>> so, it was strange when she dropped out of sight. >> did not take her car, did not take her purse. we realized something was wrong. >> they could not possibly have guessed how wrong. >> there is another level of evil here, the person who did this was trying to create a vanishing. >> good do such a thing? >> first thing you look is who is closest to her, romantically or geographically. >> the list was long. they boyfriend, an ex and fellow students. had somebody been studying more than textbooks? >> he would ask people, how would you commit the perfect murder? >> his roommates said he thought he was smarter than everybody else. >> smart, maybe. but had he slipped up? >> what they had found told us everything we needed to know. >> a confounding case that would come down to a damning piece of video that no one was supposed to see. >> sick, twisted. >> what was it like to see that? >> i knew that we had him. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ hello, and welcome to dateline. lauren giddings moved south for law school, and immediately felt right at home. smart and vibrant, she turned heads on campus, but kept her own eyes on her bright future. then, suddenly she vanished. turns out that someone close to lauren was hiding a secret and hiding in plain sight. but here is keith morrison with, the watcher . ♪ ♪ ♪ >> it was a summer morning in the heart of georgia. heat rose thick and damp among the old macon's grand old antebellum mansions. as the morning traffic drove by. something in the air that morning. something off. maybe just the trash truck. >> this was a 90-degree day. towards the end of june. there was a hot wind blowing that day. >> joe kovac was down at the local paper. and all of the sudden -- >> i could remember the buzz in the newsroom. >> oh, this would be big. big, and disturbing. sometimes, things can be like that in the south, says joe. >> it was the shock, a shock to the system. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ but, there is something else about the south, something sweet, magnetic. it draws people in, and macon, with a storied history and it's cherry blossoms at its very heart. >> it's slow, relaxing. everybody here is welcoming. >> even for a new yorker, -- who signed up at the mercer law school over here. >> you never meet a stranger i guess, in the south. that is what makes it so wonderful, comforting. >> it is where she met lauren giddings. >> when we found out that we were both from the north, we just instantly connected on that >> but, then why would you not want to connect with lauren? she was bigger than life. >> she was infectious. i mean, you could not be around her for more than five minutes, and not already be having a good time. >> she was the adored eldest of three sisters. youngest, sarah. >> we would always go on runs together. >> kaitlan, in the middle. >> she was more like a book warm. she loves to read, academics. >> lauren grew up in maryland, halfway between baltimore and d. c., with her friend, katie o'hare. >> she was a riot. the things that will come out of her mouth sometimes, she would not have a filter. >> why did she go south for school? >> she loved the south. she was a country girl at heart. when she got there, she loved it. she did not want to come back up here. >> lauren certainly knew what she wanted, she wanted to be a lawyer. but not one of those corporate types, or even a crusading prosecutor. lorraine wanted to be a public defender, a voice for the poor and the accused. >> why did she want to do that? >> she always wanted to help people, always. >> and mercer law school, perched on its hillside in one of macon's sweet spots seemed just right for her. >> she was a fan of nancy grace, who graduated from there. >> lauren found the great apartment right across the street from the law school, full of aspiring lawyers, the next door neighbor was a classmate, even the maintenance man was a student. and soon, she was everywhere, running in the park, active in her church. eventually, president of her law schools federalist society. she was hard to miss! >> she showed up in her pink outfit. >> always pink? >> always pink! or even seersucker! >> and always with her dog, butter bean. >> fluffy, blond haired, just like she was. >> and she carried it around all the time? >> always. she was basically was elle woods in legally blonde. we always kind of jived her for that. >> it was no surprise that she attracted a lot of men. >> she always had people kind of infatuated with her, that is how she was. >> like david. she interned at his law firm in atlanta, he was 20 years older, but their relationship seemed pretty serious. until apparently, it wasn't. >> being in school was hard. they were not living in the same city or anything. >> besides -- >> lauren was a flirt. i mean, she liked attention. >> and she got it, from a classmate named joe. >> he was more on the goofier side, and also her age. >> so they became an item. but, there was something about david, some chemistry that drew her back. and she gave joe the bad news. >> lauren was up front, told joe, and that was that. >> a bit broken hearted, on joe's part? >> i think so, he really liked her. who wouldn't? >> anyway, at graduation time, may, 2011, david was there to cheer her on. it was a big event for the whole family. >> we went out after her graduation with her family, got to