Given everything I know so far, I have a theory about what happened on January 13 and the days following-leading all the way up to Adnan's arrest. My theory is a little meandering, and I'm a lot more interested in explaining some things than others (sorry). I feel like I'm informed (I'm well versed in the information that's publically available), but I'm just a person, a fan if you will. I'm not a lawyer or an investigator, and I have no reasons for anything I've come up with other than logical deduction and speculation. So, here it is. Enjoy.
On Wednesday, January 13, Adnan and Hae arrived at school as usual. Hae attended all her classes with no interruptions. She'd been interviewed for a cable news program the previous week, but there were no big interruptions to her school day on the 13th. Hae also had no specific plans for the time right after school. There were no sporting events for her to attend. The only things on her agenda were to pick up her cousin at about 3:30, then go to work at 6:00pm. After that, she hoped to hang out with her new boyfriend Don.
Adnan attended his classes in the morning. He gave Stephanie a gift for her birthday. He wondered if Jay had gotten her a birthday gift, and Adnan had the idea to lend Jay his car to go shopping. It's not clear whether they had already made this plan (Jay seemed to borrow Adnan's car regularly on track practice days) or if Adnan just came up with it, but regardless, at this point in the day, Adnan figured he'd be without his car in the afternoon. During the morning classes, Adnan asked Hae if she could give him a ride around the school for track practice in the afternoon. Because track didn't start immediately after school, giving Adnan a ride to track would probably also include hanging out with Adnan for a little bit before or after the actual driving part. They were still good friends, and it seemed they enjoyed hanging out. Hae had given such rides to Adnan before, and she seemed to have no problem doing so and making it to her cousin's school in time. When Adnan asked for the ride, Hae said yes.
When Adnan asked Hae, he may have said his car was in the shop or implied that another family member had the car. Adnan may have avoided telling her that he was planning to let Jay borrow it.
Mid-morning, Adnan went out to his car and pulled his phone out of the glove box to get in touch with Jay. Adnan would drive to Jay's house, they would maybe hang out for a bit or go somewhere together, and then Jay would drop him off back at school and borrow the car for the rest of the school day. Jay would buy a birthday gift for Stephanie, and then maybe use the car to get other errands done.
During the time Adnan and Jay were conversing (maybe on the phone or in person), I think Adnan said something that Jay found offensive. Both Adnan and Jay were having relationship issues. (Adnan and Hae had broken up, and now Hae was dating Don. Jay had been steady with Stephanie for at least 4 years, but Adnan seemed to think Jay was cheating on her. Adnan told Hae about this, and Hae wanted to tell Stephanie, but Adnan convinced her not to. On top of that, Jay was suspicious Adnan was cheating on Hae with Stephanie.) Both were aware of the other's relationship issues, and one purpose of their jaunt was to buy a gift for Jay's girlfriend (to whom Adnan had already given a gift). I can imagine Adnan saying something goofy and thoughtless, like, "Man, Hae's so annoying. If she accuses me of being cold again, I might kill her. Or forget to buy her a birthday present." I think it's highly possible that Adnan said something that Jay could later use to implicate him. Given the context of the interaction, girls, the annoyance of girls, and Jay's personal shortcomings (as compared to Adnan's strengths) could have been topics of conversation. And I think Jay could have been pissed off by it. Adnan could have also mentioned something about getting a ride from Hae later, and the various possible outcomes of that interaction (frustration, reconciliation, etc.)
Even if he was angry, Jay kept up what he was doing. It was beneficial for him to keep up his relationship with Adnan because Adnan let him use the car. Eventually Jay dropped Adnan back off at school, where he attended his afternoon class after a slightly late arrival.
Meanwhile, Hae attended her own afternoon class. She knew she'd agreed to give Adnan a ride, but maybe she didn't want to do that after all. Hae may have come up with a different plan for her afternoon, like swing by a secret location to see Don. Hae might have paged him (or maybe he paged her) to set up a romantic meeting. Perhaps they set up a system where Hae could pick up Don somewhere on her way to her cousin's school and he would ride with her to the early learning center and to drop off the cousin at home, then Hae and Don could hang out until it was time for Hae to go to work.
Regardless of what Hae's plan was, she saw Adnan during the last bit of the school day, and she told him something had come up and she couldn't give the ride after all. Adnan said it was fine.
When school let out at 2:15, Adnan stopped by the guidance counselor's office to pick up his college recommendation letter. Then he meandered over to the library to check his e-mail before track practice. In the library, Adnan saw Asia McLean, who was bored and eager to engage with a classmate. They chatted for a bit (maybe 15 minutes to half an hour), and then Asia's boyfriend Derrick and his friend Jarod came to pick her up.
Sometime during Adnan's time in the library, Hae left school. She could have hung out at school for a few minutes, or she could have left right after the bell rang at 2:15. Hae went to her car and drove out of the parking lot. She may have stopped at the snack bar for some apple juice. (The apple juice bottle was found in her car; it could have been from that day, or it could have been old. No hot fries were found in the car or in her stomach contents. Creepy thought: If Hae did in fact buy hot fries the day she went missing, it's possible the killer took/ate them...)
Hae drove to the location to meet Don, perhaps it was the parking lot of a hotel. They sat in Don's car (Hae possibly brought her wallet and keys with her), and they might have talked a little about their days, or maybe their feelings. Hae was still feeling a little conflicted about dating Don when she still kind of liked Adnan. Then they may have started to have sex (probably didn't make it past second base). That's when things started to go very wrong...
