Adnan Syed Part 1

Who was Hae?

Hae Min Lee was born on October 15th, 1980 in South Korea. She immigrated to the United States in 1992 with her mother, Youn Kim and her brother, Young Lee, to live with their grandparents. Youn just wanted her children to have access to a good education and a good future. Hae lived in Baltimore, Maryland with her mother, brother, uncle, two grandparents, and her two younger cousins. Hae attended Woodlawn High School and was a senior at the time of her murder. 

Hae was in the magnet program at Woodlawn and seemed to be friends with almost everyone. She played on the lacrosse and field hockey teams for several years and also managed the boys’ wrestling team. Her closest friends described her as goofy, bubbly, and passionate. Her favorite football team was the Dallas Cowboys, but she probably had never watched a game. She loved their team colors, blue and silver. Her teachers and coaches described her as a truly happy girl, one who was literally always in a good mood. She had a beautiful smile and seemed to always have one on her face. Her lacrosse coach said that she was one of the best players and was someone who could be counted on both on and off the field. She said, “She grew into a leader. She was a dedicated player, and she was mad if you weren’t too.”

In an interview after Hae’s murder, one of her lacrosse teammates, Kathryn Twigg Arrildt shared with LAX Magazine how she felt about Hae on the field:

“And, god, she was beautiful on the field. She was just beautiful. Watching her flit between defenders was watching a pure expression of grace and speed. We all bobbed and weaved, but she danced. She made every play look like it was choreographed… I would say that she loved lacrosse, but it would be just as true to say she loved everything. She loved life and explored everything with the same verve. And she was hell-bent on bringing you along for the ride. I can’t really even remember what she looks like without a huge grin on her face.”

Hae sang off-key and was a goofball. One of her closest friends, Debbie Warren, said that Hae would often tell jokes that weren’t that funny, but that the way she acted when she told them made everyone laugh. Hae was confident and never seemed to question herself. She worked part-time at a LensCrafters store in addition to her extracurricular activities, but still maintained her good grades in school. She was part of Woodlawn’s ecology and French Club, as well as Students Against Destructive Decisions. In a statement released by Hae’s family after her death, they said “She stood up for what was right, regardless of popular opinion…in her diary, Hae once wrote: ‘Do love me and remember me forever.’”

The Day of the Disappearance

On Wednesday, January 13th, 1999, classes at Woodlawn High School were about to begin. 18-year-old Hae left her house around 7:30AM in her Nissan Sentra. One of Hae’s friends, Krista, was standing with another friend, who also happened to be Hae’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, outside of the photography classroom. Adnan asked Hae for a ride home from school that day, to which Hae agreed. The day proceeded like normal, with Hae attending all of her classes. 

The final bell signaling school letting out rang at 2:15PM. There are several reports of who saw Hae after school was dismissed. One friend, Becky, later said in her police statement, that at 2:20PM, she saw Hae tell Adnan that she couldn’t give him a ride because she had something else to do. Adnan responded that he would ask someone else. At trial, Becky said she saw Hae at 2:20PM, but said that Hae just told HER that she had to leave right away, that there was somewhere she needed to be. She didn’t mention Adnan. Becky said that she saw Hae walk down the hallway towards a door that would take her out to the parking lot where her car was.

The next witness was another friend of Hae’s, Inez Butler. Inez had a concession stand set up after school with snacks outside of the gym. Her statements also differed each time she told them. She said that she saw Hae pull her car up to the circle by the gym, leave her car running, and run up to grab a snack and throw money into the cash box around 2:30PM. In her testimony at the first trial, Inez said that she saw Hae earlier, about 2:15-2:20, and that she ran up to grab snacks, but didn’t pay. Inez wasn’t concerned because she knew Hae would be back at 3:45PM to take the bus to the wrestling match since she managed the team. In the second trial though, Inez said that she reminded Hae to be back by 5PM for the wrestling match. Another witness, Summer, who was new to scoring wrestling matches, was upset that Hae never showed up for this wrestling match.

