Lauren Giddings /// Part 1 /// 341 | Forensic Files

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yes all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer and let's talk some true crime
yeah long was my neighbor we're just trying to find out where she is at this point I mean no one has seen her since
Saturday I mean the last time anyone heard from her was an email that she sent out and no one's heard from her
since I did hear hang out with anyone no no no one has seen her since Saturday I
haven't seen anything I always see noise outside but people walking by pretty much and you just recently graduated the
person yeah she and I were we were both JD students we graduated back in May what kind of person was she I mean how
did you I mean she's as nice as can be I mean very personable very much people person do
you know anybody badge and the enemy she might have had something that I wanted her
and we all know where she is I mean the only thing we can think is that maybe she went out running and someone
snatched her because I mean we went out we went over one of her friends had a key we went inside and tried to see if
there was anything amiss but I mean she had a door jamb that was sitting right by it there was no sign that anyone
broke in I think door was locked when everyone got here and we just don't know where she is what
about in the like the parking lot area I know they've been doing a lot of that context where they have recovered the
body or whatever they recovered from there we had you heard and it had seen anything there
I mean we don't know if this is the same person you know what I mean like datafile body there earlier withered
open staplers in around that's how we're going to ask people if they know who lived there
are you okay sir twenty-seven-year-old Lauren Giddings graduated from Mercer University Law School in May of 2011 she
grew up in the suburbs southwest of Baltimore Lauren moved away from home nearly a
decade earlier and lived most of that time in Georgia she is away for college but while away it is said that she fell
in love with the south which in my opinion is very easy to do after school she wanted to do defense work either
working as a defense attorney or for a defense team she was just weeks away from taking the
bar exam so captain Lauren's really got two major things going on right now one she is done with school and now it's
time to study hardcore and nail this bar exam and two she's moving she's going to
move out after words and the plan is to pack up everything and move to Atlanta shout-out to the ATL so she will be
attempting to get a job in Atlanta after passing the bar I believe she was going
to move in with a boyfriend in Atlanta but for now it's study time we've got to pass that bar we have an aspiring lawyer
cramming for the Georgia bar exam now at first her friends assuming she was sequestered in her apartment studying
thought little of her absence they thought little of her not answering the phone or not returning their text
messages this however would not go unnoticed and after a few days one friend in particular will sound the
alarm it was about four days before anyone went looking for her June 29th was when friends started officially
looking for Lauren we need to introduce Katie O'Hara and Lori these are Lauren's best friends lifelong
friends the three became a trio way back in kindergarten but now as adults this trio is spread out living in three
different states but they are in constant communication with each other Katie is at home in Maryland and she
sounds the alarm first she had been trying to get ahold of Lauren for a couple of days Lauren was not returning
calls or texts remember however Lauren was studying pretty hardcore for the bar exam so you know how people will set up
like an out-of-office reply thanks for your email but I will be out of the office I'm skiing in Aspen that is what
I put on my out-of-office reply however I'm just sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching football for four days
straight I normally just put I'm out of my office doing something way cooler than you are well Lauren and I'm
guessing this may have been a Facebook post or maybe an email that she sent out but she sent out a little message saying
I'm basically putting myself on lockdown and I'm studying for this exam right it's been the things she's been caring
towards for years yeah kind of a don't be offended thing if you don't hear from me regardless of what was going on
luckily Katie sounded the alarm and friends joined in because as you will see this case could have went much much
differently Katie called her good friend Lori Lori didn't take the call she was busy and thought I'll call my friend
back Katie didn't stop there she called Lori sister who lives with Lori katie is
not close with the sisters so now Lori is aware that something is going on here Lori tells Katie she was experiencing
the same issue lauren was unresponsive now they are both trying to get ahold of Lauren calling her cell and everything
is going straight to voicemail by this time I should note Lori is in Chicago so now the friends reach out to Lauren's
family they too have not heard from Lauren for a couple of days this is getting stranger by the minute for
Lauren's friends and family it also becomes more eerie when the phone were going straight to voicemail yeah
Lauren's sister Kaitlyn wheeler said she was already concerned but now talking with Lauren's friends her concerns were
certainly validated Kaitlyn was one of two younger sisters of Laurens Kaitlyn sent a Facebook message to one of her
big sisters Law School pals and Macon this is Ashley Morehouse Ashley and Lauren met on a Friday evening back in
2008 and became fast friends they were pretty close Kaitlyn asked Ashley to drop by Lauren's
apartment Ashley did she says she walked up the stairs to the second floor apartment and knocked on the crimson
