This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a true crime podcast. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of
Crimes and Consequences. I'm Tanya and I'm Talia. And before we get into
today's story, I would just like to ask everyone to hit this like or
subscribe or whatever button you have, whether you're watching us on YouTube or you're
listening to us on your favorite podcast app. And this is a relatively well
known story, at least in the area where it happened. But I hear
about it at some point. And maybe it was because the victim was a
law school graduate student. She was finishing up when she was murdered and we're
lost. Yeah, and it happened around like a couple of years after,
like I graduated, So maybe that's why. But anyway, I only know
a little bit about it because you told me I don't know the whole I
don't. Well, you buckle up, because I'm going to tell you all
about it. Never trust lawyers, Yeah, never trust lawyers. Two lawyers.
Yeah. So this takes place in the summer of twenty eleven in Macon,
Georgia. And I don't I've never been to Macon. Have you ever
been to me? I don't know, but apparently it's Alana. Yeah.
I don't know if it's by Alana. Yeah, but it's kind of like
a quiet town and it's it's got Mercer Law School in it, so it
kind of has that vibe of you know, students and things like that.
And this community was just shaken to its core when this happened. The I'm
gonna tell you a little bit about Lauren Giddings. She was a twenty seven
year old law school graduate and she was at this time in this summer,
she was finishing up but they had the graduation ceremony, but she was so
finishing right for the bar yeah, and she was, yeah, she was,
you know, she has this bright future ahead of her. She was
super intelligent and kind hearted. She was well liked by her peers at school,
and in this summer she was studying to take the Georgia Bar Exam.
She had told her family in the weeks leading up to this that you know,
I'm gonna be radio silent because I'm going to be immersing myself in studying.
You know, I'm gonna be off the grid. So you know,
John, that is yeah exactly. You know, don't expect to hear from
me a lot or what have you, because she's just going to be so
yeah, absolutely law the whole time. Mm hmm. And and along with
taking the bar exam that summer, she was planning a trip back home.
Her family lived in Maryland, and so she know, I believe what she
was probably going to do was to study and then go visit her family.
So she went out of state. Yeah, school, yes, she did
so. On June twenty ninth, twenty eleven, Lauren's sister, Caitlin,
realized that it had been days before since she had heard from her sister.
From Lauren, she grew concerned, like, even though she's radio silent,
she still talked to her sister. Yeah, and still you can respond to
like a text or yeah exactly. But so she was just like, you
know, what the hell, and she got contacted, like I don't know
who contacted who, whether her sister contacted some of her friends or her friends
contacted her sister. But her friends noticed too that you know, it had
been a few days since anyone had heard from Lauren, and they all start
talking to one another and they realized no one has talked to Lauren or seen
her since June twenty seventh, so it's two days prior, two days prior,
okay, right, So Caitlin immediately contacted the police to report her sister
missing, and by June thirtieth, Lauren's dad had driven to Macon from the
family home in Maryland. I wonder if they did a welfare check. They
don't do a welfare check, don't know, And I'll tell you why,
Okay, okay. It's because a friend of Laurens, who had a key
to her apartment, went to check things out. She went into her apartment
and she just discovered her apartment was in a bit of disarray, but there
was no sign of forced entry. There was no like blood anywhere, which
is messy. Yeah it was, you know, maybe there was things like
out of place or whatever, but there was definitely no sign of Lauren.
She wasn't there, but her books, her keys, and her purse were
there. So that's not a good sign, right, Who leaves that behind?
