Police Needed Therapy After Witnessing This Crime!

It’s going to be a missing person. Lauren Giddings.  I was coming back from Bar Prep and I was driving back and I saw her going out to run.  Police say a K-9 unit from Dooly County has volunteered to help in the search for the remains of murdered Mercer grad Lauren Giddy.  You used to watch her come in and out of her apartment, didn’t you?  No.

 Now you’re lying. How can you remember a statute and you can’t remember what you did two days ago?  I don’t know.  The city of Mon is in the central part of the state of Georgia. Today we’re getting to know 27-year-old Lauren Giddings. She was born into the family of Karen and Bill. She had two sisters, Sarah and Caitlyn, and Lauren was the oldest one.

 They were all incredibly close, and they used to joke that the real star of the family was Lauren’s dog, Butterbean. Lauren was always focused and driven, and her dream was to become a state prosecutor. Like, that was the goal she had her eyes set on for a long time. She moved from Maryland to Mon, Georgia to really go after that goal.

 People in Mon say it’s a slow, laidback kind of city. Everyone’s friendly. You don’t really meet strangers here, you know. And overall, it’s just a quiet, peaceful place to live and study. And hey, real quick, tell me in the comments where you’re watching this video from and what time it is for you right now. I’m honestly curious to see where this YouTube audience is tuning in from.

Lauren clicked with her new home almost instantly. Around that time, she was in a long-distance relationship with David Van Dyver, a corporate attorney she had met four years earlier at his law firm in Atlanta. Even though she was almost two decades younger than him, they had so much in common.

 David used to say she was wise way beyond her years. There was an immediate connection between them. the same attitude toward work, a similar dry but slightly goofy sense of humor, and this strong mutual support through some really tough personal and professional moments. David described her as straightforward, intelligent, and incredibly level-headed.

 Lauren even managed to win over his very cautious, super protective older sister, which he joked was a huge accomplishment because no one had ever pulled that off before. Lauren had absolutely no idea that David was planning to propose to her. He had already picked out the perfect place, but the long distance after her move started to weigh on them and they ended up breaking up for a short time.

 Lauren then began dating another student named Joe, but she quickly realized she was still deeply in love with David and that like she truly wanted things to work out between them. So, she ended things with Joe. He was pretty hurt, but in the end they stayed good friends. Let’s fast forward a little. Lauren had just graduated from one of the oldest law schools in the United States, the School of Law at Mercer University.

 Of course, Butterbean was there at her graduation along with David and her entire family. Lauren couldn’t wait to put everything she had learned into practice and fully step into this new chapter of her life. The next big hurdle was the Georgia Bar exam, and she spent basically every free minute studying for it.

 After graduating, she traveled to Maryland for her sister Caitlyn’s wedding. Later, she said she really needed to lock in and take studying and work seriously. The whole family understood that this would likely be the last time they’d all be together for a while, and that made Caitlyn’s big day feel even more meaningful. Like many graduates, Lauren decided to stay in Mon instead of moving back to Baltimore.

 She lived on the second floor of Barristers’s Hall, apartment number two. Barristers Hall was built specifically for law students and was located directly across from campus. Being able to continue meeting with professors and use the law library while preparing for the bar exam made it feel like the most logical place to stay for a little longer.

 But inside her apartment, the space that once felt safe and peaceful soon started to feel very different. Lauren told her sister about something she couldn’t prove but felt certain was happening. It sounded strange, but she was convinced it was real. She felt like someone was moving her things, like someone was coming into her apartment.

Whenever she returned home after being out, there was this weird energy in the place that she just couldn’t explain. She had this constant feeling that someone was watching her, but there were no signs of a break-in, so she couldn’t understand how that was even possible. That unsettling feeling wouldn’t go away.

 And late at night on June 25th, 2011, she sent David an email describing her fears. David tried to calm her down, telling her there was probably nothing to worry about and that it was likely just some kids messing around with no intention of causing harm. Meanwhile, Lauren kept studying non-stop and hardly left her apartment.

 So, it’s completely possible that without even realizing it, the isolation was starting to get to her a little. Lauren then sent out a mass message that included the following.  Hey everyone, I’m pretty much all in on studying for the bar exam right now, so please don’t be offended if I don’t respond to messages or emails for a bit.

 And in the days that followed, there was complete silence from her. Aside from going to church and occasionally working out, she did almost nothing but study. So, at first, a few unread messages or missed calls didn’t seem all that alarming. But her best friend Katie and her sister Caitlyn kept trying to reach her over and over again.

