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[Horseticuffs]

I had never heard of Belle Gunness either. I'm only on episode 5 but that story and the one about the guy who murdered his own family, pled insanity and then was set free in under 10 years were both terrifying to me.

Oh man, the Canadian fellow? That dude had some serious problems and his psychosis mainly manifested in like 43 days.

 

[FutureZombie]

FYI- Undisclosed's first episode is out: http://undisclosed-podcast.com/

I'm finding it somewhat difficult to listen to since it moves so fast and requires that you remember everything from Serial.

 

[VanMardigan]

It's terrible. Hard to take seriously too, I wish they had at least one person there willing to look at the evidence and draw the most logical conclusions rather than bend over backwards to accommodate the innocence narrative.

 

[anonymous_abc]

I'm really enjoying sword and scale, but wish they would drop the annoying sound effects all the time.
No need to make it sound like a psychopathic thriller. At first I thought my headphones were bust.

 

[huxley00]

Sword and Scale actually made me depressed. I really enjoyed the first 15-20 episodes or so...then it just goes into this crazy snuff podcast. It goes from analyzing crime and terrible situations to just going for shock horror. Some of the worst cases

1. Playing audio of man being beaten to death with a hammer. You can hear the blows on his head and blood gurgling in his throat. They play this for several minutes.

2. Audio of a taped murder where the perpetrator stabs his victim to death with an ice pick in the belly, cuts his arm off and uses it to jerk himself off and then decapitates the body and starts having sex with it.

This podcast is not for the faint of heart. I think I just listened to it too often, I listened to about 7 episodes a day between my car and at work...it was just too much *shudder*.

I noticed I felt down all day, was crabby with my girflriend, didnt feel like doing anything and suddenly realized that this all started after listening to this podcast. I think it was just too emotionally draining!

 

[blackflag]

Sword and Scale actually made me depressed. I really enjoyed the first 15-20 episodes or so...then it just goes into this crazy snuff podcast. It goes from analyzing crime and terrible situations to just going for shock horror. Some of the worst cases

1. Playing audio of man being beaten to death with a hammer. You can hear the blows on his head and blood gurgling in his throat. They play this for several minutes.

2. Audio of a taped murder where the perpetrator stabs his victim to death with an ice pick in the belly, cuts his arm off and uses it to jerk himself off and then decapitates the body and starts having sex with it.

This podcast is not for the faint of heart. I think I just listened to it too often, I listened to about 7 episodes a day between my car and at work...it was just too much *shudder*.

I noticed I felt down all day, was crabby with my girflriend, didnt feel like doing anything and suddenly realized that this all started after listening to this podcast. I think it was just too emotionally draining!

It occasionally gets like that but OMG everyone should listen to the last 2 episodes.

It's about a guy on death row in Texas and I think it's pretty clear the victims cop fiancee did it and police helped him cover it up. It's crazy.

There's no 911 audio or audio of anything and it isn't gruesome.

 

[| Praxis |]

Sword and Scale actually made me depressed. I really enjoyed the first 15-20 episodes or so...then it just goes into this crazy snuff podcast. It goes from analyzing crime and terrible situations to just going for shock horror. Some of the worst cases

1. Playing audio of man being beaten to death with a hammer. You can hear the blows on his head and blood gurgling in his throat. They play this for several minutes.

2. Audio of a taped murder where the perpetrator stabs his victim to death with an ice pick in the belly, cuts his arm off and uses it to jerk himself off and then decapitates the body and starts having sex with it.

This podcast is not for the faint of heart. I think I just listened to it too often, I listened to about 7 episodes a day between my car and at work...it was just too much *shudder*.

I noticed I felt down all day, was crabby with my girflriend, didnt feel like doing anything and suddenly realized that this all started after listening to this podcast. I think it was just too emotionally draining!

It's definitely depressing, I've also been listening to multiple episodes a day and can relate. I really like the inclusion of the audio clips though, even if they can be graphic.

The last few have been heavy going, child murders in graphic detail aren't the easiest to listen to at work. Still a very interesting podcast, perhaps not suited for marathon runs.

 

[neojubei]

FYI- Undisclosed's first episode is out: http://undisclosed-podcast.com/

I'm finding it somewhat difficult to listen to since it moves so fast and requires that you remember everything from Serial.

Everyone should listen to the second episode. It shows that Cathy didn't see Adnan on the 13th.