know everybody. >> just a month later, another celebration, up north. her sister's wedding. >> i did want to say how special this wedding is, obviously not -- >> lauren was maid of honor. and then, back to macon for the final hurdle. the bar exam. >> a busy, scary time for a young lawyer? >> absolutely. >> but first -- >> it was everybody's last hurrah. >> it was friday night, end of june, 2011. the graduates gathered at a local bar, for one last blowout before hunkering down to study. they closed the bar, went to ashley's boyfriends place. lauren's ex, joe, was his roommate. >> eventually, we just all kind of decided we are going to go to sleep now. >> right. >> i will remind you, there was alcohol involved. >> surprise, surprise. >> right! >> lauren stayed the night in joe's room. the next day, everybody was moving a bit slowly. >> i did not see lauren that morning. i also did not see joe that morning. we just assumed they were in the room together. >> it was then time to buckle down. all of the friends, joe included, went off to cram. >> you just kind of go into this hole, and you study constantly, you have no contact with anybody. >> so it took a few days to realize that nobody had heard from lauren. >> no reason yet to assume anything was wrong, but soon, there would be. >> coming up -- >> i was immediately like, this is not right. >> alarm bells for one friend, while another steals herself, to enter lauren's apartment. >> i said, are you ready for whatever we will see when we walk in there? >> when dateline continues. ands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. your eyes. beautiful on the outside, but if you have diabetes, there can be some not-so-pretty stuff going on inside. it's true, with diabetic retinopathy, excess sugar can damage blood vessels, causing vision loss or even blindness. so remember this: now is the time to get your eyes checked. eye care is important to your long-term diabetes management. see a path forward with actions and treatments that may help your eyes— and protect against vision loss. visit noweyesee.com and take control of your sight. >> it was photos from that wedding trip up north that set off the alarm. the selfies katie or hear snapped and then nine days later, texted to her friend down in macon, lauren giddens. >> they were kind of funny, so i know she's going to respond to me. and i said oh my gosh, if you post that online. i'm going to get you. >> but no response. was she studying too hard to look at a few photos? katie tried again the next day. and the day after that. and again, no response. >> that's not normal for her. we would talk a lot. >> katie called lauren's cell phone. and her phone was off. and i immediately was like, this isn't right. so i called her sister caitlin and i said, lawrence phone is off. she hasn't been answering me for days. have you heard from her? >> no, she had not. so caitlin reached out to lauren's law school friend ashley. >> her sister contacted me over a message on facebook. >> hey, trying to get into touch with lauren. have you seen her? can you let her know we're trying to get in touch with her. we haven't heard from her. >> this was wednesday. now thinking back, actually hadn't seen lauren since that pre-study party friday night. actually went to lauren's apartment. her car was there. she knocked out the door. >> when she didn't answer, i didn't think anything of it. i soon she was running, i assume she was studying somewhere. >> so, she let it go. but then a few hours later, her sister -- >> her sister contacted me again and said this is an emergency. we've been trying to call her and she still is not answering. >> now ashley began to worry. so she and her boyfriend referring return to lauren's police and use the spare key to go inside. first, she warned her boyfriend. >> i said, are you ready for whatever we're going to see when we walk in there. because at that point in time, you just have this almost sort of dread. >> it was dark by then. >> we had to walk pretty far back into the apartment to find a light to turn on. searched her bedroom, she's not in there. >> what they did find was quite puzzling. >> her purse, her keys, her cell phone, her i. d., all on the couch. her laptop on her bed. >> as if she just gone out for a run, or something? >> exactly like that. >> know her? >> and butter been, her dog. had been at home with her parents in maryland. so the fact that was her dog wasn't there wasn't concerning to us. the fact that she wasn't there, hours later. that's when it became real. >> something else occurred to them. he lauren was due to move out the next day, june 30th. but -- >> nothing was packed in boxes. but it definitely looked like she was getting her stuff together to be able to pack it. >> she'd already told her friends, her plan was to move to her boyfriend david's place in atlanta. an hour and a half up the highway. >> that was supposed to be the plan. that was lauren's plan. >> even though some of lawrence friends for thought they weren't right for each other. >> i don't know if i want to use the word flaky, but the relationship with david was flaky. >> lauren's called david. he said he hadn't talked to her in days. >> i remember specifically him hanging up and calling back a few minutes later saying, what's going on? >> back at the apartment, ashley rounded up lauren's law school friends. including