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welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
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with me as always ladies and gentlemen a finely-tuned athlete on the verge of greatness he is the captain
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yeah finely tuned athlete that barely can tie his shoes it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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yes all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer and let's talk some true crime
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yeah long was my neighbor we're just trying to find out where she is at this point I mean no one has seen her since
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Saturday I mean the last time anyone heard from her was an email that she sent out and no one's heard from her
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since I did hear hang out with anyone no no no one has seen her since Saturday I
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haven't seen anything I always see noise outside but people walking by pretty much and you just recently graduated the
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person yeah she and I were we were both JD students we graduated back in May what kind of person was she I mean how
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did you I mean she's as nice as can be I mean very personable very much people person do
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you know anybody badge and the enemy she might have had something that I wanted her
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and we all know where she is I mean the only thing we can think is that maybe she went out running and someone
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snatched her because I mean we went out we went over one of her friends had a key we went inside and tried to see if
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there was anything amiss but I mean she had a door jamb that was sitting right by it there was no sign that anyone
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broke in I think door was locked when everyone got here and we just don't know where she is what
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about in the like the parking lot area I know they've been doing a lot of that context where they have recovered the
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body or whatever they recovered from there we had you heard and it had seen anything there
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I mean we don't know if this is the same person you know what I mean like datafile body there earlier withered
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open staplers in around that's how we're going to ask people if they know who lived there
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are you okay sir twenty-seven-year-old Lauren Giddings graduated from Mercer University Law School in May of 2011 she
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grew up in the suburbs southwest of Baltimore Lauren moved away from home nearly a
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decade earlier and lived most of that time in Georgia she is away for college but while away it is said that she fell
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in love with the south which in my opinion is very easy to do after school she wanted to do defense work either
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working as a defense attorney or for a defense team she was just weeks away from taking the
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bar exam so captain Lauren's really got two major things going on right now one she is done with school and now it's
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time to study hardcore and nail this bar exam and two she's moving she's going to
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move out after words and the plan is to pack up everything and move to Atlanta shout-out to the ATL so she will be
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attempting to get a job in Atlanta after passing the bar I believe she was going
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to move in with a boyfriend in Atlanta but for now it's study time we've got to pass that bar we have an aspiring lawyer
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cramming for the Georgia bar exam now at first her friends assuming she was sequestered in her apartment studying
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thought little of her absence they thought little of her not answering the phone or not returning their text
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messages this however would not go unnoticed and after a few days one friend in particular will sound the
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alarm it was about four days before anyone went looking for her June 29th was when friends started officially
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looking for Lauren we need to introduce Katie O'Hara and Lori these are Lauren's best friends lifelong
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friends the three became a trio way back in kindergarten but now as adults this trio is spread out living in three
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different states but they are in constant communication with each other Katie is at home in Maryland and she
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sounds the alarm first she had been trying to get ahold of Lauren for a couple of days Lauren was not returning
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calls or texts remember however Lauren was studying pretty hardcore for the bar exam so you know how people will set up
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like an out-of-office reply thanks for your email but I will be out of the office I'm skiing in Aspen that is what
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I put on my out-of-office reply however I'm just sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching football for four days
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straight I normally just put I'm out of my office doing something way cooler than you are well Lauren and I'm
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guessing this may have been a Facebook post or maybe an email that she sent out but she sent out a little message saying
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I'm basically putting myself on lockdown and I'm studying for this exam right it's been the things she's been caring
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towards for years yeah kind of a don't be offended thing if you don't hear from me regardless of what was going on
