Who Killed Hae Min Lee

This is the stop of season 1 episode six of Serial which describes the story of Mrs. Lee getting manually strangled and left in Leakin park alone, putting a boy in prison who later turned into a man, lost his childhood, claimed he slaughtered the love of his life, and potentially put him away for the rest of his life. Its conclusion will accentually conclude the analysis on this horrible and vicious death from a different twist making Adnan Syed innocent and was wrongly arrested, charged, and put behind bars with first-degree murder of Hae Min Lee February 28th, 1999. Upon further research from viable court documents, articles, and interviews with a multitude of people regarding this case by percussing into all the evidence given in this case. Mr. Syed is not responsible for the death of Mrs. Lee. Instead the evidence all pointing to Jay wild as the murder he should be credited as the killer of Mrs. Lee making Adnan Syed innocent. Adnan Syed was a seventeen-year-old senior who also attended Woodlawn high school. He was an honor student, homecoming prince, on the football team, on the track team, and frequently attended prayer groups as an account of his Muslim religion. He also had a secret girlfriend Hae Min Lee also known as the victim in this story. Mr. Syed and Mrs. Lee both grew up in a strict traditional home. Their different ethnic backgrounds and religions posed as a problem for the two lovebirds being together. However, according to Mrs. Lee’s diary, they loved each other which lead them to spark up a love story in secret April 1st, 1998 according to Hae’s diary. Their relationship started to flourish in the next weeks. Junior prom started approaching and Syed asked Hae to the junior prom after sports practice on the hill behind the school. Adnan snuck out April 27, 1998, went to prom, and was crowned prom prince along with Stephanie as prom princess. The same night Hae goes home April 27, 1998, she writes a lengthy entry in her diary about how her night at prom went. She goes on to state Hae Min Lee: “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 kind of 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.”

This did not sound like the entry about someone who could viciously kill someone with their bare hands. There were many entries in her diary about how he made her upset, but mostly how she was so in love with him. They had many friends’ sayings how they were 17, in love, fight, makeup, breakup, and get back together. Friday, May 15th, 1998 Lee quote on quote writes in her diary

Hae Min Lee: “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.”

After this entry, 3 months went by and in July she writes in her diary

Hae Min Lee: “ I keep crying over the phone because I miss him so much”

Hae Min Lee: “ 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 choose between 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.” They were so in love which made the question of did he do it for revenge? Or Did he secretly hate her and want to kill her out of the question. This would have to make someone else the murder. I would affix the killer as Jay as the murder and frame Adnan Syed for the murder of Hae Min Lee. According to court documents we don’t see a lot of (Jay) in the story, instead, everyone is hearing about him a lot. According to the facts of hearing Jay’s testimony, there is discombobulation of carefully plotted lies. Jay is a resourceful, but ingenious liar. He lies about the briefest and insignificant things. He is also caught lying about the tremendous, and critical things. The detective asked Jay Wilds first interview

“We left the mall. I took him to school. I dropped him off at the back of the school. He went up to class. He left his cell phone in the car with me, told me he’d call me. I went back to my friend Jenn’s house and waited for him to call.”

This means that he had Adnan’s phone, then he tells the detective

Detective: “OK, now at this point, you know whys he’s leaving the car with you.”

Jay: “Yes”

Detective:” You arrive twenty minutes later at this location on Edmondson Avenue, then what happens?”

Jay:” Um I drove… I followed him to…. I followed him out into…”

Detective:” Do you get out of your car when you get on Edmondson Avenue and have any conversation with him?”

Jay:” Uh huh, yeah.”

His response was fascinating because the story about Edmondson Avenue was false according to his other statement saying changing his story first to how Jay pulled into Best Buy, he saw Adnan at the phone booth there, at the edge of the building, wearing red gloves. Adnan motioned for Jay to follow him across the front of the building, around to the other side, to the farthest corner of the side parking lot, where Jay saw Hae’s car parked. Then In his first interview, he states

Jay: “I noticed that Hae wasn’t with him. I parked next to him. He asked me to get out the car. I get out of the car.

Adnan: He asks me, “am I ready for this?”

Jay: And I say, “ready for what?”

Adnan: And he takes the keys. He opens the trunk. And all I can see is Hae’s lips are all blue, and she’s pretzeled up in the back of the trunk. And she’s dead. Later he then states

Jay Wilds says” Um I drove… I followed him to…. I followed him out into…” This was not the story according to his other story where got out the car and Adnan popped the truck where he saw Mrs. Lee’s alleged pretzeled body. Then the detective goes on with his questioning

Detective “Do you get out of your car . . . And have any conversation with him?”

Jay responds with “Uh huh, yeah.”

Detective: “Tell me about that.”

Jay: “Um we got out, oh and we… He’s walking around with red gloves on um.”

Jay then is getting nervous, scampering forgets he is talking about Adnan allegedly opening the truck, and starts talking about his red gloves. Stating

Jay: “Yeah, they’re like wool with leather palms and … and that sparked you know, “what the fuck you walking around with gloves on for,” and then, I’m sorry, um and then he goes “I did it, I did it. You don’t fucking believe me, I did it.” He pops the trunk open and he’s like “she’s all blew up in there inaudible in the trunk.”

