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

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[Music] crime on the morning of June 30th 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 about
the initial stages of the investigation it was once a missing person's case and then unfortunately they found her torso
yeah I believe they were able to do d a DNA test with her mom to determine that the body was actually laurren 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 uh
we know that half of the trash was actually picked up so they started thinking that maybe if her if 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 Cino and chance they hit on eight locations and there 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 McDaniel's front door and in his bedroom they alerted at the apartment complex's
laundry room in two places once at the front door and then again inside this laundry room as well so they walk these
dogs all over the property for the apartment complex they only hit in eight locations and of importance obviously
they hit in her apartment but they hit in in Steven's apartment they hit in the apartment below her which was vacant
nobody was living in there and then they hit 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 it Captain about a 2hour 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 questioned whatever you want to call it by Detectives at the detective Bureau one of the first
things that said by the detective is stepen put your hands on the table so let's just call it interrogation well
and you know what and I I love um I love the South I love how people talk in the
South and he says uh I don't know the detective's name so forgive me he says now put your hands on the table for me
son and he calls him son a few times and he says uh now look at me when I'm talking to you boy yeah I yeah I like to
use the 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 Steven's 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 Stephen talk in those interviews he's not talking like
that when he's at the detective Bureau when he's being questioned he no ask me a question I'll answer it like him okay
um 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 and 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 I don't know why do you have
them I don't know yeah his his answer was to have them because they 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 have you ever ever used a sword no I haven't why do you have it to have it
that makes sense yeah why do you have a gun uh 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 um so that so for the samurai sword which it's it's a
it's like a cheap knockoff it's not one of these 5600 $700 jobs but right right but that's why
I don't find it that odd no people collect swords people collect swords yeah and and people collect guns as well
but that's not the answer he provides regarding the guns right but most people that collect guns actually shoot those
guns yes they do use those guns they they usually shoot them um the important thing here in
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 and 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
I think there was probably more out there but right and I just want to point out again here's here's a individual
Stephen where he's Cooperative with the police initially then hesitant to let them in his apartment
and then obviously I I'm guessing that they obviously once they found the body that they got um the rights to search
apartments and that's that's when they brought in the cadav 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 yeah to to be clear regarding the the kadab dogs I don't think that that's technically the
Handler's term for these dogs but that's what the state documents would refer to
these dogs as as cadaver dogs okay and and the in 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 them as here with the cadav dogs and
regarding these earlier searches these are all permission was granted by the residents in each situation
so they weren't they they haven't you know got the the the legal channels involved yet for uh search warrants into
to just really scour the area 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 or pretending again yeah at some point during this interview the detective notices a red
mark on Steven's face this is near his nose and he asks 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 H up in his apartment apartment staying
in there according to him he's studying and he hasn't seen Lauren in I believe he says in this interview one to two
weeks okay this is where things get very weird MH um go down the weird road with me the weird path always so
holding hands police found in his apartment in Steven's apartment they he found they found four condoms h 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 you again you could
explain that way you're on campus they're passing them out for safe sex and you grab a couple and no big deal
but he doesn't do that M he when so they push him they push him and push him and push him 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 apartments in his apartment complex so stepen 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 uh Apartments now is he saying he's he broke into them or he
just entered them I'm a little unclear on that um the the but either either way the wording in the report says that he
entered MH now they're going to consider this as a as a breaking and entering I'm
must 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 Steven knows more
than what he's telling them they believe he may have 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 going to 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 Steven is arrested for the burglary wait
and hold on and and your creepy stare and your creepy Dem demeanor and and all the weirdness about you or you know this
adds to it right step McDaniel's maternal grandfather this is Hollis Browning who he was very close with
stepen 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 highlevel high priced good
attorney Hollis Browning had a lot of hopes for his grandson a lot of high hopes for the boy that he doed 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 he'd be able to use those condoms you're right he was in fact planning to pay his
grandson's first month's rent once Steven passed the bar exam and found a new place to live right now you had
mentioned search warrants um 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 first it's they're questioning him late into the night after midnight from June 30th
now we're into July 1st at 150 at 150 a.m. in the morning police obtained signed warrants from Judge enus
for yeah not to be mistaken with judge penis well it might be inis I I I'm having trouble reading my own writing um
the warrants that they got that they received from the judge were for Steven's apartment for his car for his
body for his DNA for his hair for his fingerprints for his finger nails 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 gettings apartment
oh great they find a shirt that remember we said the Torso was found with pink jogging shorts on
mhm I want to be very clear the Torso 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 in 100 you know
