Stephen McDaniel gets his 15 minutes for murder! True Crime Documentory — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:11yeah lauren was my neighbor
2. 0:13we're just trying to find out where she
3. 0:15is at this point i mean
4. 0:17no one has seen her since saturday i
5. 0:20mean
6. 0:20the last time anyone heard from her was
7. 0:22an email that she sent out
8. 0:23and no one's heard from her since
9. 0:27welcome into my gated community
10. 0:30you can call me the doormat and here
11. 0:34i would like to share with you some of
12. 0:35the stories about how some of our let's
13. 0:37say
14. 0:38guests ended up here
15. 0:41tonight's story is about stephen
16. 0:42mcdaniel a 25 year old law student
17. 0:46whose mad obsession with his neighbor
18. 0:48would land him in prison for 27 years
19. 0:52let me show you the timeline of events
20. 0:569 am june 30th 2011 macon georgia
21. 1:00detectives chapman and patterson are
22. 1:02called to the apartments at
23. 1:031058 georgia avenue to investigate laura
24. 1:07gidding's disappearance
25. 1:08some of gidding's friends were already
26. 1:10there when the police arrived and
27. 1:11detectives spoke with him about the
28. 1:13details of getting's disappearance
29. 1:16detective chapman receives information
30. 1:17that lauren's uncle said that lauren
31. 1:19told him
32. 1:20that she had a creepy neighbor who had
33. 1:22been stalking her after the call
34. 1:24chapman knocked on stephen mcdaniel's
35. 1:26door he knocked several times and turned
36. 1:28around to leave
37. 1:29but just then the door opened mcdaniel
38. 1:32stood in the doorway
39. 1:33with deep dark circles under his eyes
40. 1:35which chapman described as looking as if
41. 1:38quote unquote he hadn't slept for days
42. 1:41he told the detective that he knew
43. 1:42giddings was missing
44. 1:44patterson said he asked mcdaniel to go
45. 1:46with him to his car so he could conduct
46. 1:48a recorded interview
47. 1:49once the interview was complete mcdaniel
48. 1:52walked back upstairs towards his
49. 1:53apartment
50. 1:54but patterson never made it to the
51. 1:56second floor he says
52. 1:58i made it a few steps and then i caught
53. 2:00an odor of something
54. 2:02a crime scene technician quietly looked
55. 2:03inside the trash can near where
56. 2:05patterson had smelled the odor
57. 2:07inside was a human torso patterson said
58. 2:10the police kept the discovery under
59. 2:12wraps
60. 2:12until mcdaniel and gidding's friends had
61. 2:14left for the police station for more
62. 2:16interviews
63. 2:17upon steven's return home from his
64. 2:19interrogation down at the police station
65. 2:20he was informed he was not allowed back
66. 2:22into his apartment yet because they were
67. 2:23still searching it
68. 2:24as he was walking out a cameraman from
69. 2:26the news crew waved him down and he
70. 2:28gives this interview
71. 2:31we all know where she is i mean the only
72. 2:33thing we can think is that maybe she
73. 2:35went out running and someone snatched
74. 2:36her
75. 2:37because i mean we went out we went over
76. 2:40one of her friends had a key
77. 2:42we went inside and tried to see if there
78. 2:44was anything
79. 2:45amiss but i mean she had a door jamb
80. 2:48that was
81. 2:49sitting right by it there was no sign
82. 2:51that anyone broke in
83. 2:53i mean door was locked when everyone got
84. 2:56here
85. 2:57and we just don't know where she is what
86. 2:59about um in the like
87. 3:01the parking lot area i know they've been
88. 3:02doing a lot of i think that's where they
89. 3:04have recovered
90. 3:04the body or whatever they recovered from
91. 3:06there
92. 3:08had you heard it had you seen anything
93. 3:10there
94. 3:13how'd you see anything there i mean we
95. 3:15don't know if this is the same person
96. 3:17you know what i mean like they took out
97. 3:18a body there earlier we don't know the
98. 3:19same person or not
99. 3:20so that's how we're trying to ask people
100. 3:22if they know who lived there
101. 3:26are you okay sir i think i need to sit
102. 3:29down okay
103. 3:33yeah i think he was a little upset there
104. 3:35that they found the body before