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luckily Katie sounded the alarm and friends joined in because as you will see this case could have went much much
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differently Katie called her good friend Lori Lori didn't take the call she was busy and thought I'll call my friend
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back Katie didn't stop there she called Lori sister who lives with Lori katie is
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not close with the sisters so now Lori is aware that something is going on here Lori tells Katie she was experiencing
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the same issue lauren was unresponsive now they are both trying to get ahold of Lauren calling her cell and everything
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is going straight to voicemail by this time I should note Lori is in Chicago so now the friends reach out to Lauren's
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family they too have not heard from Lauren for a couple of days this is getting stranger by the minute for
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Lauren's friends and family it also becomes more eerie when the phone were going straight to voicemail yeah
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Lauren's sister Kaitlyn wheeler said she was already concerned but now talking with Lauren's friends her concerns were
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certainly validated Kaitlyn was one of two younger sisters of Laurens Kaitlyn sent a Facebook message to one of her
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big sisters Law School pals and Macon this is Ashley Morehouse Ashley and Lauren met on a Friday evening back in
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2008 and became fast friends they were pretty close Kaitlyn asked Ashley to drop by Lauren's
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apartment Ashley did she says she walked up the stairs to the second floor apartment and knocked on the crimson
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door of apartment number two Lauren's apartment no one answered she says she saw Laurens Mitsubishi Galant her
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vehicle was parked outside out front where she would expect to see it Ashley called Kaitlyn back to tell her she
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hadn't found her sister Ashley offered to swing by again later then they got in touch with Kristin Miller a close friend
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of her sisters who had gone to college with Lauren in Atlanta Miller thought it was odd that she too
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hadn't heard from Lauren after sending a message a couple of days earlier over the next few hours everyone was
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desperately trying to reach anyone who might know where Lauren could be right so they're kind of putting the pieces
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together to realize nobody's made contact with her for days yeah yeah and the thing here is Kaitlyn her sister
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knew Lauren's passwords to some of her online activity so she logged into Lauren's Facebook and logged into
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Lauren's gmail accounts this would offer her no comfort at all as she saw quickly
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that Lauren had not sent any emails in several days she hadn't been on Facebook at all her sister started calling making
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hospitals to find out if there had been some type of accident or if she was held
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up in a hospital somewhere right and then Lauren's friends and family reached out to the police and an officer
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was being sent to Lauren's apartment this was about 11 p.m. Georgia time 20 minutes later the
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dispatcher said an officer went to the apartment complex and didn't find any signs of forced entry the officer then
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called and suggested that Lauren may have gone away for a few days the officer said a missing-persons
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report could not be filed until the morning that's ridiculous you have no contact with somebody for multiple days
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you went and the fact that you went in and you saw that there was no emails sent and there was no emails checked for
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multiple days that's an that's another sign especially a student that is looking to move and possibly get jobs
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you'd think they would check these things yeah what the officer is going to reenter a to the family is you know we
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did go by there we saw absolutely zero signs of forced entry the apartment was secure the door was locked
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yeah and there they're saying yes we understand that you can't get in touch with her but we don't see anything that
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would point us in the direction of of we should be involved in this whole thing we also believe that these apartments
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are primarily occupied by students I believe I actually believe that all of them so it could parties maintenance and
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that there are all law students so it could be some kind of university housing and you think that they'd be able to
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contact the University and get access you know hey let's just we went by there's no sign of forced entry but
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let's just let's go into her apartment yeah I'm uncertain if the university owns these these buildings right but
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they could the police could get a hold of the landlord yeah so it around midnight it was decided to Ashley
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Morehouse who we've already talked about should go ahead and go back to the apartment but this time go into the
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apartment she was going to use a spare key which lauren kept in a white vase on her patio table this is to get in
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side of the apartment yeah that's I I don't like that I don't like the hidden key thing so she did go to the apartment
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but she was not going to go into the apartment alone she had a few of Lauren's friends and her classmates