 And every single time there was nothing but silence. Caitlyn was on her honeymoon sending photos. And the fact that Lauren didn’t reply to a single one felt strange. This didn’t look like someone who was just busy. It started to feel like something was wrong. One of the students, Ashley, got a call from Caitlyn asking her to stop by Lauren’s apartment and check if everything was okay.

 Before heading over, Ashley tried calling Lauren herself, but Lauren’s phone immediately went straight to voicemail. Ashley and her boyfriend drove to the building and noticed that Lauren’s car was still parked outside. Using a spare key, they went inside. Lauren’s belongings were kind of scattered everywhere, but that didn’t seem too unusual since she was preparing to move out and relocate to be with David.

 Then they looked at her calendar and realized something unsettling. She was supposed to move out the very next day, June 30th. After that, they found Lauren’s bag, her law textbooks, her cell phone, and her laptop. And everyone agreed on one thing. She would never disappear without taking those items with her. So, where was she? Ashley started calling friends and people she knew who lived in the same complex.

 Even Lauren’s ex Joe began looking for her around the university while others searched the surrounding area. The general understanding was this. The last time anyone had heard from her was 4 days earlier at an end ofear party. She had left the next morning and everything seemed fine. A few hours later, she had emailed David again once more describing her fears about staying in the apartment.

 The next morning, when the searches still came up empty, it was time to call the police. Her family began the nearly 12-hour drive to Georgia to help. At 9:00 in the morning, officers arrived at apartment number two in Barristers Hall. Right away, it was clear there were no signs of forced entry, no signs of a struggle, and nothing appeared to be missing.

 But everyone agreed on one thing. Something was clearly wrong. The police began a careful search of the apartment, and one of the first steps was using Luminol to check for traces of blood. Everything appeared clean. But when they applied it in Lauren’s bathroom, the result was completely different.

 Her bathtub was unmistakably filled with blood. At that moment, police realized they were likely no longer searching for Lauren alive. They were searching for her body. June 30th was a hot day with strong winds. When the search moved outside so they could reassess and plan their next steps, a sudden gust of wind carried something with it.

 Nearby stood several trash dumpsters, and the sharp stench made everyone freeze. There was no doubt about it. It was the unmistakable smell of a decomposing human body. One of the officers later said, “When we were standing there, the wind shifted in life. We’ve all smelled bad things. But the smell of a body or a decomposing body, that’s honestly one of the worst smells you can ever experience.

” The officers opened the lids of the dumpsters and made a horrifying discovery, one that would stay with them forever. Inside, they found a female torso wrapped in a black plastic bag. Further forensic testing was still required. But given that Lauren was missing, combined with the luminal results found in her bathroom, police had very little doubt.

 This was part of Lauren’s body. I’d never seen anything like that before. Who could even do something like this? Because honestly, only a monster is capable of something like that. One of the investigators said it was absolutely horrifying. One detective later pointed out this strange  twist of fate. The patrol cars parked near the entrance had blocked a garbage truck  and kept it from pulling in to collect the trash.

 If the police hadn’t been there, if nothing had stopped that truck, everything would have been gone before the search even began. And just as investigators feared, forensic testing confirmed it. The torso did belong to Lauren Giddings. The chief medical examiner later stated that there were no signs of sexual  assault, but the exact cause of death could not be determined.

 At the same time, investigators  believed she was killed on June 26th. Lauren’s apartment, especially the bathroom, was thoroughly processed for fingerprints and any other possible evidence. But it quickly became clear that the place had been cleaned extremely well, and only the luminal revealed any traces at all.

 The area outside the building was completely sealed off, and police worked hard to keep the discovery quiet. If the killer was someone living in the complex, investigators didn’t want them to know a body had been found and risk them fleeing or destroying additional evidence. One of the officers said, “You always have to look at the people closest to the victim, emotionally or geographically.

” Everyone who had been involved in those initial searches, Ashley, Joe, and others, was asked to come in and give a statement. Police also spoke with her partner, David, but he wasn’t just devastated at the time, he was in California at a golf tournament, and his alibi checked out completely. It was clear he had nothing to do with this.

 Lauren’s ex Joe was also quickly ruled out as a suspect. Investigators wanted to search every apartment in the building just to start systematically clearing people. And honestly, everyone agreed without hesitation. Everyone except one person, 25-year-old Steven McDaniel. So why was that a problem? That’s what investigators were asking themselves.

