Intro
“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!
Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. Today's case is gonna be a case that I've been researching and following for seven years now. I think there's too much in this case to cover all in one episode, but I'm going to do my best, so it's going to be a long one. This case had some breaking news come just in the last few days, and I got really emotional about that, but as I go through this case, I'm in the state just the facts and what we have through all the evidence that I've looked at the podcast of serial docu-series that they had made on it anything everything I was able to find to give you an unbiased opinion, and at the end, I'll state my opinion so stay tuned for the case of Hae min lee also known as the Adnan Syed case.
References:
The beginning
On Jan 13, 1999 Hae Min Lee disappeared. Hae was an 18 year old senior at woodlawn high school in Baltimore County. She was Korean. She was smart, beautiful, goofyl, and played field hockey and lacrosse. Hae was in the magent program at her school and had a great group of friends. On the day in question Hae was supposed to be leaving school to pick up her cousin from school and take her home. After she was going to go meet up with her boyfriend.
Adnan and Hae’s Relationship
Adnan and Hae started dating April 1, 1998 and kept it secret from their parents. As a Pakistani American and a Korean American, Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee apparently feared negative reactions from their families due to multiple religious and cultural differences. Their relationship started as any other highschool couple does. By telling their mutual friends that they liked the other until finally Debbie told Adnan to just ask Hae to prom and he did. Adnan asked Hae and she said yes, on the day of prom Adnan picked Hae up from her house to go to Anisha house to take pictures and all ride together. Hae recalls that Adnan wasnt ready when he picked her up and she feared that he would make them late. At prom Adnan was surprisingly announced Prince and Stephanie was his princess. Due to tradition Adnan and Stephanie were supposed to dance together but Hae’s favortie song came on. Hae got a little jealous that he was her date and dancing with another girl to her favorite song but Adnan shocked her by coming and asking her to dance.
Hae wrote in her Diary after prom and it stated: “I swear he’s the sweetest guy. Let me tell you why. He was prom prince and Stephanie was prom princess and traditionally they’re supposed to dance together, to my song, K-Ci & JoJo’s ‘All My Life.’ I tried to act natural and unjealous, but it did kinda bother me. Ten seconds later, guess who danced with me, and not with Stephanie? Adnan! Now how can I not fall in love with this guy? Of course I gave him his first kiss on the lips, then I totally fell in love with him. Since then, I keep on falling deeper and deeper into him. The bad thing is we have to keep things secret, sigh. But it’s okay because love conquers all.”
Their relationship started to bloom from there. As the relationship started to grow Adnan and Hae had to be creative with the way they were going to spend time together. They had a whole system for this. One would page the other when the coast was clear. Then that person would call some 1-800 service like the weather or the time and the other one would call in so the phone wouldn’t actually ring. It would come in through call waiting and the parents would never be the wiser.
Being 17-18 years old they would hang out at Best Buy late at night to hook up or some night tell their parents that they were staying with friends and get a hotel room to spend the night together.
Adnan’s mother was starting to become suspicious of where Adnan was going and started to listen in on his phone calls. When she found out that Adnan was dating she immediately told her husband who didnt believe her.
During their relationship Adnan had to go to a conference in TX with his dad and in Hae’s diary she wrote about it.
“I like him, no I love him.” dated May 15. “It just all the things that stand in the middle. His religion and Muslim customs are the main things. It irks me to know that I’m against his religion. He called me a devil a few times. I know he was only joking, but it’s somewhat true.” And then there’s this, from July when Adnan went to an Islamic conference in Texas with his dad. This is the most distressed Hae gets on the topic. “I keep crying over the phone because I miss him so much,” she writes. He told me that his religion means life to him. He tried to remain a faithful Muslim all his life but he fell in love with me which is a great sin. But he told me there is no way he’ll ever leave me because he can't imagine a life with me. Then he said that one day he’ll have to choosebetween me and his religion. I love him so much and when it comes to choosing, I’m gonna let him go his way. I hate the fact that I’m the cause of his sin. He said that I shouldn’t feel like I’m pulling him away from his religion but hello! That’s exactly what I’m doing.
Hae was starting to get frustrated with their relationship around homecoming. She wanted a boyfriend that she could spend time with and be around their family. With Adnan’s family they would never go for him dating at this age and it all came crashing down at the homecoming dance. Adnan and Hae went together and Adnan’s parents showed up. Hae got so frustrated she left. Hae got extremely frustrated with Adnan in the days that followed because she didnt want to be with him anymore as she was losing herself. She felt like everything she was doing was for Adnan and that he was becoming possessive over and her space.
