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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
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2011 police located the body of Lauren Giddings they located horror her torso and we talked about the events that took
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place that morning we talked about the initial stages of the investigation it was once a missing-persons case and then
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unfortunately they found her torso yeah I believe they were able to do DNA tests
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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
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the scene and started their search of the area now forgive me captain for being graphic but all they have found so
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far is a torso and they are looking for the remaining parts and also looking to see where some of the remains may have
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been concealed moved and so on right and like I said we know that half the trash
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was actually picked up so they started thinking that maybe if her her torso was found in one trash bin that maybe other
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parts would be found on in different bins two dogs the two dogs this is cinco and chance they hit on eight locations
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and they're these locations are as follows they hit twice at Lauren's apartment this was just outside of the
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front door and in her bathroom they hit twice in the vacant apartment which was located immediately below Lauren's
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apartment alerting in the living room and in the bathroom the dogs alerted at Steven McDaniels
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front door and in his bedroom they alerted at the apartment complexes laundry room in two places
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once at the front and then again inside this laundry room as well so they walked these dogs all
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over the property for the apartment complex they only hit in eight locations and of importance
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obviously they hid in her apartment but they hid in Stevens apartment they hid in the apartment below her which was
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vacant nobody was living in there and then they hid in the apartment complex laundry room now police because of this
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they want to seriously interview Stephen McDaniel he is now coming to into the spotlight let's say and emerging as a
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interesting suspect at this time if anybody wants to you can go to youtube and there is a what is a captain about a
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two-hour long video yeah where it's very grainy and the audio quality is very poor yeah we thought about playing some
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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
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being interviewed or interrogated question whatever you want to call it by detectives at the detective bureau one
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of the first things that said by the detective is Stephen put your hands on the table so let's just call it an
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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
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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
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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
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might sound aggressive there he doesn't come off to me as being aggressive he comes off as being authoritative
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but he also kind of like he's trying to be Stephens friend at times he even says
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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
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you for help can you help me right and this whole time you heard Steven talk in those interviews he's not
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talking like that when he's at the detective bureau when he's being questioned he know asked me a question
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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
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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
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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
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know yeah his answer was to have them because they kept no yeah they kept asking him
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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
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you have three firearms yeah and he doesn't say like protection or anything like that that like he's kind of talking
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about in his on-camera interview with the local news he just simply says to have them yeah if you have a sword and
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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
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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
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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
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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
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that odd it's now because it'll collect some people collect swords yeah and people collect guns as well but that's
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not the answer he provides regarding the gun right but most people that collect guns actually shoot those guns yes they
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do use those you they usually shoot them the important thing here in it throughout the course of these he's
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doing multiple interviews multiple questioning periods with the police and detectives throughout the day and well
