all stem from his online promotion of cryptocurrencies. the 75-year-old denied any wrongdoing. he would not live to see his day in court. on june 23, 2021, john mcafee was found hanging in his cell. it was ruled a suicide. and a cryptic tweet some months before his death, he wrote, know that if i hang myself, i'll lot jeffrey epstein, it will be no fault of mine. in death as in life, the eccentric millionaire keeps people guessing. le guessing. eccentric millionaire keeps people guessing. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. thank you for watching. i am craig melton. this is dateline.

>> i would tell her how much i miss her and then i love her. she is the reason why i am who i am today. i will tell her thank you. >> laurent, a law school graduate with the world at her feet. >> fiercely intelligent. >> fierce with her opinion. >> it was strange when she dropped out of sight. >> she did not take her car or purse. there was something wrong. >> they could not have guessed how wrong. >> there was another level of evil, the person that did this with trying to create a vanishing. >> the first person you look at is somebody close to her romantically or geographically. >> icboyfriend, a ex-boyfriend, fellow students, would somebody

study more than just text books? smart maybe but had he slipped up? >> what they found told us everything we needed to know. >> a confounding case that would come down to a damning piece of video that nobody was supposed to siu. >> sick and twisted. >> i knew we had him. . >> hello and welcome to dateline. lauren moved south for law school and immediately felt at home, smart and vibrant, she turned heads on campus but kept her own eyes on her bright future. then salish she vanished. it turns out somebody close to lauren was hiding a secret and hiding in plain sight.

here is keith morrison with the watcher. >> it was a summer morning in the heart of georgia. heat rose thick and damp. as the sweaty morning traffic crawled by. something in the air that morning. something off. maybe just the trash truck. >> this was a 90 degree day. >> reporter: joe was at the local paper, crime reported there and all of a sudden -- >> i can remember the buzz. >> this would be big. big and disturbing like sometimes things can be in the south. >> it was a shock to the system. it draws people in. and macon, with its storied history

>> there is something else about the south, something sweet and magnetic. it draws people in. macon with its history and its cherry blossoms. >> it is slow and relaxing. everybody is welcoming. >> even for a new yorker who signed up at the mercer law school. >> you never meet a stranger in the south. that is what makes it wonderful and comforting. >> it is where she met lauren. >> when we found out we both were from the north we instantly connected. >> why would she not want to connect with lauren? she was eager than life. >> she was infectious, you could not be around her for more than five minutes and not already be having a good time. >> she was the eldest of three sisters, youngest sarah. >> we would go on runs together. >> caitlin in the middle.

>> she was a bookworm, she loved to read. >> lauren grew up in maryland, halfway between baltimore and dc with her friend katie. >> she was a riot. the things that came out of her mouth sometimes did not have a filter. >> why did she go south? >> she loved the south, she was a country girl at heart and she loved it. >> lauren knew what she wanted, she wanted to be a lawyer but not one of those corporate types were a crusading prosecutor, lauren wanted to be a public defender, a voice for the poor and accused. >> she always wanted to help people. >> mercer law school, perched on its hillside, seemed just right for her. >> she was a fan of nancy grace and she graduated from there.

>> lauren found a apartment across the street from the law school. it was full of aspiring lawyers, the next-door neighbor was a classmate and even the maintenance man. soon she was everywhere, running in the park, active in the church, eventually president of the law school society. >> she showed up in her pink outfit. always pink. >> always with heard dog am a butter bean. >> fluffy blonde hair just like her. she was ellwood's in legally blonde. >> it was no surprise she attracted a lot of man. >> she always had people infatuated with her. >> like david, she interned at his law firm in atlanta, he was