A bit before 3:30, Adnan went to track practice. Because he was fasting for Ramadan, he didn't have to practice with the team, but he did walk or jog around the outdoor track and spend some time conversing with his coach, Michael Sye. They discussed the significance of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, Jay was enjoying his grand day out with Adnan's car. Perhaps Adnan showed Jay his cell phone in the glove box, or maybe Jay found it on his own. Though he wasn't specifically given permission to borrow it, Jay used Adnan's phone to call around to his friends (and maybe his dealer, whose phone number may eventually be assigned the euphemistic name "Jenn's pager"). The phone gave Jay some trouble, as the auto-fill feature caused him to accidentally call some of Adnan's friends while trying to get in touch with his own friends. In some order (it's messy), Jay bought a birthday gift for Steph, hung out with his best friend (and possibly booty call) Jenn Pusateri (maybe around 1pm), possibly hung out with her brother Mark as well, and drove around town running errands (buying a soda at a gas station and buying pot seem to both be part of the narrative). I'm not going to go into the specific details of the call log and who was called at what time from what location. Some of it's important, sure, but I also know that teens sometimes do silly things, like use a cell phone to call the landline of the house they're currently in. So when it looks like things don't line up, it might end up being no big deal.
Between 3:30 and 4:00, Hae's cousin's school called Hae's home phone. Hae's brother Young picked up and got the message that the little cousin hadn't been picked up and someone needed to come get her. Young called his grandfather to go get the cousin, and he and other family members started looking for Hae. After an hour of searching, Hae's family called the police to report her missing.
As her family was searching for her, Hae was already dead. During or after their tryst, Don became physically violent with Hae. He may have been high, or perhaps wires got crossed in his brain. He might have been interested in BD/SM and wanting to experiment. Hae's head was hit against the car window or door, and Don wrapped his hands, or maybe a piece of thick string, around Hae's throat.
He may not have meant to kill her. It could have been a "rough sex" accident. Or it's possible Don mentally wasn't all there when he strangled her. It's also an option that he got angry with Hae if she said something about still loving Adnan. (Don did mention to Sarah on Serial that he'd had girls cheat on him before, maybe thought Hae was too and decided he'd had enough.) Don was shaken and confused. His car was parked next to Hae's, and he opened the doors of both cars, unsure of what to do. He might have thrown something in a dumpster there in a parking lot (perhaps her wallet), or he might have shifted items between his car and Hae's (like her shoes). It's also possible he found the T-shirt rag in Hae's car and used it to wipe a little bit of musousy blood from her face. Once he was satisfied with the arrangement, Don drove away with Hae's body in his car. He left her car in the parking lot.
He might have driven the car to one of his parents' houses. It's also possible that on this warm afternoon, he pulled over to leave Hae's body in "the woods" before driving her car to his residence. Wherever he left her, Hae did end up face down for a period of at least 8 hours. It's possible Don was regretful and did not want to see her face. He also didn't want to touch her any more than necessary, and he didn't rearrange her clothes when they got displaced from their earlier romantic interaction and/or carrying her body.
When track practice ended in the early evening (maybe around 5:00, it's not clear from the timeline), Adnan got in touch with Jay and asked to be picked up from track. Jay drove to the school and Adnan got in the car with him. Because it was after sunset at that point, Adnan could break fast. They went and got some food, maybe at McDonalds (awkward and unimportant question: Was Adnan committed to eating halal? Is McDonalds halal?) After eating, Adnan and Jay smoked a little and made a few phone calls. Adnan and Jay both received calls as well-some of Jay's friends were getting back in touch after he'd called them earlier, and some of Adnan's friends were calling. Hae's BFF Aisha called Adnan to tell him Hae was missing and the police had called her. She expected them to call Adnan as well. And not long after, Adnan got calls (or possibly a singular call where the phone was passed back and forth) from Hae's brother and Officer Adcock. Adnan was confused, taken aback, and worried about them finding out he was high.
Meanwhile, at about 7:00pm, Don arrived at his father's house. Don sr. told his son to call the Lenscrafters at Owings-Mills, as they had tried to get in touch with him. Don jr. called his place of work and probably spoke to his stepmother (his mother's partner) Cathy, the store manager. Cathy told him Hae was a no-show for her shift, and she asked if Don knew where she was. Don said no, he did not.
At about 7:30, Jay dropped Adnan off at the mosque so he could attend evening prayers. While he was there, Adnan interacted with his family, mosque president Mr. Patel, Mr. Patel's son Saad Patel, and youth leader Bilal Ahmed. Because Adnan was planning to lead prayers the next night, he went over his notes with Bilal.
Adnan was at the mosque for at least an hour, perhaps longer. When he finished there, Jay picked Adnan up again. Then they went to a location to drop Jay off so Adnan could take his car and go home. It's unclear exactly where Jay was dropped off (maybe at his house, which might actually be his mother's or grandmother's house, or maybe at Westview mall), but somewhere in there Jay got dropped off somewhere and met up with Jenn.
Then Adnan went home. There was a storm warning in effect, but it hadn't started raining or snowing yet. He called a few more friends, and he went to bed.
