Here's a trick question: What do we know about Don?
Trick answer: Uh...?
Absolutely nothing. In easily accessible records, there are no pictures that definitely show what Don looks like, there are no video or audio clips of his testimony in court or interviews with police, and there are no descriptions of him from unbiased sources (except maybe for Adnan's depiction of Don as an "ok guy").
Next question: What do we think we know about Don?
Answer: Oh, God. So much.
What does Don look like? According to Serial's Sarah Koenig and Hae's diary, Don's dreamy looking with blonde hair (I get the impression it's long blonde hair, but I don't think that's ever explicitly stated) and blue-grey eyes. When I hear this description, I get the impression he's like a blonde Jared Leto from his days on My So-Called Life.
Undisclosed gives pretty much no details on what Don looks like. Then we get Truth and Justice with Bob Ruff, and he topples the tower. Bob has seen photos of high-school Don, and he says Don was more average-looking. I went on a quest for pictures of Don, and all I could come up with is this one (below).
I have no idea it it's the right Donald, but I'd say it's plausible. He's average looking, and he could have dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Because this is clearly a high school picture (I'd say senior picture), it would have been Don circa fall 1995 or spring 1996 at the latest. He didn't get to know Hae until late 1998/early 1999, so that leaves plenty of time for him to lose weight, grow some facial hair, and get a different haircut, which could both boost the attractiveness factor.
What was Don like? As in, what was his personality?
Adnan: He's an ok guy. (Or in conversation with Asia, he's some white guy.)
Aisha: ???
Debbie: ??? (Not guilty)
Cops: ??? (Not guilty)
Hae: ??? (But he's cute)
Sarah Koenig: ??? Sincere???
Don's high school classmates: ???
Soooo, nobody knows this guy. Even the people who knew him didn't know him. Bob Ruff got in touch with some of Don's classmates, and only one of several dozen people actually recalled having a conversation with Don. This mystery person reports Don was to himself, probably fit best with the goth/emo characterization while in high school, and was not into sports. The mystery person also told Bob that he stopped talking to Don after Don told him he knew someone in the Klan (as in KKK). Bob said it about 10 times, but I'll say it again, we have no way of knowing if any of that is true. It might have been a joke. It might not have happened. I'm not accusing anybody of anything.
When I hear this description of Don, my Columbine radar goes off. (I actually took a psychology class in college that heavily featured the Columbine school shooting, and I'm well aware of the way the "school shooter" persona entered the pop-culture encyclopedia right beside the entry for "Satanist.") Now, it's just two tiny, unverifiable bits of information that send me down that path, but still. The Columbine shooters were quieter kids of the emo/goth stereotype, and Eric Harris had an interest in anti-Semitism. My brain fills in the gaps automatically with a taste for loud heavy metal music and violent video games. Perhaps this is also my brain trying to reconcile an "ok guy" with a possible murderer (sorry, spoiler), but I wonder if Don struggled with the same issues as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold: depression, distant families, and bullying.
Speaking of families, what was Don's family like? Well, it was a bit of a mess. His parents were divorced, and his mother was in a committed relationship with another woman. I get the impression Don lived primarily with his father (Don Sr.), and his mother (Anita) and her partner (Cathy)-often called Don's stepmother-had a residence nearby. They all lived in the area near Hunt Valley mall in Bel-Air, Maryland. There's never any talk of siblings (except kids Anita and Cathy adopted later), so I think at that time Don was an only child.
That could be extremely stressful. Divorce alone is hard on a child, and Don was dealing with that and his mother's new relationship. Anita and Cathy's partnership may not have been accepted back in '99. Plus, Anita and Cathy were both managers at Lenscrafters. Anita worked at Hunt Valley, and Cathy at Owings Mills. Because of a rule against working under a relative, Don worked at Owings Mills under Cathy. Perhaps it was awkward to be around his stepmother all the time. Or maybe Cathy was extremely accommodating to Don to get him to like her (altered timesheets, anyone?)
