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foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always ladies and gentlemen a finely tuned Athlete on the verge of
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greatness he is the captain yeah finally tuned athlete that barely can tie his shoes it's good to be seen and it's good
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to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are very happy to be
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featuring all struck dry apple plus Oak cider fall or Autumn whatever you want to call it I call it a great time to
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out of five and today we are toasting some of our garage Army Members First up we have Brian h a big Buckeye fan down
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Twitter all that stuff at True Crime garage and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime thank you [Music] yeah Lauren was my neighbor
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um we're just trying to find out where she is at this point I mean no one has seen her since Saturday I mean the last
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time anyone heard from her was an email that she sent out and no one's heard from her since
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you're hanging out with anything I no no one has seen her since Saturday I haven't seen anything I'm
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always hear noise outside but it's just people walking by pretty much and you she just recently graduated from
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Mercer 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 what did you see she's as nice as can be I mean very personable very much people personally do you know
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do you know no I'm we're we don't know where she is I mean the only thing we can think is that
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maybe she went out running and someone snatched her because I mean we went out we went over
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one of our friends had a key we went inside and tried to see if there was anything amiss but I mean she had a door
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jamb that was sitting right by it so there's no sign that anyone broke in I mean the door was locked when everyone
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got here and it was we just don't know where she is what about um in the like the parking
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lot area I know they've been doing a lot of I think that's where they would have
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recovered body or whatever they recovered from there Audi had you heard it had you 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 they took out
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a body there earlier we don't know if this is it or not that's how we're trying to ask people if they know who
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lived there are you okay sir I think I need to sit down okay [Music] foreign -year-old Lauren Giddings graduated from
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Mercer University law school in May of 2011. she grew up in the suburbs Southwest of
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Baltimore Lauren moved away from home nearly a decade earlier and lived most of that time in Georgia
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she is away for college but while away it is said that she fell in love with the South which in my opinion is very
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easy to do after school she wanted to do Defense work either working as a defense
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attorney or for a defense team she was just weeks away from taking the bar exam so Captain Lawrence really got two major
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things going on right now one she is done with school and now it's time to study hardcore and nail this bar exam
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and two she's moving she's going to move out afterwards and the plan is to pack up everything and move to Atlanta shout
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out to the ATL so she will be attempting to get a job in Atlanta after passing the bar I
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believe she was going to move in with a boyfriend in Atlanta but for now it's study time we've got to
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pass that bar we have an aspiring lawyer cramming for the Georgia bar exam now at first her
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friends assuming she was sequestered in her apartment studying thought little of
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her absence they thought little of her not answering the phone or not returning their text messages
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this however would not go unnoticed and after a few days one friend in particular will sound the alarm
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it was about four days before anyone went looking for her June 29th was when friends started officially looking for
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Lauren we need to introduce Katie O'Hara and Lori subsick 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 a hold of Lauren for a couple of days Lauren was
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not returning calls or texts remember however Lauren was studying pretty hardcore for the bar exam so you know
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how people will set up like an out of office reply thanks for your email but I will be out of the office I'm skiing in
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Aspen that is what I put on my out of office reply however I'm just sitting on the
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couch drinking beer and watching football for four days straight I normally just put I'm out of my office
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doing something way cooler than you are well Lauren and I'm guessing this may have been a Facebook post or maybe an
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email that she sent out but she sent out a little message saying I'm basically putting myself on lockdown and I'm
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studying for this exam right it's been the thing she's been gearing towards for years yeah kind of a don't be offended
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thing if you don't hear from me regardless of what was going on luckily Katie sounded the alarm and Friends
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joined in because as you will see this case could have went much much differently Katie called her good friend
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Lori Lori didn't take the call she was busy and thought I'll call my friend back Katie didn't stop there she called
