Lauren Giddings /// Part 2 /// 342 | Forensic Files

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all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime on the morning of June 30th the
2011 police located the body of Lauren Giddings they located horror her torso and we talked about the events that took
place that morning we talked about the initial stages of the investigation it was once a missing-persons case and then
unfortunately they found her torso yeah I believe they were able to do DNA tests
with her mom to determine that the body was actually Lauren's at 2:15 p.m. a handler and two cadaver dogs arrived on
the scene and started their search of the area now forgive me captain for being graphic but all they have found so
far is a torso and they are looking for the remaining parts and also looking to see where some of the remains may have
been concealed moved and so on right and like I said we know that half the trash
was actually picked up so they started thinking that maybe if her her torso was found in one trash bin that maybe other
parts would be found on in different bins two dogs the two dogs this is cinco and chance they hit on eight locations
and they're these locations are as follows they hit twice at Lauren's apartment this was just outside of the
front door and in her bathroom they hit twice in the vacant apartment which was located immediately below Lauren's
apartment alerting in the living room and in the bathroom the dogs alerted at Steven McDaniels
front door and in his bedroom they alerted at the apartment complexes laundry room in two places
once at the front and then again inside this laundry room as well so they walked these dogs all
over the property for the apartment complex they only hit in eight locations and of importance
obviously they hid in her apartment but they hid in Stevens apartment they hid in the apartment below her which was
vacant nobody was living in there and then they hid in the apartment complex laundry room now police because of this
they want to seriously interview Stephen McDaniel he is now coming to into the spotlight let's say and emerging as a
interesting suspect at this time if anybody wants to you can go to youtube and there is a what is a captain about a
two-hour long video yeah where it's very grainy and the audio quality is very poor yeah we thought about playing some
of it here but the audio is not great you know it's it's an interesting video to watch because it is Stephen McDaniel
being interviewed or interrogated question whatever you want to call it by detectives at the detective bureau one
of the first things that said by the detective is Stephen put your hands on the table so let's just call it an
interrogation well and you know what and I love I love the South I love how people talk in the south and he says I
don't know the detectives name so forgive me he says now put your hands on the table for me son he calls him son a
few times and he says now look at me when I'm talking to you boy yeah yeah I like to use the boy term and where I
might sound aggressive there he doesn't come off to me as being aggressive he comes off as being authoritative
but he also kind of like he's trying to be Stephens friend at times he even says
to him at one point we are friends you and Lauren are friends we need to know what happened to your friend I'm asking
you for help can you help me right and this whole time you heard Steven talk in those interviews he's not
talking like that when he's at the detective bureau when he's being questioned he know asked me a question
I'll answer it like him okay when was the last time you saw Lauren I don't know have you ever seen Lauren wearing
this dress I'm showing you a picture of her in a dress no does Lauren have a boyfriend yes did you think you were
Lauren's boyfriend no what are you doing with guns in your apartment Stephen I don't know why do you have them I don't
know yeah his answer was to have them because they kept no yeah they kept asking him
they're like have you ever fired a gun and he's like no I've never never fired a gun they're like well then why why do
you have three firearms yeah and he doesn't say like protection or anything like that that like he's kind of talking
about in his on-camera interview with the local news he just simply says to have them yeah if you have a sword and
you said to me did you have you ever used the sword no I haven't why do you have it to have it that makes sense yeah
why do you have a gun to have it have you ever shot a gun no but I decided to buy three of them he did say at one time
he was a collector of swords yeah so that he's the so for the samurai sword which it's it's a it's like a cheap
knockoff it's not one of these five six hundred seven hundred dollar jobs right right but that's why I don't find it
that odd it's now because it'll collect some people collect swords yeah and people collect guns as well but that's
not the answer he provides regarding the gun right but most people that collect guns actually shoot those guns yes they
do use those you they usually shoot them the important thing here in it throughout the course of these he's
doing multiple interviews multiple questioning periods with the police and detectives throughout the day and well
