Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Hey Min Lee, the murder that started an industry trend. Thousands of listeners, thousands of opinions. One innocent girl dead, one man in jail. Did the forensics get it right?
It's time to find out. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 73, The Murder of Hae Min Lee.
So
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
If you're interested in supporting the show, getting early access to weekly episodes, bonus material, ad-free episodes, merchandise, and much more, consider visiting our Patreon page at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Before we get into this week's episode, I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to this week's newest patron of the show, Arianne. Thank you so much.
Another great way you can help support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review or telling friends and family about us who love true crime. Now, let's jump right into this week's case. The case we're covering this week not only inspired one of the first true crime podcasts, but started a trend in podcast popularity. I'm talking about the Serial podcast and the murder of Hayman Lee.
Produced by This American Life, Serial has achieved over 300 million downloads worldwide. For me, the first season of Serial was the first podcast I ever listened to. And I'm probably not alone. Sarah Cohen, the executive producer and host of Serial, told us about the murder of a Baltimore high school student, Hayman Lee, and the ultimate conviction of her former boyfriend, Adnan Syed.
In this episode, we're not only going to cover the facts of the case, but more importantly, we're going to take a deep dive into the forensics. We're going to let the forensics speak for itself. Then, I want you to decide for yourself whether you think Adnan is guilty as charged or just another innocent person behind bars. Hye Min Lee, the victim at the center of this story, was born in South Korea in 1980 and
She immigrated to the United States with her mom and brother in 1992 at 12 years old. As a teenager, she and her family settled into Baltimore, Maryland suburb where Hay attended Woodlawn High School. High school is where Hay developed her passion for athletics. She became a valued player on both the lacrosse and field hockey teams. When she wasn't playing, she also helped to manage the school's wrestling team.
After school or after practice, Hay went to her part-time job at LensCrafters in the local mall. But this wasn't just any part-time gig for Hay. She wanted to become an optician. Woodland's principal at the time described Hay as quiet and popular. She was the type of girl who was well-liked by anybody that she met.
And not surprisingly, Hay's driven spirit and bubbly personality attracted many boys at Woodlawn High, including a guy named Adnan Syed. Shortly after meeting, Adnan and Hay started dating. But you wouldn't describe their relationship as your typical high school boyfriend-girlfriend type thing.
Adnan and Hay came from very different backgrounds, different cultures, different religions, you name it. They came from completely opposite backgrounds. That's why, for the most part, Adnan and Hay kept their relationship a secret from their families. Hay wasn't supposed to be dating, and Adnan, being Muslim, wasn't allowed to date a girl outside his religion.
After a couple months of dating, the pressure to keep their relationship a secret was overbearing. So by December 1998, they broke up. By January 1999, Hay was an 18-year-old senior at Woodlawn with only months to go before graduation. She already moved on from Adnan and started dating then 22-year-old Don Kleinsint, a guy who worked with Hay at the Lens Crafter.
On January 13, 1999, Hay's family became concerned when around 3.15 p.m., she failed to pick up her six-year-old cousin from daycare, something that she did almost every single day after school. After picking up her cousin, Hay was scheduled to go to work, but she failed to show up for her shift.
Fellow students at Woodlawn High remembered seeing Hay around school that afternoon and saw her leaving campus in her 1998 Nissan Sentra. When the family realized that Hay didn't pick up her younger cousin and then didn't show up to work that day, they became worried. They picked up the phone and called the Baltimore police. Baltimore police start calling friends of Hay's, including her ex-boyfriend Adnan.
They're asking everyone for details about the last time they saw or heard from her. Around 6.30 p.m., Adnan tells the police he last saw her around the time school got out for the day. But he says he doesn't remember anything about where she went and didn't know where she could be. The police also called Hay's current boyfriend, Don.
Don tells Baltimore police he hasn't seen her all day. He tells police that he spent some time with her the night before and that they had plans to hang out tonight after their shifts ended at LensCrafters. But he hasn't heard from her all day.