Friends says this was one of the many break ups they would have over the course of their relationship until their final split in December 1998 was only complicated further when Adnan found out that Hae had begun dating another young man, Don Clinedinst.
Hae wrote in her diary about the end of the relationship and the beginning of Don. On November 3, Hae wrote in her diary, “Who would have thought we would end like this? Who
would have imagined the amount of pain that comes with a broken heart? I know I’m doing the right thing. Call me selfish but this pain is way less than what it would be if we stayed together.” Then they reunited because exactly one month later, on December 3, she’s full of love for Adnan again. “This feels so real, so loving and ever so amazing. I can’t be any happier. But yet I keep on being happier.” But then just three days later there’s this on December 6: “What’s the matter with me? Everytime I close my eyes I see my baby but I keep on thinking about someone else. Don.” Don has blue eyes and blonde hair and a Camero and she really, really likes him. For the next couple of weeks, she’s racked with guilt and confusion over what to do. At one point, she writes Adnan’s name in giant block letters made out of tiny little Adnans and underneath that does the same thing with Don. Giant letters made up of Dons. On another page, she writes Don’s name 127 times. 127 Dons. It’s not clear from the diary when she finally tells Adnan it’s over over, but certainly by Christmas they were split. On New Years Day, Hae has her first official date with Don and they start going out. Hae is head over heels. Aisha remembers meeting him on a double date to Friday’s restaurant and then to see the
movie Shakespeare in Love.
Donna Paoletti Philips. She taught Adnan and Hae AP Psychology and had known them both
since they were freshmen. At her job, she’s seen a lot of high school break-ups. When they had broke up, it'd been like a month, maybe more., “Adnan's dating multiple girls!” I was like “I can tell you some of the girls that he's dating.” I was like “he is not upset about him and Hae breaking up.” I was like “he's dating this girl Anjali in Philly that he's been going to see.” This girl.
like “He's a player! He has a lot of girls!” I was like, “he's talking to multiple--” This is Anjali, the girl in Philly. She confirmed. Yup. Couple of visits. They made out. Nothing too serious. On New Year's Eve, Adnan met another girl, Nisha from Silver Spring, Maryland. And he started calling her a lot too. Adnan's friend Mac remembered Adnan making out with another friend of theirs at a party that January. So yeah, a player.
As their relationship evolves more into a friends Hae writes about a time just before Christmas, so after they’d broken up, when she gets into a little car accident and calls up Adnan to come get her from work. Both Don, her new crush, and Adnan look at the car together and decide it’s unsafe to drive, so Adnan takes her home. Apparently it was all very cordial. Even Don said so
The Investigation
Jan 13th started out like any day, Hae was at school getting ready to see her new boyfriend. No one knew that evening the excited would all changes. Hae and Adnan had a
couple classes together, first period, and also last period, AP Psychology, with Miss Paoletti. That’s when Aisha last saw Hae, at the end of Psychology. She was taking to Adnan. Then their friend Debbie remembers seeing Hae on her way to her car. She told Debbie she had to get her cousin from school, and then was going see Don at the mall. Inez ran a little concession stand right at the gym entrance and Hae would come by every day and get the same thing: a Veryfine apple juice and Hot Fries. That day, she drove up in front of the gym where the concession stand was and left her car running.
At 3:30 PM Hae’s cousins school called the Lee residence to let them know that no one picked up her cousin from school. Hae’s family thought that was strange as that was Hae’s job. Her family started to page her and no response. Hae’s brother remembers calling her friends to see if Hae was with one of them with no luck. When the police arrived at the Lee residence they searched her room for any information that might lead them to her. When they opened her diary they found a number written down that belonged to Adnan. Adnan told investigators that he called Hae the night before as he got a new phone and wanted her to have his new number. Adnan remembers that all he could think of is Hae’s mom is going to be so upset because the police were involved now.
As the night grew Baltimore got hit was a massive ice storm and school was cancelled. Due to this no one knew if Hae was ever found as there was no electricity within the town. Two days after Hae disappeared Krista had her 18th birthday party. She remembers Hae was so excited to celebrate with her that day and the whole class was invited to the party. Jay, Stephanie and Adnan showed up but the mood was a tad gloomed because as the night went on there was still no sign of Hae.
As time went on with no trace of Hae the town was starting to worry. One of the teachers at the school was asked by police to talk with Hae’s friends to see if anyone knew where she might be. But still no luck.