into the night the the what we were just referencing I believe takes place at about 11:00 p.m. or just before midnight
yeah as said the video that you can find online is two hours long I don't know if
that's the entirety of the actual questioning I think there was probably more out there but right and I just want
to point out again here's here's an individual Steven where he's cooperative with the police initially then hesitant
to let them in his apartment and then obviously I'm guessing that they obviously once they found the body that
they got the rights to search apartments and that's that's when they brought in the cadaver dogs but now you're down at
the station and you're a law student and they're asking you these questions where
you should assume you're a suspect and he's not asking for a lawyer yeah yet to be clear regarding the
cadaver dogs I don't think that that's technically the handlers term for these dogs but that's what the state documents
would refer to these dogs as is cadaver dogs okay and and in the documents they say for a lack of a better term that's
what they were going to call them to just keep it simple and that's what I refer to him as here with the cadaver
dogs and regarding these earlier searches these are all permission was granted by the residents in each
situation so they weren't they haven't you know got the the the legal channels involved yet for search warrants and to
just really scour the area well these are like but like you said it goes along with now he's at the detective bureau
Stephen McDaniel 26 years old and he's not asking for an attorney he was very helpful and very vocal to the local news
when he did the interview but now when he's at the detective bureau he there's a transformation there and it's it's
physical and it's audible it's you can he looks like a damn zombie by the time that he's being questioned at the
detective bureau and he sounds like or is trying to sound like a scared little boy yeah I mean I think this is him
acting again or pretending again yeah at some point during this interview the detective notices a red mark on
Stevens face this is near his nose and he asked Steven if he has any other marks on him and Steven shows him that
he has two scratches on his abdomen that is troublesome for Steven and it's interesting to detectives because now we
have this guy who looks like he might have been in some kind of physical altercation yeah and this is a guy
that's pretty much for the most part holed up in his apartment staying in there according to him he's
studying and he hasn't seen Lauren and I believe he says in this interview one to
two weeks okay this is where things get very weird go down the weird road with me the weird path always so holding
hands police found in his apartment in Stephens apartment they found they found four condoms now that doesn't seem like
that big of a deal however he has told the detectives through the course of his interviews that he is a virgin
and that he is happy to be a virgin he's saving himself for marriage yeah you again he could explain that away you're
on campus they're passing them out for safe sex and you grab a coupling a big deal but he doesn't do that mm-hmm he
wait so they push him they push them and push them and push them and they want to
know if you are saving yourself if you have no intention to have sexual intercourse why do you need condoms why
do you have them in your possession eventually he explains that the condoms he stole from people so two of the
condoms he stole from his sister and I don't know when that went down but the other two we have a better idea because
he tells the police that he stole condoms from two of the apart in his apartment complex so Steven
admits to the officer that he entered two different apartments one apartment he entered in December on December 26th
of 2008 and the other one on January 31st 2009 and each time he stole a condom from each of the apartments now
as he said he's he broke into them or he just entered them I'm a little unclear on that the D that either wording in the
report says that he entered now they're going to consider this as a breaking and
entering imus they find a master key in his apartment eventually they've not they've not
located that yet right but this master key will allow him into a lot of different places throughout that
apartment complex creep and so when they say entered I'm guessing that he has either told them that he has this key or
they've figured out that he didn't break into the place he just unlocked the door
and went in right and the thing here is captain by this point even before they get this weird information about the
condoms they believe Stephen knows more than what he's telling them they believe
he may have killed Lauren Giddings yeah he's their number one suspect once he explains to them that he took condoms
from other apartments they go okay cool thank you for telling us that we are going to arrest you for burglary we're
gonna arrest you for burglary and now we have a reason a legal reason that we can
hold you we need to try to build this murder case against you because all we have right now is circumstantial
