One Dumpster From Murder

Dumpster This story takes place in 2011 in Georgia Lauren Giddings was a 27 yr old women living in Macon, Georgia. She was a recent graduate of nearby Mercer University School of Law and was hunkering down for the summer to concentrate on studying for the bar exam. She was close with her family back in Maryland, especially her sister, Kaitlyn Wheeler. Even when Lauren was busy studying and didn’t answer Kaitlyn’s calls, she would still call back later or at least text. So when Kaitlyn wasn’t hearing back from Lauren, she started calling Lauren’s friends. Turns out her friends hadn’t heard from her either. So several of them went to her apartment. Lauren’s car was parked outside, but she didn’t answer the door and it was locked. 1 friend knew where she kept a spare key and they went inside. Lauren wasn’t there. There was no sign of her or a struggle. They called police to come out, but there was no sign of Lauren. Friends began searching for Lauren, but no one had seen her. After a few more days, they went into her apartment again and called 911 to report her still missing. The 911 operator instructed them check her bathroom towels, were they damp? Check the garbage, any recent receipts? Police came out and searched her apartment a 2nd time, but there was no sign that Lauren had been home or clues to where she had gone. Lauren was declared a missing person and police began investigating the entire apartment building for clues, including the dumpsters. In one dumpster, inside a closed plastic bag, police found the torso of a young woman’s body. Lauren’s sister, Kaitlyn, heard the news when her uncle said they needed to watch the news. The story that a beautiful young law student was missing, and a torso was found in the dumpster of her apartment building became national news. This was a lucky break for investigators because that dumpster was supposed to have already been picked up that morning, but the truck was running late that day. A DNA test performed on Lauren’s mother confirmed the torso belonged to Lauren Giddings. A classmate, and one of Lauren’s neighbors, Stephen McDaniel, was one of the friends that went into Lauren’s apartment to look for her. He was interviewed by a news crew and was on camera when he heard the news. He was telling the reporter how he couldn’t imagine anyone hurting Lauren. That he hadn’t seen her in days and had no idea where she could be. But when the reporter asked what he knew about the body that was found in the garbage, did he know anything about that, Stephen froze on camera. His body language changed. He only said “a body?” The reporter asked if he was ok and he looked dizzy as he said, I need to sit down and he walked a few feet away and sat on a curb with his back to the camera. Play video Police were immediately suspicious by his behavior. They decided to search his apartment next. At this point Stephen began to panic, supposedly sweating profusely and even drinking bottle after bottle of water while they searched. Meanwhile, investigators decided they had reason to believe Lauren’s apartment might be a crime scene. And when they sprayed luminol in the bathroom, the floor, walls and tub lit up. Then a master key to the apartment building was discovered in Stephen’s apartment. When questioned, he admitted to breaking into 2 of his neighbor’s apartments and stealing condoms from them. They arrested him and taken in. He was pretty bizarre in his interrogation video. No emotion, calm, quiet. One word or short answers. But the investigation at the apartment complex was still going on. They found the packaging for a hacksaw in Stephens apartment and a pair of women’s underpants (which would later test positive for Lauren’s DNA) and several flash drives with sexually explicit images of children. In the building’s laundry room they found a hacksaw – that matched the packaging from his apartment and a bloody sheet, which would also later test positive for Lauren’s blood. In August of 2011, Stephen McDaniel was charged with Lauren Giddings murder as well as 7 counts of child sexual exploitation. While Stephen was in jail, investigators learned that just a week before her murder, Stephen had asked Lauren on a date, and she turned him down. And the night before she was murdered, she had emailed her boyfriend that she suspected that someone was watching her. And that recently someone tried to break into her apartment. A little background on Stephen. He was born in 1989, so he was 22 when he was arrested. Both of his parents worked in a factory and worked hard to provide for him. It was said that in HS he was a bully, especially to the girls. And he apparently had a blog where he would write about torture and other violence towards women. In 2014, he agreed to a deal to avoid the death penalty and pleaded guilty to murder. But part of the deal was that he had to describe what happened that night. He admitted to stalking Lauren. And on the night of June 26th, 2011, he attached a camera to a stick so that he could film her thru her in her 2nd story apartment to ensure she was alone and asleep. Then he used a master key that he had stolen from the landlord to enter her apartment. But when he snuck into her room, she heard him and woke up. So he attacked and strangled her in her bed. Then he dragged her to the bathroom, put her in the tub and left. He returned later with the hacksaw and dismembered her body. He put her torso in the dumpster outside the apartment building. Then he drove around and left the rest of her at various dumpsters around town. The rest of her remains have never been found. Per the plea deal, the judge dismissed the 1 count of burglary and the 30 counts of sexual exploitation of children. He will be eligible for parole in 2041 when he’s 52 years old. In 2018 his father started a Go Fund Me campaign to pay for the legal expenses for an appeal. It was shut down pretty quickly. Later that year Stephen represented himself in court to argue for a retrial but it was denied. And just in May of 2022, he filed a petition to overturn his conviction and be released. TBD. Sources All that’s interesting .com Crime Watch Daily on YouTube WGXA .TV news Wikipedia .com The Teal Mango .com