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

foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always ladies and gentlemen a finely tuned Athlete on the verge of
greatness he is the captain yeah finally tuned athlete that barely can tie his shoes it's good to be seen and it's good
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Twitter all that stuff at True Crime garage and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime thank you [Music] yeah Lauren was my neighbor
um 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
you're hanging out with anything I no no one has seen her since Saturday I haven't seen anything I'm
always hear noise outside but it's just people walking by pretty much and you she just recently graduated from
Mercer 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 what did you see she's as nice as can be I mean very personable very much people personally do you know
do you know no I'm we're we don't 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 our 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 so there's no sign that anyone broke in I mean the door was locked when everyone
got here and it was we just don't know where she is what about um in the like the parking
lot area I know they've been doing a lot of I think that's where they would have
recovered body or whatever they recovered from there Audi had you heard it had you seen anything there
I mean we don't know if this is the same person you know what I mean like they took out
a body there earlier we don't know if this is it or not that's how we're trying to ask people if they know who
lived there are you okay sir I think I need to sit down okay [Music] foreign -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 Lawrence 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 afterwards 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 subsick 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 a hold 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 thing she's been gearing 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's sister who lives with Lori Katie is not close with the sister 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 a hold of Lauren calling her cell and everything is going straight to
voicemail by this time I should know 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 calls are going straight to voicemail yeah
Lauren's sister Caitlin wheeler said she was already concerned but now talking with Lauren's friends her concerns were
certainly validated Caitlyn was one of two younger sisters of Lawrence Caitlyn 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
Caitlyn 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 Lauren's Mitsubishi Galant her vehicle was parked outside
out front where she would expect to see it Ashley called Caitlyn back to tell her
she hadn't found her sister Ashley offered to swing by again later then they got in touch with Kristen
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 Caitlyn her sister knew Lauren's passwords to uh
some of her online activities 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 Macon 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 person's report could not be filed until the morning that's ridiculous if you have no contact
with somebody for multiple days you you went in 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 it what the
officer is going to reiterate 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 they're 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 uh occupied by students I believe I actually believe that all of
them so it could be our students and that they're 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 force 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 that 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 inside 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 or 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 to the cell phone they plugged the phone into a charger turn the phone on and learn 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 Lauren's 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 right 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 stating 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 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 these
students that live in these apartments that it's 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 littleburn Don't make me say that too many times little Byrne 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
Steven 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 Steven was not Lauren had a
ton of friends and Steven was a loner Stephen stops by he's talking with Lauren's friends who's
looking for her you know everybody wants to know where she is one of Lauren's friends would go on to
describe Steven's presence as quote very weird yeah now I I think most people would say
that this guy didn't have a lot of friends was probably pretty quiet seemed pretty nice but also seemed a little
strange yeah well that was Stephen that you heard in the trailer there so that gives
you a little Stephen flavor I guess whatever that is now it's 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 Caitlin wheeler quote everything you'd take with
you if you went somewhere was in the house right Caitlyn 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 9-1-1 and insist that they send an officer to the
scene immediately right so that's exactly what they did and to 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 12 52 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 and the group
stayed they didn't go home until about 3 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 Lauren's 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 Lauren's 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 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 her stuff being there one where is she but then two 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 detective's
car right now at about 9 40 a.m two detectives noticed a terrible smell coming from a
trash can I like to call these wheelie bins it's this is a large trash can outside in the apartment complex the 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 and I'm assuming that each
apartment didn't have their own bin I'm assuming that they had these bigger bins for multiple apartment units yeah I
believe these were shared uh bins as you would say so the detectives are worried about the 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 spelled 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 the open the bag just
below the top back yeah 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 [Music]
all right we're back cheers hey Matey's 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 you've been studying for the bar yeah I'm no one seen her since Saturday because I we all
just there's not a whole lot of interaction unless we're doing classes right and she was doing uh online
version of it you all studied together though I yeah we were in it's it's two different
people that there's two companies that provide it Captain Horizon and Barbie provides it I signed up with Barbary and
I've been doing the lectures that they have in the mornings she was doing the Kaplan online so I
hardly ever saw her I mean I would see her like go out running but I mean what time would you go out running I mean I
don't even know where at night or morning I saw it like midday a couple weeks ago
I mean that was the last time I saw her was come back from the bar prep on the main camp this because we got moved over
there for a week or two but she normally we yeah right she she ran all the time I
mean she she had a group that she would go running with oh yeah I don't know anyone that would want to
hurt her she was a nice person as there is she moving soon did 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 like where is she