105. 3:37um the garbage man came and got it the
106. 3:40word is the garbage men were trying to
107. 3:41get into the driveway and the police
108. 3:43were blocking
109. 3:44the way so bad timing a pretty
110. 3:48pretty poor decision making there
111. 3:50stephen
112. 3:51studying for the bar
113. 3:55no one had seen her since saturday
114. 3:58because
115. 3:59we all just there's not a whole lot of
116. 4:01interaction unless we're doing classes
117. 4:03i would see like go out running but i
118. 4:06mean
119. 4:06what time would you go out running i
120. 4:08mean i don't even know where
121. 4:10at night or morning i saw like midday a
122. 4:14couple weeks ago
123. 4:15i mean the last time i saw her was
124. 4:18coming
125. 4:18back from the bar prep on the main
126. 4:20campus
127. 4:22because we got moved over there for a
128. 4:23week or two but she normally would run
129. 4:27mean she she ran all the time i mean she
130. 4:30she had a group that she would go
131. 4:32running with
132. 4:33i i i don't know anyone that would want
133. 4:37to hurt her
134. 4:38she was as nice as
135. 4:41there is
136. 4:49was she moving so did you know anything
137. 4:50about her yeah yeah she she was going to
138. 4:52be
139. 4:53moving out today
140. 4:56she was supposed to move out today
141. 4:58because someone else was going to be
142. 5:00moving into her apartment
143. 5:10what's going on in your mind right now
144. 5:11like what are you thinking
145. 5:16why would anyone do this
146. 5:22no
147. 5:36got something to drink you know
148. 5:40a bunch of her friends are getting
149. 5:41together or anything
150. 5:44that's how i found out that she was
151. 5:45missing we
152. 5:48a bunch of her friends came over
153. 5:51yesterday night
154. 5:52around midnight and they they couldn't
155. 5:55they hadn't seen her since saturday so
156. 5:58they were trying to find out where she
157. 5:59was
158. 6:00they were knocking on neighbors and
159. 6:01stuff
160. 6:03they went in they had a key to her
161. 6:04apartment and they checked around
162. 6:07didn't see anything out of place and it
163. 6:09was locked when
164. 6:10everyone got there that was midnight
165. 6:13yeah around midnight and then we
166. 6:15went we went over to law school see if
167. 6:16maybe she was over in
168. 6:18the library studying or something and we
169. 6:21looked up in the
170. 6:22study rooms on the third floor and there
171. 6:24was no one there
172. 6:26then we came back we looked around and
173. 6:30just tried to find any anything to
174. 6:31figure out where she was
175. 6:36on saturday yeah she went over to a
176. 6:39couple friends house
177. 6:40gary mueller and joe cairns they live
178. 6:42over on walnut
179. 6:44and i mean they said that she was over
180. 6:48there in the morning
181. 6:50and then that was the last time that
182. 6:52anyone
183. 6:54would been able to find out from i'd
184. 6:56seen her she hadn't mentioned what she
185. 6:57was gonna do that day or anything
186. 6:59uh we uh joe he got onto her computer
187. 7:04last night to see if she'd say anything
188. 7:06she'd send an email out to some people
189. 7:09that afternoon talking about like going
190. 7:11out to eat or something
191. 7:14and the last thing that anyone there was
192. 7:17an email that she sent out
193. 7:19after 10 that night where she
194. 7:23she sent to i think it was someone in
195. 7:26atlanta a friend of us in atlanta
196. 7:28and he she said that
197. 7:32she she was afraid in her apartment that
198. 7:34she thought someone had tried to break
199. 7:35in on thursday night
200. 7:38and she she was afraid to stay in there
201. 7:42but did you hear where did you hear that
202. 7:45from from joe
203. 7:46he he pulled it up and we we read it off
204. 7:48the screen
205. 7:51to a friend in atlanta yeah i can't
206. 7:53remember his name
207. 7:54but you hadn't heard anything on
208. 7:55thursday night
209. 8:03if she had i could have done something i
210. 8:05could have lent her a handgun i've got a
211. 8:08little
212. 8:08hanger that i have for defense
213. 8:12yeah i mean something yeah if she was
214. 8:14afraid in her apartment then
215. 8:16i mean get her out of there
216. 8:21that's what she said in the email she
