Classmate of Slain Mercer Law Grad Faces Felony Murder Charge, But Questions Still Remain
Although he hasn’t said anything lately, Stephen Mark McDaniel talked quite a bit before he was charged last night with felony murder concerning the death of his law school classmate, Lauren Giddings.
Visibly distraught after being told the 27-year-old’s dismembered torso had been found June 30 in a trash bin at the apartment building where the two were next-door neighbors, McDaniel said he had heard nothing unusual in her apartment at the time she disappeared, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also said he had helped friends concerned about Giddings’ disappearance several days earlier to search her home for clues.
There was no sign of a break-in or a struggle, according to the Associated Press, although Giddings had e-mailed her boyfriend, an attorney, that she was worried someone had tried to break into her apartment a week earlier.
Both law graduates of Mercer University, Giddings and McDaniel had continued to live in Macon, Ga., while they studied for the bar exam. His mother told Channel 2 Action News that her 25-year-old son, who had interned for the Bibb County prosecutor’s office earlier this year and had hoped for a career as a prosecutor, couldn’t have murdered Giddings, the AJC article recounts.
Contending that her son was targeted by authorities because of his shaggy hair, Glenda McDaniel described him as a “bright, gentle, very loving person” who was active in his church. “We don’t believe a Christian can murder and cut someone’s body up,” she said. Her son was a friend of Giddings, she said, and served as vice president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society when Giddings served as president.
In a press conference this afternoon, Macon Police Chief Mike Burns declined to detail how authorities think Giddings was killed, speculate about a motive for the crime or say what felony allegedly was committed in relation to Giddings’ murder, according to the AP and CNN’s Nancy Grace blog.
However, if the charges against him are proven, McDaniel had a darker side. He has been in jail for a month, charged with burglarizing the apartments of two other law students in the building, years ago, in order to steal condoms. And he reportedly had a master key to the apartments in the building.
Questions remain and the case is still being investigated, Burns said at today’s press conference.
