Transcript of 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.

An all-new 2020 starts right now.

Gwinnett County 911.

I need to make a report. My sister's been missing since yesterday. No one has seen her.

What's your sister's name?

Susanna Morales.

When Susanna walked out the back gate of Sterling Glen Apartments, there's a sidewalk there that would take her straight to her residence.

Where can I see her last known location?

I have a screenshot.

You have a screenshot? Could see that she was walking back from the apartment complex down Singleton Road.

And all of a sudden, she goes in the opposite direction in a car. And that's when I started panicking. Something happened to her on the way home.

This case is just— it's unreal.

She walked that way. Gwinnett County Police are hoping that you can help them find a teenager, 16-year-old Susanna Morales. Police now believe that she may have gotten into a car that night, July 26th.

She was a young, full-of-life teenager who vanished pretty much out of thin air.

You know why we're here?

What's about? Come here, sit down. We just thought about the worst.

They needed to do something.

Oh! Brushes, brushes! Oh! Susana was the baby. She would get everything that we wanted when we were at her age. Necklace, earrings? Yes, yes. She was definitely spoiled. Y'all really went out. This is cute.

Ooh.

I like this. Our best moments is laughing together as a family. Oh, chicle.

Susanna Morales was very close to her family. They lived in Norcross here in Gwinnett County. We are a large county just north of Atlanta, and we are one of the most diverse counties in the United States.

Where are you from originally?

Mexico.

What were you looking for?

Vivir mejor, ¿verdad?

3 daughters? 3 hijas?

3 hijas. Julissa, Yasmin, and Susana.

Her name was Susana, but you called her—

Susie. Me and Susana had a 10-year difference. Me being the oldest, I used to take care of them. Susana was very outgoing. I was a little closer to Susana, probably because 3-year age gap in between us.

She was always making TikTok videos.

She loved to record music videos of herself singing.

Susanna's best friends that I've known since like middle school for her was Kaya and Esmeralda. Ushum baya. They were very, very close. We had fun together.

We didn't have to do much to be happy around each other.

She was a very bubbly person. Remember Susanna. She was very sweet, very nice. Susanna's hair was very curly. She loved exploring new colors with it. She had dyed her hair green, red, and blonde at one point.

She worked with her mother at a local McDonald's. She loved music. She loved to play a ukulele that had been given to her. She loved to sing.

So won't you save me your location? Let's focus on communicating.

Take me through that day, July 26, 2022.

Yo hice pescado ese día.

Susana didn't really like fish and didn't want to eat that, so she asked her mother if she could go to her friend Esmeralda's home. How close was that house?

Como 6 minutos.

6 minutes.

She told her mom she got to her friend's house safe, and that was around 7:19 PM.

I just want to know if you got there. And she responds, "Sí," with a thumbs up.

Later that night, approximately 9:40-ish PM, Susanna's mom starts calling Susanna and asking her to come home because it's getting late.

You were going to go pick her up.

I called her 3 times and she never responded. And she always used to answer me.

Susana's mom reached out for Susana to be like, hey, where are you? And she texted her and texted her and texted her.

Susie, do you want me to go for you?

Please. No, no, I tell her, hija, please answer.

My daughter, please answer. Because Susana's mother was not able to get in touch with her, she reached out to Esmeralda and her family.

She called me asking if Susana was at my house.

Susana had actually never come over there.

Of course, that's my best friend, so I will back her up.

I told her that Susana was leaving while I was able to get enough time to get a hold of Susana.

Initially, Esmeralda, being a teenage friend, was trying to cover for Susana.

I contacted her, calling her, no response. So I texted her and told her that her mother was looking for her and she better be on her way home before I get in trouble.

Susana's mother recalls talking to Esmeralda's mother, who told her Susana was never there.

So Mom at that point is worried and like, hey, why was my daughter not where she said she was?

I remember getting a call from my mom like around 9 or 10 PM at night, and she was just asking me if I've heard from Susana or if I had talked to her because she wasn't answering her phone.

Susana's mother was continuously contacting people, trying to figure out where Susana might be.

She had a very good relationship with her sisters and her mom, so that was not characteristic if she did not get in contact with her mom.

I told my mom that maybe Susana's phone had died or that she fell asleep, and let's just wait till morning to hear from her.

You realize there's something really wrong here.

Yo sabía que— Que estaba en peligro.

One of Susana's friends gets a crash alert on her cell phone. Susana's in a moving vehicle, and there's a serious crash.

That's Susie, huh?

Sí.

Your screenshot, right?

La foto, that's the screen.

On her 15th birthday, for her quinceañera, what did she want more than anything?

Mami, quiero tacos.

Tacos.

Tacos, Susy. All she wanted was to go eat tacos. She wanted us to buy her a mini quinceañera dress, a pink sparkly short quinceañera dress.

Susana was always hanging out with her friends. None of them drove, so they all were young and would walk to each other's house.

On July 26, 2022, while Susanna's mother was attempting to locate her and worried about where Susanna was, Susanna's friend Kaya had gotten a notification on her phone. Through a mobile application on their phone called Live 360.

It's an app where you can add people to your circle. You can add friends, family members, and it'll tell you their location.

It also provides other safety features, like parents can track their kids. It shows how fast they're driving. It shows if the phone battery's low, things like that.

Around 10:30 PM, Susanna's friend Kaya had gotten a notification on her phone that Susanna's phone had been involved in some kind of crash.

Kaya gets what they call a crash alert on her phone. To get a crash alert, there has to be serious force with that phone.

Susanna could have potentially been involved in a car accident.

Once Kaya got the Life360 notification, location, Crash Alert, she contacted Esmeralda.

So her friends at that point are worried about Susanna, and Susanna didn't drive.

After speaking with Esmeralda, she went out there and checked it out because we were thinking she got into a car accident.

They had the location of where the alert was sent from, so they went to that location and started looking for Susanna.

I was on the phone with Kaya, and my sister had Susanna's phone number. My sister was calling her phone to see maybe we could find it or find any debris of any sort of car crash, but that road and that neighborhood was very quiet that night, so obviously there was no car crash.

There's no signs at all of a vehicle crash, no signs of Susanna, and no signs of her phone.

She couldn't find any debris or anything, so we just assumed that she was sleeping over at a friend's house and We slept on it. The next day, I received a terrifying call from my mom where she was sobbing, and I was like, "What happened?" My mom called me and told me that she was gonna call the police because she hasn't heard from Susana. I told her to wait for me, and I left work. I don't think I was really worried until I got the screenshots from the Life360. And that's when I started panicking. And it basically showed the trip of her walking home, and all of a sudden she goes in the opposite direction in a car. And it was like a notification of Life360 that Susana might have been in a crash.

