The Bizarre Case of Stephen McDaniel

when forensic health professionals evaluate stalking four essential items are taken into consideration the nature of the relationship between the stalker and the victim the stalker's motivations the psychological psychopathological and social realities of a stalker and the psychological and social vulnerabilities of the victim the subject of this episode is 25 year old stephen mcdaniel and to gain a deeper understanding of the foregoing components we have to extract certain elements through the knowledge of hindsight the evolution of technology over the past two decades has made forensic investigations considerably more efficient two of the items on this list can now be examined through a single component which would otherwise take forensics weeks or even months to conduct in a previous era and that component is the internet or more specifically internet search history the disclosure of web browser data is often a crucial piece of evidence for building a case as it can unveil many aspects of a suspect's personality that would otherwise be kept hidden and this is sometimes far more effective than anything else presented in court including information extracted during a full confession without going into specific detail a large majority of the subject's time was spent watching porn that surrounded the theme of violence and torture he would also conduct back-to-back searches of how to commit sexual assault and would type in several variations of the phrase how to molest sleeping girl to forensics this is an overt sign of desensitization to sexual activity excessive exposure to online pornography can have this effect over time it can build up a tolerance to the traditional idea of sex therefore the subject may continue a more potent form of stimuli to get the same rush for stephen mcdaniel this began with watching abstract material on the internet and eventually led him to planning and then carrying out what he saw on screen his target was 24 year old lauren giddings his next door neighbor of three years and this takes us to item four of the forensic checklist with respect to social vulnerabilities the victim essentially had none lauren was outgoing and extremely popular she was a well-liked member of her community and had a strong social support system with relation to psychological vulnerabilities the term perceptual naivety would potentially come to light during a forensic investigation stephen had asked her out on a date within six months of their acquaintance which was reportedly only the second time they had ever spoke lauren declined but stated she would like to remain friends which was only her being courteous and trying to soften the blow of rejection she would later tell her actual friends that steven made her feel extremely uneasy and was uncomfortable to be around it may have seemed like a non-essential observation at the time but in hindsight it appears that her instinctive senses were trying to tell her something relying on your intuition generally has a bad reputation it's seen as a whimsical and untrustworthy phenomenon yet this attitude is based entirely on myth intuitions occur when your brain makes a significant match or mismatch between the present moment and past experiences but this cognitive recognition doesn't fully reach your conscious awareness say you are driving on a country road in the dark listening to some music when suddenly you have an intuition to drive more to the left side of the lane as you continue driving you notice that you have only just missed the fallen tree branch that could have significantly damaged your car you're glad you relied on your gut feeling even if you don't know where it came from in reality the car in the far distance in front of you made a similar swerve and you picked up on this without consciously registering it this in a nutshell is intuition when you have a lot of experience in a certain area the brain has more information to match the present moment against this makes your intuition is more reliable and also means that it can improve over time lauren had told her friends multiple times that she felt someone had been inside her apartment and she also started getting an eerie vibe when she came back alone especially late at night it was as though she could sense something wasn't right and she even thought about moving multiple times but unfortunately never went through with it the reality was that stephen mcdaniel had stolen a master's key from a security guard and let himself into her apartment and looked around on several occasions he also started filming her when she would leave and return to her apartment during all hours of the day had lauren been in this situation before or even knew anyone that had she may have trusted her intuition and unknowingly saved herself from a tragic fate but that's the key word trust she had no proof of the danger she was in only conviction which unfortunately wasn't strong enough when it was most needed at roughly 4 a.m on june 26 2011 stephen mcdaniel snuck into lauren's apartment once more only this time she was sleeping inside as he crept into her bedroom she awoke and immediately panicked once she saw the intruder mcdaniel then pounced on top of her and proceeded to strangle her for roughly 15 minutes lauren put up a courageous fight and clawed at her attacker's face and chest but she was eventually overpowered and died of asphyxiation after the murder stephen dismembered lauren's body in the bathtub with a hacksaw he cut his victim into five pieces placed each piece in a trash bag and then disposed of each of them in separate trash cans around campus three days later lauren's concerned friends would arrive at her apartment and let themselves in with a spare key mcdaniel would notice from his window and invited himself inside as he offered to help all of her belongings were still inside including her cell phone driver's license and passport a missing person's report was filed that night a search party commenced the next morning and police would discover the victim's torso at 9 40 am it was placed in a trash can next to the apartment complex the rest of the victims remains were never recovered the investigation was then switched from a missing person to murder police canvassed the