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friends classmates with her yeah and some neighbors as well inside they found Lauren's purse and keys they found her
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cell phone as suspected the battery was dead too the cell phone they plugged the
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phone into a charger turned the phone on and learned that no calls or messages had been made or sent in several days
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someone turned on the phone and found that Lauren hadn't made any calls or sent any messages since Saturday so four
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days ago as of now we are on Wednesday all of Laurens study materials were at the house as well so no one had any
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reason to believe that she was out somewhere studying you know plus her phone and write is there everything that
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you would expect to be there with Lauren is there in the apartment except for Lauren yeah they did check regarding her
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email there was an email that she had sent a few days before it was one of the I believe the last email she sent was
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before Saturday correct was her her she sent an email saying that she believed somebody was watching her or somebody
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had tried to break into her apartment it's reported different ways I've not seen the actual email myself but it's
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reported different ways and I'm a little uncertain as to if she mentioned both or
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if it was just one or the other but it's suspicious behavior regardless very and
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we need to point out here captain if everyone hasn't already figured it out by all of her friends that we've
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mentioned Lauren was very social by all accounts she was extremely outgoing yeah
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while her friends are in her apartment conducting a little investigation of their own one of Lauren's neighbors this
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is Stephen McDaniel came over at some point now let's give a little background here Lauren is not new to this area as
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we have kind of already pointed out she has lived in this apartment complex for years so has
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Stephen McDaniel and I don't know this to be true but I'm guessing a lot of these people
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the students that live in these apartments the it's a more of a long-term situation than most college
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type situations now Lauren and Stephen lived in the same apartment complex attended the same
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College taking the same classes both were recent graduates of law school and both studying for their bar exams
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remember Lauren however is from out of town out of state even from Maryland Stephen
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while not from the immediate area he was born and raised in Georgia Stephen is from little burn don't make
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me say that too many times little burn Georgia which is like an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minute drive north of
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Macon Stephen graduated from Park View High back in 2004 Stephen mark McDaniel earned a academic scholarship to Mercer
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as an undergraduate so Stephen and Lauren as did most of the residents in this apartment complex they knew each
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other right the apartment complex this is not a huge or well even big apartment complex it consists of two buildings
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each building is two floors and each building houses eight apartments so only 16 apartments total Lauren lives in
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apartment number two this is on the second floor Stephen lives in apartment number four
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he too is on the second floor these two spoke several times over the years they were however a bit of polar opposites
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let's say Lauren was very outgoing and Stephen was not Lauren had a ton of friends and Stephen was a loner
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Stephen stops by he's talking with Lauren's friends who's looking for her there you know everybody wants to know
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where she is one of Lauren's friends would go on to describe Stephens presence as quote very weird yeah
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now I think most people would say that this guy didn't have a lot of friends it was probably pretty quiet seemed pretty
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nice but also seemed a little strange yeah yeah well that was Steven that you heard in the trailer there so that gives
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you a little Steven flavor I guess whatever that is now even flavor from Macon Georgia now what they are seeing
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at Lauren's apartment captain nothing is amiss and her friend Ashley Morehouse described the scene the best when she
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told Kaitlin wheeler quote everything you'd take with you if you went somewhere was in the house right
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Catelynn called her uncle who is a cop in Washington DC he told her you better tell the group to go outside you know
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get out of the apartment go outside lock the door and call 911 - Mercer University police officers were
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dispatched to the apartment after they arrived they spoke with the group the officers then decided to call the Macon
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city cops a Macon police officer arrived at the scene at 1252 a.m. the officer in
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the group walked around the complex looking in the bushes they searched the law school they searched the library the
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officer in the group stayed they didn't go home until about 3:00 a.m. I do want to point out that Macon police officer
