If you’re into murder cases and shows like Criminal Minds then Serial Podcast is for you. Serial is a twelve episode long radio show available online at serialpodcast.org. Season one is about the murder of Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in a school located in Baltimore County, Maryland. She disappeared on January 13, 1999 and a month later her body was found. Two weeks after that, her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, who was only 17 years old was found guilty and convicted for her murder. He was given life in prison for a crime Adnan says he did not commit.
Sarah Koenig is not an investigator– she is a reporter. But somehow, she has managed to find information that has caused the case to reopen after 15 years. I will give you an overall analysis of what happened, but it may have some bias. Jay, who was his friend, claims he helped hide the body and he turned in Adnan. He also has changed up his story about three times. I’m only on episode 10, but as of now I still think Jay is not telling the truth. I am aware there is human error and I am also aware how difficult it is to remember small details about a day that happened years ago, but how could you forget a day in which you helped someone hide a dead body? Certain details also do not match up. Details like Jay claiming Adnan called him through a pay phone outside of the Best Buy he also claims Hae was killed in. Sarah has called previous managers, and has even seen the blueprints for the location and has called various phone companies. There is no evidence that there was ever a pay phone there, at all. What else could Jay be lying about?
On Tuesday March 08, 2016 Sarah Koenig visited Sonoma State and spoke more about the case. She went into detail about how she only expected about a couple thousand people to listen to it. Much to her surprise, the show went viral and they have over 3.5 million followers worldwide! She told us about how the first show was made and about how hard it was for her to get police reports. She told a great story about how when she finally got a hold of the police file, it was roughly 700 pages of documents in no particular order. She had to decode all the documents and find the relevant material. She also discussed her conversations with Adnan. She mentions how she is still unsure about her thoughts on Adnan being guilty or innocent. She says some days she feels as if he didn’t do it and he couldn’t have possibly done it because of the evidence she found and the people she has talked to. But, there are also other days where she thinks about how smooth he is with his words, and how he tries to manipulate her by sometimes flirting with her and then thinks, “Maybe Adnan did do it?” In the conclusion of the podcast she comes to the realization that we will probably never know for sure whether he did it or not. All she can say is that the story the prosecutors used to get Adnan convicted is not true story of what happens. However, this does not mean that he did not commit the crime.
Listen to the podcast yourself and email us your thoughts! Do you think Adnan is innocent or guilty? Do you think Jay had anything to do with it or maybe even the local that found her?
We all love binge-watching our TV shows, but try binge-listening to this podcast! You’ll be hooked in no time.