Case File: Adnan Syed

Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee met as students at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore. Syed was born to Pakistani immigrant parents; Lee immigrated to the United States from South Korea as a child. Both were popular and ambitious students. Adnan was active in school activities and his local mosque, and teachers and peers described him as intelligent, charming and friendly, with no history of violence or serious misconduct. Hae was a star athlete known for her independent streak and dedication to her family and her and Adnan’s close-knit group of school friends, many of whom would find themselves deeply intertwined with the case for decades.

The pair began dating in 1998, but they faced enormous obstacles, with both of their families disapproving of their children dating anyone, let alone someone of a different race or religion. The pressure to keep the relationship secret added serious strain to the relationship, and they separated several times before what seemed to be a final breakup initiated by Lee shortly before Christmas 1998. 

Some of their friends described the breakup as amicable, but others noted that Syed appeared emotionally withdrawn and heartbroken afterward. Just days later, Lee began dating Don Clinedinst, a 20-year-old co-worker at LensCrafters, and prosecutors would later argue that his jealousy over this new relationship played a key role in his decision to murder Lee. 

On January 13, 1999, Lee failed to pick up her younger cousin from school and did not arrive for work later that evening. Her disappearance alarmed her family and friends, as it was highly uncharacteristic. A missing person search got underway, with investigators contacting her friends, including Adnan. Syed told police that he and Hae had remained friendly after their breakup, but that he could not clearly remember his actions on the day she went missing. He believed he was at school all day before attending track practice in the afternoon. 

Rumors began to circulate. Some friends were convinced that Lee had run away to California to stay with her father, who’d moved there after her parents separated. Others suspected she was the victim of foul play, a fear that was confirmed nearly one month later when a man found Hae's body in Leakin Park, a wooded area in Baltimore known for being a common site for the disposal of homicide victims. Her body was partially buried and showed signs of manual strangulation, turning a missing persons case into a homicide investigation.

Lee's new boyfriend became a figure of interest, but he was quickly ruled out as a suspect after law enforcement confirmed his alibi—that he was working at LensCrafters during the time Hae was believed to have been killed. Critics would later challenge this, noting that his mother (his manager at LensCrafters) might have manipulated his time card to falsely show he was working, but this theory has been largely dismissed and Clinedints was never charged.

Investigators increasingly focused on Syed, thanks to his vague recollections of his whereabouts on January 13, and tips from classmates who said they had heard him asking Lee for a ride home after school on the day she disappeared. Police also scoured records from the cell phone Adnan had purchased just a few days before the crime, which led them to Jen Pusateri, a woman a few years older, whose phone number appeared several times on January 13. 

Pusateri told police that Syed had visited her house that day with Pusateri’s friend Jay Wilds, who had graduated from Woodlawn one year prior. Wilds later told Pusateri that Syed had killed Lee, and that Wilds had helped cover up the crime. Wilds’ account would become the backbone of law enforcement’s case. He said Syed had planned to kill Hae and asked Jay to meet him later that day to dispose of the body. But his interviews were also riddled with inconsistencies regarding times, locations and the exact sequence of events on that day. 

Wilds’ statements placed Syed at the scene of the crime and portrayed him as a calculating killer. In return for his cooperation, Wilds received immunity and was never charged in connection to the case. After he showed authorities where he and Adnan had hidden Hae’s car, Syed was arrested.

Syed’s first trial ended in mistrial in December 1999, and the second one began in 2000. Prosecutors argued that Wilds’ version of events was supported by cell phone records from Syed’s phone, which they claimed tracked his movements on the day of the murder. Specifically, they highlighted two incoming calls that appeared to place Adnan near Leakin Park around the time Jay alleged they buried the body.

Syed’s attorney, Christina Guttierrez, attacked the state’s case, challenging the reliability of the cell phone records and police’s timeline of events. But it would later emerge that Guttierez had also overlooked a key piece of evidence that might have proven her client could not have committed the crime. One of Syed’s classmates, Asia McClain, said she had spoken to Adnan at a library across the street from Woodlawn on the afternoon of Lee’s disappearance, at the exact moment prosecutors alleged she was murdered. For reasons still unknown, Guttierez never interviewed McClain and the evidence was never presented in court.

In February 2000, Syed was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment and robbery and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. 

For years, Syed maintained his innocence while his appeals were denied. In 2014, at the behest of lawyer and Syed family friend Rabia Chaudry, Hae’s murder became the subject of the first season of the Serial podcast. Journalist Sarah Koenig revisited the evidence for and against Adnan, bringing unprecedented attention to a somewhat obscure case. 

Syed’s legal team filed new petitions, citing Guttierez’s ineffective legal counsel for her failure to call Asia McClain as a witness. In 2016, a judge vacated Syed’s conviction and granted a new trial, but the Maryland Court of Appeals later reinstated the conviction. In 2022, Baltimore prosecutors agreed to drop all charges, citing new DNA evidence pointing to alternate suspects (whose names were not disclosed), and Syed was released from prison. Despite this, in 2023, Maryland’s appellate court reinstated the conviction on a technicality. In 2025, a judge re-sentenced Syed to time served under a law providing legal relief for those convicted of a crime as juveniles. 

The case became one of the most influential true crime stories of all time, spurring conversations about the criminal justice system and alleged prosecutorial misconduct. The case inspired new efforts to reform how evidence—particularly DNA evidence—is shared, and a reexamination of cases involving young offenders. The original Serial podcast became a pop culture phenomenon, spawning a series of documentaries, books and more true crime podcasts, in which people scoured over old court records, phone logs and timelines to come to their own conclusion about the events of January 13, 1988.

Syed’s supporters believe investigators ignored other potential suspects in their rush to judgment, and that racial and religious bias played a key role in the case, with the prosecutor's depiction of Syed as a controlling Muslim teenager rife with cultural stereotypes. Others, including Lee’s family, believe Syed was guilty all along, and stand by the original conviction, and that the decades-long legal battles over the case have retraumatized her family and friends. The case underscores the vulnerabilities of the criminal justice system and the lasting impact that arises when facts are contested, evidence is incomplete and critical questions remain unanswered.