20 years older but the relationship was serious until it wasn't. >> being in school was hard and they were not living in the same city. >> besides. >> lauren was a flirt, she liked attention. >> she got it, from a classmate named joe. >> he was more goofy and her age. >> so they became a item but there was something about david, some chemistry that drew her back and she gave joe the bad news. >> lauren was upfront and told joe and that was that. >> brokenhearted on joe's part. >> i think so. he really liked her. >> anyway, at graduation time may 2011, david was there to cheer her on. it was a big event for the entire family. >> we went out after graduation with her friends and got to

know anybody. >> a month later another celebration up north, her sister's wedding. lauren was made of honor. then back to macon for the final hurdle, the bar exam. >> a scary time for a young lawyer. >> first. >> it was everybody's last hurrah. >> it was buddy night june 2011, the graduates gathered at a local bar for one last blowout before hunkering down to study. the closed the bar. went to ashley's boyfriends place. ex-boyfriend joe was the roommate. >> we decided to go to sleep. there was alcohol involved. >> lauren stayed the night in joe's room and the next day everybody was moving slowly. >> i did not see lauren or joe

that morning. we assumed they were in the room together. >> then it was time to buckle down. all of the friends joe included went off to cram. >> you just go into this hole in study constantly any do not have contact with anybody. >> it took a few days to realize nobody had heard from lauren. >> no reason yet to assume anything was wrong but soon there would be. coming up. >> this is not right. >> alarm bells for one friend while another steals herself to enter lauren's apartment. >> i said are you ready for whatever we are going to see when we walk in? >> when dateline continues. tel ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪

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you'll love this! centrum silver is clinically proven to support memory in older adults. so you can keep saying, you mastered it! you fixed it! you nailed it! you did it! with centrum silver, clinically proven to support memory in older adults. photos from that wedding trip up north that set off the alarm. the selfies katie ohare snapped and then nine days later, it was photos from that wedding trip that set off the alarm. the selfies katie snapped and then nine days later texted to her friend down in macon, lauren. >> they were funny so i know she will respond to me. >> no response. was she studying too hard to look at photos? katie tried the next day and the day after and again no

response. >> that is not normal for her. >> katie called lauren's cell phone. >> her phone was off, this is not right. i called her sister caitlin. i said lawrence phone is off and she has not answered me for days, have you heard from her? >> she had not so caitlin and reached out to lawrence law school friend ashley. >> her sister contacted me over facebook. >> trying to get in touch with lauren, can you let her know? >> this was wednesday, thinking back ashley had not seen lauren since the party friday night. ashley went to lauren's apartment and her car was there. she knocked at the door. >> when she did not answer i did not think anything of it i assumed she was running or

studying. >> she let a go. a few hours later. >> her sister contacted me again. this is an emergency, we have been trying to call and she is still not answering. >> now ashley began to worry, she and her boyfriend returned to lawrence and used a spare key to go inside. >> i said are you ready for whatever we are going to see when we walk in there? at that point you have a dread. >> it was dark by then. >> we had to walk pretty far into the apartment to find a light to turn on. searched her bedroom. >> what they did find was puzzling. >> her purse, keys, cell phone, id, her laptop on the bed. >> like she just went out for a run. butter bean, her dog had been at home with her parents in

maryland, the fact that been was not there was not concerning to us, the fact that she was not there hours later, that is when it became real. >> something else occurred, lauren was due to him about the next day. >> nothing was packed in boxes. it looked like she was getting her stuff together to pack it. >> she told her friends her plan was to move to david's place in atlanta, a hour and a half up the highway. >> that was the plan. >> even though some of lawrence friends thought they were not right for each other. >> her relationship with david was flaky. >> lawrence family called david and he said he had not talked to her for days. >> i remember him hanging up and calling back asking what is

going on? >> katie rounded up lawrence law school friends. >> joe immediately went to the law school to search the school for her. >> her other friends looked around the apartment. they found food wrappers and in the car a receipt from a drive- through. it was time stamped evening after the party. now it was wednesday night. >> it was four days old at that point. >> where did she go? did she have the accident were it is something worth? she spent time visiting prisoners when she was a in turn. >> she encountered all sorts of people. she visited the jail often. >> maybe somebody took a

unhealthy liking to her. then they remember something lauren said the night of the party. >> she thought somebody had been stalking her but we did not pay attention to it because of who lauren was. >> she was a girl that always had admirers that stood out. everybody in the apartment complex new lauren including her fellow student and next- door neighbor and he wanted to help search for her. he asked about window locks. >> somebody check her windows to see if they are locked? >> one may have been unlocked. >> friends also checked her computer and discovered her last online activity with the email sent saturday night. >> it was to david it was eerie. >> what did it say? >> that she thought somebody was trying to break into her house the night prior. she referred to the person being a hoodlum.