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into the night the the what we were just referencing I believe takes place at about 11:00 p.m. or just before midnight
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yeah as said the video that you can find online is two hours long I don't know if
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that's the entirety of the actual questioning I think there was probably more out there but right and I just want
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to point out again here's here's an individual Steven where he's cooperative with the police initially then hesitant
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to let them in his apartment and then obviously I'm guessing that they obviously once they found the body that
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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
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the station and you're a law student and they're asking you these questions where
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you should assume you're a suspect and he's not asking for a lawyer yeah yet to be clear regarding the
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cadaver dogs I don't think that that's technically the handlers term for these dogs but that's what the state documents
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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
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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
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dogs and regarding these earlier searches these are all permission was granted by the residents in each
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situation so they weren't they haven't you know got the the the legal channels involved yet for search warrants and to
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just really scour the area well these are like but like you said it goes along with now he's at the detective bureau
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Stephen McDaniel 26 years old and he's not asking for an attorney he was very helpful and very vocal to the local news
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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
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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
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detective bureau and he sounds like or is trying to sound like a scared little boy yeah I mean I think this is him
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acting again or pretending again yeah at some point during this interview the detective notices a red mark on
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Stevens face this is near his nose and he asked Steven if he has any other marks on him and Steven shows him that
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he has two scratches on his abdomen that is troublesome for Steven and it's interesting to detectives because now we
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have this guy who looks like he might have been in some kind of physical altercation yeah and this is a guy
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that's pretty much for the most part holed up in his apartment staying in there according to him he's
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studying and he hasn't seen Lauren and I believe he says in this interview one to
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two weeks okay this is where things get very weird go down the weird road with me the weird path always so holding
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hands police found in his apartment in Stephens apartment they found they found four condoms now that doesn't seem like
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that big of a deal however he has told the detectives through the course of his interviews that he is a virgin
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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
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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
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wait so they push him they push them and push them and push them and they want to
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know if you are saving yourself if you have no intention to have sexual intercourse why do you need condoms why
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do you have them in your possession eventually he explains that the condoms he stole from people so two of the
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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
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he tells the police that he stole condoms from two of the apart in his apartment complex so Steven
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admits to the officer that he entered two different apartments one apartment he entered in December on December 26th
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of 2008 and the other one on January 31st 2009 and each time he stole a condom from each of the apartments now
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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
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report says that he entered now they're going to consider this as a breaking and
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entering imus they find a master key in his apartment eventually they've not they've not
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located that yet right but this master key will allow him into a lot of different places throughout that
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apartment complex creep and so when they say entered I'm guessing that he has either told them that he has this key or
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they've figured out that he didn't break into the place he just unlocked the door
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and went in right and the thing here is captain by this point even before they get this weird information about the
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condoms they believe Stephen knows more than what he's telling them they believe
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he may have killed Lauren Giddings yeah he's their number one suspect once he explains to them that he took condoms
