So yeah, I hit her. I hit her a couple times. A few times. I I can't tell you. I hit her. I hit her. I hit her. I hit her. I hit her. The video you're about to watch lasts less than a minute. But for the police, it marked the beginning of one of the most shocking cases of 2025. In the footage, Steven Gres, 35, and his girlfriend, Michelle Brandes, 37, are seen loading a large concealed object into the trunk of a car. Police believe that object was the body of Miranda Corsett, a 16-year-old girl who had been mysteriously missing for over 10 days. Miranda is believed to have met the couple online, lured to their home, held captive, tortured, and ultimately murdered. Her body was then taken away, dismembered, and dumped in a trash bin. But what shocked investigators even more than the crime itself was what came after right after disposing of the body. >> Stay there anymore because that's where it happened. So, we need to go somewhere else. >> Steven and Michelle went golfing, then grabbed some Popeye's fried chicken as if they hadn't just killed someone. What exactly happened inside that house? How could a couple become so numb to human life? And most importantly, could Miranda have been saved if someone had spoken up sooner? This story begins with an anonymous call, but the ending may leave you questioning the very community you live in. On the morning of March 6th, 2025, the St. Petersburg Police Dispatch Center received an anonymous phone call. The caller gave no name and revealed no personal connection to the victim or the suspect. But the voice on the line made the dispatcher pause for a moment. It didn't sound like a prank or a baseless tip. The voice was trembling yet clear and firm. I believe there's a girl being held or has already been killed and by someone named Steven Gres. He lives in Largo. He didn't do it alone. The girl, her name is Miranda. No address, no concrete evidence, no report from family members, but that call alone was enough to mobilize the major crimes unit that very day. The name Miranda was immediately cross-cheed in the missing person's report system. The result came up within minutes. Miranda Corset, 16 years old, had been reported missing by her grandmother on February 24th. She said Miranda had left home on February 15th. But since the girl often disappeared for a few days and came back on her own, she didn't notify the police right away. This time it had been 11 days. No texts, no trace. And if that phone call was real, every passing minute could be costing a teenage girl her life. Instead of searching for the suspect immediately, investigators decided to trace Miranda first. Social media showed that the last account she used was on Grinder, a dating app not meant for minors. The final message Miranda sent was on the night of February 14th, Valentine's Day. I'm heading to his place. At first, the identity of his was unclear, but Miranda's phone data soon revealed a specific name, Steven Gres. And it wasn't the first time that name appeared in the system. Steven Gres, 35, a resident of Largo, had just been arrested on March 2nd for possession of methamphetamine and was currently being held at the Panllis County Jail. When police reviewed his personal records, a disturbing profile began to emerge. He had served 13 years in prison for armed burglary. Had a history of drug use, no job, no family ties, and no social connections. A suspect already in custody. A missing teenage girl. An anonymous warning call. To a seasoned investigator, this was no coincidence. An emergency meeting was held that same afternoon. Search warrants, data retrieval orders, and device analysis requests were quickly approved. The goal was no longer to wait for the victim to return, but to trace back from whatever was left before it was too late. While reviewing Steven's Facebook account, investigators discovered a critical conversation. The sender was Michelle Brandis, 37, his longtime girlfriend. The message was sent in late February. That little girl stole your ring. I'm coming over to help you drag her out. Miranda's name wasn't mentioned directly, but the contents of the message confirmed two things. First, a young girl had indeed been at Steven's house around the time Miranda disappeared. Second, Steven was enraged over something he considered personal property, a ring. He didn't call the police. He didn't contact any family. He messaged his girlfriend. Otto, helped me get it back. This was the first clue, revealing a disturbing pattern. Control, possession, violence. A man willing to keep a girl in his home simply because he believed she had taken something of his. A woman who agreed to help, not out of concern for the girl's safety, but to appease her angry partner. Michelle Brandis was immediately placed under surveillance. Her record showed she had once lived in Saint Petersburg had no criminal record, but had previously told authorities she fell down the stairs when admitted to a domestic violence shelter. A phrase investigators recognized well, a cover for abuse in a dependent relationship. But digital data told a different story. Michelle's phone GPS showed she was at Steven's house at the exact time Miranda was believed