Around midnight, Don either placed Hae back in his car, or he drove back to the place where he left her body. If a storm was coming, he needed to get her hidden quickly. He drove Leakin Park, parked by the side of the road, and took her body (or went to find her body) in the woods. When he was in far enough that he couldn't easily see the road, he glanced around for a good place. He saw a large downed tree with a natural depression in front of it, and Don put Hae's body there. She was still in rigor, so it was a bit difficult to get her into the hole. Her arm stayed bent at an awkward angle. Don pushed her carelessly into the depression and covered her with dirt. Work done, Don left Leakin Park, got back in his Camaro, and started driving back to his residence. When he got home, he realized the police had been trying to get in touch with him. He either returned or got another call, and he told officer Adcock he had been working at Lenscrafters all day, even though he had not.
While Don was burying Hae, at least one car drove by. The driver, Mr. Sellers, didn't see anything immediately criminal, but he was definitely suspicious. He decided to keep it in mind and investigate later. He was in Leakin Park, driving through it on his way to work, all the time, after all.
Sometime overnight, the weather turned to a terrible ice storm. The following day, Thursday, 14 January, school was closed. However, Adnan and his family were still able to attend the prayers at the mosque, and Adnan led prayers as scheduled. School was closed again on Friday, 15 January. In the evening, Adnan attended Krista's 18th birthday party. He, Jay, and Stephanie drove there together.
On January 16th, the weather had cleared up and Don went back to the hotel parking lot to get Hae's car. He drove it back to his father's house and left it in the garage. As soon as he finished the task, he spoke to his mother and stepmother. Though he did not tell them anything he and done, he told them he could be in trouble and asked for help establishing an alibi. Anita and Cathy helped Don create work records for the Hunt Valley Lenscrafters, where they would say he was "covering" for another employee.
By 19 January, the students at Woodlawn High School were back in class, and they were beginning to get worried about Hae. Most of Hae's friends knew she had a new boyfriend, and some of them thought she was probably with him.
Debbie was so convinced of this that she set up an e-mail account to get in touch with Don. Don replied to the messages and told her he didn't know anything about where Hae was. As a quieter guy, Don was much more confident behind the keyboard.
Around this time, Hae's family hired Mandy Johnson of the Enehey group to help with the investigation. Mandy interviewed Don and asked questions about Hae's disappearance. She didn't seem to think Don was a viable suspect, and she threw around some suggestions about where Hae might be, like perhaps trying to travel to California. Don remained casual and went along with Mandy's suggestions.
Eventually, Hae's friend Debbie decided to call Don. They spoke on the phone for a long time (I personally think 7 hours is an exaggeration, but 3 or 4 might be accurate). Debbie asked a lot of questions about Don personally as well as about his relationship with Hae. Up until Hae died, she and Don hadn't had any issues. It was fairly easy for him to provide the answers she was looking for and put up a front of ignorance. One benefit of this "Shaggy Defense" (wasn't me) was that there were no detailed lies to keep track of.
On January 22, Detective O'Shea was put in charge of Hae's case. He was making the rounds, calling and interviewing Hae's friends. He got in touch with Don, and Don gave the same story he'd told the police before. He didn't know where Hae was, and he was working on the day she went missing. He also added some of the details he'd worked out with Mandy and Debbie, like that Hae might have gone to California.
Adnan continued to hang out with Jay sporadically. They got together after school on 22 January. Jay gave Adnan a particularly strong smoke, and it made him feel loopy and sick. Jay took Adnan to a friend's apartment to recover. Kristy and Jeff were surprised to see Jay and a random friend on their doorstep. Kristy had just come home after a long day at a conference for her college program and really just wanted to watch TV in peace, but she let them come in and hang out.
While at Kristy and Jeff's Adnan got a phone call. It was from Yassur, who told him the police were making calls again. Adnan was confused and paranoid. He couldn't believe it was happening again: the police calling when he was high (What am I going to do? What am I going to say?). He asked if Kristy or Jay had any ideas on how to get rid of a high, but there was nothing to do. When O'Shea called, Adnan did his best to sound coherent and say that he didn't know anything. Adnan was being honest, but Kristy and Jay thought he sounded guilty.
Over the next few days, Jay thought long and hard about Hae's case-and how Adnan was related to it. Hae had been missing for over a week. Adnan might have made a rude comment about her, maybe referenced hurting her (though probably not seriously). Now he'd heard Adnan talking on the phone about Hae's case, and he sounded paranoid and guilty. Jay had a little bit of a beef with Adnan, since Adnan knew about Jay's cheating and had spoken to Hae about it. Plus, there was a reward offered for information about Hae's disappearance. Jay didn't know all the facts, but he was smart and fudging the details to make a good story came easily to him. He was also prone to the very human condition of inexact memories. Jay may have thought he remembered borrowing Adnan's car on the same day they visited Kristy and Jeff, and that added to the plausibility of his idea that Adnan did it.
On 1 February, Jay decided to make an anonymous call. He didn't really have evidence to present, but he told the officer on the other end to look into Adnan. Jay knew Adnan was Muslim, and Muslims might have issues with dating, so he mentioned a mutual friend of his and Adnan's who also happened to be Muslim (Yassur), and added that maybe Hae's body had been dumped in a lake.
On 4 February, Don drove Hae's car into Baltimore County and abandoned it. He got rid of her keys in the county as well. He was eager to get rid of any evidence that could link her to him. Later in the day, the police contacted Don again to ask about his alibi. Don confirmed he had been "working." The police then called Cathy at Owings-Mills Lenscrafters, and she also confirmed the alibi from the forged work record.