that ex-boyfriend joe. with whom she'd spent the night last time any of the friends saw her. >> joe immediately went to the law school to search the law school for her. >> while the other friends took a careful look around the apartment. they found some food wrappers and in her car, a receipt from a restaurant drive-through, time stamped saturday, 6:00 pm. the evening after that pre-study party. but now it was wednesday night. >> the restaurant was at that 4 days old. >> so, where did she go? for a run? did she have some sort of accident? or was it something even worse? >> lauren's friends knew she spent time visiting prisoners when she was a public defender at the -- >> it make you wonder about which encountered? >> she encountered all sorts. people should visit the jail often. >> and they remember something lauren said at the last three study party. >> she had thought that someone had been stalking her. but we didn't really pay much attention to it, because of who lauren was. >> she was a girl who always had admirers who stood out. just about everybody who lived in the apartment complex knew lauren. including of course, her fellow student and next door neighbor, and he wanted to help search for her. he asked about window locks. >> somebody checked her windows to see if they were open or locks? >> yes, i think one might have been unlocked. >> friends also search lawrence computer and discovered that her last online activity was an email sent saturday night. this was disturbing >> it was an email to david. it was eerie. >> what did it say? >> essentially that she thought someone was trying to break into her house the night prior. i think she worded it, the person being a hoodlum. a macon hoodlum. >> the ultimate fear. that some evil stranger had taken their friend, lauren >> coming up. investigators search lauren's apartment with a forensic tool that reveals a critical clue hiding in plain sight. >> it was like a light switch. >> when dateline continues. line continues carl is saving big, holiday shopping at amazon. so now, he's free to become... choirmaster carl. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place. kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions, and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections. while no cases of pml were reported in rms clinical trials, it could happen. tell your doctor if you had or plan to have vaccines, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. kesimpta may cause a decrease in some types of antibodies. the most common side effects are upper respiratory tract infection, headache, and injection reactions. ready for an at-home treatment with dramatic results? it's time to ask your doctor about kesimpta. hey hun reahey, get your own vaporsent with dramatic results? relax with vicks vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> there is a special torture to be far away when a loved one is missing. >> did you go to sleep that night? >> no, i basically had the laptop in front of me, the cell phone, kept going back and forth. >> around 2 am, thursday, lauren's sister woke up their dad. >> he has 100 questions, and i do not have an answer to any of them, i did not know anything, you know? her apartment was empty. her stuff was there. >> unable to sit and wait for answers, lauren's dad packed up his car and started the 11 hour drive to georgia. macon police, now part of the sheriff's department looked around lauren's apartment the night before, but then by morning, there was still no sign of her, so detectives were called in. and with them, crime scene investigator steve--. >> do crime scene techs do missing persons cases? >> not normally, but this was a little different. >> she was a social animal, and they do not just vanish, right? >> exactly, to just disappear with no trace, without talking to anyone, it was unlike her. >> so, he looked up at lauren's front door, second floor, left side. nothing seemed amiss. out front, a garbage truck lumbered up. but, blocked by the police cars, it was unable to empty the complex's trash bins. the truck moved on. by then, the lieutenant was in the apartment, looking around. >> it felt like somebody walked out, shut the door. >> puzzling. the day was hot already. a humid breeze scattered across the yard. >> we came up over here, that is when the wind kind of hit you in the face, and you could smell something. you could smell a foul odor. >> a recognizable foul order? >> pretty much. >> that was the smell that the lieutenant was all too familiar with. he followed his nose, to one of the trash bins outside the apartment. >> i opened it up, looked in there and i saw, two trash bags. >> he pulls out of the bag on top, ripped it open. typical household trash. >> then, i went to the bigger one, which was a large sized package. it was a trash bag, that as i felt it, reached down, touched it and felt it, it felt like it had some human remains in it. >> and then, to his growing horror, he realized that it was only part of a body. a woman's torso. nothing else. >> we started to cordon everything off with crime scene tape, leaving sheets, barriers on the other side of the fence so the news media and general public could not see what we were doing. at that time, with this investigation, they did not yet need to know, just in case, we did not want to mess anything up. if it got out too quick, what