evidence and our suspicions now when he is arrested when Stephen is arrested for
the burglary way and hold on and good and your creepy stare and your creepy to me mean iron and all the weirdness about
you or you know this adds to it right Stephen McDaniels maternal grandfather this is Hollis browning who he was very
close with Stephen he hired an attorney for his grandson to represent him regarding these burglary charges
browning was in his 80s at the time he was very close to Stephen as I said this attorney that he hired is Floyd Buford
who practices both criminal and civil law from my understanding Buford is a well-known well-respected attorney in
these parts yeah so this is not a public defender or this is not someone who does
not know what they are doing this is considered a high level high-priced good attorney
Hollis browning had a lot of hopes for his grandson a lot of high hopes for the boy that he doted on well heck he was in
law school yes he was hoping that the young man would land a legal job yeah get married someday he in fact was
planning to pay to be able to use those condoms right he was in fact planning to
pay his grandson's first month's rent once Stephen passed the bar exam and found a new place to live right now you
had mentioned search warrants it was after all of this this questioning that goes down that they did in fact get the
proper warrants so it was on July 1st it's they're questioning him late into the night after midnight from June 30th
now we're into July 1st at 150 at one-five-zero a.m. in the morning police obtained signed warrants from Judge eNOS
for not to be mistaken with judge penis well might be Ennis I having trouble reading my own writing the warrants that
they got that they received from the judge were for Stevens apartment for his car for his body for his DNA for his
hair for his fingerprints for his fingernails and for full-body photographs so what do they find during
these searches okay so let's get the photographs out of the way that is simply to document these
potential injuries the scratch marks that they had already observed right okay regarding what they find in his
apartment we already talked about the one master key they find two keys that are of concern one is a master key to
the apartment complex the second one is a key to Lauren Giddings apartment well great
they find a shirt that remember we said the torso was found with pink jogging shorts on mm-hmm I want to be very clear
the torso is wearing these shorts the that's the only thing only clothing on the torso there's nothing under the
shorts the shirt that they found they can't 100% state this in 100 you know it's not a confirmed fact but it matches
the jogging shorts brain so it's believed that it's it's the pair it's one of the pair to this jogging short
very suspicious thing to find in his apartment yeah in Laurens apartment they determine
that on some of the walls there somebody had applied fresh paint to some of the walls and it's believed that whoever did
this was painting over blood or other types of evidence yeah the police discovered a large bloody sheet in a
washing machine at the apartment complexes laundry room they found a hacksaw with human flesh on it it was
found in a locked storage closet in the laundry room now this apartment complex like many of them have a laundry room of
laundry facility to be clear everybody that lives there has access to this room right what everyone does not have access
to is this locked storage closet the master key found in Stevens apartment will open that closet
but the master key that he has would be the same as you would expect to find on the landlord's keychain or the
maintenance man's keychain so a few people do have access to this storage closet it's a limited view and we can
prove that Steven gettings or Stephen McDaniel I apologize has access to that closet because of the key they also
found a large cooler near the front door of Stephens apartment they don't go into
detail with this cooler I'm guessing they may suspect that remains may have been in this cooler at
one point mm-hmm they found a foam Cup with the name Lauren written on it inside his apartment now
Steven owned a Geo Prizm but that's like a small vehicle small car the police found what they believe to be
bloodstains on the front and rear seats of this car now on the torso itself when
the torso was located inside the trash bag inside that trash can on the apartment complexes property they found
some hairs on the torso some of them would have been consistent with Laura Lauren Giddings hair she had long blonde
hair some of these hairs were consistent with Steven McDaniels hair he has as we
described like brown kind of a white boy afro thing going on he's got longer hair they also found
hairs similar to this inside his apartment as well we've never received confirmation that I could find that
those were in fact his hairs right but they do get confirmation that they find hairs Laurens hairs on the hacksaw well
they determined through DNA testing that that her DNA was on that hacksaw right and but where did they find her hairs
if her hair was found believed to be in the trash bag with the torso okay again there's never been confirmation on
