Classmate of Lauren Giddings, Ga. law school grad, charged with her murder

(CBS/AP) MACON, Ga. - A month after recent Georgia law school graduate Lauren Giddings was found murdered, her next door neighbor - a former classmate- has been charged with killing her.

The Telegraph of Macon reports that 25-year-old Stephen Mark McDaniel, who had been held for a month in the Bibb County jail on unrelated burglary charges, was charged Tuesday with the murder of Giddings.

The 27-year-old Giddings, of Laurel, Md., was last heard from on the evening of June 25. Five days later, police discovered her torso wrapped in plastic in a garbage bin beside her apartment

building, where McDaniel lived next door.

"We are happy that the case is moving forward to some type of closure," said Giddings' mother, Karen. "I certainly was hoping that there was somebody that Lauren did not know, but that would mean a killer could be walking the streets."

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July 1, 2011 - Dismembered body found outside of Ga. apartment may be missing law grad Lauren Giddings