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from other apartments they go okay cool thank you for telling us that we are going to arrest you for burglary we're
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gonna arrest you for burglary and now we have a reason a legal reason that we can
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hold you we need to try to build this murder case against you because all we have right now is circumstantial
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evidence and our suspicions now when he is arrested when Stephen is arrested for
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the burglary way and hold on and good and your creepy stare and your creepy to me mean iron and all the weirdness about
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you or you know this adds to it right Stephen McDaniels maternal grandfather this is Hollis browning who he was very
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close with Stephen he hired an attorney for his grandson to represent him regarding these burglary charges
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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
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who practices both criminal and civil law from my understanding Buford is a well-known well-respected attorney in
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these parts yeah so this is not a public defender or this is not someone who does
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not know what they are doing this is considered a high level high-priced good attorney
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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
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law school yes he was hoping that the young man would land a legal job yeah get married someday he in fact was
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planning to pay to be able to use those condoms right he was in fact planning to
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pay his grandson's first month's rent once Stephen passed the bar exam and found a new place to live right now you
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had mentioned search warrants it was after all of this this questioning that goes down that they did in fact get the
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proper warrants so it was on July 1st it's they're questioning him late into the night after midnight from June 30th
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now we're into July 1st at 150 at one-five-zero a.m. in the morning police obtained signed warrants from Judge eNOS
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for not to be mistaken with judge penis well might be Ennis I having trouble reading my own writing the warrants that
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they got that they received from the judge were for Stevens apartment for his car for his body for his DNA for his
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hair for his fingerprints for his fingernails and for full-body photographs so what do they find during
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these searches okay so let's get the photographs out of the way that is simply to document these
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potential injuries the scratch marks that they had already observed right okay regarding what they find in his
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apartment we already talked about the one master key they find two keys that are of concern one is a master key to
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the apartment complex the second one is a key to Lauren Giddings apartment well great
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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
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the torso is wearing these shorts the that's the only thing only clothing on the torso there's nothing under the
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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
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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
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very suspicious thing to find in his apartment yeah in Laurens apartment they determine
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that on some of the walls there somebody had applied fresh paint to some of the walls and it's believed that whoever did
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this was painting over blood or other types of evidence yeah the police discovered a large bloody sheet in a
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washing machine at the apartment complexes laundry room they found a hacksaw with human flesh on it it was
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found in a locked storage closet in the laundry room now this apartment complex like many of them have a laundry room of
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laundry facility to be clear everybody that lives there has access to this room right what everyone does not have access
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to is this locked storage closet the master key found in Stevens apartment will open that closet
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but the master key that he has would be the same as you would expect to find on the landlord's keychain or the
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maintenance man's keychain so a few people do have access to this storage closet it's a limited view and we can
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prove that Steven gettings or Stephen McDaniel I apologize has access to that closet because of the key they also
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found a large cooler near the front door of Stephens apartment they don't go into
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detail with this cooler I'm guessing they may suspect that remains may have been in this cooler at
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one point mm-hmm they found a foam Cup with the name Lauren written on it inside his apartment now
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Steven owned a Geo Prizm but that's like a small vehicle small car the police found what they believe to be
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bloodstains on the front and rear seats of this car now on the torso itself when
