These Possible Serial "Spoilers" Are Interesting

Millions of people are listening to NPR's podcast Serial, and you can count me among them. Between spawning a ton of thinkpieces, inspiring Twitter hashtags (#JayDidIt, just to name one), and generally being the only topic of conversation on Gchat every Thursday, Serial is everywhere. What you may not realize, however, is that there's a subreddit dedicated to Serial spoilers and theories, where redditors are carrying out the investigation themselves. This ongoing conversation is doing its best to answer some of the larger questions of the investigation, and it's also digging up what could be potential facts relevant to the case.

Alert: If you're really dedicated to finding out the information as Sarah Koenig releases it, you may want to stop reading here. She may have plans to divulge these tidbits as the pod unravels. But for those of you who can't wait until the next installment, here are two potential "spoilers" I've been able to unearth.

Adnan pled guilty to a kidnapping charge in 2000

According to Circuit Court of Maryland records, Adnan Syed pled guilty to kidnapping an adult on Feb. 25, 2000, the same day he pled not guilty to first degree murder. Granted, his legal team may have coached him to do so in order to avoid or lessen first degree murder charge. But, Koenig has yet to touch on this aspect of the case, which could either mean it doesn't matter at all, or it plays a big role.

Roy Davis, who lives six miles from Woodlawn High School, was convicted of strangling a woman eight months before Hae's death

Roy Davis was convicted in 2003 for raping and strangling a woman named Jada Denita Lambert in May of 1998, roughly eight months before Hae Min Lee's death. Davis lived along the route Hae would have been taking after school that day. He also dumped Lambert's body in a park. Reddit user superfluity15 explained why this matters. The redditor alleges that there's an appellate brief that shows Hae's credit card plays a part in the mystery.

The fact that Hae's credit card was charged $1.71 at Crown Gas in far NE Baltimore on the day she died is still one of the biggest puzzles in this case. Crown Gas was a good 30 minute drive away from both Woodlawn and Campfield Early Learning Center. I've been turning over this issue since we learned it is in the appellate briefs: How did Hae's card end up that far away?

Now that we've learned about Roy Davis the would-be serial killer, maybe we have our answer. Not only did Roy live on the way from Woodlawn to Campfield, but his victim was dumped in Herring Run Park in NE Baltimore. That park is on the same street as Crown Gas, less than a mile away.

While Davis having everything to do with the case is just as likely as him having nothing to do with it, you have to admit it's pretty interesting. It would, however, make Jay's entire testimony one big, bizarre lie. Koenig has said Jay has a history of lying, but would he lie about something as grandiose as being an accessory to murder?

Serial's episode 9 comes out on Thursday.

Images: Serialpodcast.org