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Stephen McDaniel, a Georgia law school graduate, cold-bloodedly murdered his neighbor, a girl named Lauren Giddings, 27, on June 26, 2011, in Macon, Gergoe. Lauren was a fellow law student who had graduated from Merecer's University's law school and lived right next door.
Stephen McDaniel had sneaked into her house with a stolen master key while she was sleeping and choked her to death. After the murder, the following night McDaniel dismembered her body parts, in her bathtub and dumped them in trash bags. In 2014, McDaniel was arrested and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. He remains in Hancock State Prison in Hancock County, Georgia.
An episode on Dateline, The Smoking Gun, covers the entire events behind Stephen McDaniel's murder of Giddings. It aired on October 31, 2024, on Oxygen True Crime and is available for streaming on Peacock.
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What is the story of Lauren Giddings?
Stephen Mark McDaniel was a 25-year-old student, who was a graduate of the Georgia law school. He lived next door to a fellow law student Lauren Giddings from Mercer University, at Georgia Avenue, Macon, Georgia. As per The Telegraph, it was on the morning of June 30, 2011, when the residents found the dismembered torso of Giddings was found in a flip-flop trashbin.
The last time Giddings was seen alive was on a night out with her friends on June 25, 2011. Stephen McDaniel became the prime suspect, mainly because of his strange behavior around his neighbors and colleagues. In a Woman's Day article, Lauren's sister Sarah discussed that McDaniel felt like a very strange guy whom Lauren treated with kindness.
After graduation, Lauren decided to stay on campus and prepare for her upcoming bar examinations. As per Sarah, the family went to attend her sister's graduation and recalled encountering Stephen McDaniel in a bar alone. She was shocked to see him playing darts by himself, and Lauren opened up to her about the next-door neighbor.
Lauren explained that Stephen was a socially introverted person. who would rarely come outside his house, and many students found him very weird. Weeks later, Lauren made a trip to Maryland, to be the maid of honor for her sister's wedding. As per Sarah, her sister had left her home in Butterbean to completely concentrate on her upcoming bar examinations and land a job.
Sarah was in touch with her sister with occasional calls, however, on June 29, 2011, one of Lauren's best friends Katie texted Sarah, revealing that she hadn't been picking up any calls. When Lauren's friend from University, Asley used the spare key to enter the apartment, she found her wallet, phone, and car keys, however, Lauren was nowhere to be found.
How did Stephen McDaniel murdered Lauren Giddings
Steve Gatlin, from Macon police, headed the investigation, and it was on June 30, 2011, when the torso of Lauren Giddings was retrieved from a bin outside her apartment. Inside her apartment, with luminol detectors, the detective found that Lauren's bathtub had been full of blood. After matching the torso's DNA with Lauren's mother, it was proved to belong to Lauren Giddings.
Additionally, from the apartment's backyard, they retrieved a hacksaw, which had human blood on it. When the authorities started a house search on the neighboring apartments, all of them agreed to do so, except for Stephen McDaniel. When the authorities searched his apartment, they found the sheet wrapping the hacksaw, with a pair of Lauren's undergarments.
What was more terrifying was that Stephen McDaniel had a stolen master key, which gave him access to every neighboring apartment. McDaniel was taken into custody by the police, and earned his nickname the "Hacksaw". As per an Above The Law article, Stephen McDaniel continued on to maintain his innocence until he finally pleaded guilty in April 2014.
McDaniel said it was in the early hours of June 26, 2011, when he finally entered Lauren Giddings' residence after she was asleep. He had the master key and wore gloves and a mask to walk into her bedroom. Right when he was about to enter, the floor creaked, and she woke up. It was around 4:30 a.m., and feeling the gravity of the situation, she asked him to leave.
However, the murderer grabbed Lauren by her throat, and while struggling she pulled out the mask from his face. Realizing it was her neighbor, Stephen McDaniel, she begged him to stop. However, he kept on choking her throat for almost 15 minutes before she stopped moving. He dragged her body to the bathtub and kept it for a day.
Stephen McDaniel came back to her apartment on the next right and began cutting her into pieces. He chopped off her head and limbs, packed them in trash bags, and threw them in a trashbin near Mercer's law school. McDaniel accepted that he was the one to throw her torso in the trash bin next to her apartment on June 28, 2011.
Stephen McDaniel revealed that he still doesn't know the reason why he killed Lauren Giddings, and would try to undo it if provided with an opportunity. The rest of Lauren's body parts were never recovered, which as per McDaniel were taken by a dump truck.
What happened to Stephen McDaniel?
During the investigation of Lauren Giddings' murder, the authorities also found disturbing details about Stephen McDaniel. As per an article in The Baltimore Sun, they found him guilty of 30 counts of sexual exploitation of children, added to housebreaking and forced entry.
The detectives retrieved disturbing images from McDaniel's personal computer, along with sneaking images of Giddings, the night she was murdered. As per the Above The Law article, McDaniel was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, with his chance of parole only in 2041. As per District Attorney David Cooke, the culprit is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison.
As per an article on 41 NBC, on May 30, 2022, Stephen McDaniel filed a habeas corpus petition to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. In the petition, he requested a new trial to release him from prison, which was denied by the court. As per the Georgia Department of Corrections, Stephen McDaniel currently spending his prison time at Hancock State Prison in Hancock County, Georgia.
Check our other articles for more details on other episodes of NBC's Dateline.