She's heading down Singleton Road in the direction of back home. Then we see about 5 minutes later, her direction pattern change, and she's going the exact opposite way, away from her house. And here we see she's now driving in a vehicle at a top speed of 40 miles an hour. Ultimately, we get the crash alert at that location. That's the last known location where Susanna Fones pings.

Once we got the screenshots, we realized Susanna had gone to a different friend's house.

She actually had gone to her friend Alyssa and Kelly's apartment complex.

Kelly is a girl that Susanna's mom, for whatever reason, didn't like.

She didn't want Susanna to be around certain friends because she believed they were a bad influence. Susanna knew that her mom was going to say no about her going to Kelly's house, so she asked, can I go to Esmeralda's house? So that's where Maria thought she was going to go. But instead, she ended up going to Kelly's house, which she lived in the Sterling Glen Apartments.

The Sterling Glen Apartments, a fairly typical apartment complex for that area. A lot of different buildings that have multiple apartment units in them. There is a clubhouse and a pool. Because of the crime in the area, they also employ a courtesy officer to help patrol the area.

The family have at this point reached out to all of their friends of Susanna. No one knows where she is, so they reach out to the Gwinnett County Police and make a report.

My sister's been missing since yesterday.

How old is your sister?

16.

OK. Is your mom or dad there? Yes. I'll have an officer out there as soon as possible to meet with you and your mom, OK?

Okay, thank you so much.

Maria speaks Spanish, so just to have that clear communication, if we can, we send officers that speak Spanish.

Buenos días.

Mi hija ayer a las 6 de la tarde se fue donde su amiga según, y su teléfono está apagado. Her friend has her on Life360, you know what that is?

Mm-hmm.

But it's not like renewing her location. And once the officer arrived at the house, we were just letting them know what was going on, that Susana hadn't made home since last night and she wasn't answering any calls.

So where can I see her last known location?

I have a screenshot. We were showing him the screenshots from the Live 360 and all the messages that we had, and they asked us to send that to them, so we did.

When you're looking at the 360 of her being in a car, It can be someone took her, or it can be that she ran away.

Whose car is she in? What happened? Is she okay?

My name is Xavier Biggers. I've been in policing for 20 years. I've always wanted to be a police officer since I was 5 years old. At the time of Susanna Morales' disappearance, my title was a sergeant over the Special Victims Unit. Initially, I had nothing other than what the officers on scene had given me.

You showed him something on your phone?

La foto. La foto de Susie.

[SPEAKING SPANISH] Jeans, a yellow tank top. They show Susanna's hair.

She had black fingernails. That's something that stood out as something descriptive for her.

Good morning. I need to list a juvenile missing.

When Susanna's mother called us to report her missing, she was put on the system by the officer that made the report as a missing person. On that day, I was the on-call sergeant. They called me and let me know that they went door to door trying to get more information about her disappearance. They went to Sterling Glen Apartments. Where Kelly lived.

780 Crane Grove.

Hello. Hello.

They spent about a good 3 to 4 hours at that apartment complex looking for her.

She's working right now.

And they actually spoke with Kelly and talked with her.

You know why we're here?

What is it about?

What can you tell us about her?

Um, she left me. 10, and then I was on the move. Like, this is so scary.

Susanna ended up walking over to her friend Kelly and Alyssa's home at the apartment complex.

We were actually able to locate social media videos that were taken of Susanna and her friends that day.

We were doing a belly piercing, just taking videos. We were just hanging out. We ended up walking to the back of the gate to the apartments, and then I just said goodbye.

Around 10 PM, Kelly said that she took Susanna to the exit of the Sterling Glen Apartments on Singleton Road.

Singleton Road is located in a pretty populated area. Are residential areas as well as businesses. Even at night, there's a lot of foot traffic as well as vehicles.

Susanna had walked on that road numerous times, so she was familiar with it.

However, once you pass the businesses, it is a very dark walk back to Susanna's house.

This is where Kelly basically walked Susanna out to the back gate, and Susanna went home this way from the back gate. From Sterling Glen Apartments to Susanna's home is probably only about a 15-minute walk.

To get home, Susanna would have exited the Sterling Glen Apartments through the back gate, taken a left on Singleton Road, and then traveled down Singleton Road and taken a left onto Santa Ana Drive. Where her home was located. I was a homicide detective with Gwinnett County Police at the time of Susanna Morales' disappearance. I worked on the same floor as the Special Victims Unit. I heard them talking about it, so of course I jumped in and I was asking questions. There was something up with this that wasn't a typical case. Somewhere after she walked past this parking lot, her phone changed directions and began going back towards the Sterling Glen Apartments at a speed that's consistent with her being in a vehicle. And within less than a mile, a crash alert is received.

So this is the direction the 360 application was showing Susanna was going in at 40 miles per hour. Then this is the area that it pretty much crashes out in, roundabout here. We checked to see if there were any accidents in that area. There was no accidents reported in that area.

Given that there's no actual evidence of a car crash, our assumption is that her phone is thrown out the window out of a moving vehicle and that the phone is damaged or broken to cause the crash alert.

When you're looking at the 360 of her being in a car, you can see it from both ways, and I saw it from both ways. It can be someone took her, or it can be that she ran away.

So—

I knew she didn't run away. She was on the way home and something happened.

Just because of the information that we had about hanging out with Kelly and the fact that she told her mother that she was going one place and she ended up going somewhere else, We was thinking maybe that she had thrown her cell phone away or got rid of it because she knew she was going to get in trouble. So we linked this as possibly while she was running away. Even with that, we were working the case as a regular missing person by gathering the information we had far as her friends, her social media, and doing the things as our policy have stated. And work it at that point.

Did you ever think she would run away?

No, no. Yo nunca, nunca, nunca pensé que estaba run away. Nunca. She didn't take her charger.

She didn't take clothes.

She didn't take anything. So we were really, really scared at that moment. And that's when we, as a family, start looking for her.

They needed to do something. Susanna is nowhere to be found. They go out, they start canvassing.

Then the family thinks they found something.

That's her. That's her.

That is her.

That's her.

20/20 is partnering with Vibez open-ear wireless headphones. That's V-Y-B-Z. If you listen to a lot of true crime, you probably like to listen with a good pair of headphones. But it can be tricky to find a pair that provides great sound quality that's not too overwhelming. Because when you're out with a podcast during a late-night dog walk or pre-dawn run, you don't necessarily want noise cancelation that blocks out the sounds around you. That's why you'll want to get yourself a pair of Vibes—your perfect companion in audio. They're designed for maximum comfort with ultra-lightweight earbuds that sit just outside the ear canal. And they offer crystal-clear audio. So no matter what you're listening to, whether it's your favorite song or a sound-rich true crime podcast, it'll come across loud, clear, and silky smooth. The battery lasts up to 10 hours per charge, and they come in a range of sleek modern colors and styles. So what are you waiting for? Order now and you'll be listening to better sound with better headphones before you know it. For a limited time, our listeners can get more than 60% off a pair of Vibes wireless headphones. Just go to abcsecretsavings.com/2020. Again, that's abcsecretsavings.com/2020. abcsecretsavings.com/2020. Road to the NBA Finals is happening now on ESPN and ABC.