That same day, the newspaper and the televised news both covered Hae's story. Jay was at a bar with Jenn and some other friends. They saw a news clip about Hae on the bar's TV, and they discussed it a bit. Jay, who now believed Adnan was the culprit, talked about it with his friends. This may have led to one of the friends, Nicole, telling the group a story about how her mother found a body in Leakin Park the previous year. Jenn, who may have been under the influence or freaked out about the story at the time, later misremembered the story as Nicole's mother finding Hae's strangled body.
By 6 February, the cops were acting on Jay's tip. Over the next several days, they searched the areas near Woodlawn High School with cadaver dogs and ran a background check on Adnan.
Around this time, Mr. Sellers got around to poking about in Leakin Park to investigate the suspicious something he'd seen back in January. He parked his car by the side of the road and wandered into the woods. After some searching, he came across Hae's buried body. Some of her hair, one of her feet, and her hip were exposed. The bad weather in January had smoothed the dirt so it didn't look disturbed, but it had also moved the dirt off her body in those few places. Mr. Sellers didn't touch anything, and he started trying to concoct a story about how would tell the police.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Sellers, someone had seen him meandering around the concrete barriers around the edge of the park, just as he had seen Don.
A couple days later, 9 February, Mr. Sellers had come up with his story and was ready to tell the police. He told the campus police at his work first, then met the city police in Leakin Park to show them the body (which he had a little trouble relocating). Finally they went to the police station to go over Mr. Sellers' story. As a convicted criminal, Mr. Sellers carefully wove a tale of an innocent stop on the way to work where he happened to find the body.
The following day, the story of the discovery of Hae's body hit the news. The day after that, Mr. A called the police to report Mr. Sellers, the suspicious black man in a light colored car he had seen poking around in Leakin Park. (Note: Mr. A reports the man he say as "young," and Mr. Sellers probably didn't fit that description. However, I believe Mr. Sellers may have been slight, which might have made him appear younger.) The police didn't note a day or time for the incident Mr. A reported, and they didn't investigate it further. Maybe because they knew it was Mr. Sellers and figured it didn't matter because he didn't seem to be the perp. Or maybe they chose not to look into it because the suspicious person didn't match Adnan's description.
On 12 February, the cops made a move to try to get more information. They released information on an anonymous tip supposedly received that day. In fact, no tip was actually received. They were just recycling. This 12 February tip contained the same information as Jay's 1 February anonymous call, but some of the information was changed around. References Jay made to Hae's body were replaced with references to Hae's car, which was still missing.
While all this was happening, though Adnan was deeply saddened when Hae's body was found, his life went on. He went to school, sports, mosque, and hung out with friends. He still spent time with Jay as usual. On Valentine's Day, Adnan visited Jay at the porn video store where he worked. Adnan called his new love interest, Nisha, while he was there and let Jay say hello to her.
On 15 Feb Mandy of the Enehey Group provided the police with an analysis of Muslim culture that practically told them Adnan was guilty of Hae's murder. Jay may have started the ball rolling in that direction, but the cultural analysis drove it home. The following day, the police subpoenaed Adnan's phone records.
Around this time, the cops got in touch with Jay. Maybe they contacted him, or maybe he contacted them. Maybe at this point he identified himself as the first anonymous caller. At least once, he missed work at the porn store to go talk to the cops. Though there are no notes or official records, the police and Jay formed an alliance. Jay exaggerated what he knew, let the police think he was an expert who would help them solve the crime, and secured a deal for a reward, plus some extent of witness protection.
In the same time frame, Hae's family and the Korean community begged the cops to do a helicopter flyover to search for Hae's car. The police refused on the record, but 24 February they decided to do the aerial search anyway. Lo and behold, they ended up locating the car where it was dumped in Baltimore County. This location, though easily accessible, had no connection to their prime suspect (Adnan) or prime witness (Jay). In order to strengthen the case, the police decided to move the car to an area closer to Jay's grandmother's house. This would make it much more feasible for Jay to "find" the car and seal up the case against Adnan. The cops hotwired the car and moved it, all off the record.
To make it seem they were acting on the phone records rather than Jay's tip, the police got in touch with both Adnan and Jenn before they spoke to Jay again.
During his interview, Adnan was reluctant to say anything because his parents were present. He admitted to knowing Hae and maybe having a romantic relationship, but denied asking her for a ride even though he'd admitted to it in an earlier police phone call. Maybe the cop framed the question differently (a ride home vs. a ride around the parking lot), or maybe Adnan just didn't want his dad to find out.
When the police got to Jenn's house, she was with Kristy. Jenn initially refused to talk to the police, and she immediately went to go ask Jay want to do. She smoothed out the story with Jay, who told her the fully embellished version of his "Adnan did it" story and convinced her to corroborate it. Jenn's best buds relationship and/or possible romantic involvement with Jay convinced her to believe him and do as he asked.
The next day, 27 February, Jenn told the cops Jay's story. Later the police picked up Jay for questioning. They conducted a long pre-interview, during which they helped Jay iron out the story, including the location of the car, and match events to Adnan's phone records. When they were ready, they finally turned on the tape recorder. Jay still had trouble with the story, and the cops helped him along a little.
After the interview concluded in the early morning hours of 28 February, Jay "took" the cops to Hae's car on Edmonson Ave. Despite his difficulties piecing together the story, Jay made good on his promise to help the cops. Now that the cops had the car ("delivered" to them by a "witness") they felt they had enough to move forward and arrest Adnan.