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Lori's sister who lives with Lori Katie is not close with the sister so now Lori
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is aware that something is going on here Lori tells Katie she was experiencing the same issue Lauren was unresponsive
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now they are both trying to get a hold of Lauren calling her cell and everything is going straight to
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voicemail by this time I should know 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 calls are going straight to voicemail yeah
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Lauren's sister Caitlin wheeler said she was already concerned but now talking with Lauren's friends her concerns were
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certainly validated Caitlyn was one of two younger sisters of Lawrence Caitlyn sent a Facebook
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message to one of her big sisters law school Pals and Macon this is Ashley Morehouse
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Ashley and Lauren met on a Friday evening back in 2008 and became fast friends they were pretty close
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Caitlyn asked Ashley to drop by Lauren's apartment Ashley did she says she walked
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up the stairs to the second floor apartment and knocked on the Crimson door of apartment number two Lauren's
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apartment no one answered she says she saw Lauren's Mitsubishi Galant her vehicle was parked outside
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out front where she would expect to see it Ashley called Caitlyn back to tell her
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she hadn't found her sister Ashley offered to swing by again later then they got in touch with Kristen
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Miller a close friend of her sisters who had gone to college with Lauren in Atlanta
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Miller thought it was odd that she too hadn't heard from Lauren after sending a message a couple of days earlier
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over the next few hours everyone was desperately trying to reach anyone who might know where Lauren could be right
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so they're kind of putting the pieces together to realize nobody's made contact with her for days
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yeah yeah and the thing here is Caitlyn her sister knew Lauren's passwords to uh
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some of her online activities so she logged into Lauren's Facebook and logged into Lauren's Gmail accounts
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this would offer her no Comfort at all as she saw quickly that Lauren had not sent any emails in several days she
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hadn't been on Facebook at all her sister started calling Macon hospitals to find out if there had been some type
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of accident or if she was held up in a hospital somewhere right and then Lauren's friends and family
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reached out to the police and an officer was being sent to Lauren's apartment this was about 11 p.m Georgia time
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20 minutes later the dispatcher said an officer went to the apartment complex and didn't find any signs of forced
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entry the officer then called and suggested that Lauren may have gone away for a few days
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the officer said a missing person's report could not be filed until the morning that's ridiculous if you have no contact
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with somebody for multiple days you you went in the fact that you went in and you saw that there was no emails sent
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and there was no emails checked for multiple days that's an that's another sign especially
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a student that is looking to move and possibly get jobs you'd think they would check these things yeah it what the
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officer is going to reiterate to the family is you know we did go by there we saw
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absolutely zero signs of forced entry the apartment was Secure the door was locked yeah and they're they're saying
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yes we understand that you can't get in touch with her but we don't see anything
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that would point us in the direction of of we should be involved in this whole thing we also believe that these
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apartments are primarily uh occupied by students I believe I actually believe that all of
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them so it could be our students and that they're all law students so it could be some kind of University Housing
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and you think that they'd be able to contact the university and get access you know hey let's just we went by
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there's no sign of force entry but let's just let's go into her apartment yeah I'm uncertain if the University
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owns these these buildings right but they could the police could get a hold of the landlord
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yeah so it around midnight it was decided that Ashley Morehouse who we've already talked about should go ahead and
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go back to the apartment but this time go into the apartment she was going to use a spare key which Lauren kept in a
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white vase on her patio table this is to get inside of the apartment yeah that's
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I I don't like that I don't like the hidden key thing so she did go to the apartment but she was not going to go
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into the apartment alone she had a few of Lauren's friends and or classmates friends classmates with her yeah and
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some neighbors as well inside they found Lauren's purse and keys they found her cell phone as suspected the battery was
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dead to the cell phone they plugged the phone into a charger turn the phone on and learn that no
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calls or messages had been made or sent in several days someone turned on the phone and found that Lauren hadn't made
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any calls or sent any messages since Saturday so four days ago as of now we are on Wednesday
