Did he do it? Is he innocent?
These are the questions many people are asking about Adnan Syed.
But, who is Adnan Syed, you may ask?
He is the well-known protagonist from the podcast Serial. This is the moment where you say, “Ohhhh that guy, right!” or, “Come again? I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Whether you belong to the former category or the latter, Serial has become one of the most popular podcasts of 2014. Sarah Koenig, the narrator of the famous podcast, has managed to turn this real life CSI story into a compelling investigation about right and wrong, truth and lies, and the determination to prove whether an innocent man has been wrongfully accused of a heinous crime.
The crime in question takes you back 16 years to 1999. While we Collegiettes were learning the alphabet and the importance of sharing from Elmo, Adnan Syed was in the middle of his senior year in high school. He was a track and field star dating the popular girl, Hae Min Lee. Their budding romance was one for the books.
They kept their relationship a secret because of Adnan’s culture. His family was from Pakistan and only wanted Adnan to focus on school. Needless to say, he and Hae Min snuck around in order to keep their relationship secret from Adnan’s parents. It was going well…until it wasn’t. They broke up by December of 1998 and Hae Min began dating an older guy by January of 1999.
Unfortunately, neither romance ends happily ever after. Hae Min went missing Jan. 13, 1999. No one was sure where she had disappeared to and once the police got involved, things turned for the worse.
By Feb. 9, 1999, her body was found buried in a park—a park notorious for dead bodies, may I add—and immediately the finger was pointed at Adnan, the ex-boyfriend, and Don, Hae’s new boyfriend.
While Don’s alibi fully checked out with the police, Adnan wasn’t so lucky. He had no idea of his exact whereabouts on the day of Hae’s disappearance and to top that, Hae was last seen leaving the school with Adnan in her passenger seat.
Unfortunately for Adnan, things got worse. Eventually, an acquaintance of his showed up to the police department and spilled all of Adnan’s secrets about the day Hae disappeared. Apparently, Adnan was jealous of Hae’s new boyfriend and couldn’t handle losing her. They were always on and off and he figured after their breakup they would just get back together. But with Hae’s new boyfriend in the picture, Adnan’s chances were slim to none. Because of all the secrets and lies he had to tell his parents just to maintain his relationship with Hae, Adnan snapped and plotted to kill her.
His plan was to get into her car, confront her and then kill her. Very clever plan, Adnan. Except it wasn’t. According to Jay, Adnan called him after strangling Hae and they both buried her body in the park where she was found months later.
But why does Jay know so much about Hae’s murder and Adnan seem to know nothing at all? He says he’s innocent, but no one knows for sure. Sarah Koenig actively investigates the murder case and comes across compelling evidence that tears apart Jay’s timeline of events. Things don’t add up from the day Hae was murdered and Adnan may even have an alibi for that day.
Koenig doesn’t fully resolve Hae’s murder by the end of season one, but she sheds light on the large discrepancies of the case that shouldn’t have led Adnan to a life sentence in prison. A month after the season finale of Serial, the Maryland Court decided to appeal Adnan’s case on the grounds of ineffective counsel by his lawyer.
So did Adnan really do it?
Well that’s one secret we’ll never know. But listen to the podcast and figure it out for yourself.