Within hours, Adnan's face was all over the news. He was questioned, charged, and held in police custody to await his bail hearing. As Don watched the proceedings unfold in the media, he slowly breathed a sigh of relief. He had gotten away with it after all. Jay saw the news, too, and spread it around to his friends: Adnan was guilty, and his story was true. Because it had to be, didn't it?
On Wednesday, January 13, Adnan and Hae arrived at school as usual. Hae attended all her classes with no interruptions. She'd been interviewed for a cable news program the previous week, but there were no big interruptions to her school day on the 13th. Hae also had no specific plans for the time right after school. There were no sporting events for her to attend. The only things on her agenda were to pick up her cousin at about 3:30, then go to work at 6:00pm. After that, she hoped to hang out with her new boyfriend Don.
Adnan attended his classes in the morning. He gave Stephanie a gift for her birthday. He wondered if Jay had gotten her a birthday gift, and Adnan had the idea to lend Jay his car to go shopping. It's not clear whether they had already made this plan (Jay seemed to borrow Adnan's car regularly on track practice days) or if Adnan just came up with it, but regardless, at this point in the day, Adnan figured he'd be without his car in the afternoon. During the morning classes, Adnan asked Hae if she could give him a ride around the school for track practice in the afternoon. Because track didn't start immediately after school, giving Adnan a ride to track would probably also include hanging out with Adnan for a little bit before or after the actual driving part. They were still good friends, and it seemed they enjoyed hanging out. Hae had given such rides to Adnan before, and she seemed to have no problem doing so and making it to her cousin's school in time. When Adnan asked for the ride, Hae said yes.
When Adnan asked Hae, he may have said his car was in the shop or implied that another family member had the car. Adnan may have avoided telling her that he was planning to let Jay borrow it.
Mid-morning, Adnan went out to his car and pulled his phone out of the glove box to get in touch with Jay. Adnan would drive to Jay's house, they would maybe hang out for a bit or go somewhere together, and then Jay would drop him off back at school and borrow the car for the rest of the school day. Jay would buy a birthday gift for Stephanie, and then maybe use the car to get other errands done.
During the time Adnan and Jay were conversing (maybe on the phone or in person), I think Adnan said something that Jay found offensive. Both Adnan and Jay were having relationship issues. (Adnan and Hae had broken up, and now Hae was dating Don. Jay had been steady with Stephanie for at least 4 years, but Adnan seemed to think Jay was cheating on her. Adnan told Hae about this, and Hae wanted to tell Stephanie, but Adnan convinced her not to. On top of that, Jay was suspicious Adnan was cheating on Hae with Stephanie.) Both were aware of the other's relationship issues, and one purpose of their jaunt was to buy a gift for Jay's girlfriend (to whom Adnan had already given a gift). I can imagine Adnan saying something goofy and thoughtless, like, "Man, Hae's so annoying. If she accuses me of being cold again, I might kill her. Or forget to buy her a birthday present." I think it's highly possible that Adnan said something that Jay could later use to implicate him. Given the context of the interaction, girls, the annoyance of girls, and Jay's personal shortcomings (as compared to Adnan's strengths) could have been topics of conversation. And I think Jay could have been pissed off by it. Adnan could have also mentioned something about getting a ride from Hae later, and the various possible outcomes of that interaction (frustration, reconciliation, etc.)
Even if he was angry, Jay kept up what he was doing. It was beneficial for him to keep up his relationship with Adnan because Adnan let him use the car. Eventually Jay dropped Adnan back off at school, where he attended his afternoon class after a slightly late arrival.
Meanwhile, Hae attended her own afternoon class. She knew she'd agreed to give Adnan a ride, but maybe she didn't want to do that after all. Hae may have come up with a different plan for her afternoon, like swing by a secret location to see Don. Hae might have paged him (or maybe he paged her) to set up a romantic meeting. Perhaps they set up a system where Hae could pick up Don somewhere on her way to her cousin's school and he would ride with her to the early learning center and to drop off the cousin at home, then Hae and Don could hang out until it was time for Hae to go to work.
Regardless of what Hae's plan was, she saw Adnan during the last bit of the school day, and she told him something had come up and she couldn't give the ride after all. Adnan said it was fine.
When school let out at 2:15, Adnan stopped by the guidance counselor's office to pick up his college recommendation letter. Then he meandered over to the library to check his e-mail before track practice. In the library, Adnan saw Asia McLean, who was bored and eager to engage with a classmate. They chatted for a bit (maybe 15 minutes to half an hour), and then Asia's boyfriend Derrick and his friend Jarod came to pick her up.
Sometime during Adnan's time in the library, Hae left school. She could have hung out at school for a few minutes, or she could have left right after the bell rang at 2:15. Hae went to her car and drove out of the parking lot. She may have stopped at the snack bar for some apple juice. (The apple juice bottle was found in her car; it could have been from that day, or it could have been old. No hot fries were found in the car or in her stomach contents. Creepy thought: If Hae did in fact buy hot fries the day she went missing, it's possible the killer took/ate them...)
Hae drove to the location to meet Don, perhaps it was the parking lot of a hotel. They sat in Don's car (Hae possibly brought her wallet and keys with her), and they might have talked a little about their days, or maybe their feelings. Hae was still feeling a little conflicted about dating Don when she still kind of liked Adnan. Then they may have started to have sex (probably didn't make it past second base). That's when things started to go very wrong...
