A Case Study of the Murder of Hae Min Lee by her Ex-Boyfriend Adnan Syed

In a 2014 Serial Podcast, Sarah Koenig investigated the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She was last seen at about 3 p.m. on January 13, 1999. Her body was discovered on February 9 in Leakin Park and identified two days later. The case was immediately treated as a homicide. Lee's ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested on February 28 at 6 a.m. and charged with first-degree murder. Syed's first trial ended in a mistrial, but after a six-week second trial, Syed was found guilty of Lee's murder on February 25, 2000, and given a life sentence. People say he did it but in my opinion, I don't think he did. I say this because the stories don't really line up.

Adnan and Hae's parents didn't approve of dating so they hid their relationship in secret. Hae then broke it off and her parents thinks the breakup had caused Adnan to either be cool with it but sad or rage with anger and want to kill her. Although Adnan confessed he was heartbroken but not enough to want to kill her. He loved her and would never hurt her. If Adnan has witnesses saying that he loved her, then he wouldn't have killed her. Their love was a fairytale romance so it was impossible to have killed even though Hae broke up with him.

An anonymous caller leads detectives to check Adnan Syed's cell phone records. As a result, the detectives discover calls to Jen, who is a friend of one of Adnan's acquaintances, a weed dealer named Jay. Detectives interview Jen and then Jay, who says Syed told him he killed Lee, and then forced him to help bury her body. This happened for four interviews although, every interrogating changing every time. Koenig and the rest of her crew test drove the prosecution's route and timeline of Lee's murder between 2:15, when school let out at the high school, and 2:36, when Jay said Syed called him for pick up in the Best Buy parking lot and then showed Jay Lee's body in the trunk of her car. While that timeline seems possible, though just barely, evidence from the call logs and records of cell tower pings do not quite align with Jay's testimony about the rest of the afternoon.

I'm just saying that by the lack of evidence of Adnan actually doing it, it's impossible, he could have done it. Although the routes are possible to have committed the murder, what motive would he have if he did if he was madly in love with Hae even though she broke up with him. Overall, I would say that although there are more evidence as to if Adnan didn't do the 1999 murder or if Jay did it, there isn't enough good clear evidence as to if he did do it so you can't proceed to a statement as to the decision of his case.

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