to have gone missing. It didn't stop there. On February 22nd, Michelle's device recorded a trip lasting over an hour to an apartment in Largo registered under her mother's name who was not currently living in Florida. February 22nd, the seventh day since Miranda had entered Steven's house. And it was at that moment that investigators began to form a horrifying hypothesis. Miranda had never left that place. And if that was true, then everything they were about to uncover would go far beyond a kidnapping case. Just a few hours after investigators began suspecting that Miranda Corsett may have died inside Steven Gres's home, the task force proceeded to interrogate the suspect at the Penllis County Jail. At this point, the legal circumstances allowed them to question him without an additional warrant since Steven had already been arrested on unrelated drug charges. For the special investigation team, this was a tactical advantage. The suspect had not yet had time to prepare a statement, had not been alerted to the escalating scope of the investigation, and most importantly, had no knowledge of the anonymous call that had launched the entire case. What's up, man? No, hold on. Hold on. Before Before you talk, okay, before you say anything, >> you know, you went to first appearance and did they appoint an attorney to you? >> Uh, I don't care about an attorney, man. I really don't care about it. >> All right. Well, listen, but I but I do because your legal work because it's the law. So, you're you're initiating this request to talk to me. The interrogation began in the early afternoon. Steven Gres appeared unusually calm, showing no signs of fear or defensiveness. When asked about Miranda Corset, he did not avoid the question, but immediately admitted the connection. I met her on Grinder. She said she was 20. Found out later she was 16. But knowing it now, what difference does it make from an investigative standpoint? A suspect not denying involvement with a missing minor was highly irregular and also an early indicator that he was unaware of the legal gravity of what was about to unfold. This is typical of certain criminal psychological profiles. Individuals who believe they are justified and thus voluntarily offer self-inccriminating details under the guise of explaining their side. According to his initial statement, Steven welcomed Miranda into his home on February 14th. They met in person, hung out, and then she left. However, 2 days later, Miranda contacted him again. Steven picked her up a second time, and from that point onward, by his own admission, Miranda did not leave the house for at least a week. This timeline matched exactly with the missing person report. Okay, >> so Michelle has been over there. >> Where was Pam? >> In her room. Pam's aware what's going on, too. Pam's Pam, if anything, Pam's guilty because Pam could have reported this before it got to this point. What? This was been going on. Pam Pam's a sweetheart. Pam does not deserve to be in any trouble for this. She doesn't. >> When asked why he kept the girl at his home, Steven cited a single reason. A missing ring. he explained. I was ordering food when I noticed the ring was gone. I clearly remember it falling on the bed and she was the only one there. He then admitted to telling Miranda outright that she would not be allowed to leave until the ring was returned. Legally, this statement established unlawful confinement with non-physical coercion, a pattern commonly seen in cases involving female victims in dependent situations. Steven initially denied using violence, but as the questioning deepened, his story shifted. I hit her, slapped her, punched her. I lost control, but I wasn't trying to hurt her. I just wanted my stuff back. The investigators noted a textbook behavioral pattern. Gradual escalation of admissions from I didn't do anything to I hit her but I had a reason. This pattern often indicates the suspect maintains a distorted rational framework in which violence is viewed as a justified response. The situation became far more serious when Steven admitted to physically violating Miranda under the pretense of searching for the ring. I used a metal detector. Nothing came up. I thought maybe she swallowed it or hid it inside. So, I checked. When asked how he conducted this search, Steven admitted to using his hands. While he insisted he had no intent to sexually assault her from a criminal prosecution standpoint, this act constitutes non-consensual sexual assault, particularly given that the victim was a minor and was being held against her will. What stood out most was his demeanor during the confession. Steven showed no remorse, no visible emotion while recounting what he had done. Instead, he maintained a flat, consistent tone, speaking smoothly with almost no hesitation. Behavioral analysts present in the room described this as a classic case of emotional detachment in prolonged abuse scenarios, where the perpetrator no longer sees the victim as a human being, but as an object to be controlled. But the moment that truly stunned investigators came during a seemingly casual part of the interview when one officer asked how Steven typically dealt with