A bit before 3:30, Adnan went to track practice. Because he was fasting for Ramadan, he didn't have to practice with the team, but he did walk or jog around the outdoor track and spend some time conversing with his coach, Michael Sye. They discussed the significance of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, Jay was enjoying his grand day out with Adnan's car. Perhaps Adnan showed Jay his cell phone in the glove box, or maybe Jay found it on his own. Though he wasn't specifically given permission to borrow it, Jay used Adnan's phone to call around to his friends (and maybe his dealer, whose phone number may eventually be assigned the euphemistic name "Jenn's pager"). The phone gave Jay some trouble, as the auto-fill feature caused him to accidentally call some of Adnan's friends while trying to get in touch with his own friends. In some order (it's messy), Jay bought a birthday gift for Steph, hung out with his best friend (and possibly booty call) Jenn Pusateri (maybe around 1pm), possibly hung out with her brother Mark as well, and drove around town running errands (buying a soda at a gas station and buying pot seem to both be part of the narrative). I'm not going to go into the specific details of the call log and who was called at what time from what location. Some of it's important, sure, but I also know that teens sometimes do silly things, like use a cell phone to call the landline of the house they're currently in. So when it looks like things don't line up, it might end up being no big deal.
Between 3:30 and 4:00, Hae's cousin's school called Hae's home phone. Hae's brother Young picked up and got the message that the little cousin hadn't been picked up and someone needed to come get her. Young called his grandfather to go get the cousin, and he and other family members started looking for Hae. After an hour of searching, Hae's family called the police to report her missing.
As her family was searching for her, Hae was already dead. During or after their tryst, Don became physically violent with Hae. He may have been high, or perhaps wires got crossed in his brain. He might have been interested in BD/SM and wanting to experiment. Hae's head was hit against the car window or door, and Don wrapped his hands, or maybe a piece of thick string, around Hae's throat.
He may not have meant to kill her. It could have been a "rough sex" accident. Or it's possible Don mentally wasn't all there when he strangled her. It's also an option that he got angry with Hae if she said something about still loving Adnan. (Don did mention to Sarah on Serial that he'd had girls cheat on him before, maybe thought Hae was too and decided he'd had enough.) Don was shaken and confused. His car was parked next to Hae's, and he opened the doors of both cars, unsure of what to do. He might have thrown something in a dumpster there in a parking lot (perhaps her wallet), or he might have shifted items between his car and Hae's (like her shoes). It's also possible he found the T-shirt rag in Hae's car and used it to wipe a little bit of musousy blood from her face. Once he was satisfied with the arrangement, Don drove away with Hae's body in his car. He left her car in the parking lot.
He might have driven the car to one of his parents' houses. It's also possible that on this warm afternoon, he pulled over to leave Hae's body in "the woods" before driving her car to his residence. Wherever he left her, Hae did end up face down for a period of at least 8 hours. It's possible Don was regretful and did not want to see her face. He also didn't want to touch her any more than necessary, and he didn't rearrange her clothes when they got displaced from their earlier romantic interaction and/or carrying her body.
When track practice ended in the early evening (maybe around 5:00, it's not clear from the timeline), Adnan got in touch with Jay and asked to be picked up from track. Jay drove to the school and Adnan got in the car with him. Because it was after sunset at that point, Adnan could break fast. They went and got some food, maybe at McDonalds (awkward and unimportant question: Was Adnan committed to eating halal? Is McDonalds halal?) After eating, Adnan and Jay smoked a little and made a few phone calls. Adnan and Jay both received calls as well-some of Jay's friends were getting back in touch after he'd called them earlier, and some of Adnan's friends were calling. Hae's BFF Aisha called Adnan to tell him Hae was missing and the police had called her. She expected them to call Adnan as well. And not long after, Adnan got calls (or possibly a singular call where the phone was passed back and forth) from Hae's brother and Officer Adcock. Adnan was confused, taken aback, and worried about them finding out he was high.
Meanwhile, at about 7:00pm, Don arrived at his father's house. Don sr. told his son to call the Lenscrafters at Owings-Mills, as they had tried to get in touch with him. Don jr. called his place of work and probably spoke to his stepmother (his mother's partner) Cathy, the store manager. Cathy told him Hae was a no-show for her shift, and she asked if Don knew where she was. Don said no, he did not.
At about 7:30, Jay dropped Adnan off at the mosque so he could attend evening prayers. While he was there, Adnan interacted with his family, mosque president Mr. Patel, Mr. Patel's son Saad Patel, and youth leader Bilal Ahmed. Because Adnan was planning to lead prayers the next night, he went over his notes with Bilal.
Adnan was at the mosque for at least an hour, perhaps longer. When he finished there, Jay picked Adnan up again. Then they went to a location to drop Jay off so Adnan could take his car and go home. It's unclear exactly where Jay was dropped off (maybe at his house, which might actually be his mother's or grandmother's house, or maybe at Westview mall), but somewhere in there Jay got dropped off somewhere and met up with Jenn.
Then Adnan went home. There was a storm warning in effect, but it hadn't started raining or snowing yet. He called a few more friends, and he went to bed.
Around midnight, Don either placed Hae back in his car, or he drove back to the place where he left her body. If a storm was coming, he needed to get her hidden quickly. He drove Leakin Park, parked by the side of the road, and took her body (or went to find her body) in the woods. When he was in far enough that he couldn't easily see the road, he glanced around for a good place. He saw a large downed tree with a natural depression in front of it, and Don put Hae's body there. She was still in rigor, so it was a bit difficult to get her into the hole. Her arm stayed bent at an awkward angle. Don pushed her carelessly into the depression and covered her with dirt. Work done, Don left Leakin Park, got back in his Camaro, and started driving back to his residence. When he got home, he realized the police had been trying to get in touch with him. He either returned or got another call, and he told officer Adcock he had been working at Lenscrafters all day, even though he had not.