 

[VanMardigan]

It does not show that conclusively. And if it's true, then that's a larger chunk of the day that adnan can't account for, which is even worse if you believe that he is innocent.

 

[huxley00]

It's definitely depressing, I've also been listening to multiple episodes a day and can relate. I really like the inclusion of the audio clips though, even if they can be graphic.

The last few have been heavy going, child murders in graphic detail aren't the easiest to listen to at work. Still a very interesting podcast, perhaps not suited for marathon runs.

It is good and I would say the production values are off the charts, it is very very well done. I guess I just started to become insulted by the host after a while. It almost seemed like the podcast was trying to put a serious and interesting note on terrible crimes. Then I felt like he started to inject his personal opinions into the show too often and started turning it into an HLN or ID television show.

Regardless, this series is better and more interesting than any true crime television that has ever been done.

 

[Horseticuffs]

I can totally see what you guys are saying. I'm on a bit of a hiatus to this show due to catching up on another, but it seems like as the show goes on it becomes more pornographic and like he's taking real joy in describing everything. Hopefully that tones down eventually.

 

[SickBoy]

I've given up on broadly following Serial stuff for the moment. The main subreddit has gone from "polarized and tense" to "burned out cars in the streets." I still pop into Reddit frequently, because it seems like the best place to get find the latest updates on the case (you know if there's a big story, it will land there).

I haven't listened to Undisclosed because I agree with critics that at times it seems like Susan Simpson et. al are throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. To be fair, on the other hand, I do believe that many of her counterpoints or theories regarding the State's case -- argued in front of a jury -- might have flipped the verdict.

I'm still heavily conflicted on whether Adnan did it. But I still feel the same way about the case (that he shouldn't have been convicted). I continue to hope there's some revelation that clearly shows his guilt/innocence... in the absence of that I'll continue watching his efforts to get out, but that's about it.

 

[RustyNails]

Breakthrough for Adnan Syed: Asia's testimony to happen

Adnan Syed, the enigmatic subject of the wildly popular "Serial" podcast, got big news this week.

The Maryland Court Of Special Appeals on Monday handed down a major ruling in Syed's favor that effectively grants him a new evidentiary hearing and opens the door for testimony by a key witness favorable to Syed's case.

Syed's high school friend Asia McClain was never called to testify at his original 1999 trial, in which he was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Syed's current counsel contends that not having McClain testify was a costly mistake by his original attorney, who has since died. McClain wrote an affidavit in 2000 establishing an alibi for Syed and filed another affidavit earlier this year claiming that former Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Urick suppressed her testimony at Syed's 2010 appeal and discouraged her from participating in the trial.

"We are very pleased with the Court of Special Appeals' ruling and we think it's the fair thing to do and it's in the interest of justice that this case be remanded to hear the testimony of Asia McClain," Syed's attorney, C. Justin Brown, told The Huffington Post Monday. "From the beginning we've wanted Asia McClain's testimony to be part of the record and now it looks likely that it'll happen."

The court wrote that its ruling was "in the interest of justice," and will give the Circuit Court for Baltimore City the opportunity to hear McClain's testimony.

According to Brown, the best outcome for Syed will be if McClain's expected testimony provides sufficient information for the the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to grant a new hearing in his case.

Syed, who maintains his innocence, became a household name after a podcast about his case debuted last fall and surpassed a milestone of 5 million downloads. "Serial" is a spinoff of the radio show and podcast "This American Life."

 

[Horseticuffs]

Breakthrough for Adnan Syed: Asia's testimony to happen

Wow! I never thought that would happen. Whether he's truly innocent or not, it's good to see all the evidence taken into consideration finally!

 

[Kevtones]

Didn't Serial themselves discredit Asia's testimony? That the weather patterns and her memory didn't make sense/it was pretty clear cut?

 

[turtle553]

Didn't Serial themselves discredit Asia's testimony? That the weather patterns and her memory didn't make sense/it was pretty clear cut?

They did. But it would still have been a mistake to not let the defense know about it if she was being suppressed from testifying.

 

[EmpressInYellow]

Didn't Serial themselves discredit Asia's testimony? That the weather patterns and her memory didn't make sense/it was pretty clear cut?

Huh, I don't remember it being discredited - at most, I remember there being some doubt, but I feel like I'd remember if they found conclusive evidence that her recollection was false.