I know? After being reported missing. You know, days are passing
and her worried friends and family are fearing the worst. Her friends told police
that in the year leading up to this, like her disappearance, Lauren had
told some of her friends like she had started feeling a bit distressed. She
felt as though she was being watched at times, and Bradby she also felt
like that someone had been in her apartment because things had moved right, Like
she just was like, you know, something weird, right, something's not
right, something's not right, something weird is going on. And but she
didn't feel really like in fear or like her life was in danger or anything
like that. It was just these weird something's just something strange. Yeah,
Like she's just having these feelings like something's not right. Police decide now after
her friend you know, initially told them you know, I didn't find Lauren,
but you know, her belongings were still there. They decide they're going
to search the apartment. The police and when they sprayed luminol in the bathroom,
they did a real search. They're taking this as an investigation, yes,
because you know, no one's heard from her. It says that's got
to be a murder investigation, and you're just spraying luminol. They sprayed the
walls, the floor, and the bathtub and they just lit up positive for
blood. So, like you said, you know, this isn't a missing
person's case, but a possible homicide. I mean, we're not sure if
it's actually Lauren's blood right when you first spray it, but something odd is
going somebody cleaned it up too, because it's not obvious and only unless they
did the luminol. Right, So there's they searched her apartment, they're searching,
the police are searching the apartment complex, and that's when they came across
a grizzly discovery. Lorens dismembered Torso was found in a trash bin like those
large you know, obviously a dumpster, like a dumpster outside in one of
the apartment complexes dumpsters And many days is this tho? This is June thirtieth,
Okay, so she hasn't been seen since the twenty seventh. Okay,
So three days later they find her Torso in a dumpster, in a dumpster,
And why are you put in a dumpster in the apartment complex that she
lives in? But not you but I know, but you know, people
committing crimes. Sometimes they are not the smartest people, thankfully, because this
is how they get caught. So, you know, the community is like,
oh my god, what's going on this because this is a horrific Yeah,
there's a torso in a dumpster. Exactly, Please start putting together a
timeline leading up to obviously Laurences murder. Because she is positively identified. They
start looking at surveillance footage and you know, okay, CCTV they have all
that. Oh that's horrible, right, They you know, are collecting their
family I know it's just her torso, and so they collect their forensic evidence.
You know, they're doing their investigation. And during this process, one
person became a primary focus. He's a weirdo. Yeah, he's a weirdo,
and it's Lauren's neighbor and fellow classmate. His name is Stephen McDaniel.
So he's in law school too. Mm hmm. He attended classes with her.
He lives either next door or across the hall from her. He was
described as like an eccentric and reclusive individual. He sometimes had like erratic behavior
leading up to when she disappeared, like, for example, surveillance footage showed
that he was sneaking around the apartment complex and searching through the trash, like
the dumpsters. And this is before she disappeared. And this is before she
disappeared, and he's doing dumpster diving. Yeah, and he actually even looked
through the dumpster where her torso is eventually found. So they're just like,
something's weird. He was also seen cleaning a hacksaw the night of her murder.
See how is he seen doing that on camera? Yes, he's not
doing it in his apartment. What is wrong? I know, And I'll
tell you more about it, but I can't wait to hear it. I
know it's it's a crazy story. He obviously didn't think this through. So
after news of Lauren's disappearance began to spread, So before her torso was found,
local news station in Macon, it's w g x A, visited her
apartment complex because you know, they're on the scene, and you know they're
trying to interview neighbors, and they just happened upon Stephen and they classified him
in the news story as a concerned neighbor. So he considered himself to be
good friends with Lauren. You know, he's telling the news station, you
know, like Oh my god. She was, you know, nice as
can be, and she's a very personable person and I knew her. She
was in my classes. He appeared to be really concerned and upset, and
but something weird happened during the interview. So the news yester, the reporter
is interviewing him, and you can kind of hear like a body's been found.
So they tell him, oh, a body's been found, and like
his demeanor just completely changes, Like you could tell he kind of like blinks
out for a minute, like he stands for like a if somebody said a
body was in his defense, a body's been found, right, like,
oh my god, Like he's just kind of like staring and just being It
seems weird. It seems weird. And I did not include it in the
episode today because it is the new station's copyrighted work. But if you YouTube,
if you google search it, you will be able to find it easily.
You know. He he at one point was like, oh, my
body's been found, and then he's like he stands there for probably ten seconds
and he's like I need to go sit down, and he walks away,
and you see it all in the news story. So you know, like
you said, you might be watching this break out and being like, oh,
oh, he's just a concerned neighbor who just heard maybe like a classmate
and you know, acquittance it was found. But that's not how the police
viewed it. The police saying, someone tells me that I know, right,
like holy oh yeah, like oh and you know you're this woman's missing,
right, that's horrible. But that's not how like I said, that's
not how the police viewed it. They looked at it more like he was
like, holy shit, the gig is up kind of thing, you know.