While Don was burying Hae, at least one car drove by. The driver, Mr. Sellers, didn't see anything immediately criminal, but he was definitely suspicious. He decided to keep it in mind and investigate later. He was in Leakin Park, driving through it on his way to work, all the time, after all.
Sometime overnight, the weather turned to a terrible ice storm. The following day, Thursday, 14 January, school was closed. However, Adnan and his family were still able to attend the prayers at the mosque, and Adnan led prayers as scheduled. School was closed again on Friday, 15 January. In the evening, Adnan attended Krista's 18th birthday party. He, Jay, and Stephanie drove there together.
On January 16th, the weather had cleared up and Don went back to the hotel parking lot to get Hae's car. He drove it back to his father's house and left it in the garage. As soon as he finished the task, he spoke to his mother and stepmother. Though he did not tell them anything he and done, he told them he could be in trouble and asked for help establishing an alibi. Anita and Cathy helped Don create work records for the Hunt Valley Lenscrafters, where they would say he was "covering" for another employee.
By 19 January, the students at Woodlawn High School were back in class, and they were beginning to get worried about Hae. Most of Hae's friends knew she had a new boyfriend, and some of them thought she was probably with him.
Debbie was so convinced of this that she set up an e-mail account to get in touch with Don. Don replied to the messages and told her he didn't know anything about where Hae was. As a quieter guy, Don was much more confident behind the keyboard.
Around this time, Hae's family hired Mandy Johnson of the Enehey group to help with the investigation. Mandy interviewed Don and asked questions about Hae's disappearance. She didn't seem to think Don was a viable suspect, and she threw around some suggestions about where Hae might be, like perhaps trying to travel to California. Don remained casual and went along with Mandy's suggestions.
Eventually, Hae's friend Debbie decided to call Don. They spoke on the phone for a long time (I personally think 7 hours is an exaggeration, but 3 or 4 might be accurate). Debbie asked a lot of questions about Don personally as well as about his relationship with Hae. Up until Hae died, she and Don hadn't had any issues. It was fairly easy for him to provide the answers she was looking for and put up a front of ignorance. One benefit of this "Shaggy Defense" (wasn't me) was that there were no detailed lies to keep track of.
On January 22, Detective O'Shea was put in charge of Hae's case. He was making the rounds, calling and interviewing Hae's friends. He got in touch with Don, and Don gave the same story he'd told the police before. He didn't know where Hae was, and he was working on the day she went missing. He also added some of the details he'd worked out with Mandy and Debbie, like that Hae might have gone to California.
Adnan continued to hang out with Jay sporadically. They got together after school on 22 January. Jay gave Adnan a particularly strong smoke, and it made him feel loopy and sick. Jay took Adnan to a friend's apartment to recover. Kristy and Jeff were surprised to see Jay and a random friend on their doorstep. Kristy had just come home after a long day at a conference for her college program and really just wanted to watch TV in peace, but she let them come in and hang out.
While at Kristy and Jeff's Adnan got a phone call. It was from Yassur, who told him the police were making calls again. Adnan was confused and paranoid. He couldn't believe it was happening again: the police calling when he was high (What am I going to do? What am I going to say?). He asked if Kristy or Jay had any ideas on how to get rid of a high, but there was nothing to do. When O'Shea called, Adnan did his best to sound coherent and say that he didn't know anything. Adnan was being honest, but Kristy and Jay thought he sounded guilty.
Over the next few days, Jay thought long and hard about Hae's case-and how Adnan was related to it. Hae had been missing for over a week. Adnan might have made a rude comment about her, maybe referenced hurting her (though probably not seriously). Now he'd heard Adnan talking on the phone about Hae's case, and he sounded paranoid and guilty. Jay had a little bit of a beef with Adnan, since Adnan knew about Jay's cheating and had spoken to Hae about it. Plus, there was a reward offered for information about Hae's disappearance. Jay didn't know all the facts, but he was smart and fudging the details to make a good story came easily to him. He was also prone to the very human condition of inexact memories. Jay may have thought he remembered borrowing Adnan's car on the same day they visited Kristy and Jeff, and that added to the plausibility of his idea that Adnan did it.
On 1 February, Jay decided to make an anonymous call. He didn't really have evidence to present, but he told the officer on the other end to look into Adnan. Jay knew Adnan was Muslim, and Muslims might have issues with dating, so he mentioned a mutual friend of his and Adnan's who also happened to be Muslim (Yassur), and added that maybe Hae's body had been dumped in a lake.
On 4 February, Don drove Hae's car into Baltimore County and abandoned it. He got rid of her keys in the county as well. He was eager to get rid of any evidence that could link her to him. Later in the day, the police contacted Don again to ask about his alibi. Don confirmed he had been "working." The police then called Cathy at Owings-Mills Lenscrafters, and she also confirmed the alibi from the forged work record.
That same day, the newspaper and the televised news both covered Hae's story. Jay was at a bar with Jenn and some other friends. They saw a news clip about Hae on the bar's TV, and they discussed it a bit. Jay, who now believed Adnan was the culprit, talked about it with his friends. This may have led to one of the friends, Nicole, telling the group a story about how her mother found a body in Leakin Park the previous year. Jenn, who may have been under the influence or freaked out about the story at the time, later misremembered the story as Nicole's mother finding Hae's strangled body.