After the police speak to some of Hay's friends, nobody has an idea where she could be. All the police know is that Hay left when school got out and got into her car. After that, all they really know is that she didn't pick up her cousin from daycare and that she didn't make it into work that night. So given the circumstances of Hay's disappearance, the Baltimore police issued a missing persons report. An all-hands-on-deck search is formed to try and find her.
Baltimore police continued to search for Hay for the next three weeks, with no sign of her until February 9th. On February 9th, 1999, the Baltimore Sun reported that a female body had been discovered in Lincoln Park, a 1,200-acre park in Baltimore. Within hours, the female victim was identified as missing 18-year-old Hayman Lee. The discovery of Hay's body was devastating to the family.
Her uncle told the Baltimore Sun that they held out hope that she would return home. And when they learned about her body being found partially buried in Lincoln Park, they were completely heartbroken. When police discovered Hay's body, they didn't find any signs of obvious trauma, except for signs of strangulation. Her body was found in Lincoln Park, unfortunately, a popular dumping ground for homicide victims.
Now, this area of the park where Hayman Lee was found was slightly off the main road. There were lots of leaves, brush, animals tracked the area, making it an almost perfect spot for bodies to be dumped. The signs of strangulation, coupled with the location of Hay's body, caused the police to quickly rule her death as a homicide.
At first, authorities thought Hay's murder might be connected to another case of a murdered teenage girl. Just one year before Hay's murder, 18-year-old Jada Danita Lambert was found dead in the same part of Lincoln Park. And similar to Hay, Jada was also found partially buried and strangled to death.
But just when Baltimore police think they may be on to something, they receive an important tip. Within hours of discovering Hay's body, Baltimore police received an anonymous tip that Hay's ex-boyfriend, 17-year-old Adnan Syed, might be her killer. Introducing the brand new hit podcast, The Forgiven.
The Forgiven Podcast retells Bible scandals in a more modern setting, focusing on forgiveness in a cancel culture. This series will touch on forgiveness by dramatizing some of the most scandalous stories in the Bible, accompanied by scripture readings, affirmations, gospel music, and personal stories of forgiveness. The Forgiven Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now.
Also available at theforgivenpodcast.com. Subscribe today and give it a listen. The Forgiven Podcast. Prepare yourself for a forgiven experience. Baltimore police quickly ruled out the theory that Hayes' case might be connected to Jada's case after the police received an anonymous tip. The tipster claimed that Hayes' ex-boyfriend, 17-year-old Adnan Syed, was the person responsible for her murder.
The caller said that the reason behind the murder was simple, jealousy. According to the caller, Adnan was angry that Hay broke up with him and that if he couldn't have her, nobody could. After this tip came in, Baltimore police obtained a search warrant for Adnan's cell phone activity around the time of Hay's disappearance. Now, Adnan's cell phone activity will come up much later in the story, and we'll get down to that in the forensic evidence.
But what the police initially found during the search warrant was that Adnan's cell phone pinged off several cell phone towers around Lincoln Park, right in the location of where Hayes' body was discovered. This essentially put Adnan in Lincoln Park on January 9th, and it also supported the anonymous tipster's claims. Baltimore police also questioned two of Adnan's close friends, Jay Wilds and Jennifer Poussader.
Jay Wilds and Jennifer Presader further implicated Adnan. Jennifer told the police that she received a phone call from Jay Wilds from Adnan's cell phone the day that Hay disappeared. So what, right? Well, when Jay Wilds first sat down with the police, he denied having any knowledge of Hay's murder. But after a bit of grilling by the police, Jay changed his story.
Not only was he changing his story, but now he was confessing to helping his friend Adnan bury Hay's body and get rid of her car. So when Jay Wilds used Adnan's cell phone to call Jennifer, he did it from Lincoln Park, right after helping Adnan dump her body. And according to the Baltimore police, this was also supported by cell phone data.