emotional stress. He paused then responded as if describing something completely normal. She does not deserve anything to to be brought from this at all. You know Michelle me and to a lesser degree Pam and Pam can confirm Michelle saying that she killed her. Pam can confirm that. >> When did you tell When did you tell uh your mom? >> I told her maybe like 3 days after it happened after like just the initial shock wore off and stuff like that there. >> Okay. And when did you tell Angel? >> Angel uh about the same. Like I sat on it for a while like not sure what to do. We sat we stayed at Michelle's mom's house. Michelle's mom was in Puerto Rico. >> How many nights did you stay at Michelle's mom's house? a good like four or five nights over there. Yeah. I was I was too scared to go home. >> Okay. [Music] >> Is it true you used to take animals to the skyway? >> Yes. >> What' you do with them? >> I I would kill them. >> Do you feel a need to kill them? >> No. >> Why do you do it then? >> I was stressed out. Does killing them give you stress relief? >> Stretch out. Pam and Michelle repeatedly would do they would be short on their rent. They would threaten where I where I slept at. They would they just would constantly be and [ __ ] about nothing to me all the time. Like I was I was the enemy to them. >> So you would kill an animal? I would kill an animal so I would not It helped me to relieve my my stress and my anger so I would not hurt them. >> Where would you get the animals from? >> Craigslist. >> People give away give away animals on Craigslist. >> Any kind of animal? >> Pretty much you any like a guinea pig, a rabbit, dog, cat. >> I kill animals. I don't want to hurt people and so I kill animals. He explained that he often browsed Craigslist for free pets, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, even birds. He would take them to the Skyway Bridge and kill them in various ways. I do it to relieve stress, he said with no sign of shame or regret. Killing them helps me not hurt people. When asked what his house would look like if forensic chemicals were used to detect biological traces, Steven smirked. The whole floor would light up. I've killed quite a few. I don't remember how many exactly. This statement was immediately flagged by forensic analysts as a psychological marker for previolent behavior. Commonly seen in individuals whose deviant actions evolve in stages from animals controlling humans, violence against humans, homicide. Especially disturbing was the cyclical, intentional, and unrepentant nature of his animal killings, which suggested Steven Grass found gratification in exercising total dominance, whether over creatures or people. In the internal post interrogation report, one behavioral expert wrote, "Steven doesn't kill out of rage. He kills to preserve his sense of control. To him, Miranda wasn't a victim. She was a defiant object and he would do anything to restore the order he imagined. At the end of the session, when the investigator mentioned Miranda's death, Steven didn't deny it. He merely shrugged and said quietly, "I didn't mean to kill her. I just wanted the ring back." Then things got out of control. It was a confession delivered in the tone of someone who believed he was the one who had been wronged. But to the investigative team, Steven had just laid out the full psychological blueprint, motive, behavior, and aftermath of a crime that was premeditated, cyclical, and at high risk of repetition. When the first interrogation with Steven Gres concluded, the task force did not leave the meeting room as usual. An immediate internal assessment was held. No media presence, no public statements, but every investigator in the room understood. The case had just crossed into a completely different threshold. Every word from Steven, though lacking a direct confession, formed a complete road map of control, captivity, assault, and violation. Enough to lead to one chilling hypothesis. Miranda Corsett may have been murdered. There had been no cry for help from the victim, no sign that she had ever left Steven<unk>'s house. The ring used by Steven as a pretext had become in the eyes of investigators a symbol of escalating behavior. From anger to coercion to systematic violence. And when Steven coldly admitted that he had previously killed animals to relieve stress, the task force no longer viewed this as a standard missing person case. They were dealing with a particularly severe criminal offense involving a perpetrator with behavioral disorders and an extremely high risk of reaffending. A strategic shift was decided that very night. The task force split into three focused directions. One team was ordered to conduct an emergency search of Steven Gres's residence, concentrating on the floors, drains, and metal fixtures, areas that could retain traces of blood or biological matter even after cleanup. A second team was assigned to analyze all data from Miranda's mobile device, GPS records, social media login, and her last known signal when and where it was last transmitted. And the third and most critical line of investigation was preparing to interrogate Michelle Brandis, Steven's longtime girlfriend and potentially