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the torso was located inside the trash bag inside that trash can on the apartment complexes property they found
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some hairs on the torso some of them would have been consistent with Laura Lauren Giddings hair she had long blonde
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hair some of these hairs were consistent with Steven McDaniels hair he has as we
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described like brown kind of a white boy afro thing going on he's got longer hair they also found
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hairs similar to this inside his apartment as well we've never received confirmation that I could find that
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those were in fact his hairs right but they do get confirmation that they find hairs Laurens hairs on the hacksaw well
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they determined through DNA testing that that her DNA was on that hacksaw right and but where did they find her hairs
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if her hair was found believed to be in the trash bag with the torso okay again there's never been confirmation on
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where those hairs who they came from but that's what it states in their reports that they believe them to some of them
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to be Lawrence and some of them to be Stevens we just pointed out her DNA is found on that hacksaw that was found
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locked in a storage closet in the laundry room that Steven had access to that he has access to and then even more
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damning they find the packaging for this saw in his apartment so it appears that
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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
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it up in this storage closet and yet he forgot to throw away the packaging for the saw which is later found in his
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apartment so regarding all this information and everything that they're working on and working towards in the
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case that they're building against Stephen McDaniel he's arrested as we said for those burglary charges
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but it wouldn't be until 33 days later the prosecutors tacked on a murder charge he was accused of murdering
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Lauren Giddings now because of this murder charge there they're still building this case against him because
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they don't have a slam-dunk case against Stephen McDaniel well it's never a slam
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dunk right but what further investigation would determine they are poring through his computer now mind you
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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
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drives he had a lot of tech mm-hmm let's say he's accused of of having a computer flash drive with child
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pornography on it because they say that they found 54 images of child pornography to the scumbag and then on
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top of that captain they said that they found a pair of Lauren Giddings panties in a drawer in his bedroom mmm
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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
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apparently somebody took these panties and and made them into a mask okay that's that's how I I've not seen
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pictures but that's how the detective describes it when he's asking Stephen about these panties I mean I wear my
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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
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out of yeah and they determined that these came from Lauren they weren't lawrence and as said the only clothing
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found on the torso was just a pair of of shorts right so they're there that they're thinking is that after whatever
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happened that he kept these as a souvenir and then he turned these into a mask yeah yeah and then I I've also
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thought maybe if he did have access to her apartment maybe these yeah maybe he stole them
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prior to June of 2011 well like we said there was that email where she was saying that she thought maybe somebody
00:26:11
broke into her apartment but we later find out that you know she she mentioned to people multiple times that you know
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she would come home and she felt like maybe somebody had been there or something had been moved or that
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something was missing but she's just thought well maybe I I misplaced it but it was happening enough where she
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thought somebody was entering her apartment and messing with things that's very Golden State killer ish you know
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the Golden State killer is reported to have entered people's homes when they weren't there and moved things now to
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later help him perpetrate the crimes later that night or the next day yeah which is different than some of
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this to me you know we know Stephen has access to our apartment so how many times was he going in there and
00:27:03
taking things it seems like his how often was he going into everybody else's apartment right with no at least two
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times that he's admitted to police yeah and a lot of this stuff to me captain is
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because a lot of people have said look this dude was he had finished law school you can hear him talk he's an
00:27:22
