Serial: The Case Of Adnan Syed

Serial, a podcast produced by Sarah Koenig, has brought the fifteen year old case of Adnan Syed back into deliberation. Public interest in the murder of Hae Min Lee has risen exponentially and there have been conflicting views on the innocence of Syed. On February 13, 1999, Hae Lee disappeared and her body was found in Leakin Park, just outside the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Adnan Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was the prime suspect and indeed, a Baltimore jury sentenced him for life on February 25, 2000. Despite that, Syed has always maintained his innocence and denies any involvement in her strangulation. However, Serial has shed light upon numerous loopholes in the State’s case, making the jury’s decision questionable. Adnan Syed is not guilty

There could have been someone else, who could have killed Hae Lee but, used Adnan’s relationship with her as their alibi. In episode four, Koenig narrates: “the call came in to Detective Massey, a Baltimore county cop...a mystery caller says look at the ex-boyfriend...The caller further advised that the boyfriend has taken the victim to Leakin park on past occasions for sexual encounters. Prior to concluding the phone interview, the caller further stated that the victim broke off the relationship with her boyfriend about a week before she was reported missing” (Koenig 2014). This call was indeed a mysterious one. Although the police did not try to decipher the identity of the unknown man, it still leaves a lingering doubt about who it actually was. The idea presented here is quite feasible. There was some psychopath or a serial killer who killed Hae Lee, but knew enough about her personal life such that he could cleverly use it to cover his own tracks. This idea perfectly fits given the fact that there is a dearth of DNA analysis of the crime scene specimens. In episode seven, Sarah Koenig states: “that bottle of Coronet VSQ Brandy that was found right near Hae’s body. A lab report says they recovered nucleated epithelial cells from the mouth of the bottle and from the cap. But that’s all...They never tested those cells for DNA” (Koenig

In the first interview, during the Officer Adcock call, Jay and Adnan were supposedly at a restaurant buying food but, in the second interview, the location shifts to a friend’s apartment. Initially, Jay had told the police that he did not assist in digging the hole in the ground but, later, he claimed that they both dug the grave at Leakin Park. The list is extensive but, “There's so many more of these. There's a whole side trip Adnan and Jay supposedly take that afternoon, after Hae's been killed to smoke some weed at Patapsco State Park. That trip disappears by trial – just drops out of the narrative – and Jay's whereabouts in between the time he drops Adnan back at school at midday and when he meets back up with him later that afternoon – the stories about where he is are so messy and so confusing that I can't even keep the different versions straight” (Koenig 2014). Now, this is where the suspicion arises. If Jay was not directly involved in the crime, why would he lie. The opposition would argue that he was stressed out and thus, the lies. But what is unacceptable is the fact that he changed his story six times. That is a disturbingly high number for a witness whose testimony was extensively relied upon. This relates back to the previous argument about a possible distortion of the trial against Adnan. Jay’s lies were conveniently ignored because he was the ‘best witness ever’. His story spontaneously