surrounding area and began conducting interviews with neighbors and classmates one of whom was stephen mcdaniel but he was first interviewed by the local news and at the time was unaware that part of the victim's remains had been discovered we're just trying to find out where she is at this point i mean no one has seen her since saturday i mean the last time anyone heard from her was an email that she sent out and no one's heard from her since what kind of person was she i mean how did you what did you see she's as nice as can be i mean very personable very much people person do you know anybody that any enemies you might have had somebody that might want to hurt her no i mean we just don't know where she is what about um in the like the parking lot area i know they've been doing a lot of i think that's where they have recovered the body or whatever they recovered from there had you heard it had you seen anything there how did you see anything there i mean we don't know if this is the same person you know what i mean like they took out a body there earlier we don't know the same person or not so that's how we're trying to ask people they know who lived there are you okay sir i think i need to sit down okay this is most likely a genuine reaction disguised as another he is most likely feeling a sense of fear and shock over the fact a substantial piece of evidence has been discovered yet he plays it off as a feeling of sorrow over the loss of his supposed friend i don't know anyone that would want to hurt her she was as nice person as there is was she moving soon did you know anything about her yeah she was going to be moving out today why would anyone do this maybe i could have helped i mean they went in we looked around the place no sign of a struggle no sign that anyone had broken in just nothing he was interviewed by police at 11 50 am and offered to help in any way he could yet came across as fidgety and apprehensive the entire time there were two highlighted moments of the interview the first was when stephen asserted that he was a virgin saving himself for marriage the second was when the detective discovered scratch marks on his face and stomach which he asserted were done by himself in his sleep he at that point unknowingly became the prime suspect and was asked if police could search his apartment steven reluctantly accepted and was then transported back to the complex with four other investigators while searching his apartment they discovered a collection of swords guns toilet rolls stockpiled provisions as if he was expecting an apocalyptic event and a mask made out of women's underwear the most significant discovery however was a pack of condoms steven was asked why he would have such an item in his possession if he was staying celibate before marriage at which point he miraculously confessed to stealing them from another apartment this gave the detectives probable cause for arrest and stephen was placed in handcuffs and brought back to the police station his interrogation began just after 11 pm all right i just got to ask you a few questions uh you came down earlier tonight me and you talked all right you don't have any weapons on you do you yeah that's just you what's wrong you know detective patterson right yes do you remember put your hands up here you remember us talking earlier tonight right you remember me earlier in the day yes we came down here and talked a little bit and then we left yes okay the monotone dialogue and lifeless demeanor you see here reportedly started on the drive back to the police station and the suspect's conduct throughout the entire procedure is not only mystifying but almost impressive this is one of the most extraordinary pieces of interrogation footage to ever reach the public domain i need to know about this girl right here you know who is that lauren giddings does she live next door to you yes when's the last time you seen her two or three weeks ago okay was you friends with lauren yes look at me talk me son okay the suspect has morphed himself into this abnormal and extremely creepy character whether it's a strategy or some sort of mental breakdown is unclear but what's incredible is that it somewhat dictates the pace of the interrogation the detective has just closed the distance and commanded eye contact both of which are recognized techniques to increase psychological pressure yet the absurdly haunting manner in which the suspect turns his head and fixes his gaze unnerves the detective to the point where he becomes the one to look away and reset his posture this essentially never happens in interrogations as it can give the suspect an incredible boost in confidence look at me and talk me son okay was you friends with her yes close friends we were good i mean you all were friends right both of you all students you're studying to be an attorney right yes what kind of law do you want to go into criminal law yes is that what you want to do for a living yes okay the detective steps back from his initially aggressive strategy he asks trivial questions for 35 seconds before attempting to ramp up the pressure in a more subtle manner and you've lived next to lauren for a long time yes okay do you know where she's at tonight you know have you ever seen her with that dress on no you have no idea where she's at no [Music] yes look just tell me what happened brother i don't know where she at i need you i'm asking you for your help i'm a detective and i'm asking you for your help can you help me i don't know what do you mean you don't know you can't help a friend out i don't know what you need i need to know where lawrence i am i don't know do you even care that no one can find her yes i mean i don't know do you yes what's up with the pear underwear that was in your apartment it was like a mask it was cut out like a mask do you you cut underwear out to look like mask no are you a knife collector or a knife person or no you just like knives i used to collect swords i mean do you know your swords yeah i mean to sell and trade swords no is that how lauren looked with the long hair the last time you seen her yes that's how she looks yes i mean earlier today me and you sit here and talk normal what's going on with you now why are you acting like this i need to know why all of a sudden