Adnan Syed Part 2

Time to Do Some Shitty Police Work

Hae’s family was absolutely devastated to learn that she’d been murdered. One of their close family friends said that it was like the whole family died when Hae died. One of Hae’s best friends called Adnan and told him over the phone that Hae’s body had been found. He asked her if Aisha was home and asked her to call Aisha and tell her that he was coming over. Several of Hae’s friends had gathered at Aisha’s house. Witnesses said that everyone was absolutely shocked, including Adnan. He kept saying, it can’t be her, they must have the wrong person. Finally he called the police department, asking to speak to the person investigating her death, but was told he’d have to call back in the morning. Friends said that he was an emotional mess. 

Detective Massey, who was the secondary detective on the case, said that within the 72 hour window after the body had been found, they didn’t have any particular person of interest. They were also still looking for Hae’s 1998 Nissan Sentra.

On February 12th around 3PM, three days after Hae’s body was found, Detective Massey received an anonymous call from, what he described as, an Asian male between the ages of 18-21. The caller advised Massey that he and the other investigators should focus on the victim’s boyfriend, Adnan Syed. The caller told him that Adnan had taken Hae to Leakin Park before to have sex. He said that Hae had broken off their relationship about a week before she went missing. He then hung up. Massey then dialed *57 (which I believe is to get the number of who just called), but a recording informed him that the service was not available in the caller’s area. Just a few minutes later, the caller called again. He recalled once that Adnan told a friend that if he ever hurt his girlfriend, he would drive her car into a lake. He then hung up and never called again. It’s still not known who this caller was.

On February 26th, Detective MacGillivary with the Baltimore City Police Department, who was now the lead investigator in the case went with his secondary, Detective Ritz, to Adnan’s home to interview him. Adnan’s father sat with him while police asked him about his relationship with Hae. He told him that the two had dated, but he didn’t want his father to know. Adnan told them that he’d been in Hae’s car several times, but not on the day she disappeared. He had a difficult time recalling his exact movements on that day. Investigators also obtained a subpoena for Adnan’s phone records.

On February 28th, early in the morning hours, Adnan was woken up by police officers. They informed him that he was being arrested as they put him in handcuffs and led him out of his house. Adnan was terrified and later described it as “there’s a flood outside your house, before you can even come to terms with that, there’s a fire inside your house. You don’t really have time to come to terms with anything, you’re just trying to survive.” When Adnan arrived at central booking, he was told that he was being charged with the first degree murder of Hae Min Lee. Both Detectives MacGillivary and Ritz mentioned that they’d spoken to Adnan’s friend, Jay Wilds.

Why was Adnan Arrested??!!?? (And who the fuck is Jay…)

Investigators said that after they received the anonymous phone call that advised them to look further into Adnan, they’d subpoenaed his phone records. They tracked the recent calls and found that on the day Hae disappeared, there were several calls to a specific number. This number belonged to Jennifer Pusateri. Jenn wasn’t really friends with Adnan, but she knew him through one of her good friends, Jay Wilds. Jay and Jenn hung out often and smoked weed together. They were both a year older than Adnan and Hae. They interviewed Jenn, who gave them very little information about Hae or Adnan. She answered with a lot of ‘I don’t knows’.

After speaking with police, Jenn got a lawyer, who scheduled another interview with police for the following day. On February 27th, the day before Adnan was arrested, Jenn went to the police department and spoke with Detective MacGillivary. During this interview, Jenn told him that on the day that Hae disappeared, Jay was over at her house. He’d driven there in Adnan’s Honda Accord and also had Adnan’s cell phone with him. She was under the impression that he’d given his phone to Jay so Adnan could contact him later that day. During the afternoon, Jay received a call from Adnan and left Jenn’s home around 3:30-3:45PM. Later that night, Jay called Jenn and asked her to meet him at Westview Mall. She drove there to meet him and found him and Adnan in the parking lot in Adnan’s car. Jay got into Jenn’s car and reportedly told her that Adnan killed Hae after school and then put her body in the trunk of her Nissan Sentra. Adnan had called Jay and asked him to meet him at the 600 block of Franklintown Road. When he met Adnan, Jay said that Adnan opened the trunk of Hae’s car (which he was driving) and showed him Hae’s dead body. Jay told Jenn that he then followed Adnan to the 4400 block of N. Franklintown Road, where Adnan removed Hae’s body and buried it in a shallow grave in Leakin Park. Jay said that he’d followed Adnan to several other locations before Adnan finally parked Hae’s car in an alley in Southwest Baltimore. Jenn said that on the 14th of January, she picked up Jay from his house and drove him to a drug store where he disposed of his clothing in a back dumpster.