we had found. >> meanwhile, better take a closer look at that apartment. >> we started to systematically take each room, trying to find any evidence that we could use, using all of the techniques, science that was available to us at the time. >> one of those tools was luminol, a spray that turns blue when it comes into contact with blood. lieutenant sprayed it in lauren's bathroom and -- >> it was like a light switch, the whole bathroom glowed. >> what did you see when you saw the bathroom light up that way? that tub? >> i was thinking, oh crap, because the whole tub, was almost two inches from the top, had the same glow. >> but this was strange. when they dusted for fingerprints and checked for hairs and fibers, they did not find much at all. >> and somebody wiped everything down. you think that you could find other peoples fingerprints, things like that. >> this was not going to be easy. police had already rounded up lauren's friends, and her neighbor did not want them to know about the discovery. took them all downtown to records their statements. and while they were there -- >> there was a call to our newsroom. >> macon telegraph reporter joe kovac. >> there had been a body found outside the apartment, along coleman hill. >> police tried to keep the discovery quiet, but it did not take long before the news was online. and then back in maryland, where lauren's family had gathered -- >> my uncle came in and asked, he heard the news and we were like, no, we are in maryland. tell us what you are talking about. and he said, well, they found a body. and at that point, it was just hysterics. >> was it her? it must be. downtown, investigators resorted to method. >> who is closest to her, romantically or geographically? >> start close, as they say. close to the victim. but how close? oh, they had no idea. >> coming up, police look at the men in lauren's life. her boyfriend david, and her ex, joe. they wondered, could there have been a love triangle gone wrong? >> people react badly to that sort of thing? >> very badly, sometimes. >> when dateline continues. multi-flex, huh? wow. it becomes a step. mom, dad's flexing again. that's not all. you can extend the bed for longer stuff. is he still... still flexing. that's right! and, it becomes a workspace... you can put your laptop here. i'm sending an imaginay email. hey dad, dinner! hey! look who stopped by daddy's office. wait, you work here? the chevy silverado with the available multi-flex tailgate. find new flexibility. find new roads. chevrolet. (cooking timer rings) ♪ this is how we do it ♪ ♪ this is how we do it ♪ (tools drop) (squeaking sound) ♪ this is how we do it ♪ turns out, montell jordan knows how to do almost everything. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. ♪ this is how... ♪ i got it, i got it, i got it. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage make the right call - and go with the general. my hygienist cleans and nearly 60 years of quality coverage with a round head. so does my oral-b my hygienist personalizes my cleaning. so does my oral-b oral-b delivers the wow of a professional clean feel every day. >> i'm dara brown, here's what's happening british prime minister boris johnson responding to the new omicron coronavirus variant in posing you quarantining and testing rules for travelers entering the country. so far two cases of the variant have been detected in the uk. a rush of flash mobs robbers around the country sparking added security in the country. dozens of thieves left with thousands of dollars in merchandise. now, back to dateline. k to dateline. >> welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. lauren had been missing for days when lieutenant steve get lynn made a gruesome discovery. following the trail of an unmistakable odor, he found a human tore through in a trash can outside her apartment. there was no little doubt lauren had been murdered and detectives were eager to talk to her inner circle. meanwhile, the police chief faced a heartbreaking task. here again is keith morrison. with the watcher. >> lauren giddings father was on the road to macon when he heard the terrible news. it was likely lauren whose body they found. and so he went to police headquarters to meet with now retired chief of police mike burns. >> he wanted to identify his daughter. we told him no. and then he was insistent he wanted to identify his daughter. so i cleared the room, told him that it wasn't chief to father. it was father to father. he didn't want identifier. i told him that's not the last way you want to remember your daughter. >> then chief burns told lawrence father what they found. and that he didn't need to see that. >> he just stared at me and he said i agree. and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. >> wow. >> he gave a lot of death notices but that was tough. i've got a son and three daughters, that was tough. >> but who, who would commit such a violent crime? dismember a victim. and then cover his tracks so carefully. like someone had planned it. was killing to satisfy some sick craving. >> do you think that morning, you are dealing with a holistic individual but, potentially a serial killer? >> that was one of our concerns. that somebody, a serial killer, could've gotten the inter gotten off the interstate and gotten on the interstate. i was gone. >> yeah, or could still be