you're acting like this i don't understand okay earlier today we sat here and talked but now you're acting like you don't know what's going on when does something happen or something to you i mean why are you not why are you shutting down why are you not talking to me i don't know you don't know are you scared no i mean you're not scared are you no steven's demeanor doesn't waver for the first 20 minutes so the detective eventually takes a more distinctly aggressive approach he attacks the subject's character to see if it might coax him out of the act and into defending his dignity you got your ass on that [ __ ] news and stood out there and gave a media report that her mother saw about her missing dollar and you want me to sit there and tell them that you don't know is that what you want me to tell them because you're all over the news you sure stood out there and ran your mouth to the news media but now you're gonna get out here and you don't [ __ ] know you know you're just a sorry piece of [ __ ] that don't give a [ __ ] right yeah well why'd you tell the media everything do you need to see what you told the media today it was on 11 o'clock news well i'm asking you tell me i want to know i don't know where she is that ain't what you told the media you didn't stand in front of that camera and say i don't know i don't know i don't know i need you to tell me what you want me to tell her mother and that i want to ask you another thing i'm not going to tell her mother that you don't know because her mother saw you on the news tonight and she cried all the way down to making because you had the balls to get on the news and tell everybody everything so this little act that you're doing right now ain't working with me okay so you just snap out of it and tell me what the hell happened so we can move on i don't know well how many times you gonna say i don't know huh how many times you gonna say it if you did something that you regret you let me know i didn't well who did i don't know whether it was planned or not the second detective enters the room with a similar strategy of immediate aggression rapport development seems to have been collectively thrown by the wayside what's up buddy did you talk to him about his guns yeah when was the last time you shot those guns i haven't you've never shot a gun no have you ever shot any gun in your whole life no no no so you bought three guns that you've never shot yes why to have for what to have for what i'm asking for what why do you want to have them what makes did they give you i mean tell me why it's important to you to have three guns that's an easy question come on talk to me buddy me and you talked all day today we ain't had a problem communicate why is it important for you to have three guns do you not know no you say you don't know what lauren is right right you said you told me earlier you and lauren were friends right yes how would you describe y'all's relationship she was my friend she was your friend what did you ever do things for she ever do things for you what did she ever do for you we talked we talked what'd y'all talk about news the news okay how many times have you been in her apartment with her hanging out you don't know if you had to guess what was just i mean one time two times three times what maybe two maybe two see if i had only been somewhere twice i could remember that if i had been there over 50 times and you asked me how many times i've been like i don't know a lot but the fact that you've only been there twice when i say how many times been you say you don't know that's just odd to me does that make sense to you yes that does make sense so what i'm saying right now makes sense no lauren's missing this pretty little girl right here your neighbor she's missing much like detective one detective two now valiantly moves in for the psychological charge he closes the distance and locks eye contact his physical demeanor alongside a prolonged gaze will hopefully crack the suspect's fortified barrier once broken the momentum will commence and the suspect will be more likely to divulge incriminating information all the detective has to do is maintain eye contact for longer than his adversary it's a psychological battle of attrition between two opposing forces and these moments can sometimes last for minutes on end i know me and you both know it's no different than when you was a little kid right and you reached in that cookie jar and you got caught after your mama told you not to get that cookie when she was did you get a cookie no and whenever you tell a lie you feel bad about it right then one with every lie there's a chance you don't get caught and that weighs on you because you know you did something bad am i right i didn't do it you didn't take the cookie no just smell like you've been cleaning up like you've been using cleaner to clean up i know what that smells like my wife smells like that all the time when she cleans the house you've been using some kind of cleaning to clean up your apartment haven't you no steven you telling me you live like a man how does your apartment get cleaned i cleaned it was the last time you cleaned it steven i don't remember was it this week no you mean you go a whole week without cleaning yes wow that's horrible steven i don't know how else to say it steven let me tell you what i think i think that she was a friend of yours look at her right here i think that she was a friend of yours and i think something happened stephen you used to watch her come in and out of her apartment didn't you no well how y'all doing we're just talking see that pretty girl right there yes you're telling me you looked at a pretty girl like that you never once thought ever man she looks good you never thought that i don't understand what do you mean you don't understand did you know when you're sitting there you see a girl walking down the road and he said man that girl looks good you'll see a good looking girl you think yourself man that girl looks good yes you never thought that about her yes so you mean to tell me you look at porn on the internet and get off to that but you never looked at her and said man i wonder what it'd be like to have sex with her yes you have no stephen this is hard buddy i know this is hard and i can tell it's someone