By Mark Woolsey
[The Cobb County Courier usually omits the names of suspects of crimes unless the crimes are high profile enough that exoneration would be as well publicized as the arrest or indictment. This crime fits that category of high profile case]
A gruesome murder in Smyrna has resulted in a suspect being taken into custody, but with a number of questions still unanswered.
Authorities are charging an 18-year-old Smyrna man with malice murder after a witness said he saw someone lugging a plastic tub with a dismembered torso Wednesday. That was at the Park Valley Apartments just off South Cobb Drive. They say more body parts turned up as authorities served a search warrant on Friday.
Kingston Bradley is being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
Police say they’re confident that the remains are those of Shanteria Mosley, known as KT by family and friends, although the Medical Examiner has not confirmed it. That’s as DNA testing is ongoing with police hunting for a connection between victim and suspect and between the victim and her possible relatives.
Smyrna police spokesman Lt. Meredith Holt says “this is a shocking crime. I don’t know of any other way to describe it.”
Holt indicated that the investigation is complex, with multiple scenes being checked out and the questioning of multiple people who may have knowledge of the case, including Bradley’s father.
The incident began Wednesday as a missing-person call.
Some purported relatives called police and asked them to check out the apartments. Police indicated that a phone and car possibly connected to the murder had been found and there was talk that the complex was the last place Mosley was seen.
Holt says “They called us. We responded. The officer stayed and knocked on some doors, leaving after about 30 minutes. Without any further information and after knocking on doors, the officer went back into service.”
Mosley’s relatives were critical of how the initial response was managed.
Police returned after the torso was spotted. They later searched Bradley’s apartment, finding items possibly connected.
Further apparent evidence turned up Friday evening, as police served a search warrant on a vehicle. They found what turned out to be a number of body parts wrapped in bags in the trunk.
Holt says she’s been in law enforcement for 25 years and “this is a particularly gruesome crime. I can’t imagine what the family is going through.”
She says the investigation remains ongoing and active and that a number of search warrants were served at multiple possible scenes and questions were asked of a number of people who might have knowledge. She said police are following up any leads that turned up.
Authorities said that Mosley worked for the Doordash food delivery service but that she was not clocked in the day the case arose.