Internet posts about death linked to Stephen McDaniel
Internet discussion board postings written by Stephen Mark McDaniel as recently as the three days before Lauren Giddings’ dismembered torso was discovered provide a glimpse into the thoughts of the man accused in her killing.
The author of the writings has been independently verified by The Telegraph through multiple unpublished details gleaned from reporters’ interviews related to the killing of 27-year-old Lauren Giddings.
Giddings’ remains were found the morning of June 30 in a flip-top trash bin beside the Georgia Avenue apartments where she and 25-year-old McDaniel had lived since starting law school at Mercer University in 2008.
Using the moniker “SoL,” the poster writes of his being desensitized to violence and gore. He writes of movies depicting people being disemboweled and dismembered alive.
“SoL” appears to stand for Son of Liberty. In his first year of law school on a student message board, McDaniel refers to himself as a “true-born Son of Liberty.”
In a post from 2010, “SoL” writes of how he’d kill religious demonstrators planning to attend the funeral of a fallen soldier.
“I’d go outside, grab my kit out of the car, pop in a fresh mag, and proceed to slaughter the entire, bigoted group, never once doing so much as uttering a sound. When they are all dead (and they do need to all be DEAD), I’d sit down on the ground, with my gun several paces away from me, and just rock back and forward on the ground, eyes wide and blank.”
He goes on to write, “Afterwards, I’d remain in this state for at least a day -- no talking, no communication, blank, unfocused stares. I do not fall asleep, either. Eventually, when some new stimulus is introduced (a family member I haven’t seen, a picture of my brother, or something like that), I shake my head from side to side, blink rapidly, and look around in a panicked manner, asking where I am, what’s going on, if my family is okay, why I’m there, and when they ask, I’d say I had no memory of anything that happened after I arrived at the service.”
Near the end of the post, he writes, “They probably initiate charges, at which point the family will need to get a lawyer to argue that I had no knowledge of my actions and were not acting of my own volition when I acted. Keep the story consistent, and whenever I am asked about what happened, I look down and put a sad look on your face, relating what I was TOLD happened (as you have no memory of it). I might end up institutionalized for a while so they can try to figure out what caused the blackout, and they may take my guns from me as well as the ability to purchase more, but if I stuck to the story, it’s doubtful I’d end up in prison.”
The post ends with the line, “Of course, this is all hypothetical.” The last word is typed in bold.
McDaniel was first arrested July 1 on two counts of burglary unrelated to the murder case. He was charged Aug. 2 with killing Giddings.
McDaniel’s Aug. 2 murder warrant alleges that authorities found a hacksaw with Giddings’ DNA on it in a locked room at the apartment complex. Packaging for the saw was recovered from McDaniel’s apartment, the warrant states, as were a master key to the complex and a key to Giddings’ residence.
As a part of a search related to the murder investigation, authorities found photographs of child pornography on a flash drive inside McDaniel’s apartment, officials said.
Telegraph writer Mike Stucka contributed to this story. For more on this developing story, return to macon.com and read Friday’s Telegraph.
This story was originally published August 25, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Internet posts about death linked to Stephen McDaniel."