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while at the scene he did notify the detective bureau that they had a missing person right early in the morning on
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Thursday June 30th one of Lauren's friends her father was friends with the mayor of Macon so the mayor was
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contacted and told of this whole situation the mayor of course calls the Chief of Police and the General Orders
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here captain are going to be one very quickly determine if this situation warrants a full-on investigation and if
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it does let's get into that investigation right away so Lawrence friends and family wanted the police to
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be very understanding of this situation and to treat it accordingly basically what they wanted to be
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understood is Lauren's been missing for days now right even though we reported her missing late last night right we did
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our own little investigation we being the family and friends and we determined she's been missing since Saturday so we
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are coming up on five days now Laurens been missing for five days don't treat it as though it's just been one day
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remember we said they need to determine if necessary and then go right into a full-on investigation well that is
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exactly what law enforcement determined and that is exactly what they did by 9:00 a.m. the Macon Police who are
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now officially in charge of this investigation they are back on the scene back at the apartment complex now we
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have detectives we have officers we have one of those large caravans this is those large mobile command centers that
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you see yeah and you know when you see one of these things that something major is probably going on well they have to
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look at her apartment now with all that evidence of all of our stuff being there
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one where is she but then too is there any evidence that somebody came in and took her away from that right and by
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this time they are knocking on doors and they are interviewing and asking questions of all of the residents at the
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apartment complex Stephen McDaniel is interviewed at this time this is a informal interview conducted inside a
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police or detectives car brilliant now at about 9:40 a.m. two detectives noticed a terrible smell coming from a
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tree I like to call these wheelie bins it's this is a large trash can outside in the
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apartment complex they're the type that will hold several bags of trash rubbish and debris and the garbage truck comes
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around lifts it up and dumps it into the truck and I'm assuming that big bins yeah I'm assuming that each apartment
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didn't have their own bin I'm assuming that they had these bigger bins for multiples apartment units yeah I believe
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these were shared bins as you would say so the detectives are worried about this
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smell because what they would later say these are experienced detectives they have worked violent cases they have
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worked homicide cases before unfortunately what they're smelling they're familiar with this smell and
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it's not it's not good for their investigation whoever smelt it dealt it they opened the lid to the trash can and
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they saw that there were several trash bags that appeared to be full of trash they cut open the bag that was on top
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and inside was exactly what you would expect to find it was trash then they cut open the bank just below the top
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back no inside this bag they found what appeared to be a decomposing torso of a woman from my understanding the only
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clothing on the torso was a pair of pink shorts no one really has time to go to the post
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the last weight loss program you'll need all right we're back Cheers me mateys cheers captain and a
00:26:27
big cheers to all the teachers out there that's right a few hours after finding the torso Stephen McDaniel granted
00:26:36
reporters an interview along the sidewalk near the apartments let's take a listen I no one had seen her since
00:26:49
Saturday because I we all just there's not a lot of interaction unless we're doing classes range he was doing the
00:26:56
online version you are together though right yeah we wearing this there's two different people that there's two
00:27:05
companies that provided captain erisa and Barbie provides it I signed up with Aubrey and I've been doing the lectures
00:27:12
that they have in the mornings and she was doing the Kaplan online so I hardly ever saw her yeah I would see like go
00:27:22
out running but I mean what how much you go out running I don't even know when I got Nitra
00:27:27
morning I saw midday a couple weeks ago I mean was the last time I saw her was coming back from the bar prep on the
00:27:37
main campus because we got moved over there for a week or two she normally would
00:27:43
Yeah right she she ran all the time and she she had a group that she would go running with yeah I don't know anyone
00:27:54
that would warn her she was a nice person as there is but he moving if you know anything about
00:28:07
her yeah yeah she she was going to be moving out today she was supposed to move out today
00:28:15
because someone else was going to be moving into her apartment do you know if she was night where he
00:28:25
from Maryland yeah she's from America Sonya so we can hear you better I okay I'm so sorry and you can just hold on
00:28:34
thank you yes she's from aerelon yeah I mean she she was from up in Maryland and all her
00:28:41
family was there as far as I know I mean she what's going on in your mind right now
00:28:50
like what do you think why we would do this I heard something you want to Saddam person
