Why Did a Brilliant Law Student Meet Such a Horrific Fate? | The Lauren Giddings Case

No one had seen or heard from Lauren Giddings for a few days, and her friends from law school quickly became worried because this was extremely uncharacteristic of Lauren, who was very outgoing and social. Lauren's studies were almost over, and she was actually preparing to take the bar exam. What people didn't pay much attention to, however, was Lauren's recent claim that she was being stalked. Things in her house would be moved to different places, and she thought someone had been breaking into her apartment. This, unfortunately, had been true, and Lauren would be murdered by this very same stalker. Lauren was actually the first member of her family to attend college. Her family was excited when she decided to go to law school. She had been so close to achieving her goal of becoming a lawyer. In fact, she received her law degree just a few weeks before her death. Lauren's life cycle takes effective treatment. Go to nocd.com to learn more. 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And she had a very generous spirit because she was brought up with the church teachings, which focused on and taught all about compassion and charity. And she would always showcase this when she was with her family and friends and even strangers, which some think may have been why she had such a passion for defense work and giving people in need a voice in criminal proceedings. Lauren adored animals. She actually grew up with dogs, rabbits, peacocks, goats, turkeys, chinchillas. And I love animals, too. I have eight pets in total in my house. Lauren was a country girl. She loved bluegrass music. She was the oldest of three daughters. Her two sisters are Sarah and Caitlin. And they lived on a dead-end type cul-de-sac off a gravel road. And Lauren was known to befriend pretty much anyone, which some believe may have contributed to her death. Lauren wasn't just nice and beautiful on the inside. She was also gorgeous on the outside. She had beautiful blonde hair, green-blue eyes, and long legs. She was close to six feet tall. And of course, to top it off, she was intelligent and hardworking. And after high school, she moved away from her family in Maryland and was living in Georgia so that she could attend Agnes Scott College. This was a small college for women. At the time, she was actually studying to become a doctor. But she was having a really hard time with her family. So she went to her chemistry classes. And she called home to her mom and broke the news that she no longer thought that the medical profession was for her. She changed her major to political science. And she interned at a very well-known law firm. It's called King and Spalding. And then she applied to law school. She was finally accepted to Mercer University Law School in Macon, Georgia. Lauren lived in this private apartment complex. It was on the law school campus. And it's called Barrister's Hall, which was specifically provided for law students. Lauren thought that this small, quaint, two-story building that only had eight apartments would be more private. You know, there wouldn't be people necessarily partying really loud. And it would be great for studying and concentrating on school. At this point in life, it really seemed like Lauren had everything she was dreaming of. She even had a romantic relationship. She had a love affair that blossomed while she was interning at King and Spalding with a man named David S. Van Diver III. He is an accomplished trial attorney that was 20 years older than Lauren. What was Lauren doing the last time anyone saw her? Well, Lauren's sister, Caitlin, had gotten married that summer in their home state of Maryland. And Lauren had attended the wedding before returning to her Barrister's Hall apartment in Macon to continue studying for the bar. And her family had absolutely no idea that this would, in fact, be the very last time they would see Lauren alive. She had already told her family and friends that she wouldn't be on her phone or social media in the weeks leading up to the bar exam because she wanted to disconnect from any distractions and really focus on her preparations. On a warm summer night, Friday, June 24th, Lauren met up with some friends. They met at a bar downtown where two of her classmates were performing in a band. So she went to a bar called The Rookery and then she headed over to another bar called Bottoms Up before she went to a friend's house to spend the night since her boyfriend was out of town in California. The next day, Lauren went swimming at the Macon Country Club and she headed back to her apartment around 6:30 p.m. She was caught on CCTV. The CCTV cameras entering a fast-food drive-thru. And it was said that later on they did find receipts in her car that confirmed the time that she was there. But the only other evidence of Lauren's whereabouts that Saturday night was an email that she typed to her boyfriend at 10:00 p.m. and she had confided in him that she thought somebody had possibly broken into her apartment on Thursday night. And she was actually saying she was afraid to stay there. But since she was actually set to move out in just a few days, she didn't give it much thought. So where was Lauren? Lauren's friends and family had stopped hearing from Lauren by June 27th. Everyone assumed she was studying, just like she told everyone. But several days passed with no word from her. And on the 29th of June, her family was convinced that something happened to Lauren. And when you are close to someone, this has happened to me, tell me if it's happened to you, I'm