Serial Podcast: Adnan Syed

Adnan Syed

Adnan

Adnan was a senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore when his ex-girlfriend disappeared on January 13, 1999. He was still very good friends with her and this shocked him. Later on, in 2000, Adnan was convicted of strangling his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, he retains his innocence and that he had nothing to do with the murder

Hae Min Lee

Hae

Hae was a Korean-American senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore who disappeared on January 13, 1999. Her body was found four weeks later in Leakin Park, the victim of murder by manual strangulation. Hae was described as smart, beautiful, cheerful, responsible and a great athlete by family, friends and class mates. Her Ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed was convicted for her murder through Jay's testimonies.

Jay Wilds

Jay

Jay was a friend of Adnan's. At the time of the murder, Jay was dating a girl named Stephanie McPherson. Adnan was very close friends with Stephanie. Jay told the state that he was the first to see Hae Min Lee's body after Adnan allegedly murdered her. While the details in the stories that he has told were mildly altered the bare details painted Adnan as guilty and was ultimately responsible for his sentence.

Don Clinedinst

Don

Don was the boyfriend of Hae at the time of her murder. He and Hae worked together at LensCrafters. Not much is known about Don, apart from that he was older than Hae and that Hae was absolutly in love with him, shown through her diary entries.

Episode 1

The Alibi

Baltimore, 1999. A high school senior, Hae Min Lee, disappears after failing to pick up her cousin from day care. One month later her body is found in a park notorious for dead bodies by a caretaker going to the bathroom on his way to work. Six weeks later, her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested by detectives after interviewing his friend Jay Wilds. While his memory of the day is fuzzy, he has a classmate that says that she knows where was after school, the public library. Unfortunately, Asia McClean is nowhere to be found. He still remains adamant that he had nothing to do with it.

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Episode 2

The Breakup

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Adnan and Hae had the ideal high school relationship, notes, sneaking off, prom, but there was one hitch. They both, but especially Adnan, had very strict parents. The pressures from their home live spilled into their relationship and eventually caused its end. Depending on the person, they would either say that Adnan was a regular boy after the break up, sad and moping or full of rage and plotting revenge.

Episode 3

Leakin Park

Three weeks after Hae’s disappearance, February 9, 1999, a man goes to find a secluded place to pee. After walking 127 feet into the park he stumbles onto a frightening scene, hair sticking out of the ground. A shallow grave dug to hid Hae Min Lee’s body. As this man recounts his story to detectives Ritz and MacGillivary the two found it very suspicious, like 127 feet was a long way to walk just to relieve himself, and that’s not all. A quick check into his past shows some peculiar things. Could these detectives believe a streaker?

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Episode 4

Inconsistencies

A couple days after the discovery of Hae’s body, the Ritz and MacGillivary get a lead that opens the case right up for them. Late one night they find Jay Wilds at work and bring him to homicide for an interview. Jay, at first, says that he had nothing to do with the murder. But as the interview progresses he comes clean, tells the detectives his version of the event on January 13th, and a few weeks later, he’s back and his story has changes. Some of the changes are little, slip of the mind, little details. But some of the are huge.

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Episode 5

Route Talk

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A challenge between Adnan and Sarah, Adnan suggested to Sarah and her producer that they should try and take the route that the State proposed in the timeline of what happened on the day that Hae was killed. The route took them from Woodlawn High school to Best Buy, which the state argued would take them 21 minutes to complete. Adnan said that “It can’t be done”, so they did it. Sarah and Dana drive the route, making sure they hit every obstacle that Adnan said they would. It took them 22 minutes and 2 seconds

Episode 6

The case against Adnan Syed

There is next to no physical evidence against Adnan, or anyone. Apart from the cell phone records, what else is there, why was Adnan jailed on so little evidence and was there anything to back up Jay’s testimonies? All of the evidence against Adnan is weighed, including abnormal behaviour, a note, and a mid-afternoon phone call. But is there enough proof to put Adnan in jail.

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Episode 7

The opposite of the prosecution

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Sarah and Adnan discuss a case in Virginia, that was very similar to his own. Mainly the use of cell phone records, also youth, drugs, and a defendant who retains their innocence. Sarah phones one of the defence attorneys for that case and asked for insight into Adnan’s case but gets much more than she asked for.

Episode 8

The deal with Jay

All of the state’s case hangs on Jay’s credibility, he was their only witness and also because his statements changed so often. Cristina Gutierrez, Adnan’s lawyer, tried to poke holes in Jay’s story, she tried to make him look untrustworthy. But he was untrustworthy, so how did everyone that did trust him, trust him?

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Episode 9

To be suspected

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There is so much missing from this trial, and new information is coming out that is showing major gaps in the January 13th story, the things that didn’t happen. Adnan’s memory is adequate at best and he doesn’t know what happened on that day, but he can clearly remember the following, arrested, trailed and jailed.

Episode 10

The best defence is a good defence

Ms Cristina Gutierrez was Adnan’s defence attorney. She was very well-known lawyer, she is described as tough, savvy and smart. Other people in the profession and people that have had Gutierrez told Adnan and his family that she was the person that would get Adnan out of a first-degree murder charge. But Adnan was convicted, and a year later, Gutierrez was disbarred. What happened? 

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Episode 11

Rumours

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Everybody that knows Adnan describes him in almost the exact same way, good kid, helpful at the mosque, respectful to his elders. But there are a few people who disagree, while doing the podcast Sarah got phone calls from people who knew Adnan and had a story to tell about him. They went from as small as he borrowed some clothes and forgot to return them to he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the mosque.

Episode 12

What we know

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There is two stories, either Adnan was destoryed and hurt by Hae breaking up with him, he was left with nothing and carried out a premeditated murder. Or he was framed, an innocent man that was framed for the murder of his own friend. This is a compilation of everything that Sarah had collected over her 15 months of reporting and they show what they have and what is missing still.

Things that Undisclosed covered that Serial did not

4- The anonymous tipper. Undisclosed claims Wilds may have wanted the reward money to buy a motorcycle, which the police may have been aware of.

5- If you listen closely there is tapping in Jay's taped interviews, which make him change his answer to some questions. There are long pauses in his speeches then a 'tap-tap' then he suddenly knows the answer

Undisclosed vs Serial

1- The cell phone tower pings were worthless and meant nothing.

2- The state's timeline of when and how Hae were buried does not align with the autopsy report (https://viewfromll2.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/autopsy-report.pdf)

3- Hae did not have a wrestling match to go to on the day that she disappeared like her classmate and co-manager of the wrestling team, Summer, told Sarah for the serial podcast.