Now onto Don and Hae. Everything we know about Don and Hae comes either from Hae's diary, Don talking to Sarah Koenig, or notes from Mandy Johnson. It goes without saying that all of these are very biased: Hae was infatuated, Don wants to present himself in a good light, and Mandy was very cursory and bigoted.
According to Hae's diary, she started going after Don around the time she had her last breakup with Adnan in November 1998. She was attracted to him, and she pursued him even though she still had some love for Adnan. Both Hae's diary and her AOL profile show her admiration for his looks (especially his blue eyes) and his cool Camaro. They were "talking" (pre-dating?) for at least a month before they went on their first date on New Year's Day 1999. It was during the "talking" period that Adnan met Don (after Hae's little car accident) and deemed him an "ok guy."
When Don spoke to Sarah for Serial (well, Sarah's recounting of their conversation), he seemed like a tenderhearted person. He said he really loved Hae, still loves her in fact, and that she made a big impact on him. The first few times I heard this part of Serial, I was still imagining the big-eyed, long-haired Saved by the Bell sort of 90s cool dude. It added to his persona of the "Surfer Ken" to Hae's "Barbie." Sarah reinforced this with her own commentary. She framed Don as intelligent and genuine.
Then there was Mandy Johnson of the Enehey Group. She wrote a report or notes about her interactions with Don, and prominent among her findings was the concept that Don was not as into the relationship as Hae was. That made it possible he didn't try to get in touch with Hae after she went missing because he didn't care that much, not because he really did know where she went. This is kind of the opposite of what I get from Sarah's presentation of Don on Serial... and it makes me wonder if Don's been spending the past 18 years trying to decide how he feels about Hae.
Now onto the randoms: According to the diary, he smoked cigarettes. According to Bob, Don has no speeding tickets (so he's either law-abiding or stealthy). According to someone (either Bob or Susan, I can't remember), Don's employee reviews at Lenscrafters show positive performance for the period before Hae's death (when he worked in Hunt Valley) and negative reviews for the period after Hae's death (when he worked in Owings Mills). This could mean anything from different reviewing standards to depression following the death of a friend, but it's something. During an interview with Sarah, Aisha Pittman talks about an awkward double date she had with Hae and Don. She says nothing about Don except that he was older, and compared to her younger boyfriend, it seemed like he was the odd one out.
So we have this guy who was either a stud or fat, smooth or awkward, caring or standoffish, a good or bad worker, and maybe knew a Klan member. He was dating Hae, and he saw her at least once in the last 24 hours of her life.
Hae and Don went out or hung out together the evening of January 12. According to Don via Sarah, Hae wanted to spend the night and/or spend the next day with Don as well, so she asked him to call the school, pretend to be an authority, and say she couldn't make it to class. Don refused, supposedly because he was filling in at the Hunt Valley Lenscrafters on what was supposed to be his day off (however, he probably wasn't scheduled to work). Eventually Hae drove home, and she called Don when she got back to her house. She stayed up late talking on the phone, and they made plans to meet up the night of Jan 13 after Hae got off work at 10:00pm.
When Hae left school on Jan 13, it was with the intent to "go do something" before she picked up her cousin. The only plausible thing I can think she was going to do was meet up with Don. He probably wasn't working that day, and they might have paged each other during the day to set up a quick meeting. It's my opinion (based off the profile delivered by Jim Clemente) that Don and Hae did meet up, and an incident occurred between them in which Hae was accidentally killed. Again, this is only my logical speculation, so it might not be true. However, it does inform some of my opinions of Don.
During the investigation into Hae's disappearance, Don talked to (at least) 2 different cops, Hae's friend Debbie, and Mandy Johnson. Don told roughly the same story to everyone (he was working; he doesn't know where Hae is). The story evolves slightly to include speculation that Hae might have gone to California, but it's unclear whether that came from Debbie, Mandy, or Don himself. Pretty early on, Don dropped off the suspect list.