door of apartment number two Lauren's apartment no one answered she says she saw Laurens Mitsubishi Galant her
vehicle was parked outside out front where she would expect to see it Ashley called Kaitlyn back to tell her she
hadn't found her sister Ashley offered to swing by again later then they got in touch with Kristin Miller a close friend
of her sisters who had gone to college with Lauren in Atlanta Miller thought it was odd that she too
hadn't heard from Lauren after sending a message a couple of days earlier over the next few hours everyone was
desperately trying to reach anyone who might know where Lauren could be right so they're kind of putting the pieces
together to realize nobody's made contact with her for days yeah yeah and the thing here is Kaitlyn her sister
knew Lauren's passwords to some of her online activity so she logged into Lauren's Facebook and logged into
Lauren's gmail accounts this would offer her no comfort at all as she saw quickly
that Lauren had not sent any emails in several days she hadn't been on Facebook at all her sister started calling making
hospitals to find out if there had been some type of accident or if she was held
up in a hospital somewhere right and then Lauren's friends and family reached out to the police and an officer
was being sent to Lauren's apartment this was about 11 p.m. Georgia time 20 minutes later the
dispatcher said an officer went to the apartment complex and didn't find any signs of forced entry the officer then
called and suggested that Lauren may have gone away for a few days the officer said a missing-persons
report could not be filed until the morning that's ridiculous you have no contact with somebody for multiple days
you went and the fact that you went in and you saw that there was no emails sent and there was no emails checked for
multiple days that's an that's another sign especially a student that is looking to move and possibly get jobs
you'd think they would check these things yeah what the officer is going to reenter a to the family is you know we
did go by there we saw absolutely zero signs of forced entry the apartment was secure the door was locked
yeah and there they're saying yes we understand that you can't get in touch with her but we don't see anything that
would point us in the direction of of we should be involved in this whole thing we also believe that these apartments
are primarily occupied by students I believe I actually believe that all of them so it could parties maintenance and
that there are all law students so it could be some kind of university housing and you think that they'd be able to
contact the University and get access you know hey let's just we went by there's no sign of forced entry but
let's just let's go into her apartment yeah I'm uncertain if the university owns these these buildings right but
they could the police could get a hold of the landlord yeah so it around midnight it was decided to Ashley
Morehouse who we've already talked about should go ahead and go back to the apartment but this time go into the
apartment she was going to use a spare key which lauren kept in a white vase on her patio table this is to get in
side of the apartment yeah that's I I don't like that I don't like the hidden key thing so she did go to the apartment
but she was not going to go into the apartment alone she had a few of Lauren's friends and her classmates
friends classmates with her yeah and some neighbors as well inside they found Lauren's purse and keys they found her
cell phone as suspected the battery was dead too the cell phone they plugged the
phone into a charger turned the phone on and learned that no calls or messages had been made or sent in several days
someone turned on the phone and found that Lauren hadn't made any calls or sent any messages since Saturday so four
days ago as of now we are on Wednesday all of Laurens study materials were at the house as well so no one had any
reason to believe that she was out somewhere studying you know plus her phone and write is there everything that
you would expect to be there with Lauren is there in the apartment except for Lauren yeah they did check regarding her
email there was an email that she had sent a few days before it was one of the I believe the last email she sent was
before Saturday correct was her her she sent an email saying that she believed somebody was watching her or somebody
had tried to break into her apartment it's reported different ways I've not seen the actual email myself but it's
reported different ways and I'm a little uncertain as to if she mentioned both or
if it was just one or the other but it's suspicious behavior regardless very and
we need to point out here captain if everyone hasn't already figured it out by all of her friends that we've
mentioned Lauren was very social by all accounts she was extremely outgoing yeah
while her friends are in her apartment conducting a little investigation of their own one of Lauren's neighbors this
is Stephen McDaniel came over at some point now let's give a little background here Lauren is not new to this area as
we have kind of already pointed out she has lived in this apartment complex for years so has
Stephen McDaniel and I don't know this to be true but I'm guessing a lot of these people
the students that live in these apartments the it's a more of a long-term situation than most college
type situations now Lauren and Stephen lived in the same apartment complex attended the same
College taking the same classes both were recent graduates of law school and both studying for their bar exams
remember Lauren however is from out of town out of state even from Maryland Stephen
while not from the immediate area he was born and raised in Georgia Stephen is from little burn don't make
me say that too many times little burn Georgia which is like an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minute drive north of