sure it has. You do get this sick feeling in your stomach. Even if it turns out that nothing happened, I always have this pit in my stomach when someone doesn't answer. Or they were supposed to meet me somewhere and they're not there and they're not answering. So I can only imagine, especially with what ends up happening. They weren't the only ones who hadn't heard from Lauren. In fact, nobody had any form of communication. Lauren had been on vacation with Lauren for days. Not even her boyfriend. So that's suspicious. Lauren's sister, Caitlin, was one of the first people to notice that something was definitely wrong. The silence from Lauren seemed really out of the ordinary. And one of her friends in childhood, named Katie O'Hare, texted Lauren with a question about makeup. And she thought it was out of character for Lauren to let a text go unanswered. Because they were so close. So Katie grew worried and she also had that sick, bad feeling that something had happened. Katie had gotten so worried that she reached out to Caitlin to ask if Lauren had contacted her family. But no one had heard from her. And all the texts had gone unanswered and calls went straight to Lauren's voicemail. So now I'm going to take you to Lauren's apartment. On the 30th of June, Lauren's friend Ashley Morehouse and Ashley's boyfriend decided to go check on Lauren's apartment. She later recalled asking her boyfriend to be prepared to face whatever horrifying situation they could possibly find in the apartment. Which I found a little odd. But I think because I watch so much true crime, I would definitely feel that way. And then they ended up checking the apartment twice. The first time, they saw Lauren's car parked in its usual spot. They went up to her apartment and they knocked, but they got no answer. They thought that she could possibly have gone out to do a few errands. So they came back to the apartment a little while later. But Lauren's car was still in the same spot. It hadn't been moved. And Lauren was still not responding to anyone. It was then that they remembered that Lauren kept a spare key hidden in a candle jar on her balcony. So they used it to check inside the apartment. Okay. I'm going to stop like I've done in some other videos. Would you, do you, keep a key? outside of your home i'm not thinking of breaking in but i i wouldn't but maybe that's because i'm paranoid one of lauren's neighbors from the apartment next door heard ashley and her boyfriend so he became aware of what was going on and he got really concerned and he also helped them search for lauren so all three of the friends were distraught they were completely confused about what was going on and what could have happened whatever the horror that they expected to find it wasn't there everything seemed to be completely normal and in its place the only odd thing that they found was lauren's keys wallet and purse were also still there the keys stood out the most of them because if she had left by herself on her own accord why would she leave the keys inside the apartment you're listening to the story of lauren and ashley listening to a quick ad you know what else is quick selling your car on carvana just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer done no hassle no negotiation no guy from an online listing lowballing you which means by the time i'm done explaining this you could have basically done it still haven't started hey better late than never sell your car today on carvana pickup fees may apply knowing that she wouldn't be able to get back in without them but then i was thinking you just came in her house with a spare key but still it would be unusual if her car keys and her house keys were inside this is when they called lauren's sister caitlin who called the macon county police to file a missing persons report police arrived at the scene and they didn't find anything out of the ordinary so they decided to do a luminol test it's the one where you spray it you can see remnants of the car keys and the car keys were inside the car keys were inside the car keys and the car keys were inside the car keys and the car keys were inside the car keys they weren't finding any blood within you know the living room or the kitchen but when they tested lauren's bathroom it just lit up everything was glowing in the bathtub on certain portions of the tile and they would later state that her bathtub had actually been full to the brim with blood so investigators now believed that they were looking for lauren's body so sadly they expanded their search for lauren's body and they were able to find her body and they were able to find her search to the surrounding buildings and then police stumbled upon lauren's body or at this point what was left of lauren's body it was found in an outdoor trash container that the tenants all shared which was located in the front of the building just below lauren's balcony they only found lauren's torso and it was wrapped in plastic but everything else was missing they knew it was lauren because they matched the torso's dna to her body and they were able to find her body what's really creepy is they almost missed the opportunity to find lauren because the dumpsters should have been emptied that morning but they were blocked from getting to it because of all of the police cars that's incredible police started to interview anyone that lived in the area or anyone that knew lauren so that they could find out if anyone saw anything this is when the Lawrence apartment came forward because he was very concerned. His name is Steven McDaniel and he lived right next door to Lauren and also attended