The desperation of her family trying to find answers. I mean, this one really, I think, just kind of gets at you and pulls at the heartstrings. What about you when you set out to start looking into this story?

Of course, you know, our daughters are precious. I only have one daughter, two boys and her, Andrea. And I worry about her all the time. And she's now, you know, 30 years old and I still worry about her. Yeah. So yeah, it just touched home. And this was a woman from Mexico. I did the interview in Spanish with Maria. Susanna's mother. And it was incredibly touching. Yeah. And it hit home.

Yeah, it did hit home. And you can sort of really feel it from the way you tell the story. Take us back, John, about the night that she went missing because, you know, she's a classic 16-year-old who wasn't exactly truthful to her mom. She said she was going to her friend Esmeralda's house. What exactly did we find out? I mean, obviously, from everything we heard, she was a sweet girl, a good girl, but she, you know, she didn't want to tell her mom everything.

She was a teen. She was a teenage girl, you know, and it all started off that night, Deb, quite innocently enough. Susana didn't want to eat fish, which her mother had cooked for dinner that night for the family. So she asked her mom if she could instead go to her friend's house. You mentioned Esmeralda. She lived just a few blocks away, and the mom said okay. But then it gets late into the night when she doesn't come home. Her mother calls the friend Esmeralda, and she covers for Susana. She says, oh yeah, she's on her way home now. Well, as it turns out, she was never at Esmeralda's house. She instead had gone to another apartment, her friend Kelly's place. She didn't tell that to her mom because her mom didn't like Susana hanging out with Kelly. And that's how it all started.

And John, what we learned in the piece is that, you know, it's like that, that ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump, that heartbeat. It wasn't like Susanna not to answer her phone or reply to text messages. And, you know, we all kind of know that feeling of having a kid, even our grown children, right? When you reach out to them and they don't get back. Give us a sense of what Maria told you she felt in those early moments of just not hearing from her daughter.

She was desperate. She shows us the texts and, and you saw them, where she says, mi hija, you know, my daughter, where are you? You know, mi amor, where are you? And she keeps reaching out to her and there's no response. But as it turns out, Susana had a friend named Kaya, and Kaya had downloaded this app called Life360, and it's a popular GPS-based app that tracks real-time locations. people on their phone, people who give permission to each other to do this, families and friends. And on that app, you can see her phone at least leaving Kelly's apartment complex at around 10 PM. So it wasn't that late. And you can actually see Susanna starting to move, to walk home on Singleton Road toward her street, which was Santa Ana Drive. And then Susanna's phone starts moving in the opposite direction, and it's going very quickly. Around 40 miles an hour. And then at 10:29, Kaya receives a text message saying that Susanna's phone has experienced a crash alert, meaning there's been, you know, some sort of accident or some sort of hard force trauma to her phone. And that starts them raising their eyebrows.

I had never heard of this 360 app. I just thought that was fascinating, John, the idea that in real time you can kind of get a sense of where someone is and so forth. And this was a piece of evidence for them to actually be able to have this when they begin looking for her.

Right, right. The police step in, of course, they call the cops. Uh, but at this point, the police are thinking Susanna might be a runaway, right? Because there was no evidence of any kind of foul play. They cannot consider her being abducted. But Susanna's sister— and this family was amazing— Susanna's sister Jasmine argues that, you know, this could well be an abduction. And she points to that app, that Life360 data, which shows, you know, Susanna's phone suddenly taking off at 40 miles an hour and then seeming to crash. Well, then police go ahead and they file a police report that day, and Susanna's name is put into the system as a missing person that very day. So it didn't take long. She's now a missing person.

Yeah, police are kind of thinking that she might be a runaway, and her sister is insistent that that's not happening. And then they find evidence of Susanna walking home. So suddenly there's real suspicion that there's something that has happened here, something afoul.

And there's a new development. You know, again, the Morales family was amazing. They just wouldn't give up. They start canvassing the whole neighborhood where she had walked, and they find surveillance video. The family finds a business that shows them their surveillance camera that captures Susanna walking. But then, as I mentioned, that 360 app shows her suddenly turning around and going speeding in the opposite direction, indicating that maybe she was abducted. Now, now, police tell the family that that could be interpreted in two ways. This is, you know, this could either be that she got into a vehicle, right, with someone she knew willingly, or yes, it could be that she was taken by force. But the family wouldn't give up. They post up missing posters, and they— the mom goes on Facebook and she starts desperately pleading for information, and she does interviews, by the way, with, with local Spanish-speaking media. So they're just desperately getting the word out about this missing daughter.