looking around town somewhere. >> that was another concern. >> meanwhile, lauren's friends and neighbors were sitting in separate interview rooms without their cellphones. cut off from the news outside. answering questions. among them, the apartment complex maintenance man, also a law student. who said he hadn't seen lauren for a while. her neighbor said he hadn't seen her either. stephen, the law student right next door who helped trying to find her -- >> you've been home, all week right? >> you said that the last time you had seen lauren was -- >> either last week or the week before. >> it's been a few days. >> yeah. >> steven didn't exactly look like a lawyer to be but he had been her neighbor for three years and served with her in the local branch of the federal society, so he certainly knew her, but like everyone else he had been busy studying. >> with barr prep we just work on it, and work on it. >> there were more friends that the cops talk to, even a running buddy who joined the party that saturday night at the bar. >> you hung out with her for a little while? >> i was there with her for probably 45 minutes that night. >> but he said he hadn't seen lauren since. >> do you know where lauren is? >> no. >> nobody was immune from suspicion, even among that group of friends. >> you're thinking about your friends and your questioning your friends. >> you are never asking them, did you do something to lauren? but you are wondering in your mind -- >> can't stop that wondering? >> i know, who do you trust? you can't really trust anybody. and that is terrifying. >> did that included joe? >> yes. i'm ashamed to admit it, but yes. >> joe, the ex, what did you learn about him? >> they did it for a couple of months, lauren called it off, he didn't call it off. >> joe told detectives lawrence spent the night in his room friday night, but she left the next morning. such she was going to the pool at a local country club. but did she make it there? the tech device checked and? >> we were able to trace down her credit card, she had made a purchase at a store. >> and that's door receipt her friends found, that was stamped for sunday? they pulled the video, hard to tell which was lawrence carr and who was with her? joe, had he rejoined her, impossible to tell from this. >> no one could vouch for him because we're all doing our own thing. we were all studying. >> it seemed pretty certain lauren was still alive and well a 10:30 pm, because that's when she sent that strange email her friends found on her computer. >> essentially that she thought someone was trying to break into her house the night prior. >> the recipient of that email? was the man she intended to move in with, david. now the detectives wondered if they were dealing with a love triangle gone wrong, had david found out about lauren's night with joe? some people react badly to that sort of thing. >> very badly, sometimes. >> yeah. so down at the station, detectives questioned david on tape. >> we found a body. we don't know if it's her not. >> i heard that. that's with your coworker told me. >> all right. so i need your help. >> you've got. it >> well, somebody knows something. >> david told the detectives he was far away the weekend lauren disappeared. >> they took a golf trip to california. >> he had and talked to her in a while. >> so you're telling me the whole time you are going to california, you didn't call her? check in with her, nothing? >> no. >> and you landed in atlanta, and just go back to your apartment, or house, and you didn't even call her and tell her you were home or anything? >> no. >> mind you, the detectives had already heard from lawrence law school friends. >> people that she goes to school with says that you all had problems. >> we never had. >> recently -- >> well in march, we kind of stop talking and then through may, and that's when -- her graduation -- she sent me an email saying -- >> i'm just asking, that's what they told me. >> no, i understand that. it's because it's never been like fluid and continues, because when i felt the pressure of the commitment, i just kind of backed off. >> but of course, they couldn't just take his word for it. they asked david for proof, receipts, documents to show that he was always in california when lauren was murdered. so did he just hand them over or what? >> come on. >> david was free to leave the police station, they would follow up with him of course. back at the apartment complex, they found something, but what did it mean? >> coming up. one of the men investigators had already interviewed is about to attract their attention all over again. and then, a discovery in a maintenance closet at lawrence complex. >> it looks like blood. >> when dateline continues. ontinues when you hear, cough cough sneeze sneeze. 