the same law school. Obviously a lot of people in the community came forward to help and probably get more information because they were also scared about what was going on. He was standing outside of the building as these news crews came to report on Lauren's murder. This was the first time that he found out police may have found Lauren's torso. So I'm going to play that interview for you. No one's heard from her since. Did you see her hang out with anyone at the time? I mean no no no one has seen her since Saturday. I haven't seen anything. I've always seen noise outside but it's people walking by pretty much. She just recently graduated as a person? Yeah she and I were we were both JD students. We graduated back in May. What kind of person was she? I mean how did you what did you see her as? She's as nice as can be. I mean very personable very much a people person. Do you know anybody that any enemies she might have had somebody that might want to hurt her? No I'm we're 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 mean we went at we went over one of her friends had a key we went inside and tried to see if there was anything amiss but I mean she had a door jammed that was sitting right by it so there was no sign that anyone broke in. I think the door was locked when everyone got here and we just don't know where she is. 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 any had you seen anything there? Had 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 a person or not so that's how we're trying to ask people if they know who lived there. Are you okay sir? I think I need to sit down. Okay. So you heard the interview and when investigators reviewed it they described his behavior as being unhinged. Okay to me personally it didn't really seem that unusual because everybody reacts differently to hearing news that someone they knew or they cared about or both may have just been found dead. But police were still suspicious when he collapsed on the sidewalk that's not that unusual but then he got up and continued to go through with the interview so I want to play the rest of it. I am going to take some of the information out because it's not as relevant but let's take a listen. No one had seen her since Saturday because I we all just there's not a whole lot of interaction unless we're doing classes so I 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 don't even know when. At night or morning? I saw her like midday a couple weeks ago I mean that was the last time I saw her she she ran all the time I mean she she had a group that she would go running with I mean I don't know anyone that would want to hurt her she was as nice person as there is. As you just heard, he said it was possible that someone snatched Lauren while she was on a run and from the interview it was clear Stephen seemed to know way too much about Lauren's schedule just to be an acquaintance and a classmate or even somebody that lived next door. Because he had been claiming to police that they weren't really close but that he just knew her from living next door. Was she moving too? Did you know anything about her? Yeah yeah she was going to be moving out today. We he got onto her computer last night to see if she's anything she'd sent an email out to some people that afternoon talking about like going out to eat or something and the last thing that anyone there was an email that she sent out after 10 that 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 was afraid in her apartment that she thought someone had tried to break in on Thursday night and she she was afraid to stay in there. At this point I think maybe Stephen should have used his law school knowledge and just completely remained silent. I think that's what Lauren would have told him to do considering she wanted to focus on being a defense attorney. Remain silent, plead the fifth, zip it. A lot of times murderers completely incriminate themselves by not knowing how to shut up. But of course I'm really glad he did speak up because he was voluntarily inserting himself into the situation which did make him come off very suspicious especially when he told reporters that he wished he could have done something for Lauren like offer one of his firearms so that she could protect herself. Yeah I heard something maybe I could have helped. Okay don't worry. You want to sit down for a second? You got something to drink? I could have lent her a handgun. I've got a little handgun that I have for defense. And this is when he became a person of interest and the investigators turned their attention to him. They interviewed some of Stephen's friends and his friends described him as strange. They said that he had a zombie fetish, not really sure what that means, and he would often ask people how they would carry out the perfect murder. And at this point the police asked him to come in for an interview at the police station and he ended up becoming the prime suspect in Lauren's murder. About this girl right here, you know her? Yes. Who is that? Lauren Giddings. Does she live next door to you? Yes. when's the last time you seen her two or three weeks ago okay was you friends with lauren yes look at me and talk my son okay was you friends with her yes close friends we were good i mean y'all were friends right both of y'all were law students you're studying to be an attorney right yes what kind of law do you want to go into criminal law yes is that what you want to do for a living yes okay are you almost finished yes okay so you don't have too much more to do right no all right the investigators decided to bait him observe the north american