More on Adnan Possibly Requesting a Ride From Hae After Track Practice

Yesterday, I posted an entry speculating about whether the ride that Adnan requested from Hae on January 13, 1999 could have been a ride from track practice to his house or his car. This ride would have been similar to the rides that Hae used to give Adnan from football practice. Given that Hae apparently would give Adnan rides to track practice even after their final breakup, such a scenario seemed within the realm of possibility. That said, it was claim without much support...until an hour or so later.

Soon after my post, the trial transcript from February 24, 2000 was posted. On page 32, Detective Ritz gave the following testimony:

Unfortunately, as with seemingly everything else in this case, Detective Ritz's testimony is confusing. At first, he says that Adnan indicated that Hae "was going to give him a ride home after track practice." Then, later, he testifies that Adnan said that Hae "was going to give him a ride home," but "[s]he didn't show up, so he went on to track practice."

Going to the source material doesn't help. Here's the only report we have from Adcock. It says, "Mr. Syed advised that victim Lee was supposed to give him a ride home, after school, but he was running late and he felt that Victim Lee probably left after waiting a short while." There is no reference at all to track practice and whether the ride was supposed to take place before or after track practice.

This leaves three possibilities: (1) Ritz's testimony was based upon some undisclosed notes or report by Adcock; (2) Ritz's testimony was based upon an unrecorded conversation with Adcock (or possibly someone else, such as Aisha, O'Shea, or Adnan himself); or (3) Ritz was simply mistaken about there being any reference to track practice in connection with the ride request.

I don't know which of these possibilities is the likeliest. What I do know is that there is now at least a reasonable possibility that someone said that Adnan was requesting a ride from Hae after track practice. And that's interesting because no one besides Jay ever places the ride before track practice.

Not at first, of course. In his first recorded interview (pg. 27), Jay says that he has no idea how Adnan got inside Hae's vehicle on January 13, 1999. It's not until his second recorded interview that Jay says Adnan requested a ride from Hae. Interestingly enough, however, in his recent Intercept interview, Jay says that Adnan killed Hae after he went to track practice, placing the ride either after or during track practice. 

Who else was asked about the ride? In between Jay's first and second recorded interviews, Krista was interviewed on March 1, 1999. According to the notes from that interview:

So, as in Adcock's report about his conversation with Adnan, the ride is described as a "ride home," with no mention of going to track practice. In every subsequent statement that Krista has given about the ride request, including her statement on this blog, she hasn't said whether the ride was supposed to occur before or after track practice.

Debbie was later interviewed on March 26th. She did not recall Adnan asking Hae for a ride on January 13th (pg. 21), said that "Takera" asked Hae for a ride after school (pg. 32), and remembered Hae saying she couldn't give a ride because she had to pick up her cousin (pg. 32).

Becky was interviewed on April 4th. She recalled hearing about the ride request at lunch and Hae telling Adnan at the end of school that she couldn't give him a ride because she had "something else" to do (pg. 30). She didn't mention when the ride was supposed to occur. Finally, Stephanie was interviewed on April 7th. She did not recall Adnan saying he would get a ride on January 13, 1999 but did recall that Adnan's car had been in the shop, meaning that it was not unusual for him to catch a "ride home" (pg. 94). 

So, where does that leave us? I've speculated for a while that the ride requested by Adnan on January 13, 1999 could have been a "ride home," just as written in Adcock's report and the notes from Krista's first interview. That said, my speculation had always been that this was a ride before track practice.

Now, however, based on Ritz's testimony and Jay's statements to The Intercept, there's seems to be a decent chance that Adnan was never supposed to get a ride from Hae until after track practice. And, given that Hae ostensibly was apprehended before track practice and before she was supposed to pick up her cousin at 3:15 P.M., such a scenario would make the ride request irrelevant.

-CM