And John, that's what I thought was so touching and also kind of gives me goosebumps, really, to this moment, thinking about a family's desperation and how a family won't give up when they feel like they know their family member. They know what she might be capable of or not. Police were trying to be helpful, but they are also trying to be realistic. It's a teenager. But the family would not give up. Um, our team sat down with Lieutenant Biggers, who was one of the investigators on Susanna's case, and he began to kind of take matters into his own hands. He's trying to help bring her home to her family. And we, we showed some of that interview on Friday night, of course, but here's a bit of it that, um, if you were watching, you didn't get a chance to see. On Friday. Let's take a look.

I remember I went to, I went to my mom and dad on Thanksgiving, and then I came back and dropped my mom, my wife and kids off, and I drove my personal car looking. I remember like it was yesterday. I went looking, drove, drove my personal car down off Indian Trail looking for her, hoping that I would. Even then, I had hope that I would see her.

John, we saw Lieutenant Biggers getting pretty emotional during these interviews. I mean, this was a kind of a mind-boggling case. I mean, what did— what was that like for you, seeing this, you know, cop become so emotional in the search?

He was a family man himself. He has a 16-year-old daughter. He's married to a Hispanic woman. He could see the pain in Maria, and he just didn't want to give up. He even worked weekends on this case because he connected with them. And, and up to this point, there was no solid evidence of an abduction. There were no witnesses, no suspects, so they had very little to, to, to go on.

It takes a while, John, and that's what, um, I think was so fascinating about this story and also so heartbreaking. I mean, time just kind of dragged on, you know. We go from months to months. I mean, the case would drag on for nearly 7 months with no leads No further evidence and no answers. So, of course, everybody's trying to figure out what happened to 16-year-old Susanna. Well, John, don't go anywhere, and don't you go anywhere, because we're going to take a quick break. But when we come back, John is going to take us through sort of a shocking discovery that police made about Susanna's killer that just nobody could believe. And then there's going to be more emotional interviews with Susanna's family that we're going to reveal to you that you haven't had a chance to see. So don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to 20/20: The After Show. I'm here with John Quinones, uh, my colleague who is talking with me about the heartbreaking story he just brought to us on 20/20, uh, about 16-year-old Susana Morales who disappeared after walking home from her friend's home in her Georgia neighborhood, and she was never heard from again. The investigation had gone on for months. Her family was convinced that she was not a runaway and that something had happened, but police were not able to crack this case. And then, John, there was a break on February 6, 2023, when a man who was just off-roading in a wooded area happens to find skeletal remains, uh, more than 20 miles from where Susanna had vanished. And It was a complicated crime scene, wasn't it?

Yes. Yeah. The, the skeletal remains were scattered throughout the woods in that area. I remember her body had been out there months. There was exposure to the elements. There was decomposition, animal activity in the woods after all, right? No clothing or personal items belonging to Susanna were found at the scene. Nothing was found. And the medical examiner could not even determine an exact cause of death. Also, because of the, um, because of all that decomposition, there were no body fluids or blood recovered at the scene. Uh, but what they did find, Deborah, were fingernails painted black. It was the color of Susanna's nails the night she went missing. And also at the scene, they suddenly find a critical piece of evidence: a Glock 19 handgun.

And that was absolutely critical. This is what they needed to zero in on her killer. Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking for the family because they were holding out hope all that time that they would find her, and then they find this evidence and they find the remains. But the gun, John, belonged to Miles Bryant, a Doraville police officer. I mean, that was mind-blowing.

This man, Miles Bryant, uh, was not only a member of the Doraville Police Department, he was also a member of the Army National Guard. And what's more, He lived and he worked at the same apartment complex where she had visited her friend and from where she had disappeared.

John, let's talk about the family because you did get a chance to bond with the family. I mean, obviously, you know, maybe at a certain point they began to consider the possibility that something bad had happened to her. But, um, while this investigation is unspooling, and I want to get back to this with Bryant, but Tell us more about the family and how they were processing all of this all those months later.

