Nancy Grace has exclusively obtained video footage from a neighbor showing suspect Steven Gress allegedly transporting the body of 16-year-old Miranda Corsette after luring her online.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Florida teen Miranda Corsette was reported missing on February 24, days after she disappeared. Gulfport police said the 16-year-old, who was the mother of an 11-month-old baby, lived with her grandmother at the time because both of her parents were deceased.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a news conference last week that Corsette met Steven Gress, 35, on a dating app. He then he picked her up from her Gulfport home on February 14 and brought her backhome later that evening.
The next day, she reportedly went back to Gress’s home on her own and stayed there with him and his girlfriend, Michelle Brandes, 37.
On February 20, an altercation broke out, allegedly over missing jewelry, and Corsette was severely beaten. Police believe Corsette was killed sometime between February 20 and 24.
“We have just obtained what we believe to be Steven Gress…..taking her lifeless body to his vehicle and putting it in his trunk,” Grace said during Thursday’s Crime Stories episode.
Grace emphasizes the significance of this footage, stating,
“These are just suspects right now, but I’ll tell you what, if NASA can do it, so can the St. Pete PD—blowing this up and lightening it up to get a look at the face on this guy.”
“This is the State’s exhibit number one.”
Investigators suspect that Gress transported Corsette’s body to his mother’s home in Largo. Police found evidence at the residence indicating that Corsette’s body had been dismembered.
Gress then allegedly drove the body and discarded it in a dumpster at 2893 14th Avenue S.E. in Ruskin.
Gress has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in connection with Corsette’s disappearance. At the time of his arrest, he was already in county jail for a March 5 incident, in which he’s accused of pointing a harpoon at Brandes, along with drug possession.
Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo: SS via St. Pete PD]