Macon Stephen graduated from Park View High back in 2004 Stephen mark McDaniel earned a academic scholarship to Mercer
as an undergraduate so Stephen and Lauren as did most of the residents in this apartment complex they knew each
other right the apartment complex this is not a huge or well even big apartment complex it consists of two buildings
each building is two floors and each building houses eight apartments so only 16 apartments total Lauren lives in
apartment number two this is on the second floor Stephen lives in apartment number four
he too is on the second floor these two spoke several times over the years they were however a bit of polar opposites
let's say Lauren was very outgoing and Stephen was not Lauren had a ton of friends and Stephen was a loner
Stephen stops by he's talking with Lauren's friends who's looking for her there you know everybody wants to know
where she is one of Lauren's friends would go on to describe Stephens presence as quote very weird yeah
now I think most people would say that this guy didn't have a lot of friends it was probably pretty quiet seemed pretty
nice but also seemed a little strange yeah yeah well that was Steven that you heard in the trailer there so that gives
you a little Steven flavor I guess whatever that is now even flavor from Macon Georgia now what they are seeing
at Lauren's apartment captain nothing is amiss and her friend Ashley Morehouse described the scene the best when she
told Kaitlin wheeler quote everything you'd take with you if you went somewhere was in the house right
Catelynn called her uncle who is a cop in Washington DC he told her you better tell the group to go outside you know
get out of the apartment go outside lock the door and call 911 - Mercer University police officers were
dispatched to the apartment after they arrived they spoke with the group the officers then decided to call the Macon
city cops a Macon police officer arrived at the scene at 1252 a.m. the officer in
the group walked around the complex looking in the bushes they searched the law school they searched the library the
officer in the group stayed they didn't go home until about 3:00 a.m. I do want to point out that Macon police officer
while at the scene he did notify the detective bureau that they had a missing person right early in the morning on
Thursday June 30th one of Lauren's friends her father was friends with the mayor of Macon so the mayor was
contacted and told of this whole situation the mayor of course calls the Chief of Police and the General Orders
here captain are going to be one very quickly determine if this situation warrants a full-on investigation and if
it does let's get into that investigation right away so Lawrence friends and family wanted the police to
be very understanding of this situation and to treat it accordingly basically what they wanted to be
understood is Lauren's been missing for days now right even though we reported her missing late last night right we did
our own little investigation we being the family and friends and we determined she's been missing since Saturday so we
are coming up on five days now Laurens been missing for five days don't treat it as though it's just been one day
remember we said they need to determine if necessary and then go right into a full-on investigation well that is
exactly what law enforcement determined and that is exactly what they did by 9:00 a.m. the Macon Police who are
now officially in charge of this investigation they are back on the scene back at the apartment complex now we
have detectives we have officers we have one of those large caravans this is those large mobile command centers that
you see yeah and you know when you see one of these things that something major is probably going on well they have to
look at her apartment now with all that evidence of all of our stuff being there
one where is she but then too is there any evidence that somebody came in and took her away from that right and by
this time they are knocking on doors and they are interviewing and asking questions of all of the residents at the
apartment complex Stephen McDaniel is interviewed at this time this is a informal interview conducted inside a
police or detectives car brilliant now at about 9:40 a.m. two detectives noticed a terrible smell coming from a
tree I like to call these wheelie bins it's this is a large trash can outside in the
apartment complex they're the type that will hold several bags of trash rubbish and debris and the garbage truck comes
around lifts it up and dumps it into the truck and I'm assuming that big bins yeah I'm assuming that each apartment
didn't have their own bin I'm assuming that they had these bigger bins for multiples apartment units yeah I believe
these were shared bins as you would say so the detectives are worried about this
smell because what they would later say these are experienced detectives they have worked violent cases they have
worked homicide cases before unfortunately what they're smelling they're familiar with this smell and
it's not it's not good for their investigation whoever smelt it dealt it they opened the lid to the trash can and
they saw that there were several trash bags that appeared to be full of trash they cut open the bag that was on top
and inside was exactly what you would expect to find it was trash then they cut open the bank just below the top
back no inside this bag they found what appeared to be a decomposing torso of a woman from my understanding the only
clothing on the torso was a pair of pink shorts no one really has time to go to the post
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the last weight loss program you'll need all right we're back Cheers me mateys cheers captain and a
big cheers to all the teachers out there that's right a few hours after finding the torso Stephen McDaniel granted
reporters an interview along the sidewalk near the apartments let's take a listen I no one had seen her since