dad 50s great polo collection he enters his vehicle information on carvana an offer appears in minutes remarkable he squints reads it again smiles and says dang that's a good offer the highest form of approval no haggling no hassle no one called him boss he's still on the couch astonishing sell your car today on carvana.com pickup fees may apply think glp1s are too expensive on row you can access fda approved glp1 weight loss treatment at your lowest possible price if you're covered start with rose free insurance checker just upload your insurance card to see if you're covered for certain glp1 shots whether you use insurance or pay cash row helps you find an option that works best for you plus rose membership plans help you save even more see if you qualify at row.co health rx only side effects of glp1 medications including boxed warning go to row.co safety additional row membership fee required they told him that he hadn't cleared out all the blood in his apartment and that they were able to recover some of it he didn't respond to this either there's blood in your apartment steven that's right there's blood in your apartment steven this is hard buddy i know this is hard and i can tell there's blood in your apartment steven you didn't get it all up it didn't all come off you scrubbed and you wiped but we can tell that don't you watch csi yeah we know it steven why is there blood in your bathroom i don't know yes you do know why steven i don't know does anybody know has been in your bathroom the police were in there other than the police who else has been in there no one that i know no one and you recently cleaned your bathroom didn't you no how long ago i don't remember a couple days ago no over the weekend no no you don't know i don't remember they saw a couple scratch marks that he had told them that he scratched himself in his sleep i don't think i've ever done that so i found that to be very odd show me that scratch again that you showed me earlier that was it a what would you say happened there i think i scratched myself in my sleep but something that ended up making police connect him to the crime later was a statement he made about being a virgin he said that he was saving himself and he was celibate i don't know about how you like to look at porn on the internet um you expressed to me that you're a virgin correct yes they decided at this point they needed to search his apartment investigators ended up finding a collection of guns knives and oddly he also had a huge collection of wait for it toilet paper rolls he had a bunch of canned food like he was expecting the world to end so maybe this was part of his zombie fetish another interesting thing you might want to look at after this video and i'll leave it in the description box are the collected writings of steven most of them are copies of emails that he sent around to his law school campus to different people one of them in particular was sent at the height of the 2008 presidential election it was on the morning of october 15 2008 and this was when the third presidential debate between john mccain and barack obama was going on i'm gonna skim over this and you can see that there's a lot of information about this video you can take a look later if this interests you but as you can see he's addressing this to the mercer law student body with the subject line political hypothetical tell me what you think about this is this something that people normally do and you'll notice he ended the email by saying steven mcdaniel a true born son of liberty one that i thought was funny because it is actually a pet peeve of mine maybe we'll learn something maybe steven's right but someone sent him an email and they were letting steven know that irregardless is not a word saying it's logically absurd to combine the negative elements of ear and less within the same word unsubscribe me surprisingly steven wrote back saying irregardless is a word while it's considered to be a non-standard expression of the conceptual term synonymous with it such as regardless and irrespective it is recognized as a legitimate term funny enough i did look up the word irregardless because it is a pet peeve of mine and surprisingly i guess it's in the dictionary he also said he was working on a fantasy novel that he claimed would rival lord of the rings they also stumbled upon what looked like a homemade mask and it was made out of a pair of panties what's up with the pair of underwear that was in your apartment it was like a mask it was cut out like a mask you cut underwear out to look like a mask no but remember when i told you that he told the police he was a virgin and then they would connect him later to the crime they found a huge collection of unopened condoms in his bedroom and they asked him why would you need condoms if you were a virgin and this is when he actually admitted that he had stolen them from one of the other apartments in the building and at this point there was definitely enough evidence to make an arrest during a police interrogation steven just stared directly at investigators in this really eerie manner he almost looked as though he was pretending he was psycho i mean after you hear all this maybe you'll think he is but he acted like he had maybe a psychotic break or he was delusional maybe he was trying to end up being able to use insanity as a defense but his eyes appeared to just be glazed over and he would stare at the wall he wouldn't look the detectives in the eye and he would stare at the wall and he would stare at the eyes and at one point the detective even asked him if he was counting the pores in the cement wall you