217. 8:22thought that someone had tried to break
218. 8:24into her apartment she said
219. 8:26making hoodlums tried to break into my
220. 8:28apartment on thursday night
221. 8:30and then this morning they knocked on my
222. 8:32door they were
223. 8:33looking around trying to find anything
224. 8:36and
225. 8:37a few a few of the other friends
226. 8:41burpee burpee and
227. 8:45garen and ashley they were here they
228. 8:48were here last night and they'd come
229. 8:50back this morning
230. 8:52i just went out and talked with them and
231. 8:54they
232. 8:55and then they moved us all over the side
233. 8:58and they
234. 8:59bust us all down to the department and
235. 9:02kept us there until i got back to a
236. 9:04little while ago
237. 9:08yeah they took statements trying to find
238. 9:10out if anyone had seen anything if
239. 9:12anyone heard anything when the last
240. 9:13time anyone's thought it was
241. 9:17well police were also watching the
242. 9:18interview that mcdaniel was giving to
243. 9:20reporters out front
244. 9:22patterson said it looked like he was
245. 9:24hyperventilating and he thought he
246. 9:26fainted
247. 9:27from the heat outside there but i'm sure
248. 9:29the police watched that
249. 9:31interview over and over again as
250. 9:32mcdaniel gave a ton of information out
251. 9:34there
252. 9:35um after the interview is over mcdaniel
253. 9:37tries to come back to his apartment
254. 9:38patterson tries to have him sign a
255. 9:40document allowing police to search
256. 9:42his place he said he was just staring
257. 9:45off into space
258. 9:46and they said he couldn't come back in
259. 9:48the apartment so he left
260. 9:49and as he was crossing the street one of
261. 9:52the other detectives waved him over to
262. 9:54sit into the air-conditioned mobile
263. 9:55command unit detective chapman said
264. 9:58mcdaniel seemed like he was just in
265. 10:00shock he remained there for over three
266. 10:02hours by his choice
267. 10:04after the first 15 minutes he didn't
268. 10:06allow police to search his apartment
269. 10:07more fully
270. 10:09and over the course of those three hours
271. 10:13several detectives came in and out and
272. 10:14spoke with mcdaniel
273. 10:16he finally did go home and about 8 45
274. 10:19that evening cadaver dogs were brought
275. 10:21through
276. 10:21mcdaniel's apartment he was there
277. 10:23sitting on the couch
278. 10:26later about 11 o'clock they bring daniel
279. 10:28down to the police station
280. 10:29and watch this what a different daniel
281. 10:32we get this time
282. 10:35all right brother
283. 10:39all right i just gotta ask you a few
284. 10:43questions you came down earlier tonight
285. 10:46i mean you talked all right
286. 10:48you don't have any weapons all you do
287. 10:50that's just you are what's wrong
288. 10:53you know detective patterson right yes
289. 10:55do you remember
290. 10:56put your hand up here you remember us
291. 10:58talking earlier tonight
292. 11:00right you remember me earlier in the day
293. 11:03yes we came down here and talked a
294. 11:05little bit and then we left
295. 11:07yes okay i need to know
296. 11:10about this girl right here you know
297. 11:14who is that lauren gettings
298. 11:17does she live next door to you yes
299. 11:21when's the last time you seen her two or
300. 11:24three weeks ago
301. 11:27okay was you friends with lauren yes
302. 11:30look at me
303. 11:30and taught me son okay was you friends
304. 11:34with her
305. 11:34yes close friends i mean
306. 11:38you all were friends right both of you
307. 11:39all students you're starting to be an
308. 11:41attorney
309. 11:42right yes what kind of law do you want
310. 11:44to go into criminal law
311. 11:45yes is that what you want to do for a
312. 11:47living yes okay
313. 11:50are you almost finished yes okay so you
314. 11:52don't have too much more to do right
315. 11:54yeah all right are you going to
316. 11:57stay here in bacon i don't know did you
317. 12:00used to work at the district attorney's
318. 12:02office at banking
319. 12:03yes was you on the prosecutor side or
320. 12:07the defense side
321. 12:08prosecutor so you were on our side right
