McDaniel talked about getting away with murder, says Lauren Giddings slaying warrant

A dismemberment slaying that has generated near-unprecedented publicity in Middle Georgia continued to fascinate Thursday with the revelation, among others, that the accused killer is said to have once claimed he knew how to get away with murder.

The arrest warrant charging 25-year-old Stephen Mark McDaniel with murder includes details not previously divulged in the more than monthlong investigation, including word that at some point in the past McDaniel allegedly said “he could commit murder.”

The warrant says he mentioned “details of methods to avoid detection” that are, the warrant states, “similar to the facts and circumstances surrounding the killing of Lauren Giddings.”

The warrant does not say to whom or when McDaniel allegedly made the remarks.

Lauren Giddings, 27, was killed sometime on or after June 25, that last time anyone is known to have seen or heard from her.

Her torso was found the morning of June 30 stuffed in a roll-away trash bin beside the Georgia Avenue apartments where she and McDaniel lived next door to each other.

The Telegraph, in its Thursday morning editions, reported that a hacksaw found at the Barristers Hall complex -- across from the law school that McDaniel and Giddings graduated from in May -- contained traces of Giddings’ DNA. The arrest warrant also said the saw’s packaging was found in McDaniel’s apartment.

The Telegraph has also learned that authorities found what resembled fingernail scratches on McDaniel, two sources familiar with the murder investigation say. Police found the marks on McDaniel’s torso when he was booked into the Bibb County jail on burglary charges.

In mid-July, The Telegraph reported that on the day Lauren Giddings’ torso was found, detectives learned that McDaniel had a master key that opened doors to other residences at the complex. The arrest warrant goes further, however, stating that McDaniel “had in his possession a key to the victim’s apartment” as well as the master key that “opened every door” in the complex.

Less than 24 hours after Giddings’ remains were found, McDaniel was jailed in the early morning hours of July 1 on burglary charges after he told police he had entered two other apartments and taken condoms.

Thursday, a day police returned to Giddings’ apartment to examine possible new evidence, city workers and crime scene specialists removed her bathtub.

Police declined to say why the cast-iron tub was taken out, but a source familiar with the investigation referred to the edge of the tub as a “butcher block” because, on close inspection, it appeared to have been marred with cut marks similar to those left by a saw.

Crime scene investigators and other city workers carried the tub out of apartment No. 2, with one side of it covered with a protective wrap, to take it to the city crime lab.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744 4398. To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published August 5, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "McDaniel talked about getting away with murder, says Lauren Giddings slaying warrant."