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all of Lauren's study materials were at the house as well so no one had any reason to believe that she
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was out somewhere studying you know plus her phone and right is there everything
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that you would expect to be there with Lauren is there in the apartment except for Lauren yeah they did check regarding
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her email there was an email that she had sent a few days before it was one of the I believe the last email she sent
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was before Saturday correct was her her she sent an email stating that she believed somebody was watching her or
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somebody had tried to break into her apartment it's reported different ways I've not seen the actual email myself
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but it's reported different ways and I'm a little uncertain as to if she mentioned both or if it was just one or
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the other but it's suspicious Behavior regardless and we need to point out here Captain if everyone hasn't already
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figured it out by all of her friends that we've mentioned Lauren was very social by all accounts she was extremely
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outgoing yeah while her friends are in her apartment conducting a little investigation of their own one of
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Lauren's neighbors this is Stephen McDaniel came over at some point now let's give a little background here
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Lauren is not new to this area as we have kind of already pointed out she has lived in this apartment complex for
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years so has Stephen McDaniel and I don't know this to be true but I'm guessing a lot of these people the these
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students that live in these apartments that it's more of a long-term situation than most college type situations now
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Lauren and Stephen lived in the same apartment complex attended the same College taking the same classes both
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were recent graduates of law school and both studying for their bar exams remember Lauren however is from out of
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town out of state even from Maryland Stephen while not from the immediate area he was born and raised in Georgia
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Stephen is from littleburn Don't make me say that too many times little Byrne Georgia which is like an
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hour and a half to an hour and 45 minute drive north of Macon Stephen graduated from Park View High back in 2004 Stephen
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Mark McDaniel earned a academic scholarship to Mercer as an undergraduate so Stephen and Lauren as did most of the
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residents in this apartment complex they knew each other right the apartment complex this is not a huge or well even
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big apartment complex it consists of two buildings each building is two floors and each building houses eight
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Apartments so only 16 Apartments total Lauren lives in apartment number two this is on the second floor
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Steven lives in apartment number four he too is on the second floor these two spoke several times over the
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years they were however a bit of Polar Opposites let's say Lauren was very outgoing and Steven was not Lauren had a
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ton of friends and Steven was a loner Stephen stops by he's talking with Lauren's friends who's
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looking for her you know everybody wants to know where she is one of Lauren's friends would go on to
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describe Steven's presence as quote very weird yeah now I I think most people would say
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that this guy didn't have a lot of friends was probably pretty quiet seemed pretty nice but also seemed a little
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strange yeah well that was Stephen that you heard in the trailer there so that gives
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you a little Stephen flavor I guess whatever that is now it's even flavor from Macon Georgia
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now what they are seeing at Lauren's apartment Captain nothing is amiss and her friend Ashley Morehouse described
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the scene the best when she told Caitlin wheeler quote everything you'd take with
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you if you went somewhere was in the house right Caitlyn called her uncle who is a cop in Washington DC
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he told her you better tell the group to go outside you know get out of the apartment go
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outside lock the door and call 9-1-1 and insist that they send an officer to the
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scene immediately right so that's exactly what they did and to 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
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the Macon City cops a Macon police officer arrived at the scene at 12 52 A.M the officer in the group walked around
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the complex looking in the bushes they searched the law school they searched the library the officer and the group
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stayed they didn't go home until about 3 A.M I do want to point out that Macon police
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officer while at the scene he did notify the detective Bureau that they had a missing person right
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early in the morning on Thursday June 30th one of Lauren's friends her father was friends with the mayor of
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Macon so the mayor was contacted and told of this whole situation the mayor of course calls the chief of
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police and the general orders here Captain are going to be one very quickly determine
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if this situation warrants a full-on investigation and if it does let's get into that investigation right away
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so Lauren's friends and family wanted the police to be very understanding of this situation and to treat it
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accordingly basically what they wanted to be understood is Lauren's been missing for days now right even though