 

[turtle553]

Huh, I don't remember it being discredited - at most, I remember there being some doubt, but I feel like I'd remember if they found conclusive evidence that her recollection was false.

http://serialpodcast.org/posts/2014/11/weather-report

I don't remember if it was actually in the show or not.

 

[neojubei]

They did. But it would still have been a mistake to not let the defense know about it if she was being suppressed from testifying.

So true. I had no idea Urick visited Asia. How fucked up is that. I swear this guy seems to try every underhanded thing and gets away with it

 

[Robot Pants]

Breakthrough for Adnan Syed: Asia's testimony to happen

Waste of time though. He definitely did it.

 

[Frog-fu]

Waste of time though. He definitely did it.

How do you listen to the podcast and then come to conclusion he definitely did it? If the podcast has made anything clear is that there isn't enough information to come to any conclusions.

 

[Robot Pants]

How do you listen to the podcast and then come to conclusion he definitely did it? If the podcast has made anything clear is that there isn't enough information to come to any conclusions.

Jay would have had to have been the luckiest guy on earth to have EVERYTHING work out for him if he was simply just framing Adnon, and have Adnon have absolutely ZERO alibi for that day.
All it would have taken was one person to be able to place Adnon and suddenly Jay's story falls apart and then the suspicion shifts to him.
Adnan had a part in it absolutely.

 

[Nothus]

Serial ‏@serial May 28

This week’s big news: We’re working on 2 new seasons at once. Get our newsletter for the latest straight from Sarah.

Anyone else see this tweet from the Serial twitter account yesterday? Seems like they're working on 2 new seasons at once! Bit of an odd approach to take for a weekly podcast.

 

[Ophelion]

Anyone else see this tweet from the Serial twitter account yesterday? Seems like they're working on 2 new seasons at once! Bit of an odd approach to take for a weekly podcast.

Probably got a whiff of two things too good to pass up. It will also mean that the gap between season 2 and 3 will be smaller than the gap between 1 and 2.

 

[Nothus]

Probably got a whiff of two things too good to pass up. It will also mean that the gap between season 2 and 3 will be smaller than the gap between 1 and 2.

Yeah you might be right. Anything that reduces the gap between the seasons is fine by me. Either that or the two seasons will be covering the same or related topics.

 

[dLMN8R]

That's cool. I assume it means they'll get further into the investigation before starting each season, and this way they can prepare for future seasons before finishing the next one.

 

[Blader]

That's cool. I assume it means they'll get further into the investigation before starting each season, and this way they can prepare for future seasons before finishing the next one.

Probably not that much further. Season 2 is getting the same year of work that 1 had, and 3 would then have about a year and a half if the spring 2016 air date holds.

 

[Maxwell House]

I don't think anyone takes Undisclosed seriously. Afterall, it's put together by Adnan's close family friends and family. What's the point of a podcast like that? Is it possible to get any input about the case that is impartial from that podcast? Of course not.

 

[ronito]

I binge listened to this and while I get that it's the nature of the medium the ending felt sorta like "LOL IDK GUYZ! But thanks for listening for 12 hours!!" I'm not looking for a hollywood ending but something with a little more closure would've been nice.

As to my opinion? I think legally he should not have been convicted. There's a ton of reasonable doubt. HOWEVER, I can't escape the feeling that there's something going on and that he's not entirely forthright about it. Like pointed out in the show and in this thread either Jay is ridiculously lucky to get everything to line up the way it did and Adnand without a provable alibi or Adnand is ridiculously unlucky. Also something that Hae's new boyfriend brought up strikes a chord when he said, "Of course I remember everything about that day. My new girlfriend goes missing and I get a call from the cops. Who wouldn't remember everything?" Yeah, I got to admit it seems like the natural thing to do to freak out and try and recall everything possible if your newly ex-girlfriend goes missing and the cops call you looking for her. Not saying he did it, but I am saying there's something not right here.

 

[Lights and Waves]

Just finished this series today after binging on it. Not sure if there was "beyond a doubt" evidence to convict, but Adnan most definitely did it IMO.

 

[blackflag]

Just finished this series today after binging on it. Not sure if there was "beyond a doubt" evidence to convict, but Adnan most definitely did it IMO.

That's the way I feel. Like, if I was on the jury, I couldn't convict but I really think he did it.

