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The Stalker Next Door · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Discretion is advised him needed murder. Have you ever had that feeling where you're
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being watched, A chill runs down your spine, the hair in the back
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of your neck stands up, and maybe you chalk it up to being paranoid
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and shake it off. But maybe, just maybe your feeling was right.
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Lauren Giddings recently graduated from the Mercer University School of Law. She moved from
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Maryland to make and Georgia to pursue her law degree in two thousand and eight.
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In May of twenty eleven, she completed her degree and was preparing for
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the next step and reaching her goal of becoming a criminal defense attorney. On
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June twenty fifth, she was studying for the bar exam. That's what she
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had been doing most nights since graduation. Lauren had decided to really limit her
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social interactions during that time to allow herself the time that she needed to prepare
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for what would probably be the biggest test of her life. She had the
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support of her family and her boyfriend, but they did miss the frequent phone
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calls from her. Lauren's boyfriend, David Van Derver, was out of town
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on June twenty fifth. He was actually on the other side of the country
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playing golf in California, when he got an email from Lauren telling him that
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she felt like she was being watched in her apartment. She even thought that
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somebody had tried to break in. Not wanting to cause unnecessary concern, she
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did downplay it a little bit, although she had previously mentioned but a few
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times when she entered her apartment, things were in a different place than where
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she remembered leaving them. But that would mean that someone was going into her
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apartment, and that seemed impossible because she always locked the door behind her.
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On June twenty ninth, Kitlyn Wheeler, Lauren's sister, became concerned that she
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had not heard from her in a few days. Lauren knew that she was
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busy studying, but she wasn't even returning phone calls when she had time.
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Caitlin was worried. She started contacting some of Lauren's friends to see if they
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had heard from her. Lauren's friend, Ashley, went to her apartment to
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check on her. Her car was in the parking lot in the front of
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her apartment, but she wasn't coming to the door. Lauren had a hidden
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key in her apartment and Ashley knew where it was. As Ashley unlocked the
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door and stepped inside, she started to look around. She immediately saw that
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Lauren's books, keys, and purse were all still sitting there, so she
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walked around the apartment but couldn't find Lauren, so she decided to call nine
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one one. The police arrived shortly after the call and started to investigate.
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They couldn't find any signs of forced entry on the windows or doors. Everything
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appeared to be in place, and it did not look like a struggle had
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occurred inside. There was no visible blood anywhere, so where was Lauren?
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Where would she have gone without her purse, keys, or books to study?
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The investigators sprayed luminol around and turned their light on the bathroom. Walls,
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floor, and bathtub all glowed. It became clear that they were no
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longer searching for a missing person. They were now working a homicide case and
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something sinister had happened in that bathroom. The crime scene was taped off and
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detectives walked around the outside of the apartment to look for any clues as to
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what may have happened to Lauren. The wind shifted and they recognized a terrible
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smell, a very distinctive smell that homicide detectives know all too well, one
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of the worst possible smells. There was a decomposing body nearby. They started
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looking for the body when they found something even more horrific than the smell in
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the air. They found a female's torso wrapped in plastic that had been thrown
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away in one of the apartment complexes trash cans. They couldn't find the legs,
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the arms, or the head. Chances are that the torso belonged to
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Lauren, but without the head, they would have to run a test to
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verify. At the same time the torso was being discovered, a local television
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station was there interviewing people at the scene. Stephen McDaniel was talking to the
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interviewer at the time. He was a former classmate of Louren's and lived in
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a neighboring apartment. He was telling the news that the police said the front
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door was locked and they couldn't find any signs of forced entry. He expressed
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concern for his friend and hoped that they would find her, and as the
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interview continued, Stephen was informed that a body part had been recovered and his
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whole demeanor changed. He became speechless, his face lost color, and he
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had to go sit down for a few minutes before he could continue answering questions.
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Stephen had just found out, apparently on TV, that Lauren Giddings was
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dead. Yeah, Lauren was my neighbor. We're just trying to find out
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where she is at this point. I mean, no one has seen her
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since Saturday. I mean the last time anyone heard from her was an email
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that she sent out, and no one's heard from her since. And then
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you got to her hang out with anyone at the time, anything like that.
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I mean no, no, no one has seen her sincerity, I
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haven't seen anything. I mean we've always seen the noise outside, but people
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walking by pretty much. And she just recently graduated from person. Yeah,
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she and I were, we were both JD students. We graduated back in
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May. What kind of person was she? I mean, how did you
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did you see? I mean she's as nice as can be, I mean,
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very personable, very much people person. Do you know anybody that any
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enemies you might have had, somebody that might want to hurt her? No,
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I'm w where. We don't know where she is. I mean The
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only thing we can think is that maybe she went out running and someone snatched
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her, because I mean we went a we went over. One of her
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friends had a key. We went inside and tried to see if there was
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anything amiss. But I mean, she had a door jamb that was sitting
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right by it, so there was no sign that anyone broke in. I
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mean the door was locked when everyone got here. I mean, we we
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just don't know where she is. And what about in the like the parking
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lot area. I know they've been doing a lot of I think that's where
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they had recovered the body or whatever they recovered from there. Body. Had
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you heard any had you seen anything there? Cool? Had you seen anything
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there? I mean, we don't know if this is the same person,
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you know what I mean, Like they said got a body there earlier.
