GUILTY GA - Lauren Giddings, 27, Macon, 26 June 2011 #11

[Oriah]

I love that little cheer smiley :loser:

I'm so tired tonight, I'm having trouble remembering why all the debate over the dogs even started, lol.

I'm not sure I understood it to begin with, Knox!

But in case it is still an issue,to add further clarification:

Scent articles are items taken from a missing persons belongings, that contain a large amount of scent particles, that are specific to the missing person.

Scent articles are typically used to help a SAR K9 track or trail.

Scent particles can be both airborn, and deposited- depending on their composition.
Dog owners can think of it this way:

Scenario #1:
You take your dog for a walk. Your dog puts their head up and sniffs the air. Your dog is scenting on air particles (which are tiny gas molecules) coming from something dead. Your dog then runs over to a dead animal on the side of the road. Your dog is now scenting on deposited scent particles (which are much more dense than gas molecules.)
Your dog has found the most dense source of that particular scent.

Scenario #2:
You take your dog for a walk. Your dog puts their head up and sniffs the air. Your dog is scenting on air particles (which are tiny gas molecules) coming from something alive. Your dog then takes off after a deer that has run by.
Your dog has found the most dense source of that particular scent, and it is alive.

Does this comparison help anyone with understanding how dogs noses work, lol? Or am I as tired as Knox and need to gofftobed: ?!

 

[bessie]

Thank you so much for that very succinct explanation, Oriah, and for the time you've taken to answer the rest of our questions. :blowkiss:

 

[Oriah]

You're very welcome, bessie. Glad it made sense!

 

[bessie]

I agree - that's a huge risk to take not knowing 100% that he wouldn't drop in (of course, if it in fact turns out to be true that he was using that apt. for the crime).

Maybe he was that (falsely) confident that he would get away with it. We've read articles, most recently from TM, that McD thought alot of himself and his intelligence. Maybe he thought he was above getting caught?

All I've got to say is, it's very lucky for neighbor that he didn't come home. He would've probably been another victim if he had.

Risky, yes, but so was dismembering a body in his own apartment and putting the remains in the trash can (sorry, I hate typing that) just several yards from his own front door. Clearly, he showed poor judgment in all of his decisions. So for all of his proud crowing, when push came to shove, Mr. Wizard was a sniveling fool. (IF he's guilty)

 

[3doglady]

Risky, yes, but so was dismembering a body in his own apartment and putting the remains in the trash can (sorry, I hate typing that) just several yards from his own front door. Clearly, he showed poor judgment in all of his decisions. So for all of his proud crowing, when push came to shove, Mr. Wizard was a sniveling fool. (IF he's guilty)

That's why I sat on the fence for so long. Sm is obviously an intelligent person but, if he did it, made some really stupid decisions in the disposal of her body, leaving a hack saw and the packaging. For someone who theorized about the perfect murder for years I would have thought he would have had all the bases covered. If what we heard in the hearing is true, he cleaned up the forensic evidence from dismembering her, yet kept keys, torso and hack saw for days after, even after he knew the friends discovered her missing. Even TM talked about how intelligent SM is.

 

[bessie]

That's why I sat on the fence for so long. Sm is obviously an intelligent person but, if he did it, made some really stupid decisions in the disposal of her body, leaving a hack saw and the packaging. For someone who theorized about the perfect murder for years I would have thought he would have had all the bases covered. If what we heard in the hearing is true, he cleaned up the forensic evidence from dismembering her, yet kept keys, torso and hack saw for days after, even after he knew the friends discovered her missing. Even TM talked about how intelligent SM is.

A lot of things sound good in theory. The truly wise know how to plan for contingencies. Yet, when you consider the nature of this particular event, that's next to impossible, much to the chagrin of many convicted killers.

 

[PlainJaneDoe]

Sorry, I must have missed this...what kind of gloves were the blue ones? (Latex or latex-like, rubber, leather, or cloth?)

 

[bessie]

Sorry, I must have missed this...what kind of gloves were the blue ones? (Latex or latex-like, rubber, leather, or cloth?)

Latex-like (nitrile), the kind available in home improvement stores, according to the article.

 

[PlainJaneDoe]

Latex-like (nitrile), the kind available in home improvement stores, according to the article.