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we reported her missing late last night right we did our own little investigation we being the family and
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friends and we determined she's been missing since Saturday so we are coming up on five days now Lauren's been
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missing for five days don't treat it as though it's just been one day remember we said they need to determine
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if necessary and then go right into a full-on investigation well that is exactly what law enforcement determined
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and that is exactly what they did by 9 A.M the Macon police who are now officially in charge of this
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investigation they are back on the scene back at the apartment complex now we have detectives we have officers we have
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one of those large Caravans this is those large mobile command centers that you see yeah
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and you know when you see one of these things that something major is probably going on well they have to look at her
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apartment now with all that evidence of all of her stuff being there one where is she but then two is there
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any evidence that somebody came in and took her away from that right and by this time they are knocking on doors and
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they are interviewing and asking questions of all of the residents at the apartment complex
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Stephen McDaniel is interviewed at this time this is a informal interview conducted inside a police or detective's
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car right now at about 9 40 a.m two detectives noticed a terrible smell coming from a
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trash can I like to call these wheelie bins it's this is a large trash can outside in the apartment complex the the
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type that will hold several bags of trash rubbish and debris and the garbage truck comes around lifts it up and dumps
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it into the truck and I'm assuming that big bins yeah and I'm assuming that each
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apartment didn't have their own bin I'm assuming that they had these bigger bins for multiple apartment units yeah I
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believe these were shared uh bins as you would say so the detectives are worried about the smell because what
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they would later say these are experienced detectives they have worked violent cases they have worked homicide
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cases before unfortunately what they're smelling they're familiar with this smell and it's not
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it's not good for their investigation whoever spelled it dealt it they opened the lid to the trash can and they saw
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that there were several trash bags that appeared to be full of trash they cut open the bag that was on top and
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inside was exactly what you would expect to find it was trash then they cut the open the bag just
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below the top back yeah inside this bag they found what appeared to be a decomposing torso of a woman
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from my understanding the only clothing on the Torso was a pair of pink shorts [Music]
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all right we're back cheers hey Matey's cheers captain and a big cheers to all the teachers out there that's right a
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few hours after finding the Torso Stephen McDaniel granted reporters an interview along the sidewalk near the
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apartments let's take a listen you've been studying for the bar yeah I'm no one seen her since Saturday because I we all
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just there's not a whole lot of interaction unless we're doing classes right and she was doing uh online
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version of it you all studied together though I yeah we were in it's it's two different
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people that there's two companies that provide it Captain Horizon and Barbie provides it I signed up with Barbary and
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I've been doing the lectures that they have in the mornings she was doing the Kaplan online so I
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hardly ever saw her I mean I would see her like go out running but I mean what time would you go out running I mean I
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don't even know where at night or morning I saw it like midday a couple weeks ago
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I mean that was the last time I saw her was come back from the bar prep on the main camp this because we got moved over
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there for a week or two but she normally we yeah right she she ran all the time I
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mean she she had a group that she would go running with oh yeah I don't know anyone that would want to
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hurt her she was a nice person as there is she moving soon did you know anything
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about her yeah yeah she she was going to be moving out today she was supposed to move out today
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because someone else was going to be moving into her apartment do you know if she was like where is she
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from Maryland yeah she's from up in Maryland okay I'm so sorry and you can just hold on
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yeah she's from Maryland yeah I mean she she was from up in Maryland and all her
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family was there as far as I know I mean she what's going on in your mind right now
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like what are you thinking why would anyone do this she didn't hear anything no hey
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yeah I just heard something maybe I could have held it okay don't worry do you want us to dump her or something
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got something to drink do you know a bunch of I mean that's how I found out that she
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was missing we did a bunch of her friends came over yesterday night around midnight and they they couldn't they