the only living witness or accomplice who knew what had truly happened inside that house. Though no body had yet been found, and no definitive proof of death confirmed, all clues pointed to one shared conclusion. Miranda had not walked out of that house on her own. And if she truly was dead, then only two people knew how she died. Steven, who showed no trace of fear, and Michelle, who was still out there walking free, interrogating the second suspect. On the afternoon of March 7th, just hours after the emergency case briefing, Michelle Brandis was officially summoned to the St. Petersburg Police Department to assist with the investigation. She sat quietly, hands clasped, looking exhausted and distant. And as in many cases like this, her first words sounded all too familiar. I was forced. I didn't know anything. I was scared. Attending. I had no other choice. The investigators had seen this script before. A woman claiming to be a victim drawn into a crime by a controlling man. But they didn't interrupt. honeymoon stage and lasted for a month, two months, whatever. There was more bad than good. But the goods were so good. It was so good when it was good, but it was bad. It was horrible. It was a nightmare, but the good was great. >> They let Michelle speak to paint her own portrait, then slowly, methodically peeled away the layers with factual contradictions. Under pressure, Michelle began to admit things piece by piece. She had been inside Steven's house for several days while Miranda was being held. She knew Miranda was being beaten and even admitted she had struck the girl herself. She didn't deny helping Steven transport the body to her mother's house, helping to dismember it, and disposing of the remains in the trash. She tried to present herself as someone under threat. that every act she committed, whether hitting Miranda or buying her pain medication, was meant to plate Steven to avoid further abuse, that she had no choice but to obey. But to the investigators, that image quickly began to crumble. Michelle claimed that Miranda was not tied up, that she was free to leave at any time. But then she also said she was too scared to move. She just laid there. The contradiction was glaring. A girl not restrained with no locks yet unable to leave for an entire week. If Miranda was truly free, why didn't she run when Michelle left the house? And why didn't Michelle, who claimed to be uninvolved, call the police upon witnessing the abuse? And most importantly, why did Michelle help Steven assault Miranda if she was truly a victim? I only did it because Steven made me, she said. I thought if I hit her, maybe Steven would stop and let me go. But the investigators weren't buying it. To them, this wasn't self-defense. It was active participation. Michelle hit Miranda more than once with her fists driven by jealousy and fueled by a dangerously distorted sense of love. No calls for help, no attempt to leave and alert police. Even though she made multiple trips to Walmart over the course of several days, Michelle had chances to stop, but she chose to stay and to take part. By this point, investigators no longer viewed Michelle as a victim. She was a witness, an accomplice, and an integral part of the series of crimes that unfolded over seven horrific days. Two, throughout the interrogation, Michelle repeatedly emphasized that she had been abused by Steven, that she stayed only out of fear. But the more she spoke, the more investigators realized the relationship between her and Steven wasn't simply that of victim and perpetrator. It was a twisted, dependent, and dangerous bond. Michelle recounted that Steven frequently slept with other women, sometimes even forcing her to clean the house quickly to prepare for a new guest. She admitted that she accepted everything as long as she wasn't beaten. That resignation didn't stem from love, but from a pathological emotional dependency. when the victim simultaneously becomes the enabler of the abuser's power. But everything changed on Valentine's Day. Michelle recalled that on that day, Steven bluntly told her he would spend the entire day with Miranda, not with her, for a woman who had lived in the shadow of being the other woman for more than 15 years. It wasn't just an insult. It was the final straw. The jealousy didn't explode with screams. It simmered through silent actions. Investigators began to form a hypothesis. Was it Michelle who had hidden the ring? Did she intentionally make Miranda the target of suspicion so Steven would lash out and then quietly contribute to the prolonged assault that lasted 7 days. She didn't strike Miranda immediately. She showed up, pretended to help, and searched around the house. But then at the height of the tension, it was Michelle who struck the hardest. "I hit her so he would let me go," Michelle said. "But what the investigators heard was something else. I hit her because I wanted Miranda to feel the pain I had felt." It was in that statement that an indirect motive came into sharp focus. Michelle didn't need to plan a murder. She just needed to light the fuse of Steven's rage and then let him do the rest while she stood by shaking yet satisfied. From the