where those hairs who they came from but that's what it states in their reports that they believe them to some of them
to be Lawrence and some of them to be Stevens we just pointed out her DNA is found on that hacksaw that was found
locked in a storage closet in the laundry room that Steven had access to that he has access to and then even more
damning they find the packaging for this saw in his apartment so it appears that
he purchased this saw took it out of the package used it for something and we know that her DNA ends up on it he locks
it up in this storage closet and yet he forgot to throw away the packaging for the saw which is later found in his
apartment so regarding all this information and everything that they're working on and working towards in the
case that they're building against Stephen McDaniel he's arrested as we said for those burglary charges
but it wouldn't be until 33 days later the prosecutors tacked on a murder charge he was accused of murdering
Lauren Giddings now because of this murder charge there they're still building this case against him because
they don't have a slam-dunk case against Stephen McDaniel well it's never a slam
dunk right but what further investigation would determine they are poring through his computer now mind you
this man spent a lot of time on his computer and he had a lot of flash drives he had a lot of flick he flick he
drives he had a lot of tech mm-hmm let's say he's accused of of having a computer flash drive with child
pornography on it because they say that they found 54 images of child pornography to the scumbag and then on
top of that captain they said that they found a pair of Lauren Giddings panties in a drawer in his bedroom mmm
now the very strange thing here I mean we're already in a weird space yeah he and I take great pause before I say
apparently somebody took these panties and and made them into a mask okay that's that's how I I've not seen
pictures but that's how the detective describes it when he's asking Stephen about these panties I mean I wear my
underwear on my head every now and then when I get really drunk but that's just to be funny so but I don't make masks
out of yeah and they determined that these came from Lauren they weren't lawrence and as said the only clothing
found on the torso was just a pair of of shorts right so they're there that they're thinking is that after whatever
happened that he kept these as a souvenir and then he turned these into a mask yeah yeah and then I I've also
thought maybe if he did have access to her apartment maybe these yeah maybe he stole them
prior to June of 2011 well like we said there was that email where she was saying that she thought maybe somebody
broke into her apartment but we later find out that you know she she mentioned to people multiple times that you know
she would come home and she felt like maybe somebody had been there or something had been moved or that
something was missing but she's just thought well maybe I I misplaced it but it was happening enough where she
thought somebody was entering her apartment and messing with things that's very Golden State killer ish you know
the Golden State killer is reported to have entered people's homes when they weren't there and moved things now to
later help him perpetrate the crimes later that night or the next day yeah which is different than some of
this to me you know we know Stephen has access to our apartment so how many times was he going in there and
taking things it seems like his how often was he going into everybody else's apartment right with no at least two
times that he's admitted to police yeah and a lot of this stuff to me captain is
because a lot of people have said look this dude was he had finished law school you can hear him talk he's an
intelligent individual but people question why would he have all these weird things in all this evidence that
they would later collect if he in fact did kill her these are people that say well maybe he didn't do it and maybe
some of this evidence was planted I realize evidence to plant well and on top of that I really think that if I
think it was just stuff he had not got around to yet I think there were things that he would have discarded keep in
mind he would have been moving out at some point right I think it was just things he had not got around to yet and
when pushed when he was pushed by police by detectives who he he may have thought
at one point that he was smarter than them we know that he interned at the prosecutor's office at one point so
maybe he felt that he could outsmart police if he had to but to me it's when he's pushed when he's pushed it back in
a corner it's almost like well I better give them access to something it if I don't I look guilty
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[Music] all right cheers mates cheers to you captain so Stephen McDaniel is going to
claim he is innocent of this he's now being charged with murder right can you imagine we have his grandfather
who probably had the best of intentions by hiring an attorney for his grandson he hired this attorney for his grandson
when his grandson was charged with burglary after hiring the attorney you find out that okay he's now going to be