>> the ultimate fear, that some evil stranger had taken their friend lauren. >> coming up. investigators search lawrence apartment with a forensic tool that reveals a critical clue hiding in plain sight. >> it was like a light switch. >> when dateline continues. tel a once-daily pill for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding you're so ready for your close-up. or finding you don't have to hide your skin just your background. once-daily sotyktu was proven better, getting more people clearer skin than the leading pill. don't take if you're allergic to sotyktu; serious reactions can occur. sotyktu can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections, cancers including lymphoma, muscle problems, and changes in certain labs have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection, liver or kidney problems, high triglycerides,

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is a special torture just lito being far away when a loved one is missing. keith morrison: go to sleep that night or--

there is a special torture to be far away when a loved one is missing. >> did you sleep that night? >> no i had the laptop in front of me and my cell phone. >> at 2:00 in the morning thursday lauren's sister woke up their dad. >> he has 100 questions and i had no answers. her apartment was empty. >> unable to wait for answers, lauren's dad packed up the car and started the 11 hour drive to georgia. police looked around lawrence apartment the night before but by morning there was no sign of her, detectives were called in. with them crime scene investigator steve. >> two crime scene techs were gone missing persons cases normally? >> normally know but this was different. she is a social animal and they do not disappear.

>> exactly. >> he looked at lawrence front door, nothing seemed amiss. out front a garbage truck lumbered up but was unable to empty the trash bins. the truck moved on. by then the lieutenant was in the apartment looking around. >> it looked like somebody walked out and shut the door. >> puzzling, the day was hot already. >> when i started coming down the stairs here that is when the wind hits you in the face and you can smell something. a foul water. >> a recognizable odor. >> that was a smell the lieutenant was too familiar with. he followed his nose to one of the trash bins outside of the apartment. >> we opened it and looked in

and i saw two trash bags. >> he pulled out the bag on top and ripped it open. typical household trash. >> then i went to the bigger one. as soon as i reached down and touched it i felt like it had human remains in it. >> to his growing horror, he realized it was just part of a body. a woman's torso. nothing else. >> we started cordoning everything off with crime scene tape and used sheets to put up barriers on the other side of the fence so the media could not see it. at that time they did not need to know anything yet. we did not want to mess anything up. >> meanwhile, debtor take a closer look at the apartment. >> we systematically start taking each room and try to find any evidence we could, using all of the techniques in science available at the time.

>> one of those tools was luminal, a spray that turns blue when it comes into contact with blood. the lieutenant sprayed it in laura's bathroom. >> it was like a light switch, the entire bathroom glowed. >> the entire tub, almost two inches from the top had the same glow. >> this was strange. when they dusted for fingerprints they did not find much at all. >> did somebody wipe everything down? you would think you would find other people's fingerprints and things like that. >> this was not going to be easy. police already rounded up lawrence friends and the neighbor did not want them to know about the discovery. took them downtown to record statements. >> there was a call to the newsroom. there had been a body found.

>> police tried to keep the discovery quite but it did not take long before the news was online and back in maryland where lawrence family gathered -- >> my uncle came in, did you hear the news? we are in maryland, tell us what you are talking about. he said they found the body. at that point it is just hysterics. >> was it hurt? it must be. downtown investigators resorted to method. >> who is closest to her romantically or geographically? >> start close as they say, close to the victim, but how close? they had no idea. >> coming up, police look at the man in lawrence life, her boyfriend david and her ex joe. they wondered, could there have

been a love triangle gone wrong? >> some people react badly to that sort of thing. >> when dateline continues. lin when enamel is gone, you cannot get it back. but you can repair it with pronamel repair. it penetrates deep into the tooth to actively repair acid weakened enamel. i recommend pronamel repair. with new pronamel repair mouthwash you can enhance that repair beyond brushing. they work great together. nature's bounty hair growth. clinically shown to help grow thicker, fuller hair with just one capsule a day of advanced hair complex. conquer hair thinning... ...and fall in love with your hair all over again. only from nature's bounty.