00:29:15
got something to drink you know a bunch hey that's how I found out that she was missing we a bunch of her friends came
00:29:28
over yesterday night around midnight and they couldn't they hadn't seen her since
00:29:35
Saturday so they were trying to find out where she was I they went in they had a
00:29:42
key to her apartment and they checked around didn't see anything out of place and it was locked when everyone got
00:29:50
there yeah round midnight and then we went we went over to law school see if maybe she was over in the library
00:29:57
studying or something and we looked up into the study rooms on the third floor and there was no one there
00:30:04
then we came back we looked around and just try to find any anything to figure out where she was I don't know I mean as
00:30:16
far as I know every Hall of her family's up from in Maryland there was one time that I met them they came down first
00:30:26
year she she had a little dog a little brown dog that she would exercise out in front of law school and it got hit as
00:30:37
she was coming across the road I I heard the car hit it and ran out and she was there crime and we thankfully
00:30:47
there was someone who came along who knew a vet or something and they helped that and the her family came down I
00:30:54
think a couple weeks after that or something I met them just briefly the we've been trying to figure out she has
00:31:06
a boyfriend up in Atlanta well I mean something called her called him and he hadn't heard from her just nope no one
00:31:17
could figure out where she was yet she went over to a couple friends house Darren Mueller and Joe Cairns they
00:31:27
live a world walnut and I mean they they said that she was over there in the morning and then that was the last time
00:31:37
than anyone we've been able to find out from I'd seen Joe he got onto a computer
00:31:48
last night to see if she'd say anything she'd send an email out to some people that afternoon talking about like going
00:31:56
out to eat or something and the last thing thing when there was an email that she sent out after 10:00 that night
00:32:05
where she she said to I think it was someone in Atlanta a friend of hers in Atlanta and he she said that she she was
00:32:18
afraid in your apartment that she thought someone had tried to break in on Thursday night and she she was afraid to
00:32:25
stay in there but where did you hear what did you hear that from some Joe he pulled up and we read it off the screen
00:32:35
back to a friend in Atlanta yeah I can't remember his name if she had I could have done something I mean I could have
00:32:51
lent her a handgun I've got a little hanging that I have for defense and yeah I mean something yeah if she was afraid
00:33:00
in the apartment then I mean get her out of there that's what she said in the email she thought that someone had tried
00:33:08
to break into her apartment like makin hoodlums tried to break into my apartment on Thursday night is that her
00:33:16
car parked there the Chevy no no I think that's the detectives car detective Patterson no it
00:33:25
was here earlier and they towed it I need in there for days and then they towed it to I looked through see if
00:33:33
there was yeah 9 we the police were called last night and they came and they looked around and
00:33:50
they didn't see anything I mean they went in we looked around the place no sign of a struggle no sign that anyone
00:33:57
had broken in just nothing just she was gone all of her stuff was there her ID was
00:34:03
there her wallet so what you're hearing there is it's actually we have three interviews with Stephen McDaniel and in
00:34:13
the trailer you heard the first portion of that what you just heard is what is the second portion now I apologize for
00:34:22
the audio but keep in mind this is an interview that the local news is doing with this man because he's believed to
00:34:28
be a witness they're trying to figure out what's going on why are the police here we have a body that's been found a
00:34:34
missing woman the bodies not been identified yet and this is right after he finds out Daniels finds out that a
00:34:43
body has been found yeah he finds out from the the person asking him the questions it's not confirmed that it's
00:34:50
the girl that he knows it's not confirmed that it's his law school friend Lauren Giddings but he can you
00:34:59
can tell that he's assuming right yeah well and I think the news people are assuming as well so when we say these
00:35:07
are three different interviews there they're actually they're all kind of happening at once you could you could
00:35:13
make an argument that they're just one long interview yeah but the first one that you hear he's giving some general
00:35:18
information they're asking general questions and then when they tell him hey a body has been found he has to go
00:35:25
take a break he's he's overwhelmed with emotion and he goes and he takes a break
00:35:30
where I believe he went off somewhere and sat down for about 20 minutes yeah and then he kind of conducts himself and
00:35:37
then comes back and answers more questions and that's what you just heard they're some important things in that
00:35:44
second portion are he references the email that we talked about that was sent at 10 o'clock on Saturday night and this
00:35:54
is believed to be the last communication that she attempted with anyone he says that
00:35:59
it was sent to a friend in Atlanta in reality he's right but but it was actually sent to her boyfriend who lives
00:36:08
in Atlanta right and you heard Stephens words he says he read it on the screen on her computer screen the night before
00:36:15
when he and her friends were in the apartment trying to figure out where she could be he says that that lauren wrote
00:36:23
to her boyfriend saying some Macon hoodlums tried to break into my apartment right um not really buying
00:36:31
this email but well well I mean it happened right it wasn't email that she sent well Lois he actually sent from her
00:36:41
computer yeah you bring up a good question I didn't think about it that way until you just so you just brought
00:36:46
it up in that that manner it was an email that was sent from her account let's say right yeah and believed to be
00:36:53
from her police were suspicious of this email too but not in the sense that you and I you know that you just educated me
00:37:03
too they were suspicious because they're like okay you're your long-term girlfriend sends you an email saying
00:37:11
people try to break into her apartment and it's days later and you're not contact hey boyfriend why didn't you
00:37:19
respond to this this makes no sense I mean I've gone over this time and time again like in cases like the an on side
00:37:28
case for example well why wouldn't the boyfriend of Haman Lee contact her the day that supposedly she goes missing
00:37:36
why wasn't her ex-boyfriend contact her the day she was missing here's a scenario where you got an email
00:37:42