charged with possession of child pornography and for murder so this attorney is going to continue to
represent Stephen and as said Stephen is going to claim that he is innocent of these charges it takes quite some time
for this thing to get to trial because as said the police are going to continue to build a case against him the
prosecutor is going to continue to build a case against him one thing that happens is we have a former roommate of
Stephens who comes forward to law enforcement and he's got a story to tell law enforcement upon a time there was a
creepy man that liked to play flaky flaky well I'll read from the court documents what you don't have to I
just do the story statement was so it says this individual shared a dorm room with McDaniel during the fall of 2007
while the two were students at Mercer pursuing their undergraduate degrees the roommate related the following
information regarding conversations he had with McDaniel during that time he is a self-proclaimed psychopath he
proclaimed often that he has no conscience and was incapable of feeling emotion he talked almost nightly about
how he would go about the perfect murder he would wear shoes that were too small
he would do something to make him appear bald so that people wouldn't point him out because of his big hair he detailed
different scenarios all of the time in fact I was scared sometimes said Stephen liked and trusted me and I
knew that that's why I felt safe enough to stay where I was I couldn't pick my own lock in my room I tried several
times just to see if I could do it Stephen could do it in under ten seconds he demonstrated it to me once just to
show how easily he could get to me if he wanted and then he grinned when I responded that I was twice his size he
told me he would use chloroform so that it would not matter how big I was what Stephen relishes is power he'll tell you
you don't have to ask him everything he does is the result of a power play he is
an odd duckling who looks weak but has one of the sharpest minds I've ever seen Stephen said if he killed someone he'd
do it in a way to establish dominance over them he always said he wanted to feel the power of having someone's life
in his hands he said he wanted them to beg and then to take it I'm not sure what he did here but he once said if he
did kill someone he'd dismember them soak them somehow then scatter the parts through the woods
so that no one would ever find them he was convinced he was smarter than everyone else and often bragged that if
he did murder someone that he'd never get caught yeah and now we're seeing this play out in real life the docket
yeah the document goes on to say when I heard the news about the murder in Macon
and heard that Stephen was somehow involved I watched the interviews he gave to the
news media at the scene while watching one particular interview it struck me that Stephens tone of voice demeanor and
hand movements were not Stephens normal mannerisms but instead nearly mirrored dialogue which he gave during a theatre
performance when we were both undergraduates at Mercer University I also recalled when seeing this he
informed me that he had no interest in the theatre but wanted to test himself to see if he was believable when telling
a story yeah why I told you is bad acting right but now we're seeing that it's probably you've practiced
right he has schooled himself and educated himself in a way to to fool some people
to fool some people but but probably to eventually carry out his cigarette Fanny
smart yeah his murderous fantasy that he has now look this is this is where it gets a little tricky though because you
have this individual and we have some evidence against him right yeah and it's piling up and but we all know
some friends of ours that were maybe picked on in school maybe bullied that maybe you're just a little strange and
instead of being nice and trying to get people like them they they push back by being weirder well if I'm just even more
weird than then they're not disliking me they're just liking this weird character
that I'm presenting to them so when you're looking at this case this is at the point to me where you go well all
signs are pointing to this guy's guilty but as we're researching I said let me hold back a little bit you know maybe
maybe some of this stuff was planted but this is where it gets a little strange and it's the icing on the cake let's say
they find a USB Drive in his apartment the cops believe that it was a USB Drive from Lauren it was hers that she it was
a bunch of photos of her I actually don't believe it was Lauren's thumb drive I think it was actually Stevens
and when he was going into her apartment to mess around with things that he went
onto her computer and pulled off whatever pictures he could find mm-hmm some of these pictures were posted
online but most of these were just private pictures on her own computer what is weird is
that they were able to do search histories so as he was looking at violent porn he would they were able to
determine that he would watch these violent porn things and then go look at these pictures of her mm-hm and then go
back to the porn and then go back to the pictures of her well and a lot of this stuff is coming out at his trial bra no