This is purely professional, he said. It’s the lawyer in me. I’ve always been very protective of my personal space. He explained that he was also a law student studying for the bar exam and that he had lived next door to Lauren since their first year of law school in apartment number four. What’s more, he had been part of the initial search for Lauren, walking around with her friends.

And just a few hours earlier, he had been asked to come down to the police station. And yeah, that detail stood out.  With me is her next door neighbor who lives in apartment 4. Can I get your last name?  McDaniel. Steven McDaniel.  When was the last time you think you seen Lauren?  It was either last week or the week before that.

 I was coming back  from bar prep and I was driving back and I saw her going out to run. Is there anything that you could tell me today or add to your statement that could help me locate Lauren?  I can’t think of anything. I mean, we looked around to see if there was a note or if there was anything, but there was just nothing that we could find to try and figure out where she was.

 They continued searching the rest of the building, but they kept a close eye on him. His behavior felt off. On one hand, he refused to help with anything specific. On the other, he was constantly hovering nearby, like he wanted to stay right in the middle of everything that was happening. Steven stayed there the entire day, watching what everyone else was doing, trailing the officers as they went in and out of residents apartments, and the suspicion really started to build once reporters showed up. He was one of the first

people to agree to talk to them, and he began sharing his own theories about what might have happened to Lauren  that was living there.  Yeah, Lauren was my neighbor. 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 time anyone heard from her was an email that she sent out, and no one’s heard from her since.

 And did you see her hang out with anyone at the time? Anything that?  I No. No. No one has seen her since Saturday. I haven’t seen anything. I mean, you always hear noise outside, but it’s just people walking by pretty much. I mean, she’s as nice as can be. I’m very personable, very much people person.  Do you know anybody that any enemies she might have had? Somebody that might want to hurt her?  No, I where we don’t know where she is.

 I mean, the only thing we can think is that maybe she went out running and someone snatched her because I we went out we went over one of her friends had a key. We went inside and tried to see if there was anything a miss, but I mean she had a door jam that was sitting right by it. So there was no sign that anyone broke in.

 I mean the door was locked when everyone got here.  What about um in the like the parking lot area? I know they’ve been doing a lot of I think that’s where they have recovered the body or whatever they recovered from there.  Body  had you heard you seen anything there?  Have you seen anything there?  I mean we don’t know if this is the same person.

 You know what I mean? Like they took out a body there earlier. We don’t know if it’s the same person or not. So that’s why we’re trying to ask people if they know who lived there. Are you okay, sir?  I think I need to sit down.  Okay.  At that point, only a handful of people knew exactly what had been found in the dumpster.

 And after the interview was over, Steven sat there for a long time, just staring into nothing, completely blank, like he was lost in his own thoughts. Now, they haven’t confirmed, at least not with us, that it it was um that they found. Are you holding out any hope right now?  I I hope. But  you had heard anything about a body until you were talking to us earlier?  No.

 No. As far as any arrest, they were still trying to just find her. We uh Joe, he got onto her computer last night to see if she had anything. She’d sent an email out to some people. There was an email that she sent out after 10 that night where she she sent I think it was someone in Atlanta, a friend of hers in Atlanta.

 She was afraid in the apartment that she thought someone had tried to break in on Thursday night and she she was afraid to stay in there. But  where did you hear what did you hear that from from Joe? He he pulled it up and we we read it off the screen.  I hadn’t heard anything on Thursday night.  She never came to you to tell you anything.

 No, I mean she was afraid in her apartment. Then I mean get her out of there.  A few hours later, he finally agreed to let police enter his apartment. Inside, they found large stockpiles of food, energy drinks, and quite a bit of weaponry. Officers searched through drawers and came across a variety of items, including condoms.

 When those were pulled out, Steven muttered something about being a virgin and saving himself for marriage. He went on to explain that he was registered on the dating site e-harmony, but admitted that m he hadn’t been very successful when it came to dates. His behavior was extremely strange. And when police asked why he even had the condoms, he gave this vague, rambling explanation, saying he had broken into two neighboring apartments and had sort of taken them by accident.

 In doing so, he basically admitted that he had been breaking into apartments just a few meters away from Lauren’s place. At that point, police arrested him for burglary and took him to the station for further questioning. Mon police say a K-9 unit from Douly County has volunteered to help in the search for the remains of murdered Mercer grad Lauren Giddings.

 Mon police are following several leads in the case but so far have no official suspects. Giddings neighbor, 25-year-old Steven McDaniel, remains in jail tonight on unrelated burglary charges. Police continue to gather statements from students and neighbors in what they’re calling a detailed, painstaking process.  Even though earlier he had been eager to talk to the media and seemed desperate to know everything that was going on, now he completely shut down and stopped speaking altogether.