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hadn't seen her since Saturday so they were trying to find out where she was they they went in they had a key to her
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apartment and they checked around didn't see anything out of place and it was locked when everyone got there
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around midnight and then we went we went over to law school to see if maybe she was over in the library studying or
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something and we looked up in the study rooms on the third floor and there was there was no one there and we came back
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we looked around and just tried to find any anything to figure out where she was
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doesn't have any family in Georgia I don't know I'm as far as I know every all of our families from in Maryland
00:28:20
have you met her family before okay I mean there was one time that I met them they came down first year she
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she had a little dog a little brown dog that she would exercise out in front of the law school and it got hit as she was
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coming across the road I I heard the car hit it and ran out and she was there crying and we thankfully there was
00:28:48
someone who came along who knew a vet or something and they helped that and her family came down I think a couple weeks
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after that or something I met them just briefly but boyfriend and we we've been trying to figure out
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she has a boyfriend up in Atlanta but I'm someone called her called him and he hadn't heard from her and just no
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no one could figure out where she was yeah she went over to a couple friend's house Gary Mueller and Joe Karens they
00:29:28
live over on Walnut and I mean they they said that she was over there in the morning and then that was the last time
00:29:38
that anyone we've been able to find out from I'd seen her she hadn't mentioned what she
00:29:43
was gonna do that day or anything we uh Joe he got onto her computer last night to see if she's anything she'd
00:29:52
send an email out to some people that afternoon talking about like going out to eat or something
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and the last thing that anyone there was an email that she sent out after 10 that
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night where she she sent to I think it was someone in Atlanta a friend of hers in Atlanta and he she said that she she
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was afraid in her apartment that she thought someone had tried to break in on Thursday night
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and as she she was afraid to stay in there but what did you hear where did you hear
00:30:31
that from he he pulled up and we read it off the screen she had sent that to a friend in Atlanta
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yeah I can't remember his name but you hadn't heard anything on Thursday night she never came to you to tell you
00:30:44
anything no I'm I if she had I could have done something I I could have lent her a handgun I've
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got a little hang on that I have for defense and yeah I mean something and if she was
00:31:01
afraid in her apartment then I mean get her out of there that's what she said in the email she
00:31:08
thought that someone had tried to break into her apartment she said like making hoodlums tried to break into my
00:31:13
apartment on Thursday night is that her car parked there the Chevy no no um I think that that's the detective's
00:31:23
car detective Patterson no it was here earlier and they they towed it I mean it had been there for days and then they
00:31:32
towed it to I guess look through see if there was yeah how did you find out that something
00:31:38
yeah a little while ago or nine we the police were called last night and they came and
00:31:49
they looked around they didn't see anything I mean they went in we looked around the place no sign of a struggle
00:31:57
no sign that anyone had broken in just nothing it's just she was gone I mean all of her stuff was there her ID was
00:32:04
there her wallet was there so what you're hearing there is it's actually we have three interviews
00:32:12
with Stephen McDaniel and in the trailer you heard the first portion of that what
00:32:18
you just heard is what is the second portion now I apologize for the audio but keep in mind this is an interview
00:32:24
that the local news is doing with this man because he's believed to be a witness they're trying to figure out
00:32:31
what's going on why are the police here we have a body that's been found a missing woman the body's not been
00:32:37
identified yet and this is right after he finds out Daniels finds out that a body has been found yeah he finds out
00:32:46
from the the person asking him the question it's not confirmed that it's the girl that he knows it's not
00:32:53
confirmed that it's his law school friend Laura Giddings but he can you you can tell that he's assuming right well
00:33:02
and I think the news people are assuming as well so when we say these are three different
00:33:09
interviews they're they're actually they're all kind of happening at once you could you could make an argument
00:33:14
that they're just one long interview yeah but the first one that you hear he's giving some general information
00:33:19
they're asking general questions and then when they tell him hey a body has been found he has to go take a break
00:33:27
he's he's overwhelmed with emotion and he goes and he takes a break where I believe he went off somewhere and sat
00:33:34
down for about 20 minutes yeah uh and then he kind of conducts himself and then comes back and answers more
00:33:41
questions and that's what you just heard there some important things in that second portion
00:33:46
are he references the email that we talked about that was sent at 10 o'clock on Saturday night and this is believed to
00:33:55
be the last communication that she attempted with anyone he says that it was sent to a friend in
00:34:01
Atlanta in in reality he's right but but it was actually sent to her boyfriend who lives in Atlanta right and you heard
00:34:10
Stephen's words he says he read it on the screen on her computer screen the night before when he and her friends
00:34:18
were in the apartment trying to figure out where she could be he says that that Lauren wrote to her
00:34:25
boyfriend saying some making hoodlums tried to break into my apartment right um not really buying this email but well
00:34:34
well I mean it happened um right it was an email that that she sent well well you actually sent from her
00:34:42
computer yeah you bring up a good question I didn't think about it that way until you just until you just
00:34:46
brought it up in that that manner um it was an email that was sent from her account let's say right and believed
00:34:54
to be from her police were suspicious of this email too but not in the sense that you and I