However, they obviously didn't have enough evidence at this point when Lauren is
found to really arrest anybody. So they continue their investigation and they start canvassing
the neighborhood, you know, asking neighbors like can I start your apartment real
quick just to see, you know, is she here? And the neighbors
are like sure, you know, we have nothing to hide. And when
they go to Steven to ask him, he says, no, you can't
come in my apartment. It's messing, right, yeah really, I'm like,
yeah, I don't want you coming in. So they're like, hey,
oh that's weird. Everybody else seems to be complying, and so they
lay the pressure on him, and you know, him being a law student,
you could say like, well, he knows his rights, you know,
right to search and seizure. You really need a warrant, he has
nothing. Yeah, if you have nothing to hide whatever, And so he
eventually relents and he lets them come in his apartment. So they're searching around
and they see some keys and don't ask me how they recognize it or whatever
why it brings such attention to them. But they're like, oh, hey,
what is this key? And he says, oh, I have a
master key to the apartment complex. Why right, maintenance guy here? No,
They're like, well, why do you have a master key? Like
are you using it? And his dumb ass says, oh, yeah,
I did use it to enter two neighbor's apartments where I stole condoms? What
from their apartment? What is that? I like, of all the things
to take and all the ga I mean, aren't they they're not that expensive?
He's a law student who knows, probably living on student loans. I
don't know. Okay, you're gonna I know, I don't know. But
they said, okay, well, this admission is now a burglary, an
admission to burglary for condoms for condoms. So they are like, okay,
we need to take you down to the station. And that was the that
was the excuse they could use. Yes, that's the excuse they could use.
Right, So they take him to the police station and they're interrogating him,
and the interrogation, which I'm going to include a clip of it is
just odd. He his demeanor they're asking him. They ask him all kinds
of questions, you know, even general questions like I can't think of one
at the moment, but it could be like what's your favorite ice cream?
You know, like like just non to the investigative questions. They're just trying
to get him to talk the best of my knowledge and belief. Yeah,
I believe it's vanilla Nola. I'm gonna say that it's the most popular flavor,
I believe. So he's not answering their questions. He really only answers
yes, no, or I don't know. And they do ask him questions
like you know, do you know where Lauren is? You know, did
you have a relationship with her? They asked. He's just very His demeanor
is weird. It's robotic. It is lacking emotion and we'll play a clipped
out. How many guns did you have in your apartment? Three? What
are they? Do you know what they are? A rifle? What kind
of rifle did you have? An AKA semi automatic? Where'd you buy from
Classic Arms? Is that Atlanta or something online? Okay? What kind of
pistols are you own? EAA witness full size and compact? Okay? What
is that? What about the one that was on the bed, that's the
full size, that's the full size? Words of what was the other one?
Where was that at on the table by the bed? Mm? Yeah,
remember I was in there? And then you had that samurai sword?
Yes, that's just a I mean that's not ex it's an expensive sword.
Or it's just a knockoff. It's just one of the knockoff swords. Yes?
And what about the knife which the big one that was remember you showed
me it was dole? Yes? What kind of life is that? Because
I don't know kukri or where do you get something like that online? I
bought it from a friend. Who do you think to a glaring away?
I don't know. Well, I need your help. Can you give me
some what what is your observation of this? I know you're smarter, Okay,
I know you have an observation. You can tell me what's what do
you think happened to her? I think someone took correct do you think?
Uh? I mean you watch TV shows right like you take the shows.
What's your observation? How do you think somebody would take her? If somebody
did take her when she was running? Did she normally run? All the
time? She runs? I don't know how often? You mean you think
somebody mighta took her when she was running, like down the street somewhere.
Yes, you don't think somebody got her when she got back to her apartment?
I don't know. Well, you know there was a body found in
the trash can next to the apartments. Yes, you do know all that.