 All right, I just got to ask you a few more questions.  Okay. Uh,  you came down earlier tonight. Me and you talked. All right. You don’t have any weapons on you, do you?  That’s just you. What’s wrong? You know I’m Detective Patterson, right?  Yes.  Do you remember? Put your hands up here. You remember us talking? I need you to know about this girl right here.

 You know her?  Yes.  Who is that?  Lauren Giddings.  Does she live next door to you?  Yes.  Okay. Look at me when you talk to me, son. Okay. Was you friends with her?  Yes. I’m  asking you for help. I need your help. Can you help me?  I don’t know.  You don’t know if you can help me?  Yes.  I need your help.

 Help me out. Tell me what to do.  There were a lot of inconsistencies in his statements, and he answered questions unwillingly. Most of the time, it was just short responses. Yes, no, or I don’t know.  What do you think happened to her?  I don’t know. [snorts] Do you even care that no one can find her? I mean, I don’t know.

 Do you?  Yes.  Well, you know, there was a body found in the trash can next to the apartments.  Yes.  And it’s a female white female’s body right next to y’all’s apartment. We don’t know 100% sure it’s Lauren, but we’re pretty confident it is. I mean, who would who would do something to somebody and throw them in a trash can?  I don’t know.

 [snorts] And you know why? We’ve been working all day trying to find Lauren, right?  Yes.  Cuz her family wants to know where she’s at.  Yes.  And I don’t know what to tell her family. So I’m asking you, what do I need to tell her family?  I don’t know. It’s  all on you, brother. What do you wanted me to tell her family?  Huh?  I don’t know.

 Well, I need to know. On top of everything else, his demeanor was just unsettling. Police said they had never seen anyone behave like this during an interrogation before. He sat almost completely still the entire time, barely even moving his head. Officers actually had to keep asking him to look them in the eyes.

 When the interrogation footage was sped up, it made things even more disturbing. You could clearly see just how unnaturally motionless he was and how strange that looked next to the detective’s normal natural movements. Even when investigators left the room, he stayed in the exact same position, staring straight ahead. His constant repetition of no and I don’t know started to get under Detective Patterson’s skin.

 At that point, he had no doubt anymore. This was the person connected to the horrific thing that had happened to Lauren.  You got your ass on that [ __ ] news and stood out there and gave a media report that her mother saw. You sure stood out there and ran your mouth to the news media, but now you’re going to get out here and you don’t [ __ ] know.

You’re just a sorry piece of [ __ ] that don’t give a [ __ ]  Why would you not be honest with me? I am being honest,  Stephen. It just doesn’t feel like it, buddy. You know, I get the sense that there’s something weighing heavy on your heart right now, Stephen. Did you hurt Lauren?  No.  What’ you do, buddy?  I didn’t do anything.

 What’ you do to Lauren?  I didn’t do anything. But by then it was already well past midnight and they still hadn’t made any real progress in getting answers.  You’re going to look at this right here, this little girl right here, and you’re going to say you don’t know. I know you know.  I don’t know.  Yes, you know.

 What are you going to say tomorrow when I say we got your hair with the body? I believe that you’re a good guy. You’ve been pinkedked on. Girls didn’t show you the respect that you deserved. You did something stupid and I believe you feel bad about it and that’s why you’re all freaked out right now. We want you to to tell it so that way people are understand you’re not a monster.

 Things just you got out of control. It’s a sickness. Why’d you do it, Stephen?  I didn’t do it.  Stephen, why are you going to keep telling that you hurt that girl?  No, I didn’t.  Yes, you did, Stephen. I’m going take this with me. You don’t deserve to look at it. Just stay right here. Okay.  Okay.  I appreciate all your cooperation tonight. Okay.

 Okay.  Steven also admitted that he had two scratches just above his hip. While the interview was going on, detectives were tearing through Steven’s apartment. Investigators discovered that somehow he had access to a master key that could open every unit in the complex. They found packaging from a metal hacksaw and several flash drives.

 Later analysis revealed those drives contained graphic and deeply disturbing images and videos involving children. They also found a piece of underwear that after forensic testing was identified as belonging to Lauren Giddings. A review of his internet search history showed that he repeatedly viewed Lauren’s social media profiles and did so alongside searches for and viewing of extremely violent pornography.

