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

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details Rosetta Stone
is the language learning program with a lasting impact I've been using the rap to learn French and it's not just about
memorizing words but actually having real conversations and it's not just French they offer 25 languages right now
Rosetta Stone has an awesome holiday deal 50% off their lifetime membership every language unlimited access forever
for anyone keen on diving deep into a new language check out rosettastone.com it's a
GameChanger [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 finely tuned athlete that barely can tie his shoes it's good to be seen and it's good
to see you thanks for listening thanks for tell him a [Music] friend this week we are very happy to be
featuring all struck dry apple plus Oak cider fall or Autumn whatever you want to call it I call it a great time to
have a glass of cider taste the fresh apples the sunshine and a hint of dry Oak garage grade three and 3/4 bottle
caps out of five and today we are toasting some of our garage Army Members First up we have Brian h a big Buckeye
fan down in Cookville Tennessee and a big shout out to Amilia and Haley Idaho next up we have our friend Liz who is
down with the sickness in Tyson's Virginia and a big we like your jib to letia in Kansas City Missouri next up we
have brother Ben in Minnesota and sister Kinsey in one of the most manly cities of all time Kodiak Alaska and last but
certainly not least we have jock or is it jacqu in Virginia cheers to everybody who went to True Crim garage.com and
clicked on the Donate button thank you all for filling up the fridge make sure you check us out on Instagram Facebook
Twitter all that stuff @ 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 [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 did you see her hang out with anyone at the time anything like that I mean no no no one has seen her sincerity
I haven't seen anything I mean 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 um we graduated back in
May what kind of person was she I mean how did you what did you be I she's as nice as can be I mean very personable
very much people person do you know anybody that any enemies she might have had somebody that might want to hurt her
no I we're 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 we went over one of her friends had a key we went inside and tried to see if there
was anything a Miss but I mean she had a door jam that was sitting right by it so
there was no sign that anyone broke in I mean was locked when everyone got here I
we 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 had recovered the body or whatever they recovered from
there had you heard had you seen anything there had you see anything there all 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 it's the same person or not that's why we're trying to ask people if they know who lived there
are you okay sir I I think I need to sit down [Music] okay 27-year-old Lauren Giddings
graduated from Mercer University law school in May of 2011 11 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 lawren 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 been 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 4 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
subick 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 text remember however Lauren was studying pretty hardcore for the bar
exam so you know how people will set up like an outof office reply thanks for your email but I will be out of the
office I'm skiing and 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 4 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 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 you know I'll call my friend back Katie didn't stop there she
called Lorie'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 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 also becomes
more E when the phone calls are going straight to voicemail yeah Lauren's sister Caitlyn 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 mon 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 CA 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
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
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 Mak hospitals to find out if there had been some type of accident or 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 1100 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 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 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 are 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 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 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 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 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 Steph 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 Steph McDaniel and I don't know this to be true but I'm guessing a
lot of these people these students that live in these apartments that it's a more of a
long-term situation than most college type situations M now Lauren and Steven 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 Steph is from littleburn Don't make me say that too
many times Lil burn Georgia which is like an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minute drive north of maken Steven
graduated from Park View High back in 2004 Steven Mark McDaniel earned a academic scholarship to Mercer as an
undergraduate so stevenh 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 that 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 step 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 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 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 Steven flavor from Mak Georgia now what they are seeing at Lauren's
apartment Captain nothing is a miss and her friend Ashley Morehouse described the scene the best when she told cait
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 911 and insist that they send an officer to the scene immediately right
so that's exactly what they did and two Mercer University police officers were dispatched to the apartment after they
arrived they spoke with the group the officers then decided to call the mon city cops a mon 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 in the
group stayed they didn't go home until about 3:00 a.m. I do want to point out that Mak 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 mon so the
mayor was contacted and told of this whole situation ation 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 fullon
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 want 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 determin she's been missing since Saturday so we
are coming up on five days now Lauren's been missing for 5 days don't treat it as though it's just been one
day remember we said they need to determine if necessary and then 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 mon 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 and took her away from that right
and by this time they are knocking on doors and they are interviewing and asking question questions of all of the
residents at the apartment complex Steven 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 ass 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 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 smelt it dealt it they open the lid to the trash can and
they saw that there were several trash bags that appear 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
bag 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