By 6 February, the cops were acting on Jay's tip. Over the next several days, they searched the areas near Woodlawn High School with cadaver dogs and ran a background check on Adnan.
Around this time, Mr. Sellers got around to poking about in Leakin Park to investigate the suspicious something he'd seen back in January. He parked his car by the side of the road and wandered into the woods. After some searching, he came across Hae's buried body. Some of her hair, one of her feet, and her hip were exposed. The bad weather in January had smoothed the dirt so it didn't look disturbed, but it had also moved the dirt off her body in those few places. Mr. Sellers didn't touch anything, and he started trying to concoct a story about how would tell the police.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Sellers, someone had seen him meandering around the concrete barriers around the edge of the park, just as he had seen Don.
A couple days later, 9 February, Mr. Sellers had come up with his story and was ready to tell the police. He told the campus police at his work first, then met the city police in Leakin Park to show them the body (which he had a little trouble relocating). Finally they went to the police station to go over Mr. Sellers' story. As a convicted criminal, Mr. Sellers carefully wove a tale of an innocent stop on the way to work where he happened to find the body.
The following day, the story of the discovery of Hae's body hit the news. The day after that, Mr. A called the police to report Mr. Sellers, the suspicious black man in a light colored car he had seen poking around in Leakin Park. (Note: Mr. A reports the man he say as "young," and Mr. Sellers probably didn't fit that description. However, I believe Mr. Sellers may have been slight, which might have made him appear younger.) The police didn't note a day or time for the incident Mr. A reported, and they didn't investigate it further. Maybe because they knew it was Mr. Sellers and figured it didn't matter because he didn't seem to be the perp. Or maybe they chose not to look into it because the suspicious person didn't match Adnan's description.
On 12 February, the cops made a move to try to get more information. They released information on an anonymous tip supposedly received that day. In fact, no tip was actually received. They were just recycling. This 12 February tip contained the same information as Jay's 1 February anonymous call, but some of the information was changed around. References Jay made to Hae's body were replaced with references to Hae's car, which was still missing.
While all this was happening, though Adnan was deeply saddened when Hae's body was found, his life went on. He went to school, sports, mosque, and hung out with friends. He still spent time with Jay as usual. On Valentine's Day, Adnan visited Jay at the porn video store where he worked. Adnan called his new love interest, Nisha, while he was there and let Jay say hello to her.
On 15 Feb Mandy of the Enehey Group provided the police with an analysis of Muslim culture that practically told them Adnan was guilty of Hae's murder. Jay may have started the ball rolling in that direction, but the cultural analysis drove it home. The following day, the police subpoenaed Adnan's phone records.
Around this time, the cops got in touch with Jay. Maybe they contacted him, or maybe he contacted them. Maybe at this point he identified himself as the first anonymous caller. At least once, he missed work at the porn store to go talk to the cops. Though there are no notes or official records, the police and Jay formed an alliance. Jay exaggerated what he knew, let the police think he was an expert who would help them solve the crime, and secured a deal for a reward, plus some extent of witness protection.
In the same time frame, Hae's family and the Korean community begged the cops to do a helicopter flyover to search for Hae's car. The police refused on the record, but 24 February they decided to do the aerial search anyway. Lo and behold, they ended up locating the car where it was dumped in Baltimore County. This location, though easily accessible, had no connection to their prime suspect (Adnan) or prime witness (Jay). In order to strengthen the case, the police decided to move the car to an area closer to Jay's grandmother's house. This would make it much more feasible for Jay to "find" the car and seal up the case against Adnan. The cops hotwired the car and moved it, all off the record.
To make it seem they were acting on the phone records rather than Jay's tip, the police got in touch with both Adnan and Jenn before they spoke to Jay again.
During his interview, Adnan was reluctant to say anything because his parents were present. He admitted to knowing Hae and maybe having a romantic relationship, but denied asking her for a ride even though he'd admitted to it in an earlier police phone call. Maybe the cop framed the question differently (a ride home vs. a ride around the parking lot), or maybe Adnan just didn't want his dad to find out.
When the police got to Jenn's house, she was with Kristy. Jenn initially refused to talk to the police, and she immediately went to go ask Jay want to do. She smoothed out the story with Jay, who told her the fully embellished version of his "Adnan did it" story and convinced her to corroborate it. Jenn's best buds relationship and/or possible romantic involvement with Jay convinced her to believe him and do as he asked.
The next day, 27 February, Jenn told the cops Jay's story. Later the police picked up Jay for questioning. They conducted a long pre-interview, during which they helped Jay iron out the story, including the location of the car, and match events to Adnan's phone records. When they were ready, they finally turned on the tape recorder. Jay still had trouble with the story, and the cops helped him along a little.
After the interview concluded in the early morning hours of 28 February, Jay "took" the cops to Hae's car on Edmonson Ave. Despite his difficulties piecing together the story, Jay made good on his promise to help the cops. Now that the cops had the car ("delivered" to them by a "witness") they felt they had enough to move forward and arrest Adnan.
Within hours, Adnan's face was all over the news. He was questioned, charged, and held in police custody to await his bail hearing. As Don watched the proceedings unfold in the media, he slowly breathed a sigh of relief. He had gotten away with it after all. Jay saw the news, too, and spread it around to his friends: Adnan was guilty, and his story was true. Because it had to be, didn't it?