Later research showed however that there was not a wrestling match that evening. There was one the prior week. According to Hae’s credit card records, she’d been at the Owings Mills Mall at that time, seemingly not making it to the wrestling match. Her boyfriend at the time worked at the mall. It’s now believed that both Inez and Summer were recalling the match from the week prior to Hae’s disappearance.

In one of Debbie’s statements to police, she said that she thought she heard another friend ask Hae for a ride, but that Hae told her she couldn’t because she had to pick up her cousin from school. There’s no record of investigators having spoken to this friend. 

Hae was supposed to pick up her younger cousin from school around 3:15PM and she was scheduled to work at LensCrafters at the Owings Mill Mall at 6PM. Hae’s family was surprised to get a phone call from the child’s school around 3:30PM. Hae hadn’t arrived to pick up her cousin. This was especially odd considering Hae had picked up her cousin several times and had never been late or missed pick-up time. Hae’s brother, Young, called the Baltimore County Police Department to report her missing.

Around 5:30PM, Officer Adcock from the Baltimore County PD was dispatched to the Lee household. Young told him that he’d last seen his sister around 7AM that morning when she left for school, and that she hadn’t shown up to pick up her younger cousin, which was very unlike her. Soon after, Officer Adcock called both Hae’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan, and her best friend, Aisha. Aisha said that she’d seen Hae after school at about 2:15PM. Adnan told Officer Adcock that he’d intended to get a ride from Hae, but that he was running late and assumed she’d left him. Adcock called the LensCrafters that Hae worked at and was told that she didn’t show up for her shift that day. He attempted to contact Hae’s current boyfriend, Don, but was unsuccessful initially. He eventually reached Don by phone around 1:30AM, who said he hadn’t spoken to Hae since the evening before she disappeared. On the day Hae went missing, Don said he’d been working at LensCrafters, however at a different location to cover for another worker. Hae was supposed to call Don after her shift ended at 10PM that night, but she never did. 

The next day, Wednesday, January 14th, there was an early morning ice storm that made the roads dangerous, so schools were shut down, including Woodlawn. Police contacted the Lee family, who advised that they still hadn’t heard from Hae. The next day, Friday the 15th, roads were still hazardous and school was cancelled once again. The 15th was also Krista’s 18th birthday. Krista was one of Hae’s closest friends, and she’d been super excited about Krista’s birthday party. At this point, most of Hae’s friends weren’t very concerned about her being missing. They assumed that she’d run off with her boyfriend, Don, especially since they’d had two days off from school. Krista’s party was at the Liberty Road Volunteer Fire Company from 7-11PM. Most people had asked to come early since power was out in some of their homes. All of her friend’s showed up and Krista remembered having a great time. She thought Hae would show up at some point…but she never did.

The weekend passed and there was still no sign of Hae. Police had searched through local motels, hospitals, and parking lots for Hae or her Nissan Sentra, but hadn’t found anything. Monday, January 18th was Martin Luther King Day, so school was out again. On Tuesday, the 19th, when students returned to Woodlawn, reports say that nobody seemed overly concerned. Adnan wasn’t at school that day due to it being a religious holiday. As a Muslim, Adnan was joining his community to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Beginning January 21st, students were taking exams and they were having half days. A deviation in routine made it less obvious that Hae was missing, however her family was extremely worried. Hae leaving her family and friends, blowing off school and her responsibilities was INCREDIBLY out of character for her. It seemed as though she had disappeared into thin air.

Leading Up to the Disappearance 

In March of 1998, just shy of a year before Hae disappeared, she was super excited to go to her junior prom at Woodlawn. Adnan Syed, another junior, had asked their mutual friend Debbie, if she thought Hae would say yes if he asked her. Debbie was like, uhh YES SHE WOULD! Adnan asked Hae who, of course, said yes. Debbie said that she became the go-between of the couple in the beginning of their relationship, each one telling Debbie how much they liked the other.

