The brutal murder of Lauren Giddings, a Mercer Law School graduate who was found dead in a garbage can outside of her apartment in Georgia, will be featured on Nightmare Next Door .
Nightmare Next Door is an Investigation Discovery TV crime documentary that airs various murder cases involving neighbors. The disturbing case of Lauren Giddings made news headlines in 2011 after the discovery of her body. The man who murdered her was identified as Stephen McDaniel, a fellow law student who lived next door to the victim.
Lauren Giddings had just received her degree from Mercer Law School at the time of her murder. Friends and relatives became concerned when they were not able to make contact with her, prompting them to contact local police and file a missing persons report. Once they arrived at the Barristers Hall apartment complex located on Georgia Avenue in Macon, they smelled a foul odor. The odor led them to a garbage bin, where they found the dismembered body of the victim inside. The body was dressed in pink shorts, and the arms and legs of the victim were missing. Frantic detectives canvassed the area and came up with the name of a suspect identified as Stephen McDaniel.
Law enforcement officials were informed of McDaniel’s bizarre interest in Lauren. It also came to light that Stephen McDaniel had actually boasted about giving a woman alcohol and killing her on an internet forum. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution , these are his words.
“Party hard by drinking alone in front of my computer. See my sexy neighbor/classmate come home late… Invite her up for a nightcap, make her a special drink called a Mickey Finn a drink designed to knock someone unconscious. She’s out cold. I finally lose my V-card [virginity]. Oh, no, she OD’d and died. I barbecue her legs and arms to celebrate losing my V-card. Not into organ meat, but throw her torso out, lose it on TV while the cops are discovering her remains, you mad virgins.”
Frightened community members and prosecutors wanted to seek the death penalty in the case, but Stephen McDaniel pleaded guilty to murder, which allowed him the chance to receive a life sentence, instead. According to his confession, he entered Lauren Giddings apartment using a master key, then attacked the young woman. After strangling her, he discarded the body, according to the Daily Mail.
“I removed her limbs and head, wrapped them in several black trash bags, separately, and discarded them in the Mercer law school dumpster.”
In court, Stephen McDaniel, who was dressed like a lawyer, smiled repeatedly as he spoke back and forth to the judge. Onlookers say that he seemed to be relieved to get the life sentence, which also carried the possibility of parole in 2041. Tune into Investigation Discovery tonight at 6 p.m. central to watch their dramatization of the crime on Nightmare Next Door . The Inquisitr recently reported on two more ID crime cases: Deanna Ballman and Sergei Kobozev .
In the video below, the killer Stephen McDaniel pretends to know nothing about his missing friend and neighbor Lauren Giddings.
Here’s the Stephen McDaniel spy video that he used to watch victim.
[Photo Credit: Facebook]