this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this
time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something
new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings therapy can be a bright spot something
to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to manage everything going on if you're
thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
betterhelp visit betterhelp.com garag toay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp
hp.com dreaming of overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the
language Gap I've tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are game
changers dive into 25 Languages by learning intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday
Sparkle grab a lifetime members ship now and save 50% gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save
50% major phone carriers make you sign contracts with rigid data plans to trap you into a kind of forced phogy sounds
pretty insecure if you ask me at Consumer Cellular we believe in a more consensual and healthy form of phogy
free of contracts and more flexible to your data needs this way you stick around not because we force you to with
contracts and fees but because you love our phone plans like ardently love our phone plans monogamously Consumer
Cellular when Freedom calls we're here to answer call us at 1888 Freedom all right we're back cheers M
mes cheers captain and a big cheers to all the teachers out there that's right a few hours after finding the Torso
Steven McDaniel granted reporters an interview along the sidewalk near the apartments let's take a
listen you've been studying for the bar I no one had seen her since Saturday because I we all just is not a whole lot
of interaction unless we're doing classes and she was doing the online version of it studies together though I
no we were in there there's two different people that there's two companies that provide it Captain
provides it and Barbie provides it I signed up with Barbie 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 I would see her like go out running but I what time
would she go out running I I don't even know when at night or morning I I saw like midday a couple weeks ago I mean
that 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 but she normally would run that was her she she ran all the time I mean she
she had a group that she would go running with Ian I I don't know anyone that would want to
hurt her she was as nice person as there is was 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 new law school I do you know if she was F where is she
from is she from Mar Maryland yeah she's from put this on you so we can hear you is
that all right okay I'm so sorry you can just hold on for that thank you she's from Maryland yeah I mean she
she was from up in Maryland I 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 sh didn't hear anything no didn't
see anybody yeah I heard something maybe I got have help okay don't worry do you want to sit down for a
second you got something to drink do you know if a bunch of her friends are getting together or anything
I that's how I found out that she was missing we 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 so they were knocking on neighbors doors and stuff I no they they
went in they had a key to her apartment and they checked around didn't see anything out of place I it was locked
when everyone got there that was midnight yeah around midnight and then we went we went over to law school see
if maybe she was over in the library studying or something thing and we we looked up in the study rooms on the
third floor and there was no one there and we came back we looked around and just trying to find any anything to
figure out where she was she doesn't have any family in Georgia I I don't know I as far as I know every all of her
family is from in Maryland have you met her family before there 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 the her family came down I think a couple weeks after that or something I met them
just brief but a boyfriend I we we've been trying to figure out she has a boyfriend up in
Atlanta but I someone called her called him and he hadn't heard from her just no no one could figure out
where she was so was the last question be we you said that somebody seen her on Saturday yeah she went over to uh couple
friends house Garen Mueller and Joe Kens they live over on Walnut and and 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 had seen her she hadn't mentioned
what she was going to do that day or anything we uh Joe he got onto her computer last night to see if she say
anything she'd sent 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 she she was afraid to stay in there but where did you hear where did you hear
that from from Joe no he he pulled it up and we we read it off the screen she has said B to a friend in
Atlanta yeah I I can't remember his name but and you hadn't heard anything on Thursday night she never came to you to
tell you anything no I I if she had I could have done something I I could have lent her a
handgun i' I've got a little handgun that I have for defense and she could have SLE or something yeah I something I
if she was afraid in her apartment then I mean get her out of there tried to break in that's what she said in the
email she thought that someone had tried to break into her apartment she said like Mak hoodlum tried to break into my
apartment on Thursday night is that her car par there the Chevy no small car no um I think that
that's the detective's car detective P there no it it was here earlier and they they tow it I 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 was wrong
with the police here was it like when you walked up a little while ago or no I we the police were called last night and
they came and they looked around they didn't see anything I me 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 I 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 questions it's not confirmed that it's the girl that he knows is not confirmed that it's his law school
friend Laura Giddings but he can you 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 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 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 10:00 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 Steven'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 Mak hoodlums tried to break into my
apartment right um not really buying this email but well well I mean it it happened um right it was an email that
that she sent well well was an email sent from her computer yeah you bring up a good
question I didn't think about it that way until you just till you just brought it up in that that manner um 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
to mhm um they were suspicious because they're like okay your your long-term girlfriend sends you an email saying
people tried to break into her apartment and it's days later and you're not contacting 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 Adon case for example well why wouldn't the boyfriend of himman 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 got to 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 text why won you just send this and a text why would you send it through email unless that was
their uh the the protocol for their relationship because they were so far away that they would communicate more
through email MH 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 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 they're 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 Sayed 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 that Dawn was his name the boyfriend believed to be hon 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 for lawen with her boyfriend as well and so in the case of