 Investigators also learned that he had been writing blogs about the torture and murder of women, posting his twisted fantasies on online forums. It was all incredibly disturbing, and given how often Lauren’s name appeared in his searches, it was clear he was obsessed with her. One of his most recent searches was about the garbage collection schedule in Mon.

 The [snorts] game’s over. I mean, we know what you did to her, so we just want to know what you if you were going to tell us or not.  I didn’t do anything.  Well, that’s what you say, but we no different. So, you’re [ __ ] either way. So, you can sit there with that dumb look on your face, but it’s over.

 I don’t know what you want me to say. I want you to say nothing. You’re [ __ ] either way. Thought you were smarter than everybody. Somebody always leaves something in a crime scene. You [ __ ] up. First, I didn’t really believe you had anything to do with it. They said, “Man, it couldn’t have been him.

 He used to work down DA’s office with us. He’s a good guy. He used to help us out. Friendly guy and everything. Couldn’t be him. You could have done something like that.  The sad thing about it is you probably could have made something with your life, but you chose a different route because one, you don’t have a girlfriend, and two, you’re never going to get a girlfriend.

In a utility room inside the complex, investigators found a hacksaw that matched the packaging from Steven’s apartment. There was blood on it. Surveillance footage later confirmed that he was the one who had purchased that hacksaw. They also discovered a blood stained bed sheet and forensic testing showed that just like the hacksaw, it was linked to Lauren.

 The maintenance worker had already been ruled out as a suspect and the only other person who had a key to that room was Steven. This was Laurens’s killer. But the question remained, who exactly was Steven McDaniel? and why, for the love of anything, did he do this? Steven’s classmates later said that being around him was deeply uncomfortable.

 He was awkward, strange, and just hard to talk to. He would ask people unsettling questions about death, fixate on zombie apocalypses and the idea of the perfect murder. He’d literally turn conversations into interrogations, asking people how they would hypothetically kill someone and get away with it. Back in school, Steven had even been voted most likely to become famous.

His fellow law students said he genuinely believed he was the smartest person in the room, smarter than everyone else, and he carried that belief with this smug, arrogant confidence. He was always ready to argue even when he was completely wrong. He constantly picked fights with people, including Lauren and other students.

Said it almost seemed like he enjoyed disagreeing and provoking arguments. He didn’t come here to make friends. That was obvious. One of them said both classmates and professors described him as an average student. He didn’t stand out in any real way. Yet, he spoke and carried himself like he was someone exceptional.

 By that point, he was nearing the end of his time at the university and had no idea what came next. He was finishing school with no friends and no real plans for the future. It was like he was just drifting. From the very beginning, ever since they became neighbors in 2008, Lauren genuinely tried to be kind to him and supportive.

 She even once stopped to introduce him to her mom, Karen, when she saw him walking around the complex alone and clearly rushed. Karen actually met him again shortly before their graduation.  There was just something about him.  After that second conversation, she couldn’t get it out of her head that he was living right next door to Lauren.

 It felt strange to me that he always kept his windows and curtains closed, like you never actually saw him, she said.  But no matter how friendly Lauren tried to be, he had the same effect on her that he seemed to have on most people. He simply made her feel uneasy. In an email, Lauren wrote to David back in 2008, the same year she moved there.

 She mentioned Steven’s behavior and talked about the constant clashes she had with him in class. She wrote,  “He gave me this really disdainful look. He definitely has it out for me.”  At the same time, Steven was clearly fixated on Lauren and asked her out several times. But aside from the fact that she was already in a relationship, she just wasn’t interested in him in that way.

 From then on, she kept things strictly polite if she happened to run into him, but she very deliberately kept her distance. Steven McDaniel was formally charged with the murder of Lauren Giddings. Later on, he was also charged with seven counts of sexual exploitation.  How are you, buddy?  All right.  Ask a few more questions.  I had nothing to say without my attorney.

 You don’t want to hear what we have.  I want my attorney. Even though his attorneys asked for bail to be set at $100,000, the court set it at nearly 1 million, a grand jury indicted him on a single count of murder. And then after all of his electronic devices were fully analyzed, prosecutors added 30 more charges related to sexual exploitation.

 The case building against Steven McDaniel and the murder of his neighbor, Lauren Giddings, is getting stronger. Today, a grand jury announced there’s enough evidence to prepare for trial.  One count of murder and 30 counts of sexual exploitation of children. Those are the heavy charges stacked against McDaniel, who’s been in jail since July 1st on unrelated burglary charges.