Investigators said that this is what led them to Jay Wilds. They said that afterwards, they went to find Jay at his place of employment and brought him to the station to interview him. So Jay was picked up around 11PM on the night of the 27th, however the taping of the interview didn’t start until about 1:30AM. There is a LOT of speculation as to what happened during that time. Jay denied having an attorney present at that time. Here’s what Jay stated during his interview:

Jay said that the night before Hae disappeared, he and Adnan made plans to go to the mall the next day. On January 13th, Adnan picked Jay up at his house around noon in his Honda Accord and the two went to Westview Mall. After shopping for a short time, Adnan asked if Jay could just drop him off at school, take his car, then pick him up. Jay specifically said that Adnan didn’t tell him where he wanted him to pick him up. Adnan left his cell phone in the glovebox, likely because cell phones weren’t allowed in school.  Detective Ritz asked Jay if Adnan said anything about what he was going to do that day. Jay responded with, “Um he tells me he’s going to kill Hae. I didn’t believe him, I mean.” He said that Adnan was talking about how he couldn’t believe that Hae broke his heart. When detectives asked Jay to try to recall Adnan’s exact words, he said, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to kill that bitch.” He dropped Adnan off at school around 12:30PM. Jay said that he then went to his friend, Mark Pusateri’s home. Mark, 15, is Jenn’s brother and they lived at the same place. He said that three of them played video games.

Jay said that Adnan called him at about 3:40PM and asked him to pick him up from a strip at Edmonson Avenue in the city. He said that he got out of the car and Adnan popped the trunk of Hae’s car, which he was driving. Jay said that Hae’s body was in the trunk. Adnan reportedly was saying, “I did it, I did it. You don’t fucking believe me, I did it.”

Jay then agreed that he followed Adnan in his car while Adnan drove Hae’s car to a park and ride lot on Route 70. He said that Adnan left Hae’s car and got into his own car with Jay. The two then went and smoked a blunt for about 30 minutes before taking Adnan back to school around 4:30PM. (We know that this was for Adnan to attend track practice) Jay said that Adnan called him around 6:45PM to pick him back up at school, the two went to eat, and an officer called Adnan on his cell phone. Adnan told him that the officer told him that they were looking for Hae. Jay said that after the phone call, Adnan became frantic. The two drove to Jay’s house where he said that he got a shovel and a pick. He said that Adnan then told him to take him back to the park and ride. Jay followed Adnan in his car while Adnan drove Hae’s car. They got to Leakin Park and Adnan told him to park up ahead and he’d be there soon. After about ten or fifteen minutes, Adnan walked over and told Jay that the body was heavy and that he needed to bury her, then vomited. At this time, both cars were supposedly pulled off the road and they walked back in the woods to where Adnan had put Hae’s body. Adnan asked Jay to start digging several times until he finally started helping. Adnan threw up, then put Hae’s body in the hole. Jay described the crime scene, the positioning of Hae’s body, and her clothing correctly. He even said that she wasn’t wearing shoes. Jay denied having touched Hae’s body or helping Adnan put her in the approximately one foot hole he’d dug. Later in the interview, he denied having helped Adnan dig the hole.

After burying the body, Jay said that he continued following Adnan, who was still driving Hae’s car. He said he was looking for a place to leave the car. He said that Adnan parked it off a small side street first, but then decided to leave it somewhere else. Jay described it as “in the back of a bunch of row homes on like a parking lot” on the west side of Baltimore city. He said that Adnan got a bunch of stuff out of Hae’s car, including her purse and wallet. Adnan got into his own vehicle with Jay still driving. Jay said that Adnan told him to stop at the Westview Mall and he dumped all of the stuff he took from Hae’s car into a dumpster. 