dawn he's 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've actually that's actually happened to me multiple times so you make plans with somebody they 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 that 100% that's exactly what
went down right so cuz I was I 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 NE well never right so look I I I think it's I mean we don't want to go
too far into this well that's a different case but 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 longdistance relationship right um yes it is longterm 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
uhhuh 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 he's been right
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 St 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 the real story is her friend was seeing one of these
guys they they had 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 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 you know what I mean that that is well and that's
what I wasting 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 relationships they live Separate Lives when they weren't together right and 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 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 few a few of the other friends uh Burpy um Burpy and Garen and Ashley they were
here they were here last night and they'd come back this morning I just went out and talked with them and they
and then they moved us all over to the side and they bust us all down to the department and kept us there until I got
back just a little while ago ask question yeah they they took statements trying to find out if anyone had seen
anything if anyone had heard anything when the last time anyone St or what now they haven't confirmed at least
not with us that it it was um that they found are you holding out any hope right
now I I hope but if they found it on on the property somewhere not can you heard anything about a ban
please were talking about no no as far as any of us knew they they were still trying to just find her and 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 listen to those three Clips the one
thing that jumps out at me that is more apparent In that clip I I think than the
other two is this the reporter starts asking him something and he starts doing this 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 he looks like what
maybe he's got a little facial hair maybe hasn't shaved in a couple days or something 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 it 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 anytime that we have a missing person we have no you have look you can assume uh
your friend's missing for a few days they find a body yeah you could start assuming that's her body I 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 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 talk 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 you know
what 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 saying he 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 uhhuh so 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 Steven'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 Walkin walk out quick observation do you see anything super suspicious that that
warrants further investigation if not move on well right and you have to protect yourself against law enforcement
you don't want to be accused of something that 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 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 like 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 he's very forthcoming in that interview as
well with the with the uh news reporter 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 Steven 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 Steven 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 amongst some other items they they find some other
items but these are the items that they specifically note of being in question regarding that walkthrough that took
place at 1:40 p.m. yeah but 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 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 he could have been a
hunter or he wanted to protect himself and maybe the samide sword samide sword 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 my res except for the rifle so I was going to say I was going to guess 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 the but the thing
about that that I'm so fascinated in is that the the scheduled pickup for trash was
earlier and correct and for some reason there was some kind of like half the apartment's trash got
picked up and then there was some reason there was some interference that the other part of
the the complex was not the 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 Mak Telegraph is a newspaper and and
this they covered this case and this story hands down better than anybody else they' they've covered it for well
since it happened yeah until now and well that's right um so the as the mon 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 Mak Telegraph what went down captain and
this like you said a stroke of luck and like the mon 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 on
the right path because her friends get involved they recognize that she has been unheard from they send friends to
her apartment determine that she is in fact missing has been missing for days log into her email yeah log into the
email one of her friends says to her father you're friends with the mayor of mon 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 person's case the detective who they contacted I don't know if he was on call
but the the detective Ive 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 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
[Music] 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 [Music] litter [Applause] [Music] Angie's List is now Angie and we've
heard a lot of theories about why I thought it was an Eco move few worse less paper no it was so you could say it
faster no it's to be more iconic must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare
upfront prices book a service instantly and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it
makes us so much more than just a list get started at angie.com that's ngi or download the app
today

Lauren Giddings /// Part 1 /// 341

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://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

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

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

Lauren Giddings, a law graduate, went missing; her body was later found in a trash bin, leading to an investigation into her murder.

Key points

Rosetta Stone Holiday Deal. Get 50% off a lifetime membership for unlimited access to 25 languages.
Lauren Giddings Missing. Friends and family grow concerned after Lauren hasn't been heard from for days.
Detectives Discover a Torso. Investigators find a decomposing torso in a trash bag, raising alarms about a missing woman.
A Disturbing Email. The victim sent an email expressing fear that someone tried to break into her apartment.
Suspicion on the Boyfriend. The boyfriend claims he didn't know she was missing, raising eyebrows among investigators.
Body Found at Apartment Complex. A body was discovered at Lauren's apartment complex, confirming she was dead.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Snooze now and pay later!

0:08WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.