The Second Interview of Not Her Real Name Cathy

Here’s a quick post on the Adnan Syed case for Labor Day. On March 9, 1999, Detectives Ritz and Carew interviewed Not Her Real Name Cathy (NHRNC). We’ve known about this for quite some time. We also knew that the detectives thereafter interviewed NHRNC’s boyfriend Jeff on March 11, 1999, with only the cover sheet (final page) for that interview surviving.

What we didn’t know until the State’s release of Lotus Notes files earlier this year is that the detectives followed up on the interview with Jeff by speaking to NHRNC again that same day. I was reminded of this when asked about the interview of Jenn at the State’s Attorney’s Office on March 4, 1999 followed by the STET entered on Jay’s disorderly conduct/resisting arrest charges the next day.

As a refresher, Jay’s trial story is that: (1) at 4:27 P.M., Adnan received a cell phone call from his mother or at least someone speaking in a foreign language; (2) after the call, Adnan went to track practice; (3) after dropping Adnan off at track practice, Jay went to NHRNC’s place and smoked weed with NHRNC and Jeff; (4) Jay received a call (which call?) to pick up Adnan at track practice; (5) Jay picked Adnan up from track practice; and (6) Jay and Adnan went to NHRNC’s place and hung out.

So, what did Jeff tell the detectives that led them to speak with NHRNC again? And why don’t we have any notes from either Jeff’s interview or the second “interview” of NHRNC? One thing we do know is this: This interview was one of the last (documented) things that the detectives did before interviewing Jay a second time on March 15, 1999.

On March 11, 1999, the detectives also spoke to Patrice (second to last page), whose phone received a call from Adnan’s cell phone on January 13, 1999 at 3:59 P.M., but, again, there are no notes for this interview. Adnan’s current PI spoke to Patrice, who recalled the detectives apparently trying to convince her that Jay was at her house on January 13th and either made or received a call while he was there.

This then takes us to March 13, 1999, when, according to the legal services contract between Adnan and Gutierrez,

Presumably, this is referring to an interview of Nisha, even though there are no notes of any interviews of Nisha before April 1st or April 9th, depending on which version of the State’s files you believe.

So, again, either nothing or maybe 1 or 2 things were done between the second interview of NHRNC and the second interview of Jay. I’d love to know what led to detectives to reinterview her and what she (or Jeff) said.

-CM