On April 25th, Adnan picked Hae up to bring her to her best friend Aisha’s house. Hae wrote in her diary later that she was super nervous because Adnan STILL wasn’t dressed, but he went and got his tuxedo and the couple took pictures with their friends. Hae was wearing a blue spaghetti strap dress that sparkled and turned purple in the light, with silver strappy heels. Adnan was crowned the prom prince and one of his good friends, Stephanie, was crowned the princess. Traditionally, the prom prince and princess would share a dance. EVEN WORSE, they were playing Hae’s favorite song: All My Life by KC and JoJo. Hae wrote that she pretended not to be jealous and took a photo of them dancing, before going to sit down with her friends. After a few seconds though, Adnan came up to ask her to dance with him instead. Hae gushed in her diary about how wonderful the night was and how sweet Adnan was. She even wrote, “How can I NOT fall in love with this guy???” The couple shared their first kiss that night. 

After that night, Hae and Adnan’s relationship blossomed. The two deeply cared for one another and loved spending time with each other. Unfortunately, there were a few things standing in their way. Adnan was Muslim and his parents were reportedly very strict about their faith. Adnan wasn’t supposed to be dating. Of course, like most teenage boys, Adnan found ways around his parents’ rules. He and his best friend, Saad, secretly had girlfriends and hung out with girls often. Unfortunately for them, the Muslim community was very tight knit, which meant that word spread quickly when someone was doing something they weren’t supposed to. Adnan and Saad had decided that they wanted to be two of the first Muslims that they knew to go to prom. When Adnan came home later after the dance, still wearing his prom prince crown, his mother came downstairs to ask him where he’d been. He said he threw his tux and crown under the stairs and told her that he’d just been hanging out with friends!

While Hae’s mother had rules, she wasn’t as strict about her daughter dating, however she wanted to meet the young man’s family. Obviously that couldn’t happen, so Hae also kept her relationship a secret from her family. The two would pretend to be at friends’ houses when they were really with each other. When they wanted to talk on the phone, Adnan would page her to let her know he was going to call. Hae would call the number for the weather and call waiting would beep in. That way she could answer without it having to ring. As their relationship became more serious and the two became intimate, they would go to motel rooms. It was difficult, but they wanted to be together. Hae often wrote about how frustrating the secret could be in her diary, but tried to be positive. She wrote, “The bad thing is that we have to keep things secret…sigh…but it’s okay, ‘cause love conquers all!”

Adnan was well-liked at Woodlawn. He played sports and was always joking around with his classmates and teachers. His friends described him as confident, fun, and easy to get along with. Adnan wasn’t a straight A student like Hae, but he did well enough in school. When his mother told his father that she thought he was dating someone, Adnan’s father said, no way, he’s doing too well in school to be dating someone!

The two dated throughout the summer and Hae wrote about him often in her diary. She drew hearts and wrote about how much she loved him, but she also talked about the arguments that they got into. However in August, her tone shifted and she wrote about the regrets she had over the past five months. She wrote about regretting lying and sneaking around to her family. 

She wrote, “I have lost the things that I enjoyed so much. Now it seems that every time I do something I used to do…it seems to shoot through Adnan’s heart. It seems like my life has been revolving around him. Where’s me? I have completely changed myself to make him happy…I soooo hate myself…when I think about the past five months.”

Within a week, another diary entry said that she would never let him go. By the end of the month, Hae was listing the reasons why she loved her life, which included, “I have my baby, who loves me very much :)” 

In October, Hae and Adnan attended the homecoming dance together. Unfortunately, Adnan’s mother was told that her son would be at the dance with his girlfriend. Adnan’s parents showed up at the dance to bring their son home. Reportedly, Hae had to pretend she was another guy’s date because Adnan’s mother was trying to find her. The following day, Hae and Adnan broke up. In a note she wrote to him, it seemed as though he wasn’t taking it well. 