 

[Vyer]

Came across this article today. Details some of the stuff from the Undisclosed podcast, which as has been discussed obviously has it's own motivations.

Still, some of the information is interesting. It includes:

4. The tapping
The stark difference between the first interview that Wilds, the prosecution’s star witness, had with police and his subsequent meetings is puzzling. How did his initial recollection of a trip to McDonald’s turn into a visit to a friend’s house by the second interview? Audio of the interviews, obtained by Undisclosed, may provide better answers. Several times during the meetings, Wilds seems to transpose events in his narrative or pause for significant periods of time. It is during these moments when a tapping sound is heard and Wilds then corrects his statement or suddenly remembers an answer, followed by an apology to the detectives. “There’s a ‘tap tap,’ and then Jay says, ‘Oh, okay’,” Simpson explains in one episode. “And suddenly a moment later — he knows the answer.” According to Undisclosed, the tapping infers that the detectives were doing so in an attempt to guide Wilds to what they believed to be the correct answer.

5. Who was the anonymous tipster?
First, the facts: there was a CrimeStoppers reward of $3,075 being offered in the case. An indictment typically triggers recovery of the reward. The lead detective on the case would usually report the indictment to CrimeStoppers by the first of the next month, leading to payment of the reward by the following month.

Now, the case: Undisclosed claims Wilds may have wanted the reward money to buy a motorcyle – something police may have known, too. To better understand this, we need to look back at Feb. 12, when someone supposedly made two anonymous calls to Detective Massey, telling him to look into Lee’s ex-boyfriend. This tip allegedly led cops to focus on Syed. On March 18, Wilds went on a ride-along with Detectives Ritz and MacGillivary, retracing his alleged movements on Jan. 13. According to Undisclosed, there are notations in the ride-along notes about a Mr. Brown and a particular type of Suzuki motorcycle that has 9,000 miles. At the end of the notes, the word “REWARD” is written in all caps. Mr. Brown turned out to be Karl Brown, the only person out of the nearly 20 school faculty and staff members interviewed by cops that had no connection to both Syed and Lee. Brown was Wilds’ soccer coach, and he was in the process of trying to sell his Suzuki RF600.

On April 13, Syed was indicted. This should have triggered the recovery of the CrimeStoppers reward, but it didn’t. Fast forward to Sept. 7, when the lead prosecutor, Kevin Urick, allegedly set up a meeting between Wilds and attorney Anne Benaroya, who agreed to represent him pro bono, and hashed out a plea deal that same day that ultimately resulted in Wilds’ getting no prison time after testifying against Syed at trial. Undisclosed learned that the full $3,075 reward was paid out to the tipster on Nov. 1. Though nothing can be confirmed until the tipster’s identity is revealed, the podcast believes all signs point to Wilds being the person who made the CrimeStoppers tip. Anyone else could have presumably recovered the reward money by June since the indictment occurred two months prior. The hosts imply that the Nov. 1 payment on the tip could mean the detectives were waiting for Wilds’ plea deal before reporting the indictment to CrimeStoppers based on the fear of Wilds backing out of the case after getting the reward. They claim it could be possible that Wilds was interested in the reward money to buy Brown’s motorcycle, even though it was ultimately sold to someone else. If the tipster does turn out to be Wilds, the failure to disclose this information would be a Constitutional violation that would lead to a new trial.

 

[PantherLotus]

If you're bumping this and the new run hasn't started, you've made a mistake.

 

[Tom_Cody]

Came across this article today. Details some of the stuff from the Undisclosed podcast, which as has been discussed obviously has it's own motivations.

Still, some of the information is interesting. It includes:

Super interesting.

 

[VanMardigan]

Lol, Jay framed Adnan for a motorcycle. This is just embarrassing now, there have to be better theories of Adnan's innocence than that and finger tapping.

 

[Vyer]

If you're bumping this and the new run hasn't started, you've made a mistake.

that would be a thread about s2 I would imagine.

Lol, Jay granted Adnan for a motorcycle. This is just embarrassing now, there have to be better theories of Adnan's innocence than that and finger tapping.

yeah, I don't think Adnan being innocent, if that's their goal, has much to stand on. But it's pretty clear they are going for an approach that has more to do with the validity of the trial/conviction.

 

[SummitAve]

Lol, Jay framed Adnan for a motorcycle. This is just embarrassing now, there have to be better theories of Adnan's innocence than that and finger tapping.

