Adnan Syed, Innocent or Guilty?

source: wattpad.com

I really love crime stories, unsolved mysteries and conspiracy theories (which explains the Shane Dawson GIF above) There is something to it that makes me click, that makes my mind expand in ways that I wouldn't have imagined. Stories like these are eye-openers that gets me hooked to what really is the truth.

There are plenty of stories out there, that still seem mysterious among others. One in particular, is the story of Hae Lee Min's death. To sum up the story, Sarah Koenig made a podcast series called "Serial", where she investigates the story to a deeper extent. A sypnosis of the case could be explained through the description of the first episode, The Alibi: 

"It's Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he's innocent - though he can't exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School says she knows where Adnan was. The trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found."

The series has become trending on the podcast forum, and its popularity rose. Listening to the first episode, I really liked it. There were evidences that Koenig presented that could lead to tons of possible theories, which is the beauty of case stories like these. For ex, Jay's audio recording shows how he made it clear that Adnan was the one who killed her ex. It really intrigued me that maybe they arrested Adnan for no reason at all. Who knows? 

However, I found it pretty unusual that they would present this type of investigative journalism on a podcast, because we would usually see people's faces, and how they emote on certain questions that could tell us how truthful they are to what they say. The audio recordings helped, which tells us the tone of a person's words. The eerie music also helps set the mood, but it is not enough for me to truly visualize the case. I had to research their faces and other types of evidence, such as the letter, to fully get me into the situation. The benefit that I at least found about podcasts is multi-tasking. I've listened to podcasts before while doing my homework. It saves up so much time, which I got used to. Even listening to this podcast, I was drawing! It also lets you learn some listening skills, knowing the tone of someone's voice and the atmosphere that these stories give you.

source: E!News

The fact that Koenig made this podcast could serve the justice that Hae's family truly deserves, because it is worse knowing that she died without who it really was who killed her. The fact that the two had a personal connection together, it makes it weird that he killed her.

Another topic that I want to touch is the concept of memory. Keonig opens the podcast why talking about the challenges of recalling your memory, especially if someone asks you what you did weeks ago. I have a weak memory, but for some reason, I will remember long term memories. It's a weird habit to recall embarrassing or haunting memories of my life, but for a normal day as when her death happened, you wouldn't recall much, since it was not memorable enough. As she mentions as well, it was way harder in 1999, without social media. I think that in the end, this podcast teaches us how to promote change with the way we see things. We may never know how things came to be and we should understand different aspects of the story.

source: New York Times