they've put together a case against even they carry it forward one other thing that came out in court well actually
we'll get to two but first this is from district attorney Greg winters he read this in court out loud this is a graphic
and profane post in which McDaniel allegedly wrote about an encounter with an attractive acquaintance
it says here okay party hard by drinking alone in front of my computer see my sexy neighbor classmate come home late
she has talked to me occasionally in the past has wanted and this is removed and
replaced with a certain piece of my anatomy for three years invite her up for a nightcap make her a special drink
called a Mickey Finn she is out cold I finally lose my vCard oh no she od'd and died i barbeque her legs and arms to
celebrate losing my vCard not into organ meat but throw her torso out lose it on
TV while the cops are discovering her remains you mad virgins after the DA read this by the time he
was finished reading this again this is a online post brain that is believed to have been from McDaniel and the reason
why they think that it was from McDaniel was he would often use a moniker and I think it was something like the Sons of
Liberty or Sun of Liberty something like that and that moniker was used with this
post and also a lot of what its describing is his situation you know lose it on TV while the cops are
discovering her remains talks about having this sexy neighbor that lives next door to him by the time that the
Greg winters is done reading this McDaniels eyes are shut in court yeah he he doesn't he's it's it's almost like
he's trying to mentally get himself out of that room as this is being read on going to the other thing the the even
more icing on the cake or if you want to say the cherry on top so the authorities
they did find something else and this was through a lot of computer forensic work you know I've seen it reported two
different ways that this was either on his they found this from a camera or that they found this on his computer no
you should know regardless of what it was it had been deal deleted and they needed that's why they needed the
forensics to locate this so they called and crispy kernel yeah well what computer what they found and this is
going to really he's at trial now but this is really gonna break the whole damn thing wide open
it's basically video clips and I've watched some that have been released there there's not really any audio for
them and and even with the audio you wouldn't understand what you put what we're looking at the video clips you can
find them online you can see them for yourselves they were obtained and released by the Macon Telegraph of it
eventually they say that these videos were taken by Stephen McDaniel the night he killed Lauren Giddings the videos are
of Laurens apartment and were taken between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. in court they describe this as
Stephen using a camera attached to a six-foot long wooden stick standing beneath her second-floor apartment and
videoing her and he they will go on to say once they release this information and show this
in court they're going to go on and say he spied on Lauren for months prosecutors said that Stephen McDaniel
had become obsessed with Lauren his next-door neighbor at barristers Hall apartments across the street from Mercer
University Law School where they had been classmates and that Stephen became devastated because they were both
graduating and they would never see each other again now court documents state a possible
motive as lauren was beautiful and outgoing Stephen was a loner had no girlfriend and because Lauren was nice
to him he became fixated on her and at some point he believes she should die and he went to great lengths to try to
cover it up the showing of the video of Stephen spying on Lauren peeking through
the blinds into her apartment was going to be Stephens undoing and because of this he now wants a plea deal mm-hmm
he's going to confess to murdering his fellow classmate and next-door neighbor a full confession was part of the deal
they were able to work out a deal unfortunately her family was in court and had to hear the confession Stephens
story was this this is according to the the Macon Telegraph he said that at 4:30
a.m. on Sunday he broke into this is June 26 he broke into her apartment dressed all in black he used the master
key to get into the apartment he stood there watching her sleep before he startled her awake she saw him and said
very calmly get the [ __ ] out Stephen said he leapt across the bed onto her and grabbed her around the throat they
struggled and tumbled out of the bed to the floor her legs and lower body went under her bed this preventing her from
getting away or from kicking him during the struggle Lauren managed to rip the mask off of
McDaniels face he said she recoiled in horror when she recognized him she pleaded Stephen please stop
McDaniel clenched his hands around her throat for 15 minutes until she stopped moving and then dragged her into the
bathroom and placed her in the bathtub according to his confession he then returned to his apartment next door and
