Teen now charged with murder in Smyrna dismemberment case; victim identified
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details.
The teenager who was quickly arrested after a dismembered body was found earlier this week in Smyrna is now charged with murder amid new discoveries in the case, police announced late Friday.
The victim, whose remains were found across different days and different locations, was identified by Smyrna police as Shanteria Mosley, known as “KT” by her loved ones.
Since Thursday morning, 18-year-old Kingston Bradley has been at the Cobb jail charged with concealing the death of another. Jail records now show a charge of felony murder.
A search warrant executed Friday evening on a vehicle turned up garbage bags in the trunk, according to police. The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office responded, opened the bags and confirmed they contained human remains, police said. Officials did not clarify who the car belonged to.
“One garbage bag was pulled tightly showing the outline of a body part,” law enforcement said in a news release.
During a news conference outside the police department earlier Friday before that discovery, Lt. Meredith Holt described Bradley as a “person of interest” in the victim’s killing. Even after the new charge, officials said they are still investigating the case and “following up on all leads.”
A manner and cause of death have not been provided, and Holt said Friday police were trying to determine the connection between Bradley and Mosley. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is trying to obtain Bradley’s new murder warrant.
An attorney representing Bradley in an unrelated case did not respond to the AJC’s requests for comment.
The jarring case started to unfold Wednesday evening, when Holt said officers went to the Park Valley Apartments off Cobb Drive on a call about a missing person, whose family told police “the victim’s phone and the vehicle” were at the complex.
After about 30 minutes of unsuccessful searching, including knocking on doors, police left, but soon returned around 8:15 p.m. after a witness reported seeing Bradley carrying a “plastic tub” with a dismembered body, according to Holt and an arrest warrant.
“This is a particularly gruesome crime. I cannot imagine what the family is going through,” Holt told reporters Friday afternoon.
According to Bradley’s arrest warrant for concealment, a witness observed him carrying the tub with a body, and when he realized he had been spotted, he dropped it on a dirt walkway and fled to his nearby apartment. Inside the tub was a “dismembered torso,” the warrant said.
“A subsequent search warrant of the said accused’s apartment revealed several areas of blood staining and a large bloody saw. The apartment also stunk of bleach and contained a mop bucket with water and mop in addition to a carpet cleaner,” the warrant said.
According to Holt, Bradley lived at the apartment with his father, who was being interviewed by police Friday afternoon.
A separate Cobb County case against Bradley that dates back nearly two years remains open.
He was indicted in February of this year and then pleaded not guilty in April to two counts of terroristic threats, simple battery family violence, battery and criminal trespass, court records show. Those charges stem from an incident in December 2024.
According to warrants and an indictment, Bradley is accused of “suggesting the death” of two men who share his last name, one of whom is his father. He is also accused of striking his father in the head with a video game controller, hitting a 15-year-old who shares his last name with a video game controller and pushing him into a window, and damaging a door and window.
A letter filed in court Tuesday indicates Bradley at some point sought to participate in a Mental Health Court Program.