Saturday because I we all just there's not a lot of interaction unless we're doing classes range he was doing the
online version you are together though right yeah we wearing this there's two different people that there's two
companies that provided captain erisa and Barbie provides it I signed up with Aubrey and I've been doing the lectures
that they have in the mornings and she was doing the Kaplan online so I hardly ever saw her yeah I would see like go
out running but I mean what how much you go out running I don't even know when I got Nitra
morning I saw midday a couple weeks ago I mean was the last time I saw her was coming back from the bar prep on the
main campus because we got moved over there for a week or two she normally would
Yeah right she she ran all the time and she she had a group that she would go running with yeah I don't know anyone
that would warn her she was a nice person as there is but he moving if you know anything about
her yeah yeah she she was going to be moving out today she was supposed to move out today
because someone else was going to be moving into her apartment do you know if she was night where he
from Maryland yeah she's from America Sonya so we can hear you better I okay I'm so sorry and you can just hold on
thank you yes she's from aerelon yeah I mean she she was from up in Maryland and all her
family was there as far as I know I mean she what's going on in your mind right now
like what do you think why we would do this I heard something you want to Saddam person
got something to drink you know a bunch hey that's how I found out that she was missing we a bunch of her friends came
over yesterday night around midnight and they couldn't they hadn't seen her since
Saturday so they were trying to find out where she was I they went in they had a
key to her apartment and they checked around didn't see anything out of place and it was locked when everyone got
there yeah round midnight and then we went we went over to law school see if maybe she was over in the library
studying or something and we looked up into the study rooms on the third floor and there was no one there
then we came back we looked around and just try to find any anything to figure out where she was I don't know I mean as
far as I know every Hall of her family's up from in Maryland there was one time that I met them they came down first
year she she had a little dog a little brown dog that she would exercise out in front of law school and it got hit as
she was coming across the road I I heard the car hit it and ran out and she was there crime and we thankfully
there was someone who came along who knew a vet or something and they helped that and the her family came down I
think a couple weeks after that or something I met them just briefly the we've been trying to figure out she has
a boyfriend up in Atlanta well I mean something called her called him and he hadn't heard from her just nope no one
could figure out where she was yet she went over to a couple friends house Darren Mueller and Joe Cairns they
live a world walnut and I mean they they said that she was over there in the morning and then that was the last time
than anyone we've been able to find out from I'd seen Joe he got onto a computer
last night to see if she'd say anything she'd send an email out to some people that afternoon talking about like going
out to eat or something and the last thing thing when there was an email that she sent out after 10:00 that night
where she she said to I think it was someone in Atlanta a friend of hers in Atlanta and he she said that she she was
afraid in your apartment that she thought someone had tried to break in on Thursday night and she she was afraid to
stay in there but where did you hear what did you hear that from some Joe he pulled up and we read it off the screen
back to a friend in Atlanta yeah I can't remember his name if she had I could have done something I mean I could have
lent her a handgun I've got a little hanging that I have for defense and yeah I mean something yeah if she was afraid
in the apartment then I mean get her out of there that's what she said in the email she thought that someone had tried
to break into her apartment like makin hoodlums tried to break into my apartment on Thursday night is that her
car parked there the Chevy no no I think that's the detectives car detective Patterson no it
was here earlier and they towed it I need in there for days and then they towed it to I looked through see if
there was yeah 9 we the police were called last night and they came and they looked around and
they didn't see anything I mean they went in we looked around the place no sign of a struggle no sign that anyone
had broken in just nothing just she was gone all of her stuff was there her ID was
there her wallet so what you're hearing there is it's actually we have three interviews with Stephen McDaniel and in
the trailer you heard the first portion of that what you just heard is what is the second portion now I apologize for
the audio but keep in mind this is an interview that the local news is doing with this man because he's believed to
be a witness they're trying to figure out what's going on why are the police here we have a body that's been found a
missing woman the bodies not been identified yet and this is right after he finds out Daniels finds out that a
body has been found yeah he finds out from the the person asking him the questions it's not confirmed that it's
the girl that he knows it's not confirmed that it's his law school friend Lauren Giddings but he can you
can tell that he's assuming right yeah well and I think the news people are assuming as well so when we say these
are three different interviews there they're actually they're all kind of happening at once you could you could
make an argument that they're just one long interview yeah but the first one that you hear he's giving some general
