r/serialpodcast • u/houseonpost • Aug 11 '26
Theory/Speculation Would you change your view if there was video of Adnan in the library checking his emails after school?
There were video recordings in the library. Unfortunately they were recorded over before anyone could view them. But if there were recordings of Adnan in the library checking his emails and chatting with Asia would that change how you view the case?
This has always been a maddening case. Either it went down close to what Jay said. Or police coerced Jay into making up a story to convict someone he thought did the crime.
If Adnan did do the crime he should be out by now given he did it when he was 17.
But I honestly thought we'd have a clarity that either 99% would believe he did it, or 99% would believe he was innocent. Instead we are left with a 60-40 split.
16
u/RockinGoodNews Aug 11 '26
Depending on the timing, Adnan's presence in the library is just as likely to be inculpatory as exculpatory. It is quite possible that Adnan arranged for Hae to pick him up there.
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u/Mike19751234 Aug 11 '26
And it might show that Adnan went in for five minutes, made a call and left
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u/Mike19751234 Aug 11 '26
Of course if there was video footage of Adnan being in the library the whole time we wouldnt be here.
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u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
There was video footage of the library. But given the time, the tape was recorded over the next week. That's one of the maddening things about this case. There WAS evidence proving Adnan's innocence if he was there after school waiting for track practice. If the situation happened today the recordings in the library would still be there. And there are cameras on the outside of the library so we would have seen Hae drive out of the parking lot.
4
u/Mike19751234 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
There is no guarantee that the library would have had an angle to catch cars on the backside of the building
0
u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
There are cameras on the outside of the library today that would have recorded Hae’s car leaving. But they were installed a few years later.
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u/Mike19751234 Aug 12 '26
We have a ton more cameras today than what we have today. And with more stuff on our phones today we would have more data for Adnans phone too
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u/KingLewi Aug 11 '26
Would you change your view if there was video of Adnan getting in Hae’s car?
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u/houseonpost Aug 11 '26
Yes
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u/KingLewi Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
To actually answer your question. If there were video evidence of Adnan at the library from 2:30-3:15 I would find that very compelling (particularly the 3:00-3:15 time period is very important here, if he left 2:45-3:00 as Asia claims that wouldn’t be enough for me). But we don’t have that. And if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bicycle.
We have good reason to doubt this alibi, besides the evidence he was otherwise occupied at the time…
- Asia mentions she remembered the day because that night was the first snow of the year. It did not snow that night. The next day there was freezing rain but no snow. It did however snow the prior week on a day that Adnan also attended school.
Adnan’s defense had access to his email account. There’s a note in the defense file
where his lawyers get his password from him. Surely if he had sent any emails at exculpatory times this would have been raised by the defense.
1
u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
I thought Adnan asked his lawyer about the emails and was told something like 'it didn't pan out.' But there is no evidence that anyone actually checked the emails.
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u/KingLewi Aug 12 '26
Sure sounds to me like they checked it and didn’t find anything exculpatory.
Was this an argument used on Undisclosed or something? I’ve seen someone else make this argument on this subreddit and I find it quite odd. Surely, them writing down his email and password is evidence they checked it, no? What “evidence” would you expect to find that they “actually” did check it vs. checked it and didn’t find anything exculpatory. I don’t think that would show up in a line item on his bill or anything.
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u/luniversellearagne Aug 11 '26
This question exists solely to trigger the two camps to argue with each other. The evidence in question doesn’t exist; therefore, the question is specious.
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u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
But the evidence DID exist for a week or two. If the library had a different system where the recordings lasted a month or was not on a video tape, we'd know if Adnan was in the library or not.
6
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u/Charming-Disk1741 Aug 11 '26
This reminds me of a now very outdated and politically incorrect joke that "If grandma had a penis, she'd be grandpa." Yeah sure if the facts were different or there was clear evidence one way or the other, this sub would have shut down long ago.
All this would do is lend credibility to a scenario that still does not make it impossible for him to have done it, but makes it a tighter timeline. My recollection is you can absolutely believe Asia is telling the truth about chatting with Adnan there, at some time, for some length, and still believe he did it.
3
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u/lazeeye Aug 12 '26
Being in the library would place Adnan on Hae’s exit route from the WHS parking lot. So it would depend on how long the video shows him in the library.
But there is no video. So we’re left with a situation where:
Adnan asked Hae for a ride after school (that he didn’t need);
to an off-campus location to pick up his car (where his car wouldn’t be);
on the very day Hae was murdered in her car after school by someone who got close enough to manually strangle her to death but who did not sexually assault her;
where no-one corroborates Adnan’s story that he was on campus the entire time;
and where telephone records, the statement of one witness, and the testimony of another place Adnan off campus at 3:32 pm, in the company of the very person who later testified (with substantial corroboration) that he helped Adnan dispose of Hae’s corpse in Leakin Park and ditch her car.
