Season One - Episode 5: Route Talk 

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Adnan once issued a challenge to Sarah. He told her to test the state’s timeline of the murder by driving from Woodlawn High School to Best Buy in 21 minutes. It can’t be done, he said. So Sarah and Dana take up the challenge, and raise him one: They try to recreate the entire route that Jay said he and Adnan took on January 13th, 1999.

If you\'re just landing here please go back and start with Episode 1.

This is the call log from Adnan\'s cell phone for January 12 and January 13, 1999.

In Episode 5, Sarah points out that the prosecutors were clear during the trial that the come-and-get-me call from Best Buy was the one listed at 2:36 on Adnan’s call log. They said this even though no one testified to it. In fact, Jay says the come-and-get-me call didn’t happen until after he left Jenn’s house that day, around 3:45.

Sarah concludes that because there’s no incoming call around 3:45, the prosecution has to choose the 2:36 call.

Some savvy listeners have pointed out that if you look at Adnan’s call log, there’s an incoming call at 3:15. So couldn’t that be the come-and-get-me-I’m-at-Best-Buy call? We thought about this too, but there’s a good reason why it can’t be. (We also thought about explaining all this in Episode 5, but decided we’d probably exhausted everyone’s attention span for the intricacies of cell phone records.)

At trial, Jay testifies to a specific order of events on the afternoon of Jan. 13. He says he spent the bulk of the afternoon hanging out at Jenn’s house. He had just left Jenn’s to see if his friend Jeff was home when Adnan called to say meet me at Best Buy. So Jay drives approximately 8 - 10 minutes to meet Adnan at Best Buy.

He gets to Best Buy, Adnan pops the trunk of Hae’s car and shows Jay Hae’s body, and then they drive to the I-70 Park and Ride, which is another 7-10 minute drive away. They leave Hae’s car at the Park and Ride and start driving towards Patrick’s house, where they’re headed to buy some weed.

At this point in Jay’s testimony, Prosecutor Kevin Urick stops Jay and they have the following exchange:

KU: Okay. Hold on for a second, if you would, please. Look at line 26 on the exhibit again. Do you recognize that number?

Jay: Yes, that’s Jenn Pusateri’s number again.

KU: Please read it. Well, please read her number for the record first.

Jay: I believe so, to ask her if he was on or if he was home, one of the two, meaning if he had marijuana.

Jay: I was calling her, hey is “P” on, do you know if “P” is on again, do you know if he is home?

Jay testifies that he called Jenn at 3:21, after leaving the Park and Ride, to ask Jenn if Patrick is home.

If the come-and-get-me call were at 3:15, that would leave Jay only six minutes to drive to Best Buy, see Hae’s body, drive to the Park and Ride, and then on to Cook’s Lane toward Patrick’s and make the call to Jenn. But it’s impossible to do all that, because at minimum, that drive alone would take 15 minutes. So, Jay’s story is only possible if the come-and-get-me call happens at 2:36. ~ See More

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about Cell Tower Technology

This seems like a good time for a primer on cell tower technology. This is basically all you need to know to make some sense of that call log we published yesterday.

First, cell towers have three sides: an A side, a B side, and a C side. Think of a pie with three slices. Each of those slices has a range. When a person is in that range and makes a cell phone call, the cell phone will talk to that side of the cell tower. So if you look at the call log, you’ll see some calls are noted as “L651A” or “L651C.” Same cell tower, different side. Generally speaking, the A side of the tower points north or northeast, the B side points south or southeast, and the C side points west.

The engineers who run these cell phone networks, like Abe Waranowitz, who testified at Adnan’s trial, can map out the basic ranges of all the towers in their network. These maps aren’t precise though, because a cell tower’s range can depend on a variety of factors. Foliage, for example, or buildings or hills can cast a shadow on the cell tower’s range. Plus, some cell towers have overlapping ranges. So you can be in one place and make a phone call and that phone call can trigger either cell tower. Not both cell towers, but one or the other.

Because the range maps aren’t precise, the prosecutors in Adnan’s case asked Waranowitz to do an origination test at a bunch of locations that were important to the case. What this means is that Waranowitz went to each location - the burial site, for instance, or the Park and Ride - and then made a cell phone call using special equipment. This equipment told him which cell tower was triggered by the call. In Leakin Park, at the burial site, it was L689B. At Gilston Park, it triggered L698A, L698B and L654C. But Waranowitz noted that L654C was the strongest signal there because of a mound of dirt in the park, which would have obstructed the other two.

CORRECTION: Earlier I wrote that the origination test at "Gelston Park" triggered L698A, L698B, and L654C. The place is actually called "Gilston Park." Well, officially it\'s Westview Neighborhood Park. This park stuff is a little strange. There is a Gelston Park, east of this one, sort of close to where Hae\'s car was found. But the park where Abe Waranowitz did this origination test - Westview Neighborhood Park - is west of I-695, off of Gilston Park Road. So it\'s referred to as "Gilston Park." ~ See More

We’ve added two graphics to the site today that might be helpful as you listen to the rest of the season, although they’re especially relevant to Episode 5. The first is a map, which shows key locations in the story, some of which you’ll hear about in today’s episode. On the map you can roll over the pins and towers to see more information.

The other is the call log from Adnan’s cell phone on January 13th, 1999. Adnan got his cell phone two days before Hae went missing, on January 11th. As Sarah said in Episode 4, the detectives used this call log - listing the times of calls and cell tower locations - to map the crime and corroborate Jay’s story. And if there’s one document in this investigation that’s become our bible as we muddle through this case, it’s this one. Sarah, Julie and I each have a copy of this call log on our desk at all times. Just a note to help you navigate the calls, Jay testified to making the ones to Jenn, Patrick and Phil.