Uploaded December 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Stephen Mark McDaniel Full Length Collection of Press Interviews - Lauren Giddings Disappearance
McDaniel stalked and murdered Lauren Giddings; severing her body, leaving the torso in a garbage can outside his apartment. They were neighbors and classmates. McDaniel gives interviews to the press while police search for Lauren's body. The last interview in the collection features McDaniel recieving news from the reporter they found Lauren Giddings' body.
It was a case that shocked the community: Stephen McDaniel admitted to murdering and dismembering Lauren Giddings, his Mercer Law classmate.
The grisly case returned to the spotlight Friday night as "Dateline NBC" re-aired "The Watcher". The hour-long show originally aired last June.
In June 2011, the dismembered torso of Giddings, an Agnes Scott graduate and Mercer law student, was discovered in a trash cart outside her Macon, Georgia apartment. She was just 27.
n 2014, McDaniel pleaded guilty to the murder. Macon-Bibb District Attorney David Cooke said McDaniel admitted choking Giddings in her sleep and dumping parts of her body in a dumpster at the Mercer Law School.
Evidence against McDaniel included a hacksaw found in the apartment complex with his DNA on it. Packaging for the hacksaw was found in McDaniel's apartment, according to prosecutors.
Cooke said interviews with classmates showed that McDaniel had a fantasy of committing a perfect murder.
Before sentencing, Giddings' parents read a statement describing the impact of the killing; "He tried to extinguish Lauren's light with his darkness. He did not come close."
A friend of Giddings read her own statement, telling McDaniel, "You are the devil."
Describing the crime as "truly evil", Judge Howard Simms sentenced McDaniel to life in prison.
11Alive
11alive.com/article/news/local/truly-evil-grisly-murder-of-georgia-law-school-student-back-in-spotlight/85-17ec0d7e-0e45-4ca4-878d-5a117061b614
Stephen Mark McDaniel Full Length Collection of Press Interviews - Lauren Giddings Disappearance
McDaniel stalked and murdered Lauren Giddings; severing her body, leaving the torso in a garbage can outside his apartment. They were neighbors and classmates. McDaniel gives interviews to the press while police search for Lauren's body. The last interview in the collection features McDaniel recieving news from the reporter they found Lauren Giddings' body.
It was a case that shocked the community: Stephen McDaniel admitted to murdering and dismembering Lauren Giddings, his Mercer Law classmate.
The grisly case returned to the spotlight Friday night as "Dateline NBC" re-aired "The Watcher". The hour-long show originally aired last June.
In June 2011, the dismembered torso of Giddings, an Agnes Scott graduate and Mercer law student, was discovered in a trash cart outside her Macon, Georgia apartment. She was just 27.
n 2014, McDaniel pleaded guilty to the murder. Macon-Bibb District Attorney David Cooke said McDaniel admitted choking Giddings in her sleep and dumping parts of her body in a dumpster at the Mercer Law School.
Evidence against McDaniel included a hacksaw found in the apartment complex with his DNA on it. Packaging for the hacksaw was found in McDaniel's apartment, according to prosecutors.
Cooke said interviews with classmates showed that McDaniel had a fantasy of committing a perfect murder.
Before sentencing, Giddings' parents read a statement describing the impact of the killing; "He tried to extinguish Lauren's light with his darkness. He did not come close."
A friend of Giddings read her own statement, telling McDaniel, "You are the devil."
Describing the crime as "truly evil", Judge Howard Simms sentenced McDaniel to life in prison.
11Alive
11alive.com/article/news/local/truly-evil-grisly-murder-of-georgia-law-school-student-back-in-spotlight/85-17ec0d7e-0e45-4ca4-878d-5a117061b614