 More than 20 grand jurors heard from the district attorney’s office this morning before deciding there’s enough evidence to let this case go to trial. This indictment says evidence shown today leads the grand jury to believe Steven McDaniel did kill, murder, and cause the death of Lauren Giddings, a human being, by inflicting bodily harm in a manner unknown to the grand jury at this time, including decapitation of said victim.

Since the grand jury has decided there is enough probable cause in this case, the next step is arraignment. That’s when McDaniel will enter his plea. And according to his attorney, Floyd Buford, it’ll be not guilty.  Even though the evidence against him looked very strong, the prosecution was upfront about one thing.

 A large part of the case was built on circumstantial evidence. Aside from the piece of underwear, there was nothing that directly tied his DNA to Lauren. There were no traces of him found in the bathroom, and even the hacksaw didn’t contain his DNA. As for the underwear, the defense could potentially argue that it was something he had stolen, just like the condoms.

 Investigators were also unable to determine the exact cause of death or the precise time she was killed. Despite all of that, prosecutors were confident in their case and fully prepared to take it to trial. Then, not long after, new evidence surfaced. Evidence that finally made everything fall into place.

 And looking at it was deeply unsettling. On a memory card seized from his apartment, investigators found a video that proved Steven had been stalking Lauren for a long time. Her fears that she was being watched and that someone was getting into her apartment weren’t imagined at all. They were real. On the very night Lauren was killed, he was filming her apartment through the window.

 He took a wooden stick, taped a camera to the end of it, and held it up in a way that let him peer into her rooms through the blinds. Prosecutor David Cook later said that the exact second he saw that video, he knew. He said, “That’s him. A few days later, hundreds of people filled St. Mary of the Mills Church for Lauren’s funeral. Despite every effort, only her torso was ever recovered, and that was all they were able to lay to rest that day.

 Today, the Bib County District Attorney’s Office announced it plans to seek the death penalty against Steven McDaniel. Steven McDaniel maintained that he was innocent and the defense team prepared a strategy claiming that police had framed him that they had repeatedly entered his apartment and planted evidence.

 Another strange twist emerged when it became known that one of Steven’s attorneys who worked with him briefly had previously been Lauren’s instructor during a transitional course between law school and legal practice. He said he genuinely admired Lauren and enjoyed teaching her. At the same time, he mentioned that she was firmly opposed to the death penalty.

 Knowing that prosecutors were already pushing for that exact punishment, he argued that it should be taken off the table. As everyone braced for what was expected to be an extremely difficult trial, the prosecution agreed to drop the sexual exploitation charges and offered a plea deal. And that meant that Steven, after consulting with his attorneys, changed his position just one week before the trial was set to begin.

 Steven McDaniel finally pleaded guilty to the murder of Lauren.  For nearly 3 years, two huge unanswered questions hung over the death of Lauren Giddings. What happened the night she died? And what happened to the rest of her body? Since only her torso was found after the murder. Today, Steven McDaniel spelled out the answers to those questions in chilling detail.

 As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, McDaniel agreed to write an alleution, a document detailing what he did and how.  Steven McDaniel is a psychopath who cowardly allowed darkness and evil to consume him. He should never be permitted to prowl the streets of this world again. That is the voice of Karen Giddings, the mother of Lauren Giddings, the Mercer Law grad who was killed almost three years ago.

 Today, Steven McDaniel entered a guilty plea to the murder of Lauren Giddings. His guilty plea provides finality to this case and assures justice that cannot be undone. Because of this guilty plea, Steven McDaniel will never again be able to deny that he and he alone is responsible for Lauren Giddings’s death.

 One of his former attorneys later said that everything really started falling apart for McDaniel once the digital evidence began to surface and it just kept piling up again and again. Investigators uncovered new material linked to his computer and his camera. Eventually, even he had to admit there was enough there to secure a conviction.

Before sentencing, prosecutors presented evidence meant to show who he really was as a person. The court was shown video footage of Lauren’s home. They also read aloud some of the posts believed to have been written by Steven on online forums. One of them said, “I’m finishing law school.

 I’m seriously celebrating by drinking alone in front of my computer. I see my hot neighbor and classmate coming home late. I invite her up for a late night drink. I make her a special drink called a Mickey Finn. A drink meant to knock someone out. She passes out. I finally lose my V-card. Oh no, she overdoses and dies. I grilled her.

 I don’t like awful, so I threw away her torso. I throw a tantrum on TV while the cops find her remains. Stay mad, you virgins. However, the authenticity of that post was questioned. Some people claimed it could have been written by someone else, just an online troll. And while prosecutors firmly believed Steven was the author, that point is still debated to this day.