On November 3rd, Hae wrote in her diary, “I still love you. I would give any and everything to be in your arms. But my heart’s not that strong…”

Shortly after, in mid-November, Hae and Adnan got back together and the diary entries about her undying love for him started back. However, Hae seemed to have another man who was occupying her mind: one of her co-workers at LensCrafters, 22-year-old Don Clinedinst. She wrote that she sometimes imagined him instead of Adnan and didn’t know what to think. Similar entries followed, along with her doodling both Adnan and Don’s names. On December 20th, the two broke up again for the last time. Despite the breakup, just a few days later, Hae skidded her car into a curb and both Don and Adnan came to look at it and agreed together that Hae shouldn’t drive it. It seemed as though Adnan and Don were acting civilly towards each other. Soon after, Hae and Don went on their first date and her diary entries shifted to her falling hard for Don. Her last entry was on January 12th, the day before she disappeared. She and Don had hung out that evening and, according to him, she was happy and acting normally. They talked on the phone when she got home until Adnan beeped in on call waiting to give Hae his new cell phone number. Hae quickly jotted it down in her diary before going back to talking with Don. That was the last time Don said that he spoke to Hae.

A new detective took over Hae’s missing person case, Detective O’Shea, and after speaking with Don, he went about contacting Adnan. On Monday, January 25th, O’Shea spoke with Adnan on the phone, who said that he was in class with Hae until 2:15PM, didn’t see her after school, then he went to track practice. O’Shea didn’t ask Adnan if he’d asked for a ride from Hae that day. Teachers noticed that Hae wasn’t in school, however, as one of the highest graded students, Hae could afford to miss a few days. Teachers later said that the students were “all remarkably unconcerned” about her disappearance. 

On January 27th, the first known interview of Hae’s friends was completed. O’Shea interviewed Hae’s best friend, Aisha. The only information that Aisha could provide was that Hae had recently been clashing with her mom over curfew and phone privileges, but nothing that seemed extreme enough to make her run away. She also noted that Hae often talked about California. She’d lived there once with her family, but Aisha didn’t think she’d ever talked about leaving to live there. She said that her best friend was in a great mood on the day she disappeared. Aisha didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Mutual friend Debbie was the next to be interviewed and she said that she’d seen Hae at 3PM at school on the day she disappeared. 

On February 1st, O’Shea conducted a second phone interview with Adnan, where he went over Officer Adcock’s initial report. He recalled to Adnan that O’Shea had written, “Mr. Syed advised that victim Lee was supposed to give him a ride home, after school, but he was running late and he felt that victim Lee probably left after waiting a short while.” Adnan disputed this and said that he had his own car that day. 

The following day, O’Shea contacted Hae’s mother’s ex-boyfriend, who lived in California. Hae, her brother, and her mother lived with them for the time they resided in California. He said that he hadn’t heard from Hae since before she disappeared. 

On February 3rd, police pulled Adnan’s records, with no obvious explanation as to why and he appeared to be the only one they had done this with so far. 

On February 6th, investigators used police dogs to search the area and woods surrounding Woodlawn High School. There was documentation and maps that showed police were considering Hae’s disappearance being connected to a recent murder. In 1998, about 8 months before Hae disappeared, another young woman was abducted and murdered. 18-year-old Jada Lambert was a year ahead of Hae at Woodlawn High School when she was found strangled to death in a small stream. She was sexually assaulted. Two years later, DNA taken from Jada’s body was computerized and found to be a match for a man who was incarcerated for armed robbery. Roy Davis knew Jada and her mother, as he’d styled their hair in the past. Davis was found guilty of first degree murder and second degree rape. He was not incarcerated at the time of Hae’s disappearance and was still living in the area. Unfortunately, though, at this time, Davis had not been identified yet as Jada’s murderer.

On February 8th, O’Shea took Hae’s computer to search through it for evidence. Another detective who was part of the Computer Crimes Unit served a subpoena to AOL to access Hae’s e-mail accounts. Police were hoping to find anything that might indicate who Hae had been communicating with prior to disappearing. 