It was only later during the trials that issues with Don's alibi started to arise. Adnan's defense team requested Don's work records from Lenscrafters, and they were provided with documentation that Don did not work on 13 January. Within days, the prosecution requested the same information, and it seems they received the same documents. Prosecutor Urick then called Lenscrafters and apparently made some comment suggesting there should be additional records. The next day, both the prosecution and defense received a letter addressed to Urick containing an odd-looking record of Don's work at the Hunt Valley Lenscrafters on 13 and 16 Jan. The letter also specifically states the manager of the Hunt Valley store is Don's mother. Based on investigation done by Bob and Susan, the Hunt Valley timesheet seems forged because it uses a different and non-sequential employee number. Bob also determined that timesheets must be fixed by the end of each pay period, and only managers can view and alter other employees' timesheets. Since there's a record of Cathy at Owings-Mills reporting Don's exact "hours worked" on 04 February, it seems that Don's mothers were helping him create a false work record before it was public knowledge that Hae had been killed.
I believe Don was a somewhat ordinary looking blonde-haired, blue-eyed young man who was quiet and a bit shy. I think by age 20-21 he'd come a long way since high school. He'd lost weight, gotten a cool haircut, and bought a sports car. He also had a job, which, even though his mom helped him get it, gave him more confidence to interact with others. Don didn't have a lot of luck with girls (he was still a little awkward, after all), but he did enjoy dating an outgoing girl like Hae.
I believe Don was also deeply troubled. He didn't have a lot of friends, he had a rocky family situation, and he may have had philosophical dilemmas that disturbed him. He may have been depressed. He may have been using drugs. He may have been interested in BD/SM or violence.
I think Don killed Hae. I'm not convinced Don meant to kill Hae, and I'm not convinced killing Hae makes him a completely bad person. When he talked to Sarah about still loving Hae, that could be equally creepy or genuine. I have a "Burke Ramsey Test" for possible offenders: Did they kill anyone else? Do they have a productive life now? If the answers are no and yes respectively, I'm ready to forgive the offender. I don't know the answers for Don. I don't know how I should feel about him. And that leaves me exactly where I started, with nothing.
Trick answer: Uh...?
Absolutely nothing. In easily accessible records, there are no pictures that definitely show what Don looks like, there are no video or audio clips of his testimony in court or interviews with police, and there are no descriptions of him from unbiased sources (except maybe for Adnan's depiction of Don as an "ok guy").
Next question: What do we think we know about Don?
Answer: Oh, God. So much.
What does Don look like? According to Serial's Sarah Koenig and Hae's diary, Don's dreamy looking with blonde hair (I get the impression it's long blonde hair, but I don't think that's ever explicitly stated) and blue-grey eyes. When I hear this description, I get the impression he's like a blonde Jared Leto from his days on My So-Called Life.
Undisclosed gives pretty much no details on what Don looks like. Then we get Truth and Justice with Bob Ruff, and he topples the tower. Bob has seen photos of high-school Don, and he says Don was more average-looking. I went on a quest for pictures of Don, and all I could come up with is this one (below).
I have no idea it it's the right Donald, but I'd say it's plausible. He's average looking, and he could have dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Because this is clearly a high school picture (I'd say senior picture), it would have been Don circa fall 1995 or spring 1996 at the latest. He didn't get to know Hae until late 1998/early 1999, so that leaves plenty of time for him to lose weight, grow some facial hair, and get a different haircut, which could both boost the attractiveness factor.
What was Don like? As in, what was his personality?
Adnan: He's an ok guy. (Or in conversation with Asia, he's some white guy.)
Aisha: ???
Debbie: ??? (Not guilty)
Cops: ??? (Not guilty)
Hae: ??? (But he's cute)
Sarah Koenig: ??? Sincere???
Don's high school classmates: ???
Soooo, nobody knows this guy. Even the people who knew him didn't know him. Bob Ruff got in touch with some of Don's classmates, and only one of several dozen people actually recalled having a conversation with Don. This mystery person reports Don was to himself, probably fit best with the goth/emo characterization while in high school, and was not into sports. The mystery person also told Bob that he stopped talking to Don after Don told him he knew someone in the Klan (as in KKK). Bob said it about 10 times, but I'll say it again, we have no way of knowing if any of that is true. It might have been a joke. It might not have happened. I'm not accusing anybody of anything.
