The year was 1999, 18 year old Adnan Syed a resident in Baltimore, USA was arrested for allegedly murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee who had disappeared a month earlier. She had been strangled. After two trials, Syed was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case was largely based on one witness, Syed’s friend Jay who had also testified to burying Lee’s body, Syed however said he had nothing to do with the death.
15 years after Sayed was sentenced, the case has come to light again, through a podcast. A weekly series of radio shows discussing details of the case including interviews of witnesses during the 99 trial and Sayed himself, from the correctional facility where he now resides.
Every Thursday for 12 weeks, host and executive producer of the show titled Serial Sarah Koenig presented every detail of the case along with the speculations, rumours and facts. Also presented to audiences was a list of letters, notes and phone records that were presented at the case on their website serialpodcast.org.
Thanks to the efforts of Koenig and her team, Sayed’s case is up for trial with attorney Rabia Chaudry. Koenig however, didn’t expect Serial to be such a hit. In an interview with NPR, she said, “I wasn’t — and we weren’t — trying to create problems where there were none … Obviously I don’t want anyone to suffer because of the work I’m doing, but I also feel like there’s a strong tradition of doing these kinds of investigative stories. And we weren’t doing anything differently than we would do in any other story.”
During the investigation, Koenig realised the original trial covered up a complicated story that neither the jury not the public got to hear from the scene at the high school, the shifting police statements, sketchy alibis and scant forensic evidence, she writes on the website.
But with a shoestring budget, the team comprising also of executive producer Julie Snyder, producer Dana Chivvis and editor Ira Glass, managed to get an average of 1.6 million people downloading episodes week after week and has been the fastest podcast to cross the 5 million downloads on iTunes.
Reddit, an entertainment, social networking service and news website was abuzz with fans of Serial discussing every aspect of the case. Since the airing of the season finale, Jay, the key witness, who refused to speak to Koenig has been giving comprehensive interviews to various online magazines.
Koenig, Snyder, Chivvis and Glass are part of the This American Life production that produces radio style programs week after week, posting them online.
Review Bureau