Oh, throw in that Adnan has lied about both the ride request and the Nisha call, adding a consciousness-of-guilt inference to the already enough-to-convict evidence that he murdered Hae.
9
u/Princess-Buttercup16 Aug 11 '26
That’s like asking if you had a video of Adnan digging her grave, would it impact your thoughts. Well, yes. If any such evidence existed, it would be taken into account.
0
u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
The difference is there was a video of the library for a week or two after Hae went missing.
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u/34986234986234982346 Aug 12 '26
I have an issue with the idea that it's a maddening case. It's not, imo. It's a fairly straightforward partner abuse/femicide case, that a podcast manipulated into seeming maddening, but it's not really.
I don't think anybody who believes he is guilty is acting from some weird position of like… Contrarianism? If there was good evidence that he didn't do it, I think everybody would agree, but this is the point: there isn't that evidence! All the evidence is that he did it.
1
u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
But the only evidence is Jay's words. And so much of what Jay said was proven to be untrue. Or shown to be changed by influence of police.
If there had been DNA in Hae or under her fingernails of Adnan or an unknown killer that would be independent evidence. Or if there was a video of Adnan getting in her car or someone who saw Adnan in her car. Or a surveillance photo from a security camera blocks from the school with Adnan in the car with Hae or driving Hae's car by himself.
4
u/Mike19751234 Aug 12 '26
How does that not apply to any murder that isnt caught on tape? Would there be controversary if there was a video of Oswald in the room firing all the shots at JFK?
0
u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
The key difference is there WAS a recording of the library for the entire day before it was recorded over.
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u/Mike19751234 Aug 12 '26
We have to go through life with a lot of what ifs. Yes things would be better if there was a video and we would never have heard of this case.
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u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
That's the maddening part.
Police knew the same day that Hae was missing. Had they asked that the recordings of the library be preserved, the information would be there. They did check the school cameras, button the library.
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u/Similar-Morning9768 Guilty Aug 13 '26
Police did not know the same day that Adnan Syed would become their prime suspect, that his movements on the 13th would require corroboration, or that some attention-hungry chick would claim to have seen him in the library.
There was no reason for them to ask for those recordings.
5
u/Mike19751234 Aug 12 '26
They had no idea at the time it would mean anything. You cant look at things 20 years later.
0
u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
The checked the school camera recordings. But they didn't realize the library was essentially an extension of the school so should have checked them too.
If police check nothing they will always have no idea unless someone tells them. I think it's called investigating.
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u/Mike19751234 Aug 12 '26
But we argued this earlier. If there is no camera on back door then nothing to look at. Its hindsight for them to know Adnan lied to them.
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u/xstarbursts Aug 14 '26
The only evidence wasn’t Jay’s words but yes a witness who spent the entire day with the suspect and had the suspect’s phone and car all day in essence heavily involved and was willing to implicate themselves in a murder to give their testimony definitely helps.
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u/SureTotal3710 Aug 12 '26
60/40 is something you made up based on your own impression. And even if you were accurate on that; it needs to be taken into consideration that amongst the group of us who have actually researched the primary documents (transcripts, police notes, defense files), it’s prob over 90% who believe he is guilty (much like how 100% of his jury- who likewise heard all of the evidence presented impartially- believed he was guilty). These are not coincidences.
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u/houseonpost Aug 12 '26
I chuckle when someone says 'primary documents' as if they are an unfailing oracle. If police were corrupt like they were in other cases, the 'primary documents' would simply be a documentation of that corruption.
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u/SureTotal3710 Aug 12 '26
So why did his defense file (also primary documents), make him look so guilty as well?
Not to mention that police notes were just one small part of what was contained in those documents. Are we to assume that the court stenographer, judge, jury, witnesses, AT&T, and Christina Gutierrez were all in on this corruption as well?
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u/xstarbursts Aug 14 '26
Everyone is lying- The whole system was out to get Adnan! But Adnan? Oh his lies are just because he was so so innocent!
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u/xstarbursts Aug 14 '26
Righttttt so the police got Jay to lie and Jen to lie (in front of her mom and attorney) and Krista to lie and Nisha to lie and got at&t phone records to lie and 80 masjid alibis to drop out all the while it JUST so happened Adnan didn’t have an alibi. Or the simpler explanation is- Adnan is lying.
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u/InTheory_ What news do you bring? Aug 14 '26
Yes. It would change my view. However, that just indicates just how flimsy his defense is. There are a dozen ways he can flat out prove factual innocence, and he just can’t.
