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The Chilling Story Of Lauren Giddings · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A few days following the murder of Lauren Giddings, Stephen
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  McDaniel appeared on local news masquerading as a concerned neighbour. However,
• 0:10
  his facade quickly disintegrated when he was informed by a
• 0:14
  reporter that her body had just been discovered. In the
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  early hours of June twenty sixth, twenty eleven, Stephen McDaniel
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  unlawfully entered the apartment of his neighbour and fellow Mercer
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  University Law School graduate, Lauren Giddings, where he proceeded to
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  murder her and subsequently dismember her remains. On June twenty ninth,
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  giddings family and friends reported her as missing. Upon learning
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  of her disappearance, local news outlets in Macon, Georgia, dispatched
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  a camera crew to her apartment complex. On June thirtieth,
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  reporters from w g XA conducted an interview with McDaniel.
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  During this interview, McDaniel presented himself as a concerned neighbor,
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  describing Giddings as nice as can be and very personable. However,
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  his demeanor shifted dramatically when he learned from the reporter
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  that a body had been found. His initial concern transformed
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  into sheer panic as he exclaimed body and appeared visibly distressed, stating,
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  I think I need to sit down. While some may
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  have initially interpreted McDaniel's reaction as the shock of losing
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  a friend, law enforcement quickly identified him as a person
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  of interest in the investigation. Just one day later. It
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  was subsequently revealed that McDaniel was indeed responsible for Giddings's
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  murder and the dismemberment of her body. Given the heinous
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  nature of the crime, its brutality, and the limited interaction
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  McDaniel had with Giddings prior to the murder, many speculate
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  that had he not been apprehended, he might have continued
• 2:00
  to target and kill additional women inside the twisted mind
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  of Stephen McDaniel. By the year twenty eleven, McDaniel, aged
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  twenty five, and Giddings, age twenty seven, resided in the
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  same apartment complex, located a short distance from the campus
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  of their school. At that time, Giddings was diligently preparing
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  to take the bar exam with aspirations of embarking on
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  a successful career as a defense attorney. Unfortunately, while Giddings
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  focused on his future McDaniel was plotting a tragic crime
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  against him. At first, McDaniel appeared to be an unlikely
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  candidate for such a dreadful act. According to reports from
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  the Macon Telegraph. It seemed he would not remain in
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  the area for long, as his apartment lease was set
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  to expire in two weeks and he intended to return
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  to live with his parents. However, subsequent investigations revealed that
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  McDaniel had been expressing his animosity towards women online, along
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  with a disturbing desire to inflict harm upon them. Curiously,
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  he also identified as a survivalist, amassing a stockpile of
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  food and energy drinks within his apartment. During an interrogation,
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  he disclosed to the police that he frequently wore the
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  same pair of underwear for multiple days consecutively. Stephen McDaniel's
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  infamous TV interview. As Stephen McDaniels stood by while police
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  searched the apartment complex for clues, a local television news
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  station called WGXA sent a crew to the building to
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  report on the story. When they spotted McDaniel's standing around,
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  they asked if he would give an interview, and he agreed.
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  At first, McDaniel seemed like any other concerned local who
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  was worried about his missing neighbor. We don't know where
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  she is, he told the reporter behind the camera. The
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  only thing we can think of is that maybe she
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  went out running and someone snatched her. One of her
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  friends had a key. We went inside and tried to
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  see anything that was a miss She had a door
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  jam that was sitting right by it, so there was
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  no sign that anyone broke in. McDaniel recounted that he
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  had previously entered the apartments of several classmates while they
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  were away, and had taken condoms from their residences. This
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  admission amounted to a confession of burglary against his peers. Consequently,
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  he was apprehended on burglary charges as law enforcement compiled
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  sufficient evidence to establish his connection to the murder of
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  Lauren Giddings. How one slip up put him behind bars.
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  When Stephen McDaniel was brought into the police station again
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  on the night of June thirtieth, twenty eleven, his demeanor
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  was eerily still. He was also tight lipped, only answering
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  a few questions, most often responding, I don't know. Even
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  when detectives were out. In twenty fourteen, McDaniel entered a
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  guilty plea for the murder of Giddings. He acknowledged that
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  he had unlawfully accessed her apartment with a stolen master key,
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  strangled her, and subsequently dismembered her remains using a hack
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  saw in the bathtub. Following his plea, he received a
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  life sentence for this heinous act. Since that time, Stephen
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  McDaniel has made multiple attempts to appeal his conviction, claiming
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  ineffective legal representation and alleging that the state had improperly
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  seized his defense trial materials. To date, all of his
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  appeals have been unsuccessful. Although he may be eligible for
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  parole in two thoy forty one, legal experts are highly
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  skeptical that he will ever be released from prison.