When I hear this description of Don, my Columbine radar goes off. (I actually took a psychology class in college that heavily featured the Columbine school shooting, and I'm well aware of the way the "school shooter" persona entered the pop-culture encyclopedia right beside the entry for "Satanist.") Now, it's just two tiny, unverifiable bits of information that send me down that path, but still. The Columbine shooters were quieter kids of the emo/goth stereotype, and Eric Harris had an interest in anti-Semitism. My brain fills in the gaps automatically with a taste for loud heavy metal music and violent video games. Perhaps this is also my brain trying to reconcile an "ok guy" with a possible murderer (sorry, spoiler), but I wonder if Don struggled with the same issues as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold: depression, distant families, and bullying.
Speaking of families, what was Don's family like? Well, it was a bit of a mess. His parents were divorced, and his mother was in a committed relationship with another woman. I get the impression Don lived primarily with his father (Don Sr.), and his mother (Anita) and her partner (Cathy)-often called Don's stepmother-had a residence nearby. They all lived in the area near Hunt Valley mall in Bel-Air, Maryland. There's never any talk of siblings (except kids Anita and Cathy adopted later), so I think at that time Don was an only child.
That could be extremely stressful. Divorce alone is hard on a child, and Don was dealing with that and his mother's new relationship. Anita and Cathy's partnership may not have been accepted back in '99. Plus, Anita and Cathy were both managers at Lenscrafters. Anita worked at Hunt Valley, and Cathy at Owings Mills. Because of a rule against working under a relative, Don worked at Owings Mills under Cathy. Perhaps it was awkward to be around his stepmother all the time. Or maybe Cathy was extremely accommodating to Don to get him to like her (altered timesheets, anyone?)
Now onto Don and Hae. Everything we know about Don and Hae comes either from Hae's diary, Don talking to Sarah Koenig, or notes from Mandy Johnson. It goes without saying that all of these are very biased: Hae was infatuated, Don wants to present himself in a good light, and Mandy was very cursory and bigoted.
According to Hae's diary, she started going after Don around the time she had her last breakup with Adnan in November 1998. She was attracted to him, and she pursued him even though she still had some love for Adnan. Both Hae's diary and her AOL profile show her admiration for his looks (especially his blue eyes) and his cool Camaro. They were "talking" (pre-dating?) for at least a month before they went on their first date on New Year's Day 1999. It was during the "talking" period that Adnan met Don (after Hae's little car accident) and deemed him an "ok guy."
When Don spoke to Sarah for Serial (well, Sarah's recounting of their conversation), he seemed like a tenderhearted person. He said he really loved Hae, still loves her in fact, and that she made a big impact on him. The first few times I heard this part of Serial, I was still imagining the big-eyed, long-haired Saved by the Bell sort of 90s cool dude. It added to his persona of the "Surfer Ken" to Hae's "Barbie." Sarah reinforced this with her own commentary. She framed Don as intelligent and genuine.
Then there was Mandy Johnson of the Enehey Group. She wrote a report or notes about her interactions with Don, and prominent among her findings was the concept that Don was not as into the relationship as Hae was. That made it possible he didn't try to get in touch with Hae after she went missing because he didn't care that much, not because he really did know where she went. This is kind of the opposite of what I get from Sarah's presentation of Don on Serial... and it makes me wonder if Don's been spending the past 18 years trying to decide how he feels about Hae.
Now onto the randoms: According to the diary, he smoked cigarettes. According to Bob, Don has no speeding tickets (so he's either law-abiding or stealthy). According to someone (either Bob or Susan, I can't remember), Don's employee reviews at Lenscrafters show positive performance for the period before Hae's death (when he worked in Hunt Valley) and negative reviews for the period after Hae's death (when he worked in Owings Mills). This could mean anything from different reviewing standards to depression following the death of a friend, but it's something. During an interview with Sarah, Aisha Pittman talks about an awkward double date she had with Hae and Don. She says nothing about Don except that he was older, and compared to her younger boyfriend, it seemed like he was the odd one out.
