Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes are a couple from Florida who are facing murder charges relating to the death of sixteen year old Miranda Corsette.
According to court documents Steven Gress would lure Miranda Corsette through social media. Roughly a week after she would arrive Miranda would be brutally murdered by both Gress and Michelle Brandes. Corsette whose body would be found badly beaten and would be suffocated by putting a billiard ball and her face wrapped in plastic wrap.
Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes face murder charges while Gress is additionally charged with kidnapping. The Florida prosecutor has said publicly that he may seek the death penalty in this brutal murder
Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes News
A Florida couple who allegedly killed and dismembered a 16-year-old girl earlier this year may both be facing the death penalty, officials said.
Steven Gress, 35, is accused of luring Miranda Corsette through a social media application in February before he and his girlfriend, 37-year-old Michelle Brandes, allegedly killed her around a week later, according to authorities. They were both arrested last month and charged with first-degree murder. Gress was also charged with kidnapping but has pled not guilty to both charges.
According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, Corsette was staying with Gress and Brandes after she was lured to their home on Feb. 14. The teenager was reported missing to the Gulfport Police Department on Feb. 24.
Investigators believe a dispute happened on Feb. 20 where Gress and Brandes beat Corsette. According to arrest affidavits filed for the couple, they “repeatedly beat” and tortured the teen while holding her captive for a week, and eventually suffocated her by stuffing a billiard ball into her mouth and wrapping her face with plastic wrap.
Officials did not specifically stipulate what the reason for the dispute between Gress, Brandes and Corsette was, but said the couple “felt the victim had stolen a ring,” according to affidavits.
“The defendant and co-defendant then dismembered the body of the victim and discarded the victim in a dumpster in Ruskin, Florida,” the court documents state
Brandes was also arrested last month and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Corsette’s killing.
Attorneys for Gress and Brandes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State Attorney Bruce Bartlett of the 6th Judicial Circuit of Florida filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty last month for both Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes, citing the “especially heinous, atrocious” nature of the crimes they are accused of committing.
“The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification,” the notice read.
The state attorney’s office would not comment further on the matter.
Gress and Brandes will be arraigned Thursday, according to court records.
Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes More News
A couple in Florida are facing murder charges after the body of a teenage girl they allegedly met through a dating app was left dismembered in a dumpster, authorities said.
The St. Petersburg Police Department confirmed in a statement shared on Facebook on Friday, March 7, that the body of 16-year-old Miranda Corsette was left in a dumpster nearly two weeks after she was first reported missing on Feb. 24.
Police said that suspect Steven Gress, 35, allegedly met Corsette on a dating app and lured her to meet him at his home in St. Petersburg on Feb. 14.
“After meeting him the first time, [Corsette] went home and then the next day she returned to his home,” police said. Authorities believe that Corsette stayed with Gress and his partner Michelle Brandes, 37, at their home, and her grandmother reported her missing to Gulfport Police on Feb. 24.
During a press conference held on March 7, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said that Corsette was homeschooled and lived with her grandmother, as both of her parents are deceased. She also was the mother of an 11-month-old baby.
Commander Mary Farrand, the acting police chief for the city of Gulfport, said at the press conference that local police are “very familiar with Miranda” because she “is a frequent runaway and she has a history of mental health issues as well as drug abuse.”
“The grandmother is her primary caregiver at this time. She said she normally comes home, so she doesn’t report her missing every time she leaves,” Farrand said. “She just didn’t come back in a timely manner this time.”
On Feb. 20, police said during the press conference that Corsette, Gress and Brandes allegedly got into a dispute over missing jewelry, and the 16-year-old was beaten.
“So from the 20th through the 24th, she was beaten and tortured because they could not find this piece of jewelry,” Holloway said.
Corsette was murdered sometime between Feb. 20 and Feb. 24, the department added. Investigators allege that Steven Gress put her body in a car and brought her to another house in Largo, Fla., which belonged to Brandes’ mother, Holloway said. Physical evidence obtained at the Largo home shows that Corsette was dismembered there, according to police.
After Steven Gress allegedly took Corsette’s body to the Largo home, police said that the 35-year-old allegedly drove her remains to Hillsborough County and placed them in a dumpster there.
“Detectives located the dumpster and are working to find the body,” the department’s statement said.
Authorities received a tip from a witness about the case on March 6, and Brandes later turned herself in on the morning of March 8.
Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes are both facing first-degree murder charges in Corsette’s death, and Gress is also facing a kidnapping charge. Police also stated that Gress was already in custody for unrelated charges — as he was arrested on March 5 for allegedly pointing a harpoon at a domestic partner and possessing drugs — while they were investigating.
“This is a horrific crime,” Holloway said, noting that police intend to add more charges as the investigation continues. “We want to ensure that we bring justice to Miranda.”