Was Hae Coming from Drama Tryouts Just Before She Told Adnan She Had “Something Else” to Do?

We will be recording our final episode(s) of the first season of Undisclosed this week. Amazingly, just as we’re winding down, I feel like I’ve stumbled across something that might change, or at least clarify, what I think about the events of January 13th. It was a loose strand I initially pulled at several months ago, but I soon gave up when I couldn’t find any support for it. Now, I’ve found that support.

Here are the key portions of Becky’s police interview:

1st Excerpt

2nd Excerpt

Breaking this down: (1) Becky hears about the ride at lunch. It seems like she only had second information because of the use of the words “apparently” and “possibly;” and (2) as Becky and Aisha are walking down the hallway after school, waiting for Becky’s sister to finish Drama tryouts, they see Hae and Adnan walking in opposite directions. Hae tells Adnan that she can’t give him a ride because she has “something else” to do.

We’ve been over this territory many times on my blog and the podcast, but one thing I haven’t discussed is Hae’s whereabouts before she said she had “something else” to do. Here is a later portion of Becky’s police interview:

It certainly seems like Becky is saying that Hae was involved in Drama* during track season.** This would make sense given that Becky previously stated that Drama was by the gym and given that the Drama sentence is followed by a sentence in which Becky says she can’t remember whether she (also?) saw Adnan by the gym.

This led me to speculate months ago that Hae could have been coming from Drama tryouts just before she told Adnan she had “something else” to do. Therefore, there’s a decent chance that someone at Drama tryouts might have interacted with Hae just before this key moment and could shed some light on the events of January 13th. It’s even possible that something that happened at Drama tryouts caused Hae to change her plans…

if Hae were indeed at Drama tryouts. The problem I ran into months ago was that I could find no corroboration for Becky’s apparent statement that Hae was involved in Drama. As we put the finishing touches on Season 1, however, I did a quick review of all the documents and came across an entry that Hae made on the very same day that she got her diary on a field trip. In the entry, Hae notes that she got back to school from a field trip and “decided to stay after + help out drama and all that.”

Now, this entry was made in 1998, so it’s not direct evidence that Hae was involved in Drama in January 1999. But, when you combine this with Becky’s police statement, it certainly seems like Hae was indeed involved in Drama at the time of her disappearance. 

So, were there even Drama tryouts on January 13, 1999? If so, was Hae at Drama tryouts just before she told Adnan she had “something else” to do?  Given that Drama was apparently by the gym, does this explain Debbie’s initial police statement, in which she said that she saw Hae by the gym on January 13th, with Hae saying she was going to see Don? Is there anyone out there who was also involved in Drama at Woodlawn High School in January 1999? If so, can you shed any light on Hae’s involvement and whether she might have been at tryouts on January 13, 1999?

As usual, we have more questions that answers, but hopefully this new question can be answered.

_____________________

*The other possibility is that Becky was saying that Hae was involved in little “d” drama. 

**It’s also possible that she’s saying Hae would page Adnan during track seasons. Of course, she could also be saying that Hae was both paging Adnan and involved in Drama during track season.

-CM