There is No Documentation for 2+ Witnesses Interviewed at the Precinct in the Adnan Syed Case

While searching through the MPIA files today in preparation for next Monday’s episode of Undisclosed, I came across the following document:

This seems like a pretty benign document…until you realize that there are no records of any interviews conducted at the precinct on April 1, 1999.

This is huge. Most of the interviews conducted by the State were done at Woodlawn High School, houses, and restaurants. For these interviews, officers took handwritten notes that were then converted into typewritten notes. For instance, these are the typewritten notes taken in connection with the interview of Becky at Woodlawn High School on April 9, 1999.

Conversely, when a witness was deemed especially important to the events of January 13, 1999, (s)he was taken to the precinct and interviewed. These interviews were recored, and we have word-for-word transcriptions of these interviews. I count four people who had such interviews: (1) Jennfirst statementsecond statementDebbie (not so important at trial, but thought to be the last person to see Hae alive at the time); and (4) Not Her Real Name Cathy.*

Now, assuming that the above Progress Report can be trusted,** we have at least two additional witnesses who were interviewed at the precinct. Ostensibly, the State believed that these witnesses had important information about the events of January 13, 1999, recorded their statements, and created word-for-word transcriptions of those recordings. And yet, we have no documentation whatsoever showing what these witnesses said.

[Update: Susan Simpson notes that: (1) Debbie was interviewed at the precinct on March 26th, which is pretty close to April 1st, and (2) the Progress Report references “section F of this file,” which lists interviews with three classmates/friends of Adnan and Hae: Debbie, Aisha, and “Ann.” We know that these three witnesses were initially interviewed at school on March 2nd, with the notes from those interviews being lost. Like Debbie, were Aisha and “Ann” both re-interviewed by police? Did these interviews concern that final period A.P. Psychology class on January 13th? Or is the Progress Report referring to other unknown witnesses?]

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*It’s also possible that Jeff J. and Patrice were interviewed at the precinct. As we noted on the podcast, we just have the cover sheets from their March 11th interviews and nothing else.

**As with many documents in this case, this one is posdated (4/20/99 vs. 4/1/99).

-CM