Lol, I'm glad you weren't working the case!

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

I'm still waiting on the DNA to get sampled. It might be a few years, if ever. Totally burned out on this case otherwise.

 

[Fantastical]

Just relistened, very entertaining on a second listen.

Also... is Sword and Scale supposed to be cheesy? Because it is very cheesy and the host annoys the shit out of me. In the first episode about that guy who killed his whole family he's like "He could even be living... AS YOUR NEIGHBOR!!!!!! DUN DUN DUN!!"

I am finding some of the stories interesting me but also it's pretty stupid sometimes.

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

I spent about 20 minutes last night getting up to date.

Apparently, there are many entries in Hae's diary describing Adnan's controlling behaviour that didn't make it into the show. Rabia took excerpts of these to make it appear that Hae was a drug user (Rabia's theory is that Hae was murdered in a drug deal gone badly), even though when they are in their full context it's obvious she's alluding to a TV show (Oz) and not her personal experience. Images of Hae's corpse reveal the lividity theory put forward by Rabia is invalid. Uncovered interviews with Nisha confirm that the phone call happened when we thought it did -- probably not a butt dial after all. I don't think Sarah and her crew bothered to read through the primary source documents very carefully, if at all.

I am highly disappointed by this podcast, and I am disgusted by Rabia Chaudrey and the other assholes who are using this case to catapult their careers. As more details emerge, I am more and more satisfied with the verdict.

I still think Adnan should not be in prison for life, but that reflects my views of how a justice system should work, not whether he's guilty or innocent.

I wish I hadn't listened to this podcast because I indirectly contributed to the circus that ensued, and I will no longer be able to enjoy Sarah Koennig's future work as much (I was a huge fan of hers in the past) because I now dislike her professionally and personally. All in all, fuck this show.

 

[CopperPuppy]

I spent about 20 minutes last night getting up to date.

Apparently, there are many entries in Hae's diary describing Adnan's controlling behaviour that didn't make it into the show. Rabia took excerpts of these to make it appear that Hae was a drug user (Rabia's theory is that Hae was murdered in a drug deal gone badly), even though when they are in their full context it's obvious she's alluding to a TV show (Oz) and not her personal experience. Images of Hae's corpse reveal the lividity theory put forward by Rabia is invalid. Uncovered interviews with Nisha confirm that the phone call happened when we thought it did -- probably not a butt dial after all. I don't think Sarah and her crew bothered to read through the primary source documents very carefully, if at all.

I am highly disappointed by this podcast, and I am disgusted by Rabia Chaudrey and the other assholes who are using this case to catapult their careers. As more details emerge, I am more and more satisfied with the verdict.

I still think Adnan should not be in prison for life, but that reflects my views of how a justice system should work, not whether he's guilty or innocent.

I wish I hadn't listened to this podcast because I indirectly contributed to the circus that ensued, and I will no longer be able to enjoy Sarah Koennig's future work as much (I was a huge fan of hers in the past) because I now dislike her professionally and personally. All in all, fuck this show.

Whoa, your post cites some pretty fucking glaring omissions. Source? Not that I don't believe you, just genuinely curious, as a lot of the above stuff is pretty significant.

I listened to this thing last fall when it was coming out and haven't paid much attention to any "developments" since it ended.

If true, a lot of the points in your post would render meaningless a lot of the little details and discrepancies Sarah and her team agonize over in the podcast. Since the drama and tension arose from those oft-bewildering little inconsistencies, it would obviously cast a much more sinister light on the integrity of the whole production if they were magnified for the sake of entertainment.

Someone care to comment or elaborate on OpinionatedCyborg's post? I'm going to take a look myself because, whew, those are some pretty serious oversights.

 

[neojubei]

Anyone listening to Serial Dynasty? Any opinion on Don's fake time card that says he was working the day Hae went missing?

 

[Nappuccino]

Whoa, your post cites some pretty fucking glaring omissions. Source? Not that I don't believe you, just genuinely curious, as a lot of the above stuff is pretty significant.

I listened to this thing last fall when it was coming out and haven't paid much attention to any "developments" since it ended.

If true, a lot of the points in your post would render meaningless a lot of the little details and discrepancies Sarah and her team agonize over in the podcast. Since the drama and tension arose from those oft-bewildering little inconsistencies, it would obviously cast a much more sinister light on the integrity of the whole production if they were magnified for the sake of entertainment.