from Maryland yeah she's from up in Maryland okay I'm so sorry and you can just hold on
yeah she's from Maryland 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 are you thinking why would anyone do this she didn't hear anything no hey
yeah I just heard something maybe I could have held it okay don't worry do you want us to dump her or something
got something to drink do you know a bunch of I mean that's how I found out that she
was missing we did a bunch of her friends came over yesterday night around midnight and they they couldn't they
hadn't seen her since Saturday so they were trying to find out where she was they 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
around midnight and then we went we went over to law school to see if maybe she was over in the library studying or
something and we looked up in the study rooms on the third floor and there was there was no one there and we came back
we looked around and just tried to find any anything to figure out where she was
doesn't have any family in Georgia I don't know I'm as far as I know every all of our families from in Maryland
have you met her family before okay I mean 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 the 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 crying and we thankfully there was
someone who came along who knew a vet or something and they helped that and her family came down I think a couple weeks
after that or something I met them just briefly but boyfriend and we we've been trying to figure out
she has a boyfriend up in Atlanta but I'm someone called her called him and he hadn't heard from her and just no
no one could figure out where she was yeah she went over to a couple friend's house Gary Mueller and Joe Karens they
live over on Walnut and I mean they they said that she was over there in the morning and then that was the last time
that anyone we've been able to find out from I'd seen her she hadn't mentioned what she
was gonna do that day or anything we uh Joe he got onto her computer last night to see if she's 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 that anyone there was an email that she sent out after 10 that
night where she she sent to I think it was someone in Atlanta a friend of hers in Atlanta and he she said that she she
was afraid in her apartment that she thought someone had tried to break in on Thursday night
and as she she was afraid to stay in there but what did you hear where did you hear
that from he he pulled up and we read it off the screen she had sent that to a friend in Atlanta
yeah I can't remember his name but you hadn't heard anything on Thursday night she never came to you to tell you
anything no I'm I if she had I could have done something I I could have lent her a handgun I've
got a little hang on that I have for defense and yeah I mean something and if she was
afraid in her 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 she said like making hoodlums tried to break into my
apartment on Thursday night is that her car parked there the Chevy no no um I think that that's the detective's
car detective Patterson no it was here earlier and they they towed it I mean it had been there for days and then they
towed it to I guess look through see if there was yeah how did you find out that something
yeah a little while ago or nine we the police were called last night and they came and
they looked around 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 it's just she was gone I mean all of her stuff was there her ID was
there her wallet was there 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 body's 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 question it's not confirmed that it's the girl that he knows it's not
confirmed that it's his law school friend Laura Giddings but he can you you can tell that he's assuming right well
and I think the news people are assuming as well so when we say these are three different
interviews they're 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 uh and then he kind of conducts himself and then comes back and answers more
questions and that's what you just heard there 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 in reality he's right but but it was actually sent to her boyfriend who lives in Atlanta right and you heard
Stephen's 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 making hoodlums tried to break into my apartment right um not really buying this email but well
well I mean it happened um right it was an email that that she sent well well you actually sent from her
computer yeah you bring up a good question I didn't think about it that way until you just until you just
brought it up in that that manner um it was an email that was sent from her account let's say right 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 to um they were suspicious because they're like okay your 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 Heyman Lee contact her the day that supposedly she goes missing why wouldn't her
ex-boyfriend contact her the day she goes missing here's a scenario where you gotta 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 if you're calling people if you're sending texts why won't you just send this
and a text why would you send it through email unless that was their uh the the protocol for the relationship
because it was so far away that they would communicate more through email but I don't think there's any evidence of
that so it's just 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 that would send this email
but again it's fishy that you'd send the email anyways but 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 their
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 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 the the Dawn was his name the boyfriend believed to be Rahman 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 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 Lawrence 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 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'm actually that's actually happened to me multiple
times so you make plans with somebody I can never show up and 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 100 percent that's exactly what went down right so because I was
like how many times was that person a significant other uh 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 multiple 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 um no well never right so look I I 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 and 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 um yes it is 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 email plus this
dude uh 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 um Law Firm 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 and 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
um yeah he's he's in California on a golf trip so his he has a solid Alibi he he's been brave you know he's on the
other side of the country uh at the time in question he was the other thing that police were
suspicious about so now 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
right the night before on Friday night she and a friend stayed at the home of two males and you hear Stephen McDaniel
reference 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 he mentions their names I don't I don't
know their names um they lived on Walnut Street yeah well in fact 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 the
the two women decided to just crash at that house so 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 boyfriend's in California on this golf trip oh what's she doing staying the night at these guys house the night
before yeah but there's a lot of people that go hey we're we're going to have a long distance relationship and hey