It's make or break now Best on best now. Watch him sit with his chest now. Greatness is up for grabs, and the world is watching. Just wait. On the home of the NBA Finals, all the work, all the sacrifice. The NBA Playoffs presented by Google continue on ESPN and ABC.

Just be honest. We don't throw out search parties unless it's a critical person. Diabetic, can't live by their own, something that will have exigent circumstances for us to find this person. She's 16, right? Yeah, let me make a couple phone calls.

After filing the police report, we said that we weren't gonna wait. We had to do something. And so using the screenshots that we had, we kind of retraced her steps. We started looking for her in the exact point where the app shows where the incident was.

The ping hit at this area right here. Her family came here, and it was unfortunate that this was not the location where Susanna was at. It was just the last area where her cell phone pinged at.

We tried to retrace her steps that we thought that she would take. So we started at Kelly's apartment. Nosotros fuimos prácticamente las detectives. You were the detectives. Sí, andábamos siempre buscando, investigando, preguntando.

They needed to do something. Susanna is nowhere to be found. They go out, they start canvassing as well.

We were asking all the businesses to see if they had any cameras, and we got to a daycare. The camera system that that place had, it was super old, so it was like an hour ahead or behind.

I'll tell you the time it is.

At first, we couldn't get anything until he went back to the right hour. We saw Susana.

That is her. That's her.

We're like, oh my God, that's her, that's her.

In the video, Susanna is wearing the yellow tank top, jeans, and white Crocs.

She's alone. There's no cars near her, no strangers.

She appeared to be walking towards the direction of her home and that nothing was wrong at that moment.

Susana walked this way. She walked past the cameras coming right there. She walked down this pathway here.

Once we saw that, our mind was thinking, "That means she got kidnapped. She's being raped. She's trafficking." We just thought about the worst. [SPEAKING SPANISH] It was a bad feeling. 'Cause we knew for sure something had happened. 'Cause she was on the way home.

How did you feel?

You have to look at what she abducted.

We have close to 40 to 50 missing persons reports in our system a month. And I would say majority of those, they come back home within the first week. All hands are on deck when it comes to a person that's been abducted. Versus someone is just being missing, because you have to show that foul play is actually involved. And at that time, we didn't have any information that Susanna was abducted by anyone. However, I had taken the case as a personal matter, and I was looking for her like someone had taken her. My daughter is 16 at the time when this occurred. I looked at this as if she was my daughter, because every day I saw my daughter, I saw her. So I was working harder every day because— I came over here to the extra storage space knowing that Susanna was continuing her walk, but unfortunately the video camera only caught the brush at the bottom of here. It didn't capture the sidewalk. We actually checked the busses' cameras during that time frame when she went missing. We didn't see any footage of her on any of the busses. Sterling Glen Apartments, the only cameras that they have are on top of the building.

Those are considered like live feed cameras, which means live feed, not recording.

Once Susanna was reported missing and nobody was able to find any location for her or any information about where she had gone, Susana's family and her friends and the community began to launch a campaign to try and find Susana.

We decided we would make these big posters and say, "Have you seen her? Can you please call this number?" And we were posting all over social media. I remember I got a call from this woman. She was saying, "I have your sister. I have your sister." In that moment, my heart dropped.

Especially nowadays with social media, people do things to make you feel like a moment of hope and false hope. And that's what happened.

He must be just done messing with me.

Unfortunately, there are evil people out there and they prey on this.

This is it. This is it.

[SPEAKING SPANISH] The family is begging and pleading with anyone to find Susanna.

We just don't know what happened. We don't know if she got picked up. We don't know if she got lost. She wouldn't just go out and, like, not tell us.

This was a case that grabbed so much attention. You're talking about a teenager, and all of a sudden she goes missing. It blows your mind.

Receive a lot of tips from people who were genuine and did care and tried to give potential sightings of her.

One tip brings her family to the brink.

Someone saw Susanna's bright curly hair at a hotel.

Police are dispatched to the scene. What do they find?

Me and my mom were going out every single day. If we would get a tip at 2 in the morning, we would be out looking for her at 2 in the morning. I remember that we would get a lot of, like, sightings of her, and so we would always go and check out.

At one point, a tip comes in that someone saw Susana's bright curly hair at a hotel.

And when we went, we were just like driving around the hotel. And then in one of the windows, we saw like a silhouette of two women, and one had super curly hair. And we were like for sure that it was Susana.

So we called the police. We had officers go to the hotel because they were actually waiting in the park lot saying that Susanna was actually there.

They were taking forever to get there. And once the police got there, they went inside and they were able to talk to one of the women that was there. But the lady that had left was the one with curly hair. And so we were like, oh my God, what if that was her? So we were left with that doubt if that lady was her or not.

They never gave up hope, and I lived off their hope. After my 8 hours of work, I would still spend 2 to 3 more extra hours doing— I would call it Susanna time. Just driving around, just to see if I could see Susanna sitting on the stoop or sitting at the playground, hoping that I would possibly see her just walking down the sidewalk. I mean, my car doesn't really look like, I mean, a police car, so I would actually go in plain clothes and just like camp out at some of these hotels. And after a while, some of the criminals who who do a lot of prostitution started noticing who I was. This is the RV camp. Someone said that they had thought they saw her, saw a sighting of her over here. And then I just got into a routine that I would do the exact same thing, that I would go from the hotels to here to the businesses to the apartment complex to Sterling Glen. I just kept doing the exact same thing over and over because I just felt that if I didn't do it, that would be the day that someone saw her.

It was a super hard time. I was honestly really just trying to be strong for my mom.

The longer that Susanna remained missing, the bigger of a story this became in the local community.

It's been more than a month since anyone in Susanna Morales's family has heard from the 16-year-old. This flyer is all across Norcross and Gwinnett County today. Gwinnett Police said they can't find her alone.

Honestly, we're just tired of not knowing. That's like the hardest part. But our goal was just to make sure that everybody knew her face. If anybody would try seeing her, they would call us.

Gwinnett Police on Monday said they have exhausted all options and need the public's help to find her. The Meadow Creek High student is not believed to be in any danger.

What's the evidence for them to think that, or do they have evidence that show otherwise?

While we're going through the fall, police don't have any updates on it.

And during that time, I also, I was pregnant. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, all I did was cry. I got pregnant to the point I couldn't do anything. And so mainly I felt guilt for not being able to look for her more.