Someone care to comment or elaborate on OpinionatedCyborg's post? I'm going to take a look myself because, whew, those are some pretty serious oversights.

I too, would appreciate some clarification and sourcing on these points. I'd heard that some of Hae's diary entries were excluded, but to what extent wasn't really clarified. Is it controlling in the same way many teen-couples are, are is there something more extensive?

 

[VanMardigan]

Go to reddit and look up serial podcast origins, a lot of the new information is there.

 

[SickBoy]

https://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/comments/3my9rv/revelation_round_up/

At this point, I'm not interested in anything but what happens officially, frankly there's so much noise around the case that I'm not sure what to make of much of this new stuff -- and I'm not willing to go through the mental gymnastics to make sense of it anymore.

All this stuff, from all angles, has been pored over so intensely that if you want to believe a certain way, you can do it. I think the Adnan is innocent crew has contributed hugely to this -- wrangling up conspiracy theories that range from somewhat plausible to ridiculous (leaning to the wacky end of the scale).

There was an interesting Reddit post that raised the question of what does the Nisha call being real do to the case against Adnan? I haven't read Hae's entire diary and I never will. I read the entry in question and I think it's fair to question the leap that she was a drug user.

The facts and the documents and everything else have been twisted and wrung out so much by so many people with such significant agendas that about the only thing I'll believe is a DNA swab or a newly uncovered video showing someone murdering Hae. Beyond that, I'm interested to know what happens to Adnan and the rest is just noise at this point.

 

[dLMN8R]

I hope the Serial team at least acknowledges some of these new developments before or during season 2....

 

[neojubei]

Im confused when did anyone say Hae might be using drugs and please do not reference reddit.

 

[SickBoy]

Im confused when did anyone say Hae might be using drugs and please do not reference reddit.

Pretty much the only thing driving anything new about the case is Reddit and/or Rabia Chaudry and her supporters.

Anyway, Rabia said in her blog that Hae's diary suggested she used drugs (and that - according to Adnan, she occasionally smoked pot): http://www.splitthemoon.com/motherland/ ...and there was a theory (Rabia's, Susan Simpson's? I'm not sure) that maybe Hae was trying to buy pot, and something bad happened, yadda yadda yadda.

The entirety of the diary entry certainly gives the impression that she's not talking about drug use. (I'm inclined to believe she probably did smoke pot on at least a couple of occasions. She's a teenager. I'm not sure it's relevant, other than to lend a sliver of credence to one of endless theories about how things might have happened if Adnan wasn't the killer)

 

[Septimus Prime]

Pretty much the only thing driving anything new about the case is Reddit and/or Rabia Chaudry and her supporters.

Anyway, Rabia said in her blog that Hae's diary suggested she used drugs (and that - according to Adnan, she occasionally smoked pot): http://www.splitthemoon.com/motherland/ ...and there was a theory (Rabia's, Susan Simpson's? I'm not sure) that maybe Hae was trying to buy pot, and something bad happened, yadda yadda yadda.

The entirety of the diary entry certainly gives the impression that she's not talking about drug use. (I'm inclined to believe she probably did smoke pot on at least a couple of occasions. She's a teenager. I'm not sure it's relevant, other than to lend a sliver of credence to one of endless theories about how things might have happened if Adnan wasn't the killer)

I might be remembering incorrectly, but wasn't it already established that Adnan and Hae would smoke weed together and that Jay was either their dealer or had connections to their dealer?

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

Pretty much the only thing driving anything new about the case is Reddit and/or Rabia Chaudry and her supporters.

Anyway, Rabia said in her blog that Hae's diary suggested she used drugs (and that - according to Adnan, she occasionally smoked pot): http://www.splitthemoon.com/motherland/ ...and there was a theory (Rabia's, Susan Simpson's? I'm not sure) that maybe Hae was trying to buy pot, and something bad happened, yadda yadda yadda.

The entirety of the diary entry certainly gives the impression that she's not talking about drug use. (I'm inclined to believe she probably did smoke pot on at least a couple of occasions. She's a teenager. I'm not sure it's relevant, other than to lend a sliver of credence to one of endless theories about how things might have happened if Adnan wasn't the killer)

It started with Rabia. Someone on reddit took the time to piece it together and provided plenty of links. I don't necessarily agree with this person's tone or conclusions except that I find Rabia's behavior dishonest.