322. 12:11you never worked on the other side
323. 12:13no did you like it when you were down
324. 12:15there yes
325. 12:17uh got along with everybody yes okay
326. 12:21and you've lived next to lauren for a
327. 12:23long time yes
328. 12:25okay do you know where she's at tonight
329. 12:28you know
330. 12:30have you ever seen her with that dress
331. 12:32on
332. 12:34no you have no idea where she's
333. 12:38at no
334. 12:41look just tell me what happened brother
335. 12:45i don't know where she at i need you i'm
336. 12:48asking you for your help
337. 12:52can you help me i don't know
338. 12:56what do you mean you don't know you
339. 12:58can't help a friend out
340. 13:00i don't know what you need i need to
341. 13:02know where lauren's saying
342. 13:03i don't know when's the last time you
343. 13:05seen her
344. 13:06two or three weeks ago has anybody have
345. 13:10you ever seen anybody over her house
346. 13:11last couple nights no okay
347. 13:16if you knew where she was would you tell
348. 13:18me yes
349. 13:22what do you think happened to her i
350. 13:24don't know
351. 13:31do you even care that no one can buy it
352. 13:34yes
353. 13:38i mean i don't know do you yes
354. 13:42what's up with a pair of underwear that
355. 13:44was in your apartment
356. 13:46like a mask it was cut out like a mask
357. 13:49do you
358. 13:50you cut underwear out to look like mask
359. 13:53no
360. 13:56how many guns did you have in your
361. 13:58apartment three
362. 14:00what are they do you know what they are
363. 14:03a rifle what kind of rifle did you have
364. 14:06an ak semi automatic where'd you buy it
365. 14:10from
366. 14:11classic arms is that atlanta or
367. 14:14something
368. 14:15okay what kind of pistols are y'all
369. 14:19eaa witness full-size
370. 14:22and compact okay what is that what about
371. 14:26the one that was on the bed
372. 14:28that's the full size that's the full
373. 14:30sizing where's the what was the other
374. 14:32one
375. 14:32the compact where was that on the table
376. 14:36by the bed yeah remember i was in there
377. 14:40and then you had that samurais award
378. 14:43that was just a i mean that's not ex
379. 14:45it's an expensive sword it's just a
380. 14:47knockoff it's just one of the knockoff
381. 14:49swords
382. 14:49yes and what about the knife
383. 14:53the big one that was remember you showed
384. 14:55me it was dull
385. 14:56yes what kind of knife is that because i
386. 14:58don't know
387. 14:59kukri where do you get something like
388. 15:02that online
389. 15:03i bought it from a friend did you have
390. 15:06any other buyers in the house
391. 15:08yes that i didn't say because you didn't
392. 15:11show me no
393. 15:12other knives that's the only one you
394. 15:13showed me what other knives did i miss
395. 15:15there's a pocket knife that's on the
396. 15:16table
397. 15:18are you a knife collector or a nice
398. 15:20person or no
399. 15:22you just like knives i used to collect
400. 15:25swords i mean do you know your swords
401. 15:28yeah and just sell and trade swords no
402. 15:31but you just bought here and there yes
403. 15:34but you wouldn't consider yourself like
404. 15:36a sword expert
405. 15:37no now the other detective takes a crack
406. 15:40at stephen
407. 15:40i'm not sure if it's going to be any
408. 15:42better this time
409. 15:45what i want you to do i'm going to ask
410. 15:47you this question
411. 15:49i want you to describe to me how you
412. 15:51feel right now
413. 16:01you know how to answer that with a yes
414. 16:03or no do you
415. 16:04i don't know what's going on
416. 16:10lauren's missing
417. 16:14this pretty little girl right here your
418. 16:17neighbor
419. 16:21she's missing i know
420. 16:25you went looking for her last night yes
421. 16:30did you hurt lauren no
422. 16:33steven did you hurt lauren you know
423. 16:36i know this is hard for you to tell it
424. 16:40but it's weighing on you right now ain't
425. 16:42it steve
426. 16:43i get into it but i know you can
427. 16:46probably help me
428. 16:48with who did
429. 16:51can't you buddy i don't know
430. 16:57steven you know and i
431. 17:00mean you both know it's no different