came down earlier at night me and you talked all right you don't have any weapons all you do that's just you what's wrong you know i'm detective patterson right yes you remember put your hands up here you remember us talking earlier tonight right you remember me earlier in the day yes we came down here and talked a little bit and then we left no matter what they asked him steven's reply was i don't know what happened steven i don't know another thing i noticed about this case was that a lot of memes were made regarding the way that steven reacted to all the questions they're pretty self-explanatory as you can see asking steven anything a lot of the memes focused on the investigators especially this one who kept leaning back in his chair so a lot of memes are created with him doing twister this one i'm not the best at understanding memes but i guess these are self-explanatory to people that know their memes and this one is him looking like he's doing setups he blamed this lack of empathy and the lack of cooperation on his lawyerly instincts and he said that he was very protective of his space but of course he disrespected other people's space going into their homes and stealing condoms and we'll soon find out other things in addition to the other suspicious items in his possession police found a master key and a key to lauren's door so he could open any of the doors in the apartment complex they also found a flash drive belonging to lauren which included hundreds of personal photos the search history on his computer revealed that he was looking at lauren's facebook and her linkedin accounts and sometimes he would be looking at photos of her while watching violent pornography they were able to link that from the times he was on certain sites and then they found lauren's underwear in his apartment steven tried to be slick and delete some evidence off of his computer but of course forensics were able to pull it up and they discover deleted footage of lauren steven's evidence and so steven had actually obtained this footage while he was stalking her on the night of her murder he had actually built somewhat of a selfie stick if you will he had taken a wooden pole and he duct taped a camera to the end of it and then he raised the pole up to her window so that he was able to record her inside They eventually found a hacksaw. 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And the person had to be Stephen. Because the packaging was found in his apartment. And then they confirmed that Lauren's blood was on it. And even after being confronted with all of this evidence, he still maintained his innocence. And they just kept pressuring him and pressuring him until he finally broke. At that point, he admitted to what he did. And he took a plea deal. And he told police everything that happened that night. Here's the truth about what happened to Lauren Giddings. Stephen had gone to the hospital. Lauren had gone to her apartment while she was sleeping. And she woke up to see him standing over her bed. He actually said that she was calm. But she told him to get the fuck out of her apartment. I would be way more creeped out. And maybe he's lying about that. Maybe she got right up and screamed. Because again, she was afraid to be staying in that apartment because she thought someone had broken in just a few days earlier. But remember, this is his version. Of what happened. He says he then attacked her before strangling her to death. We won't know. Because we don't have her whole body. He didn't know what else to do with her at this point. So he left her in the bathtub of her own apartment. And then returned the next day to dismember her. He placed her body parts in different garbage bags. And then deposited these garbage bags into various trash cans. All around the law school campus. However, he decided to put one of the bags into that dumpster in front of his own apartment. Which just strikes me as completely odd. Considering you have a law school education. You want to be a criminal defense attorney. Yet you're going to leave evidence right in front of your own house. Doesn't make sense to me. This is the portion of Lauren's remains that police were able to recover. Unfortunately, the rest of her remains had already been taken to landfills by the time Steven had confessed. So it was impossible to recover them. There was this one news article that I read. And it was so sad. They interviewed her dad. And he had come to the police department because he thought that he was going to be identifying Lauren's body. Because they had told him that they found a body that they believed to be his daughter's. But they were stalling. Or what seemed like. Taking too long for him to go identify her. And so he's wondering, why are they not leading me to her body to identify it? And one of the detectives just couldn't bring himself to tell this father what had happened. It was just so unbelievable that they were actually holding back. But at some point they had to be the bearer of bad news. And let her father know that he wouldn't actually be able to see his daughter, see her face or to hold her. But that all they had was this one portion. I, especially as a parent, don't even like to think about these things. These are the things that do keep me up at night. One question that everyone kept asking themselves was why? What was the motive? Why did Steven do this to a friend, to a person that he admitted was sweet and nice and a good person? Steven said he never intended to kill Lauren, that he got scared. And he panicked and that all he wanted to do was get closer to Lauren because he liked her and he