The Stalker Next Door

Have you ever had that feeling that you were being watched? A chill runs down your spine. The hair on the back of your neck stands up. Perhaps you chalk it up to being paranoid and shake it off. But maybe, just maybe, your feeling was right. 

​Lauren Giddings had recently graduated from the Mercer University School of Law. She moved from Maryland to Macon, Georgia to pursue her law degree in 2008. In May of 2011, she completed her degree and was preparing for the next step in reaching her goal of becoming a criminal defense attorney.  On June 25th, she was studying for the bar exam. That’s what she had been doing most nights since graduation. Lauren had decided to really limit her social interactions during that time to allow herself the time she needed to prepare for what would probably be the biggest test of her life. She had the support of her family and her boyfriend, but they did miss the frequent phone calls from her. 

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Lauren’s boyfriend, David Vandiver, was out of town on June 25th. He was actually on the other side of the country playing golf in California, when he received an email from Lauren telling him that she felt like she was being watched in her apartment. She even thought somebody had tried to break in. Not wanting to cause unnecessary concern, she downplayed the situation. Although she had previously mentioned that a few times when she entered her apartment, things were in a different place than where she remembered leaving them. But that would mean someone had been going into her apartment, and that seemed impossible because she always locked her door behind her. 

​On June 29th, Kaitlyn Wheeler, Lauren’s sister, became concerned that she had not heard from her in a few days. She knew Lauren was busy studying, but she wasn’t even returning her calls. Kaitlyn was worried. She started contacting some of Lauren’s friends to see if they had heard from her. Lauren’s friend Ashley went to her apartment to check on her. Lauren’s car was in the parking lot in front of her apartment, but she wasn’t coming to the door. Lauren had a hidden key to her apartment and Ashley knew where it was. As Ashley unlocked the door and stepped inside, she started to look around. She immediately saw that Lauren’s books, keys and purse were all still sitting there. So she walked around the apartment but couldn’t find Lauren. She decided to call 911. 

​The police arrived shortly after the call and started to investigate. They couldn’t find any signs of forced entry on the door or windows. Everything appeared to be in place and it didn’t look like a struggle had occurred. There was no visible blood anywhere. So where was Lauren? Where would she have gone without her purse, keys or books to study? The investigators sprayed luminol around and turned on their light.  The bathroom walls, floor and bathtub all glowed. 

​It became clear that they were no longer searching for a missing person, they were now working a homicide case and something sinister had happened in that bathroom. The crime scene was taped off and detectives were walking around the apartment exterior looking for any clues as to what may have happened to Lauren. The wind shifted and they recognized a terrible smell. A very distinctive smell that homicide detectives are all too familiar with. One of the worst possible smells. There was a decomposing body nearby. 

​They started looking for the body when they found something even more horrific than the smell in the air. They didn’t discover a body, but a female’s torso wrapped in plastic that had been thrown away in one of the apartment complex’s trash cans. They couldn’t find the legs, arms or head. Chances were that the torso belonged to Lauren, but without her head, they would have to run test to verify it. 

​At the exact moment that the torso was found, WGXA, a local television station, was there interviewing people around the scene. Stephen McDaniel was talking to the interviewer at the time. He was a former classmates of Laurens and lived in a neighboring apartment. He was telling the news that the police said the front door was locked and that they couldn’t find any signs of forced entry. He expressed concern for his friend and hoped that they would find her. Although as the interview continued, Stephen was informed that a body part had been recovered and his whole demeanor changed. He became speechless. His face lost its color and he had to go sit down for a few minutes before continuing to answer questions. When he started speaking again he was visibly shaken and his answers were not completely coherent. Stephen had just found out on live TV that Lauren Giddings was dead. 

​On July 1st, Stephen voluntarily went in to the police stationas one of Lauren’s neighbors to answer some questions and give a statement. His interrogation lasted 12 hours. While he was there, he gave them permission to search his apartment. In his apartment they found memory cards and flash drives, the packaging for a hacksaw and a pair of underwear that tested positive with Lauren’s DNA. In the apartment complex’s laundry room, they found a hacksaw that matched the package in Stephen’s apartment and a bloody sheet that, after testing, matched Lauren. 

​On July 2nd, Stephen McDaniel was placed in jail while the investigation continued. They were able to link him to the hacksaw and Lauren’s underwear. After looking at the memory cards taken during the search, they were able to confirm that Stephen had been stalking Lauren. That eerie suspicion she had that she was being watched, was valid. It appeared that he had taken a wooden pole and somehow attached a camera to the end of it so he could hold it up to see inside her windows. A search history of his computer revealed that he often looked up pictures of Lauren on her social media accounts while also watching violent pornography. Some of the other memory cards had pornographic images of kids. During the search they also found a master key to the apartment complex giving Stephen complete access to Lauren’s place. They had enough to charge him. 

​On August 2nd, 2011, Stephen McDaniel was charged with murder, burglary and 30 counts of sexual exploitation of children. But in April of 2014, a week before his trial was supposed to start, he made a plea deal. Although he initially pleaded not guilty, he accepted the offer to plead guilty in exchange for all charges other than the murder charge being dismissed and the opportunity to avoid the death penalty. Part of the deal was that Stephen had to give an actual account of what happened that night. And here’s what he said…

​At 4:30 am during the early morning hours of July 26th, he used the master key to gain access to Lauren Giddings’ apartment. He wore a mask and gloves. At first he just watched her sleep, but as he moved closer to her, the bed made a creaking noise and it startled her awake. She immediately started screaming and so he jumped on top of her to cover her mouth and grabbed her throat. She tried to fight him but he tightened his grip and strangled her. He dragged her body into the bathroom and then walked back to his apartment. Later that day, after it was dark, he returned to her apartment with a hacksaw. He dismembered her body in the bathtub. He disposed of the pieces of her body in various trashcans hoping that would reduce the risk of her body being found. Then he went back home. 

All but the trash can with the torso had already been picked up and emptied by June 29th. 

​After he had recorded his account of what happened and taken the plea deal, he was sentenced to 30 years in jail. However in 2018, Stephen McDaniel’s father started a go fund me to page to raise money for an appeal. The page was quickly taken down. But that didn’t stop Stephen from representing himself in the argument for a retrial. He argued that his constitutional rights had been violated. He stated that he gave consent for his apartment to be searched before being cleared medically, and he was not in his right mind to do so at that moment. He also claimed that he had done a lot of research for his own defense and that the district attorney confiscated it all. He believed that he was not adequately represented by his attorneys and even filed a malpractice complaint against them. The judge denied all of his appeals. In 2022, another habeas corpus petition was filed by Stephen McDaniel requesting his conviction be overturned and he be released from prison. But again, his petition was denied. He will be eligible for parole in 2041.

​ So how many times had Stephen McDaniel been in Lauren Giddings apartment before that night? How many times had he gone in while she was there? What were his intentions that night when he entered her room? She was scheduled to move out of the apartment the week she killed. Did he see it as his last opportunity to have an encounter with the women he had been stalking? 

​Whatever the case, Lauren Giddings was a bright young woman that had a promising future ahead of her. She was loved by family and friends. She was a good student and a good person. Her goal was to pass the Georgia Bar and become a criminal defense attorney. To delve deeper into the cases of people wrongfully accused of crimes. In a different scenario, a year later, if Stephen had allegedly killed a different woman, Lauren could have been the attorney to defend him in court.