Jay told detectives that he went back to where Adnan had left Hae’s car to see if it was still there. He said that the last time he went there to check was on February 24th. He also said that he put his clothing in the trash at his house on the night Adnan buried Hae. Jay said that Adnan and him had been in contact approximately 12 times since January 13th and that Adnan joked about the situation, but would also express regret and remorse. Jay said that Adnan also “made references to the fact that he could get at” his girlfriend. At the time, Jay was dating one of Adnan’s good friends, Stephanie.

Jay said that Adnan told him that he had strangled Hae and that he thought she was trying to say something as he did it. He also said that Hae had broken the windshield wiper handle in the car during the struggle. He denied knowing where the car was parked when this took place. Jay said that he’d told Jenn about what had happened on the 13th in case he was arrested, someone would know what really happened that night. He also said that he thought he may have told his friend Chris, but nobody else, and that Adnan may have told one of his friends. 

After this interview, police obtained an arrest warrant for Adnan and went to apprehend him at his home. Additionally, Jay led them to where he said that Adnan had left Hae’s car that night. In a grass lot in west Baltimore sat Hae’s car, parked near a row of small houses. Police took photos of the vehicle, inventoried its contents, then had it towed. 

Things Get Fishy AF

Soon after Adnan’s arrest, one of his and Hae’s classmates, Asia McClain, realized she might know something that could help Adnan’s case. She recalled that she’d seen Adnan on the day that Hae disappeared. She’d seen him after school in the library on campus. She didn’t think it was too important since it’d only been for a short, 15-20 minute time period, up until about 2:40PM. Asia said that she had talked to Adnan about Hae, about how they’d broken up and that Adnan said she’d started date some “white dude”. Asia said that Adnan seemed to shrug it off and said that he just wanted Hae to be happy. Asia remembered that it was that particular day because she’d looked at her planner and remembered that it was right before they’d had two days off for the ice storm. The boy she’d been dating at the time convinced her to notify Adnan’s family. She went over to the Syed house, where she said there were several relatives and friends. She felt that they didn’t seem to think it was very important because it was such a short time period. She decided to write Adnan a letter in jail. She mentioned that he was on the computer at the library when they spoke. After receiving Asia’s letters, Adnan gave his new attorney, Christina Gutierrez, the letters, as well as the information to access his email in hopes that they could track whether he was checking his email at that specific time. There is no evidence that his e-mail information was ever checked. When Adnan asked Gutierrez about using Asia to confirm an alibi, she told him that she’d checked with Asia, but that the dates were wrong. Nothing else was said about it until years later. This would’ve placed Adnan in the library until around 2:40PM. He said that after that, he went to get ready for track practice, which started at 3:30PM.

Asia was not the only person who placed Adnan on Woodlawn’s campus on that day, during the time that Hae was likely being murdered. His track coach, Coach Sye, said that recalled having a conversation with Adnan on a warm January day with temperatures in the 50’s, nearing the end of Ramadan. Sye said this particular day stood out to him because the track team didn’t often get to practice outside, but the weather was nice enough to do so. He remembered that he’d asked Adnan about Ramadan and fasting, specifically because he wouldn’t allow Adnan to do the full workout that the team was doing because he was fasting. He had him doing shorter jogs around the track. He said that Adnan was there on time that day and left on time. Adnan also said that he remembered being at track that day because he’d talked to his coach about the prayers he was leading at his mosque the following day.

Sye didn’t recall the specific date, but other things indicated that it only could’ve been the 13th. In the Undisclosed podcast, it’s reported, “During the last two weeks of Ramadan, there were only two days on which the temperatures went above 40 degrees: January 12th and January 13th. There was no track practice on January 12th, however, as the team was at a track meet that day. Coach Sye was definitely there.”

At Adnan’s trial, Coach Sye testified, but was basically only asked if he took written records of attendance, which he didn’t.

Another friend interviewed by police was Debbie Warren. She recalled seeing Adnan on the 13th, while he had his gym bag. She said this was at about 2:45PM and they talked about him going to track practice. This directly contradicted the state’s timeline.

