Several people knew missing Gulfport teen was being held captive before her murder: Documents
The Brief
Documents obtained by the Tampa Bay Times show that six people saw or knew 16-year-old Miranda Corsette was being held captive before her death.
Steve Gress, 35, and Michelle Brandes, 37, are charged with Corsette's murder.
Investigators say Corsette met Gress on a dating app before being tortured and dismembered.
GULFPORT, Fla. - In the week before 16-year-old Miranda Corsette was killed, six people saw or knew the teen was being held captive and tortured but never called 911, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.
Big picture view
Steve Gress, 35, and Michelle Brandes, 37, are charged with Corsette's murder. In the 25-page affidavit, it says that three people, including Gress' mother, later admitted to police that he'd sent them photos of the girl that showed her nude, bruised and in increasingly worse physical condition.
Dig deeper
Later in the affidavit, a woman interviewed by police who lived in the first floor apartment with Gress and Brandes told police how the two suffocated the teen girl and how the three of them drove the girl's body to Brandes' mother's house, where Gress and Brandes dismembered her.
"She had called me, my tenant, and she says there's something going on down there. There was arguing and fighting and, you know, they would do that," said David Horton, who owns the duplex where the couple lived.
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The affidavit shows Gress told police in jail that "this was never supposed to happen" and blamed Brandes for causing Miranda's death. Later, it says Brandes depicted Gress as the main aggressor and told detectives she feared being beaten by him and therefore was too afraid to tell police.
What they're saying
"This is a horrific crime. We are still investigating it. We want to assure that we bring justice to Miranda. The investigators are looking at every piece of evidence that we can find," St. Pete Police Chief Anthony Holloway said in March.
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The Source
Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Jordan Bowen.
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