00:35:02
you know that you just educated me to um they were suspicious because they're like okay your your long-term girlfriend
00:35:10
sends you an email saying people try to break into her apartment and it's days later
00:35:18
and you're not contact hey boyfriend why didn't you respond to this this makes no
00:35:22
sense I mean I've gone over this time and time again like in cases like the an on side case for example well why
00:35:31
wouldn't the boyfriend of Heyman Lee contact her the day that supposedly she goes missing why wouldn't her
00:35:38
ex-boyfriend contact her the day she goes missing here's a scenario where you gotta email now
00:35:44
now mind you it's email it's not a text message right so so that's where it becomes fishy too
00:35:52
because if if you're calling people if you're sending texts why won't you just send this
00:35:58
and a text why would you send it through email unless that was their uh the the protocol for the relationship
00:36:07
because it was so far away that they would communicate more through email but I don't think there's any evidence of
00:36:13
that so it's just strange that that would be sent through email anyways and then if if the guy didn't check his
00:36:19
email then he gets a pass that's why he didn't contact his his girlfriend that would send this email
00:36:25
but again it's fishy that you'd send the email anyways but now mind you what is happening at the same time
00:36:34
is they're going through the trash like you were stating and now they find a torso their
00:36:42
I think they're all the detectives are assuming hey this is the this is the missing girl this is Lauren yeah 100 but
00:36:49
now they're going to go through all the other bins but what's interesting is half the
00:36:55
apartments trash has already been picked up yeah so let's let's get into that in
00:37:01
just a second because I kind of want to go through what you were just talking about
00:37:05
and this is interesting because just like a week ago regarding that Adnan Syed case and what you just referenced I
00:37:13
was having a conversation with our friend Zoe and I was explaining that my take on that
00:37:19
is you know the the Dawn was his name the boyfriend believed to be Rahman Lee's boyfriend he was older and I just simply
00:37:29
said to her because she found it very strange and I agree I think on some level it is strange but I also think
00:37:35
that everybody tends to kind of think everything is relative and everything is similar to their own situation and
00:37:47
I I have to remind myself sometimes that that that is not usually the case if just because I find something to be
00:37:54
strange we don't know the Dynamics of that relationship or Lawrence with her boyfriend as well and so in the case of
00:38:03
dawn he's all he may just not have cared he may not have thought of the relationship in the same way that she
00:38:09
thought of this relationship I understand that but when when have you ever made plans to meet up with somebody they
00:38:17
didn't show up and you didn't try to make contact with them I'm actually that's actually happened to me multiple
00:38:23
times so you make plans with somebody I can never show up and then you just don't even
00:38:28
call or text to figure out what happened I think it's actually happened three or
00:38:34
four times but I can I can think of two times that 100 percent that's exactly what went down right so because I was
00:38:41
like how many times was that person a significant other uh all of the times it was somebody that
00:38:48
I was dating or in that type of relationship not not a significant other I wouldn't say that
00:38:54
but somebody that I was okay now now had been on multiple dates now now answer this question how many of those times
00:39:00
did you get a call from the police stating that that person was missing and then there then afterwards you didn't
00:39:06
make contact with them um no well never right so look I I think it's I mean we don't want to go too far
00:39:15
into this well that's a different case but what I'm talking about here and it kind of goes along with Lauren's case as
00:39:22
well is from what I could find and what I'm I'm making a lot of assumptions here about Lauren's
00:39:32
relationship with this boyfriend yeah it seems to me though that they're they're
00:39:37
not so connected at the hip you know what I mean they're not they're not so tied to
00:39:42
one another this is a bit of a long distance relationship right um yes it is long term yes it sounds
00:39:49
like they were planning on moving in together but it also sounds like they very much lived Separate Lives when they
00:39:57
weren't with each other right which would make more sense why you would contact somebody through email plus this
00:40:04
dude uh I believe he's significantly older than Lauren maybe 10 years 12 years he's he's older he's more
00:40:14
established she met him when she was working at some um Law Firm remember she wants to be a lawyer so
00:40:24
he doesn't respond to this email because he told detectives he said look I I wanted
00:40:30
to I wanted to have a conversation with her in person about this email and I wasn't going to do so until the next
00:40:37
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
00:40:44
reply you think that's suspicious I'm telling you I didn't even know that she was missing
00:40:50
um yeah he's he's in California on a golf trip so his he has a solid Alibi he he's been brave you know he's on the
00:40:59
other side of the country uh at the time in question he was the other thing that police were
00:41:07
suspicious about so now now we've cleared the boyfriend right now the other thing that police are suspicious
00:41:13
about is the night before remember it's believed that Saturday is the last time anybody had any contact with Lauren
00:41:21
right the night before on Friday night she and a friend stayed at the home of two males and you hear Stephen McDaniel
00:41:30
reference that in the the interview there he said you know when when the reporter says when's the
00:41:37
last time anybody saw her he says she was with some friends at and she he mentions their names I don't I don't
00:41:46
know their names um they lived on Walnut Street yeah well in fact the the real story is her friend
00:41:54
was seeing one of these guys they they have a relationship and they were partying there the night before and the
00:42:02
the two women decided to just crash at that house so she was last seen coming home from that house so now police are a
00:42:10
little suspicious because they're like wait a second we thought she had a boyfriend yes she
00:42:15
does boyfriend's in California on this golf trip oh what's she doing staying the night at these guys house the night
00:42:21
before yeah but there's a lot of people that go hey we're we're going to have a long distance relationship and hey
00:42:29
uh whatever happens in your hometown I don't need to know about it yeah I mean that well and that's what I
00:42:36
was getting in common I I I like I said I'm making assumptions here but that's that's really what I'm assuming was
00:42:42
going on with Lauren and her boyfriend's relationship but as they have Separate Lives when they weren't together right
00:42:49