thought that she was really pretty. He said that all he really wanted to do was go in her apartment and watch her sleep. And he actually tried to make this look like it was innocent and normal. It's not. Investigators believe that the murder was premeditated and that Steven had become obsessed with Lauren during the time she lived next door to him. Lauren was planning to move out of the apartment complex. Just days after she was killed because she was moving in with her boyfriend. They think that his obsession reached the point of no return because she was leaving. And instead of just letting her move on with her life, Steven chose to end it. As part of Steven's plea deal, he wrote what is called an allocution. According to the American Bar Association, after pleading guilty, a defendant is typically offered a formal opportunity to address the court to express remorse and explain personal circumstances that might be considered in sentencing. The allocution statement provides an opportunity for defendants to accept responsibility, humanize themselves, and to mitigate their sentences to ensure that their punishment is appropriate for both the crime and the person who committed it. A lot of times a family will allow the death sentence to be taken off the table so that they can hear the confession as part of the sentence. And that's exactly what happened in Lauren's case. Of course, Lauren was against the death penalty and that's one of the reasons why it was taken off the table. But Lauren's mother actually made a deal with the DA that if he confessed and told the unknown details about the killing, that they would take the death penalty off the table and he would serve life in prison. We'll never know if what Steven confessed to was true, but I do want to read you his statement. On Sunday, June 26, 2011. Around 4:30 a.m., I entered Lauren Giddings' apartment with a master key that I possessed. I was wearing gloves and a mask. I walked to her bedroom door and stood there, observing her sleeping. As I took another step, the floor creaked and she awoke. She sat up in bed, saw me, and said very calmly, "Get the fuck out." I leaped across the bed onto her and grabbed her around the throat. We tumbled out of the bed and onto the floor, and in her struggle to get away, she moved her legs to the side of the bed. I held her legs and lower body under her bed, preventing her from getting away or kicking me. I kept my hands around her throat as we fell to the floor. She reached up and was able to grab the mask and pull it over my head. She said, "Steven, please stop." I continued to strangle her until she stopped moving, and I remained that way with my hands around her throat for several minutes, possibly as long as 15 minutes. She did not move anymore. I dragged her into the bathroom and placed her in the bathtub. Then I returned to my apartment. I remained in my apartment mostly on my computer throughout the day, Sunday, June 26th. I returned to Lauren's apartment around midnight Sunday to begin to dismember her with the hacksaw that was later recovered from the laundry room and maintenance closet. I removed her limbs and head, wrapped them in several black trash bags separately, and discarded them in the Mercer Law School dumpster across the street from Barrister Hall Apartments. I cut up the mask. I put on my gloves and my shirt and flushed them down my toilet. I wrapped her torso in black plastic trash bags and placed it in the green Barrister's Hall trash can on Tuesday, June 28th before daylight. I then cleaned up her bathroom. I never used the refrigerator in apartment 1. At no time before Lauren's death did I sexually accost her. At no point after her death did I perform any sexual act of any kind with respect to her remains. She was wearing the pink robe. She wore pink running shorts when she died, and I never removed them. They were found on her torso just as I had left them. On Monday, I stayed home from bar prep class. Over the next several days, I rarely slept, used my computer extensively, yet still attended bar prep class on Tuesday and Wednesday. I joined the Bar Prep Class on Tuesday, June 28th. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business, from designing a website, marketing, to selling, and beyond. Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into. Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com/specialoffer. I joined a search party Wednesday night into the early hours of Thursday morning, June 30th. Still in a dreamlike, delusional state, in which I believed at the time while taking part in the search that Lauren was still alive. And then I had no idea that I was still alive. I had no idea that I was still alive. done, even searching the empty law school in a delusional hope of finding Lauren alive and well. As if I had not really killed her. During the weeks leading up to my actions and the days following, as I look back on it now, I can only describe myself as divided in mind, unable to account for how I could have committed these horrible acts and at the same time also be able to carry on daily routines. It is difficult for me to explain why I killed Lauren and attempted to conceal my deed the way that I did. The difficulty in explaining it lies in my own inability to understand it myself. I know that it was very wrong, I am not delusional or without any morals or decency, yet I acknowledge that something in my makeup, my psychology, my neuropathology, my own particular pathology perhaps must explain it, but is beyond my reach. Lauren was my friend. Not a day goes by that I do not grieve over her death. I am extremely sorry for