But she never testifies because Adnan's defense attorney never reaches out to her.Įpisode 2, 'The Breakup,' examines Adnan's emotional state after he broke up with Hae. Adnan says he was in the library after school and a letter from a friend, Asia, a year later, corroborates that story. The first episode, 'The Alibi,' lays out the day of the murder and Adnan's alibi that would clear him of killing Hae. About those 21 minutes, precious little is known. Though Jay recounts the entire day of the murder, the entire case hinges on just 21 minutes - the window of time in which Hae is killed. His testimony is corroborated - barely, but in fundamental ways- by cell phone records. The prosecution's entire case hinged on the testimony of his friend, Jay, who claims that Adnan killed Hae in broad daylight, showed him the body, and that they buried her together. Due to an anonymous tip, Adnan becomes the prime suspect in her murder. To recap the first six episodes of 'Serial' seems easy enough since it only involves four people - for now - and one murder. While most of us listening at home (or in our cubicles, or on our commutes) don't have access to the mountains of evidence Koenig alludes to on a regular basis, we're still asking ourselves the same fundamental question: Is Adnan innocent? And if he is, who did it? Or if we'll never know the answer when the series comes to a close in six or seven episodes, is just knowing that he didn't do it enough?Īnd what does Koenig think about all this? 'Serial' is non-fiction disguised as crime fiction - 'Rashomon' for the Ira Glass set - and accordingly, it has listeners sifting through the details for a very real devil. Or at least, as true as four conflicting accounts of a murder and the disposal of a body can be. It does to us what crime shows like 'True Detective' did to us, except it burrows even deeper into our constitutions because it's, well, true. In it, journalist Sarah Koenig guides us through the indisputable facts and contradicting narratives surrounding the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee and the conviction of her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, who has been serving a life sentence for the last 15 years.

Shown is a timeline of events in 'Serial,' the investigative crime thriller podcast by producers of 'This American Life.' Hanna Sender/International Business Timesįew words make our blood boil like 'next time, on 'Serial.''įor those of you who haven't had your last six weeks of sleep utterly derailed by a 15-year old murder case, ' Serial,' a new podcast spun off (and spun, and spun, and spun) from 'This American Life,' was made to be obsessed over.

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