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i am richard louis with a news update. tesla knocking $10,000 off the price of three of its models after stock tumbled over 150 per share. president biden is praising the house for passing and 95 billion dollar aid package to ukraine, israel and taiwan. in a statement he said bipartisan lawmakers decided to send a message about american leadership to the world stage. back to dateline. ck to datelin lauren giddings had been missing for days when lieutenant steve gatlin made a gruesome discovery. welcome back to dateline.

lauren had been missing for days when lieutenant steve made a gruesome discovery. following the trail of a unmistakable water he found a human torso in a trash bin outside of her apartment. there was now little doubt that lauren had been murdered detectives were eager to talk to her inner circle, meanwhile the police chief faced a heartbreaking task. here again is keith morrison with the watcher. >> lawrence father was on the road to macon when he heard the news. it was likely lauren whose body he found so he went to police headquarters to meet with the now retired chief of police mike burns. >> you wanted to identify his daughter and we told him no. he was insistent. so i cleared the room and told

him this was father to father, he did not want to identify her. i told him that is not the way you want to remember your daughter. >> then the chief told lawrence father what they found and he did not need to see it. >> he stared at me and said i agree. that was the end of the conversation. you give a lot of death notices but that was tough. i have a son and three daughters. >> who would commit such a violent crime? dismember a victim and cover his tracks carefully like somebody had planned it. killing two satisfy a sick craving. >> did you think that morning that we were dealing with a potential serial killer? >> that was one of our concerns.

a serial killer could have gotten off the interstate killed her and he got back on and was gone. >> or could be lurking around town somewhere. >> meanwhile lawrence friends and neighbors were sitting in separate interview rooms without cell phones cut off from the news outside answering questions. among them the apartment complex maintenance man also a law student who said he had not seen her for a while. her neighbor said he had not seen her either, stephen the law student next door that helped try to find her. >> you said the last time you saw lauren was -- >> last week or the week before. >> it had been a few days. >> stephen did not look like a lawyer to be but he had been the neighbor for three years and served with her in a local branch of the federal society

so he knew her. like everyone else he said he was busy studying. >> we just work on it. >> there were more friends and cops talked to all of them, even a running buddy that joined the party that night. >> you hung out with her for a little while? >> i was there with her for about 45 minutes that night. >> he said he had not seen lauren since. >> do you know where lauren is? >> no. >> nobody was immune from suspicion. >> you are thinking about your friends and you are questioning your friends. you are never asking them, did you do something to lauren? you are wondering in your mind. >> you cannot stop that wondering. >> who do you trust? you cannot trust anybody.

that is terrifying. that is ter did you learn about him? does that include joe? >> yes. i am ashamed to admit it but yes. >> joe, the ex-boyfriend. >> what did you learn about him? >> lauren called it off, he did not. not. joe told detectives lauren spent the night in his room friday but left the next morning, said she was going to the pool at a local country club? did she make it there? detectives checked. >> we chased down her credit card when she made a purchase at the same pool. >> that receipt the friends found, that was time stamped 608 saturday, they pulled the video. hard to tell which was lauren's car and if anybody was with her. joe for example, did he rejoin her? impossible to tell from this. >> nobody could vouch for him, we were all studying. >> it seemed certain that

lauren was alive and well at 10:13 pm when she sent the strange email her friends found. >> essentially she thought somebody was trying to break into her house on the night prior. >> the recipient of the email, the man she intended to move in with, david. now the detectives wondered if they were dealing with a love triangle gone wrong, had david found out about lawrence night with joe? >> people react badly to that sort of thing. >> down at the station detectives questioned david on tape. >> we found a body, we do not know if it is her or not. i need your help. >> you got it. >> somebody knows something. >> david told detectives he was far away the weekend lauren disappeared.