432. 17:02than when you was a little kid
433. 17:04right and you reached in that cookie jar
434. 17:07and you got caught after your mama told
435. 17:09you not to get that cookie
436. 17:10when she was did you get a cookie no
437. 17:14and whenever you tell a lie you feel bad
438. 17:17about it right now
439. 17:18one with every lie there's a chance you
440. 17:20don't get caught
441. 17:24and that weighs on you because you know
442. 17:27you did something bad
443. 17:31am all right
444. 17:34you didn't take the cookie no
445. 17:43what'd you do buddy
446. 17:47i didn't do anything would you do it
447. 17:50alone
448. 17:51i didn't do anything you saw it last
449. 17:54night though
450. 17:55yesterday no
451. 17:59what time was it that she went out to do
452. 18:00a laundry
453. 18:02i don't know where were you at yesterday
454. 18:06at home what'd you do at home
455. 18:09tell me everything you did yesterday
456. 18:12from the time you woke up to the time
457. 18:14you went to sleep
458. 18:19you checked the news at what time
459. 18:23i don't remember was it yesterday
460. 18:27i morning remember what'd you do when
461. 18:29you woke up
462. 18:32i think i checked the news all right
463. 18:34check the news okay
464. 18:44what'd you do after that
465. 18:47i watched some videos online
466. 18:51did you clean up no
467. 18:55you didn't no
468. 18:58you smell like you've been cleaning up
469. 18:59like you've been using cleaner to clean
470. 19:01up
471. 19:02i know that smells like my wife smells
472. 19:04like that all the time when she cleans
473. 19:05the house
474. 19:07you've been using some kind of cleaner
475. 19:08to clean up your apartment have you
476. 19:10no stephen you tell me you live it like
477. 19:14i met
478. 19:14how does your apartment get cleaned i
479. 19:17cleaned it
480. 19:18okay when was the last time you cleaned
481. 19:21it stephen
482. 19:22i don't remember was it this week
483. 19:26no you mean you go a whole week without
484. 19:28cleaning yes
485. 19:30wow that's horrible still
486. 19:33so it was 5 am on july 1st by the time
487. 19:35patterson got back with the warrants to
488. 19:37search
489. 19:38mcdaniel's body car and apartment
490. 19:42so he was speaking to a lieutenant
491. 19:44fletcher this whole time
492. 19:46and lieutenant fletcher got mcdaniel to
493. 19:48admit about
494. 19:49two burglaries he committed to the
495. 19:50neighborhood stealing a condom each from
496. 19:53two neighbors
497. 19:54very strange so they arrested them for
498. 19:57burglary just to keep them under wraps i
499. 19:59guess
500. 20:00and then they went on to do some work in
501. 20:02the following days of searching
502. 20:04the apartment and they came across a
503. 20:07pair of
504. 20:08lawrence panties in his sock drawer
505. 20:10rolled up
506. 20:12keys to lauren's apartment as well as a
507. 20:15master key to the complex
508. 20:18they also found a flash drive with some
509. 20:20kitty porn
510. 20:21on it which was another charge and
511. 20:24in the rear of the complex there's a
512. 20:27laundry room
513. 20:28where they found a bloody sheet
514. 20:31in a washing machine and in a locked
515. 20:34cabinet they found
516. 20:35a hacksaw that was clean but there was
517. 20:38still blood evidence
518. 20:39on it and it came back to lauren as well
519. 20:42the packaging for the hacksaw
520. 20:45came it was found in mcdonald's
521. 20:47apartment so
522. 20:48another link to him also the fbi and
523. 20:52quantico came back with
524. 20:54matching fibers that they found some on
525. 20:57mcdaniel's clothing as well as lawrence
526. 21:00clothing
527. 21:01police also find this creepy video he
528. 21:03took of lauren's apartment
529. 21:05in his possessions
530. 21:57so stephen mcdaniel got life in prison
531. 21:59for killing lauren giddings
532. 22:00and of course since he went to law
533. 22:02school he thinks he's smarter than
534. 22:03everybody else
535. 22:04and had to appeal the case to no avail
536. 22:08thank you guys for watching i'll see you
537. 22:10next visitor's day
538. 22:12and don't let me catch you in my
539. 22:15gating community
540. 22:49[Music]
541. 23:06hey
542. 23:11[Music]
543. 23:24bye