The Elusive Tower Pings

Pings meant nothing.

In order to fully investigate the case, police received help from AT&T, on January 13 where they sent Adnan’s cell phone records to the Baltimore Police Department, where it featured his cell phone calls, including both incoming and outgoing calls. Using these cell phone records, the State created a timeline of Syed’s activities to match Jay Wilds’ testimony (Simpson).

Although they created a specific timeline consisting of Syed’s activities on that day, they should not have used this evidence for the case, because the cover sheet, which they most likely ignored, of the cell phone records held the label of “‘outgoing calls only are reliable for location status. Any incoming calls will NOT be considered reliable information for location.’” This label suggests that the trial of 1999’s wrongdoings includes cell phone records. Also, the “elusive” cell phone records rather than harm Syed’s defense, it actually benefits his defense. The cell phone records, which depicts 7:09pm and 7:36pm calls pinged from Leakin Park, help prove that someone else committed the murder of Hae Min Lee, because “incoming calls in the AT&T company records the location of the person making the call”, ensuring that someone else was at Leakin Park, alleged place of burial and place of discovery of the body (Everett).

So What?

Since these cell phone records benefit his defense rather than oppose him, the probability of Syed not killing Hae Min Lee seems higher than killing. This actually coincides with the general public’s vote, and support as many to this day stay up to date with case, suggesting that “Syed is [likely] an innocent man, and should be released” (Chaudry).