spent the entire day on his computer then in the evening he returned with a hacksaw and cut up her body said I
removed her limbs and head wrapped them in several black trash bags separately and discarded them in the Mercer Law
School dumpster he said he put Lauren's torso into the apartment trashcan on June 28th two days before it was found
McDaniel has denied raping Lauren he says in his writing quote she was wearing the pink running shorts when she
died and I never removed them they were found on her torso just as I had left them in the days after the murder
McDaniel attended classes and even joined the search party Laurens father Billy Giddings told the Macon Telegraph
that he believes only one-third of McDaniels account saying quote he's had a long time to put it together that's
about as good as he could get it and that's pretty horrible he goes on to say quote we just don't want him in our
thoughts anymore I hope he lives a long life in the worst possible way during the course of his confession McDaniel
attempted to justify his or the murder yeah he described himself as a divided mind unable to account for how he could
have committed these horrible acts and that at the same time he was also able to carry on daily routines he went on to
say quote it's difficult for me to explain why I killed Lauren and attempted to conceal my deed the way I
did I know that it was very wrong I'm not delusional or without all morals or decency something in my makeup my
psychology minor op a--they my own particular pathology perhaps must explain it he expressed remorse
regarding according to the newspaper saying he grieves Giddings daily but doesn't expect forgiveness
from her family he said if I could take it back I would so since he is pleading guilty and
confessing then what is his sentencing well he ends up getting life with the possibility of parole
he is eligible for to request parole in 2041 but district attorney David Cook said quote I fully expect Stephen
McDaniel will spend the rest of his life behind bars now just a little over a year ago
captain there was a habeas corpus proceeding this was not whether McDaniel murdered or dismembered Miss Giddings
this was asking the judge if McDaniels rights were violated whether his guilty plea was voluntary and whether his
lawyers according to this article a pair of the brightest criminal defense minds
in the region if they somehow failed him one thing that was pointed out during this whole situation and I think it's
very funny but it's very accurate many people have stated this was a chance for Stephen McDaniel to step into
a courtroom and play lawyer McDaniel claims in part the searches of his apartment were improper and that he was
despondent catatonic even and in no state to allow searches or provide statements to law enforcement many have
said that his appeal efforts afford McDaniel something he truly craves which is attention and the spotlight but the
truly magical moment during this whole court proceeding thing here captain came late in the trial when McDaniel put his
defense attorney his one-time defense attorney Floyd Buford on the stand yeah McDaniel asked Buford if he recalled his
demeanor in their first visit at the county jail and Buford simply replies weird Stephen tried to call in a
question in Buford's representation of him Buford said McDaniel tried to help in his own defense but
Daniel's efforts quote were from a law students perspective as the article puts it then Buford took off the gloves
saying now keep in mind he is addressing Stephen McDaniel who put him on the stand and his questioning him
Buford says quote you've never been in a courtroom in your life we called the shots not you you started off facing the
death penalty you ended up receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole you didn't want to go to trial
you wanted to plead guilty Buford revealed that after being confronted with the finding of the video
showing McDaniel spying on Lauren on the night that she was murdered McDaniel broke down and confessed the killing to
his attorneys right Buford with the judge's blessing recalled the moment from the stand how McDaniel described
the murder in full saying quote up until the last couple of weeks of your case I
was strongly in your corner believing you were innocent I felt you were innocent but this evidence they came in
that was very important Buford went on to tell the graphic and detailed jailhouse confession that McDaniel gave
to him and co-counsel Franklin hue about how you killed Lauren Giddings and how you went about decapitating her or
carving up her body how you even sat down and cut off every finger and bone an appendage on her hands and then threw
them all in the toilet and flushed it all at one time Buford said that coupled with the
information authorities discovered on McDaniels computer including what he says is quote the most horrific child
pornography as well as internet searches for sex with dead people all of this prompted what was very much in McDaniels
best interest requesting and taking a plea deal that the whole appeal thing does not make McDaniel look any better
it does not clean anything up for him in fact McDaniel went on to lose this appeal and