Armed with the cell phone records and now J. Wilde's confession, Adnan was arrested on February 28, 1998 on first-degree murder charges. When Adnan was arrested, the police didn't consider any other possible suspects in the case. They didn't look too much into Hayes' current boyfriend, Don. They didn't look at any other person in her life.
And they even dropped the possible connection between Hayes' murder and Jada's murder one year earlier in the same area of Lincoln Park. Right from the get-go, the Baltimore police zeroed in on Adnan Syed. And they aren't entirely wrong. Not only did they have the cell phone data suggesting that he was in or around Lincoln Park at the time...
Now, they have Adnan's close friend, Jay Wilds, confessing to his role in the murder. At trial, the prosecution built its entire case on the theory that Adnan was a scorned ex-lover, that jealousy drove him to kill. He was hurt. Hay dumped him. Even without any forensic evidence linking him to Hay's murder,
The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder charges on February 25, 2000. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. Several years after Adnan was convicted of Hayes' murder, a classmate at Woodlawn High School, Asia McLean, came forward with new information.
Asia McClain claimed to have seen Adnan in the school's library around 2.40 p.m. on the day of Hayes' disappearance, which created doubt on whether Adnan was ever in Lincoln Park that day. Unfortunately, Adnan's defense team never made Asia McClain a part of their defense. So, the defense team never told the jury about this possible sighting of Adnan in the school's library.
But there have been questions raised about Asia McLean's story that she saw Adnan in the school's library around 2.40 p.m. Remember, Hay worked as a manager for the school's wrestling team. Well, Hay's co-manager said that she saw Adnan talking to Hay until almost 3 o'clock that day. According to the co-manager, Hay and Adnan talked about going to a wrestling match later that night.
Now, many years later, the undisclosed podcast discovered that there was no wrestling match that night. This discovery called into question whether the co-manager was mistaken about the events that day. It also questioned whether Asia McLean's story was correct about seeing Adnan in the school's library.
Either way, Asia McClain and Hayes' co-manager offer very different stories as well as different timelines about where Adnan was that afternoon. Asia McClain agreed to testify in a sworn deposition about what she remembered on the day of Hayes' disappearance.
Adnan's new defense team argued that his original trial attorney failed to include Asia McLean's testimony in his defense. Testimony that could have provided Adnan with an alibi, a mistake that could have changed the entire outcome of the criminal trial. At least, that's their argument for a new criminal trial.
On March 8, 2019, after years of back and forth throughout the Maryland Court of Appeals, in a split 4-3 ruling, the court denied Adnan's request for a new trial. Then later, in November 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court also rejected Adnan's appeal for a new trial.
After Adnan's conviction, he gained a lot of supporters who believed in his innocence, including the Innocence Project. And of course, when Sarah Cohen and the Serial podcast covered Adnan's case, he gained even more supporters. Thousands, if not millions, of Serial subscribers listened to Adnan's case, and many of them weren't convinced of his guilt, or at least felt a shadow of doubt in the case, including myself.
One of the biggest questions on many people's minds after listening to Serial was, how could someone be convicted of first-degree murder without any physical or forensic evidence linking him to that murder? So let's dive into it. Let's look at what forensic evidence we have. First is the cell phone data. The Baltimore police subpoenaed AT&T Wireless cell phone records from Adnan's cell phone.
They studied cell phone records and analyzed 13 cell site locations. This would give police information about who Adnan called, how long, and where he was when he placed the phone calls.
We already know the cell phone records put Adnan in or around Lincoln Park on the day he disappeared. That's because Adnan's phone pinged a cell phone tower covering the park at 7.09 p.m. and, once again, at 7.16 p.m. on January 13th. The problem with this cell phone data is, well, it's not entirely accurate. Even the Baltimore police knew that.