you want to let it go there's blood in your apartment stephen you didn't get it all up this is the widely recognized futility technique which is used to make the subject believe it is useless to resist due to the overwhelming evidence against them it's most effective when the interrogator can play on doubts that already exist in the subject's mind the only problem here is that stephen didn't dismember lauren inside his apartment it all happened in lauren's apartment so the detective's bluff is already called at this point it didn't all come off you scrub and you wiped but we can tell that don't you watch csi yeah we know it stephen why is there blood in your bathroom the detective now completely shifts his strategy from confrontational and aggressive to sympathetic and understanding he attempts to create a connection and then afford steven a more socially acceptable reason for the crime this is extremely difficult to pull off after a direct confrontation as there is no established report or trust the usual routine is the exact opposite you would first build rapport and then get aggressive once a connection has been attained i wanted to give you an opportunity to tell it i wanted to be here with you to go through that process because i know you're not a monster man i know you're not a bad guy you're just a hard-working student trying to pass a bar exam at you you ain't got a lot of support from your family do you yes you do the strategy fails at the first hurdle stephen immediately shuts down the afforded sympathy and reasoning behind the alleged crime which was the concept of unsupportive parents but the detective now attempts to roll with it a lot of people can't say that and the fact that you do have support from your family should make things easier your family wants to feel like they've raised somebody that tells the truth and is honest right yes did you hurt that girl stephen no have you ever heard anyone stephen no never hurt anyone no i've heard people stephen i've made mistakes in my life it's not even normal to say you've never heard anybody sometimes people get mad and they say things they don't mean to say it hurts they never kicked a dog or a cat the lead detective then asks non-confrontational questions for almost 30 minutes which is most likely to see if it will change the suspect's demeanor and the manner in which he responds but it doesn't steven maintains the same lifeless disposition which he has now kept up for almost 90 minutes you know it's crazy i was talking people that he works with and everything they talk about how he's always expresses himself he don't know he's very talkative they say you're so talkative buddy that you always so friendly you stop in and say hello and you talk what why is it that you're acting so short with us tonight if you if you have all this captain personality about you why is it that everything that we get from you is yes no or i don't know i don't know why are you acting like this stephen you see how i'm able to talk in complete sentences like we're having a conversation but the only thing you're bringing to the table is a yes no or i don't know stephen did you hurt that girl no would you tell me if you did yes have you lied to me at all in this interview no yes you have stephen when was the last time you did laundry a few weeks ago you ain't washed clothes in a few weeks yeah why i have a lot of clothes no you don't that's another lie you don't have a lot of clothes yes i do nope you got enough underwear to last you three weeks yes do you wear the same pair underwear more than one day yes why because it's still clean enough to wear where's that little girl steven i don't know steven you know you're gonna look at this right here this little girl right here and you're gonna say you don't know i know you know i don't know yes you know what are you gonna say tomorrow when i say we got your hair with the body what are you going to say to me then because you know like i go like that look at my hair that's how easy it falls out look at all that on your head you don't think none fell out it did as we know steven went inside lauren's apartment with her friends three days after she was already deceased this would give reason for his dna being found at the scene and would essentially nullify its use as damnatory evidence steven being a law student would be well aware of this we just want to give you an opportunity to tell it so you didn't look like a mobster at the end because you know what i don't believe that you're a monster stephen i believe that you're a good guy you've been picked on girls didn't show you the respect that you deserved you did something stupid and i believe you feel bad about it and that's why you're all freaked out right now but i'm giving you the opportunity to get right i've given you an opportunity to show everybody you're not a monster that you feel bad about what happened your hair is there man your hair is there that's right buddy see that look at it see how easy see this stuff right here your hair yeah it fell out of your head when you was moving the body stephen that's right do you remember moving the body no yes you do stephen why man why tell me bud i didn't do it yes you did stephen we want you to tell it so that way people understand you're not a monster things just you got out of control it's a sickness why'd you do it stephen stephen why are you gonna keep telling that you hurt that girl yes you did stephen you heard her man she was screaming screaming stephen why and i know you feel bad about it i can see it in your face what came over you man what happened stephen i don't know i know you don't know you can't you couldn't control it could you i didn't do it stephen they steal your hair and take it over there they didn't did they that's right it's all sinking in right now he knows is what you're thinking stephen i don't want it to be a game between me and you i know it hurts and i know you're not an awful person and you want to tell it your hair was there stephen we've all known it all along we wanted just to give you an opportunity to tell what happened y'all have sex no do you try to have sex no you think about having sex no liar what kind of man doesn't think about having sex you said earlier you like girls right yes you said she's a