The case gained international attention through the podcast Serial, which explored the murder and the inconsistencies in Syed’s conviction, in the process inventing a new genre of journalism – and entertainment. The team behind Serial was praised for its work, which sparked a series of copycat podcasts, although it also raised ethical questions about whether true crime podcasts are doing noble work or exploiting human suffering. Hae Min Lee was last seen at around 15:00 on January 13, 1999. Her family reported the 18-year-old high school student missing after she failed to pick up her niece. Lee’s body was found, partially buried, four weeks later in Leakin Park, west Baltimore. She had been strangled. Police arrested Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend, on March 1. The couple both attended Woodlawn High School and had dated the previous year. According to court records, Lee had ended the relationship in December of that year. Syed was 17 when he was arrested, but was charged as an adult with first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Syed killed Lee after he became upset when she started dating someone else. Syed pleaded not guilty and his first trial ended in a mistrial, but in February 2000 he was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping and sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. He always maintained his innocence, and 14 years later the podcast Serial brought renewed focus to Lee’s murder. “The case against [Syed] relied heavily on the story of a witness, Adnan’s friend Jay, who testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae’s body,” the podcast description reads. “But Adnan always maintained that he had nothing to do with Hae’s death. Some believe he is telling the truth. Many others don’t.” Over 12 episodes, the host and reporter behind the podcast, Sarah Koenig, a former Baltimore Sun reporter who also worked on the This American Life podcast, combed through thousands of documents and spoke to everyone she could find who knew Syed and Lee in the time of Lee’s death. Koenig found that there was little forensic evidence linking Syed to Lee’s murder and that witnesses had changed their statements to police. Questions were also raised about the competence of Said’s lawyer and the accuracy of the evidence presented by Jay Wilds, the prosecution’s key witness. According to Wilds’ testimony, Syed told him that he had killed Lee and asked Wilds to help her bury her body. but Wilds’ story changed in his police interviews, and his timeline didn’t match call logs and cell tower pings. The podcast did not reach a firm conclusion as to Syed’s innocence or guilt, but Koenig felt there was not enough evidence to convict him. “You, I, the State of Maryland, based on the information before us, I don’t believe any of us can say what really happened to Haye. As a juror I vote to acquit Adnan Syed. I have to acquit,” he said in the final episode, which aired in December 2014. Koenig may not have reached a firm conclusion about Syed, but the podcast brought previously unimaginable attention to his case. Serial was a huge hit and by February 2015 had been downloaded more than 68 million times. “It’s by far the biggest success in the relatively short history of podcasting, a medium that has grown in popularity as people increasingly turn to smartphones for news and entertainment,” the New York Times wrote at the time. Serial won several awards, including a Peabody Award, but not everyone was happy. The row had started after Rabia Chaudry, whose younger brother Saad is close friends with Syed, had written to Koenig asking her to look into the case. Chaudry, a lawyer, had spent years investigating Syed’s conviction and has since criticized Serial for allegedly omitting information about the investigation into Lee’s death. “The serial set Adnan’s story on fire, to some extent deliberately, and never apologized or made amends,” wrote Chaudry on September 16 this year. “Should I be grateful? It’s hard for me to be. But I am grateful to the thousands who responded to the fire to help rebuild.” In the years since Serial has been around, true crime has become one of the most listened to podcast genres. Bear Brook, which centers on four murders in New Hampshire, followed a similar format, as did In the Dark, which followed the case and eventual release of an innocent Mississippi man convicted of murder. Other podcasts were less influential. Shows like My Favorite Murder, Crime Junkie and Morbid fall into a true crime subgenre where the hosts read sketchy accounts of gruesome murders, interjecting jokes and commentary. “The ethics of true crime podcasts are questionable. They appear to be promoting social justice, but may be using media tactics that could be exploitative and sensationalistic,” Ezri Noe wrote for a study at Northwest University. “True crime podcasts have a moral responsibility to promote social justice and advocacy by benefiting from real stories of murder, kidnapping and crime.” As for Syed, he is finally free – for now. In overturning Seid’s conviction, the judge said the state must decide whether to request a new trial date or dismiss the case against him within 30 days, leaving Seid facing an agonizing wait. For Lee’s family, the question of who killed Hae Min remains, a two-decade saga that is unimaginably painful. “This is not a podcast for me,” Young Lee, Hae Min’s brother, said in court on Monday. “It’s real life that will never end. More than 20 years have passed. It’s a nightmare. This is killing us.”