it's it's awful because here's this monster of a person living almost this hermit life having these fantasies and
people not seeing the warning signs hmm or or seeing some warning signs but not not speaking up about them and then you
have on the other hand Lauren which is a beautiful person a smart person very driven was actually nice to Steven this
guy that a lot of people found odd and and for him to want to sit there and try to play the system and at the end of the
day her family they were never able to find other parts of her of her remains to have a propyl you know a proper
burial yeah I don't know what he was hoping to achieve with this appeal but I I think what these people suspect is
probably accurate he's what he's hoping to achieve is his attention and to put himself in the spotlight right but he
also thinks he's smarter than everybody so you know he sits there and brags years before if I do this I won't get
caught and I'll do this and well the the thing is you try to live out your fantasy and you got caught well and
that's why I went through Buford's quotes of things that he said to Steven while he was forced to be on the stand
because Steven called him to the stand and I loved hearing his former defense attorney really just call the shots and
say look man you what what are you appealing here we did everything for you we did things that were in your best
interest whether you understood them at the time or not it doesn't matter right there's a he's kind of it's a it's a
very lengthy and roundabout way of telling Steven you're not the you're not smarter than me you're not smarter than
the court you're you're not the smartest guy in the room you're well right back to your very dumb and you
in a very dumb situation what happened right and what happened was they caught that they caught this evidence like I
said it was the the cherry on on the top of the pile of a mountain of evidence and when that happened and you realized
when you had to realize yourself Stephen had to realize himself I'm not that smart I'm not all these things that I
thought I was you know whether you say there's two sides of you even the evil side of you realized you ain't that
smart and and then that's when you confess to your lawyers so you know and well and he's 100% a complete psychopath
and what a hundred percent he's [ __ ] and unfortunately Lauren Giddings lived next door to him was his neighbor and
was nice to him and it's just really truly a sad sad story in the past there have been walks there have been softball
tournaments all of these events are in Lauren's name and in her memory there is a scholarship fund set up in Lauren's
name as well and the third annual Lauren Giddings 5k walk is Saturday October 19th from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 at Central
City Park in Macon Georgia [Music] you can go to true-crime garage comm and check out our recommended page we have
all kinds of recommendations there for you this week a little recommended reading we are recommending hello
Charlie letters from a serial killer by Charlie Hess you'll want to check that out and
while you're at our website make sure you check out the store page as well thanks everybody for listening this week
join us back here in the garage next week until then be good be kind and don't litter
[Music]

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-wz2t5-c2ac0e

Lauren Giddings /// Part 2 /// 342 Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com Lauren Giddings was missing for four days when her friends and family jumped into action. The next day her remains were found not far from her apartment. Join Nic & the Captain in the Garage as they discuss the Lauren Giddings case. Beer of the Week - Awestruck Dry Apple + Oak Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps Check out TCG’s awesome partners! www.Modsy.com - use code TCG for 20% off! www.HelloFresh.com/Garage80 - enter code Garage80 for $80 off your first month! www.Modcloth.com - enter code GARAGE at checkout to get 15% off your purchase of $100 or more INCLUDING all sale items! 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

Stephen McDaniel confesses to murdering neighbor Lauren Giddings after disturbing evidence surfaces during the investigation.

Key points

Discovery of Lauren's Torso. Police found the torso of Lauren Giddings, marking a grim turn in the investigation.
Stephen McDaniel Becomes Suspect. After cadaver dogs alert at multiple locations, Stephen McDaniel emerges as a key suspect.
Bizarre Confession About Condoms. Stephen admits to stealing condoms despite claiming to be a virgin, raising suspicions.
Arrest for Burglary. Stephen is arrested for burglary, providing police a legal reason to hold him.
Damning Evidence Found. Police discover a hacksaw with human flesh and Lauren's DNA, intensifying the case against Stephen.
The Creepy Roommate. A former roommate reveals Stephen's chilling conversations about murder and power.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

They located horror, her torso.

Discovery of Lauren Giddings' remains.

2:51WatchOct 9, 2019

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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