information they're asking general questions and then when they tell him hey a body has been found he has to go
take a break he's he's overwhelmed with emotion and he goes and he takes a break
where I believe he went off somewhere and sat down for about 20 minutes yeah and then he kind of conducts himself and
then comes back and answers more questions and that's what you just heard they're some important things in that
second portion are he references the email that we talked about that was sent at 10 o'clock on Saturday night and this
is believed to be the last communication that she attempted with anyone he says that
it was sent to a friend in Atlanta in reality he's right but but it was actually sent to her boyfriend who lives
in Atlanta right and you heard Stephens words he says he read it on the screen on her computer screen the night before
when he and her friends were in the apartment trying to figure out where she could be he says that that lauren wrote
to her boyfriend saying some Macon hoodlums tried to break into my apartment right um not really buying
this email but well well I mean it happened right it wasn't email that she sent well Lois he actually sent from her
computer yeah you bring up a good question I didn't think about it that way until you just so you just brought
it up in that that manner it was an email that was sent from her account let's say right yeah and believed to be
from her police were suspicious of this email too but not in the sense that you and I you know that you just educated me
too they were suspicious because they're like okay you're your long-term girlfriend sends you an email saying
people try to break into her apartment and it's days later and you're not contact hey boyfriend why didn't you
respond to this this makes no sense I mean I've gone over this time and time again like in cases like the an on side
case for example well why wouldn't the boyfriend of Haman Lee contact her the day that supposedly she goes missing
why wasn't her ex-boyfriend contact her the day she was missing here's a scenario where you got an email
now now mind you it's email it's not a text message right so so that's where it becomes fishy too because if you're
calling people if you're sending text why don't you just send this and a text why would you send it through email
unless that was their the the protocol for the relationship because it was so far away that they would communicate
more through email hmm but I don't think there's any evidence of that so it's a strange that that would be sent through
email anyways and then if if the guy didn't check his email then he gets a pass that's why he didn't contact his
his girlfriend would send this email but then it's fishy that you'd send the email anyways but it's now mind you what
is happening at the same time is they're going through the trash like you were stating and now they find a torso there
I think they're all the detectives are assuming hey this is the this is the missing girl this is Lauren yeah 100%
but now they're going to go through all the other bins but what's interesting is
half the apartments trash has already been picked up yeah so let's let's get into that in just a second because I
kind of want to go through what you were just talking about and this is interesting because just a like a week
ago regarding that Adnan Syed case and what you just referenced I was having a conversation with our friend Zoe and I
was explaining that my take on that is you know that dawn was his name the boyfriend believed to be running him and
Lee's boyfriend he was older and I just simply said to her because she found it very strange and I agree I think on some
level it is strange but I also think that everybody tends to kind of think everything is relative and everything is
similar to their own situation and I have to remind myself sometimes that that that is not usually the case if
just because I find something to be strange we don't know the dynamics of that relationship or lorentz with her
boyfriend as well and so in the case of dawn he's all he may just not have cared
he may not have thought of the relationship in the same way that she thought of this relationship I
understand that but when have you ever made plans to meet up with somebody they didn't show up and you didn't try to
make contact with them I'd actually that's actually happened to me multiple times so you make plans with
somebody I can never show up young then you just don't even call or text to figure out what happened I think it's
actually happened three or four times but I can I can think of two times that that 100% that's exactly what went down
right so because I was like I might how many times was that person a significant
other all of the times it was somebody that I was dating or in that type of relationship not not a significant other
I wouldn't say that but somebody that I was okay now now had been on multi dates
now now answer this question how many of those times did you get a call from the
police stating that that person was missing and then there then afterwards you didn't make contact with them yeah
well never right so look III think it's I mean we don't want to go too far into this well that's a different case but
what I'm talking about here then it kind of goes along with Lauren's case as well
is from what I could find and what I'm I'm making a lot of assumptions here about Lauren's relationship with this
boyfriend yeah it seems to me though that they're they're not so connected at the hip you know what I mean they're not
they're not so tied to one another this is a bit of a long-distance relationship
right yes it is a long-term yes it sounds like they were planning on moving in together but it also sounds like they
very much lived separate lives when they weren't with each other right which would make more sense why you would
