Serial became a surprise hit on iTunes this fall, with listeners following along with Sarah Koenig as she investigated the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee. Koeng spoke to several people linked to the case, but didn’t speak with Jay Wilds, the prosecution’s star witness who helped Lee’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, get convicted of the murder. Wilds is now speaking out, a week after the finale.
Lee was 18-years-old when she was murdered. Syed, 17 at the time of the murder, was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison. Wilds’ testimony that he had helped Syed move Lee’s body helped the prosecution get the conviction and without it, Syed probably wouldn’t have even been tried in the murder. Koenig spent part of Serial investigating and challenging Wilds’ testimony.
Wilds finally spoke out in an interview with The Intercept on Monday. In the first part of the interview, Wilds goes over meeting Syed and becoming friends with him. He also discusses first hearing that Syed wanted to hurt Lee.
“We were in the car, we were riding, smoking,” Wilds said of the first time he heard of problems between Syed and Lee. “He just started opening up. It’s in the evening after school, we never hung out in the morning. Just normal conversation like, ‘I think she’s f***ing around. I’m gonna kill that b**ch, man.’ Nothing real pointed or anything, not like, ‘I know his name,’ or ‘I caught her.’”
Wilds said he didn’t think of it at first because Syed didn’t ask him specific questions about how to murder someone.
As Entertainment Weekly points out, Wilds said that his role as a weed dealer was part of the reason why he helped Syed bury Lee. Wilds claims that Syed told him he would tell police about Wilds’ criminal activity if he didn’t help him.
“He said, ‘You’ve gotta help me, or I’m gonna tell the cops about you and the weed and all that s**t.’ And then he popped the trunk and I saw Hae’s body,” Wilds told The Intercept. “She looked kinda purple, blue, her legs were tucked behind her, she had stockings on, none of her clothes were removed, nothing like that.”
Wilds story was inconsistent during the police investigation and it wasn’t until they told him that they weren’t interested in his drug deals that he decided to really tell them his version of events. Wilds also said that he wasn’t the anonymous caller who led police to Syed and still doesn’t know who that was.
The Intercept will be publishing two more parts from Wilds interview soon. You can listen to episodes of Serial on iTunes.