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We don't know if this is the same person or not. That's how we're
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trying to ask people. They know who lived there? Are you okay?
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So I think I needed to sit down. On July first, Stephen voluntarily
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went into the police station as one of Lauren's neighbors to answer some questions and
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give a statement. His interrogation lasted twelve hours. While he was there,
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he gave them permission to search his apartment. In his apartment, they found
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memory cards and flash drives, the packaging for a hacksaw, and a pair
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of underwear that tested positive with Lauren's DNA. In the apartment complex's laundry room,
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they found a hack saw that matched the package in Stephen's apartment, and
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a bloody sheet that, after testing, matched Lauren. On July second,
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Stephen McDaniel was placed in jail while the investigation continued. They were able to
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link him to the hacksaw and Lauren's underwear after looking at the memory cards taken
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during the search. They were also able to confirm that Stephen had been stalking
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Lauren that eerie suspicion she had been feeling that she was being watched was valid.
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It appeared that he had taken a wooden pole and somehow attached a camera
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to the end of it so that he could hold it up to see inside
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her windows. A search history of his computer revealed that he often looked up
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pictures of Lauren on her social media accounts while also watching violent pornography. Some
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of the other memory cards had pornographic images of kids. During the search.
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They also found a master key to the apartment complex, giving Stephen complete access
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to Lauren's place. He didn't need to break in, he had a key.
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The police had plenty to charge him. On August second, twenty eleven,
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Stephen McDaniel was charged with murder, burglary, and thirty counts of sexual
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exploitation of children. But in April twenty fourteen, a week before his trial
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was supposed to start, he made a plea deal. Although he initially pleaded
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not guilty, he accepted the offer to plead guilty in exchange for all charges
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other than the murder to be dismissed and the opportune unity to avoid the death
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penalty. Part of the deal was that Stephen had to give an actual account
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of what happened that night, and here is what he said. At four
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thirty am during the early morning hours of July twenty sixth, he used a
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master key to gain access to Lord and Gidding's apartment. He wore a mask
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and gloves. At first, he just watched her sleep, but as he
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moved closer to her, the bed made a creaking noise and it startled her
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awake. She immediately started screaming and so he jumped on top of her to
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cover her mouth and grabbed her throat. She tried to fight him, but
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he tightened his grip around her and strangled her. He dragged her body into
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the bathroom and then walked back into his apartment. Later that day, after
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it was dark, he returned with a hack saw. He dismembered her body
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in the bathtub. He disposed the pieces of her body in various trash cans,
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hoping that that would reduce the risk of being found. Then he went
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back home. All but the trash can with a torso had already been picked
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up and emptied. By June twenty ninth, after he recorded his account of
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what happened and taken the plea deal, he was sentenced to thirty years in
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prison. However, in twenty eighteen, Stephen McDaniel's father started a GoFundMe page
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to raise money for an appeal. The page was quickly taken down, but
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that didn't stop Stephen from representing himself in the argument for a retrial. He
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argued that his constitutional rights had been violated. He stated that he gave consent
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for his apartment to be searched before being cleared medically and that he was not
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in his right mind to do so at that moment. He also claimed that
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he had done a lot of research for his own defense and that the district
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attorney confiscated it all. He believed that he was not adequately represented by his
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attorneys, and even filed a malpractice complaint against them. The judge denied all
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of his appeals. In twenty twenty two, another habeas corpus petition was filed
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by Stephen McDaniel requesting his conviction being overturned and he be released from prison,
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but again his petition was denied. He will be eligible for parole in twenty
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forty one. So how many times had Stephen McDaniels been in Lauren Gidding's apartment
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before that night? How many times had he gone in while she was there?
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What were his intentions that night when he entered her room while she slept.
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She was scheduled to move out of her apartment the week she was killed.
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Did he see it as a last opportunity to have an encounter with the
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woman he had been stalking. Whatever the case, Lauren was bright, and
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she had a promising future ahead of her. She was loved by her family
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and friends. She was a good student and a good person. Her goal
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was to pass the Georgia Bar and become a criminal defense attorney. She wanted
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to delve deeper into the cases of people wrongfully accused of crimes. In a
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different scenario a year later, if Stephen had allegedly killed a different woman,
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Lauren could have been the attorney to defend him in court. That's ten Minute
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Murder for today, brief and binge able true crime. I'm Joe the host,
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and thank you for listening. If you're new to ten Minute Murder,
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make yourself at home, get comfortable, and subscribe wherever you're listening right now.
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When you become a subscriber, you can more easily catch up on all
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the back episodes of ten Minute Murder. On social media, you can connect
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with ten Minute Murder see pictures of what we're talking about here in the podcast.
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It's nothing gross and graphic, but what you will see, for example,
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today Stephen McDaniel, you'll see pictures of him, and you're thinking,
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right now, why what I want to see pictures of this guy? He
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doesn't look like you would think. He looks like That's what I'm saying,
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and that's kind of the reason why I put photos of the people involved on
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social media. It's for the same reason that like, if someone cuts you
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off in traffic, you kind of just want to know what they look like.
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Do they look like someone that's going to cut some money off in traffic?
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You want to know if this guy looks like murderer. The answer is
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yes, he does. He's got wild hair and he's kind of strange looking.
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