 As part of the plea deal, he was required to stand in court and describe exactly what he did that day. And this is what he said happened. At around 4:30 in the morning, he unlocked her door using the master key. He was dressed in black, wearing gloves and a mask. According to him, he stood there watching her sleep.

 But she must have sensed something was wrong and suddenly woke up. Before she could get out of bed or even fully understand what was happening, he lunged at her and wrapped his hands around her neck. They struggled and fell to the floor. He said Lauren grabbed his mask and pulled it off.

 When she realized who it was, she called him by name and screamed, begging him to stop. She cried and fought back for nearly 15 minutes while he strangled her until she eventually stopped breathing. He dragged her into the bathroom and placed her in the bathtub. She remained there for the rest of the night and throughout the entire next day.

 Then on the evening of June 27th, he returned with tools to do what he called the dirty work, which he described in disturbing detail. He placed her remains into a dumpster near the apartment complex, believing it would be picked up soon. He cut the mask, gloves, and shirt into pieces and flushed them down the toilet. The medical examiner later confirmed that there were no signs of sexual assault.

and Steven stated that he did not sexually assault Lauren. When she died, she was wearing pink running shorts, and I never took them off. They were found on her torso exactly the way I left them,” he said in court. “Even though almost 3 years had passed by then, people still struggled to wrap their heads around it.

” “From the very beginning, Lauren had been nothing but kind and polite to him, and even Steven himself acknowledged that. He claimed that after that night he was in this haze, almost like a dreamlike dissociative state, and convinced himself that Lauren was still alive. And he said, “It’s hard for me to explain why I killed Lauren or why I tried to cover it up the way I did.

 I know it was horribly wrong. I’m not insane, and I’m not someone without morals or decency. Something in my nature, in my psychology, my neurology, maybe my own pathology has to explain it.” He told her family that he was sorry and that he mourned Lauren every single  day, but he said he didn’t expect forgiveness from them.

 I don’t deserve it in any way, and if I could turn back time and undo everything, I would. He also claimed that the only reason prosecutors ultimately did not pursue the death penalty was because of Lauren’s own position, she was firmly and categorically against it. Her family respected that stance and said they hoped he would live a long life in the worst way possible behind bars.

 Steven McDaniel was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole until the year 2041. After the sentence was handed down, he wrote a long letter in which he insisted that he had been pressured by police and that his case had been unfair from the very beginning.  We continue to get new glimpses into the psyche of Steven McDaniel.

 In a neatly handwritten two-page document filled with small lettering, Steven McDaniel outlines his experiences with making police. He complains the police yelled at him and intimidated him in an interrogation room for hours during the early stages of the investigation and wouldn’t even let him go to the restroom without permission.

 McDaniel details being so upset he suffered a seizure and required medical help, but was only told that the EMT could look at him if he’d allow police to search his apartment. He says even after they got into his apartment, police never gave him medical care.  He demanded a new trial, one he believed would finally be fair.

 So four years later, he filed an appeal representing himself. During that process, he subpoenaed more than 10 people, including his former attorney, from whom he was seeking financial damages.  Now, things really didn’t pick up until later in the afternoon as McDaniel began questioning his former attorney, Floyd Buford.

 and McDaniel decided to wave his attorney client privilege, meaning that Buford had the ability to speak freely regarding his discussions with Steven McDaniel.  Up until the last couple weeks of your case, I was strongly in your corner. a graphic, specific, detailed confession which we were shocked about in the jail. Uh, and then combine that with the searches on the internet, the fact that you had done searches about having sex with dead people, things of that nature.

All of that combined to a heavy heavy evident injury problem in your case. On top of that, you possess the most horrific child pornographic photos I’ve ever seen.  Now, inmate Daniels Habius, he claims that Floyd Buford, Frank Hog, and the rest of his defense team failed to represent him effectively.

 Here’s what Buford had to say today about that.  Started off facing a death penalty. He ended up quite possibly the road. You could get out one night, Steven.  In his filing, Steven asked the court to order his attorney to pay $50,000 in compensation for legal fees, plus an additional $250,000 in punitive damages for what he claimed was negligence.

 He also filed a motion against Bib County Judge Howard Sims, alleging that the judge had been biased against him. That appeal was denied. Now 37 years old, McDaniel filed yet another appeal in the year 2022. In it, he claimed that prosecutors had stolen documents, that his rights had been violated, and that his attorneys had been incompetent.

