For years, the Innocence Project at the UVa School of Law has taken on cold cases from across the state, investigating possible discrepancies in the legal proceedings and attempting to exonerate falsely convicted inmates. Syed, currently serving time in a Maryland prison, read about the case of Justin Wolfe, a death-row inmate in Virginia who had a case chillingly similar to Syed’s. Wolfe’s conviction was vacated in 2011, and when Syed saw that the Innocence Project had been one of Wolfe’s defenders, Syed asked Koenig to reach out to Enright, who was ready to dive head first into the murder mystery with her team last March.

After Koenig’s initial contact, the eight-student team was aware that the investigation would be part of a small radio show, but never imagined that the podcast would grow into the sensation it has become.

“We thought, at the very most, that if this case went anywhere at all, it’ll be [at most one] story,” Enright said. “To have all of this, a 12-episode podcast — those words were never uttered.”