investigator's perspective, Michelle was no longer someone pulled into the spiral. She was part of it. Perhaps even the one who turned the first gear. Miranda Corsett is believed to have died on the seventh day after a week of being held inside Steven Gres's home. The 16-year-old girl endured days of abuse, threats, isolation, and was ultimately murdered in a horrific manner. A billiard ball was forced into her mouth and then wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, leading to suffocation. According to the forensic report and Steven's own statement, Michelle Brandes was the one who carried out the act that caused Miranda's death, while Steven stood by and did nothing to stop it. What happened next is what truly sent chills down the spines of the investigative team. Steven and Michelle didn't call for help. They didn't dispose of the body immediately. They didn't flee like most firsttime offenders might. Instead, they wrapped the body, placed it in the trunk of a car, drove to Michelle's mother's unoccupied home in Largo, and left it there. Almost without emotion, investigators raised a series of disturbing questions. Why bring the body to Michelle's mother's house? Was this a premeditated plan, a stopoff point to avoid detection? Or did Michelle suggest the location knowing her mother was away? Why leave the body to decompose for days instead of disposing of it immediately? Were they waiting for something? or was there a psychological attachment between them and the corpse? Had they done this before? Because the actions, cleaning the scene, keeping the body for days, then dumping it elsewhere are characteristic of calculated, not impulsive criminals. What haunted investigators most wasn't just the murder itself, but the behavior that followed. After hiding the body, Steven and Michelle went out to eat fried chicken at Popeye's. Then they played a round of golf together. No signs of panic, no apparent guilt. They acted as if they had just completed an errand. This is a classic behavior pattern of offenders who have emotionally detached from their crimes. In criminal psychology, this type of response reveals emotional desensitization when a person no longer feels moral consequences following a violent act. Loss of empathy. Miranda was no longer perceived as a person but as an inconvenient object. Criminal pair dynamics where one partner leads Steven with a history of violence and control and the other follows Michelle with signs of emotional dependency and a past of being abused. Their post crime routine eating out and golfing wasn't just callous behavior. It may also have been an attempt to mask their guilt, to maintain a normal front to the outside world, but to investigators, it only reinforced one truth. These two individuals had lost all moral boundaries and might already have been ready for the next crime. At the end of July 2025, the case file of Miranda Corset entered the criminal prosecution phase in Penllis County, Florida. Both Steven Gres and Michelle Brandis were charged with firstdegree murder, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse. Charges that under state law carry the harshest possible penalties. As of now, no official verdict has been issued by the court. Both suspects remain in custody while awaiting trial. The prosecution has announced that it will seek the maximum sentence, the death penalty for Steven, and life imprisonment without parole for Michelle. Michelle's defense attorney has requested a reduction in charges, arguing that she was a psychologically controlled victim under Steven's influence, but prosecutors countered that Michelle was not coerced. On the contrary, she participated willingly, played a direct role in Miranda's death, and was the one who proposed hiding the body at her mother's house. The evidence collected during the investigation leaves little room for doubt. text messages discussing how to drag that girl out, GPS tracking data, surveillance footage capturing the disposal of the body, and forensic results from the house where Miranda was held. The only missing piece, the most painful one, is the victim's body. Miranda was discarded into a commercial dumpster in Ruskin and is believed to have been completely destroyed during industrial waste processing. Her permanent physical absence makes this case one of the rare exceptions. No body, yet justice may still prevail. Florida's criminal code allows prosecution for homicide even without a recovered body, provided there is sufficient indirect evidence and a clear confession. To this day, Steven and Michelle have not yet been sentenced. But for the Saint Petersburg community, a moral judgment has long since been rendered. A 16-year-old girl beaten to death, her body treated like garbage, and a chain of adults around her who knew but did nothing. Miranda's family continues to search, not in hopes of saving her, but simply to bring her home, to lay her to rest as a human being. The case is still ongoing. The next hearing is scheduled for the end of Q3. Let there be no more Mirandas buried in silence. If you hear a cry for help through the wall next to you, what will you do? Will you stay silent or or will you speak