And it's a female, white female's body right there, right next to
y'all apartment. Need all these weapons for her? Are you scared somebody gonna
hurt you? No? What do you need all these weapons for to have?
Why there's a reason. Why were you molested as a child? No?
Then why do you need all these weapons to have? Why? Give
me one good reason. We're in the middle of the story at this point.
And I just want to say, while we were recording this episode,
the power went out, So Talia has a different outfit on You're wondering.
I don't normally change my outfits in the middle of the episode. So we
will continue the episode now, Yes, okay. So, despite Stevens's initial
uncooperative nature during the interrogation, his arrest for burglary was fruitful in the way
that it allowed the police to be able to get a search warrant and search
his apartment. While searching his laptop, they just found a treasure trove of
some crucial evidence. Oh, his online searches, we're just like he frequently
visited Lauren's social media pages. He would view violent pornography while he was looking
at pictures of her, and he searched for nude Lauren gettings. And he
also went to porn sites that featured cannibalism and the number this yeah, right,
how do you find the idea? Like there's porn that featured disnumber man
the dark one, like I said, this could be the dark Web,
Like I don't like okay, I don't know, I know nothing. It's
something like there's not a flag that goes off when you're searching for some guardship,
like a cable company like I don't know that just goes to show I
guess whatever. But they all know what you're doing. FYI if they if
your computer ever gets seized or your laptop ever gets seized, you know what
you're doing looking up cannibalism porns. Yeah. So oh. The one of
the other crazy things they found was they found a deleted video that he had
made where he had recorded Lauren's apartment and he used a camera that he put
like on a pole and he was using it to look through her windows.
So I picture like one of those selfie sticks. But I'm sure it was
like a like a complete creep. What a creep, complete creeper. They
found a collection of knives and guns, as well as spots of blood splattered
on the walls and ceiling. They found child pornography, Yeah, disgusting,
and a pair of Lauren's underwear in his bedroom drawer. Right. Didn't you
get in trouble if you're downloading child for not I would think so again,
where's the red flag like for a company that's providing internet service? I don't
know. I remember the guy from the who that yes, Peter town say,
yeah, he was like amount of pedophile given this for research? I
know he really was, Like yeah, how he really was? How does
he get flagged? And I don't know anyway, I don't know the rules
on this. They then searched the apartment complex and they found a large bloody
sheet that had Lauren's blood on it. They found that in the laundry room,
they found a hacksaw with human flesh still on it. And I know
it's it's so terrible what he did to her. And they the they did
find the original packing that for the hacksaw in his apartment, so they were
able somehow to link that together. What do you mean the original packing,
like the packaging they bought it. Yeah, it came in. How does
the hacksaw come I thought they just came as a hacksaw. I don't know.
I guess if you're getting it in the mail or something. I don't
know. I don't know. Did they have Amazon, I don't know,
I don't know. I'm confused. Anyway. During their investigation, they also
found that he had created an Excel spreadsheet which detailed steps on how to dismember
a body that heavily referenced books, books. He's like a law student girl.
He's citing his sources. I mean, this is crazy. I don't.
I'm like a spreadsheet, like meant methodically step by step on how he's
how to dismember someone. I mean, because he's he he's smarty, stupid.
Why would you ever, why would you document it? Why can't you
just keep it all up here? That's how people get caught, though,
And so we're thankful he got caught. Yeah, we are, because he's
horrible human being. There were images on his computer of emails and instant messages
he had sent to Laura Lauren and like he had asked her out, I
think, and he's saved like screenshots of it, or they were able to
find the the conversation, even though you know, she had declined by the
way, she didn't want to go out with him. I'm sure she didn't
want to go out at the time of her death. She was in a
long term relationship with and he's a fucking weirdo, Yeah, with a man
named David. He's not the weirdo, but Steven is. Yeah, And
over the days leading up to her Grizzly Grizzly murder, Stephen told his roommate
that hit a rummate. He had a roommate, that he felt he had
no conscience and he loved power, and that he was going to gain dominance
over a victim and he would use chloroform like that's I think he was maybe
describing like what he would do, kind of like the OJ if I had
done it, this is how I would do it. Who tells the roommate
that? And as a roommate, You're like, oh, yeah, I
know, what are you say that? You'd reform somewhere? Okay, okay.