At the time the police received Adnan's cell phone activity from AT&T, they also received a cover sheet with the records. The cover sheet provided by AT&T contained an extremely important warning. It read, End quote.
This is huge because those pings from Adnan's cell phone in Lincoln Park at 7.09 and 7.16 p.m. were both pings from incoming calls, not outgoing calls, which, according to AT&T's own admission, aren't reliable for location purposes. Location is only accurate when outgoing calls are placed, which wasn't the case here because the calls were incoming.
Unfortunately, even though the Baltimore police received this disclaimer from AT&T, this evidence was not admitted in Adnan's trial. So all the jury heard back then was that a cell phone tower pinged Adnan's cell phone near Lincoln Park after 7 p.m. on the day of Hayes' disappearance. The jury didn't hear any evidence stating that this activity might not be accurate.
Now, let's discuss what kind of forensic evidence was found on or near Hay's body. Back in 1999, Baltimore police collected several key pieces of evidence from the scene, including Hay's necklaces, the T-shirt she was wearing, her jacket, as well as some rope that was found near the body. The rope that the killer likely used to strangle her.
Back in 1999, these items were never tested for DNA. They were simply collected as evidence. But in 2018, these items were finally tested for DNA. After investigators swabbed them for DNA, they took what they found and compared it to Adnan's DNA.
Because Hay was strangled, her killer would likely have left behind some sort of DNA evidence somewhere on her body or on her clothing. And remember, one of the items they tested was Hay's t-shirt. It's pretty likely if Hay's being strangled, her killer would leave behind DNA evidence on her t-shirt, which we know it would be just inches away from her neck.
But when the t-shirt was tested for DNA, along with the other items, they couldn't find a single trace of Adnan's DNA. DNA tests were also conducted on a piece of rope found near Hay's body. In this case, they were actually able to pull a DNA profile from the rope. But when they compared the profile with profiles in the National DNA Database, they didn't get a match.
What they did discover was the DNA profile found on the rope belonged to an unidentified female, again, not matching Adnan's DNA. Now, something I haven't mentioned yet is Hay's car. At the criminal trial, the prosecution argued that Adnan and Hay got into a fight inside of her car on the day she disappeared. However, this recent round of DNA testing didn't find any of Adnan's DNA inside her car.
And they also tested Hay's fingernails. So fingernails are often a great source of DNA in these types of cases. We would expect to find traces of the killer's DNA underneath her fingernails left behind during a struggle. So while she's being strangled, she's likely trying to scratch her killer, maybe pull out his hair. She's doing whatever she can to try and get away. She may even be able to cut him and draw blood.
But investigators found none of Adnan's DNA underneath Hay's fingernails. Now, this aspect of the case may not fully exonerate Adnan and Hay's murder. But at the very least, the prosecution's theory calls into question that a struggle took place between Adnan and Hay.
Of course, there are two ways to look at this. If you ask the prosecution, they argue that these DNA tests don't exonerate Adnan in any way. The state contends it's entirely possible that Adnan murdered Hay without leaving behind DNA on Hay's body or anywhere at the park. Or if he did, the DNA was lost since it took the police almost a month to find her body.
But if you ask Adnan's new defense team, they argue that the absence of Adnan's DNA is really significant in a case like this. How do you commit a murder like this without leaving behind a single trace of DNA? Now, besides DNA, authorities also tested Hay's car for fingerprints. They were able to pull several latent fingerprints from the rear view mirror of her car.
None of the fingerprints matched Adnan. The prints also didn't match Hayes. And when investigators ran the prints through the National Fingerprint Database, they didn't return a hit either. Whoever the fingerprints belonged to have never been arrested or they haven't submitted their prints to law enforcement. Now, before we move on from the car, there's one more thing I want to point out, and that's going back to Jay Wilde's story.