now now mind you it's email it's not a text message right so so that's where it becomes fishy too because if you're
00:37:53
calling people if you're sending text why don't you just send this and a text why would you send it through email
00:38:00
unless that was their the the protocol for the relationship because it was so far away that they would communicate
00:38:09
more through email hmm but I don't think there's any evidence of that so it's a strange that that would be sent through
00:38:15
email anyways and then if if the guy didn't check his email then he gets a pass that's why he didn't contact his
00:38:21
his girlfriend would send this email but then it's fishy that you'd send the email anyways but it's now mind you what
00:38:30
is happening at the same time is they're going through the trash like you were stating and now they find a torso there
00:38:40
I think they're all the detectives are assuming hey this is the this is the missing girl this is Lauren yeah 100%
00:38:49
but now they're going to go through all the other bins but what's interesting is
00:38:53
half the apartments trash has already been picked up yeah so let's let's get into that in just a second because I
00:39:01
kind of want to go through what you were just talking about and this is interesting because just a like a week
00:39:07
ago regarding that Adnan Syed case and what you just referenced I was having a conversation with our friend Zoe and I
00:39:15
was explaining that my take on that is you know that dawn was his name the boyfriend believed to be running him and
00:39:25
Lee's boyfriend he was older and I just simply said to her because she found it very strange and I agree I think on some
00:39:32
level it is strange but I also think that everybody tends to kind of think everything is relative and everything is
00:39:41
similar to their own situation and I have to remind myself sometimes that that that is not usually the case if
00:39:51
just because I find something to be strange we don't know the dynamics of that relationship or lorentz with her
00:39:59
boyfriend as well and so in the case of dawn he's all he may just not have cared
00:40:05
he may not have thought of the relationship in the same way that she thought of this relationship I
00:40:10
understand that but when have you ever made plans to meet up with somebody they didn't show up and you didn't try to
00:40:18
make contact with them I'd actually that's actually happened to me multiple times so you make plans with
00:40:24
somebody I can never show up young then you just don't even call or text to figure out what happened I think it's
00:40:31
actually happened three or four times but I can I can think of two times that that 100% that's exactly what went down
00:40:39
right so because I was like I might how many times was that person a significant
00:40:43
other all of the times it was somebody that I was dating or in that type of relationship not not a significant other
00:40:53
I wouldn't say that but somebody that I was okay now now had been on multi dates
00:40:57
now now answer this question how many of those times did you get a call from the
00:41:00
police stating that that person was missing and then there then afterwards you didn't make contact with them yeah
00:41:08
well never right so look III think it's I mean we don't want to go too far into this well that's a different case but
00:41:17
what I'm talking about here then it kind of goes along with Lauren's case as well
00:41:21
is from what I could find and what I'm I'm making a lot of assumptions here about Lauren's relationship with this
00:41:32
boyfriend yeah it seems to me though that they're they're not so connected at the hip you know what I mean they're not
00:41:40
they're not so tied to one another this is a bit of a long-distance relationship
00:41:44
right yes it is a long-term yes it sounds like they were planning on moving in together but it also sounds like they
00:41:52
very much lived separate lives when they weren't with each other right which would make more sense why you would
00:42:00
contact somebody through an email plus this dude I believe he's significantly older than Lauren maybe 10 years 12
00:42:11
years he's he's older he's more established she met him when she was working at some law firm uh-huh remember
00:42:21
she wants to be a lawyer so he doesn't respond to this email because he told detectives he said look I I wanted to I
00:42:30
wanted to have a conversation with her in person about this email I wasn't going to do so until the next
00:42:36
time I saw her he's saying yes I understand you're telling me that she's missing she sent me this email I didn't
00:42:43
reply you think that's suspicious I'm telling you I didn't even know that she was missing yeah he's he's in California
00:42:51
on a golf trip so his he has a solid alibi he's been brave you know he's on the other side of the country at the time in
00:43:01
question he was did the other thing that police were suspicious about so now we've cleared the boyfriend right now
00:43:10
the other thing that police are suspicious about is the night before remember it's believed that Saturday is
00:43:17
the last time anybody had any contact with Lauren Wright the night before on Friday night she and a friend stayed at
00:43:26
the home of two males and you hear Stephen McDaniel referenced that in the the interview there he said you know
00:43:34
when when the reporter says when's the last time anybody saw her he says she was with some friends at and she
00:43:43
mentions their names I don't I don't know their names they lived on Walnut Street yeah well in fact the the the
00:43:51
real story is her friend was seeing one of these guys they they have a relationship and they were partying
00:44:00
there the night before and that the two women decided to just crash at that house well she was last seen coming home
00:44:07
from that house so now police are a little suspicious because they're like wait a second we thought she had a
00:44:13
boyfriend yes she does boyfriends in California on it on this golf trip oh what's she doing staying
00:44:19
the night at these guys house than a [ __ ] yeah but there's a lot of people that go hey were we're gonna have a
00:44:24
long-distance relationship and hey whatever happens in your hometown I don't need to know about it yeah I mean
00:44:33
that well and that's what I was getting almond III like I said I'm making assumptions here but that's that's
00:44:40
really what I'm assuming was going on with Lauren and her boyfriends religious but as door of separate lives when they
00:44:47
weren't together right and and as far as law enforcement detectives are concerned now if that is the case
00:44:53
and you go well we have evidence that she's hanging out with these other guys is there another romantic interest that
00:45:02
you know would have motive because she's going to leave him for the the longtime
00:45:08
boyfriend that's an angle they have to look into let's hear the the third portion of that
00:45:13
