By: Damanpreet Lobana '25
As a true crime enthusiast, I became accustomed to the straightforward layouts of countless theories, witnesses, evidences many true crime podcasts showcase while investigating a case. Yet, this narrative hooked you with an intriguing premise – one that starts with a thought experiment.
“Think about a day in a particular week, now think about a day six weeks ago. Did you go to school? Was it raining? Are you able to retrace the entire day? If you are, think about eighteen minutes of that specific day. If you cannot remember those eighteen minutes, you do not know what could happen to you because there is a guy sitting in prison right now because he cannot remember what he did in those eighteen minutes six weeks ago.”
Photo Courtesy of the Syed family
These are the questions that Sarah Koenig, the host of Serial, attempts to answer. The twelve episodes that aired back in September 2014 revolutionized podcasting and thrust this story into the limelight, providing insights into the failure into the judicial system, interrogating witnesses, and collecting evidence. The crime committed involved Hae Min Lee, a Korean American student who disappeared after trying to pick her cousins up from middle school. About a month later, her body was found near the city park, possibly strangled to death. The prime suspect of the case was Adnan Syed, her seventeen-year-old ex-boyfriend who ended the relationship two months before the murder. He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison two months after the murder occurred.
The podcast is aimed towards providing the exact timeline of events that occurred during January 13, even though there are conflicting stories told by two key witnesses: Adnan Syed himself and Jay, his best friend. Both have drastically conflicting stories, yet have multiple pieces of evidence that corroborates both them. On one hand, Jay claims that during his free period, Adnan went to the mall with him after Adnan discovered that he forgot to buy a present for his girlfriend, Stephanie, on her birthday. This was where Jay claims that Adnan jokingly referred to killing Hae Min Lee. After coming back to school, Adnan left his phone and car in Jay’s custody, and told him that he would call him. After spending time in his friend’s house, Jay received a call from Adnan to come pick him up. At the meeting point, Adnan supposedly showed him Hae’s body and asked for Jay’s assistance in burying her. After they successfully buried the body, Adnan drove Jay back home, where Jay told someone about the murder. On the other hand, Adnan claims that after school, he was checking his emails at the library when the murder was committed and immediately went to track practice after. He subsequently went to another friend’s house with Jay where he immediately went home so that he could accompany his family to the mosque.
Now, there are key pieces of evidence that corroborate both stories. One of first pieces of evidence presented that supports Adnan’s case was an alibi, someone who communicated with Adnan when he was checking emails at the library. The person also witnessed Adnan going to track practice right after visiting the library. Another piece of evidence that supports Adnan’s story is that Jay’s testimony changed every time he was interviewed, and an especially alarming fact is that Jay was unsure where he saw the dead body. However, Jay’s story also had some credibility, with the critical evidence being presented against Adnan. The call records taken from Adnan’s cellphone revealed one phone call made to Nisha, Adnan’s friend, minutes after the murder occurred. Nisha herself testified in court, claiming that she remembered talking to Adnan and Jay some time that day. Koenig described the ‘Nisha Call’ as a smoking gun. If the ‘Nisha Call’ occurred on the same day, that means Jay’s story could be the truth. Adnan himself dismissed this as a butt dial, but seemed very unconvincing.
Despite investigating this case, Koenig leaves the story for open interpretation. However, there were recent developments in the case. After spent nearly twenty-three years in prison, Adnan was finally released after the judges found that the prosecutors were hiding key evidence leading to an unidentified suspect who can be linked to the murder of Hae. Even though Lee’s family are trying to appeal the court’s decision of releasing Adnan, the case continues to be convoluted and mysterious to the open eye.