Here's a brief overview of Rabia/Susan's unfounded and blatantly dishonest allegations:

In early January, Rabia began advancing the theory that Hae may have been murdered while attempting to purchase marijuana, something that contradicted everything we knew about Hae up to that point, as well as the statements of several of her friends.

https://twitter.com/rabiasquared/status/553264092950315008

Hae also got her weed from Jay, so possible their paths crossed that day

https://twitter.com/rabiasquared/status/558047238463959040

I think she stopped to pick up some weed and got hurt by somebody, but I don't know who

In her Feburary Bloggingheads appearance, Susan Simpson also embraced this theory, introducing her now infamous "people have said" standard:

http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/33635 (63:00)

what we do know is that, I mean, we have people who did say that Hae smoked weed. And we know that Jay dealt weed to people who Stephanie said he should deal to. I think he said 15 people at Woodlawn he was dealing to. And he says at some point I forget which trial that Hae was not one of them but again it’s Jay. Since they were all in a circle and like Adnan if he wanted to get weed he went to Stephanie and Stephanie took him to Jay. It’s not hard to imagine that if Hae wanted to do the same thing she would take the same route Adnan did

For many fans of Serial, even those who believed that Adnan was wrongfully convicted, these claims about Hae's alleged drug use were unsettling and akin to victim-blaming, particularly as there was no apparent factual basis to support them. Numerous Redditors demanded that proof be produced, leading to this March blog post by Rabia.

http://www.splitthemoon.com/motherland/

Susan, in case no one noticed, actually never brought that up until she was given all the documents, and then only in conjunction with the theory that Hae may have been picking up some pot when she was murdered.

Discerning minds, minds as clever as Susan’s, should have been able to deduce she found something in those documents. She did. But she was too classy to reveal her source. So she stuck to what I and Saad had said earlier – that we knew Hae smoked pot because Adnan told us she did.

I tend to believe Adnan because in all these years I’ve never experienced him lying to me. So when he told me that Hae did smoke pot, though infrequently, I believed him. It didn’t hurt that this was actually corroborated by Hae’s diary. Susan, being respectful and sensitive to revealing what was in Hae’s diary, did not want to publicly point to it as the source that confirmed what I and Saad said. This leaves me in a dilemma. I have no intentions of ever sharing Hae’s diary. It is a heinous violation of her privacy to do so. But if I state that it is clear from her diary that she did smoke pot, pitchforks will fly for evidence, and I’ll be called a liar in absence of it. If I post the excerpt, pitchforks will fly for violating her privacy. Idiots abound.

But in the search for the truth of what actually happened to her, I think it’s important to seriously consider where her day may have lead her. And it may absolutely have led her to buying some weed.

Two weeks later, in her /r/NarcoticsUnitAMA, Rabia doubled down on this baseless "theory," replying that it was what she thought actually happened to Hae on January 13th:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NarcoticsU..._and_advocate_rabia_chaudry/cpixpoi?context=3

My theory is that Hae, who was dressed up very nicely because she'd be seeing Don that evening, was going to pick up some weed and ended up running into someone very dangerous.

So, what are we left with? The "people who did say" are just two idiots (Rabia and Saad) repeating a dubious claim by Adnan Syed.

The diary entry that Susan "discovered" with her analytical mind (ha ha ha he he he) to "corroborate" their claims of drug abuse did no such thing and was intentionally cropped in order to conceal its actual meaning.

(Note: There is good reason to doubt Rabia's account of this "discovery," but Susan has never contradicted or corrected Rabia's timeline.)

Finally, now seven months on, none of the Undisclosed ghouls or anyone else with whom they've shared Hae's diary have had the common decency to admit that there is absolutely nothing substantive to support the claim that Hae was ever a user or purchaser of drugs, let alone that she was buying drugs when she was murdered on January 13th.

tl;dr: This is arguably the most dishonest and reprehensible thing Rabia and Susan have done in regard to this case, and that's really saying something.

Here is the unabridged diary entry:
https://app.box.com/s/w3g6msb450mwe7fpkjjg0hmng0fun5v1

I'm sure she smoked pot (all of her friends did; why wouldn't she?), but I think the theory that she was murdered in a drug deal gone bad is ridiculous. You shouldn't publicly share such weak conjecture.