interview and then this morning they knocked on my door they were looking around trying to find anything and a few
00:45:22
of the other friends there would be Burpee and Garen and Ashleigh they were here they were here last night and
00:45:34
they'd come back this morning and I just went out and he talked with them and they then they moved us all over the
00:45:42
side and they bust us all down to the department and kept us there until I got back Tuesday a little while ago
00:45:52
yeah they took statements trying to find out if anyone's seen anything if they wouldn't I would anything when the last
00:45:57
time anyone saw or was now firm that we talked about that it was are you holding out and
00:46:11
I hope if they value on on the property somewhere no no as far any arrests knew they were
00:46:32
still trying to just find her I mean we got an email this morning from some people that were on the other side of
00:46:38
Kroger on the other side of the river that they had seen her in the past running in that area we thought maybe
00:46:44
something that's smashed through over there maybe she got hurt or something all right so when we listen to those
00:46:50
three clips the one thing that jumps out at me that is more apparent in that clip
00:46:56
I think than the other two is this the reporter starts asking him something and he starts doing this then when he goes
00:47:10
to answer there's no emotion it goes right back into normal speech yeah so when I was watching it I watched it a
00:47:20
few times and it's the footage look the audios not the best and the the video is not that's the best audio we've
00:47:27
ever had the videos not the best either and plus he's got we should probably describe what Stephen looks like so he's
00:47:34
kind of a pasty skinny kid he would be in his twenty six he would be 26 at the time of that interview yeah he has puffy
00:47:46
hair very yeah long hair but it's it's all it's all over the place it's very poufy as you saw most like a afro yeah
00:47:55
and he he looks like what maybe he's got a little facial hair maybe he hasn't shaved in a couple of days or sounds
00:48:05
very patchy yes so when watching that one the video is not the best but then to their outside
00:48:11
you can hear the wind blowing and at some point you can hear vehicles driving by maybe somebody's cellphone is making
00:48:19
a weird noise but with the wind blowing his hair is constantly like in and out of his face right yeah and I was trying
00:48:28
to determine because we've seen this in several other cases where what you hear is it sounds like somebody who's very
00:48:37
emotional sounds like somebody who's crying but you will have witnesses too you there were no tears and I was trying
00:48:44
to determine if he was in fact actually crying tears not just putting on an oyster sound like he's very upset and
00:48:56
that he's crying yeah I couldn't determine if I was seeing tears or not but what I will say is the woman who
00:49:03
gave who was asking him the questions her words later were yes he was very emotional and yes he became very
00:49:13
emotional as soon as I told him they found a body and he does in this third portion keep referencing she was a
00:49:23
jogger and unfortunately we've covered too many cases where a woman has been out jogging and she's not seen again so
00:49:32
he keeps referencing that but again I couldn't tell if there were tears or not I'm gonna go with what the reporter says
00:49:40
she says he was very emotional I'm just gonna believe that she believed his emotions to be genuine at the time but
00:49:47
I'm with you it sounds to me like he's turning it on and turning it off right when he's turning it on and then he's
00:49:56
asked to give a response and he gives a response and the emotion is not it's absent from from his words it's too
00:50:03
clear and I but I also don't like any time that we have a missing person we have no you haven't look you can assume
00:50:12
your friend's missing for a few days they find a body yeah you could start assuming that's her body III get that
00:50:20
part but I don't like when people start offering these alternate endings oh well
00:50:26
we just thought this or we just thought she went for a run and somebody grabbed her you know it's it's alternate endings
00:50:32
and I I just never liked that well yeah I get that but this is not the first time he's been asked what does he think
00:50:41
happened to her you know what I mean like so it's but he also I think we're he's quick with an answer it's because
00:50:47
he's been asked that question probably at least two times before this interview because you heard him say he spoke with
00:50:54
police that morning and he also spoke with them we know he did a brief interview with them in
00:50:59
either a detectives car or a police car we also heard him say that they took some of them down to the station and
00:51:06
talked to some of her friends there as well so he's he's been he's been talking about this missing persons case
00:51:15
all morning long by the time of this interview right but it's also he does this thing where he kind of goes like
00:51:23
wow I didn't know her that well you know but then offers a lot of detail you know
00:51:30
like well I didn't know her that well did you meet any of her family yes one time and I remember what happened the
00:51:37
day before yeah I mean like yeah that that's a lot of detail yeah so he's saying what that he believes he saw her
00:51:46
maybe a week or two before that interview that's what it sounds like to me he's not claiming that he saw her on
00:51:53
Saturday no he's heard from friends that she was last seen on Saturday yeah I didn't get that I think what he that the
00:52:03
reason why there's confusion on the answer is he was basically saying like yeah I remember seeing her run like a
00:52:12
week or so ago so I can I think it wasn't so much that that's the last time I saw her I think he's going that's the
00:52:20
last time I remember seeing her run so after the torso is found and as we said yes it was found on the property of the
00:52:30
apartment complex he Stephens unaware of that during that interview the detectives are knocking on everyone's
00:52:38
doors that live in the apartment complex they again are going to ask more questions but this time they want to ask
00:52:47
each resident if they can come inside and do a quick walkthrough right from the paperwork that I saw captain they
00:52:57
state that everyone granted them permission to go into their apartments this did include Stephen McDaniel
00:53:05
however the way that it's in the paperwork it sounds like they really had to do some talking to talk
00:53:16
him into letting them come in and do this is just supposed to be a quick walk in walk out quick observation do you see
00:53:26
anything super suspicious that the warrants further investigation if not move on well you write me and you have
00:53:33
to protect yourself against law enforcement you don't want to be accused of something that you didn't do but the
00:53:41