>> he took a golf trip to california, he had not talked to her in a while. >> the entire time you were gone to california you did not call her or check in with her, then you land in atlanta and then go back to your apartment or house and you did not call her to tell her you were home or anything? >> mind you, the detectives already heard from law school friends. >> everybody she goes to school with said you all have problems recently. >> in march we stopped talking and through may and after graduation see sent me an email. i understand that. it had never been fluid or continuous because when i felt the pressure of the commitment i backed off. to make the could not just take his word for it, they asked

david for proof, receipts and documents to show he was in california. >> he did not have them with him. >> david was free to leave and they would follow-up of course. back at the apartment complex they found something. what did it mean? >> coming up, one of the men investigators already interviewed is about to attract their attention all over again. then a discovery in a maintenance closet at lawrence complex. >> it looks like blood. >> when dateline continues. lin but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function,

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♪ you're the one that i want ♪ friends and neighbors had spent hours at police headquarters, answering questions, but getting no answers back themselves. so when police dropped them off near the apartment they were surprised by quite a scene. ashley muller: it was completely blocked off. news reporters were there. lawrence friends and headquarters answering questions but not getting any answers back themselves. so one police dropped them off at the apartment, they were surprised. >> it was blocked off, news reporters were there. crime scene was there. >> the tv people knew a body had been found, but some at police headquarters were not up to date like stephen. her fellow law student and neighbor. >> we have been trying to look for lauren, we do not know where she is. >> when stephen started talking

to the local station he seemed relaxed and chatty. then the reporter broke the news that a body had been found. here is what happened. >> body? >> had you heard? >> stephen stopped as it struck. >> i think i need to sit down. >> the lieutenant checked on him. >> he was sitting on a cooler outside of the command post, somebody tried to talk to him and he just stared. we even shook him, finally i ended up doing a sternal rub, a small painful stimuli to check to see if they are unconscious. >> it woke him up. >> it was like he came to life

and he said what happened. i do not know what was going on that made him act like that? >> was a just surprise? stephen already allowed detectives to take a cadaver dog to his apartment but it did show interest but not enough to mean anything. that combined with stephen's behavior was enough to take him back to the station for a chat. >> were you friends with lauren? >> look at me when you talk to me. >> yes. >> every answer was yes and no, hands on the table. had to tell him to look at as. >> did you hurt lauren? >> no. >> i know it is hard but it is weighing on you right now. >> i did not do it. >> stephen did not budge, he

insisted he had nothing to do with the murder and did not know who did. as he talked investigators combed through the apartment, no blood and no sign of any trouble but this was interesting. >> they found condoms in his dresser drawer. >> it would not be unusual for a guy stephen's age to have condoms except stephen told investigators he was a virgin and saving himself for marriage. >> interesting so the detectives changed course and said why do you have condoms. he got quiet. i guess he was thinking. then he said i got them from someone's apartment. >> a admission he stole condoms? right out of the apartments of two of his neighbors. >> we charged him with burglary. >> while they held him they took a hard look around the

apartment complex. >> this is like a community laundry room for residents. washers and dryers. >> inside. they found another door, a maintenance closet locked up tight. they use the key, looked inside and found something. a hacksaw with something on it. >> it looks like there is blood on each end of the saw blade were somebody obviously rinsed it off but did not do a thorough job. >> who had a key to the closet? the maintenance man. >> he had a master key to all of the apartments in the complex and the door for the kept supplies. >> did you bring him in for questioning? >> we brought him in. >> the maintenance man said he did not purchase a hacksaw and provided a alibi. by then the investigators knew, the maintenance man was not the

only one with keys. in stephen's apartment -- >> we found two keys on his dresser that stood out, one was brand-new and the other had a georgia bulldog emblem. >> they tested it, it was a master key to the complex including the maintenance closet. the second key. >> it was cut to fit her apartment. >> to her apartment. >> a key to lauren's apartment. why would stephen have that? they got more search warrants to stephen's place and this time found women's underwear. test results proved they were lawrence. then they found this. >> found packaging for the same hacksaw in the apartment. same size and brand. >> now they felt certain they had their man. they cleared lauren's boyfriend david and ex-boyfriend joe.

no surprise to lawrence friends. >> i never thought it was david, i never thought it was joe. >> the eventually cleared the maintenance man as well. august 2, five weeks after lauren disappeared, stephen mcdaniel, the quiet law student graduate was charged with murder. he maintained his innocence, pled not guilty. stephen seemed harmless. note criminal record, the evidence against him was circumstantial. the da was not confident. >> i was worried unless we had more that this would be a case where everybody knew he did it but nobody could prove it. >> time to take a harder look at the evidence. >> coming up, investigators are about to discover a certain piece of deleted video. >> i knew we had him.