Remember, Jay Wilds is the guy who confessed to helping Adnan transport and bury Hay's body. Throughout his story, Jay claimed to have gone with Adnan to dump Hay's car in a grassy lot in this residential area of Baltimore. Jay even leads Baltimore police to Hay's car about six weeks after her murder to prove to them that he was telling the truth. But
Some forensic experts argue that Jay's story about Hay's car and how it got to that grassy lot is almost impossible. According to Eric Irvin, a turf physiologist from the University of Delaware with a Ph.D. in horticulture, he believes that Hay's car was likely only parked in the lot for about one week, not six.
Eric Irvin investigated the freshness of the tire marks as well as the condition of the grass beneath the car's tires. According to him, the story about Hayes' car being there for over six weeks didn't make sense. In other words, the car was just recently parked in that location.
His best estimate was that the car was only parked in the lot about a week before Jay Wilds took Baltimore police there. Next, you're probably wondering, well, why would Jay Wilds lie about when he said he dumped Hayes' car? Well, it's never been confirmed whether his story is true or not,
But over the years, there have been other contradictions in his story. Throughout the investigation and into the criminal trial, Jay Wilds participated in two police interviews and then testified during Adnan's murder trial. According to the New York Times, as well as the Serial podcast, there are well-documented contradictions in his story.
At first, Jay Wilds told Baltimore police that Adnan first showed him Hay's body in the back of her trunk at a meeting point off Edmondson Avenue. Later on, he said Adnan showed him the body in a Best Buy parking lot. The Best Buy parking lot location does match up with the cell phone records we talked about earlier.
Adnan's cell phone pinged off a cell tower right near the Best Buy. But, of course, we know the issue that comes with the location tracking in the cell phone records. But taking the cell phone pings aside, exactly where Jay Wild said that he first saw Hayes' body in the trunk of the car changes. First, it was Edmondson Avenue. Then, it became the Best Buy parking lot.
Several years after the trial, J. Wilds changed his story again. Now he's saying that Adnan showed up at his house in Hay's car with her body in the trunk, providing a third and very different account about the first time he saw Hay's body. I want to make sure I mention I'm not calling J. Wilds a liar.
But those that have called Jay Wild a liar, specifically several podcasts and articles that we've covered in the story, suggest that Jay may have been motivated by money.
He implicated his former friend Adnan in Hayes' murder to receive the $3,000 reward that police were offering for any information about her disappearance. Again, a claim that has never been substantiated by real solid evidence or facts. It's just been pure speculation. Now, another key piece of forensic evidence we have to discuss is Hayes' autopsy, specifically inconsistencies reported in the autopsy.
At trial, the prosecution argued that Adnan killed Hay by 2.36 p.m. and then placed her body in the trunk of her car. He then removed her body from the trunk four to five hours later to bury her at Lincoln Park around 7 p.m. Now, this timeline aligns with the cell phone records that placed him in the park a little after 7 p.m.
But concerns have been raised over the autopsy's report not matching the prosecution's timeline. In the autopsy report, the medical examiner noted that, quote, lividity was present and fixed on the anterior surface of the body, except in the areas exposed to pressure, end quote. Now, if you aren't familiar with the term lividity,
This simply refers to the settling or pooling of blood towards the skin's surface after death. The pooling of blood causes the skin to turn this purplish-bluish color. Now, lividity starts to occur pretty quickly after we die.
Since our heart stops pumping blood after we die, within 30 minutes of death, gravity starts to pull the blood down, causing it to pool at the lowest part of our bodies. For example, if you die lying down on your stomach, you'd expect to see lividity on the stomach, not on your back. That's because gravity pulls the blood down to the lowest part of the body.
So going back to Hay's body, many medical experts who have reviewed the autopsy report believe that her lividity suggests that she was lying face down, then was stretched out sometime after her death. Based on her lividity, she would have been stretched out in this face down position for at least 8 to 12 hours before being buried in Lincoln Park.