reason why I find that hard and I understand that he's also a law student that's gonna take his bar so you know
00:53:46
you go oh well should I let you in so would be all the other residents though as well
00:53:53
right right Murray but but what I find strange is that you've you've talked to the cops several times you seem to be
00:54:01
willing to help and then all of a sudden once we want to come into your apartment
00:54:04
you're going all hold on I don't know if this is the right thing yeah in fact well it's one or the other to me like if
00:54:12
if if they would have started asking him questions and he just said look I don't
00:54:16
want to answer any questions without a lawyer from the get-go you know or like maybe he you know answer some initial
00:54:24
questions but once you said hey step into the car with me you go no no no no I'm a law student this is the these are
00:54:32
the rules very forthcoming in that interview as well right with the with the news reporter that's all of a sudden
00:54:38
you don't want me in your apartment according to the documents that I viewed and weed I don't know what the actual
00:54:44
truth is all I can state is this is what the documents the state documents said happened according to the police
00:54:53
according to the detectives they are initially not granted permission by Stephen to enter his apartment to which
00:55:02
they explained to him everyone else except for you has allowed us into their apartments I don't know if that is in
00:55:11
fact true but Stephen must have believed it because then he chooses to let them into his apartment right there in there
00:55:19
very briefly this walkthrough through Stephens apartment place at 1:40 p.m. now in his apartment
00:55:26
they find a large knife a large samurai sword a rifle two handguns and amongst some other items they find some other
00:55:37
items but these are the items that they specifically know of being in question regarding that walkthrough that took
00:55:44
place at 1:40 p.m. yeah it's like you could also state that every apartment you went into that had a knife set had a
00:55:53
large knife scherzo yeah so I mean samurai sword is a bit out of the norm a rifle and two handguns a bit out of the
00:56:02
norm I don't think so I mean as far as like you know you could have been a hunter or he wanted to protect himself
00:56:09
it may be the same rights or say my rights or but I bet you know a few people that have swords or so you know
00:56:17
some collectible I actually out of all the items that we just mentioned there I have everything of those in my in my
00:56:25
residence except for the rifle so I was going to say I was going to the sword but what I will say is yeah out of if
00:56:33
they did in fact walk through all the apartments this is the only apartment and these are the only items that made
00:56:39
it onto their paperwork later right so they obviously found it to be alarming let's say now it didn't take long
00:56:47
captain but it was on the news and online news reports later saying that the body a body turned up at Lauren's
00:56:55
apartment complex they didn't know for certain if it was her but a few hours later they would confirm that it was in
00:57:01
fact Lauren she was no longer missing Lauren was dead right with the thing about that that I'm so fascinated in is
00:57:09
that the the scheduled pickup for trash was earlier Eren and for some reason there was some kind of like half the
00:57:23
apartments trash got picked up and then there was some reason there was some interference that the other part of the
00:57:32
the complex was not that the trash was not picked up yeah so let me let me go through this
00:57:38
and I'll tell you exactly why that went down like that so okay the Macon Telegraph is a newspaper and and this
00:57:45
they covered this case in this story hands down better than anybody else they've covered it for so since it
00:57:52
happened yeah until now instant well that's right so that as the Macon Telegraph put it Giddings torso
00:58:01
had been disposed of stuffed in a flip-top curbside garbage can beside her apartment building for police
00:58:09
finding it was a stroke of Fortune on what was trash pickup day at the complex it would have been hauled to a landfill
00:58:19
without the torso Giddings might have become one of those supremely lost the unfortunate souls who disappear into
00:58:28
forever without a trace that's from the Macon Telegraph what went down captain and this like you said a stroke of luck
00:58:38
and like the Macon Telegraph put it if if that trash would have been picked up that day this case would have been very
00:58:43
very different and that's why I said earlier that her friends springing into action is really what made this case
00:58:51
completely different right it kept it got it on the right path because her friends get involved they recognize that
00:59:01
she has been unheard from they send friends to her apartment determined that she is in fact missing has been missing
00:59:09
for days log in to her email you log in to the email one of her friends says to her
00:59:15
father you're friends with the mayor of Macon can you call him and tell him what's going on because she's been
00:59:23
missing for days this is completely out of character and she sent an email saying somebody was trying to break into
00:59:28
her home we're completely freaking out here yeah friends father calls the mayor mayor calls the police chief police
00:59:36
chief gets everything set into action now we said the night before the officer on the scene did notify the detective
00:59:44
bureau that they have a missing-persons case and hey detective it's now your missing persons case
00:59:50
the detective who they contacted I don't know if he was on call but the the detective that received that call
00:59:57
received the case let's say did tell the officer he would be there in the morning
01:00:02
now I don't know what time he was going to get there I but we do know that the mayor called
01:00:06
the police chief and this set into action a chain of events right all of those officers were at the scene just
01:00:15
before 9:00 a.m. the next morning we have detectives there we have police cars there and we have that big large
01:00:22
Caravan this mobile command center let's say because of all those vehicles and because of this mobile command center
01:00:31
the guy drivin the garbage truck decided I'm not going to ask the police to move
01:00:38
their command center or their vehicles right I'm going to go collect other trash and I'll swing back by here once
01:00:44
they leave yeah so it was actually all of those chain of events set this into motion to where they couldn't pick up
01:00:52
that trash that day as you said should have been picked up before the body was discovered yeah sometimes the universe
01:00:59
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show called off-the-record it gets a little silly join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be
01:01:34
kind and don't live