Thanks...imo, blood and paint (yes, I have had both on such gloves) don't look much alike. :cow:

ETA: I don't make a practice of saving my bloodied gloves, so probably we should take into account the possibility that "old" blood could look more similar to paint than "fresh" blood (<12 hrs old).

 

[pearl]

Does anyone know when the Bibb County grand jury will meet next? The district attorney meeting with the grand jury I served on this week said something to the effect that if an arrested person was still locked up when a grand jury met, the person's case had to be brought before it. I think I understood him correctly. Would this mean that SM's case would be brought before the next Bibb County grand jury?

The reason this came up was because most of the cases were between 3-6 months old. There were a couple of very recent ones. Someone asked why the discrepancy.

 

[matou]

That's why I sat on the fence for so long. Sm is obviously an intelligent person but, if he did it, made some really stupid decisions in the disposal of her body, leaving a hack saw and the packaging. For someone who theorized about the perfect murder for years I would have thought he would have had all the bases covered. If what we heard in the hearing is true, he cleaned up the forensic evidence from dismembering her, yet kept keys, torso and hack saw for days after, even after he knew the friends discovered her missing. Even TM talked about how intelligent SM is.

Maybe he planned on explaining away every piece of evidence so he could literally walk away from any murder charge just so he could get away with it. JMO

 

[3doglady]

Thanks...imo, blood and paint (yes, I have had both on such gloves) don't look much alike. :cow:

ETA: I don't make a practice of saving my bloodied gloves, so probably we should take into account the possibility that "old" blood could look more similar to paint than "fresh" blood (<12 hrs old).

The main difference in old blood is the color. I don't think old blood would be as opaque as paint especially latex paint. I paint with oil paint and it still looks thicker than blood. I could see someone thinking reddish brown stain was blood.
JMO

 

[Sandstorm]

I thought I'd point out that LG's mother made a post yesterday to her Facebook page,
linking to the &#8216;A light from the shadows&#8217; Telegraph article.
Her post and the comments it's generated are quite touching.

:heartbeat: raying: :heartbeat:

Thank you SS for the notice of Karen Giddings' FB post. She expressed such a heart felt touching collection of thoughts ...
'when each tear will be wiped away and one day we will know....'
Karen's amazing faith is the substance that contains her when reality cuts like a sharp knife...may God continue to give her some peace as this reality unfolds.

 

[Sandstorm]

Originally Posted by 3doglady
That's why I sat on the fence for so long. Sm is obviously an intelligent person but, if he did it, made some really stupid decisions in the disposal of her body, leaving a hack saw and the packaging. For someone who theorized about the perfect murder for years I would have thought he would have had all the bases covered. If what we heard in the hearing is true, he cleaned up the forensic evidence from dismembering her, yet kept keys, torso and hack saw for days after, even after he knew the friends discovered her missing. Even TM talked about how intelligent SM is.

Maybe he planned on explaining away every piece of evidence so he could literally walk away from any murder charge just so he could get away with it. JMO

Maybe McD didn't plan on explaining away anything since he never thought the need to explain anything would ever arise.

 

[Givsmetheshivers]

I think the whole law school class is lucky they didn't get taken out...but yes, the downstairs neighbor was very lucky.
That might be an interesting question for BB and others. Was McD chattier than usual? Did he express interest in you weekend plans? I would think that McD expressing a great amount of interest in your summer hobbies would seem as odd, since he did not seem to engage people in idle chit chat.

 

[Indy Anna]

Originally Posted by 3doglady
That's why I sat on the fence for so long. Sm is obviously an intelligent person but, if he did it, made some really stupid decisions in the disposal of her body, leaving a hack saw and the packaging. For someone who theorized about the perfect murder for years I would have thought he would have had all the bases covered. If what we heard in the hearing is true, he cleaned up the forensic evidence from dismembering her, yet kept keys, torso and hack saw for days after, even after he knew the friends discovered her missing. Even TM talked about how intelligent SM is.


Maybe McD didn't plan on explaining away anything since he never thought the need to explain anything would ever arise.

That was my thought, too, Sandstorm. Had the BH trash been hauled away before LE searched the premises again, SM would have no explaining to do - no body, no murder.