The investigation starts out a little slowly, which makes sense to me. She’s a not a small child, she’s eighteen. She’s got a car which is also missing. That first day, the police call around to her friends, they talk to Aisha, to Adnan, remember that’s when he tells them he was supposed to get a ride from her, but didn’t. The next day they call around to hospitals, hotels, motels, they check the area around the high school parking lot where she was last seen. That first day they call Don, her new guy. They check the area around his house which is in another county, northeast of Baltimore. They check Don’s alibi, he was indeed at Lenscrafters store the day Hae went missing, the manager tells them. On February 6, they do that awful, foreboding thing you see on TV sometimes, they take a team of dogs to check the wooded areas and fields around Woodlawn High School. They used Hae’s curling iron for a scent. On February 8, they make a report saying they’re going to check Hae’s computer, her AOL account, for clues. And then, on February 9, their search stops.
On February 9, 1999 Maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers, claimed he was drinking a 22-ounce Budweiser while walking back to work when he made a pit stop. “I walked around through the bushes and everything and I got back that way and I was getting ready to urinate when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something was covered by the dirt. And I looked real good again, and that’s when I seen what looked like a foot.” Sellers called the police and told them that he found a body. When police arrived they were able to confirm it was Hae.
As family and friends were notified Krista calls Adnan, she recalls telling him that they found Hae’s body and the phone went silent. Adnan then asks her if Aisha is home and he makes his way there. When everyone gather at Aisha’s in disbelief Adnan kept saying this is wrong they have the wrong person. He was an emotional mess.
Now police are suspicious of Mr. Sellers who by this time has become a suspect in the case. This tape was made on February 18, nine days after Mr. S reported finding the body. They’re going over the details carefully because there are parts of his story that are a little weird. One of them is this thing about the fallen tree. 127 feet back into the woods there was a fallen tree, essentially a forty foot log, lying more or less parallel to the road. On the other side of the log, if you kept going, you’d have gotten to a stream with the unfortunate name of Dead Run. Hae’s body was buried right behind this log on the stream side. If you were standing on the street side of the log, so on the other side, it’s not at all obvious that you’d notice her. So this story about why he stopped where he stopped, it doesn’t quite seem right. This doesn’t ever get cleared up really and they sort of let it go. But a bunch of things are fishy. The path he takes in the woods, it doesn’t really lead to the log. So why does he end up there? He didn’t need to head toward the log to find a spot to pee, there so many other choices. And if you’re walking through brush and brambles, wouldn’t you sort of naturally avoid a big log you would need to step over? What they are trying to get at is, did you really just stumble on this body? Or were you looking for this body, because you already knew where it was? That is a reasonable question, because Hae’s body wasn’t just hard to spot, it was nearly impossible to spot.The other thing that’s a little odd is this business of having to pee. The spot where he stops is only a few miles from his house, and only a few more miles from his work. Yet he can’t wait.
On February 12, 1999 Baltimore City police detective Darryl Massey received two anonymous phone calls telling him to look into Lee’s ex-boyfriend as a possible suspect Adnan Syed.
As detectives start to close in on Adnan they need to more about him and the connect that he had to Hae. Why would he do it?
Jay
Jay and Adnan had gone to school together since middle school and had a friendship on and off. They would hang out, smoke weed, but they werent super close but Jay would end up being the star within this shocking trial. Jay met with the Baltimore police dept numerous times to explain the events of the day Hae went missing. The only issue was that Jay’s story continuously changed depending on who he was talking to. From the polices statement they spoke to Jen first and then Jay and the whole story unravel on what happened to Hae.
Jen we will start here. Jen and other friend’s stories slightly very from Jays and in the HBO docuseries definitely get debunked. On the 26th, the cops had gone to find Jenn at her house. They explained they'd like her to come downtown to talk. Jenn is thoroughly wigged out. She says she can't right now, she's busy, maybe later. Now when police talked to Jen she went directly to Jay. He was at work and Jenn says, “he told me to go down there and tell them what I knew. Tell them enough to keep me out of trouble and tell them to go see Jay. Send them his way.”
So Jenn go down to see the cops later that night and she lies to them. She says she doesn't know anything. I've seen the detectives notes from that interview and they're remarkably uninteresting. The next day she goes back to the detectives. This time she's got an attorney with her, plus her mom and she tells the police her truth.
On Jan 13, 1999 Jen told police that Jay was at her house playing video hames and he had a cell phone which was unusual for Jay. He got a call around 3:30 PM and he left. He didnt say where he was going or what. Later that evening Jay paged Jen but it was confusing to her so she called the number and someone answered and told Jen that he was busy and would call later. 30 min later Jay calls Jen to meet him in the west view mall in front of Value city and when she gets there Adnan is with Jay. Jay gets into Jens car and Jay tells jen to pull other to the back of the building that Adnan killed Hae and he needs to wipe the shovels off.
