Unsolved Files Ep.1

The podcast Unsolved Files discusses the Anon Syed case, where a 17-year-old student is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend. The case is based on unreliable witness testimony, questionable cell phone records, and a palm print with no timestamp. The witness's story changes and another witness is suspected of lying. Adnan's lawyer is accused of negligence, and the trial ends in a mistrial. An alibi from a classmate disproves the timeline presented by the witnesses. The hosts believe someone else may have committed the murder and framed Adnan. The case is filled with inconsistencies and the detectives may have been desperate to convict someone. From Caloosah, California, it's Unsolved Files, a story told week by week. I'm your host, Gilmar. And I'm Belsie, your co-host. Step into the captivating world of the Anon Syed case, where truth and justice interwine. Join us as we unravel the twists and turns that surround this gripping true crime story. From questionable evidence to the ongoing debate, get ready for a deep dive into the case that has the nation hooked. Tune in to uncover the secrets behind Anon Syed's conviction and the quest for the truth. The case of Anon Syed is a pretty hefty one. Anon Syed, a 17-year-old student at Woodland High, was accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend, Haman Lee, to death. He was charged with premeditated murder, robbery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. That's a whole lot to accuse a 17-year-old boy of. I know. He was so young. To help create a timeline for you, he went missing January 13, 1999. Her estimated time of death was 2.36 p.m. Her body was found on February 9, 1999, roughly four weeks after her alleged death. She was found buried in a Baltimore park. Anon, who again was her ex, was arrested for her murder on February 28, 1999. He has pleaded not guilty to this day, but has no alibi or way to prove it was not him. It's honestly so bizarre how quick the police were to arrest Anon, especially with such an unreliable witness. I know. I mean, there's no doubt that Syed was the picture-perfect suspect for the police. Yeah, he fits the jealous ex-turned-murderer role. It felt like the police made up their minds from the beginning that Anon was the man. Or should I say, boy, we did it. Exactly. It was so unfair. I mean, there's no physical evidence at all tying him to the crime. The case against him was largely based on the story of one witness, Anon's friend, Jay, who testified that he helped Anon bury Hayes' body. Exactly. How do you convict someone with no physical evidence? I mean, there was no DNA, no hair strands, nothing. Just a sole witness testimony. I mean, you're right. That's completely absurd. In fact, the only real evidence used against him, other than Jay's testimony, of course, were cell phone records and a palm print. See, at the time, persecutors said records from the telecoms corporation, AT&T, placed Syed's cell phone in or around Baltimore's Lincoln Park. On that evening, his ex-girlfriend, Haman Lee, disappeared. What's so insane about the cell records is how they're not even reliable. You can't pinpoint someone's exact location. In fact, the cover sheet on the records, faxed to Baltimore police by AT&T, contained an important warning in small type saying, outgoing calls only are reliable for location status. It said, any oncoming calls will not be considered reliable information for a location. So if they are not reliable, why are they described by Syed's current attorney as a pillar of the state's case against them? These records should never have been used. I know, and as for the palm print, well, that was just a far-fetched claim. According to the prosecutors, a map book found in the back of Hayes' car contained a partial print of Adnan's left palm. One page, containing a map with Lincoln Park, was ripped and mentioned during trial. Although this map showed their whole neighborhood, including malls, schools, and 90% of places they would have regularly gone to, plus, you can't deny it, there's no way to put a timestamp on these palm prints. Honestly, you can't. It could have been 4 weeks, 4 weeks old, or 4 months old, plus they were dating. It wouldn't have been uncommon for a non to have ridden in Hayes' car. Yes, and not only that, but 13 other unidentified prints were found on that same map. Exactly. Although, what has really been stumping me the most is the witness Jay. Jay is a 19-year-old African-American male drug dealer. He was dating Stephanie, one of Adnan's good friends at the time. According to both of them, they weren't great friends, they would just get together every once in a while and smoke weed. Jay's testimony was that Adnan had shown him Hayes' body in the trunk of a car and then proceeded to pressure him to bury the body at Lincoln Park. As I mentioned, this witness really brought me to a halt, as Jay's story kept fluctuating every time he was interviewed. Big details, small details, you call it, and it changed. Some slip-ups were so big that you'd be baffled to discover how neglected they were. To illustrate, in one version of his interviews, he claimed that Adnan had talked about killing Hayes in the week prior to the murder. In version 2, Jay claimed that Adnan didn't seriously mention killing Hayes until the day of the murder. As for the second inconsistency, Adnan shows Jay Hayes' body at a strip of Edmonston Avenue. Jay even went as far as taking the cops there and showing them the spot. But in version 2, Jay claims he saw Hayes' body in a Best Buy parking lot. See, why would he change this part of the story? When asked, Jay claims it was because he thought Best Buy might have