Yeah. He bragged that he was going to dismember, like if he
killed someone, he was going to dismember them and scatter the body parts like
in some woods. That's when I get a new roommate. Yeah, I
wouldn't want to sleep in that apartment anymore. Yeah, I'd be like,
are you gonna be like what? And I don't want that in my home?
I know, Oh crazy, this is crazy. Like Stephen was convinced
he could commit the perfect murder. He's so clever, I know he They
also the police also found out somehow that Stephen had visited his grandfather had some
property and that was sixty three wooded acres, and I believe they determined that
that's where he just said that he would scatter body parts, you know,
like because when he told his roommate, he's like, Oh, yeah,
I'm gonna I would dump them in the woods and nobody would ever find them.
And they're convinced like maybe that was the plan that he originally had and
for some reason it didn't work out. And I don't know if it was
time or what have you, but that's where he originally probably was going to
go. So he was eventually arrested and charged with the murder of Lauren Gettings.
As details about his disturbing behavior emerged, it became clear that he had
just he had fixated on her. She became his obsession, and they realized
that he had just meticulously planned, yeah, to murder. She didn't even
know any of this, and she's just going to modern business having none.
The guy across the hall or wherever it is, planning on was planning on
murdering her. When the oh, when the police spoke to him, because
they were interrogating him, and we showed some of the interrogation. When he
was finally presented with dismounting evidence. He then began talking more. He told
them exactly what happened. So I'm going to tell you what happened. According
to him, Well, the interview in and of itself is crazy, yeah,
like something. It's like he's catatonic or something, right, Yeah,
he's yeah, yeah, yes, I know he's It's like he's I'm thinking
that maybe is he putting on an act? I wonder if there's no emotion,
no one word, responses, nothing, But he began to open up
because he's probably like, oh, my goose is cooked, right, like
to put it like, instead of being like, I'm totally fucked, his
goose is cooked. So nice, Yeah, he told them. On June
twenty sixth, around four thirty am, he had entered Lauren's apartment using that
master key that he had had, and she was sleeping. As he went
inside. He was wearing a mask, oh my god. And he said
initially he had no entire of harming Lauren, okay, he just wanted to
be super creepy and just like stare at her while she slept. Oh okay.
However, while he was there, she woke up after hearing like a
creek in the floor, or something imagine, And of course she was surprised
and scared shitless with Stephen standing there someone with a mask in the room or
thirty in the morning. Yeah, she recognized him too, despite him wearing
a mask, and he said she screamed at him to get the fuck out.
Yeah. Then he jumped on her bed and strung and a struggle ensued.
They toppled on the floor and the struggle ended with Stephen on top of
her, strangling her to death. That poor girl. Yeah. After killing
her, he then dragged her lifeless body into her bathtub before leaving, and
he went back to his own apartment. He stayed away from Lauren's apartment for
almost the whole day. I think he was maybe trying to see, like
what would happen, I guess, or like, did anybody the cops coming,
Like, I don't know. So this is late or early morning,
and then he's chilling out for a while, and then he comes back.
He comes back around midnight on the twenty seventh. Wait, and so was
she gone a whole day? He killed her in the early morning hours and
this is the whole next day. Yeah, so he well, he went
back like that night or midnight the next day, Goda, and then he
brought the hacksaw with him, and that's when he dismembered her, removing her
limbs and her head. He then wrapped her body parts in several trash bags
before discarding them in dumpsters on the Mercer Law School campus, which was across
the street from the apartment complex. And he disposed of her torso in the
apartment complexes trashman and that's what the policeound. Her head and limbs have never
been found, so the only thing they found was what he dumped in the
apartment trash bin. Why didn't he dump it all in the same place.
I don't know. I'm just kidding. I know, like I would be
worried I was gonna get caught. So the more you hang, the more
you're like going around, I think, then it's the higher chance of your
being caught putting it in your apartment dumpster. I know. The good thing
he did though, that's how he got caught, I guess. In twenty
fourteen, he accepted a plea and he pleaded guilty to first degree murder.