it's not a confirmed fact but it matches the jogging shorts right so it's believed that it's it's the pair it's
it's one of the pair to this jogging shorts very suspicious thing to find in his apartment yeah in Lauren's
apartment they determin 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
complex's 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 a 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 Steven's 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 m a few people do have access to this storage closet it's a limited view and
we can prove that Steven Giddings or Steven uh McDaniel apologize has access to that closet because of the key they
also found a large cooler near the front door of Steven's 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 mhm they found a foam cup with the name Lauren written on it inside his apartment now Steven owned
a GE prism that's like a small vehicle small car the police found what they believe
to be blood stains 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 complex's 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 Stephen McDaniel's hair he has as we described like brown kind of a white boy
afro thing going on he's got longer hair um 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 uh hairs Lauren's 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
it her hair was found believed to be in the trash bag with the Torso okay um 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 lawren 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 and everything that they're working on and working towards
in the case that they're building against Steven 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 um murdering Lauren Giddings now because of this murder charge they're they they're still
building this case against him because they don't have a slam dunk case against Ste MCD well it's never a slam dunk
right but what further investigation would determine they are pouring 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 uh
flicky flicky drives he had a lot of tech MH uh 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 dude's a a 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 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 it 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 yeah 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 mask out of underwear yeah and they
determined that these came from Lauren they were Lauren and as said the only clothing found on the
Torso was just a pair of of shorts right so they're they're 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 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 would 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 or something had been moved or that something was missing but she 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 is you know the Golden State killer is reported to have entered people's homes
when they weren't there and moved things yeah to later help him perpetrate the crimes later that night or the next day
yeah which is different than some 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 uh it seems like his how often was he going into everybody else's
Apartments too we know 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 have all these weird things and 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 a lot of 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 back in a
corner it's almost like well I better give them access to something I if if I don't I'll look
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Captain so Steph McDaniel is going to claim he is innocent of this he's now being charged with murder right can you
imagine we have his 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 his grandson was charged with burglary mhm 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 stepen and as said step is going to
claim that he is innocent of these charges it takes quite some time for this thing to get to trial because 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 Stevens who comes forward to law enforcement and
he's got a story to tell law enforcement yeah once upon a time there was a creepy
man that liked to play flicky flicky well I'll read from the court documents what you don't have to I just told you
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 M 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 that said
stepen 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 Steven could do it in under 10 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
Steven 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 Steven 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 some 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 docu yeah the document goes on to say when I heard the news about the murder in Mak and heard that Steven was
somehow involved I watched the interviews he gave to the news media at the scene while watching particular
interview it struck me that Steven's tone of voice demeanor and hand movements were not Steven's normal
mannerisms but instead nearly mirrored dialogue which he gave during a theater 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 theater but wanted to test himself to see if he was believable when telling a story yeah what I told you was bad
acting right but now we're seeing that it's probably practiced right that 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 fantasy his M yeah his his murderous fantasy that he has now look this is this is where it gets a little tricky
though because you have this indiv idual 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 are just a little strange and instead of being nice and trying to get people to like them they
they push back by being weirder well if I'm just even more weird then then they're not disliking me they're
disliking 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 um I actually don't believe it was Lauren's thumb drive I think it was actually Stevens and when he was going
into to her apartment to mess around with things that he went onto her computer and pulled off whatever
pictures he could find mhm 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 history so as he was looking at violent porn he would they they were able to determine
that he would watch these violent porn things and then go look at these pictures of her 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 right you know
they they've put together a case against Stephen they carry it Forward one other
thing that came out in court uh 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 um 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 3 years invite her up for a
night cap make her a special drink called a Mickey fin she is out cold I finally lose my
vCard oh no she ODed and died I barbecue 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 right
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 son of Liberty something like that and
that moniker was used with this post and also a lot of what it's describing is his situation you know lose it on TV
while the cops are discovering her remains uh talks about having this sexy neighbor that lives next door to him by