But, it's no over yet. Assuming that SM is the perp (IMO he is), I believe he's carefully planning his strategy, using Buford as his pawn, to outwit the DA. SM is trained in law, so he probably considers himself a member of the defense team. Already, he's tried to implicate other people - the MM and a running partner of Lauren's. The blue gloves in the laundry room were another ploy. I'm sure LE knows the difference between blood and paint - did they even need bother to send the gloves to a lab for testing? Once during New Year's, someone poured what appeared to be yellow paint on the hood of my car and on a neighbor's car. The temperature was below freezing, so the yellow substance was frozen onto the cars. I warmed up my car while I waited for LE. I don't remember if the officer touched the yellow substance, but I know he didn't send it to a lab for testing, and he didn't taste it or smell it, but he immediately knew, even in it's semi-solid state, that it was only mustard! Surely, LE recognizes blood by sight alone, whether it's fresh or dried, because their work and training familiarizes them with blood in various forms.

I do think SM was devastated when LE discovered LG's torso because he wanted to avoid suspicion altogether. But, I doubt he will readily confess. I'm surprised to learn that the tenant below LG was still in town because it does seem awfully brazen of SM to store items related to LG's murder there. But, he may have felt it better to have the deed discovered in someone else's apartment rather than his. He apparently has no problem framing innocent people to save himself because, IMO, he has no conscience.

Also, I wonder if the reason LE didn't search SM's apartment during the second search is that they felt confident with the evidence they collected there during the first search. Maybe they didn't even know what else to look for until testing of items from the first search was complete.

 

[Indy Anna]

I think the whole law school class is lucky they didn't get taken out...but yes, the downstairs neighbor was very lucky.
That might be an interesting question for BB and others. Was McD chattier than usual? Did he express interest in you weekend plans? I would think that McD expressing a great amount of interest in your summer hobbies would seem as odd, since he did not seem to engage people in idle chit chat.

Earlier in the case, I also thought that McD probably knew of the downstairs tenant's plans through conversations with his neighbors. But, now it seems that McD didn't talk much with his neighbors and fellow students. So, maybe his chattiness did increase as he formulated his scheme. Or, maybe McD was simply watching all of his neighbors to learn their routines, wanting to ensure there were no witnesses to his crime. If so, perhaps he hadn't seen the downstairs tenant for a while, so assumed it was safe to use the apartment to store incriminating evidence. And if the tenant did return, as I said in my above post, the evidence would implicate the other tenant - especially since he had moved many of his belongings from the apartment, suspicion would have fallen on him rather than on McD.

 

[matou]

Originally Posted by 3doglady
That's why I sat on the fence for so long. Sm is obviously an intelligent person but, if he did it, made some really stupid decisions in the disposal of her body, leaving a hack saw and the packaging. For someone who theorized about the perfect murder for years I would have thought he would have had all the bases covered. If what we heard in the hearing is true, he cleaned up the forensic evidence from dismembering her, yet kept keys, torso and hack saw for days after, even after he knew the friends discovered her missing. Even TM talked about how intelligent SM is.


Maybe McD didn't plan on explaining away anything since he never thought the need to explain anything would ever arise.

So do you think he isn't involved in this?

 

[~SuperSleuth~]

I'm still holding to my thoughts that SM had no backup plan to frame anyone
should his 'missing person' plan fail. For one, to do so would be for him
to admit that his 'missing person' plan could fail, and I think he was too
arrogant to do this. Also, if this were the case, you would expect him to
have removed the other incriminating evidence from his own apartment.

Now, having said that, there is another scenario which could still be possible.
He may have planned to have LG go missing, then plant evidence before he left.
Then, weeks later, possibly drop an anonymous hint to LE which would lead to
the discovery of the planted evidence. Then, sit back and watch LE try to
convict someone with only the evidence he planted - and no body.
This could explain why he still had incriminating evidence in his apartment.

Although this scenario is possible, personally I find it risky and unlikely.
But, if LE actually finds LG's blood on that glove, I'll change my mind.

 

[~SuperSleuth~]

Already, he's tried to implicate other people - the MM and a running partner of Lauren's.

Have I missed or forgotten something?