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flonase all good. stephen mcdaniel was charged with the murder of lauren giddings. in his apartment, police found keys to lauren's place and welcome back, stephen mcdaniel was charged with the murder of lauren, in his apartment police found keys to lauren's place and packaging for a hacksaw like the one found in the maintenance room. prosecutors worried that the case may not convince a jury so investigators continued to dig and what they uncovered would leave both sides stunned.

here is keith morrison with the conclusion of the watcher. >> lawrence law school friends could not make sense of it, how is it possible their odd classmate could do such a horrible thing? >> he was trying to make it seem like he was a innocent bystander and a friend of lauren. >> when the da david cook took over it was already a death penalty case but he was not sure it should be. after all they had no evidence to prove the cause of death. this was a gruesome crime yet none of stephen's dna was found in lauren's apartment. aside from the underwear none of lauren's dna was found in stephen's place and the circumstantial evidence they did have, a good defense attorney could raise reasonable doubt. perhaps stephen had been framed. >> he could argue that his apartment was not adequately

secured and other people had access. and therefore you cannot prove i did it. so there was a certain swagger he and his team had. they felt that they could take it. >> sure enough, stephen's highly regarded attorneys already accused the state of getting evidence from improper search warrants. >> there was 8-9 searches of the apartment. >> lawrence underwear, apartment key, hacksaw packaging, all of that evidence should be thrown out. >> did you believe the prosecution was worried about your challenges? >> yes. >> the defense attorney knew and admired lauren. >> i was her teacher in a transition course. >> in fact he told stephen and

stephen was all right with it. that is why he knew lauren herself was opposed to the death penalty so he took it as a victory lap when the da withdrew it. then technology. the georgia bureau of investigation searched the computers and did not find much but now they had new software and the da asked to take another look. >> i thought there was no way this guy committed this kind of murder and does not have a internet history that would blow your mind. >> so he asked the experts to look for anything related to lauren or sex or violence. >> when they did it exploded. it is obvious he has a fascination with sadistic pornography. murder, torture, dismemberment. >> viola, yet not proof he murdered lauren. so spring 2014, nothing was

certain as lauren's family and friends prepared to go to the trial. >> the rest of my life stopped. it was all about lauren and this trial. >> as the two sides were ready to face off in court with stephen claiming his innocence. the fbi probed the secrets of stephen's digital camera and recovered this. >> the video was him spying on her at the last night she was alive. >> he was all stealth, must have taped the camera to a long stick so he could hear through lauren's window and into her apartment. chilling. he was a predator in the final stage of planning. >> he was spying in there to see if she was home because

that is the night i think he planned to kill her. >> lauren was right, she did have a stalker, somebody was trying to break into her place. >> what was it like to see that? >> i knew we had him. >> the attorney had to agree. >> that would have been insurmountable evidence at trial. >> in late april 2014, stephen cried uncle, he would make a deal, plead guilty and confess to murdering his neighbor lauren. >> he admitted he came into the apartment in the middle of the night and attacked her. >> stephen said he strangled lauren to death and then dismembered her body, put her torso in the trash bin at the apartment and the other parts of the remains in the law school hamster. volunteers search for countless hours and dug up a landfill but never found anything.

lawrence loved ones including boyfriend david looked on as stephen was sentenced to life in prison. he will be eligible for parole in 2041. stephen, the da believed, had been planning to kill for a long time and took pleasure in what he did to lauren. >> it was a up session for him, his dream was to commit murder and get away with it. >> and he almost succeeded. had the police not turned up to check out a missing persons case, had the cars not prevented the garbage truck from picking up the been outside of the apartment. >> the body never would have been discovered and we would have never captured stephen and we would not have gotten justice. >> now memories. of a friends last party. >> i remember hugging her and

say goodbye. >> in retrospect, doesn't matter now that you did that? >> absolutely. >> memories for a family, a daughter and sister who loved to run. >> i am happy when i think about her. it pushes me to run further. my daughter is named lauren after her. >> memories of a vibrant woman fully alive. lauren. >> i would tell her how much i miss her and that i love her. she is the reason why i am who i am today. i would tell her thank you. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. thank you for watching.