BANK ROBBER LEE GRACE DOUGHERTY'S DIRTY PIX!

Lee Grace Dougherty is one-third of a trio of siblings on a psychotic cross-country death wish robbery spree. Lee Gracie (Gracie), 29, and brothers Ryan Dougherty, 21, and Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, robbed a bank in Georgia then got in a shootout with cops in Florida. Recent reports suggest they could be in Colorado. Even their mom has pleaded with them to surrender. But on a positive note, Gracie is apparently a former stripper and has a whack of saucy pix on flickr: DOUGHERTY SIBLINGS IN COLORADO?

McDANIEL CHARGED IN LAUREN GIDDINGS MURDER

THE NEIGHBOR of pretty law graduate Lauren Giddings has been charged in her grisly dismemberment murder. Classmate Stephen Mark McDaniel (the creepy neighbor from central casting) was charged last night with first-degree murder--he had been held on unrelated burglary charges.
Giddings sister Kaitlyn Wheeler told the Macon Telegraph: “It’s not a good feeling, but it feels like a step in the right direction toward closure. … It’s exciting in a way that you feel sick, not happy. We know this is going to be a long, hard process. It’s one more step toward him facing judgment. … It doesn’t mean he’s been convicted.”

During the month-long investigation into the popular Mercer University student's slaying, the road kept leading back to the weird neighbor McDaniel. Lauren Giddings, 27, was last heard from the evening of June 25. Five days later while investigating a missing persons report filed after her friends and family hadn’t heard from her, cops discovered her torso wrapped in plastic in a garbage bin beside her apartment. The 27-year-old’s body was released to her family for cremation last week.

THELMA CARTER KILLED BEAU WITH STILETTO HEEL

THELMA CARTER looked her best--or as best as she could be--but her hot date went off the rails and after a bitter dispute, she murdered him--with her stiletto heel. Now, the sultry 46-year-old of Augusta, Georgia is being charged with the slaying of Robert F. Higdon, 58, her boyfriend. The two were fighting inside their palace at the Augusta Mobile Home Estates. The dead man's body was discovered Monday.

REVEALED: LUCKY BREAK IN LAUREN GIDDINGS CASE

LAUREN GIDDINGS escaped being a missing person for eternity by a mere couple of hours. cops revealed. The pretty blonde law student was murdered and dismembered June 25, her remains in garbage bags ready to be picked up. Fortunately, family and friends became concerned and cops were quickly on the scene the next morning as fears mounted.
They found Giddings’ torso stuffed in a residential trash bins with wheels on it just feet from her front door at 9 a.m. on June 30. A couple of hours later and the bins--and evidence--would have been gone.
Macon Police Chief Mike Burns said: “It’d have been a missing person from here on out. I think we beat trash day by two hours. When I got
there (to the scene), we started talking about why (the torso) was put there, and I was told, ‘Well, if we’d waited two more hours it would’ve been gone.’ And then we would have had a missing person. ... We wouldn’t have known if there’d been a crime involved or not.”
So far cops have been tight-lipped on the sickening crime as to suspects or motives. A former neighbor of the Mercer University grad, 25-year-old Stephen Mark McDaniel, remains jailed on other charges and has been called a "person of interest." FULL LAUREN GIDDINGS UPDATE

GEORGIA EXECUTES FAMILY KILLER ANDREW DEYOUNG

A ONETIME university student who murdered his parents and 14-year-old sister to get an inheritance was executed by Georgia last night. Andrew Grant DeYoung, 39, even had a video camera recording his final moments. His last words were: "I'm sorry for everyone I have hurt."
DeYoung was put to death for butchering his parents and sister in 1993. A brother, 16, managed to escape the home turned into the Cobb County slaughterhouse. He was nabbed within hours.
A Kennesaw State University student and 19 at the time, DeYoung killed because he believed he would inherit $480,000 in inheritance for a business venture. MORE IN THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

TEEN NABBED IN MURDER OF GA. COP RICHARD DALY

GEORGIA cops have arrested a 17-year-old triggerman in the cold-blooded murder of Deputy Richard 'Rick' Jerome Daly. The 55-year-old veteran Clayton Police officer pulled over aspiring headcase Jonathan 'Bunny' Bun yesterday afternoon to serve him with an arrest warrant. And when the terrible teen--wanted for an unrelated armed robbery-- emerged from the car, he was shooting.
Sheriff Kem Kimbrough said yesterday that the force is "devastated" by the loss of Daly.

He said: “For us to have never lost an officer before this was a phenomenal streak of good luck. And good luck, like everything else, has its time and its limits.”
Information on Bun is a bit sketchy, although happily he was bitten by a police dog during his capture.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the slaying happened close to where Bun lived with his parents and two younger sisters. He had recently moved out.
Neighbor Garrett Anderson said: "There was some sort of fight with his mother. He left and hadn't been back since."

LAUREN GIDDINGS' MURDERED BY SPURNED SUITOR?

ONE OF THE persons of interest in the sickening Lauren Giddings dismemberment murder was once asked by his mom whether there was a romance brewing between the two. According to Glenda McDaniel, her son Stephen Mark McDaniel considered Lauren, 27, a friend, and the two lived in the same building in Macon, Georgia and were classmates. He told her his focus was finishing law school.
Giddings' torso was found outside her apartment building June 30 and were in such appalling shape it took nearly a week for a positive identification.


Macon police have called McDaniel a person of interest in the murder probe, but officials haven’t named any suspects or made an arrest in the case. Detectives have questioned McDaniel for about 20 hours, his mother said, adding "he's very upset."