As you can see he changes his statement there three times and the detective goes on to say

Detective: “We spoke probably for about a half hour, forty-five minutes, the information that you provided during this interview was it the same information that you provided during the first interview?”

Jay then says “No”

Detective “During the first interview there were a lot of inconsistencies.”

Jay: “Yes.”

Detective “And there are too many to go over but you kind of disassociated yourself from all the information you provided in this interview. Why is that?”

Jay: “Scared.”

Things for Jay Wilds case start to get a little touch and go when he states

Jay: “has told her I saw the body in the trunk of a car. Adnan asked me to help bury her but I didn’t – I refused. I took him someplace and later picked him up someplace”

Then later goes on to state

Detective: “Who did most of the digging?”

Jay: “Uh, it was—”

Detective:” Both of you?”

Jay:” Yeah.”

Detective:” Equal work?”

Jay: “I wouldn’t say that, but yeah.”

Detective “OK.”

Evidence then keeping point flags to Jay Wild when he states

Detective: “Did it seem like he had been there [to that spot] before?”

Jay: “Possibly.”

The detective then switches it around and acts

Detective: “Did he give you the impression that he had been there before?”

Jay: “Yes.”

Detective: “Why?”

Jay: “Why, because he knew that there was ah, I had heard a noise and I looked up and inaudible a small creek that ran behind there.”

The question was asked in the first question and then the detective switches it and askes it differently which Jay Wilds proceeds to say Yes!!!! Jay states in an earlier statement that a detective says

Detective: “So you didn’t trust any police?”

Jay: “I didn’t. No. I don’t – In my mind, I don’t think to the presence of let’s call the cops. That never – That never crosses my mind. I could be getting shot at and I wouldn’t be “let’s call the cops.”

Jay then states later

Jay: “I’m sure if I ratted him out for killing Hae, then he wouldn’t hesitate to turn me over for selling drugs.”

In extension to the information that was infiltrated with fitfulness, falsified, and misleading information. Jay knows way too much to many details to be a quote on quote innocent and knows too much of what happened to be an accomplice. Here is a good example of how Jay knows too much.

Detective: “What happened to her shoes?”

Jay:” He told me he left them in the car.”

Detective: “He told you he left them in the car?”

Jay: “Uh huh.”

It is feasible that Adnan could have said I’m leaving Mrs. Lee’s shoes in the car, but not likely that they would discuss anything related to her shoes. Jenn states in her interview that they were not best friends and in Mr. Wilds interview he does not indicate that he asked Adnan any questions regarding the murder!!! Why did you do it? Why are we doing this? How did you kill her? How long is it going to take to bury her? Jay wilds did not have any curiosity throughout this whole story? Then to top it all off if you go back into the interview and really listen to everything that has happened Mr. Wilds must be a mind reader because he does not say “Adnan said this to me”

Jay: “And um he figured to leave it on the strip since it was hot anyway, he would just inaudible and ah he didn’t like that one so we drove back on this side of town and down off of Route 40 or Edmondson Avenue, which I do not recall, ah we went to a strip up there and parked the car back in a inaudible strip I mean off ah a little side street.”

Detective: “After he parks the car there, then what happens?”

Jay: “He moves it… he didn’t like that spot, so he moved to another spot. After he moved it to the second spot when he got out the car and acted like he was carrying her purse and her wallet, and he had some other stuff in his hand and ah.”

With all of this evidence provided the puts Jay at the right place, right time, Adnan’s car, Adnan’s phone, there was information in his story that he was lying about and kept changing on many accounts as shown above! There are many more counts that are not in here, Therefore the facts all point to Jay Wilds making Adnan Syed innocent in all of this ordeal.

Works Cited

1. Koenig, S. (2014). Serial, Season 1, Episode 6 [Audio podcast episode]. Serial. (Original work published 2014)
2. Koenig, S. (2014). Serial, Season 1 [Audio podcast series]. Serial. (Original work published 2014)
3. Maryland Judiciary Case Search. (n.d.). Circuit Court Criminal Case Records. Retrieved from http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/
4. Stokols, E., & Chaudry, R. (2014). Adnan Syed: Innocent.
5. The Innocence Project. (n.d.). Adnan Syed. Retrieved from https://innocenceproject.org/cases/adnan-syed/
6. The Washington Post. (2014). Serial Podcast. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2014/12/18/serial-podcast/
7. Thiruvathukal, G. K. (2017). Serial Podcast as Contemporary Epic: The Case of Adnan Syed. In R. DeMarco & L. L. Llewellyn (Eds.), Essays on Epic Literature (pp. 243-259). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
8. United States v. Adnan Syed, No. 19-2043 (4th Cir. 2019).
9. Vargas-Cooper, N. (2015). The Adnan Syed Case: A Legal Analysis. The Intercept.
10. Wilds, J. (2014). Interview with Jay Wilds [Transcript]. In S. Koenig (Ed.), Serial, Season 1 [Transcript Compilation]. Serial.