Now before I get into Jay’s siode there was another friend that also stated they ran into Jay and Adnan on the 13th. Kristi. Now Kristi was friends with Jen and didnt know Adnan. She recalls having a conference the morning that she met Adnan and that around 5pm she got home. Then at 6pm Jay showed up at her house and asked if they could hang out. She said Jay didnt introduce Adnan and that he was super high and didnt say anything expect how do you stop a high. Adnan receives a call and Kristi recalls the call being weird and then he left.
This is where it gets tricky, Jays work says that Jay was gone the 20, 21, and 22 to speak to the police but there is not recordings or documents as they present it that they didnt talk to him until the 28th.
On Feb 28th, 1999 Jay speaks to the police and gives them his side of the story.
On the morning of the 13th, Jay says, Adnan had called him around 10:45 am to ask him if he got Stephanie a present for her birthday. When Jay said that he didnt Adnan left school and driven to Jay's house. Jay didn't have his own car, needed to go buy something for her. Adnan decided to let Jay borrow his car and phone for the day and told him to just pick him up from school later.
During his second interview with police Jay said “OK. I'd left out, went shopping with a friend of mine, an ex-friend of mine, Adnan. We had had a conversation. During the conversation he stated that he was going to kill that bitch, referring to Hae Lee. I took it with context. It didn't stand out in my head any.” In this interview the police have to make it seem like Adnan had planned to kill Hae that day. Jay tells police that Adnan leaves the car with him because he is going to kill Hae. Jay says that he drops Adnan off at school and goes over to his friend Jen’s house to hang out until Adnan called.
Around 3:30 PM Jay says that Adnan calls Jay to come get him. He meets Adnan in the best buy parking lot. He says when he arrived Adnan opened the truck and there was Hae pretzeled in the truck dead. He says they leave the parking lot and hes following Adnan who is driving Hae’s car. They drive to the park and ride on the I70 where they ditch Hae’s car with her body. Jay says he then drives Adnan back to the school for his track practice. After Adnan’s practice Jay picks him back up again and by this time Hae’s family has already called the cops and Adnan gets a call from the police dept asking about Hae. After this call Jay recalls going home and getting shovels, picking up Hae’s car and driving to Leakin park where Adnan digs a hole and bury Hae’s body around 8 PM. They then drive to a lot and park Hae’s car there and it stays there. After dropping the car off they drive to Jays house where Adnan leaves him and he has Jen pick him up to tell her everything that happened.
One major piece of information about this crime that the cops are still missing. They do not know where Hae's car is. They've been looking all over the place for it. They can't find it. Now, Jay tells them he knows where it is. Once they're finished at headquarters, they all drive out in the middle of the night to where the car is parked, on a grassy hill behind some row houses off Edmondson Avenue.
The Arrest
In the early morning hours of Feb 28th, 1999 Adnan was sleeping when his older brother heard something downstairs. The Baltimore police department was there to arrest Adnan in connection to the murder of Hae Min Lee. Police search Adnan’s car, and house taking samples to match to the area around leakin park but nothing comes back a match.
When Adnan arrived at the police station he was quickly read his miranda rights and place into a cell. Adnan said that it felt like forever that he was in there. He didnt understand why they arrest him as there was no information given to him. When the detectives finally came to speak with Adnan he quickly found out that he was being charged with the murder. Adnan stated In the HBO docu series that he couldn't describe the emotions that he was feeling because he was just mourning the loss of one of his best friends to now being accused of being her murderer. As soon as it all process he request his lawyer. When his lawyer arrived at the station he was told that Adnan did not ask for him and because of that they didnt have to let him in. As the police are talking to Adnan they mention that Jay told them the truth and Adnan is confused he is trying to rattle his head on who was Jay and thats when it click Jay Wild is the only Jay he knows. Adnan was confused on why Jay would make this up about him. It's not like there was some secret feud between Jay and Adnan.
There was no drug deal gone wrong. Neither had bad mouthed the other or stolen the other's girlfriend. Adnan speak for “Yes, we smoked weed together but we weren't close.” However, Adnan was close with Stephanie, Jay's girlfriend – very close. And Adnan says that's the only thing he can think of now that might have turned Jay against him. Stephanie was smart, she was top athlete at the school, she was beautiful by any standard. She looked like a model. She came from a family of achievers who did not approve of Jay but had no problem with Adnan. So maybe Stephanie's relationship with Adnan – how affectionate they were with each other, the constant talking on the phone, the prom prince and princess stuff maybe that is what pushed Jay to do this.
Outro
That brings us to the end of this episode! As always, thanks for listening to Murder By Nature. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any streaming platform you are currently on, and be sure to come back Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jazmin Hernandez, don’t forget to stay safe! Don’t get murdered or murder people, you lovely humans!
