Chaudrys younger brother Saad Chaudry has been Syeds best friend, and both believed in his innocence. Intrigued, Koenig began to poke around the case and found the story compelling enough to pursue in podcast form. She found troubling inconsistencies, unanswered questions, and rich milieu in which teens from different backgrounds lived secret lives unimagined by their immigrant parents. She also found, in Syed, a charismatic subject who seemed like an unlikely murderer.
A lot has happened since Serial ended its first season in December 2014. Syed has seen his conviction (more on that below). That ruling has been subsequently appealed and upheld, and appealed again. Syed is currently waiting to find out if hes won the right to a new trial, a decision the Court of Appeals . There have been developments outside the courtroom, as well. Rabia Chaudry launched the podcast , which further investigates Syeds case and convictions Chaudry believes to be wrongful. And soon HBO will air The Case Against Adnan Syed, a four-part documentary from director Amy Berg (Deliver Us From Evil) that Berg about the case.
Which brings us back to the question at the heart of the matter: Who killed Hae Min Lee? Unsurprisingly, in the absence of an airtight answer, Serial listeners, amateur sleuths, and Reddit habitus have come up with theories of their own. Below are a few of the most prominent, with a few wild possibilities thrown in for good measure, presented with the caveat that in a case this fluid-and with a case so discussed and analyzed-the facts starts to look blurrier and blurrier the closer you look at them.
Theory: Adnan Syed Killed Hae Min Lee
This has been the State of Marylands position since Syeds arrest for the crime and it certainly offers the easiest explanation. The short version: On January 13th, 1999, Lee was supposed to pick up her younger cousin from daycare at 3:15 p.m. She never showed, which immediately set off alarm bells among those who knew her as a caring, responsible young woman.
Born in Korea, Lee immigrated to America in 1992. She dated Syed in secret beginning in spring of 1998. They then broke up and reunited several times, but by December Lee had begun dating a man named Don, her co-worker at Lenscrafters. The break-up seems to have been cordial enough, but perhaps Syed felt otherwise.
Like all theories about the murder, the Syed Is Guilty theory hinges on what happened in the time between the end of the school day at 2:15 and Lees failure to make her 3:15 appointment. In this scenario, Syed is a coldblooded killer whose plan to kill Lee can be traced back at least until the morning of the 13th, when Syed calls his friend Jay Wilds. After driving Wilds to the mall, Syed gives leaves both his phone and car with him. Later, Syed calls Wilds to get him at Best Buy, where he finds him next to Lees car. In the trunk: Lees body. Wilds then drives Syed to track practice then helps him bury Lees body in Leakin Park and ditch Lees car later that night.
Its a plausible theory that would be even more plausible if not for some nagging inconsistencies. Wilds story, for one, . (He declined to give an interview to Serial but later spoke to and offered details at odds with his earlier testimony.) The cell phone records used to help shore it up have been the subject of much debate. Then theres the matter of Asia McClain (now Asia McClain Chapman), a classmate who claims she was talking to Syed at the library near their high school campus at the time of the murder. In spite of this, Syeds attorney Cristina Gutierrez never interviewed her, and much of the push for a new trial hinges on the argument that she handled the case poorly. (That Gutierrez was disbarred in 2001 prior to her 2004 death lends further credence to this.)
Theory: Jay Wilds Killed Lee With Syed
So if Syed didnt do it, who did? Wilds admitted he was involved with the cover-up, but what if he was the culprit? Most alternate theories involve Wilds in some way, but the big question mark hanging over such theories is motive. Why would he kill Lee? Heres where things get highly speculative, so proceed with caution-especially since it involves delving into the complicated private lives of teenagers and into the thicket of Reddit-driven theories that have sprung up in the wake of Serial.
The most plausible theory is that Wilds was more involved in the murder than he admitted, helping Syed both commit and cover it up, and that he confessed to a lesser crime to avoid punishment. Wilds and Syed began conversing earlier in the day and Syeds claim that he reached out out of concern that Wilds had forgotten to purchase a birthday present for his girlfriend has invited some skepticism. What if it was a two-man job? Its not that hard to squeeze Wilds into the timeline, but this still leaves the question of why he would want to help Syed kill Lee.
Theory: Wilds Killed Lee Without Syed
The question of Why? hangs over this theory as well, but that hasnt stopped some theorists for pursuing it. Going down the rabbit hole, this theory requires Lee to know something incriminating about Wilds and Wilds needing to insure her silence. , this is an affair between Wilds and woman named Jennifer Pusateri, who later testified that Wilds told her Adnan killed Lee. In this scenario, Wilds did not want his girlfriend Stephanie to know about it. Others suggest Wilds killed Lee as part of a drug deal gone wrong, a suspicion reinforced by Wilds sideline as a pot dealer. Could he have gotten mixed up in heavier stuff at some point?
Theory: Ronald Lee Moore Killed Lee
In 2012, a man named Ronald Lee Moore at the age 40. A subsequent linked him to the 1999 murder of Baltimore County resident Annelise Hyang Suk Lee. Could Hae Min Lee have been an earlier victim of Moore, whod been released from Baltimore County Jail on January 1st of that year? Serials final first-season episode throws it out as a possibility in its final episode, a late-in-the-game twist after a season in which Koenig had uncovered many clues that Syed might not be guilty but had failed to offer any kind of opposing theory. Others have run with it since then, pointing out similarities between the two crimes that the police could have missed at the time.
Theory: Roy S. Davis III Killed Lee
Or was it another killer? Redditor serial99 the case of Roy S. Davis III, who was of raping and murdering Jada Lambert in 1998. Serial99s post notes that Davis would have lived close to the Campfield Early Learning Center, the daycare Lee was bound for before her death. A stretch? Sure. But like so many theories around the case its just intriguing enough to warrant further investigation.
Theory: Mr. S Killed Lee
On February 9th, a man whos been publicly identified only as Mr. S discovered Lees body after stopping to urinate in Leakin Park. If that sounds suspicious-that he happened to pull off and choose a spot close to Lees body without knowing its there-theres also this: Mr. S has a criminal record. The only problem: His criminal history concerns his compulsive streaking and any other connections to the case seem tenuous at best. Still, that hasnt stopped some from pondering , who, unless some of the most far-fetched theories have some substance to them, did the right thing by reporting his discovery regardless of his history.
Which raises another issue: Theres an icky underside to all this speculation. Because Serial is so compelling and entertainingly presented, and the questions it raises so intriguing, it can be easy to forget the real lives and real loss, wrapped up in the case. That holds true whether they belong to a compulsive exhibitionist or Lees family, who believe Syed to be guilty and have been created by the podcast, saying it compelled them to relive a nightmare we thought was behind us. Yet if Syed was wrongfully convicted, hes been living his own nightmare for more than 20 years. Whichever the case, Bergs film, no matter what it reveals, seems unlikely to lay to rest a cold case that a wildly popular podcast unexpectedly made hot.