The 1999 case about Hae Min Lee, a focus topic for the well known podcast called “Serial” where the main journalist goes over the case of the seventeen year old high school senior who was brutally strangled in her car the afternoon of January 13th. A year later, after countless eye witness testimonies and overwhelming evidence, court ruled and found Adnan Syed, her ex-boyfriend and a former classmate, guilty of first degree murder.

After weeks of listening to the oddly intriguing podcast, “Serial” by Sarah Koenig, and hearing her provide new evidence and insights while still including experts to speak on the case, I have accumulated several forms of evidence presented and gathered stated motives to finally conclude; Adnan Syed is a psychopath who killed Hae Min Lee in the moment of pure despair and built up jealousy. It was not a crime of passion, as the courts say, it was a crime of pride.

According to the podcast, in episode 12, Sarah brings up the small timeline Adnan recalls from that day. She describes how Jay, Adnan’s friend and potential accomplice to the murder, dropped off Adnan at school around 1pm and kept Adnan’s car and cell phone. Classmates recall seeing Adnan going up to Hae and asking her for a ride during the last period of that day, January 13th. Somehow, during that interaction, Adnan convinced Hae to drive to the Best Buy parking lot. During the time frame of 2:25 pm and 2:36 pm Adnan Syed killed Hae Min Lee.

Charles Ewing, an expert brought in by Sarah to analyze Adnan's peculiar behavior, defines a psychopath as someone who has no capability to empathize with others and has little or no conscience. Charles Ewing also states that psychopaths have a manipulative behavior which allows them to gain trust from peers easily while using a superficial and manufactured charm to influence their victims. After interpreting this information and comparing these detailed descriptions of a psychopath with the behavior Sarah and Adnan’s peers described of Adnan, I inherently believe that Charles Ewing’s description of a psychopath is a match to Adnan’s behavior. Basically this explains how Adnan charmed his way back into Hae's life little by little knowing that she had already moved on from their previous romantic relationship. Adnan convinced Hae to what she thought was just a simple ride to a store but instead “manipulated her to go to her death” as the judge stated. Due to his high self esteem, Hae moving on so quickly bruised his pridefulness and caused him to build up rage and jealousy that consequently resulted in Hae's brutal death. From what the expert Charles Ewing stated about several psychopaths, I can derive that Adnan built and bottled up rage throughout time until one day he was triggered by the by the victim and finally snapped, a simple act of ignoring him would have ticked him off to commit murder. Like most psychopaths, they have no control or knowledge of what triggers them.

According to Sarah, about what Adnan told her and police evidence, the afternoon of January 13th throughout the time frame of 2pm to 5pm Adnan Syed and Jay Wilds were together with the intent to cover up Hae’s murder after Adnan strangled her in her car. In the podcast, Sarah provides a detailed outline showing Adnan’s story, Jay’s story and the actual known events all on one timeline. The period during 2pm and 5pm has several points where Adnan's story doesn't match Jay's. For example, around 3pm, after Hae was murdered, Jay and Adnan left the Best Buy parking lot after Adnan called Jay from a payphone inside the store to pick him up. They drive to a nearby Park-and-Go to dispose of Hae's car then drive together to purchase marijuana in Forest park. One of the biggest, most predominant inconsistencies in the recollection of the day was that Adnan claimed he was not with Jay nor near the Best Buy around the time of the murder but a single outgoing call from Adnan's phone says otherwise; the Nisha call.

Nisha, at the time, was a highschool student who lived near Silver Spring about 40 minutes away from Adnan. She became friends with Adnan after his relationship with Hae was over. When asked about the Nisha call, Adnan quickly disregarded it and said it must have been an accidental call although it was 2 minutes and 22 seconds long. Too long for it to have been an accidental call. He later described the relationship with her as friendly and flirtatious, "just having fun" he said.  This is potentially one of the most solid and convicting pieces of evidence in this case because Adnan testified that he and Jay were not together around the time of the murder. He stated that Jay had his cellphone and car until 5pm but at trial Nisha was put on the witness stand by the prosecutor, Kevin Urick, and explained how Adnan called her around early afternoon and spoke with him and briefly spoke with Jay after Adnan put him on the phone. This supposed "accidental call" pinged the cell tower near the Best Buy where Hae was murdered. As I stated before, this is the most overwhelming piece of evidence that proves Adnan was not at school but instead in the car with Jay around the Best Buy where Hae was murdered. Although coincidences do occur, there are one too many in this case.

To this day there are several people and organizations who believe Adnan Syed did not brutally murder Hae Min Lee. Adnan plays such a controlling psychological game of absolute manipulation to persuade people to pity him and publicly speak out about his innocence. He knows his mental strengths and knows how place them in action in order to convince the audience to truly believe he didn’t murder his ex girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Adnan’s so called “innocence” will be shed to light the day he finally decides to confess what went on during the afternoon of January 13th, 1999.