This contradicts the prosecution's claim that Hay was inside the trunk for only four to five hours before she was dumped. It also contradicts the cell phone records that placed Adnan in Lincoln Park at 7 p.m. Many medical experts believe that Hay was in that face-down, stretched-out position for several more hours before being taken to the park.
Now, this theory calls into question the entire prosecution's timeline that Adnan was the only one who could have killed her and dumped her. Ever since the Serial podcast ended its first season in December 2014, many have formulated their own theories about who killed Hayman Lee. Serial listeners, internet sleuths, and Reddit users have all come up with their own theories.
The first theory is, of course, Adnan Syed killed Hay. Adnan gets into a fight with Hay over breaking up with him. He strangles her inside of her car and then puts her body in the trunk. Later on, he calls up his friend, Jay Wilds, to meet him at the Best Buy parking lot. That's where he shows Jay Hay's body in the trunk. Jay Wilds then drives Adnan back to campus for track practice,
Then, later on that evening, according to the prosecution, that's four to five hours later, Jay Wilds then helps Adnan bury Hayes' body in Lincoln Park. After that, the two of them ditch Hayes' car in the grassy lot, where police found it six weeks later. Now, this theory is challenged by every piece of evidence we've talked about so far in the episode. From the inconsistencies in Jay Wilds' story...
Asia McClain's story that she saw Adnan in the school's library at the same time the prosecution said that he was killing Haye, the lack of Adnan's DNA on Haye's body, clothing or even inside of her car, the inconsistencies in the cell phone records. And of course, the list goes on. Now, a second theory swirling around the Internet is that Jay Wilds is the one who killed Haye.
This theory spawns from the idea that if Adnan didn't kill her, then his friend Jay Wilds probably did. Now, we already know that Jay has admitted that he helped Adnan dump her body. He's admitted to seeing Hay's body dead inside of her trunk. The theory that Jay Wilds is Hay's killer largely came about because people speculated that after he killed Hay, he tried to pin it on his friend Adnan.
He then decided to admit some culpability in the murder because he was worried that Baltimore police would find some sort of physical or forensic evidence at the scene that implicated him in the murder. And if they did, he wanted to have a story. But the story involved pinning the murder on Adnan and for him only to admit that he basically just helped to bury her. That's all. If you're going to go down this route, you have to ask yourself,
Why would J. Wilds kill Hay? What would be his motive? Unlike Adnan, he barely knew her, other than the fact that she was his friend, Adnan's ex-girlfriend. The third theory kind of ties into the second theory. J. Wilds killed Hay with Adnan. This theory suggests that J. Wilds was more involved in Hay's murder than he admitted.
People speculate that Jay did much more than simply help Adnan dump Hay's body. Some suggest he may have been present or maybe even helped Adnan commit the murder. But, like the second theory we've discussed, this raises the same question for me. Why would Jay Wild want to kill Hay? A fourth theory is a guy named Ronald Lee Moore is the guy responsible for Hay's murder.
An investigation led by the Innocence Project tied Moore to the 1999 murder of Baltimore resident Annalise Lee. Since Moore was released from Baltimore County Jail on January 1st, the same year of Hayes' murder, some people speculate Hayes was Moore's earlier victim.
Similarities existed between Hayes' murder and Annalise's murder, causing many people to speculate the murders were somehow connected. Unfortunately, whatever secrets Ronald Lee Moore may have kept, he took them to the grave when he committed suicide in 2012 in a Louisiana prison. Besides Ronald Lee Moore, a second name has come up over the years, a guy named Roy Davis III.
Davis was connected back in 2004 for raping and murdering Jada Lambert. If you remember, Jada was the girl found dead in the same part of Lincoln Park over one year before Hay was discovered. Both Jada and Hay were killed and buried in similar ways. Of course, when two victims are found in the same location, killed in similar manners, this warrants further investigation.
However, the Baltimore police have never implicated Roy Davis in Hayes' murder. Police claim Jada's death is completely unrelated to Hayes' murder. We arrive at our sixth and final theory swirling around the internet today. A Mr. S committed the murder. Who is Mr. S, right?
