By AMANDA BARNIER
Can you recall what you were doing last Wednesday between 2.15pm and 2.36pm? Where were you? What did you see? Who did you talk to? How well do you remember those 21 minutes?
Now try to recall Wednesday six weeks ago. What about a Wednesday 15 years ago?
How detailed and accurate do you think your memories are of these recent or long-ago events?
An addictive new weekly podcast, Serial, asks questions such as these to “search for the truth” about the murder of 18-year-old American student Hae Min Lee.
On Wednesday, January 13 1999, Hae disappeared in Baltimore County, Maryland. Four weeks later her body was found in a shallow grave in nearby parkland; she had been strangled. Six weeks later Baltimore City detectives arrested Hae’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed.
Adnan’s trial hinged on where he was for 21 minutes between 2.15pm and 2.36pm on the day Hae disappeared; the time she died.
The state’s case against Adnan and his eventual conviction for first-degree murder relied on the testimony — the reported memories — of another teenage boy named Jay. There was little or no physical evidence linking Adnan to the crime. Jay said Adnan murdered Hae. Adnan said he had nothing to do with it and didn’t know who did.
Adnan Syed in 1998. Image courtesy of Serial.
Serial’s host and co-producer, Sarah Koenig, tries to piece together what happened through memories: memory reports from then, as told at the trial; and memory reports from now, 15 years after these events, of Adnan (who is serving a life sentence in jail), Jay, their classmates, friends, families, the police and even Hae (via the diary she left behind).