contact somebody through an email plus this dude I believe he's significantly older than Lauren maybe 10 years 12
years he's he's older he's more established she met him when she was working at some law firm uh-huh remember
she wants to be a lawyer so he doesn't respond to this email because he told detectives he said look I I wanted to I
wanted to have a conversation with her in person about this email I wasn't going to do so until the next
time I saw her he's saying yes I understand you're telling me that she's missing she sent me this email I didn't
reply you think that's suspicious I'm telling you I didn't even know that she was missing yeah he's he's in California
on a golf trip so his he has a solid alibi he's been brave you know he's on the other side of the country at the time in
question he was did the other thing that police were suspicious about so now we've cleared the boyfriend right now
the other thing that police are suspicious about is the night before remember it's believed that Saturday is
the last time anybody had any contact with Lauren Wright the night before on Friday night she and a friend stayed at
the home of two males and you hear Stephen McDaniel referenced that in the the interview there he said you know
when when the reporter says when's the last time anybody saw her he says she was with some friends at and she
mentions their names I don't I don't know their names they lived on Walnut Street yeah well in fact the the the
real story is her friend was seeing one of these guys they they have a relationship and they were partying
there the night before and that the two women decided to just crash at that house well she was last seen coming home
from that house so now police are a little suspicious because they're like wait a second we thought she had a
boyfriend yes she does boyfriends in California on it on this golf trip oh what's she doing staying
the night at these guys house than a [ __ ] yeah but there's a lot of people that go hey were we're gonna have a
long-distance relationship and hey whatever happens in your hometown I don't need to know about it yeah I mean
that well and that's what I was getting almond III like I said I'm making assumptions here but that's that's
really what I'm assuming was going on with Lauren and her boyfriends religious but as door of separate lives when they
weren't together right and and as far as law enforcement detectives are concerned now if that is the case
and you go well we have evidence that she's hanging out with these other guys is there another romantic interest that
you know would have motive because she's going to leave him for the the longtime
boyfriend that's an angle they have to look into let's hear the the third portion of that
interview and then this morning they knocked on my door they were looking around trying to find anything and a few
of the other friends there would be Burpee and Garen and Ashleigh they were here they were here last night and
they'd come back this morning and I just went out and he talked with them and they then they moved us all over the
side and they bust us all down to the department and kept us there until I got back Tuesday a little while ago
yeah they took statements trying to find out if anyone's seen anything if they wouldn't I would anything when the last
time anyone saw or was now firm that we talked about that it was are you holding out and
I hope if they value on on the property somewhere no no as far any arrests knew they were
still trying to just find her I mean we got an email this morning from some people that were on the other side of
Kroger on the other side of the river that they had seen her in the past running in that area we thought maybe
something that's smashed through over there maybe she got hurt or something all right so when we listen to those
three clips the one thing that jumps out at me that is more apparent in that clip
I think than the other two is this the reporter starts asking him something and he starts doing this then when he goes
to answer there's no emotion it goes right back into normal speech yeah so when I was watching it I watched it a
few times and it's the footage look the audios not the best and the the video is not that's the best audio we've
ever had the videos not the best either and plus he's got we should probably describe what Stephen looks like so he's
kind of a pasty skinny kid he would be in his twenty six he would be 26 at the time of that interview yeah he has puffy
hair very yeah long hair but it's it's all it's all over the place it's very poufy as you saw most like a afro yeah
and he he looks like what maybe he's got a little facial hair maybe he hasn't shaved in a couple of days or sounds
very patchy yes so when watching that one the video is not the best but then to their outside
you can hear the wind blowing and at some point you can hear vehicles driving by maybe somebody's cellphone is making
a weird noise but with the wind blowing his hair is constantly like in and out of his face right yeah and I was trying
to determine because we've seen this in several other cases where what you hear is it sounds like somebody who's very
emotional sounds like somebody who's crying but you will have witnesses too you there were no tears and I was trying
to determine if he was in fact actually crying tears not just putting on an oyster sound like he's very upset and
that he's crying yeah I couldn't determine if I was seeing tears or not but what I will say is the woman who
gave who was asking him the questions her words later were yes he was very emotional and yes he became very
emotional as soon as I told him they found a body and he does in this third portion keep referencing she was a
jogger and unfortunately we've covered too many cases where a woman has been out jogging and she's not seen again so
he keeps referencing that but again I couldn't tell if there were tears or not I'm gonna go with what the reporter says