pretty girl right yes what'd you do to her stephen i didn't do anything you're lying you hurt that girl no i didn't sure did that's why you're having this massive meltdown right now the detective quite literally repeats the phrase you hurt that girl to which steven responds no i didn't and this goes on for the best part of 20 minutes perhaps the detective's strategy was to induce mental exhaustion yet it had no effect whatsoever why did you hurt that girl i didn't why'd you hurt her stephen i you heard her steven no i didn't you did take this with me you don't deserve to look at it just stay right here okay okay i appreciate all your cooperation tonight okay all right we're getting ready though i just need to discuss a few more things with you the lead detective now abandons the pursuit of any sort of admission he instead proceeds to belittle and humiliate the suspect as much as possible it may have a tactical purpose but it's more likely out of frustration alongside the fact he is certain of the suspect's culpability where i know earlier today you told me you stayed home all weekend right in your apartment yes did anybody see you did you talk to anybody over the weekend were you on your computer all weekend is there anything i can look at that i can say he couldn't be involved because he was on the computer or he was online on a porn site or he was online doing college work or anything that would exclude you as being involved altogether i mean did anybody see this weekend at the house did you go out to get a newspaper did you wave to a neighbor or you just locked yourself in all week yes nobody saw you no i mean what do you just stay in the house all day yes i mean what do you do all day in the house i mean you've always done that your whole life you don't have no friends how can you go your whole life without a friend i have friends we're there hmm where that you have your friends here making yes name one because everybody i talked to said they ain't your friend ryan granger cass lawson ashley morehouse the same people i've talked to today and they're not your friend okay one of the reasons interrogations are so fascinating is the ethical vacuum it creates for everyone inside its bubble in any other circumstance the detective's behavior here would be considered cruel and reprehensible he's essentially bullying the suspect yet the empathy we would normally have is now stripped away through the impression of retribution we know this person has done something horrific and the treatment he is now receiving is merited through his own actions i mean it's all over anyways i just want to know what was going on tonight the game's over i mean we know what you did there so we just want to know what you if you were going to tell us or not i didn't do anything well that's what you say but we know different so you're [ __ ] either way you're [ __ ] we already know we know you killed her we know you put her body in the trash can the news media knows it glenda knows that your mother your sister knows it your sister's husband knows the one that used to beat your sister he knows it you know what he said he said he's a crazy [ __ ] that's what he said when i called him that's your own family calling you crazy nobody wants to see you nobody's coming to visit you so you can sit there with that dumb look on your face but it's over [Music] the entire interrogation took over two hours when sped up by twenty thousand percent you truly get a glimpse of how remarkable the suspect's catatonic performance was his mother came to speak with him soon after this moment and although he maintained his innocence he immediately snapped out of a zombie-like character it's difficult to interpret the reasoning behind the performance whether it was a pre-planned strategy improvised in the moment or some type of psychological breakdown is unclear but whatever it was it evidently seemed to work as the interrogators got nothing the suspect's behavior was so abnormal they were essentially at a loss with what to do or where to even start with a specific plan of attack the evidence however was irrefutable hundreds of pictures of lauren were discovered on steven's flash drive along with multiple video recordings of inside her apartment a hacksaw was found in a supply closet of the apartment complex and it was marked red with what was later identified as lauren's blood through dna testing the packaging for the exact same hacksaw was found in steven's apartment when confronted with the evidence he took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty and was rendered a life sentence without the possibility of parole he is currently being held at the high security hancock state prison in sparta georgia one of the more discussed elements to the present day is the motive behind the crime what was the reasoning behind steven's actions that night he asserts that murder was never his intention but simply the result of momentary panic and confusion all preceded by the foolish decision to break into an apartment which stemmed from a potent yet harmless infatuation with a girl he found attractive he essentially tried to make out that his behavior was devious and calculating but not evil or perverted public opinion on the matter varies yet the general consensus is that the murder was premeditated mainly due to the fact that he had bought the hacksaw just days prior to the murder a popular psychological viewpoint takes us back to the personality of a stalker lauren was set to move out the very same day she was murdered which brings some to believe that stephen was terrified by the notion of change that the person he had been infatuated with and fantasized over for so long was no longer going to be a part of his life and no matter how obscure and unreciprocated their association was he couldn't bear the thought of losing her rather than lauren going on to live the promising life that lay ahead of her and leaving stephen behind as a forgotten memory he has now in some abstract manner connected them both forever good to be back hope you're doing well this is the sixth and final installment of my stephen mcdaniels commentary man it's been a slog we are deep in the troll vortex of insanity i don't think anyone's gone this far it's like cave diving but a lot more dangerous