She said: “He would have liked to have been able to help his friend."
But the wild-haired McDaniel is being held without bond on two felony counts of burglary on charges he entered two of his neighbors’ unlocked apartments two years ago and took a condom from each. His mother said he is not the lone wolf nut portrayed in the media. Mom adds that Clarence Thomas is his hero and that his goal is to be a Supreme Court Justice.
MEANWHILE, cops are still waiting for the results of lab tests being performed by the FBI on more than 70 pieces of evidence. MORE ON LAUREN GIDDINGS' MURDER

LAUREN GIDDINGS LAST SEEN ON DINER VIDEO: COPS

GEORGIA detectives believe dismembered law graduate Lauren Giddings was last seen on a restaurant surveillance video at 6:30 p.m., then sent an email from her home computer at 10:30 p.m.
The new information comes after hundreds of people gathered on the weekend to honor the dead woman's memory. Family, friends, and her professors attended a Catholic Mass. After the bread was broken, Lauren's last words were read from her journal she kept during her time as a law student. Her professor, Sarah Gerwig-Moore, shared them at the end of the mass.
She recited: "I forget sometimes at my job at it's most basic sense it's people going through horrible time in their lives. Of course they're upset."
 The pretty blonde's dismembered remains were found outside her Macon
apartment on June 30. Cops say they are hoping forensic tests on items from the Maryland native's apartment and elsewhere could share new light on when and how Giddings was slain. She had recently graduated from Mercer University Law School and so far cops seem perplexed--although a neighbor is being held in custody for a series of burglaries. Cops say he is a person of interest. FOR MORE CHECK OUT 13WMAZ

SUSPECTS EYED IN GRISLY LAUREN GIDDINGS MURDER

DETECTIVES are looking at "several" persons of interest in the grisly dismemberment slaying of Georgia law student Lauren Giddings. The popular 27-year-old's remains were discovered outside her Macon apartment complex after she vanished June 25. The grisly condition of the remains made identification difficult until now. The cause of death has yet to be determined of the pretty blonde who was about to write her bar exams.
So far, the focus has been on the Mercer University student's apartment--popular with law students. Now, the search has been extended further afield.
One police source said: "What we’re trying to do is get statements from anyone who had a connection with her."
Meanwhile, cops have charged one of Giddings' neighbors with burglary for
two unrelated crimes. Stephen McDaniel, a law school classmate of Giddings, is being held at the Bibb County jail. He has not been named a suspect in the horrific slaying. MORE IN THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

DISMEMBERED BODY 'LIKELY' LAUREN GIDDINGS

COPS are certain the dismembered remains of a woman's body found outside a Macon apartment building is missing law student Lauren Giddings. The 27-year-old blonde beauty-a recent graduate of Mercer University's law school--vanished last Saturday and was just reported missing by a pal Thursday. Later that morning cops found a dismembered body near her apartment. Her family were paying tribute Saturday: "We just want people to remember Lauren."
Chief Mike Burns said: "The condition of the body is making positive identification difficult." But in an email to a friend, the happy-go-lucky beauty reportedly said she was "concerned for her safety and believed someone had tried to
break into her apartment."
The Maryland native was getting ready to take her bar exam. Early Friday, one of Giddings' neighbors, Stephen Mark McDaniel, was arrested on a burglary charge, the Macon Telegraph reported. Cops didn't say if her was a suspect. MORE IN THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

ROY WILLARD BLANKENSHIP EXECUTED FOR '78 SLAY

A GEORGIA killer who was sentenced to death for the sickening sex slaying of an elderly woman was executed last night. Roy Willard Blankenship, 55, "jerked his head several times throughout the procedure and muttered after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was pronounced dead at 8:37 p.m. yesterday.
Blankenship was put down like a dog for the 1978 slaying of Sarah Mims Bowen, 78, who died of heart failure while she was being raped and beaten to death in her Savannah apartment.
His last words before the procedure began were to the warden. He sneered and stammered: "I hope to see you again."
Blankenship had tried to fight his execution on the grounds pentobarbital was
unsafe and unreliable triggering pain and suffering. Georgia's lawyers said those claims were unfounded. Well, he's dead now.

JOANNA HAYES DISGUISED AS A MAN WHEN SHE KILLED

A FLASH of recognition and then dark. A bizarre Georgia murder trial is showing just how far some people will go for their family. Cops in suburban Atlanta say Joanna Hayes went way over the line.
Heather Strube was engaged in a bitter custody with her estranged hubby Steven when a "man" in the parking lot of a Target store put a gun to the terrified mom's head and pulled the trigger.
Now, prosecutors say that "man" was Joanna Hayes in disguise and bent on bloodshed. This week, her son Steven testified against her and jurors heard a
recording of him asking her: "why did you do it?" Of course, now he says kindly old mom would never do such a thing.
The couple were battling over their 18-month-old son Carson in April 2009. They had agreed to switch the child in the parking lot of the store in Snellville. After he gave her the child, the killer struck.
DA Christa Kirk said: "This person pulls out a gun, places it on Heather's forehead, and shoots her. The defendant, she didn't like Heather. She didn't want Heather to have custody of Carson in the divorce."
And one witness said in the seconds before Heather was shot, it was clear she knew her killer.

"The woman recognized this person...surprised to run into them in the parking lot. They weren't expecting someone to be there, but kind of look at them with a little bit of shock," Kiersten Rom testified. "I heard a popping noise and then the woman that was standing by the car clutched her stomach and then collapsed to the ground."
 MORE ON JOANNA HAYES MURDER TRIAL