As the investigation began to month after month turn up no results, the Special Victims Unit turned the case over to the homicide homicide unit.

What's interesting about this case is there's a team with the First 48 TV show that was embedded with police during this investigation into this disappearance of a teenage girl.

[SPEAKING SPANISH] I've been working a missing juvenile case for going actually 6 months today. I was asked to come in and assist, and I just got kind of pushy, I guess. Not in a bad way. I just kind of hijacked the case.

Carter is just, man, she's a warrior, and she knows she just have a knack for stuff.

There was zero communication coming from Susanna after that crime. Crash Alert. Literally zero activity. Nothing. She's a teenager. That's unheard of.

We did have hope that somebody new was coming to the case and hopefully they were able to see something that nobody else saw.

I started from scratch. We took metal detectors where her phone was last seen on Life360 and attempted to locate it. We're just going to check that center median. I really want to find this. We didn't find the phone. We just tried. I spoke to friends. I spoke to family.

You treat this just like a real homicide case, not just a person just walked away. Everyone is now considered a suspect at this point.

Throughout those investigations, the police realized that absolutely none of them had any information whatsoever as to Susanna's disappearance.

So I asked for another media release to be sent out just to keep her name relevant. And we had no suspects at that time. We don't know who's watching.

This is 16-year-old Susanna Morales, a teenager who's been missing since summer. Cell phone data and cameras show her last known location was in Gwinnett County walking home.

We needed either someone come forward with some information or Susanna come home. If you have information, please call Gwinnett County Police.

And then within about 2 weeks or so, we had a break in the case.

I received a call saying, "Did you hear the news? They found your sister." Y'all really went out.

Nobody expected to still be looking for her.

Gwinnett County Police Department out of leads.

They said they have exhausted all options.

Looking for this missing high school student.

We had the meeting where it was decided like I would kind of take over the case, and then we just started doing all these other search warrants, and we got a call Winnie County 911, what's the location of your emergency?

He was driving, he noticed on the side of Highway 316 a trail that went into the woodline. He had a small kind of off-road vehicle and he liked to adventure and find different trails, and so he took that trail down the side of Highway 316. He ultimately said that he got a phone call, got out and began to walk around the woods as he was on the phone. I was just out walking through the woods off the side of 316, but I found a human skull. All right, we're going to have an officer head out that way.

Nope, nope, wrong. A patrol officer sent to check out those remains. The immediate assumption is, hey, it's probably an animal, it's a skull.

434 right here. Oh, it's going. How you doing? I'm good. This is that way, a little walk. Show us. Sure.

Officers arrive and they meet the man who made the 911 call from on the side of the highway, and he kind of leads them into the woods where he found it.

Is it off like this road, or is it a little ways off?

Right up over here. There's no stores, there's no real residences. It's just literally the side of a highway. It's not a place that people normally would pull over and just walk around, or there's no reason for someone to be there.

313, now the code 4.

We see on that officer's body cam when he gets gets there, the officer sees a skull, and the remains are too big to be a small animal, and it's clearly they are human.

And there's more. I walked straight that way and there's a few more over here. Step back a little bit.

We're gonna see how far we gotta cordon this off.

I got some tape in the back of my car too. So the Gwinnett County Police Department confirmed that they did appear to be human remains, and so the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner, homicide, uh, unit and crime scene specialists responded to the area. We were called out because a citizen discovered skeletal remains. This is just all wooded. There's nothing out here. You want to go get your phone? Yeah. This general area right here is where the remains were located.

This is going to be all night.

Yeah. The first thing that I saw when I got here was a human skull on the ground. Right now they're collecting some of the larger bones and foot. We retrieved a significant portion of the skeleton. The skull is complete. There's no clothing. There's no wallet. There's no possessions, no effects.

Police look and there's absolutely nothing to identify the person, not even any indication if they're male or female, adult, child, nothing.

I have not seen any sharp force injuries to the bones. Right now, we don't have a cause of death. We don't have an identity. Looking at it, the growth plates is not fused.

She said tibia younger, 17, 18-ish.

The first words from the forensic pathologist when she sees what we have are, do you have any missing teenage girls?

So the medical examiner, Dr. Terry, She's able to tell that they're female, and that is when red flags start going off in our heads. Could this be Susanna?

As we were sifting through the topsoil and recovering some of the small bones of the hands, one of the medical examiner investigators, he recovered some fingernails. We found some fingernails. It was pink. Those peeled off of them, right? Yeah, like the black. This started missing. As soon as I saw the nail polish on the fingernails, I recalled a photo that Detective Carter had shown me of Susanna. In that photograph, her nails were painted black. It kind of put a chill on my spine.

Something we took note of was that the remains that we were able to actually recover indicated that her clothes were not with her at the time that she was killed.

I definitely remember thinking that whoever this girl turned out to be, you know, it was immediately obvious that she didn't walk out into the woods. As thick as it was, she didn't walk out here in the nude with no shoes on. That was immediately suspicious. By the time the medical examiner processed the scene, it was completely dark in the middle of the woods. Our immediate concern at that point was trying to verify if, in fact, these were Susanna.

Could it really be Susanna? All of our hearts break because, of course, we still hope she's alive.

I made arrangements to have uniformed officers out here so that there would be bodies all night guarding this perimeter, making sure that no evidence could be tampered with. To come back out here the next day to search for additional items, just because it was too dark to perform that thorough of a search. Hey, y'all, hold up. [SPEAKING SPANISH] The recruits found a gun. It felt really strange that a firearm would be out here.

Probably 30 yards past where the skeletal remains were found.

ESPN presents the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most exciting playoffs out there. A 2-month roller coaster filled with sudden-death overtimes and good old-fashioned chaos. Unbelievable! Every shift matters, every series is a statement, and everyone gets their shot at the Cup. Scores! The Stanley Cup Playoffs presented by GEICO continue on ABC ESPN and the ESPN app.

There was only one Richard Simmons.

It's sweating time! Megastar, adored by millions. Then one day, he disappeared for a decade.

Where in the world is Richard Simmons?

Now his closest family and friends speak out for the first time to Diane Sawyer. You had to be in a lot of pain.

You had to be in a lot of pain.

And what does Richard's live-in housekeeper, the last person to see him alive, now say happened behind closed doors.

This is the first time I'm talking about this. The Mystery of Richard Simmons, a Diane Sawyer special, premieres Tuesday, May 12th on ABC and stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

I was just out walking through the woods off the side of 316, but I found a human Go. I walked straight that way and there was a few more over there.

So we went that next morning out to the remains. So just make sure that you're scanning carefully because they're going to be small pieces that you're looking for in addition to clothing, shoes, something like that. All right, y'all cool?

Let's form the line from here down to the guardrail. Let's fill in any gaps.

So we line up police officers to do a grid, walking through the woods near that remains to see, is there anything that could have been left there?