They were just shattered, you know. They were heartbroken. To this day, the mother still thinks it's a nightmare, even after everything they've been through. And we'll get into that, the trial and all that. But the family is just, just a very close-knit, you know, Mexican family. All girls. They work really hard. You know, the mom worked at a fast food restaurant. Along with her daughter Susana, kept a really tight-knit relationship with her family. You know, she didn't want a quinceañera, for example, the 15th birthday, and there are some of the most precious pictures that they have as memories are Susana with the family. She instead wanted to go have dinner, I think, at a fast food restaurant, tacos, with her mom. So They were shattered. They were just totally distraught. And I'll get into more of that as we go on here.

So they lose their daughter, then the reality is there that they've found her remains. They've— they know she's gone. And now this investigation, and it's all about what is going to be revealed. John, your reporting was so intense about this because what police discovered is that after Susanna went missing, Bryant this police officer reported that his gun was missing. And that obviously is, is too coincidental. And now looking back, you know, police are kind of trying to figure out what's at play here. And, you know, clearly they have theories now.

Brian tells police, oh, I had a break-in into my car, which I left unlocked, uh, at the apartment complex where he lived and worked. He claims someone broke into his unlocked truck, in fact. And, and stole his wallet and then also stole the gun. But strangely enough, he tells the officer that day that he does not want police detectives assigned to the case. That's a bit of a red flag, right? Uh, investigators of course are now pretty suspicious. They believe that Brian dropped his gun while he was trying to dispose of Susanna's body out there in the woods. They're convinced that by claiming his gun was stolen, Bryant was just trying to cover his tracks.

And what police now have to confront is that this is a police officer who you would think is there to serve and protect, but now clearly something has gone on. He's possibly got a different life, a double life, and the community has to come to grips with this. Police are sort of confident at this point that they know who the killer is, that it is indeed Bryant. They've got phone records that show he was in the exact location where Susanna's body was found that same night. What are they theorizing about what might have happened?

Well, one of the theories was that Miles Bryant had seen Susana Morales before and that he had approached her. The theory is that he likely saw her again that night, and this time she's walking home alone in the dark. He follows her, and then as she turns into the street where she lived, he took her, maybe forcibly. We don't know for certain. And then drove her into, into the other direction. That's why that app showed her speeding away at 40 miles an hour. Um, at some point shortly thereafter, he throws her cell phone out the window of his truck, which caused that crash, you know, indication on the app. Um, she appears to have been killed and then dumped in the woods. Prosecutors believe he likely intended, may well have intended to rape her, but they were not able to prove that during his trial. Remember, the body of Susanna was completely decomposed when she was eventually found.

Yeah, just, you can only surmise, you know, what he might have done to her because they weren't able to tell, but they could definitely see she didn't, she wasn't clothed. Now, you're talking about police investigating an officer who knows a little bit about strategy and what might be coming. So they had to have a particular strategy to try to get him to cooperate. They were, you know, they were being coy with him, but they were essentially just trying to get him to possibly fess up.

This man is a police officer. He knows how these investigations work, right? So investigators then have to try and pretend that they're questioning everyone, right? He's just one other person. And by the way, they're telling him they need his help. So they take him in, right, for questioning. They notice that in the squad car on their way to questioning, he— his hands are shaking. And then they ask him why, and he says— he tells police, well, I was out there that, that night, but I'd been fighting. I had been fighting with my, my girlfriend. And he claims that she chased him down the road Well, investigators then interview that girlfriend, and she tells them that that was not true. It was a lie.

Yeah, and things begin to unravel from there. Well, he refuses to admit anything. If you saw our program, you see how this all played out. But he was arrested, and as John said, eventually stood trial for the murder of Susana Morales. John, I want to talk about that case. I want to talk about the courtroom, but first we've got to squeeze in another quick break. But when we come back, we're going to take you inside the courtroom courtroom, some shocking moments at trial, and then big questions about Bryant, you know, and, and possible conviction. Is he going to be convicted or walk free? You want to hear all the details, so don't go anywhere. John and I will be right back. Sunday nights on ABC. What happens when the person you love the most turns out not to be who you think they are? Everything he told me was a lie. I was betrayed. From the number one true crime new podcast, Betrayal. He's been living a secret double life. My marriage ended with a 911 call.