 He demanded that his conviction be overturned and that he be released from prison. Steven’s father, Mark, supported these claims and said, “We’re just hoping that the truth comes out. That’s all we’re hoping for.” However, the judge stated that he couldn’t even consider the appeal because it had been filed more than a year late and it was denied as well.

 If McDaniel had shown reasonable diligence, instead of blindly assuming the Supreme Court of Georgia was at fault, he would have realized that his filing was untimely, the judge added. Steven has already filed yet another appeal, and it’s still pending. Some members of his family and a few friends continued to believe in his innocence.

 His father even launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover legal expenses, but it didn’t raise any money and was quickly taken down. Lauren’s sister, Caitlyn, called the whole thing pathetic  and completely delusional. Before he passed away, Steven’s grandfather, Hollis, gave an interview about a visit he made to him in prison.

 He said, “If everything the police collected is true, then I guess I’m just a heartbroken grandfather. You go in there and he just sits there in silence. You can’t get anything out of him. Part of you wants to pick him up and take him to a doctor, but he’s an adult. He’s not a little boy anymore, and that’s what really tears your heart apart.

 You have to accept what’s in front of you, whether you like it or not. I did what I believed was right at the time. I hired him a lawyer right away. I thought the lawyer would go in there, post bail, and bring him home. But oh my god, when I finally saw him, he looked different. His mother, Glenda, defended him as well and seemed convinced that at the time of his arrest, he was innocent.

 “I’ll hold him tight when he gets out and he’ll hug me back,” she said, adding that she imagines him one day becoming a Supreme Court  judge.  But for law enforcement, prosecutors, and Lauren’s family, the case had been settled long ago, and in their eyes, the right decision had already been made back then.

 Lauren’s sister, Caitlyn, said that  Lauren may have been one of the very few people who was genuinely kind to him and actually gave him attention  even when he felt like an outsider. There’s no moral to this story about teaching kids to lock their cars or avoid certain parts of town. There’s no she shouldn’t have done this and none of it would have happened because you should always be kind to  people.

 You should always be kind to your neighbors. Just because someone looks different doesn’t mean they actually are. But in this case, he really was. Detectives believe that what they stopped that day was a serial killer in the making, a predator, a danger to children. Once back in his youth, he’d been voted most likely to become famous.

 Now he’s infamous tied forever to one of the most shocking crimes this community has ever seen. Police praised Lauren’s family and friends for acting so quickly, and they acknowledged that if the garbage services had emptied the dumpster containing her torso, the case could have gone cold, and they might never have caught Steven at all.

 Investigators also believe that Steven was never fully honest about what happened and that there’s more to this story than what has ever been revealed. “I’m sure there are things he’ll never tell anyone,” Detective David Patterson said. Lauren’s sister Sarah added,  “Obviously, we know that she’s gone, but we honestly don’t believe a single word Steven McDaniel says.

 I don’t think he’s a very honest person at all. He can make up a million different stories. He has an incredibly vivid imagination.”  The search for Laurens’s remaining remains is still ongoing to this day. Investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility that they could be located on a 62 acre property owned by one of Steven’s relatives.

 And even though he is technically eligible for parole in the year 2041, legal experts believe he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Lauren’s family marks every major milestone and every life moment she should have been part of as if she were right there with them, celebrating alongside them. They also organize annual charity runs in her honor.

 Her sister Caitlyn named her daughter Lauren Magnolia, keeping her memory alive. In Mon, two memorial plaques have been dedicated to Lauren. One stands at Mercer Law School. The other is on a pink bench in Washington Park, right in the heart of downtown in the very place where she loved to run. Lauren’s family also established the Lauren Theresa Gidding Scholarship.

 At the law firm where she once interned, she was always remembered for her bright clothing, especially her love of pink. They even named Wednesdays Pink Wednesdays in her honor, joking that she reminded them of L. Woods from Legally Blonde. One of her close friends said that choosing color in a profession known for being so monochrome always made people smile and sparked conversations.

She stepped into a world of black pinstriped suits, and pink was her way of telling the world,  “Go on, try me.” and her friends said that line described Lauren Giddings perfectly. She made herself visible and never apologized for it. She was driven, energetic, and ready to take on whatever came her way.

 Caitlyn said,  “It’s not like she’s no longer part of our lives. She is. It’s just everything is very different now.”  Thank you to everyone who stayed with us until the end. And if you’d like to support the channel and help us keep creating content like this, please don’t forget to like, leave a comment, share, and subscribe.

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