what I did to Lauren and her family. I do not expect the forgiveness of Lauren's family, and there is no way I can ever deserve it. No words are sufficient to take away their pain. If only I could take back what happened, I would do so. If I could restore Lauren to her family, I would. All I can say to Lauren's family and her many friends is "I am very sorry." Signed, Stephen McDaniel, April 24th. However, just four years later, McDaniel's dad helped him file a writ of habeas corpus. This is a fundamental right in the Constitution that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. Translated from Latin, it means "show me the body." Habeas corpus is very important to safeguard individual freedom against arbitrary executive power. This was a 73-page document that argued that his constitutional rights were violated. This document is related throughout the investigation and pretrial process. The four grounds that McDaniel cited are: 1. He claims that he was in a catatonic state and that a proper warrant wasn't filed to search his apartment. 2. McDaniel said the state gained insight into his defense strategy and used it against him through intercepted records of his legal research while imprisoned. 3. He says that the judge was prejudiced against him. 4. McDaniel's claims that he was in a catatonic state and that a proper warrant wasn't filed. 5. McDaniel's claims that he had ineffective assistance from his lawyers. 6. Steven's father decided to do a press conference about the habeas corpus and this is an exchange between him and one of the reporters. Just right out the gate, is your son saying that he's innocent today? What we're saying, we're not saying this, a habeas corpus has nothing to do with innocence. What we're saying is this concerns the state's misconduct, making it impossible for him to receive a fair trial. That's all we're saying. But can I ask you, has your son told you that he's innocent? I'm not going to go into that. How are you, as a father, how are you handling this? Well, of course, I'm very concerned about what's been going on and what Steven's gone through and we feel bad about what's going on but we see some hope in the future and we're hoping that the truth will come out. That's all we're hoping. But your son confessed to doing this. Do you think it's fair to put the Giddings family through a new trial? Well, this has nothing to do with him. This has to do with the misconduct of the state. As part of the plea agreement, Steven gave a pretty detailed account of what happened that night and how detailed Lauren's. So, is he saying that that is not true? That that's not what happened? Well, I think that hopefully he'll get, if he gets a new trial, that will be addressed. Stephen gave a pretty detailed account of what happened that night and how detailed Lauren's, so is he saying that that is not true, that that's not what happened? I don't know about you, but I found it to be completely insensitive that Stephen's dad would make a comment that this has nothing to do with Lauren's family. This has everything to do with Lauren's family. McDaniel then appeared before a judge in February 2018 pro se which means he's representing himself. Although he had planned to question more than a dozen witnesses according to court documents only three out of the five people subpoenaed actually showed up. When McDaniel questioned his former defense attorney Floyd Buford this is when things took a real turn. Apparently, his attorneys thought he was innocent until they heard him confess in detail about what he did to Lauren. Until the last couple of weeks of your case, I was strongly in your corner believing you were innocent. But this computer evidence that came in from GDI, the fact that you peeping in this Giddings apartment. The graphic, specific, detailed confession that you made to find Hogan and I, which we were shocked about in the jail, and which you went into terrific detail about how you killed Warren Giddings, How you went about decapitating her, carving of her body. How you even sat down and cut off every finger and thumb and appendage on her hands and threw them all in the toilet and flushed it at one time. 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 evidentiary problem in your case. On top of that, you possess the most horrific child pornographic photos I've ever seen. And I've been practicing law for 33 years. And we worked out a deal with the United States Attorney's Office where if you entered a plea in front of Doug Sims, then they were not going to prosecute you on child pornography. Started off facing a death penalty and ended up with life or the possibility of parole. You could get out one day, Steven, and viciously murder a woman in this order, and you still could be paroled. So I don't see how that's ineffective assistance. We were working with allocution before that, which I thought was a very good idea to get all the details down. And we had put it in there just like you had said, including cutting off all 10 of her fingers and you read the allocution you suggested some minor changes but then you said you wanted it deleted about cutting those 10 fingers off so that was not in your application the judge denied his appeal and he continues to serve time in the hancock state prison serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole what are your thoughts So in the end, Lauren actually saved Stephen in a way because of what a good person she was. It turned out that Lauren was one of the only people who actually bothered to talk to Stephen and treat him respectfully. And for this kindness, Stephen repaid her by taking her life.