A Simple Puzzle In Sarah Koenig's Case

Sarah Koenig, the narrator of Serial spent a year trying to disentangle a seem to be, simple puzzle. However, to some, it may seem more problematic with the minimum evidence provided. In 1999, a high school student was found dead and Sarah Koenig, along with many others spent over a year investigating this case. What day, time, area, and who connects to this case that makes it so difficult to solve? The gist of this case was that Hae Min Lee went missing one day after school and her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed must have been at fault. He was charged because he seems to be the most equitable person to blame, due to their recent breakup. The young women, Hae Min Lee was recorded dead on January 13th and on February 25, 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted

of first-degree murder. Jay Wilds, one of Adnan's acquaintances was a key witness throughout Adnan's trial. The evidence provided in Serial does not prove Adnan guilty beyond a reasonable doubt because of Jenn's suspicious actions, the timeline, friends alibis for Adnan, and Jay's inconsistencies. After a year of trying to solve this puzzle, Sarah Koenig could still not figure out who was telling the truth.

Throughout season one of Serial, Jenn whom was one of Jay’s good friends had many suspicion actions which manipulated the court to not be in favor of Adnan. However, Jenn's words are not enough to sentence a 17-year-old to prison for life. According to the call log from January 13th, there were thirty-four calls that day. In fact, seven of those calls were to Jennifer Pusateri. This shows that Jay must have been in possession of Adnan's phone from 12:07- 8:05 pm because Adnan would not call somebody he does not know seven times in one day. On the night of the 13th, Jenn talks to the detectives and repeats back to Sarah what Jay said by saying, “He say's Jenn, you gotta swear you won't tell nobody what I'm about to tell you”(Episode 4). Continuing with the report of this conversation to Sarah, Jenn says “He's like, but I gotta tell you. I gotta tell somebody. I can't, you know. And I was like alright – what's up dude? He's like, um, Adnan killed Hae. And that's when I was just like – whoa – what do you mean Adnan killed Hae? Why? What? How? When? Where? You know?”(Episode 4). However, the day before the interview, on the 26th, the cops had gone

to find Jenn at her house and Jenn said she could not talk right now but possibly later. Frightened, Jenn and a friend go see Jay at his job at a video store and she tells Jay, “the police want to talk to me. What do I do?”(Episode 4). At trial, 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”(Episode 4). However, when Jenn went down to the cops later that evening she lied and said she did not know anything. On the other hand, she was worried about the possibility she could get charged, so the next day she went back to the detectives. The detectives asked what Jay said after Jenn asked why and she answered: “Um, he said that Adnan said that Hae broke his heart”(Episode 4). Then, the detectives asked how it happened and Jenn answered: “He said that he strangled her”(Episode 4). This connects to the fact that Jenn needed to match Jay's story in order to build a stronger side for Jay. Due to the fact that Jenn had to get reassurance from Jay and was acting suspicious, there is not enough evidence to prove Adnan guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Almost a year before Serial was told, Adnan sent his first letter to Sarah.

Within his letter, he explained the prosecution's timeline that Hae was killed which was between 2:15 and 2:36 p.m. at the Best Buy parking lot, about a mile from Woodlawn High School. Sarah went on by saying “That’s the twenty-one-minute window in which to commit the murder”(Episode 5). In fact, when the final bell rings at 2:15 there are 1,500 other students filling the hallways and stairwells of a four-story building. Furthermore, you have to wait till all the buses fill up and leave before leaving the school parking lot. Which, Adnan wrote, “took about ten to fifteen minutes”(Episode 5). In addition, there are major intersections on the route to the Best Buy and Adnan said that there is “a ton of traffic at that time”(Episode 5). Moreover, Adnan would have to strangle Hae, a tall, strong, athletic girl by himself. Then, Adnan said in his letter, “remove her body from the car, carry it to the trunk, and place her in there in broad daylight at 2:30 in the afternoon. And then I walk into the Best Buy lobby and call Jay and tell him to come meet me there? All in twenty-one minutes”(Episode 5). Now, to prove that this timing does not check out, Sarah Koenig tried it out for herself. It took Sarah and Dana 22 minutes and 2 seconds to do the entire process which just seems too far fetched because there was absolutely no room for errors or pauses. In fact, Dana Chivvis said, “That should probably be the