she says he was very emotional I'm just gonna believe that she believed his emotions to be genuine at the time but
I'm with you it sounds to me like he's turning it on and turning it off right when he's turning it on and then he's
asked to give a response and he gives a response and the emotion is not it's absent from from his words it's too
clear and I but I also don't like any time that we have a missing person we have no you haven't look you can assume
your friend's missing for a few days they find a body yeah you could start assuming that's her body III get that
part but I don't like when people start offering these alternate endings oh well
we just thought this or we just thought she went for a run and somebody grabbed her you know it's it's alternate endings
and I I just never liked that well yeah I get that but this is not the first time he's been asked what does he think
happened to her you know what I mean like so it's but he also I think we're he's quick with an answer it's because
he's been asked that question probably at least two times before this interview because you heard him say he spoke with
police that morning and he also spoke with them we know he did a brief interview with them in
either a detectives car or a police car we also heard him say that they took some of them down to the station and
talked to some of her friends there as well so he's he's been he's been talking about this missing persons case
all morning long by the time of this interview right but it's also he does this thing where he kind of goes like
wow I didn't know her that well you know but then offers a lot of detail you know
like well I didn't know her that well did you meet any of her family yes one time and I remember what happened the
day before yeah I mean like yeah that that's a lot of detail yeah so he's saying what that he believes he saw her
maybe a week or two before that interview that's what it sounds like to me he's not claiming that he saw her on
Saturday no he's heard from friends that she was last seen on Saturday yeah I didn't get that I think what he that the
reason why there's confusion on the answer is he was basically saying like yeah I remember seeing her run like a
week or so ago so I can I think it wasn't so much that that's the last time I saw her I think he's going that's the
last time I remember seeing her run so after the torso is found and as we said yes it was found on the property of the
apartment complex he Stephens unaware of that during that interview the detectives are knocking on everyone's
doors that live in the apartment complex they again are going to ask more questions but this time they want to ask
each resident if they can come inside and do a quick walkthrough right from the paperwork that I saw captain they
state that everyone granted them permission to go into their apartments this did include Stephen McDaniel
however the way that it's in the paperwork it sounds like they really had to do some talking to talk
him into letting them come in and do this is just supposed to be a quick walk in walk out quick observation do you see
anything super suspicious that the warrants further investigation if not move on well you write me and you have
to protect yourself against law enforcement you don't want to be accused of something that you didn't do but the
reason why I find that hard and I understand that he's also a law student that's gonna take his bar so you know
you go oh well should I let you in so would be all the other residents though as well
right right Murray but but what I find strange is that you've you've talked to the cops several times you seem to be
willing to help and then all of a sudden once we want to come into your apartment
you're going all hold on I don't know if this is the right thing yeah in fact well it's one or the other to me like if
if if they would have started asking him questions and he just said look I don't
want to answer any questions without a lawyer from the get-go you know or like maybe he you know answer some initial
questions but once you said hey step into the car with me you go no no no no I'm a law student this is the these are
the rules very forthcoming in that interview as well right with the with the news reporter that's all of a sudden
you don't want me in your apartment according to the documents that I viewed and weed I don't know what the actual
truth is all I can state is this is what the documents the state documents said happened according to the police
according to the detectives they are initially not granted permission by Stephen to enter his apartment to which
they explained to him everyone else except for you has allowed us into their apartments I don't know if that is in
fact true but Stephen must have believed it because then he chooses to let them into his apartment right there in there
very briefly this walkthrough through Stephens apartment place at 1:40 p.m. now in his apartment
they find a large knife a large samurai sword a rifle two handguns and amongst some other items they find some other
items but these are the items that they specifically know of being in question regarding that walkthrough that took
place at 1:40 p.m. yeah it's like you could also state that every apartment you went into that had a knife set had a
large knife scherzo yeah so I mean samurai sword is a bit out of the norm a rifle and two handguns a bit out of the
norm I don't think so I mean as far as like you know you could have been a hunter or he wanted to protect himself
it may be the same rights or say my rights or but I bet you know a few people that have swords or so you know
some collectible I actually out of all the items that we just mentioned there I have everything of those in my in my
residence except for the rifle so I was going to say I was going to the sword but what I will say is yeah out of if
they did in fact walk through all the apartments this is the only apartment and these are the only items that made