intelligent individual but people question why would he have all these weird things in all this evidence that
00:27:31
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
00:27:37
some of this evidence was planted I realize evidence to plant well and on top of that I really think that if I
00:27:44
think it was just stuff he had not got around to yet I think there were things that he would have discarded keep in
00:27:50
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
00:27:56
when pushed when he was pushed by police by detectives who he he may have thought
00:28:03
at one point that he was smarter than them we know that he interned at the prosecutor's office at one point so
00:28:10
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
00:28:17
a corner it's almost like well I better give them access to something it if I don't I look guilty
00:28:25
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[Music] all right cheers mates cheers to you captain so Stephen McDaniel is going to
00:33:57
claim he is innocent of this he's now being charged with murder right can you imagine we have his grandfather
00:34:05
who probably had the best of intentions by hiring an attorney for his grandson he hired this attorney for his grandson
00:34:14
when his grandson was charged with burglary after hiring the attorney you find out that okay he's now going to be
00:34:22
charged with possession of child pornography and for murder so this attorney is going to continue to
00:34:30
represent Stephen and as said Stephen is going to claim that he is innocent of these charges it takes quite some time
00:34:41
for this thing to get to trial because as said the police are going to continue to build a case against him the
00:34:49
prosecutor is going to continue to build a case against him one thing that happens is we have a former roommate of
00:34:57
Stephens who comes forward to law enforcement and he's got a story to tell law enforcement upon a time there was a
00:35:06
creepy man that liked to play flaky flaky well I'll read from the court documents what you don't have to I
00:35:14
just do the story statement was so it says this individual shared a dorm room with McDaniel during the fall of 2007
00:35:22
while the two were students at Mercer pursuing their undergraduate degrees the roommate related the following
00:35:28
information regarding conversations he had with McDaniel during that time he is a self-proclaimed psychopath he
00:35:36
proclaimed often that he has no conscience and was incapable of feeling emotion he talked almost nightly about
00:35:44
how he would go about the perfect murder he would wear shoes that were too small
00:35:49
he would do something to make him appear bald so that people wouldn't point him out because of his big hair he detailed
00:35:58
different scenarios all of the time in fact I was scared sometimes said Stephen liked and trusted me and I
00:36:07
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
00:36:15
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
00:36:22
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
00:36:30
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
00:36:39
you don't have to ask him everything he does is the result of a power play he is
00:36:46
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
00:36:54
do it in a way to establish dominance over them he always said he wanted to feel the power of having someone's life
00:37:02
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
00:37:11
did kill someone he'd dismember them soak them somehow then scatter the parts through the woods
00:37:17
so that no one would ever find them he was convinced he was smarter than everyone else and often bragged that if
00:37:24
he did murder someone that he'd never get caught yeah and now we're seeing this play out in real life the docket
00:37:32
yeah the document goes on to say when I heard the news about the murder in Macon
00:37:37
and heard that Stephen was somehow involved I watched the interviews he gave to the
00:37:42
news media at the scene while watching one particular interview it struck me that Stephens tone of voice demeanor and
00:37:49
hand movements were not Stephens normal mannerisms but instead nearly mirrored dialogue which he gave during a theatre
00:37:58
performance when we were both undergraduates at Mercer University I also recalled when seeing this he
00:38:06
informed me that he had no interest in the theatre but wanted to test himself to see if he was believable when telling
00:38:14
a story yeah why I told you is bad acting right but now we're seeing that it's probably you've practiced
00:38:21
right he has schooled himself and educated himself in a way to to fool some people
00:38:28
to fool some people but but probably to eventually carry out his cigarette Fanny
00:38:36
smart yeah his murderous fantasy that he has now look this is this is where it gets a little tricky though because you
00:38:44
have this individual and we have some evidence against him right yeah and it's piling up and but we all know
00:38:53
some friends of ours that were maybe picked on in school maybe bullied that maybe you're just a little strange and
00:39:05
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
00:39:14
weird than then they're not disliking me they're just liking this weird character
00:39:20
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
00:39:28
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
00:39:38
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
00:39:48
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
00:40:01
a bunch of photos of her I actually don't believe it was Lauren's thumb drive I think it was actually Stevens
00:40:12
and when he was going into her apartment to mess around with things that he went
00:40:18
onto her computer and pulled off whatever pictures he could find mm-hmm some of these pictures were posted
00:40:25
online but most of these were just private pictures on her own computer what is weird is
00:40:32
that they were able to do search histories so as he was looking at violent porn he would they were able to
00:40:42
determine that he would watch these violent porn things and then go look at these pictures of her mm-hm and then go
00:40:49
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
00:40:57
they've put together a case against even they carry it forward one other thing that came out in court well actually
00:41:04
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
00:41:15
and profane post in which McDaniel allegedly wrote about an encounter with an attractive acquaintance
00:41:23
it says here okay party hard by drinking alone in front of my computer see my sexy neighbor classmate come home late