uh 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 in common I I I 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 boyfriend's relationship but as they have Separate Lives when they weren't together right
and as far as law enforcement and 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 uh for the the longtime boyfriend and 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 a few of the other friends uh therapy um
Burpee and Garen and Ashley they were here they were here last night and they'd come back this morning and I just
went out and 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 just a little while ago yeah they took statements to try and
find out if anyone had seen anything if they would have heard anything when the last time anyone saw or was
now they haven't confirmed at least not with us that it was um that they found are you holding out any holes right now
right I I hope but if they found it on on the property somewhere [Applause] you hadn't heard anything about a body
until you were talking about no no as far as any of us they were still trying to just find her I mean we got an
email this morning from some people that live 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 someone had
snatched her over there or maybe she got hurt or something all right so when we listened 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 huh and 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 audio is not the best and the the video is not that's the best audio we've
ever the video is not the best either and plus he's got we should probably describe what Steven looks like so he's
kind of a pasty skinny kid um he would be in his uh 26 he would be 26 at the time of that interview yeah he
has very puffy hair very yeah long hair but it's it's all it's all over the place it's very poofy as you it's almost
like a afro yeah and he he looks like what maybe he he's got a little facial hair maybe he
hasn't shaved in a couple of days or something it's very patchy yes so when watching that one the video is not the
best but then two they're outside you can hear the wind blowing and at some point you can hear Vehicles driving by
uh maybe somebody's cell phone 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 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 tell you there were no tears and I was trying to determine if he was
in fact actually crying tears not just putting on a a noise or a voice uh to to 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 uh and yes he became very
emotional as soon as I told him they found a body um 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 going to go with what the reporter says she says he was very emotional I'm
just going to 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 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 have look you can assume uh your friends missing for a few days
they find a body yeah you could start assuming that's her body I I 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 like that well I 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 where 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 he spoke with police that morning and he also spoke with them we
know he did a brief interview with them in either a detective's 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 person's case all morning long by by the
time of this interview right but it's also he does this thing where he kind of goes
like well 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 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 he's heard from friends that she was last seen on Saturday
yeah I didn't get that I think what he um the the reason why there's confusion on that answer is he was basically
saying like yeah I remember seeing her run like a week or so ago so okay 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 he Stephen's unaware of that during that interview
um 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 walk through
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 described in 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 that
warrants further investigation if not move on well you're right 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 odd and I understand that he's also a law student that's going to 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 but I agree
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 oh 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 them 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 and he's very forthcoming in
that interview as well right with the with the news reporter and then all of a sudden you don't want me in your
apartment according to the documents that I viewed and we 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 they're in there very briefly this walk through through Steven's apartment took place at 1 40
p.m now in his apartment they find a large knife a large samurai sword a rifle two handguns and among some other
items they find some other items but these are the items that they specifically note of being in question
regarding that walk through that took place at 1 40 p.m it's like uh you could also state that every
apartment you went into that had a a knife set had a large knife true so yeah so I mean samurai sword is a bit out of
the norm or a rifle and two handguns a bit out of the norm I don't think so I mean as far as like you know he could
have been a hunter or he wanted to protect himself and maybe the same rights or samurai sword but I 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 my residence except for the rifle so I just
wanted to say I was going against 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 but the thing about that that I'm so fascinated in is that the the scheduled pickup
for trash was earlier 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 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 well since it happened yeah until now it's well that's right
um so the as the make and Telegraph put it getting's 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 make and Telegraph what went down captain and this the like you said a stroke of luck and like the making
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 it kept it got it on the right path because her friends get involved
they recognized 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 into her email log into 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
friend's 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 person's 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 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 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 driving 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
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Lauren Giddings /// Part 1 /// 341

Part 1 of 2

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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

The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

Lauren Giddings, a law student, goes missing; her body is found in a trash can, leading to a murder investigation.

Key points

Friends Sound the Alarm. After days without contact, Lauren's friends and family become increasingly worried.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Lauren Giddings. Lauren Giddings, a law student, goes missing just days before her bar exam.
A Disturbing Discovery. Police find a decomposing torso in a trash can, raising alarms about Lauren's fate.
Unanswered Questions. Friends and family grapple with the mystery surrounding her last known whereabouts.
Mysterious Disappearance. A woman goes missing, leaving friends and family in shock.
Chilling Email. A friend reveals a troubling email sent before her disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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0:55WatchNov 21, 2022

Tension

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