Hey, y'all hold up. [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE] Recruits found a gun, probably 200 feet off the highway here was a black pistol just barely covered with pine straw. It was a 9mm firearm that had a flashlight attached to the firearm as well, and it appeared it had been there for some time.

Probably 30 yards past where the skeletal remains were found.

It's definitely suspicious. Run that really quick.

We're on a 10.9 Glock pistol, serial Bravo Romeo X-ray Hotel 074.

Uh, means it's stolen.

The gun was loaded, but there was no evidence to say that it had been fired.

That's where the gun was actually found, is where that dead end was.

Definitely the close proximity that the gun was to the remains, and then the gun being listed as stolen, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they're probably related. I want to talk to the guy who reported it missing.

Police run that serial number of the firearm. They find out that that gun was reported missing by someone named Miles Bryant. Miles Bryant actually lived in the Sterling Glen Apartments.

I pulled the report and saw that it had been reported stolen the same day that Susanna was reported as missing from the same location, Sterling Glen Apartments.

She's last seen July 26, 2022, 10 o'clock PM. The next morning, in the early morning hours, that gun's reported stolen from the Sterling Glen Apartments. Miles Bryant is the owner of that gun. He lives at the Sterling Glen apartment complex where Susanna was last seen. All of our evidence is coming back to Sterling Glen.

Miles Bryant, the guy who reported his gun stolen the day after Susanna went missing. He reported from his courtesy officer job at Windsgate Village He was working security.

Yes. Right. Oh my gosh.

He's a fucking cop. Yeah.

The moment that I found out that he was a cop, it was like, are you serious? What the heck? Like, it was kind of extremely shocking because you never think you're going to see that. It was like getting crazy.

Where is he an officer? Doraville. Doraville.

I learned that the person who reported the gun as stolen was Miles Bryant. From there, I started doing some research on him.

Miles Bryant was working for the Doraville Police Department. Doraville is between our area in Gwinnett and the city of Atlanta, not far from us. His side gig was to do security. He was a courtesy officer for the apartment complex where he lived. And that's typical. You'll see officers live in different apartment complexes, and they'll do security for them. He appears very young, and he is young. He was in his early 20s. Miles grew up here. He went to school here in Gwinnett County.

Me and Miles Bryant grew up since I was in— elementary school. We were best friends. He was kind of nerdy. He wore glasses. He liked me. He wasn't my type, so I just kind of threw him into the friend zone.

Miles played football at Burt Moore High School. He was a running back.

His number was 23.

He would post highlight videos of himself to his Huddle account. He's an ROTC in high school. He joins the Army National Guard. Miles was very proud of his National Guard service. He posted photos of himself in his uniform on social media.

He always wanted to be a police officer.

Detective Carter began to review that report of the missing weapon, believing that it was very possible somebody had had stolen this gun and used it to abduct Susanna. What's up, man? Hey, Mr. Bryant. I'm sorry. No, you're good.

At that point, that's when we pull that body cam video on the gun reported missing.

So yesterday, um, so I can't find my wallet, and then this morning I looked on my floorboard and The, um, my Glock 19 holster, right? Oh, I hate to say, I think I left my— they ain't smashed the window or nothing.

Miles Bryant reports that from his personal vehicle, his own truck, his wallet is taken and his gun is taken.

I looked down this morning, I saw my holster, I said, I can't find my wallet, my holster's there. My gun and holster is never separate, you know? Okay, anyway, I'll list it in the truck just to say it's out of the report. Yeah. I don't really care about, you know, the detectives. We found it very odd that Mr. Bryant would not want detectives to follow up on a stolen gun report.

Hey, I just want to document this, but you don't need to send it to detectives. You don't need to investigate that. That's unheard of.

If you need anything, hit me up. I'm more than willing to talk to you. Cool, man. Appreciate it, bro. Hey, hopefully you find your It's not actually— Yeah, I know. When the police department discovered that he was a police officer, they didn't want to believe that he was necessarily involved in this. But at the same time, it was very difficult to figure out and think about how his gun could have ended up in the woods where Susanna was last located, 22 miles away from where he lived.

I was like hardcore at that point. We need to talk to this person because they're definitely going to have information or some kind of involvement.

We're literally talking to everyone here, so we got no leads, man. We're just trying to—

Myself and Detective Carter went and got the dental records for Susanna. The medical examiner was able to match them up and actually told us that it was Susanna. Me and Carter, we just sat there and cried for about 10 minutes because we, um, We didn't want to believe that it was her.

We're about to go make death notification to the family. I'm not looking forward to it, but it has to be done. Break the horrible news. You guys want to go inside for a second?

Yeah. I remember going to my mom's house to wait for the police. So I know Biggers and Carter were coming. And then that's when they informed us that they had found her remains. And I was like, what? They found my sister? I remember Brenda's hearing my mom screaming. And I was in shock. I was like, that can't be true. Like, that can't be true.

My mom literally just fell to the ground. Her soul just left her body. It was the hardest thing that I've ever done, and to this day, it still— obviously you can see that it still sticks with me.

Uno como madre, desde que Susana desapareció, yo siento que no hay alegría en mi corazón. Amo a mis hijas, pero algo se murió dentro de mí.

Unfortunately, because of the way the body was disposed of, we have no indication of what happened to Susanna.

But what the medical examiner also determined very quickly was that there was also absolutely no evidence of any clothing that had been on Susanna prior to her being left there. And that was significant because with an accidental death, it would be very unlikely, nearly, you know, unheard of for Susanna to not be dressed, to not be clothed. And so that immediately told us that we suspected this was a homicide. Investigators in Gwinnett County just told us human remains found along Highway 316, that's in Gwinnett County, are those of a 16-year-old girl who disappeared in July.

I remember Carter promising me that she would find out what happened and who did it.

Looking at Miles, we're kind of wondering, you know, what his involvement may have been. Is he a true victim and had his gun stolen, and whoever stole it is responsible, you know, for maybe taking Susanna? Or is this a ruse to distance himself from his gun being located out in the woods where the remains were were found.

They then obtained a search warrant for Mr. Bryant's cellular phone records.

We just got phone records back on our suspect. He is in the wood line at 1:00 AM, which is 3 hours later after Susanna goes missing.

Now, Miles Bryant was a police officer. He had 2 phones, a personal cell phone and a work cell phone. Both phones put him in that location, and he's in the same location at the same time as Susanna's remains. Oh, I wanted to go arrest him.

I wanted to go arrest Miles, like, right away. I wanted to leave that night and go get him because it was alarming. I'm like, he's in a position of power. I'm like, we can't just leave him like this. But this is a cop involved in this. We need to make sure we handle this correctly.

I went out there and just waited for him to walk outside. And we just approached him asking for his help for our investigation on Susanna. Hey, man, what's up?

