A Georgia law school graduate has been charged with murdering a female classmate and dumping a part of her body in a garbage can. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Stephen Mark McDaniel was hit with a murder rap for the killing of 27-year-old Lauren Giddings – a shocking homicide that seems like it could have been ripped from a “Law and Order” script.

Giddings, of Laurel, Md., and McDaniel, 25, were students at Mercer University School of Law in Macon, Ga.

They lived in the same apartment building in Macon, one flat across a hallway from the other.

Giddings, who graduated in May and had recently celebrated her sister’s wedding, was last seen after a night hanging out with friends on June 25.

Five days later, as cops investigated her disappearance, they found her torso, wrapped in plastic, inside one of the building’s garbage cans.

McDaniel, of Lilburn, Ga., who was described as a quiet student, told reporters that day that he helped Giddings’ friends search for her.

She was “as nice a person as could be; she was personable; she was always nice to talk to,” he said. “I don’t know why anyone would do this.”

But cops collared him that very day for burglary for stealing condoms from at least two apartments in the building, authorities said. He had a master key that opened all apartments in the building, police said.

Giddings’ father told the Macon Telegraph that he had always worried about his daughter getting into a bad car accident – not becoming a murder victim.

“It’s just so bizarre,” he told the paper. “This is just so off-the-wall bizarre.”

Following his arrest, McDaniel was locked up in the Bibb County Jail. He has refused to talk to investigators, the Telegraph reported. On Tuesday night, Bibb County District Attorney Greg Winters served McDaniel with a murder warrant.

“He didn’t say a thing,” Winters told the Telegraph.

Cops have collected more than 200 pieces of evidence and conducted dozens of interviews in the case, Macon Police Chief Mike Burns said at a press conference Wednesday.

He would not discuss a possible motive for the killing.

“I hope this is a comfort for her family and our citizens,” he said.

McDaniel’s lawyer said his client professes his innocence.

“He insists he’s innocent of these charges and he will enter a plea of not guilty and demand a jury trial,” Floyd Buford said.

Giddings’ family found out about the murder charge Tuesday night, the Telegraph reported.

“It’s not a good feeling, but it feels like a step in the right direction,” her sister, Kaitlyn Wheeler, 24, told the paper. “It’s exciting in a way that you feel sick, not happy.”
DN