...In Giddings’ bedroom, in the rear of the apartment, the indentations were still there from where the legs on the frame of her bed, situated beneath a squat window that overlooks the AT&T building next door, had mashed into the tan carpet. ...
...A little more than a decade and a half ago, Barristers Hall did not exist. At least in name.
The terraced complex along the southerly slope of Coleman Hill -- just up from the Hay House and, a block or two farther east, the county courthouse -- was known as Lamar Arms. ...
...A few years ago, they installed new flooring and put in new appliances. Door locks were replaced in 2008 for that late summer’s new crop of tenants, Giddings and McDaniel among them.
The apartments have steel-framed doors flanked by outdoor lights that can’t be switched off between dusk and dawn. Floodlights are mounted on the corners of the apartment buildings. ...
...Bush said Giddings had an added safety measure inside her apartment: a bar-like device she could wedge beneath her front-door handle and brace against her living-room floor to make it difficult for anyone to get inside when she was there.
Friends searching for Giddings in late June used a spare key that she kept outside to gain access, only to find no sign of her.
Bush said the door-bracing device was behind Giddings’ door, not in use, when Bush herself went into the apartment June 29 to check on Giddings after Giddings failed to answer phone messages regarding her plans to move out. ...