He received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He
facing the death penelty. Yeah, the death penalty was taken off the table
and as part of the plea deal as long as he would provide details of
the crime. So that's you know, when they got all the details.
He was also charged with additional offenses such as burglary. There were thirty charges
of sexual exploitation of children. But oh for the porn, yeah, kitty
porn. Yeah did he rape? He didn't rape. No, No,
at least he said he didn't, and I don't. I don't know if
her body showed any signs of it, but that wasn't part of what he
said happened. But all those extra charges were eventually dismissed. Living that life,
yeah, he got life, right, He's not going anywhere, oh
not. In twenty eighteen, his father started a gofund me Can't Stop It
to raise funds for an appeal, which was taken down shortly after it appeared
like I'm pretty sure gofund me took it down. Yeah, yeah, okay,
yeah, okay. Yeah. He represented himself in court in twenty eighteen,
so of course he did, you know, because he's almost a lawyer.
He's almost a lawyer, and he's the smartest guy in law school.
People are like asking you all these legal questions. I don't know second year.
No, I still don't know a lot of stuff. I mean not
just read right now. Don't ask me real estate questions. I have no
idea. So he argued that he needed a new trial. He said his
constitutional rights were violated. He says due process, Yes, his due process,
he stated. The police said in their notes of the initial interrogation that
they gave him that you know, he was staring off into space. He
seemed unresponsive to several of their questions, but he didn't get them any They
didn't give him medical attention before getting his consent to search his apartment. So
he's trying to say, like I was, I wasn't mentally stable to give
you consent to search my apartment. No, he's just a weird though,
Like, and that doesn't necessarily require me that. He's like, you know,
I needed medical attention, and he took medical attention. Oh yeah,
so you know, he like shock or whatever whatever, he was in a
compromised, you know, mental state. I hate him. He also filed
a malpractice complaint against his former attorney for not pursuing diminished capacity as a defense.
I have that in that state. Yes again, Uh, Louisiana,
Louisiana, Georgia. You're asking me. I can't remember now, it's been
a few weeks. Yes it has, Uh, Georgia, I think,
yeah, because in Michigan is not a defense. Yeah. I believe it
was Georgia. I'm sorry. Despite his efforts, his you know, grand
efforts, the appeal was denied by a judge. He then filed another habeas
corporate petition in twenty twenty two, alleging the documents from his defense trial preparation
were stolen by the district attorney. I think he was, so he requested
his conviction be overturned and then released. Denied. Lord, he yes,
it was. I'm discussing denied. So as of right now, he remains
incarcerated at Hancock State Prison in Georgia, thank god. And he's not going
to be eligible for parole even though he got life without parole. But I
think maybe you still get eligible. No, not a f you of life.
I don't know. Maybe just got light. Maybe he just got life.
But he's eligible for Pearl in twenty forty one, when he's fifty five.
Well he'll that'll be denied. Yeah, because he'll still be crazy.
Yeah he's not getting out. I mean, you do this to someone,
No one's getting out. Well, we've had cases, Yeah, that's true.
Lauren's remembered very fondly by her family and her former boyfriend David, who
said he had planned on proposing to Lauren when she finished school and passed the
bar. Oh, sa, I know her family, just give a little
shout out and say, like, you know. Her family says she was
ambitious, fun loving someone who just had a really great future ahead of her,
and so to honor her, her parents created the Lauren Theesa Getting's Scholarship,
which gives tuition assistance to students who financially struggle to pay tuition and that
they show promise with excellent grades. So they're students usually who are either like
first in their family to go to college because Lauren was first in her family
to attend college, and or students who want to focus on either law or
special education as their majors. Poor family. I know, I can't even
I don't even know. It's it's so terrible, yeah, so horrible.
That is our story for today, Laurens Lauren's story. Yes, horrible,
horrible end I know, it just goes to show years old. Weird.
Such a weird I know. So thank you everyone for watching us here on
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until our next episode, don't kill each other. Bye Bye,