and as far as law enforcement and detectives are concerned now if that is the case and you go well we
00:42:56
have evidence that she's hanging out with these other guys is there another romantic interest that you know would
00:43:04
have motive because she's going to leave him uh for the the longtime boyfriend and that's an angle they have to look
00:43:11
into let's hear the the third portion of that interview and then this morning they knocked on my door they were
00:43:18
looking around trying to find anything and a few a few of the other friends uh therapy um
00:43:28
Burpee and Garen and Ashley they were here they were here last night and they'd come back this morning and I just
00:43:37
went out and talked with them and they then they moved us all over the side and they bust us all down to the department
00:43:46
and kept us there until I got back just a little while ago yeah they took statements to try and
00:43:54
find out if anyone had seen anything if they would have heard anything when the last time anyone saw or was
00:44:01
now they haven't confirmed at least not with us that it was um that they found are you holding out any holes right now
00:44:11
right I I hope but if they found it on on the property somewhere [Applause] you hadn't heard anything about a body
00:44:27
until you were talking about no no as far as any of us they were still trying to just find her I mean we got an
00:44:36
email this morning from some people that live on the other side of Kroger on the
00:44:40
other side of the river that they had seen her in the past running in that area we thought maybe someone had
00:44:46
snatched her over there or maybe she got hurt or something all right so when we listened to those three Clips the one
00:44:52
thing that jumps out at me that is more apparent In that clip I think than the other two
00:45:00
is this the reporter starts asking him something and he starts doing this huh and then when he goes to answer
00:45:12
there's no emotion it goes right back into normal speech yeah so when I was watching it I watched
00:45:21
it a few times and it's the footage look the audio is not the best and the the video is not that's the best audio we've
00:45:28
ever the video is not the best either and plus he's got we should probably describe what Steven looks like so he's
00:45:35
kind of a pasty skinny kid um he would be in his uh 26 he would be 26 at the time of that interview yeah he
00:45:45
has very puffy hair very yeah long hair but it's it's all it's all over the place it's very poofy as you it's almost
00:45:54
like a afro yeah and he he looks like what maybe he he's got a little facial hair maybe he
00:46:04
hasn't shaved in a couple of days or something it's very patchy yes so when watching that one the video is not the
00:46:11
best but then two they're outside you can hear the wind blowing and at some point you can hear Vehicles driving by
00:46:17
uh maybe somebody's cell phone is making a weird noise but with the wind blowing his hair is
00:46:25
constantly like in and out of his face right yeah and I was trying to determine because we've seen this in in several
00:46:32
other cases where what you hear is it sounds like somebody who's very emotional sounds like
00:46:39
somebody who's crying but you will have witnesses tell you there were no tears and I was trying to determine if he was
00:46:46
in fact actually crying tears not just putting on a a noise or a voice uh to to sound like he's very upset and
00:46:56
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
00:47:04
gave who was asking him the questions her words later were yes he was very emotional uh and yes he became very
00:47:14
emotional as soon as I told him they found a body um and he does in this third portion
00:47:21
keep referencing she was a jogger and unfortunately we've covered too many cases where a woman has
00:47:29
been out jogging and she's not seen again so he keeps referencing that but again I
00:47:36
couldn't tell if there were tears or not I'm going to go with what the reporter says she says he was very emotional I'm
00:47:42
just going to believe that she believed his emotions to be genuine at the time but I'm with you it sounds to me like
00:47:51
he's turning it on and turning it off right when he's turning it on and then he's he's asked to give a response and
00:47:58
he gives a response and the emotion is not it's absent from from his words it's too clear and I but I also don't like
00:48:06
any time that we have a missing person we have no you have look you can assume uh your friends missing for a few days
00:48:15
they find a body yeah you could start assuming that's her body I I get that part but I don't like when
00:48:22
people start offering these alternate endings oh well we just thought this or we just thought she went for a run and
00:48:29
somebody grabbed her you know it's it's alternate endings and I I just never like that well I I get that but this is
00:48:39
not the first time he's been asked what does he think happened to her you know what I mean like so it's but he also I
00:48:46
think where he's quick with an answer it's because he's been asked that question probably at least two times
00:48:51
before this interview because you heard him say he he spoke with police that morning and he also spoke with them we
00:48:57
know he did a brief interview with them in either a detective's car or a police car we also heard him say that they took
00:49:05
some of them down to the station and talked to some of her friends there as well
00:49:11
so he's he's been he's been talking about this missing person's case all morning long by by the
00:49:18
time of this interview right but it's also he does this thing where he kind of goes
00:49:24
like well I didn't know her that well you know but then offers a lot of detail you know like well I didn't know her
00:49:33
that well did you meet any of her family yes one time and and I remember what happened the day before
00:49:39
yeah I mean like yeah that that's a lot of detail yeah so he's saying what that he
00:49:46
believes he saw her maybe a week or two before that interview that's what it sounds like to me he's
00:49:53
not claiming that he saw her on Saturday he's heard from friends that she was last seen on Saturday
00:50:00
yeah I didn't get that I think what he um the the reason why there's confusion on that answer is he was basically
00:50:08
saying like yeah I remember seeing her run like a week or so ago so okay I think it
00:50:15
wasn't so much that that's the last time I saw her I think he's going that's the
00:50:21
last time I remember seeing her run so after the Torso is found and as we said yes it was found on the
00:50:30
property of the apartment complex he he Stephen's unaware of that during that interview
00:50:36
um the detectives are knocking on everyone's doors that live in the apartment complex they again are going
00:50:43
to ask more questions but this time they want to ask each resident if they can come inside and do a quick walk through
00:50:52
right from the paperwork that I saw Captain they state that everyone granted them
00:51:00
permission to go into their Apartments this did include Stephen McDaniel however
00:51:08
the way that it's described in in the paperwork it sounds like they really had to do
00:51:14
