Sarah Koenig: They told me about Adnan Syed, their friend. Not just a good kid, but an especially good kid.



Sarah Koenig: Smart, kind, goofy, handsome. So that when he was arrested for murder, so many people who know him were stunned.



Rabia Chaudry: He was like the community’s golden child.



Sarah Koenig: Oh, really? Talk more about that.



Rabia Chaudry: He was an honor roll student, volunteer EMT. He was on the football team. He was a star runner on the track team. He was the homecoming king. He led prayers at the mosque. Everybody knew Adnan to be somebody who was going to do something really big.



This is how we were introduced to Adnan Syed in Serial. Not just a good kid, but an especially good kid. The community’s golden child. Somebody who was going to do something really big.

One of the biggest hurdles that I’ve had in evaluating this case has been trying to rationalize how a kid on the straight and narrow, a “golden child… who was going to do something really big” could commit such a horrific, senseless act. Up until now, we’ve heard largely from Mr. Syed himself, 15 years after the fact, and family friend / advocate Rabia Chaudry. In this post, I’ll try to provide a clearer picture of who Adnan Syed was, via contemporaneous accounts from his friends, teachers and classmates.

The tip / Yassar:











Here we have the curious case of the mysterious tip / Yasser Ali. I’ll let readers draw their own conclusions on the veracity of the anonymous tipster’s claims, but it is worth noting that Adnan did break up with Hae Min Lee about a week prior to her disappearance, so at least that much was eventually corroborated. What is more relevant to this topic is what Yasser told the police. Yasser found that his friendship with Adnan had begun to dissolve because of his involvement with Hae. When Adnan stops by, Yasser asks how Hae was killed and whether Adnan know who had killed her. Yasser doesn’t think that Adnan would tell anyone if he had killed Hae. Yasser provides the police with “the woods” as a likely spot that Adnan would dispose of evidence if he had committed this heinous crime. An interesting interview from a long time friend of Adnan Syed.





Detective notes from followup with Yassar.

Becky:

Becky made two statements of particular interest to this subject. In the first, she speaks to an overbearing home life. In the second, she recounts an incident prior to the discovery of Hae’s body in Leakin Park, where Adnan is fixated on an old picture of Hae and himself in the middle of psychology class. This is in conflict with previous reports of Adnan not being concerned about Hae’s disappearance.

Here Becky recounts Adnan’s struggle to reconcile his religious beliefs with his relationship with Hae.

Deborah:







In this statement, Deborah corroborates Becky’s statement about Adnan’s mother spying on his telephone conversations, and speaks to Adnan having to hide his relationship with Hae from not only his parents, but the other people in the Muslim community at WHS. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me reading these transcripts that Adnan’s relationship with Hae was causing him to lead a sort of double life. He was having to hide from his parents and hide from his friends within the Muslim community.

Here Deborah speaks to this being a sort of one-way issue. Hae’s mother did not share this intolerance. Adnan’s religious and cultural beliefs seem to have been causing considerable conflict during his adolescence.

Deborah recounts Adnan as being “very possessive” when it came to Hae.

In this detective note, Debbie recounts an interaction she had with Adnan where he warns her off of speaking with the police.

Here Debbie recounts being in some fear of the “tight” muslim community, and concerns she had over Adnan having her phone number. This perhaps provides some corroboration to Jay’s claim that he had fear of retribution from the muslim community, in the form of the infamous white van parked outside of the store he worked at, as witnessed by Josh and recounted in Serial. Transcript below:

Brief account of Debbie speaking to Adnan’s habitual lateness.

More trouble on the homefront, as relayed by Debbie.

Nina:







Here Nina, another classmate and friend of Hae and Adnan speaks to detectives about the circumstances of and Adnan’s reaction to the second breakup. Adnan is really hurt, surprised and said something “mean”.

Here Nina speaks to the importance of the relationship to Adnan.

Juwan:



Juwan, a friend and “weed smoking buddy” of Adnan’s talks about Adnan’s reaction to Hae’s breakup.

Imran:







Imran, another Muslim community friend, recounts mosque Imam directing a sermon towards Adnan in response to Adnan’s “mischievous behavior”.

Mr. Kramer:







Adnan’s health teacher recounts the difficulties Adnan was having with the conflict between his religion and Hae.

Mrs. Inez Butler:







Adnan’s health teacher recalls Adnan’s shock and anger at the breakup with Hae.

Adnan’s health teacher speaks on the subject of Adnan’s athletic ability.

Redacted Minor:







One of Adnan’s close friends speaks to Adnan’s scholastic drive.

Nisha:



Nisha recounts Adnan seeming hurt over the breakup of Hae. Adnan claims that they “don’t talk anymore”, which is a curious detail in light of the three phone calls he made to Hae the night before she went missing.

Mr. Sehreiner:



Business ed teacher recounts Adnan’s behavior post-discovery of body. Recounts incident with family at dance.

Stephanie:







Stephanie recounts Adnan’s reaction to the breakup. Again, it’s clear that he doesn’t take it well.

Mrs. Efron:







Mrs. Efron speaks on the subject of Adnan’s scholastic drive.

A few themes stood out to me in this exercise…

1. Adnan was very much torn between his obligations to his cultural and religious community and his relationship with Hae. It seems that most of the police interviewees had at least some first hand knowledge of this conflict. More evidence of this conflict can be found in the Serial podcast in this excerpt read from Hae’s diary at the trial:

This does not appear to be some sort of throwaway, “something I felt today” musing by Hae, this theme seems to have been corroborated by most everyone who was asked. A lot has been made about the potential role of Islamophobia in this case, however I wonder if some of this alleged islamophobia isn’t investigators probing a legitimate source of conflict in the relationship between the suspect and the victim?

2. In spite of some protestations in Serial, it is apparent from the statements of Adnan and Hae’s mutual friends that Adnan did not take either breakup well and was blindsided by the second one. This is an important thing to recognize in light of the fact that this breakup took place shortly before Hae’s disappearance and murder.

3. Our initial Serial portrayal of Adnan as a destined for greatness, golden child seems to be a little loosey goosey indeed. Adnan’s SAT score of 1130 puts him in the ~65th percentile. His work ethic is questioned by many of his teachers. Adnan admitted to stealing from a mosque collection plate in Serial. The police interviews indicate that an Imam at his mosque directed at least one “shape up and fly right” sermon to him. He was involved with what can at least be described as light drug use, and he was a decidedly average athlete. He appears to be a slightly brighter than average, disorganized, unmotivated student.

4. While I’m sure that Sarah Koenig is correct in her statement that many people were stunned at Adnan’s arrest, some people who knew him very well were not stunned. Yasser, the anonymous tipster and this user on the website “reddit” didn’t find it particularly hard to believe.

Hopefully these statements taken from the people who actually knew Mr. Syed at the time of the murder have provided at least a bit of balance to the attempts at the canonization of Mr. Syed taken by other Serial podcast bloggers, and have given you some things to consider in the witness statement record.

Thanks for reading, check back soon for more!

Clarification: Adnan was seventeen at the time of his arrest, he turned eighteen two months later.

Adnan Syed living space at time of arrest (correction: at time of search warrant execution 3 weeks post arrest):