The Trials

In December of 1999, Adnan went on trial against the state of Maryland for the murder of Hae Min Lee. Not far into the trial, the judge declared a mistrial, as the jury had heard the judge call Adnan’s attorney, Christina Gutierrez, a liar. His second trial began shortly after. The state’s case against Adnan relied heavily on Jay’s testimony. So here’s the issue with Jay…his story changed so. Many. Times. It changed between police interviews and it changed between testimonies and between trials. He even admitted to lying about certain things or giving different information. Here are just a few of the things with Jay’s stories that changed:

• Where Adnan killed Hae
• Where Adnan popped the trunk to show Jay Hae’s body
• The exact movements and timeline of the day that Hae was murdered
• Whether he helped with the burial or not
• The time that the burial took place

So understandably, things change, especially as time goes on. There are actually several witnesses whose answers changed from when they first spoke to police to when they testified at trial, mostly to “I don’t knows”. However, Jay, as the state’s main witness, his story had a lot of changes. While the main point of his story (that Adnan strangled Hae, then buried her body in Leakin Park) never changed, so much else did. 

Another important point to note that has been brought up MANY times by those who believe Adnan is innocent is the belief that the police coached Jay and THAT’S why his story changed so much. Specifically, after they found Hae’s body and had more specifics about what happened to her. Susan Simpson, a lawyer who now is part of a popular blog that dives deep into the case and Adnan’s innocence, came up with a theory regarding Jay being coached. In addition to the several hours before Jay’s interviews where he is with police, but not being recorded, there are some odd things noted about the recorded interviews. When you listen to the tapes, Susan described Jay’s answers as this:

”Jay does that a lot, by the way, that thing where he sounds like an actor who’s forgotten his next line. Luckily, the detectives are always willing to help him out. They give him time to think about it. They give him hints, suggestions, reminders. Their influence can likely be seen in the fact that, by the time of the second interview, Jay’s story about when track ended moved closer to the truth.”

Jay admitted that the detectives showed him Adnan’s phone records and that altered his answers to things. When Jay seemed to forget what he was saying on the taped interviews, you can sometimes hear knocks or what sounds like paper being pushed across a table. Jay will then answer after apologizing for forgetting the answer. 

The second piece of “evidence” that the state hinged their case against Adnan on was the cell phone data. Kevin Urick, the prosecutor, argued that where Adnan’s cell phone pinged that day placed him in all of the right places to match Jay’s (altered) story, specifically with two calls that pinged in Leakin Park that night. A cell phone expert even testified about this data at the trial that the information was incriminating. HOWEVER. After the trial, those investigating the case that believed that Adnan was wrongly convicted, noticed something strange about the cell phone data. There was a cover sheet on the faxed phone data that read, how to read subscriber activity reports with the text, “Outgoing calls only are reliable for location status. Incoming calls will not be considered reliable information for location.” Both of the calls placing Adnan in Leakin Park were incoming. The expert who testified at the trial regarding these calls was contacted and it was found that he was never shown this cover sheet with the information about incoming calls. He later contacted Adnan’s new lawyer to sign an affidavit for his appeal saying that if he’d been aware of that disclaimer, it would’ve affected his testimony. 

Essentially, the state’s timeline was that Adnan and Hae were in the parking lot of Best Buy very shortly after school, and that Adnan had strangled her by 2:36PM. They used this specific time because there was a supposed phone call from a pay phone outside of Best Buy made to Jay on Adnan’s cell phone at 2:36PM. Investigators referred to this as the “come and get me” call. They said that this is after Adnan murdered Hae and wanted Jay to pick him up. However, this timing is contradicted by several of Jay’s stories about when Adnan called him to pick him up, AS WELL AS Jenn’s story of when Jay left her home that day. In addition, Asia, Debbie, and Coach Sye’s testimonies also directly contradicted the state’s story. They alleged that Adnan murdered Hae out of jealousy, because she was dating someone else. 

