U.S. : Georgia police charged with covering up missing 16-year-old girl’s death

A Geor­gia police offi­cer has been fired and arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with cov­er­ing up the death of miss­ing 16-year-old Susana Morales, whose body was found last week.

Morales in Nor­cross, Geor­gia, was last seen on July 26th.

Gwin­nett Coun­ty Police said Morales texted her moth­er at 9:40 p.m. the night she dis­ap­peared, telling her she was on her way home. Cell phone data and video footage showed she was walk­ing towards her home, but detec­tives believe she may have got­ten into her car.

Cell phone data showed her last where­abouts was the Oak Lok Trace until the cell phone was turned off, offi­cials said.

Her body was found on Feb­ru­ary 6th.

Gwin­nett Coun­ty Police said a passer­by report­ed­ly saw what appeared to be human bones in the woods near High­way 316 between Down­ing Creek and the Bar­row coun­ty line. The body was lat­er iden­ti­fied as Morales.

Days after the body was found, police announced they had arrest­ed Miles Bryant, 22, a police offi­cer in the Atlanta sub­urb of Doraville.

Bryant has been charged with cov­er­ing up the death of anoth­er per­son and false­ly report­ing a crime in rela­tion to Morales’ death, police said in a news release Monday.

Author­i­ties have not released details of Morales’ death and are still investigating.

How­ev­er, a Gwin­nett Coun­ty Police spokesper­son said, “We can­not believe there was any rela­tion­ship between Susana and Miles.”

Bryant was fired from the Dorav­ille Police Depart­ment on Mon­day after city offi­cials learned of the charges in Gwin­nett Coun­ty, a city spokesman said. He has been employed by the Dorav­ille Police since May 2021.

“The City of Dorav­ille and its police force are coop­er­at­ing ful­ly with the Gwin­nett Police inves­ti­ga­tion into Mr. Bryant. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the fam­i­ly and friends of Susana Morales and all those affect­ed by this tragedy.” ‘, a state­ment from the city said.

Bryant is being held with­out bail in Gwin­nett Deten­tion Center.

He appeared in court on Tues­day. NBC affil­i­ate WXIA Atlanta report­ed that Bryant remained silent as the judge read out the charges and did not bring up a lawyer.