Who was Hae Min Lee, Adnan Syed’s ex-girlfriend?

Adnan Syed, convicted of first-degree murder in February 2000 and handed a life prison sentence and 30 plus years for the murder of Korean-American high school student Hae Min Lee was released on Monday, September 19, 2022, by a judge in Baltimore, United States.

Syed was the ex-boyfriend of Lee, who was last seen alive on January 13, 1999. Her body was found after four weeks in Leakin Park and the cause of her death was manual strangulation. Judge Melissa Phinn overturned the conviction of Syed, who has spent the last 22 years in prison.

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Who was Hae Min Lee?

A Korean-American high school student, who was last seen alive on January 13, 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland, Lee was born on October 15, 1980. Her corpse was found four weeks after she was last seen alive in Leakin Park. The murder became a much-discussed issue at that time and was featured in a popular podcast named Serial.

Lee was born in South Korea and was an immigrant to the United States with her mother Youn Kim and brother Young Lee, which they did in 1992. They immigrated to the United States to live with the grandparents of Hae Min Lee.

Following their move to the United States, Lee attended the magnet program at Woodlawn High School, Baltimore, Maryland. She was an active athlete and played the sports of lacrosse and field hockey.

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She went missing on January 13, 1999, soon after which her family filed a missing complaint. Lee was scheduled to pick up her younger cousin from daycare at around 3:15 pm, but she never showed. However, Lee had attended school on that day and according to eyewitnesses, she left the high school campus at the end of the day.

The local police began an investigation into her disappearance soon after receiving the missing complaint. The probing officers called friends of Lee and reached Adnan Syed that evening around 6:30 pm. Syed said that he last saw Lee after the classes finished on the day of her disappearance. Later on February 6, a dog search was conducted by the authorities in the high school.