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>> had you heard. >> stephen stopped as if struck. >> are you okay, sir? >> i think i need to sit down. >> i thought it was odd. very odd. >> lieutenant gatlin checked on him. >> he was sitting on a cooler outside of our command post. we were trying to talk to him and he just aired like he was staring off into space. he was shaking and he just step it's staring off into space. finally at -- we gave him a painful a sternum stimulant stimuli to check the scene to see if their conscious are alert. >> so it perked him up a little bit? it woke him up >> all of a sudden like he came to life and said, what happened? we don't know what was going on in his mind that made him act like that. >> was it just a surprise, or white? >> stephen had already allowed the detectives to bring cadaver dogs into his apartment, and did show some interest. but it was hard to know if it meant anything. but that combined with stephen's odd behavior was enough to take him back downtown to the station for another chat, and questions. they are little more pointed now. >> were you friends with lauren? >> yes. look at me when i talk to you, son. were you friends with her? >> yes. >> every answer was yes. we had to tell him to look at us when we talk to him. but >> i know that this is hard, but you need to tell it. but it is weighing on you right now, isn't it, stephen? >> i did not do it. >> steven did not budge. he insisted he had nothing to do with the murder, and did not know who did. as he talked, investigators combed through his apartment. no blood, no sign of any trouble. but this was interesting. >> they found some condoms in his dresser drawer. >> would not be unusual, of course, for a guy stevens age to have condoms, except steven had told investigators he was a virgin, and saving himself for a marriage. interesting. >> so, the detectives interviewed him, and changed course and said, why do you have condoms? that is where he changed, a little bit. he got quiet. i guess he was thinking. and then he said, i got them from so and so's apartment. >> a mission, that he stole condoms? >> yes, he got them right out of the apartments of two of his neighbors. >> so he charged him with burglary. >> and they took a good, hard look all around the apartment complex. >> this is like a community, laundry room for the residents, it has washers and dryers. >> inside. >> this is the maintenance room. >> they found this other door, a maintenance closet, locked up tight. they used a key and looked inside, and found something. a hacksaw, with something on it. >> it looks like there is blood on each end of the saw blade. obviously, somebody had rinsed it off, but did not do a thorough job. >> but, wait a minute, who had a key to the closet? the maintenance man. >> he had a master key to all of the apartments in the complex, and the door where they kept supplies in the laundry room. >> did you bring him in for questioning? >> we brought him back in. >> a maintenance man said he did not buy that hacksaw, and provided an alibi. but by then, the investigators knew that the maintenance man was not the only one with keys. because, in steven's apartment -- >> we had found two keys on his dresser that stood out. one of them was a brand-new key, the other key had a georgia bulldog on it. >> they tested the georgia bulldog key. it was a master key to the complex, including the maintenance closet. and that second key? >> it was cut to fit her apartment, so it was a key to her apartment. >> to her apartment? >> yes. >> a key to lauren's apartment. why on earth would stephen have that? they got more search warrants to steven's place, at this time, they found women's underwear, test results proved that they were lauren's. and then, they found this. >> we found packaging for that same type of hacks are in his apartment >>. it was the same type as the one found in the maintenance room? >> same size, brand and everything. >> they now felt certain they had the men. they cleared lauren's boyfriend, david, an ex-boyfriend, joe. no surprise at all to lauren see friends. >> i never thought that it was david, i never thought it was a joe. >> they eventually clearly maintenance man as well. and on august 2nd, five weeks after laurin disappeared, stephen mcdaniel, the quiet, young law school graduate was charged with murder. he maintained his innocence, pleaded not guilty. and really, a crime so awful, a dismembered victim? steven had seemed so harmless. no criminal record, the evidence against him was circumstantial. the district attorney was not confident. >> i was worried that unless we had more, that this was a big case where everybody knew that he did it, but nobody could prove it. >> so, time to take a harder look at the evidence. >> coming up. >> investigators are about to discover a certain piece of deleted video. >> what was it like to see that? >> i knew that we had him. >> did they though? when dateline continues. dateline continues. with voltaren arthritis pain gel. my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren, the joy of movement. we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. facing expensive vitamin c creams with dull results? olay brightens it up with new olay vitamin c. gives you two times brighter skin. hydrates better than the $400 cream. >> welcome back, stephen ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ mcdaniel was charged with the murder of lauren getting's, in his apartment police found keys to lawrence plays and packages for a hacksaw like the one found in the maintenance room. yet, prosecutors worried that their case might not convince a jury. investigators continued to investigate, and what they would uncover would leave both sides stunned. here is keith morrison with the conclusion of the watcher. >> her law school friends couldn't make sense of it. how was it possible, they're odd, nerdy classmate stephen mcdaniel could do something so horrible? >> he