Naman Shrestha
In early 1999, 18-year-old Hae Min Lee disappeared before her remains were found buried in a wooded area in Baltimore County, Maryland. The investigators considered her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, as the primary suspect, mainly because of the testimony of his classmate, Jay Wilds. During the accused’s trial, Jay also testified that he helped him bury her remains but was not involved in the murder itself, leading to Adnan’s conviction and sentencing. The complicated case is explored intricately in HBO’s ‘The Case Against Adnan Syed,’ a true crime documentary series that also showcases the aftermath of the investigation.
Jay Wilds Was More of an Acquaintance of Adnan Syed Than a Friend
Jay Wilds first met Adnan Syed around the age of 16 while playing basketball at the mosque in the community. The two were also classmates at Woodlawn High School in the late 1990s. Around that time, Jay claimed that he used to run a small drug operation out of his grandmother’s house, where he had more than just a few bags of weed. Besides that, he had numerous hobbies, such as playing lacrosse, fishing, camping, canoeing, going to concerts, and riding his motorcycle.
At the time, he had a girlfriend named Stephanie, who told him that Adnan wanted to buy some weed from him. Since Adnan wasn’t like the other pot smokers he knew, Jay found it hard to trust him at first. He also claimed that there was never a real friendship between them as they had only smoked together a couple of times. Jay alleged that Adnan only called him when he needed something and didn’t hang out with him like real friends do. Apart from sitting next to him in class and cracking a joke or two, the two never went to any functions or concerts together.
In His Testimony, Jay Admitted to Helping Adnan Bury Hae Min Lee’s Remains
When Hae Min Lee, Adnan Syed’s ex-girlfriend, disappeared in 1999 and was later found dead, Jay Wilds claimed that Adnan had expressed his intentions of killing her about a week prior to her death. On the fateful evening of January 13, Jay alleged Adnan called him to meet at the parking lot of a Best Buy store and allegedly confessed to killing Hae in the parking lot. Adnan soon asked for Jay’s help to help her dig her remains. He told The Intercept that the reason he agreed to it was that “because at the time I was convinced that I would be going to jail for a long time if he turned me in for drug dealing, especially to high school kids.” Jay claimed that they dug a grave in Leakin Park, where Adnan buried her.
When the police interviewed Jay regarding Hae Min Lee’s murder, he initially refused any involvement in the crime whatsoever, but later, he told the police that he helped the victim’s former boyfriend to bury her remains in the woods after he admitted to killing her on January 13, 1999. His testimony in court against Adnan played a huge part in the latter’s conviction and sentencing. As for his involvement in the burial of Hae’s remains, Jay pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder. On July 6, 2000, he was sentenced to five years in prison, which was suspended, and ordered to serve two years on probation instead of prison for his involvement in the crime.
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Jay Wilds’ Life Was Heavily Affected After the Release of Serial
Several years later, Jay Wilds got into a relationship with a woman named Nikisha Horton. Around 2009, Jay was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree assault against police, and possession of a loaded shotgun concerning an alleged dispute with her. After the release of the ‘Serial’ podcast, Jay said his life turned upside down, alongside his wife and family. Even his employment was allegedly affected by the podcast. He told The Intercept, “…when the podcast started I had a job in construction. I was hired on for a project. About three weeks after the podcast started, when it really started to blow up on the Internet, and my name was out there, and people were speculating, and the word murder would pop up with my name, I was told that—by my supervisor—that they hired too many people for the job, (and) had to let five of us go.”
Fortunately, the employment of his wife, who worked in the nonprofit world, was not affected at the time. Talking about his family, he asserted that his family consists of regular people who have never been stabbed or received death threats. “My wife is a normal, suburban type of person. She’s not used to being petrified, or doing laps in the cul-de-sac, or taking a different route home, because she thinks she’s being followed. Those things aren’t operating protocol for her,” he added. Ever since his interview in late 2014, Jay has preferred to stay away from the limelight. From what we can tell, by 2019, he had relocated to California.
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