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Betrayal: Secrets and Lies. So many people are living with their own betrayal. Sunday nights at 10/9c on ABC and stream on Disney+ and Hulu. Welcome back to 20/20: The After Show. I'm talking with John Quinones about the piece that he just reported on for 20/20. A horrifying case of a young girl named Susana Morales who was found dead. And then the police officer, Miles Bryant, who was charged in her murder went to court. John, he pleaded not guilty. He stood trial. He chose not to testify, which all the lawyers that we have interviewed and talked to on our pieces tell us that obviously that's his right. He doesn't have to testify. But our team spoke with prosecutors, And this was a detail that we actually sort of didn't necessarily touch on in our episode, but tell us a little bit about what we learned about some of the motivation for him not taking the stand.

Well, he was expected to take the stand, right? His defense attorney had said in his opening arguments that— statements— that he would, uh, that Brian would testify, and everyone was looking forward to hearing what He, Miles Bryant, would say, "Susanna's family, you know, they wanted answers." But then Bryant chooses not to testify. And it turns out that he had been speaking to his mother by telephone from jail. You know, those phone calls are recorded. And those calls reveal that it was his mother who was the one who convinced him not to take the stand. She thought the prosecutor would just destroy him. That Miles Bryant, if he testified, that would only look worse if he took the stand. And seems like Bryant then in the end wound up listening to his mother.

Yeah, he did. And, and, but it didn't really help him. A jury did find him guilty, 4 counts related to Susanna's death, in June of 2024. Um, and then he was given a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. I mean, this is a cop. Who now is finding himself in prison for a murder. He actually apologized to Susanna's family at the sentencing, and her family, as you said, has just been heartbroken. And hearing from her sister in the interview in your piece was really something else. But we've also got a little more of her interview that we didn't get a chance to hear on Friday night, reacting to what Brian said. Let's take a look. I felt maybe just like a little bit of relief that We got partial justice for Susana, and that he wasn't going to be able to walk away free from what he did.

I didn't care about his apologies, to be honest, because we still had that unknown of what happened that night. I don't feel like I have closure because I feel like the unknown, it still eats me to this day. I would want to know what happened that night.

John, she talks about how she wanted to know more. She just needed to know why. This happen. And there's still unanswered questions here. Give us a sense of how the family is coping with the idea. It's one thing if they have— and I don't want to say closure because we always find out that these folks don't have closure— but some kind of a resolution. But in this case, they don't have it, do they? And they have to live with that.

Absolutely. They, they really don't. Like I said, they're just— they're heartbroken. They wound up moving from the house that they used to live in And even then, her mother didn't want to leave, didn't want to move from that house because she still thought that Susanna would walk home and walk in through that front door one of these days. You know, Bryant requested a new trial, and in March, a Gwinnett County judge denied him his motion for that new trial. But now we understand that Bryant's appellant attorney has filed a notice indicating that he wants to take this case to the Georgia Supreme Court. So we'll see what happens.

So stay tuned. We may not have seen the end of this just yet, but at this point he has been denied. So he's still in prison. You, you talk so passionately and eloquently and just so heart-wrenchingly about her mother, Susanna's mother. And, you know, you really had a chance to know this family, and then they had to make a choice to sit down and talk and share their emotional reaction to all of this. Give me a sense, John, of this family, because at the end of the day, it's also about the family left to deal with the impact and the emotional turmoil of what they've dealt with. What kind of impact did her mom leave on you? And did they give you a sense of how, you know, what they're hoping people will take away from this tragedy that they've experienced?

Yeah, she wants Maria, the mother, she wants us all to remember that life is incredibly precious and fleeting. And she reminds us all not to give up. You know, this family never gave up. If you don't feel like there's enough being done, get out there yourselves, she tells us. Uh, conduct your own investigation, canvass the neighborhoods, look for the security video, you know, surveillance videos. Put up posters, you know, ask for those surveillance videos and use the media to spread the word as she did, not only in English, but also in Spanish.

Yeah, yeah. No, well, they certainly did not give up. I mean, they were sort of an example of a family that just absolutely did everything they could to try to find some resolution. And, John, I'm sure speaking with you and being able to speak with you in Spanish and You know, knowing your story, your mom shared her name. I'm sure that brought them a list— a little bit of comfort in talking about this story and sitting down and sharing their feelings. And it's so obvious in what you brought to us. So thank you, as always.

I hope so. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, John, I really appreciate it, as always, for you being with us. And I thank you for being with us. And of course, you can watch our latest 20/20 episodes on Friday nights on ABC, and you can stream episodes like this one on Disney+. And Hulu. Thanks so much for being with us, and you all take care. Have a good day. Whoa, we need some water.

I need a martini.

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