You doing all right? We're just out here.

We're trying to look for anybody helping us out with that missing girl. Oh, yeah.

You're the courtesy officer or something? Yes, sir. Cool, man. You know anything about that? Yeah. No, I don't.

Miles's response to the information he had about Susanna was a little surprising. He should be more informed with what's going on in his complex if he's a good courtesy officer.

You know, you got some time for us to come up to our headquarters and just talk about, you know, what you see on a daily basis and stuff like that?

Yeah. So at that time, there was no arrest warrants for Miles, so he really needed to come voluntarily. So we kind of just urged him that we needed his help. Yeah. Um, that would be today.

Yeah. Yeah. Now. Uh, I have to go meet my girlfriend and not work for him. Okay. What time's work at? 4:00? Yeah, it shouldn't be. We're literally talking to everyone here. We got no leads, man. We're just trying to document everything. That's all we are. No problem. Okay, you can get up front seat. All right, ma'am. Oh yeah, we'll get you up there, knock this out.

We don't put him in the back of a patrol car. We actually let him sit up front in the police car, trying to make him feel comfortable. Make him see, hey, we're just police officers, one-on-one, friends talking to each other.

So we brought Miles up here. He sat in this chair here and we interviewed him.

Hey, how you doing? In the interview room, we have seats where we put certain people, like where detectives sit, where suspects sit. We let him sit in a detective seat. We didn't change anything. We wanted him to be as comfortable as possible. I'm Detective Carter. I'm leading on this. I'm going to get a lot of shit for this case, so I got to start working a little bit more.

So Detective Carter obviously wanted to build a rapport with him. They're both working for the same goal, trying to accomplish the same thing, and that's find a missing girl.

Have you ever seen her? She used to be over here quite a bit.

Okay, I, I haven't recognized the picture. The picture, I haven't recognized it.

So the initial plan for the interview, again, just go in there, be relaxed, ask him very open-ended questions. I asked him about his gun. Have you heard anything about the gun? And I played dumb. I know that your, your gun was stolen. Do you know if it was located or anything yet? No, I haven't heard anything.

I haven't run it yet.

I wonder, we probably need to check that And then at one point when I think I got as much information as I probably could get from him with just being super casual, I dropped that one bomb. Basically, my sergeant did confirm. So we did find your gun, actually. Yeah. You watch the news, you know we found Savannah. But there was actually a gun found out there too. For real? Yeah. You've been shaking.

Yeah, it's crazy, you know.

I told you you were coming up here. You know, we wanted your help. Up and everything, and your hands were shaking in my car.

All right. We had not disclosed prior to the interview with Mr. Bryant that we had found a firearm arm near Susanna's body. So he learned that for the first time sitting there in the interview room. That's crazy. I found my gun.

And it's the same serial number. He just verified it. It's crazy. I know. So help me walk through it a little bit. Do you know where she was found? Mm, 316 somewhere. At that point, when I told him we found his gun, he does start shaking a little bit more.

That's crazy. I found my gun.

So I think it's involved.

I mean, that's a crazy coincidence. Yeah, but I think it got stolen from you the same day, so it's probably someone that was walking around out there. Yeah, try to think hard of me.

Did you know her at all, Morales? Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Look, your gun was found there. You know how this goes. We have to do like this, that, and the third to do everything, um, which we did. We did our due diligence, so I did get your phone record. Mm-hmm. Um, so I had no— I know you were already up there. Mm-hmm. So kind of tell—

you were there for a little while. So once Miles was confronted with the phone records, he changed his story to say that he got in this crazy chase fight with his girlfriend.

I remember, yeah, God, I mean, that part, she tried to chase me. My girlfriend tried to chase me with her car. Yeah, I mean, I was driving around, I was driving, and I remember I was driving and I was still in our area. I remember I was driving, she tried to chase me.

Yeah, like the Jerry Springer episode. His story went from there's no reason I, I would be there, I'm never there, to oh yeah, actually I was there and I stopped and pulled over and I was on the phone going up towards Lawrenceburg.

I think— oh man, that sounds bad. It is over about 316. I mean, you're saying that's bad.

I mean, what are— Lawrenceburg big, you're saying that's bad. You mean the area where—

Yeah, because, um, yeah, I'm gonna be honest, I'm police officer, okay? So yeah, my gun was found in that area, you know, uh, technically was in that area, stuff like that, you know. I know it sounds bad, but man.

Miles ultimately, you know, says that he admits that he was out there. He kind of has to because his phone put him out there, but he said he was— doesn't get out of his vehicle, doesn't do anything in the woods.

Why were you in the woods? I wasn't in the woods.

You were in the woods.

I was not in the woods.

You were.

You're not helping me out much, man.

I know.

Interviewing him was just so frustrating because this poor girl didn't deserve this. Like, she didn't. And I just wanted him to take responsibility and actually tell us what happened instead of deflecting and trying to say that he had nothing to do with it. So I say, okay. I'm like, this isn't working with me. I said, fine, we're going to take a break. He's not going to come off of it. You want to try? Maybe it's because I'm a female, because he doesn't respect females.

We decided, you know, we were kind of running into dead ends interviewing Miles, and that's when me and Sergeant Poppy decided to come in and just get more aggressive with him.

Sergeant Poppy, I'm Carter's supervisor.

A confession was going to be huge in this case because without a manner of death, we needed Miles to tell us how he killed her. We just decided to take an aggressive approach and just tell him that he was essentially just full of shit.

And at the end of the day, you can't give us any information on why your gun is there.

And why you're there for an extended period of time in the same spot that her body was found.

I don't know.

I was by myself the entire night besides when my girlfriend was chasing me. That's not a good answer. And your girlfriend's gonna tell us she was chasing you that night?

Yeah, she remembered. I then speak to his girlfriend on the phone to confirm whether she was chasing him that night. Or not. Quick question, you said you caught him cheating that night. You weren't chasing him? But she said she never chased him.

Oh, your girlfriend chased you? Absolutely not. She did not chase you that night? She did not chase me. I swear.

So I even, you know, told Miles that I thought he was, you know, lying about his gun being stolen, telling him that he was trying to distance himself from the crime, and he just denied, denied, denied everything. I think you dropped your gun. She couldn't find it.

You gave up and left. No, she didn't even want a detective assigned to your case. You told the officer you don't even have to investigate this because if you— because if we investigate it, we're gonna find it and it's gonna be near a dead body that you killed. No, you can say no. I don't hear that word from you no more. You know, you don't represent this badge at all or this country.

I was hoping talking to Miles about, you know, honor, pride, integrity might tug on his, you know, conscience a little bit because people get into law enforcement for the right reason. And I was hoping maybe that would strike a chord in Miles, but unfortunately it didn't. Honor, integrity, sacrifice.