Well, Mr. S is the nickname given to the man who found Hayes' body in Lincoln Park back on February 9th, 1999. Since then, he's been identified as Alonzo Sellers. But in the serial podcast, Sarah Cohen refers to him as Mr. S.
Back on February 9th, 1999, Alonzo Sellers told Baltimore police he was driving his car right near Lincoln Park, all while drinking a 22-ounce Budweiser. As he's drinking and driving, he decides to pull over and relieve himself along the side of the road.
Alonzo Sellers pulls off to the side of the road, parks his car, and then walks deep into the woods so that nobody could see him go to the bathroom. He said he walked far back into the woods and right before he started to urinate, he saw something on the ground that caught his attention, something that looked like human hair. He looked a little closer, then he saw a human foot.
Now, a point of interest and discussed in Serial is exactly how far Alonzo Sellers walked into the woods to go to the bathroom. Now, we're not talking just a couple feet off the road. No, Sellers walked really far into the woods. We're talking almost 130 feet into the woods. Then, the spot that he just so happened to pick was...
also the location of a dead body. Sellers told the police he walked so far and picked this particular spot because it was the first spot in the woods where there was a clearing in the brush. So once he got to the clearing, again about 130 feet off the main road, that's where he decided to urinate. Well, with a story like this, there's no wonder why Alonzo Sellers became Baltimore's police first suspect in Hayes' murder, right?
At first, it just seemed way too convenient for this guy to pull over in this part of Lincoln Park, walk 130 feet into the woods, right into the very spot where Hayes' body was buried almost four weeks earlier. But after nine days of questioning by the Baltimore police, Mr. S. was officially cleared as a suspect in Hayes' murder.
And if you still don't believe him, he even passed a polygraph administered by the police. Regardless of being officially cleared by the police, some still speculate about what Mr. S was really doing in that isolated part of Lincoln Park. Although in 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the request to grant Adnan Syed a new trial, there are still countless people who believe in his innocence.
For me, it's almost impossible not to listen to Serial or watch any other documentary that's been made about this case and not have some sort of doubt about Adnan's guilt. Now, I'm not saying whether he's guilty or not. He's the only one that can answer that question.
But what I am saying is it's almost impossible for most people to learn about the case and not feel some doubt on whether the justice system got it right here. No matter what you believe in the case, nothing will ever bring Heyman Lee back. The loss to Hayes' family has been devastating.
Hye's mother had an opportunity to speak at Adnan's sentencing, where she explained what Hye and her family went through to leave Korea and immigrate to the United States. She explained that they moved to the U.S. so that Hye could have a better life, a brighter future. But instead of giving her either a better or brighter life, someone took her life.
And the murderer took her life right before her real life could begin. Hay's mom said someday she would like to forgive Adnan for what he's done, but she's simply not ready. Since Hay's murder, the Lee family has stayed perfectly silent. They haven't commented on the progress of Adnan's appeal or anything else.
Hayes' mom spoke her words at the sentencing, and then the family went quiet. Since his incarceration, Adnan continues to follow and watch anything in the media about his case. Of course, if you've listened to Serial, you know that he's actively participated in its production. He's not afraid to profess his innocence. In fact, it seems like he uses any opportunity he can to proclaim it.
In the end, Adnan Syed may serve out his full sentence for Heyman Lee's murder, guilty or not. After all these years, people will still have their opinions about his guilt.
Regardless of your opinion, Adnan Syed's case highlights the grim reality that somebody can be convicted of the worst crime in our society, first-degree murder, without a slight trace of forensic evidence. Maybe he's guilty. Maybe he's innocent. But without clear forensic evidence, we may never discover the truth.
To share your thoughts on Adnan Syed and the murder of Heyman Lee, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at Forensic Tales. Let me know if you think Adnan is guilty or innocent. Also, to check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday.
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