On February 25th, a jury found Adnan Syed guilty of the first degree murder of Hae Min Lee. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus 30 years. Rabia Chaudry, the older sister of Adnan’s best friend, is a lawyer. She began lobbying hard for Adnan’s innocence and investigating into the case on her own. She contacted a journalist who covered the original case in Baltimore, Sarah Koenig. Koenig ended up producing a podcast titled “Serial” about the story of Hae’s murder and Adnan’s conviction. Though Rabia and Adnan’s friends and family didn’t always agree with Koenig on the content presented in the episodes, they understood that Koenig was telling the story from a journalist’s point of view. In a shocking turn of events, Serial exploded into the media and amassed a huge amount of listeners. This is really what brought attention to the case and to, what many believed, was a wrongful conviction. Since then, there have been several other podcasts released about the case and Adnan’s name has become even more well known. Despite the recognition that the media has given to the case, there is still so much that is unknown or not understood. Due to the SIGNIFICANT amount of information in this case, it’s impossible to address everything in a short period of time. However, here are some of the major points that are brought up on podcasts, Reddit, Facebook pages, and other sources that are questionable and either place doubt on Adnan’s guilt or point towards him having murdered Hae: 

1. Don: Don was Hae’s current boyfriend and was not really investigated that much. During his initial phone call with police after Hae was reported missing, he didn’t mention that he’d been at work that evening, nor did he mention that Hae and he had plans to hang out after she got off work. (Several of her friends said that she’d mentioned this that day) He later told police that he’d been working at LensCrafters in Hunt Valley, which was a different store location than he normally worked. A detective spoke to an employee from the Owings Mills location, where Don normally worked, who said he had worked at Hunt Valley that day. Nothing further was asked. Adnan’s attorney subpoenaed Don’s employment records later that year, which showed he did NOT work on January 13th. However, Urick, the prosecutor, had a phone conversation with LensCrafters’ legal department, who reportedly found another time keeping record that showed Don did work that day. They also notified that the GM, who would’ve made this timekeeping record that day, was Don’s mother. Also, Debbie, Hae’s friend, contacted Don after Hae’s disappearance by email. She suspected he might’ve known where Hae was. Don gave Debbie his phone number, after which, the two had a SEVEN HOUR PHONE CONVERSATION. Debbie told Don that she would be spending spring break with her sister on a nearby college campus. Don asked to come visit her. When he did, Debbie said that he clearly expressed romantic interest in her, and she admittedly went along with it for sometime, before reportedly making it clear that she was not interested in that. When a detective was asked why Don didn’t get equal attention in the investigation, he replied, “He didn’t have any phone calls come in about him.” (Referring to the anonymous call about Adnan)
2. Jay: There were clearly many inconsistencies with Jay’s story, but his treatment by police seemed to be very telling. Jay referred to himself as “the criminal element of Woodlawn”. He was a known drug dealer, though some say that he was involved in more serious illegal activity. He even used this as his reasoning for not coming to officers initially with the information about Hae’s murder. He said that because he was dealing marijuana, he didn’t want to become involved with the police. After Jay began cooperating with police, the prosecution appointed him his own attorney, which is reportedly VERY odd. He told detectives that he was also very concerned that Adnan would hurt his girlfriend, Stephanie. Despite that, just two days after Hae’s murder, Jay went to a party together with Adnan and Stephanie. Afterwards, Adnan dropped Jay off, then Stephanie. It seemed strange that Jay would willingly leave Stephanie alone in a car with Adnan if he was so concerned about her safety. 
3. Mr. S: Alonzo Sellers, the man who found Hae’s body, had a criminal history. He had multiple charges of indecent exposure and a trespassing charge. Many are suspicious of how he “happened” upon Hae’s body and believe he might have more information or involvement with the murder.
4. Weird police stuff: As mentioned early, Hae’s computer was seized by police. However, about a week after it was seized, the detective with the computer science unit said that he was told to cease his investigation relating to the computer because the case was now a homicide with Baltimore City, no longer a missing persons case with Baltimore County. Any files from Hae’s computer, as well as the computer itself were lost and never brought into evidence. 
5. A phone call: Jay said that on the night that Hae was murdered, after the murder, he and Adnan went to his friend Kristi’s house. Kristi recalled Adnan receiving a call on his cell phone. After the call, Kristi said that Adnan was asking Jay, “What am I gonna do, what am I gonna say? They’re gonna come talk to me?” She said Jay and Adnan left shortly after. It’s implied that Adnan had answered a call from police and was freaking out. There have been inconsistencies found in Kristi’s timeline though, which may indicate she was remembering another date. 