You're none of those. And unless you can provide us with that thing that's going to say it's not you, but you haven't done that. What do y'all want? I'm telling you everything I got. Yeah, all right, man. Be charged. We'll be back in a couple minutes. Why? I should Stay home instead of driving around, man.

We tell him, look, dude, you're under arrest. Go ahead and stand up for me. Yep. We get his phone, we get his passwords, and he is transported to the jail.

Oh, I can't, bro. I cannot go to jail. I have a career.

At that time, because we weren't 100% sure on the cause of death and we were We're still looking for additional evidence. We charged him with false report of a crime. You can't just go to a judge and say, well, I just know it. I just feel it. You know, we have to come with some evidence.

We started investigating Miles Bryant's past. And there starts to be a bunch of weird behavior with women.

We began to realize who Mr. Bryant really was under the surface. And it was this repeated pattern, all involving young women.

I was very scared for my life.

Whoa! We need some water.

I need a martini. Yeah!

I love the sound of cooking. It's sort of music.

It is. I'm Stanley Tucci, and I want to invite you on a journey through the country that I love, Italy.

Join Stanley Tucci for a new season. You are a good cutter, babe, of National Geographic's Tucci in Italy.

All right, should we eat?

Tucci in Italy, new season premieres Monday, May 11th on National Geographic, streaming next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

No! Oh no! Welcome to Get Real.

I got something to say.

A weekly talk show for the reality TV obsessed. Oh my God, it's gonna be delicious!

Hungry.

Desperate. Why would these girls forgive him?

Well, she has a soft spot for troubled men. Boo, bloody hoo!

This is your show. Find Get Real wherever you get your podcasts.

Love runs deeper than we know.

And stream new episodes Thursdays on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

The funeral was very surprising, seeing a lot of community together. A lot of people out there supporting our family.

And that kitchenette dress was the one she was buried in.

All I could do was cry and cry. The most emotional part about the funeral was hearing my mom cry out, "Justice for Susie," to the Lord.

[SPEAKING SPANISH] Susana Morales' family got a call from investigators just hours after laying her to to rest Monday.

The first time you heard the name Miles Bryant?

22-year-old Miles Bryant started the day as an officer with Doraville Police. Now he's behind bars, off the job, and linked to the disappearance of a dead teen.

I got search warrants and conducted forensic downloads on his cell phones and then began reviewing, um, that data. I was able to show and put him out there based on his activity logs on his cell phone. Like how quickly you're moving your steps and stuff like that. At 1:20 AM, he traveled 381 meters. 1:31, 140 meters. 1:41, 373 meters. Technology is amazing. In a cell phone, you can see how many steps somebody takes. You can see their heart rate, get their location. Do you know where she was found? So when Miles told us he was just sitting in the truck— Do you ever go in the woods and stuff out there? In the woods? No. He was actually dumping Susanna's body in the woods and then losing his gun and freaking out because he can't find his gun because it's pitch black out there. That's him running around.

Where's my gun? Yep. Looking for his gun.

It's interesting that those phone records put him at that ranch remote location where the remains and gun are found twice. The nighttime when Susanna goes missing, and then the next morning. Our theory is that he goes back to the woods. We assume he's looking for the gun that he dropped.

So we also got, like, his Google search history. He is on Google zooming in on the wooded area where he leaves her. Safari searched for— How long does it take a body to decompose?

Hey, y'all. Mic drop.

The man arrested last week for the death of 16-year-old Susanna Morales is now charged with her murder. 22-year-old former Doraville police officer Miles Bryant now faces charges of felony murder and kidnapping.

It's disheartening when you think that a police officer would be involved in something as heinous as this situation. It is an affront to what these officers do on a daily basis.

We went to arraignment. We entered a plea of not guilty. They didn't do their job. They didn't do their due diligence.

Who needs help? Who needs help?

I think there were some feelings from many in the community that the police didn't care about Susanna, about her being missing, because was she was Hispanic. And while I didn't feel that way, and I don't think the police felt that way, I think that was a feeling in the community at the time.

[SPEAKING SPANISH] It was still 7 months of us looking for her, 7 months of us worrying about her. I feel like if we could have found out sooner, that would have been a little more helpful for us. Then maybe we could have buried her body and not just her bones.

Chief McClure defended his department.

Again, this case was immediately assigned to an investigator, and they began following up on leads, uh, trying to locate Susanna.

When I was looking into Miles, I located a lot of documented history and encounters we had with him where it seemed like he kind of targeted women.

Me and Miles Bryant were friends from 5th grade all the way up to 10th grade, we kind of stopped talking a little bit, but then after graduation, he hit me up to start talking again. He was asking me about his ex-girlfriend a lot, and I kind of got like an icky feeling.

Alesha Bates told him, "I don't want to deal with you anymore," and he just wouldn't take no for an answer on that. He continued to reach out. He continued to like follow her around, show up at her apartment, try to break into to her apartment, covering his face and pulling on the door handle, then again knocking.

This happened nearly 5 months after Gwinnett Police say Bryant dumped the naked body of Morales in July.

My neighbor's Ring cam captured 2 times Miles Bryant showing up to my home uninvited.

It freaked me out.

When I called Doraville's department, I spoke to the chief, and the chief was telling me that he'd speak to Miles. And give me a call back.

So his superiors start investigating that. Bryant says that he only did that because she posted something he found strange on social media. So he went by her house to check about her well-being.

And Dorville just writes it off as a misunderstanding between two people. People, but they do tell him not to have any more contact with Alicia Bates. When you look at it in light of what came out in relation to the Susana Morales case, however, it's very concerning.

I was very scared for my life. I felt like everything was against me as far as the odds, just the fact that he was a cop.

Mr. Bryant lived two lives. On the surface, He was a well-respected police officer. But then on the other side was this dark and hidden secrets.

We and the DA's office, we all looked through his body cam footage. There was a call located where he responded to a missing juvenile. So somebody picked you up in what?

In that video, he basically described what he's basically done to Susanna. Which is very scary.

We're doing a missing person, then we find your body out there in the woods, then what? Miles Bryant, an ex-cop now on the other side of the law, accused of kidnapping and murdering 16-year-old Susana Morales.

We have yet to hear why prosecutors think the former police officer would abduct the teenager and kill her. They did say that he is accused of trying to dump her body in a wooded area. Reporting live in Gwinnett County, Courtney Francisco, Channel 2 Action News. This was a high-profile trial. The courtroom was packed, a lot of family and friends, and it involved a police officer, so you can imagine the interest is really high.

He was supposed to serve and protect. Instead, he abused the law. He is a cop who turned into a killer.

Unfortunately, because of the way Miles Bryant dumped Susanna's body We didn't have evidence to prove a cause of death.