was trying to make it seem like he was this innocent, bystander and a friend of lauren. >> when the district attorney took over it was already a death penalty case, but he wasn't so sure it should be. after all, they had no evidence to prove the cause of death. this was a gruesome crime, yet none of stephen's dna was found in lauren's apartment. aside from the underwear, none of lauren's dna was found in steven's apartment. the circumstantial evidence they did have? a good defense attorney could raise reasonable doubt. perhaps claim stephen had been framed. >> he could reasonably argue that the crime scene, particularly his apartment, wasn't adequately secure -- >> sure. >> and that other people had access -- >> indeed they did. >> and therefore, you can't prove i did it. >> yeah. >> so there was a certain swagger that he and his team had. i think they felt not unreasonably that they could win. >> sure enough, steven's highly regarded attorneys had already accused the state of getting evidence from improper search warrants. >> i think there were eight or nine searches of stevens apartment, and lawrence underwear and the hacksaw packaging, all of that evidence should be thrown out. did you believe that the prosecution was particularly worried about your challenges? >> yes, this the attorney hope -- >> i was her teacher in a transition course from law school, law practice. >> in fact he told steven, before joining his defense team, steven was all right with him. anyway, that's why he knew laura herself was opposed to the death penalty. so he took it as a victory lap when the da withdrew it. and then, technology me the georgia bureau of investigation that at search stevens computer hadn't found much. but now they had new software, the da asked them to take another look. >> i thought there is no way that this guy committed this kind of murder and doesn't have an internet history that would blow your mind. >> so he asked the experts to look or anything related to lauren, sex and violence. >> when they did it just exploded. it's obvious that he has a fascination with sadistic pornography. murder, torture, dismemberment. >> vile, and yet still not proof that he murdered lauren. so spring 2014, nothing was certain as lauren's family and friends prepare to go to trial. >> it's like the rest of my life stopped. it was all about lauren and this trial. >> as the two sides were ready to face off in court with stephen still claiming his innocence, the fbi probe the secrets of stevens digital camera. and recovered this. oh my. >> the video was him spying on her the last night she was alive. >> he was all stealth, must of taped his camera to a long stick said the prosecutor. so he could pierced through lawrence window and into her apartment. chilling. here was a predator in the final stage of planning. >> he was spying in there to see if she was home. because that is the night i think he planned to kill her. >> lauren was right, she did have a stalker. someone was trying to break into her place. what was it like to see that? >> i knew we had him. i just knew we had him. >> attorney haboob had to agree. >> that would've been virtually insurmountable evidence a trial. >> and so, in late april 2014, steven cried uncle, he would make a deal, plead guilty and confessed to murdering his neighbor lauren giddins. >> he admitted that he came into her apartment in the middle of the night, and that he attacked her. >> steven said he's strangled lauren to death and then dismembered her body, but her torso in the trash bin of the apartment. the other remains in the law school dumpster. over the years, police and volunteers search for countless hours, even dug up a landfill. but never found anything. >> lauren's loved one including boyfriend david looked on as steven was sentenced to life in prison. he will be parole illegible in 2041. stephen, the da believed, had been planning to kill for a long time, and took pleasure in what he did to lauren. >> he was obsessive, his dream was to commit murder and to get away with it. >> and he almost succeeded. had the police not turned up to check what was then a missing persons case, had their cars not prevented a garbage truck from picking up bins outside the apartment -- >> the body would've never been discovered and we never would have captured stephen mcdaniel and we never would've gotten justice. >> and now, memories. of a frenzy last party. >> i remember hugging her, saying by. >> in retrospect, does it matter now that you did that, that you hugged her? >> absolutely. >> memories for a family, of the daughter, a sister who loved to run. >> i'm happy when i think about her, when i run it pushes me to run further. >> my daughter is named lauren after lauren. >> memories of a vibrant woman, fully alive lauren giddins. >> i would tell her how much i miss her. and that i love her. and that she is the reason why i am who i am today. i would tell her thank you. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. watching ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome to a special presentation of a meet the press film festival, i am chuck todd. what you are about to see, is a piece of this year's broader festival program. these are the best in class short documentaries, covering the most consequential issues across the country. the last five years, the need to press film festiva