00:41:35
she has talked to me occasionally in the past has wanted and this is removed and
00:41:41
replaced with a certain piece of my anatomy for three years invite her up for a nightcap make her a special drink
00:41:50
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
00:42:03
celebrate losing my vCard not into organ meat but throw her torso out lose it on
00:42:10
TV while the cops are discovering her remains you mad virgins after the DA read this by the time he
00:42:19
was finished reading this again this is a online post brain that is believed to have been from McDaniel and the reason
00:42:29
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
00:42:35
Liberty or Sun of Liberty something like that and that moniker was used with this
00:42:40
post and also a lot of what its describing is his situation you know lose it on TV while the cops are
00:42:48
discovering her remains talks about having this sexy neighbor that lives next door to him by the time that the
00:42:56
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
00:43:05
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
00:43:14
more icing on the cake or if you want to say the cherry on top so the authorities
00:43:21
they did find something else and this was through a lot of computer forensic work you know I've seen it reported two
00:43:30
different ways that this was either on his they found this from a camera or that they found this on his computer no
00:43:39
you should know regardless of what it was it had been deal deleted and they needed that's why they needed the
00:43:45
forensics to locate this so they called and crispy kernel yeah well what computer what they found and this is
00:43:56
going to really he's at trial now but this is really gonna break the whole damn thing wide open
00:44:02
it's basically video clips and I've watched some that have been released there there's not really any audio for
00:44:11
them and and even with the audio you wouldn't understand what you put what we're looking at the video clips you can
00:44:18
find them online you can see them for yourselves they were obtained and released by the Macon Telegraph of it
00:44:24
eventually they say that these videos were taken by Stephen McDaniel the night he killed Lauren Giddings the videos are
00:44:33
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
00:44:42
Stephen using a camera attached to a six-foot long wooden stick standing beneath her second-floor apartment and
00:44:49
videoing her and he they will go on to say once they release this information and show this
00:44:56
in court they're going to go on and say he spied on Lauren for months prosecutors said that Stephen McDaniel
00:45:05
had become obsessed with Lauren his next-door neighbor at barristers Hall apartments across the street from Mercer
00:45:11
University Law School where they had been classmates and that Stephen became devastated because they were both
00:45:17
graduating and they would never see each other again now court documents state a possible
00:45:24
motive as lauren was beautiful and outgoing Stephen was a loner had no girlfriend and because Lauren was nice
00:45:30
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
00:45:38
cover it up the showing of the video of Stephen spying on Lauren peeking through
00:45:43
the blinds into her apartment was going to be Stephens undoing and because of this he now wants a plea deal mm-hmm
00:45:55
he's going to confess to murdering his fellow classmate and next-door neighbor a full confession was part of the deal
00:46:04
they were able to work out a deal unfortunately her family was in court and had to hear the confession Stephens
00:46:12
story was this this is according to the the Macon Telegraph he said that at 4:30
00:46:19
a.m. on Sunday he broke into this is June 26 he broke into her apartment dressed all in black he used the master
00:46:30
key to get into the apartment he stood there watching her sleep before he startled her awake she saw him and said
00:46:39
very calmly get the [ __ ] out Stephen said he leapt across the bed onto her and grabbed her around the throat they
00:46:48
struggled and tumbled out of the bed to the floor her legs and lower body went under her bed this preventing her from
00:46:55
getting away or from kicking him during the struggle Lauren managed to rip the mask off of
00:47:02
McDaniels face he said she recoiled in horror when she recognized him she pleaded Stephen please stop
00:47:11
McDaniel clenched his hands around her throat for 15 minutes until she stopped moving and then dragged her into the
00:47:18
bathroom and placed her in the bathtub according to his confession he then returned to his apartment next door and
00:47:25
spent the entire day on his computer then in the evening he returned with a hacksaw and cut up her body said I
00:47:34
removed her limbs and head wrapped them in several black trash bags separately and discarded them in the Mercer Law
00:47:42
School dumpster he said he put Lauren's torso into the apartment trashcan on June 28th two days before it was found
00:47:51
McDaniel has denied raping Lauren he says in his writing quote she was wearing the pink running shorts when she
00:47:58
died and I never removed them they were found on her torso just as I had left them in the days after the murder
00:48:05
McDaniel attended classes and even joined the search party Laurens father Billy Giddings told the Macon Telegraph
00:48:13
that he believes only one-third of McDaniels account saying quote he's had a long time to put it together that's
00:48:21
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
00:48:28
thoughts anymore I hope he lives a long life in the worst possible way during the course of his confession McDaniel
00:48:36
attempted to justify his or the murder yeah he described himself as a divided mind unable to account for how he could
00:48:46
have committed these horrible acts and that at the same time he was also able to carry on daily routines he went on to
00:48:54
say quote it's difficult for me to explain why I killed Lauren and attempted to conceal my deed the way I
00:49:00
did I know that it was very wrong I'm not delusional or without all morals or decency something in my makeup my
00:49:09
psychology minor op a--they my own particular pathology perhaps must explain it he expressed remorse
00:49:17
regarding according to the newspaper saying he grieves Giddings daily but doesn't expect forgiveness
00:49:24
from her family he said if I could take it back I would so since he is pleading guilty and
00:49:33
confessing then what is his sentencing well he ends up getting life with the possibility of parole