some talking to talk him into letting them come in and do this is just supposed to be a
00:51:21
quick walk-in walk out quick observation do you see anything super suspicious that that
00:51:28
warrants further investigation if not move on well you're right and you have to protect yourself against law
00:51:35
enforcement you don't want to be accused of something that you didn't do but the
00:51:42
reason why I find that odd and I understand that he's also a law student that's going to take his bar so you know
00:51:47
you go oh well should I let you in so would be all the other residents though as well right right but I agree
00:51:55
but but what I find strange is that you've you've talked to the cops several times you seem to be willing to help and
00:52:03
then all of a sudden once we want to come into your apartment you're going oh hold on I don't know if this is the
00:52:09
right thing yeah in fact well it's one or the other to me like if if if they would have started asking them questions
00:52:16
and he just said look I don't want to answer any questions without a lawyer from the get-go
00:52:21
you know or like maybe he you know answer some initial questions but once you said hey step into the car with me
00:52:28
you go no no no no I'm a law student this is the these are the rules and he's very forthcoming in
00:52:34
that interview as well right with the with the news reporter and then all of a sudden you don't want me in your
00:52:40
apartment according to the documents that I viewed and we I don't know what the actual truth is all I can state is
00:52:47
this is what the documents the state documents said happened according to the police according to the
00:52:55
detectives they are initially not granted permission by Stephen to enter his apartment
00:53:03
to which they explained to him everyone else except for you has allowed us into their Apartments
00:53:10
I don't know if that is in fact true but Stephen must have believed it because then he chooses to let them into his
00:53:18
apartment right they're in there very briefly this walk through through Steven's apartment took place at 1 40
00:53:24
p.m now in his apartment they find a large knife a large samurai sword a rifle two handguns and among some other
00:53:36
items they find some other items but these are the items that they specifically note of being in question
00:53:42
regarding that walk through that took place at 1 40 p.m it's like uh you could also state that every
00:53:50
apartment you went into that had a a knife set had a large knife true so yeah so I mean samurai sword is a bit out of
00:53:59
the norm or a rifle and two handguns a bit out of the norm I don't think so I mean as far as like you know he could
00:54:07
have been a hunter or he wanted to protect himself and maybe the same rights or samurai sword but I I bet you
00:54:15
know a few people that have swords or so you know some collectible I actually out of all the items that we
00:54:22
just mentioned there I have everything of those in my my residence except for the rifle so I just
00:54:29
wanted to say I was going against the sword but what I will say is yeah out of if they did in fact walk through all the
00:54:36
apartments this is the only apartment and these are the only items that made it onto their paperwork later right so
00:54:42
they obviously found it to be alarming let's say now it didn't take long Captain but it was on the news and
00:54:51
online news reports later saying that the body a body turned up at Lauren's apartment complex they didn't know for
00:54:58
certain if it was her but a few hours later they would confirm that it was in fact Lauren she was no longer missing
00:55:05
Lauren was dead right but the thing about that that I'm so fascinated in is that the the scheduled pickup
00:55:14
for trash was earlier and for some reason there was some kind of like half the apartments trash got
00:55:26
picked up and then there was some reason there was some interference that the other part of
00:55:33
the the complex was not that the trash was not picked up yeah so let me let me go through this
00:55:39
and I'll tell you exactly why that went down like that so the Macon Telegraph is
00:55:44
a newspaper and and this they covered this case in this story hands down better than anybody else
00:55:51
they've covered it for so well since it happened yeah until now it's well that's right
00:55:58
um so the as the make and Telegraph put it getting's torso had been disposed of stuffed in a flip top curbside garbage
00:56:07
can beside her apartment building for police finding it was a stroke of Fortune on what was trash pickup day at
00:56:16
the complex it would have been hauled to a landfill without the Torso Giddings might have become one of those supremely
00:56:25
lost the Unfortunate Souls who disappear into Forever Without a Trace that's from
00:56:31
the make and Telegraph what went down captain and this the like you said a stroke of luck and like the making
00:56:39
telegraph put it if if that trash would have been picked up that day this case would have been very very
00:56:44
different and that's why I said earlier that her friends springing into action is really what made this case completely
00:56:53
different right it it kept it got it on the right path because her friends get involved
00:57:01
they recognized that she has been unheard from they send friends to her apartment
00:57:07
determined that she is in fact missing has been missing for days log into her email log into the email one of her
00:57:14
friends says to her father you're friends with the mayor of Macon can you call him and
00:57:20
tell him what's going on because she's been missing for days this is completely out of character and she sent an email
00:57:27
saying somebody was trying to break into her home we're completely freaking out here yeah
00:57:34
friend's father calls the mayor mayor calls the police chief police chief gets everything set into action now we said
00:57:41
the night before the officer on the scene did notify the detective Bureau that they have a missing person's case
00:57:47
and hey detective it's now your missing persons case the detective who they contacted I don't know if he was on call
00:57:55
but the the detective that received that call received the case let's say did tell the officer he would be there in
00:58:02
the morning now I don't know what time he was going to get there but we do know that the mayor called the police chief
00:58:08
and this set into action a chain of events right all of those officers were at the scene
00:58:16
just before 9 A.M the next morning we have detectives there we have police cars there and we have that big large
00:58:23
Caravan this mobile command center let's say because of all those vehicles and because of this mobile command center
00:58:32
the guy driving the garbage truck decided I'm not going to ask the police to move their Command Center or their
00:58:40
vehicles right I'm going to go collect other trash and I'll swing back by here once they leave yeah so it was actually
00:58:48
all of those chain of events set this into motion to where they couldn't pick up that trash that day as you said
00:58:54
should have been picked up before the body was discovered yeah sometimes the universe lends us a hand
00:59:04
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