Steven Brunn, a tattoo artist, said his brother "is great with kids" and has no criminal record. He said he last saw his younger brother two months ago. The family is originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., he said, adding that Ryan Brunn and his siblings moved to Georgia with his mother several years ago.
His mother, Karen-Ann Whiteley, filed for bankruptcy last month, according to court records. She lives in Dahlonega, about 50 miles northeast of Canton.
Steven Brunn lives in Dahlonega, where Ryan Brunn lived until a month ago when he moved to Canton to take the maintenance worker job.
Ryan Brunn also previously lived in Dumfries, Va. No one answered a knock on the door of a relative's home there Wednesday.
In July, when Florida resident Casey Anthony was acquitted on charges she killed her daughter, Ryan Brunn wrote on Facebook that Anthony will "get hers." His Facebook page has since been disabled.
Nancy Hudgins, 57, who lives near trash bin where Rivera's body was found, said she talked with Brunn on Monday as police searched apartments in the complex. She said Brunn told her that he was nervous about allowing officers into his apartment because he had beer bottles and is not of legal drinking age.
"He was just kind of scared about them going in," she said.