cameras in their parking lot, but if he's telling the truth, wouldn't he want there to be cameras to validate his story? I don't really know, but what I do know is that another huge inconsistency with this testimony was whether he helped Adnan bury Hayes' body or not. See, in the first version, Jay claimed he didn't help bury the body at all, but in the second version, he claimed he did. I mean, this isn't something you forget, it's a huge detail. Was he trying to offer a testimony while not implicating himself at all? Those are the types of questions I ask myself. Yeah, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. There were so many more inconsistencies with this story, but not just with his, but also another witness by the name of Jen. Jen is one of Jay's friends from high school. On February 26th, detectives had questioned her, but she claimed she knew nothing. A day later, she goes to the detectives and tells them that Jay had told her that Adnan killed Hayes. To me, it seems like Jay is trying to save his skin by having Jen lie for him, because Jay never mentions that he went to Jen and told her that Adnan killed Hayes. Now, let's move on to how it actually all went down in court. Adnan's lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, was accused of- Sorry. Now, let's move on to how it went down in court. Adnan's lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, was accused of being negligent and even throwing the case. In fact, when Adnan or his parents would ask her about her plans, she would continuously dismiss them. She was careless in communicating with her client and his family. She was also accused of throwing the case so she could be paid to present an appeal. But above all of this, Adnan's first trial actually ended in a mistrial. This was after jurors overheard an exchange in which the judge called Christina Gutierrez a liar. Gutierrez's law clerks pulled the jury afterwards and discovered that, even after hearing the bulk of the state's case, the jurors had not found Adnan guilty. What sucks is how the jury would have ruled Adnan not guilty if it weren't for Christina's loss of temper. But there is still one piece of unmentioned evidence that makes all other evidence look insignificant. And that's the alibi of Summer. Summer was a classmate of both Adnan and Hay. She claimed that there was no way that Hay could have been killed at 2.36 p.m. Since at that time, they were both getting ready to go to a wrestling match roughly 45 minutes away. And two other individuals saw her too at that time. Summer also said that Hay was going to use her car to get to the wrestling match because she was going to pick up her little cousin first. See, with this alibi alone, Jay's entire narrative of the case is disproven. I know. This whole case is very puzzling. As you figured, we are on Adnan's side. It just doesn't make any sense that he did it. Almost none of the evidence points back to him being the murderer. And truth be told, we believe that not Adnan nor Jay did it. Our theory is pretty far-fetched. Bear with me here. I think that somebody completely out of the picture did it. Somebody who didn't even associate with Adnan publicly but knew about him, his existence, and his personal life. When you really think about it, this whole case is just a matter of he said, she said, he said, D.S. Nothing in the story clicks together. It seems that detectives were desperate to convict somebody. There were some people from episode 11 of the serial podcast that came out publicly and said that Adnan was evil and hiding the darker side from the public. Of course, there were little things, but eventually those things will come back to get you, if you know what I mean. What could have been going on is that possibly Adnan had been secretly bullying someone or just hurting someone in general, but that person didn't know how to get back at him. The person in question got a little carried away. They wanted Adnan to feel what they felt. They wanted to besmirch his reputation and make everyone turn their heads towards him. Yes, this would be the only way to get back at him, something that nobody would ever expect. So they devised a plan to murder Hay and pin it on Adnan. This wouldn't be too unorthodox since they had recently broken up. Note that according to people around Adnan, after him and Hay separated, said that he was chill, almost like he didn't mind, but there were days where he was sad and moping, which is normal for a kid his age. No one knew what was really going on in his head, probably not even his parents. It was a risky plan, but it could work if executed correctly. So fast forward to the day of the murder. This person waits for Hay, strangles her, and then takes her body to Lincoln Park and buries her. In theory, this makes sense as Hay had planned to take her car to the wrestling match that day, which her car also goes missing. So her time of death wasn't 236, but somewhere around 345 to 6, which lines up with Jay's story and how they went to Kathy's house at the time and how around 7 the body was buried. It is also sort of out of place since everybody's whereabouts are almost unknown. Everybody seems to change their story at least once, especially Jay and Jen. Whatever the case, the real killer is still out there. We will never know for certain what happened on that fateful day. All I know is that Annan was not the killer. Thank you for joining us on this thrilling journey through the Annan Syed case. Remember to subscribe and stay tuned for more riveting true crime stories. If you have any case suggestions or want to share your thoughts, don't hesitate to reach out. Until next time, stay curious and keep seeking the truth.