it onto their paperwork later right so they obviously found it to be alarming let's say now it didn't take long
captain but it was on the news and online news reports later saying that the body a body turned up at Lauren's
apartment complex they didn't know for certain if it was her but a few hours later they would confirm that it was in
fact Lauren she was no longer missing Lauren was dead right with the thing about that that I'm so fascinated in is
that the the scheduled pickup for trash was earlier Eren and for some reason there was some kind of like half the
apartments trash got picked up and then there was some reason there was some interference that the other part of the
the complex was not that the trash was not picked up yeah so let me let me go through this
and I'll tell you exactly why that went down like that so okay the Macon Telegraph is a newspaper and and this
they covered this case in this story hands down better than anybody else they've covered it for so since it
happened yeah until now instant well that's right so that as the Macon Telegraph put it Giddings torso
had been disposed of stuffed in a flip-top curbside garbage can beside her apartment building for police
finding it was a stroke of Fortune on what was trash pickup day at the complex it would have been hauled to a landfill
without the torso Giddings might have become one of those supremely lost the unfortunate souls who disappear into
forever without a trace that's from the Macon Telegraph what went down captain and this like you said a stroke of luck
and like the Macon Telegraph put it if if that trash would have been picked up that day this case would have been very
very different and that's why I said earlier that her friends springing into action is really what made this case
completely different right it kept it got it on the right path because her friends get involved they recognize that
she has been unheard from they send friends to her apartment determined that she is in fact missing has been missing
for days log in to her email you log in to the email one of her friends says to her
father you're friends with the mayor of Macon can you call him and tell him what's going on because she's been
missing for days this is completely out of character and she sent an email saying somebody was trying to break into
her home we're completely freaking out here yeah friends father calls the mayor mayor calls the police chief police
chief gets everything set into action now we said the night before the officer on the scene did notify the detective
bureau that they have a missing-persons case and hey detective it's now your missing persons case
the detective who they contacted I don't know if he was on call but the the detective that received that call
received the case let's say did tell the officer he would be there in the morning
now I don't know what time he was going to get there I but we do know that the mayor called
the police chief and this set into action a chain of events right all of those officers were at the scene just
before 9:00 a.m. the next morning we have detectives there we have police cars there and we have that big large
Caravan this mobile command center let's say because of all those vehicles and because of this mobile command center
the guy drivin the garbage truck decided I'm not going to ask the police to move
their command center or their vehicles right I'm going to go collect other trash and I'll swing back by here once
they leave yeah so it was actually all of those chain of events set this into motion to where they couldn't pick up
that trash that day as you said should have been picked up before the body was discovered yeah sometimes the universe
lends us a hand for all of our old episodes go download the stitcher app it is free and all of
our old episodes are free and if you want to check out our weekly bonus show check out stitcher premium we have a
show called off-the-record it gets a little silly join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be
kind and don't live

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-zecnk-c29493

Lauren Giddings /// Part 1 /// 341 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com Lauren Giddings was missing for four days when her friends and family jumped into action. The next day her remains were found not far from her apartment. Join Nic & the Captain in the Garage as they discuss the Lauren Giddings case. Beer of the Week - Awestruck Dry Apple + Oak Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps Check out TCG’s awesome partners! www.Stamps.com - click on the microphone and type in GARAGE for a special offer that includes a 4 week trial plus FREE postage and a digital scale without any long term commitment. www.Noom.com/Garage - start your trial today. It’s the last weight loss program you’ll need!

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Brief Summary

Lauren Giddings, a law student, disappears; her body is found in a trash bin, leading to an investigation involving her friends and neighbors.

Key points

Missing Person Alert. Friends and family realize Lauren Giddings has been missing for days.
The Disturbing Discovery. Detectives find a decomposing torso in a trash can, raising alarms.
A Disturbing Discovery. Friends find Lauren missing after a night out.
The Last Communication. Lauren's last email raised suspicions about her safety.
Suspicion on the Boyfriend. Police question Lauren's boyfriend after her disappearance.
Body Found at Apartment Complex. A body was discovered at Lauren's apartment complex, confirming her death after being reported missing.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We went over one of her friends had a key.

Discussion about checking on Lauren's apartment.

3:46WatchOct 9, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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