6. The Car: Long after Adnan’s conviction, private investigators dug into the location where Hae’s vehicle was found. Gauging from the limited photos that were taken by police, many noticed that the grass underneath her car looked pretty fresh. For a vehicle that, according to Jay, had been parked there for at least 6 weeks, it was odd to see live grass underneath in February. There was also crass on the tires and wheel wells that looked fresh. The PIs spoke to a neighbor who lived in the row of houses for 45 years. She said that she doesn’t recall the grass lot ever being re-seeded. She said that it’s unlikely that a car could’ve been parked there/abandoned for over 6 weeks and she or her neighbor wouldn’t have noticed. She said that they would’ve called 311 to have someone come check it out and tow it if need be.
7. The Note: The breakup note that Hae wrote to Adnan was found by investigators. On the back of it, Adnan and Aisha had been passing notes back and forth on it during class. At the top of the note on the back, Adnan wrote “I’m going to kill”. Aisha said that this was NOT on the note when she and Adnan were passing it back and forth. 
8. The DNA: Adnan’s car was towed and was tested for the presence of any soil that would link him to Leakin Park. None was found. After going through Adnan’s belongings, nothing was found that matched the fibers found on Hae’s body. There was no forensic testing performed on Hae’s car trunk to determine if her body had ever been there. Hair, blood and fingerprints were taken from both Jay and Adnan. There were obviously signs that Adnan had been in Hae’s car, but none that Jay had. Jay had told police that Hae’s windshield wiper handle had been broken while Adnan was strangling her. The handle was hanging down, however further analysis of the full handle revealed no splintering, which indicated it wasn’t “broken”, but more likely having been disconnected, such as if the steering wheel column might have been moved or tampered with (I think like if someone was trying to Hotwire it). There was a fingerprint found on the rear view mirror of Hae’s car, but it did not match to Adnan, Jay, or Hae. It was never matched to anyone else.
9. Debbie: Debbie, a friend of both Hae and Adnan, told police in her first interview that she’d seen Adnan at 2:45PM on the day of Hae’s murder. She was specific in that it was inside the guidance area and described his gym bag. In the first trial, she testified to this. By the time she testified in the second trial, she said that she didn’t remember. 
10. Asia’s letters: Like we said earlier, Asia McClain wrote a letter to Adnan in prison, telling him that she recalled seeing him in the library on the 13th. His attorney, Gutierrez, told him that she’d checked with Asia and the dates were wrong, though she actually never contacted Asia. When the Serial podcast was produced, Asia told the host that she assumed that the state had plenty of evidence against Adnan and that her information was irrelevant. Following Adnan’s conviction, Asia wrote an affidavit stating that she’d seen Adnan in the library from 2:20-2:40PM on the 13th. During one of Adnan’s appeals, the state’s prosecutor, Urick, said that Asia told him she’d only written the affidavit because of pressure from the Syed family. In a new affidavit, Asia disputed this claim. She said that what she’d written was truthful. She also said that Urick told her that Adnan did indeed get a fair trial and that the evidence against him was solid.

In September of this year, 2022, Judge Melissa M. Phinn of the Baltimore City Circuit Court vacated Adnan’s sentence after him having served 23 years. She said that this was “in the interests of justice and fairness” because she believed that the prosecution had failed to turn over evidence that could’ve changed the outcome of Adnan’s trial, as well as the discovery of new evidence. With 30 days for prosecutors to decide if they were going to retry Adnan, on October 11th, prosecutors dropped the charges against him. They also indicated that there are two possible other suspects that have not been charged in relation with this case. A document was found in their trial file that said one of these “persons of interest” had threatened Hae in front of a witness and another document that had information that “can be viewed as a motive for that suspect to harm the victim”. One of the two suspects has been convicted of attacking a woman in a car, as well as convicted of serial rape and sexual assault. Unsure if this is the same person. They ALSO found that Hae’s car had been found directly behind the home of one of these “suspect’s” family members! In addition to these findings, several items that were not initially tested for DNA have been sent out to have testing done.

Regardless of whether Adnan is guilty of the murder of Hae Min Lee, it seems pretty obvious that his counsel was ineffective and he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Unfortunately, with the popularity of Serial and Adnan’s case, it’s often forgotten that there is still a homicide victim, Hae Min Lee, and justice needs to be served for her and her family.