Finding Hae

On Tuesday, February 9th, 1999, officers in Baltimore City received a phone call from a man who claimed to have found a body in Leakin Park. The park was about 3 miles from Woodlawn High and was known to police for having had several bodies dumped there. The man who’d found the body was a maintenance worker from a nearby college, Alonzo Sellers (also referred to as Mr. S in many publications). Sellers said that he left his job at the college and drove home to eat lunch. As he left his house, he grabbed a 22 ounce Budweiser to drink on his drive back. On the way, Sellers said that he had to urinate so he pulled over on the side of the road by Leakin Park. He said that he didn’t want anyone to see him, so he walked further back into the woods. It was later measured to be 127 feet from the road to where he first noticed something in the dirt. Sellers said he walked through some bushes, looked down, and noticed what looked like hair and something covered by dirt. He then noticed a foot.

It wasn’t long before detectives arrived on scene, as well as the medical examiner. The body was confirmed to belong to Hae Min Lee and it was clearly a homicide. Many found it suspicious how Sellers found the body. It was reportedly an odd place to stop, especially since he was so close to his work. They also found it strange how far back he’d walked into the woods to urinate. The road was full of woods and mostly park property, with no houses in that specific area, however the trees were bare since it was winter, so he may have been forced to go further back for privacy. A surveyor supervisor for the area was called out to the scene and later said that he didn’t notice the body, not even when he was almost right on top of it. It had been concealed with dirt and leaves, though not exactly “buried”. The surveyor thought it was definitely odd that Sellers stumbled across something that appeared to be so well concealed.

On the official postmortem report from the medical examiner who dealt with Hae’s body, this was written under “Evidence of Injury”:

“The body was found in the woods, buried in a shallow grave with the hair, right foot, left knee, and left hip partially exposed. The body was on her right side. The body was decomposed, with mold growth noted on the skin of the trunk and proximal segments of the upper and lower extremities. The white jacket the decedent was wearing was unbuttoned along its anterior middle opening; the skirt and bra were partly pulled up, exposing both breasts onto which wet soil was adherent. The pantyhose had prominent defects on the knees. The skirt was pulled up at the level of the buttocks.”

Those who have seen the crime scene photos describe Hae as being behind a very large log laying on the forest floor. Part of her was buried in what looked to be a sort of natural depression in the ground. Only certain parts were exposed to the air and she’d been buried on her right side. During her autopsy, it was found that rigor had been broken in all extremities (I’ll explain that in a minute) and she had lividity fixed on the anterior surface of the body, except areas that were exposed to pressure. When a body begins to have rigor mortis, which is a stiffening of the body muscles, there are several different stages that a body goes through. When a body is found that is cold, but no longer stiff, it’s often concluded that they’ve been dead for more than 36 hours and that their body has already gone through all of the stages of rigor. Certain factors can affect this timeline, including temperature and weather conditions. When rigor is broken, it typically indicates that a body has been moved while in rigor. This could indicate that Hae had likely been moved after being dead for several hours. In reference to the lividity (blood pooling after death) found on her front side, it also did not coincide with the position her body was found in at the park. This again could point to that Hae’s body was likely moved after rigor and lividity had begun to set in. 

Due to injuries found on the examination, the ME ruled Hae’s manner of death as a homicide, with her cause of death as strangulation. She also noted bruises to the back of her head and on the right side, near the temple. She testified that these bruises only occur while the subject is still alive. Swabs taken were negative for sperm and there was no reported evidence that Hae had been sexually assaulted. Her blood was also negative for drugs and alcohol.

There were several things found in the nearby area of Hae’s body that were collected, although much of it could have just been trash, including: a rolled condom, TWO blockbuster movie cases, a rope, and an empty bottle of brandy. There were two fibers found, one on top of Hae and one underneath. The one on top was orange and synthetic, while the other was fluorescent blue. Another report, though, recorded a red fiber, a colorless fiber, and a pink-orange fiber found on Hae. There were three pressure marks noted on Hae’s front side by her shoulders, all between 1 and 2 inches. They were roughly diamond-shaped and likely caused by something that was pressing against her skin as lividity set in.

That’s it for part 1.  

For part two, click here!