the time that that 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 well
I'm going to the other thing the the even more 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 um computer forensic work yeah
I've seen it reported two different ways that this was either on his a comp they
found this from a camera or that they found this on his computer well you should know regardless of what it was it
had been deleted and they needed that's why they needed the forensics to locate this so they called in crispy kernel
yeah studied computer what they found and this is going to really he's at trial now but this is really going to
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 what 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 mon Telegraph eventually they say that these videos were taken by Stephen McDaniel the night
he killed Lauren Giddings the videos are of Lauren's apartment and were taken between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 12:30
a.m. in court they describ this as Steven using a camera attached to a 6ot 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
video in court they're going to go on and say he spied on Lauren for months prosecutors said that Steph McDaniel had
become obsessed with Lauren his nextdoor neighbor at barrers Hall Apartments across the street from Mercer University
law school where they had been classmates and that Steven 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 Steven was a loner had no girlfriend and because Lauren was nice
to him he became fixated on her and at some point he believed she should die and he went to Great Lengths to try to
cover it up the showing of the video of Steven spying on Lauren peeking through the blinds into her apartment was going
to be Steven's undoing and because of this he now wants a plea deal M 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 Steven's story was this this
is according to the the mon 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 Steven said he leaped 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 McDaniel's face he said she recoiled in
horror when she recognized him she pleaded Steven 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
trash can on June 28th 2 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 remov 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 Lauren's father
Billy Giddings told the make in Telegraph that he believes only onethird of McDaniel's 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 my neuropathy 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 um he is eligible for to request parole in 2041 but district attorney David Cook
said quote I fully expect Steven McDaniel will spend the rest of his life behind bars now just a little over a
year ago Captain there was a habus corpus proceeding this was not whether McDaniel murdered or dismembered Miss
Giddings this was asking the judge if McDaniel's 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 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 stepen McDaniel to step into
a court room and play lawyer McDaniel claims in part that 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 uh Steven tried to call into question buford's representation of him Buford said McDaniel tried to help in
his own defense but McDaniel'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 Steven McDaniel who put him on the stand and is
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 fool 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 that 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 Hugh 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 and 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 McDaniel's 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
McDaniel's 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 cuz here's this monster of a person living almost this hermit life having these
fantasies people not seeing the warning signs mhm 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 Stephen this guy that a lot of people found odd and and for him to want to sit there and
and try to play the system and at the end of the day her family um they were never able to
find um other parts of her her of her remains to have a a proper 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 is 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 well the
thing is you try to live out about your fantasy and and you got caught well and that's why I I went through buford's
quotes of things that he said to Stephen 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 a he he's kind of it's a it's a very lengthy and
um roundabout way of telling Stephen 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 in fact you're very dumb and you're in a very dumb situation put
your right and what happened was they caught the they caught this evidence like I said it was the the cherry on on
on the top of the pile of of a mountain of evidence and when that happened and you realized when you had to realize
yourself Steph 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 well and he's 100% a complete psychopath and
he 100% piece of [ __ ] 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 uh 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 gettings 5K walk is
Saturday October 19th from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 at Central City Park in mon [Music]
Georgia you can go to True Crim garage.com 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] you can start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to get
your Plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well
visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

Lauren Giddings /// Part 2 /// 342

Part 2 of 2

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Lauren Giddings was missing for four days when her friends and family jumped into action. The next day her remains were found not far from her apartment. Join Nic & the Captain in the Garage as they discuss the Lauren Giddings case. Beer of the Week - Awestruck Dry Apple + Oak Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps

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Brief Summary

Lauren Giddings is murdered by neighbor Steven McDaniel, who confesses after evidence mounts against him during the investigation.

Key points

The Discovery of Lauren Giddings. On June 30, 2011, police found the torso of Lauren Giddings, leading to a chilling investigation.
Steven's Evasive Answers. During questioning, Steven McDaniel's inconsistent statements raise suspicion about his involvement.
Suspicious Evidence Found. Police uncover a hacksaw with human flesh and a bloody sheet in the laundry room.
McDaniel's Arrest and Charges. Steven McDaniel is arrested for burglary and later charged with murder and child pornography.
The Shocking Online Post. A graphic online post allegedly by McDaniel reveals disturbing thoughts about murder.
Confession and Details of the Crime. McDaniel confesses to murdering Lauren Giddings, detailing the horrific events.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.

Nick introduces himself and Abe on the podcast.

1:57WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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