minimum amount of time in the car”(Episode 5). Meaning that manual strangulation takes at least a few minutes so Sarah and Dana only counted the smallest measure the actual killing could take. Also, Sarah stated it’s an empty parking lot in the middle of the afternoon and there are cars and people near enough to make it an extremely risky move. Furthermore, Sarah said “The buses, the drive, the strangulation. The moving of the body. The call. They all have to happen as quickly as they possibly can for the 2:36 call to work”(Episode 5). Likewise, this mysterious call that Adnan supposedly made from the Best Buy phone booth at 2:36 to call Jay who is in possession of Adnan's phone and said “come and get me. I’m at Best Buy”(Episode 5) does not work because there was no phone booth at Best Buy. As a matter of fact, the cops never got the call record from this booth or investigated if it even existed. The landlord at the time and the property manager had no record of a payphone. Also, they found a photo of Best Buy from 2001 and there was no phone book or payphone. In addition, the blueprints had no phone booth and the manager also said there is no record of a service agreement between Best Buy and any payphone company at that store. Also, Laura Estrada Sandoval said “There’s no, there was never any phones at Best Buy. There were never any phones around the Best Buy”(Episode 9). Then, Laura Estrada Sandoval said “I used to steal CDs from there all the time, so I was pretty aware of what was around”(Episode 9). Furthermore, after Adnan was arrested, the detectives interviewed another friend of his, a kid named Ja'uan. Ja'uan told them he had gotten high with Adnan once, in Adnan’s car. Ja'uan says this trip to get high at Best Buy happened after Hae went missing. Meaning, if Adnan did it, he was taking Ja'uan back to the exact spot where he killed Hae. Sarah said, “He was returning to the scene of the crime”(Episode 5). In reality, a murderer that is a suspect in a case would most likely not take a friend back to the exact scene of the crime because that it absurd and illogical. Therefore, the timeline does not match up, making the evidence not conclusive, proving that Adnan Syed should not have been sentenced to life in prison.
First of all, a friend of Hae’s, Summer joined Hae to be a manager of the boys wrestling team. Moreover, the day that Hae went missing, the team had a match at Randallstown High school. In fact, Summer remembers talking to Hae after school, while she was preparing the equipment they had to load onto the bus. Furthermore, Hae said “I’m not getting on the bus to the match, but I’ll see you there”(Episode 9). Summer remembers this because she was giving her hell and said “I don’t know what I’m doing”(Episode 9). Summer needs to be helped because she was new and did not know how to take points. When Sarah asked if she was sure that it was the day Hae went missing, Summer responded, “I’m positive. I am positive. I’m very positive. I looked at her the whole time at the away game. I was really pissed because I thought that she stood me up”(Episode 9). In fact, Summer said that the conversation between her and Hae happened after the last bell and all the buses cleared out. Also, Summer said it was probably at around 2:30-2:45 pm. On the other hand, Summer never talked to the detectives because there’s no mention of her in their notes. However, she’s not the only person who said they saw Hae after school that day. Becky saw her right after school, Debbie Warren said she talked to Have too, the police notes say she saw her at approximately 3 p.m. inside the school near the gym which would match Summer’s memory. Secondly, Asia McClain wrote out an affidavit and said she and Adnan spoke for about 15 to 20 minutes while she was waiting for her boyfriend to give her a ride. "We left around 2:40," Remember, Hae is supposed to be dead by 2:36. Remarkably,"No attorney has ever contacted me about January 13, 1999, and the above information"(Episode 1). On the other hand, there was no security system back or computers that people check in too to verify that Adnan was there. Besides that, in Asia’s first letter dated March 1, she wrote "My boyfriend and his best friend remember seeing you there, too”(Episode 1). That is another 2 witnesses that were not questioned in court. Thankfully, there was snow on January 13th, Asia said “I wouldn't have even remembered if it hadn't have been for the snow. And the whole-- I just remember being so pissed about Derek being late and then getting snowed in at his house. And it was the first snow of that year”(Episode 1). Because there were significant events that happened on that day, it helped Asia remember what happened better. She had a remarkably clear memory of what happened on January 13, 1999. Asia had an internship at the time, and so she got out of school much earlier than everyone else. Derek was supposed to come get her at the library along with Jerrod, but they were very late. She remembers seeing Adnan come in after Woodlawn let out for the day. However, it was just too late because the judge ruled on Adnan's petition a few weeks before Sarah spoke to Asia and it was denied. The judge wrote in his opinion that Christina Gutierrez's decision not to use Asia McClain as an alibi witness was strategic. Asia's original letters didn't specify an exact time. Also, Christina Gutierrez could have reasonably concluded that Asia was offering to lie in order to help Adnan. And finally, the judge, Asia's letter contradicted Adnan's own alibi. Asia says she saw him at the public library, but Adnan said he was on the school campus the whole afternoon. Maybe the judge didn't understand that Woodlawn library is basically part of the campus, but technically it is not. Asia did say “I trust the court system to do their due diligence. Because I was never questioned. I was never informed of anything pertaining to the case. I don't know why he was convicted.” Therefore, demonstrating that it is unrealistic to send a young man to jail without more evidence provided and more people question from both sides of the court.