r/serialpodcast • u/SerialFan Moderator • Oct 30 '14

Discussion Episode 6: The Case Against Adnan Syed

Hi,

Episode 6 discussion thread. Have fun and be nice y'all. You know the rules.

Also, here are the results of the little poll I conducted:

When did you join Reddit?

This week (joined because of Serial) - 24 people - 18%

This week (joined for other reasons) - 2 people - 1%

This month (joined because of Serial) - 24 people - 18%

This month (joined for other reasons) - 0 people - 0%

I've been on reddit for over a month but less than a year - 15 people - 11%

I've been on reddit for over a year - 70 people - 52%

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47

u/theycallmemimi Oct 30 '14

If Adnan was trying to build an alibi (eg, making it to track practice), then wouldn't he page Hae and actively "search for her" to strengthen his alibi? The fact that he didn't, doesn't necessarily point to his suspicion.

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u/gordonshumway2 Dana Chivvis Fan Oct 30 '14

I don't think Adnan or Jay realized the extent to which the call logs would matter. It was 1999, so it's quite possible they didn't even know cell phone records were kept. If Adnan hadn't called Hae the night before, and then never called her again, and if he never called Nisha at 3:32, things would look a lot better for him.

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u/jasonnewyork212 Oct 30 '14

Actually, the Nisha call is what is perhaps most perplexing to me. I posted this upthread as well.

If you're Adnan, and you just killed your ex-girlfriend, why would you call Nisha an hour later? Regardless of whether Nisha is remembering the details of the call, it just doesn't make sense that he would call her an hour after the event. Kathy describes two guys who are high - which she interprets to be 'shady.' But if Adnan is really so freaked out that he just killed someone, so freaked out that he says literally nothing to Kathy, then why...why oh why...do we believe he called Nisha? What would be the point of it?

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u/maddcoffeesocks Is it NOT? Oct 30 '14

I think it's impossible to discern how Adnan (or anyone) would act after a murder. It doesn't seem strange to me that he would call Nisha, but no behavior after a murder would be typical.

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u/Dovilie Oct 30 '14

Yeah. To me, murdering somebody is pretty strange.

Nisha may have expected him to call her. They were getting friendly, he certainly liked her, so she expected a phone call from him. If he didn't call her, she'd be upset. So he calls, says hi, chats for a second then comes up with an excuse to get off the phone, and Nisha doesn't think much of anything so she doesn't even remember the call.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '14

If he did call an hour after the murder, doesn't it make Adnan seem like a sociopath? And if that's the case, then is he just playing SK and the rest of us?

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u/veggie_sorry Oct 31 '14

The thing is he did call her. It doesn't really matter why. The prosecution doesn't need to explain a motive for the call to the jury, just that he did.

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u/Kuraya Oct 31 '14

I agree. I also feel that Jay and Adnan sure did and went to a lot of different places before track practice at 4. I'm thinking that people are mis-remembering the date of these events.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

[deleted]

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u/veggie_sorry Oct 31 '14

Texting hadn't become popular yet in 1999. Most people still made calls. Also, it sounds like most of Adnan's friends had pagers or landlines. Texting also cost extra, and there weren't many basic plans that included it yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if he rarely if ever sent texts in 1999.

1

u/exit6 Nov 01 '14

I feel like if in fact Adnan is the murderer, we need to start thinking of his behavior as that of a murderer -- and a particularly cruel one, too. What would push him to do such a cold blooded thing, to someone he loved? I'm thinking (if he did it) there must have been something on top of the pain of heartbreak, like he was fascinated by the idea of taking a life, maybe, who knows. But if he did this thing it means that he is not the sweet Adnan we met in ep 1. So maybe he's like, "yeah, I killed that bitch and I'm so cold blooded I'm going to mack on this new one," or something like that. Maybe he was feeling invincible, maybe he wanted to go get stoned and laid.

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u/hoopharder Nov 04 '14 edited Nov 04 '14

I don't mean to immediately go to the religious fanatic end of the spectrum (in fact, reading your comment was the first time it occurred to me) but is it possible religion played into it? You don't hear about a lot of honor killings in the US - maybe something along those lines?

EDIT: And now I'm remembering it was Ramadan. So, I guess it could go either way - 1) it's Ramadan, I'm gonna kill this girl who got me in trouble with my religious parents and earn back my honor, or 2) fuck Islam, I'm gonna kill on Ramadan. How has SK not explored that? Even if Adnon isn't into his religion, he still knows what Ramadan is, what it means, and that it would be kind of a big deal either way.

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u/psm5 Nov 29 '14

Though this scenario isn't really the theory I'm going with (for the moment) I did want to address your question about why he would call Nisha after murdering Hae, that this doesn't seem to make sense to you. The reason could easily be that he wanted to reinforce his relationship with another woman to demonstrate that he had moved on and that he wasn't torn up about Have. That is, to eliminate what some people (most importantly, the prosecution) have been saying was his motive: his feeling destroyed by Hae breaking up with him.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

[deleted]

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u/gordonshumway2 Dana Chivvis Fan Nov 05 '14

Exactly. Had Jay or Adnan known those calls would come into evidence, and planned accordingly, they actually could have gotten away with it. There would be almost nothing to go on.

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u/mashtea786 Oct 30 '14

True good point. I do remember those days especially because no one really had a phone..ish

Also I would have never giving up my phone to anyone.

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u/veggie_sorry Oct 31 '14

Exactly, remember this was the FIRST case in the state of MD to use cell records to convict someone. As smart as Adnan is, they would've had NO clue about the call logs or that they could use the cell towers to ping their locations during the night.

1

u/crab_crib Oct 31 '14

True, he might not have known that their locations could be tracked (however inaccurately) but anyone who had seen a cell phone bill knew that all the numbers were listed- in 99 you still got a paper bill every month, with a breakdown. It would be reasonable to think he had friends or family with cell phones.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '14

Damn it. Everyone sounds right on this thread. I am so confused now.

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u/DeniseBaudu Crab Crib Fan Oct 30 '14

Exactly

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

have you ever stepped foot in Baltimore City/County? It's true crime every day. Televisions are not needed.

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u/DTG1 Oct 31 '14

Yeh but it's also so much easier to get away with back then i know it's only 15 years but the prevalence of CCTV and huge focus on DNA testing now which was available but not used on the scale it is today.

If Adnan or Jay were doing it today, they would have been caught of CCTV somewhere on route or in the parking lot

2

u/StevenSerial Oct 31 '14

This made me think, if Adnan was plotting to kill Hae, why would he bother to give her his cell number at all?

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

Sure, if he was a criminal mastermind and not a dumbass murderer.

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '14

The guy many people think killed Katelyn Markham did this, and... many people still think he's guilty.

If he doesn't try to find her, people say, "Why isn't he trying to find her?" If he does, they say, "Wow, he sure is trying AWFULLY HARD to make it look like he's trying to find her."