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Stephen Mark McDaniel, 25, pleaded guilty in 2014 to murdering Lauren Teresa Giddings, 27, a fellow Mercer University law graduate who lived next to him at Barristers Hall in Macon, Georgia, and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years.

Giddings was strangled in the early hours of June 26, 2011, and her body was dismembered with a hacksaw. Her torso was placed in a trash can outside the apartment complex. Most of the remaining parts were put in a campus dumpster and were never recovered. She was reported missing on June 30, 2011.

That day, McDaniel gave an on-camera television interview as a concerned neighbour. He was told during the interview that a torso had been recovered, and his reaction was recorded. Police questioned him for more than 12 hours from late on June 30 into July 1, 2011. He was held in jail and charged with murder in August 2011.

McDaniel and Giddings had been classmates and had both served as officers of the school's Federalist Society chapter.

Under the plea agreement, a burglary count and 30 counts of sexual exploitation of children were dismissed. McDaniel becomes eligible for parole in 2041. An attempt to reopen the case failed in 2018, and he filed a habeas corpus petition in May 2022.

The video is a narrated analysis by JCS - Criminal Psychology that runs about 38 minutes. It covers the disappearance, the television interview in which McDaniel learned the torso had been found, and the police interrogation that followed, with narration about the suspect's behavior and the detectives' technique over interview-room footage. It is not raw footage.

[chris]

Stephen McDaniel pleaded guilty in the killing of Lauren Giddings, a Mercer University law student, and was sentenced under a plea deal to life in prison with the chance of parole in 2041.

Before the plea, McDaniel gave his first interview to the Macon Police Department.

The video is a police interview-room recording that runs about 121 minutes. It shows the interview itself, without narration or a presenter.