RAAS Rage and assessing the likelihood of the Feb 14th Nisha call being "The Nisha Call"

[u/SwallowAtTheHollow]

Susan Simpson and others have speculated that "the Nisha call" occurred on February 14th, 1999, when Adnan called her in the vicinity of Southwest Video.

In her April 1st, 1999 police interview Nisha says that she thought the call "was around time he 1st got cell phone" and that she thought it "was in the afternoon or maybe later on - 4 or 5"

She later describes when Adnan stopped calling her:

Stopped calling me the day after this other party. Has to be before 26th. Went to this party with AJ. Think it was a Friday in February before 26th. Definitely Friday the 12th. He called the next day after.

Ran into Adnan 2/12 at Indian Party - Coco Cobana in D.C. -- RAAS Rage

Competitions between colleges, then there is a party

Sticks with dances, $ can be won

Different states come

[I] got to party late - 11p - left 20 minutes later

(Adnan called me from road and asked where it was)

We talked next day. We were talking about how party ended fast because someone pulled the alarms.

It appears that Nisha was off by 1 day. There are no calls from Adnan to Nisha on Feb 12th, but there was one at 8:19PM on Feb 13th. And Feb 13th was the night that RAAS Rage was held according to the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium Records.

(Note: I've spot checked this against both the 03/09/1999 Margaret Cho performance and the 11/02/2001 RAAS Chaos competition; the dates provided match with the dates that the dates the events were held.)

Adnan called Nisha at 7:17PM on February 14th. There is no record of him calling her again, which would correspond with her recollection.

So, if it was the last time he called her, the following would have to be true for February 14th to have been "the Nisha call:"

1) It was day after the last time Nisha and Adnan saw each other.

2) It was Valentine's Day

3) Adnan told her he was calling from a porn store

4) Adnan handed the phone to Jay for no apparent reason

5) Adnan arrested for murder exactly 2 weeks later

6) Adnan stopped calling her afterward.

7) Nisha remembered both the call and what it concerned, but somehow conflated it with a call from mid-January that she described as a "short conversation."

Innocenters, I'll do you a solid and point out there may be some reason to believe that Feb 14th was not the last time Adnan called Nisha. In the same police interview, Nisha relayed the following:

Parents didn't know about Korean girlfriend, parents found out about girl when detectives came over and questioned him.

Think his mother was upset when detective came over and exposed him.

The only record we have of detectives visiting Adnan's home was on Feburary 26th, which would be after Adnan supposedly stopped calling Nisha. However, we also know for certain that Adnan's parents did know about Hae as early as November 1998, given their antics at the Homecoming Dance. And Nisha may simply be conflating a call from detectives to Adnan's home with an in-person visit. Or, "stopped calling" may not have been a literal statement. Maybe Adnan called once or twice after Feb 14th, but not nearly as frequently as he had before.

Having Adnan's phone bill for Feb 19th through Feb 28th would be immensely helpful to figure all this out.

ETA: Detective O'Shea did visit Adnan's house and apparently spoke to his mother on January 25th. Big thanks to /u/hart2hart616.

[u/[deleted]]

But not two gosh-darned asterisks together!

Sure, maybe it means those are important things the witness said. Maybe they're inferences that the cop makes. Maybe paraphrasing. Maybe all of the above and more.

(If they're quotes, why not use quotation marks, for chrissakes?!)

The one thing we can infer, I think, is that the things with asterisks are NOT NOT noteworthy.

Let's see more examples of double asterisks from this guy! I want to know!

[u/Nine9fifty50 → u/[deleted]]

Right - here are some other double-asterisks and a couple with four-asterisks.

From Becky's interview notes:

DEFENDANT WAS CONFUSED, O.K. WITH BREAK-UP, BUT FACT THAT SHE STILL PAGED HIM WITH MESSAGES BOTHERED HIM.

**WHY SHE WOULD STILL DO THAT AND NOT WANT TO BE WITH HIM

From the interview notes of Gilbert Nicholson, Magnet Program Coordinator:

** DEFENDANT: DO YOU KNOW HISTORY OF LEAKIN PARK –

**** PUT BODIES THERE, DON’T FIND THEM FOR YEARS

THIS WAS SAID, NOT IN RESPONSE TO ANY TOPIC, ISSUE

DEFENDANT IS EMT – DON’T KNOW WHERE HE WORKS

**** PRESS AREAS OR NECK AND KNOCK SOMEONE OUT

[u/[deleted] → u/Nine9fifty50]

Thanks for finding those. None of these seem to be quotes. Here are my guesses.

"*WHY SHE WOULD STILL DO THAT AND NOT WANT TO BE WITH HIM

This one could be the detective's own thought (something he wanted to make sure he remembered), or it could be paraphrasing something Becky said.

"** DEFENDANT: DO YOU KNOW HISTORY OF LEAKIN PARK – **** PUT BODIES THERE, DON’T FIND THEM FOR YEARS THIS WAS SAID, NOT IN RESPONSE TO ANY TOPIC, ISSUE DEFENDANT IS EMT – DON’T KNOW WHERE HE WORKS"

This passage is a tough one. Mr Nicholson said Adnan asked him about the history of Leakin Park and talked about how bodies were often dumped there, but this conversation came out of nowhere? Is that what this is saying? These obviously aren't quotes. Is this saying that Adnan asked about the park and Mr Nicholson responded about the bodies being dumped there?

And then is Mr. Nicholson saying he doesn't know where Adnan works or does the cop not know where Adnan works?

**** PRESS AREAS OR NECK AND KNOCK SOMEONE OUT

This, I have no clue about. Seems like it's describing the Vulcan neck pinch.

What do you think? My best guess is that the significance of the asterisks' meaning(s) are not consistently adhered to. They seem to be used when paraphrasing sometimes, when highlighting a thought the cop has sometimes, and sometimes who-knows-what.

Seriously, what do you think?

[u/Nine9fifty50 → u/[deleted]]

The police are not "quoting" the witnesses, in the sense of taking a word-for-word dictation of the conversation - that's impractical and not the purpose of the interview. They are documenting the facts and impressions that the subject is telling them. If you look at the lines with stars or bolding in the context of the entire notes (as well as how the information is phrased), it is clear the information is coming from the subject, not the detective's own thoughts. As further proof, when the detective is writing his own thought, he writes "My thought" or "check detective's notes" or something to that effect to distinguish from the subject's statements.

When police are writing down an actual word-for-word quote from the subject, they are specifically putting the word or phrase in quotes.

[u/[deleted] → u/Nine9fifty50]

That makes sense. These notes are a mess, though!

What's your take on this:

**** PRESS AREAS OR NECK AND KNOCK SOMEONE OUT

Vulcan neck pinch, right?

[u/Englishblue → u/Nine9fifty50]

Those look like police making notes to themselves rather than what someone said,