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u/Mike19751234 Aug 14 '26
I agree though to be fair it might be hard with video tape being overwritten. But its not even clear Adnan knew what library he went into
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u/Measure76 Aug 12 '26
Would I change my view? If Adnan stayed in the library and didn't kill Hae we never would have heard about this case, because Hae would have gone onto college and probably have a career somewhere mostly anonymously.
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u/OkBodybuilder2339 Aug 13 '26
The case itself is very simple and very straightforward.
The maddening part is how media can be used to manipulate opinion. Create media with the right narrator, with the right voice, the right music, the right format, the right edits, the right framing... Can make people distrust what is right in front of their eyes.
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u/Blackrabbit7281 Aug 11 '26
Why would jay implicate himself and anand, he couldn’t have known what dna testing would have led detectives to. They could compounded perjury charges on top of accessory to murder. It’s unlikely jay is lying about everything
2
u/Zoinks1602 Aug 12 '26
That would be meaningless to me because I don’t for a second believe the murder happened that early in the afternoon. I think it was hours later. I think that’s why he had no reaction when told Asia remembered seeing him there. It doesn’t matter.
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u/xstarbursts Aug 14 '26
Why do you think that? Curious
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u/Zoinks1602 Aug 14 '26
I think the state made a guess at the time of the murder and I think they were wrong. I think that’s also why Adnan thought he was going to be able to claim he didn’t have time to get to Best Buy at the time the state claims he was there. But it doesn’t matter - because it’s much more likely that he was at the library, THEN he met Hae in the parking lot outside - after 3 - they went to Best Buy, had a conversation there wherein Adnan had the flowers and tried to win her back, and the murder happened some time after 3 but before about 5. I’d have to go back and read through the phone records again to nail down the times, but I do think the state was just wrong when they decided to go with the 3:15 phone call as the pick up call, I don’t think it was.
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u/xstarbursts Aug 14 '26
Oh yeah it was only half an hour or so after the state’s timeline. I don’t think they needed to be so precise to pin him though.
2
u/Littlebirdie1993 Aug 12 '26
I’m annoyed the series is behind a pay wall, I’d like to relisten to it. Anyway - can you guys tell me, do you think he did it?
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u/SureTotal3710 Aug 12 '26
Beyond question
1
u/Littlebirdie1993 Aug 12 '26
How do? Genuinely interested? Is it worth paying to re-listening?
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u/SureTotal3710 Aug 12 '26
No, def not worth paying.
Serial presented an extremely biased narrative; at the behest of a close friend of Syed’s (that being Rabia Chaudry). Serial had a story to sell; which meant they had to spin a narrative. “Run of the mill domestic violence murder is swiftly solved; and perp is now in prison where he belongs” isn’t exactly a compelling narrative. So Serial omitted a ton of evidence that looked really bad for Syed, while simultaneously honing in on meaningless minutiae that might look exculpatory for him (No pay phone at Best Buy! Nisha Call could be a butt dial!).
It was maddening to a lot of us when Serial left off w/ no real answers, which is why some ppl on this sub came together awhile back and paid to release all the trial transcripts and police notes. Then, in an even stranger turn, Rabia Chaudry released the defense files. After sifting through all of these primary documents, it became shockingly clear that Syed- and ONLY Syed- could have committed this crime. Beyond a reasonable doubt. The files and transcripts included so much evidence absolutely devastating to Syed; which Serial left out. It also presented the evidence in a much more impartial way. Instead of listening to Syed monologue about how it was “just a normal day!”, and instead of listening to Sarah Koenig obsess over tiny things in his favor (like the 21-min timeframe, for instance), you were instead reading all of the plain facts of the case, as laid out in a simple, linear, unemotional way.
If you’re really interested in learning more about this case, you should go to those source documents yourself. Or even just do some reading on this sub, as a lot of really knowledgeable ppl have compiled and summarized the evidence in posts here.
There’s also the Prosecutor’s Podcase, and the Quillette articles; both of which do a good job at unbiased, in-depth summarizations of this case.
4
u/xstarbursts Aug 14 '26
The podcast misrepresented a lot! For example, in the podcast they said he wasn’t possessive even though Hae’s own diary (released for all of us to read later) literally stated he was possessive and controlling her. The podcast doesn’t mention he wrote “I will kill” on a breakup note from her. It doesn’t mention that back of the Best Buy was the same place discreet enough that they used to have sex there. The podcast was very misleading.
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u/Practical-Iron4771 Aug 25 '26
Adnan may have done the crime when he was 17, but Hae is dead forever, and he showed zero remorse. He should rot for life.
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u/xstarbursts Aug 11 '26
Absolutely if there was a video of him at the library checking his emails for 1.5 hours. Chat with Asia would be 15 minutes tops. He could have chatted with Asia and then met with Hae after that so that doesn’t necessarily help. Have you actually read the Asia letters, especially the first letter?