Channel: undefined

Views: 5,652,135

Rating: 4.8985262 out of 5

Keywords: true crime, psychology, detective, crime documentary, interrogation

Id: HkRjIq8Cp2A

Length: 40min 56sec (2456 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Fairies_by_infection]

I was his neighbor when this happened. The houses in that neighborhood are old Victorian style and a lot of the big streets have tons of little alleys that connect them. His house was at the end of the alley that ran beside mine. I didn't know him, but this happened as I was moving out.

[u/whoop_there_she_is]

These detectives are complete idiots. He's a law school student, he knows the first rule of interrogation: give the police nothing they can use against you. And they made that incredibly easy by derailing the conversation a million times with inane bs like "how often do you do laundry?" None of their 'strategies' go anywhere, the lead interrogator looked like he was going to cry at the end of it.

I wouldn't call this "The Bizarre Case of Stephen McDaniel." I'd call this "The Bizarre Case of two completely idiotic police interrogators talking about losing their hair and cookie jars while a murderer sits there and watches the breakdown."

[u/STSector9]

I’ve been super into this JCS YouTube channel

[u/WWTBFCD3PillowMin]

So in case anyone has never heard of this person or know what he did, I found the following article

”A next-door neighbor and law school classmate of Lauren Giddings, a North Laurel woman killed in 2011 in Macon, Ga., pleaded guilty to a murder charge and was sentenced to life in prison in a Georgia court Monday morning, according to David Cooke Jr., district attorney for Macon-Bibb County.

Stephen McDaniel, 28, of Macon, accepted a deal in the conviction and also revealed previously unknown details about the killing, including McDaniel's account of the night of the murder...

...McDaniel wrote that on June 26, four days before her body was discovered, he donned a mask and gloves, entered Giddings' apartment using a master key and choked her to death in her bedroom. McDaniel admitted in the document to dismembering Giddings in her bathroom the following day and disposing of her body.”

There’s more info in the linked article. (Edit: formatting on mobile)

[u/bubbletrollbutt]

I was watching this yesterday. Just watching him gives me the creeps. He turns his head but not his body and just stares.

[u/df118s]

Anyone got any new info on Stephen? the latest is from 2018, he went to a medical facility for a few months but is now in Hancock State Prison, not far from Macon. He looks really pale and skinny, I wonder if he's seen the sun in years. I bet he PC'd up? I bet he doesn't hit the yard much judging by his skin.

[u/dy74n]

Narrated by Perd Hapley?