A Florida man who police say confessed to keeping a teenage girl captive in his home for a week and beating her regularly sent three people pictures of the victim’s worsening injuries.
That victim, 16-year-old Miranda Corsette, was eventually killed, dismembered and tossed into a dumpster, according to a search warrant obtained by PEOPLE.
Murder suspect Steven Gress allegedly told detectives with the St. Petersburg Police Department that in the days before her death he sent pictures of Corsette to two men and his mother.
In that same interview with police, Gress allegedly said that he told his mother that he and his girlfriend Michelle Brandes “had killed Corsette and dismembered the body.”
One of the men who received the images of Corsette shared them with police, who wrote in the warrant: “There was a total of five photographs and in each photograph Corsette looked to be in increasingly worse physical condition. Corsette was nude in each photograph and had bruises and marks on most of her body. In the last photograph, Corsette’s head was so swollen that she was almost unrecognizable.”
Those photos were sent on Feb. 18, five or six days before Gress told detectives that he and Brandes killed the teenager, according to the warrant.
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Not one of the three individuals called police, either before Corsette’s death or in the two weeks after she was reported missing, the warrant says.
All three did admit to receiving the photos on or before Feb. 18, including Gress’ mother, Jacquelyn Kristich, according to the warrant.
Detectives approached her when she went to Gress’ home to pick up his parrot after his arrest, and the warrant details their brief conversation.
Kristich told detectives “she was aware that her son had a history of killing animals and that she had received some text messages and photographs of [Corsette],” but denied ever looking at them, according to the warrant.
She also said that her son called “two weeks after Super Bowl Sunday” and “told her he had a girl at his house who had stolen a ring from him.” Kristich said Gress called him again “a week later possibly on Feb. 18, 2025, and told her the girl was still in his house,” the warrant says.
She allegedly told her son at that point “good people don’t want to know bad things,” and informed him she could no longer speak with him.
She claimed that she told her son to let the girl go, but never contacted police.
The warrant says that Gress met Corsette on Grindr on Valentine’s Day, and she came to his home, where he lived with his girlfriend Brandes.
Gress allegedly told detectives that he started beating the teenager because she stole his ring, a claim that one friend of the couple said was untrue in her interview with police.
That individual alleged that Brandes stole the ring because she was jealous, and claimed Brandes discovered the ring after Corsette’s death.
It is also that individual who first alerted police to the alleged murder, having told police she was with Gress and Brandes when they dismembered the body, according to the affidavit.
Gress also confirmed this, but alleged Brandes killed the girl according to the affidavit.
“Brandes took a ball from a pool table in the backyard, put it in a sock and shoved it down Corsette’s throat and then wrapped her face in plastic wrap,” the affidavit reads. “Gress stated that he told Brandes not to cover the nose, but Brandes did and he couldn’t get to Corsette quick enough to poke holes in the plastic before she died.”
Per the affidavit, Gress allegedly said that they then put the body in the trunk of the car and went to play mini golf and get Popeye’s to celebrate Brandes’ birthday. They then allegedly dismembered the body in the yard of a family member’s home.
Brandes and Gress are both in custody and charged with murder and kidnapping. No other individuals have been charged at this time.
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