00:49:43
he is eligible for to request parole in 2041 but district attorney David Cook said quote I fully expect Stephen
00:49:54
McDaniel will spend the rest of his life behind bars now just a little over a year ago
00:50:00
captain there was a habeas corpus proceeding this was not whether McDaniel murdered or dismembered Miss Giddings
00:50:07
this was asking the judge if McDaniels rights were violated whether his guilty plea was voluntary and whether his
00:50:16
lawyers according to this article a pair of the brightest criminal defense minds
00:50:20
in the region if they somehow failed him one thing that was pointed out during this whole situation and I think it's
00:50:30
very funny but it's very accurate many people have stated this was a chance for Stephen McDaniel to step into
00:50:37
a courtroom and play lawyer McDaniel claims in part the searches of his apartment were improper and that he was
00:50:46
despondent catatonic even and in no state to allow searches or provide statements to law enforcement many have
00:50:54
said that his appeal efforts afford McDaniel something he truly craves which is attention and the spotlight but the
00:51:03
truly magical moment during this whole court proceeding thing here captain came late in the trial when McDaniel put his
00:51:12
defense attorney his one-time defense attorney Floyd Buford on the stand yeah McDaniel asked Buford if he recalled his
00:51:22
demeanor in their first visit at the county jail and Buford simply replies weird Stephen tried to call in a
00:51:30
question in Buford's representation of him Buford said McDaniel tried to help in his own defense but
00:51:38
Daniel's efforts quote were from a law students perspective as the article puts it then Buford took off the gloves
00:51:46
saying now keep in mind he is addressing Stephen McDaniel who put him on the stand and his questioning him
00:51:55
Buford says quote you've never been in a courtroom in your life we called the shots not you you started off facing the
00:52:04
death penalty you ended up receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole you didn't want to go to trial
00:52:11
you wanted to plead guilty Buford revealed that after being confronted with the finding of the video
00:52:18
showing McDaniel spying on Lauren on the night that she was murdered McDaniel broke down and confessed the killing to
00:52:25
his attorneys right Buford with the judge's blessing recalled the moment from the stand how McDaniel described
00:52:33
the murder in full saying quote up until the last couple of weeks of your case I
00:52:39
was strongly in your corner believing you were innocent I felt you were innocent but this evidence they came in
00:52:46
that was very important Buford went on to tell the graphic and detailed jailhouse confession that McDaniel gave
00:52:55
to him and co-counsel Franklin hue about how you killed Lauren Giddings and how you went about decapitating her or
00:53:04
carving up her body how you even sat down and cut off every finger and bone an appendage on her hands and then threw
00:53:12
them all in the toilet and flushed it all at one time Buford said that coupled with the
00:53:19
information authorities discovered on McDaniels computer including what he says is quote the most horrific child
00:53:26
pornography as well as internet searches for sex with dead people all of this prompted what was very much in McDaniels
00:53:35
best interest requesting and taking a plea deal that the whole appeal thing does not make McDaniel look any better
00:53:45
it does not clean anything up for him in fact McDaniel went on to lose this appeal and
00:53:51
it's it's awful because here's this monster of a person living almost this hermit life having these fantasies and
00:54:02
people not seeing the warning signs hmm or or seeing some warning signs but not not speaking up about them and then you
00:54:13
have on the other hand Lauren which is a beautiful person a smart person very driven was actually nice to Steven this
00:54:26
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
00:54:35
day her family they were never able to find other parts of her of her remains to have a propyl you know a proper
00:54:47
burial yeah I don't know what he was hoping to achieve with this appeal but I I think what these people suspect is
00:54:56
probably accurate he's what he's hoping to achieve is his attention and to put himself in the spotlight right but he
00:55:04
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
00:55:10
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
00:55:16
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
00:55:25
because Steven called him to the stand and I loved hearing his former defense attorney really just call the shots and
00:55:35
say look man you what what are you appealing here we did everything for you we did things that were in your best
00:55:42
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
00:55:48
very lengthy and roundabout way of telling Steven you're not the you're not smarter than me you're not smarter than
00:55:59
the court you're you're not the smartest guy in the room you're well right back to your very dumb and you
00:56:05
in a very dumb situation what happened right and what happened was they caught that they caught this evidence like I
00:56:11
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
00:56:19
when you had to realize yourself Stephen had to realize himself I'm not that smart I'm not all these things that I
00:56:27
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
00:56:35
smart and and then that's when you confess to your lawyers so you know and well and he's 100% a complete psychopath
00:56:46
and what a hundred percent he's [ __ ] and unfortunately Lauren Giddings lived next door to him was his neighbor and
00:56:57
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
00:57:06
tournaments all of these events are in Lauren's name and in her memory there is a scholarship fund set up in Lauren's
00:57:14
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
00:57:27
City Park in Macon Georgia [Music] you can go to true-crime garage comm and check out our recommended page we have
00:57:43
all kinds of recommendations there for you this week a little recommended reading we are recommending hello
00:57:49
Charlie letters from a serial killer by Charlie Hess you'll want to check that out and
00:57:56
while you're at our website make sure you check out the store page as well thanks everybody for listening this week
00:58:02
join us back here in the garage next week until then be good be kind and don't litter
00:58:09
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