So we have this guy who was either a stud or fat, smooth or awkward, caring or standoffish, a good or bad worker, and maybe knew a Klan member. He was dating Hae, and he saw her at least once in the last 24 hours of her life.
Hae and Don went out or hung out together the evening of January 12. According to Don via Sarah, Hae wanted to spend the night and/or spend the next day with Don as well, so she asked him to call the school, pretend to be an authority, and say she couldn't make it to class. Don refused, supposedly because he was filling in at the Hunt Valley Lenscrafters on what was supposed to be his day off (however, he probably wasn't scheduled to work). Eventually Hae drove home, and she called Don when she got back to her house. She stayed up late talking on the phone, and they made plans to meet up the night of Jan 13 after Hae got off work at 10:00pm.
When Hae left school on Jan 13, it was with the intent to "go do something" before she picked up her cousin. The only plausible thing I can think she was going to do was meet up with Don. He probably wasn't working that day, and they might have paged each other during the day to set up a quick meeting. It's my opinion (based off the profile delivered by Jim Clemente) that Don and Hae did meet up, and an incident occurred between them in which Hae was accidentally killed. Again, this is only my logical speculation, so it might not be true. However, it does inform some of my opinions of Don.
During the investigation into Hae's disappearance, Don talked to (at least) 2 different cops, Hae's friend Debbie, and Mandy Johnson. Don told roughly the same story to everyone (he was working; he doesn't know where Hae is). The story evolves slightly to include speculation that Hae might have gone to California, but it's unclear whether that came from Debbie, Mandy, or Don himself. Pretty early on, Don dropped off the suspect list.
It was only later during the trials that issues with Don's alibi started to arise. Adnan's defense team requested Don's work records from Lenscrafters, and they were provided with documentation that Don did not work on 13 January. Within days, the prosecution requested the same information, and it seems they received the same documents. Prosecutor Urick then called Lenscrafters and apparently made some comment suggesting there should be additional records. The next day, both the prosecution and defense received a letter addressed to Urick containing an odd-looking record of Don's work at the Hunt Valley Lenscrafters on 13 and 16 Jan. The letter also specifically states the manager of the Hunt Valley store is Don's mother. Based on investigation done by Bob and Susan, the Hunt Valley timesheet seems forged because it uses a different and non-sequential employee number. Bob also determined that timesheets must be fixed by the end of each pay period, and only managers can view and alter other employees' timesheets. Since there's a record of Cathy at Owings-Mills reporting Don's exact "hours worked" on 04 February, it seems that Don's mothers were helping him create a false work record before it was public knowledge that Hae had been killed.
I believe Don was a somewhat ordinary looking blonde-haired, blue-eyed young man who was quiet and a bit shy. I think by age 20-21 he'd come a long way since high school. He'd lost weight, gotten a cool haircut, and bought a sports car. He also had a job, which, even though his mom helped him get it, gave him more confidence to interact with others. Don didn't have a lot of luck with girls (he was still a little awkward, after all), but he did enjoy dating an outgoing girl like Hae.
I believe Don was also deeply troubled. He didn't have a lot of friends, he had a rocky family situation, and he may have had philosophical dilemmas that disturbed him. He may have been depressed. He may have been using drugs. He may have been interested in BD/SM or violence.
I think Don killed Hae. I'm not convinced Don meant to kill Hae, and I'm not convinced killing Hae makes him a completely bad person. When he talked to Sarah about still loving Hae, that could be equally creepy or genuine. I have a "Burke Ramsey Test" for possible offenders: Did they kill anyone else? Do they have a productive life now? If the answers are no and yes respectively, I'm ready to forgive the offender. I don't know the answers for Don. I don't know how I should feel about him. And that leaves me exactly where I started, with nothing.
