Sarah Koenig - H 2014
Meredith HeuerSerial‘s first season has ended, but because it is a true story, fans continue to get new information, this time in the form of Jay Wilds‘ first interview. Jay, speaking out for the first time, did a lengthy interview with The Intercept.
Jay was the key witness in the state’s case against Adnan Syed for the 1999 Baltimore murder of Hae Min Lee. The popular podcast focused on whether or not Syed was wrongfully convicted, and host Sarah Koenig was never able to secure an on-air interview with Jay. Koenig often called into question the inconsistencies in Jay’s testimony and had an entire episode dedicated to him, called “The Deal With Jay.”
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The Intercept released the first portion of its conversation with Jay, and he provides yet another timeline for the day he claims Adnan murdered Hae. He also explains why he had so many inconsistencies in his story.
Here are some highlights from Jay’s interview:
On speculating about Adnan’s motive: “I don’t necessarily know if he meant to kill Hae before he did it or if it was a sudden moment thing, but looking at his life, from what I saw, he seemed to be far out of his realm when it came to Hae leaving him. From the way he carried himself, at least, it looked like he had never lost anything before. And it was really hard for him to deal with being on the losing end. In that situation, he was the loser. And people were starting to find out he was a loser, ‘Oh, you and Hae aren’t together anymore. She got a new boyfriend?’ And he didn’t know how to deal with that.”
On when he really first saw Hae’s body: “No. I saw her body later, in front of of my grandmother’s house where I was living. I didn’t tell the cops it was in front of my house because I didn’t want to involve my grandmother. I believe I told them it was in front of ‘Cathy’s’ [not her real name] house, but it was in front of my grandmother’s house. I know it didn’t happen anywhere other than my grandmother’s house. I remember the highway traffic to my right, and I remember standing there on the curb. I remember Adnan standing next to me.”
On why he had inconsistencies: “Well first of all, I wasn’t openly willing to cooperate with the police. It wasn’t until they made it clear they weren’t interested in my ‘procurement’ of pot that I began to open up any. And then I would only give them information pertaining to my interaction with someone or where I was. They had to chase me around before they could corner me to talk to me, and there came a point where I was just sick of talking to them. And they wouldn’t stop interviewing me or questioning me. I wasn’t fully cooperating, so if they said, ‘Well, we have on phone records that you talked to Jenn.’ I’d say, ‘Nope, I didn’t talk to Jenn.’ Until Jenn told me that she talked with the cops and that it was OK if I did too.[…] People had lives and were trying to get into college and stuff like that. Getting them in trouble for anything that they knew or that I had told them — I couldn’t have that.”
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