I thought it was important for the jury to understand that it's his fault that we don't have that. The defendant doesn't get to escape justice because he's good with words.

Our strategy was basically to try to get the jury to see that it was basically a speculation as to what really happened that led to the death of Miss Morales. We do know that Miles left her in the woods. We don't know if she was unconscious at that time or if she was dead. We don't know that he did anything to her to cause that.

He might have lured her in through the use of a badge or gotten her in the vehicle somehow, but, but very quickly I think he incapacitated assassinated her and ultimately murdered her. And as the courtesy officer there at the apartment complex, he had run into Susanna and had seen her along with her friends. Do you swear? Susanna's friend Alyssa testifies at the trial that they had met Miles Bryant before at the apartment complex. The defendant, Miles Bryant, have you seen him before?

We all knew it was a cop in our neighborhood.

Had you ever had any personal interactions with the defendant before Susanna disappeared?

Yes, he came with his backpack and he had, um, a drink with him and he had little shot cups and he had, um, edibles and stuff. And he asked how old I was, and then when I told him my age, he like still wanted to talk to me but didn't talk to me because my age. So he knew not to drink with me, but he wanted to drink with me before he knew my age, but he still offered the edibles. And Susanna was with you? Yes. He offered us to give us a ride to get pizza, but we said no because we're underage.

You're grown. How old were you back in July of 2022?

I was 17.

Too young to drink, correct? Right. It proved to us a connection. There was some time when Mr. Bryant had seen Susanna before, even though he claimed to never have seen her.

Prosecutors were painting a picture of Officer Creepy. His employment record was strong evidence that he had some questionable encounters. I'm going to show you what's marked as State Secret 6.

Prosecutors showed the body camera footage of Miles Bryant telling a 13-year-old what could happen to her if she runs away from home. A mom had reported her 13-year-old daughter was missing, and he is there taking the information. While he's there, this young 13-year-old girl comes back.

Miles starts talking to her and says, pretty much narrates what I believe he did to Susanna. Something was happening to you.

We're doing a missing person, then we found your body out there in the woods. Then what? Nowadays people don't care. People are my size, big, and just come snatch you up. You can scream, you can shout all you want, they're gonna throw you in the back of the van and go take you to your parents and never see you again.

And there's nothing you can do.

You can't fight it. It was definitely disturbing.

Here he is interacting with another young Hispanic female, a teenager, and scaring her.

You got a cell phone? No. No. See, Lil Will, something happened out there.

What you gonna call? And this was a couple months before Susanna ever went missing.

And it was almost this premonition that he had put thought into this. It's ridiculous that he would use his position in order to prey on young women.

Emotional testimony today in the trial of a former police officer.

I had prepped a lot for this trial because it meant so much to me, and I didn't want to be the reason anything messed up, so I was very, you know, locked in and focused. I get up there and then the emotions just start coming. Detective Kessler was communicating with me and telling me that they believed it was going to be, um, sorry, a Hispanic teenage girl.

That's all the questions I have.

I don't have any questions. No questions, ma'am. Thank you.

The defense attorney in this case doesn't really challenge a lot of the things that are said about Miles Bryant, and she doesn't call any witnesses. There's still one person we're all waiting to hear from, however. Mr.

Bryant, do you swear or affirm that testimony you're about to give in this case is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I swear.

Can't get enough 2020 true crime?

This podcast is for you.

Join me for 2020: The After Show wherever you get your podcasts.

Get exclusive audio you won't hear anyplace else. New episodes drop every Monday.

The ex-cop plans to testify in his own defense when the Defense attorney says we're going to hear from Miles Bryant. That was a big bit of news for us.

Miles Bryant is the only one who was in those woods. Susanna's mom and family could finally get answers.

He told us he didn't do this. Look at him.

I have nothing to do with this, so—

If he wanted to take that back, he needed to get up on the stand and say it.

Are you aware that this is the only time you can testify during your trial? Yes, ma'am. Do you personally, Miles Bryant, want to testify or not? No, ma'am. He didn't take the stand. So everyone waiting with that bated breath, how he can explain himself, they did not get that at all.

He's a predatory monster with a badge. I'm asking you to find him guilty. Is there any evidence of malice?

A murder.

There is not.

When we were waiting for the verdict, it was like 8 PM, and we were there. It seemed like forever, to be honest.

Tonight we learned the fate of the former police officer accused of killing this teenager, Susana Morales.

The judge is given the paper. She's reading it. I swear it's like in slow-mo. It takes forever. Count 1, malice murder.

We the jury found the defendant guilty.

And as soon as she said guilty to malice murder, I knew at that moment we had him. The guilty on malice murder would have— was going to send him to prison forever.

Miles Bryant found guilty of malice murder, kidnapping, felony murder, and false report of a crime.

I felt maybe just like a little bit of relief that he wasn't going to be able to walk away free from what he did. I would like to know from Miles Bryant, why did he do it? What did my sister do to him to deserve such a death?

I don't think they're ever going to get those answers. I think they'll have to live with an understanding that we got the right person.

Susanna's family is able to give the victim impact statements. Then Miles is asked, does he have anything to say?

I just want to apologize to everybody. And to the victim's family—

He says sorry. He just gives some— he should have just been quiet.

No, I didn't care about his apologies, to be honest, because we still had that unknown of what happened that night.

The judge then sentenced Bryant to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

You moved from that house. Yeah. Do you still wait for her? Si.

Ella mi bebe.

She was your baby. How often do you think about her?

Todos los días he aprendido a caminar y a sonreír, a seguir, pero el dolor— solo digo al Señor: "Señor, a veces le grito, ¿cuándo vas a quitar este dolor que siento?". The video of Susanna singing the song Location on the ukulele is one of my favorite videos to look back on. My last memory was I got on her bed and I was like, Susie, I love you so much, and I hugged her. She was like, I love you to. And I think that was the best experience and last experience I had with her. I want her to be remembered by her laugh. She was a beautiful girl, and at the end of the day, she was just a sister, a daughter, a friend. And that night, she was on the way home, and nobody had the right to take that away from her. She was on the way home.

We should note tonight that Miles Bryant's motion for a new trial has been denied. He's now appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.

David, for more on Susanna's case or similar homicide investigations, you can check out The First 48 Thursdays on A&E.

That's our program for tonight.

Thanks for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.

And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 20/20 and ABC News, good night. ABC News. Good night.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is the perfect sequel that has audiences talking. She knows. How did you blab? It exceeds all expectations.

I always knew that you would end up doing something great.

See the movie that's fun, fierce, and well worth the wait.

This is what runway does best.

And now the devil is back in all her glory. My boss is badder than You're a boss. Don't miss the iconic movie event now playing only in theaters. That's all. The Devil Wears Prada 2, rated PG-13, may be inappropriate for children under 13. Now playing everywhere.