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Police Investigation – Overview

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Evidence of the police investigations into the disappearance and murder of Hae Min Lee, by Baltimore County and later by Baltimore City police departments #

Missing Persons Investigation – Baltimore County PD #

Hae Min Lee lived in Baltimore County, and that is where she was last seen, and that Police Department was originally responsible for the case. Their involvement began when the Lee family first reported Hae missing on January 13, 1999 and continued until February 12, 1999, after Hae was found, and formally identified.

The Baltimore County Police Department (BCoPD) records are limited. There is a small collection of short activity reports, and some records from Sergeant Joseph O’Shea (Missing Person’s unit) who did interview some of Hae’s friends, family and teachers. The brief interview write ups were not actually written until after Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) had taken over the case. There are no handwritten contemporary notes from O’Shea, and no daily or weekly reports to his supervisor.

Some County Police actions we can trace through other evidence, although they do not appear in BCoPD’s own records. Some examples: O’Shea’s “daily telephone contact” with Mandy Johnson of the Enehey Group; Visits to Hae Min Lee’s family with Detective Park, who spoke Korean but who doesn’t appear anywhere in the known BCoPD paperwork; an unnamed officer attending a Woodlawn High School staff meeting on Feb 1, Conversations with Woodlawn’s Principal after Hae’s body was found, O’Shea’s meeting with City Police to debrief and hand over the interview records; communications with City Police about Hae’s computer before or after permission to work together had been granted by the Commanders; forensic results from Hae’s computer itself; any records about the Crimestoppers reward which was paid out.

Multiple MPIA requests have been made, and yet these are all the files that have been released. The Legal Director for Baltimore County PD, who has ultimate responsibility for deciding what information will or will not be released through MPIA/freedom-of-information responses is Vickie Wash. She was also involved in the case back in 1999 as the first assigned prosecutor, and she was forced to apologise for her “xenophobic” arguments after Adnan’s bail hearing.

County Police File – Missing Person Investigation Records #

The original version of these files contained 10 pages (also see the City Police 2015 MPIA files, p802-811).  The Undisclosed team made an MPIA request directly to the County Police and the response, received in late 2015, had three additional pages (shown below).

As well as the 3 new pages, there are various smaller differences between the two versions, which suggests that either BCoPD has multiple sets of records which are somehow stored separately, or that they continued working on the case after sending their files to BPD, although there is no direct evidence of that work continuing.

Baltimore County Police file on Hae’s disappearance, 13 page version. #

County Witness Interviews #

Interviews by BCoPD Detective Joseph O’Shea. None of these brief reports were written during O’Shea’s investigation, they were only submitted to his supervisors on 2/14/99, two days after the case was taken over by BPD. The sole exception is the Don C interview, which O’Shea submitted 3 days earlier than the others. This was after Hae’s body was discovered but before she was formally identified. Reports were not actually shared with the BPD Homicide Detectives for a further nine days.

County – Miscellaneous items #

Homicide Investigation – Baltimore City PD #

February 9, 1999 to February 2000
The involvement of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) began with the telephone call reporting that Mr S had found a body in Leakin Park. There were several Freedom of Information Act (or MPIA) requests made to BPD. You can view the responses shared by two successful members of the public, in the order they were provided, on a separate wiki page listing out the complete MPIA files, and sometimes that order does provide some helpful context. However, be aware that the different MPIA versions provided different selections of documents, and (as with the County records) sometimes different versions of the same documents. There are a good number of BPD documents which are likely to be missing, judging by references to the missing files found in other parts of the record, and by whether we believe that these experienced homicide detectives were wildly inconsistent about following their department’s reporting protocols.

Leakin Park / Crime Scene Reports #

Miscellaneous #

Notes #

Physical Evidence #

Records showing what physical evidence was collected at each crime scene or site of search warrant, where, by whom and if it was photographed. Includes Crime Lab tech reports, detective’s reports, Evidence Control Unit records, photographs, hospital records and Warrant Returns. Also any records of either requests for forensic testing or test results / reports on test results. See subpage describing all the physical evidence in detail.

Progress Reports #

BPD homicide detectives normally write regular Progress Reports to their supervisors summarizing activities or developments. Some significant events in this case did not get mentioned in the reports. All the Progress Reports are all detailed on a separate wiki page, but a few did make it into the list below, because they are either the only evidence of an event, or sometimes when the various pieces of evidence are contradictory and/or potentially misleading.

Subpoenas & Productions in Response (other than Phone Records) #

Shown in date order

  • Subpoena to Woodlawn High School (not served) – requested employment (?) records for Hae and Adnan
  • Subpoena to UMBC [we only have the response, not the subpoena, but it relates to this email sent by Imran H.]
  • Subpoena to Coppin State College2/22/99 – requested Mr S’s employment records [we don’t have the subpoena]
    • [some docs were returned and included in MPIA file but not loaded to this site]
  • Subpoena to Woodlawn High School 3/2/99 – requested Hae’s and Adnan’s school records
    • [some docs were returned and included in MPIA file but not loaded to this site]
  • Subpoena to Baltimore County Department of Health 3/29/99 – requested Hae’s medical records
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to Woodlawn High School 3/29/99 – requested Hae’s medical records
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to WMAR Channel 2 4/3/99 – requested “news, videos, reports, and follow-up reports pertaining to Hae Min Lee, Woodlawn High School student, from January 13, 1999 to the present”
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to WBAL Channel 11 4/3/99 – requested “news, videos, reports, and follow-up reports pertaining to Hae Min Lee, Woodlawn High School student, from January 13, 1999 to the present”
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to WJZ Channel 13 4/3/99 – requested “news, videos, reports, and follow-up reports pertaining to Hae Min Lee, Woodlawn High School student, from January 13, 1999 to the present”
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to Channel 45 4/3/99 – requested “news, videos, reports, and follow-up reports pertaining to Hae Min Lee, Woodlawn High School student, from January 13, 1999 to the present”
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to Channel 54 4/3/99 – requested “news, videos, reports, and follow-up reports pertaining to Hae Min Lee, Woodlawn High School student, from January 13, 1999 to the present”
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to Southwest Video 4/7/99 – requested Jay’s employment records
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to Drug Emporium 4/7/99 – requested Jay’s employment records
  • Subpoena to NationsBank 4/7/99 – requested Adnan’s bank records
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to The Heartlands 4/7/99 – requested Jennifer “Jenn” P’s employment records
    • [some docs were returned and in MPIA file but not loaded to this site]
  • Subpoena to Best Buy 4/13/99 – requested “journal rolls, returned item records, and employee time records for January 13, 1999”
    • [we don’t have the information, if any, that was returned]
  • Subpoena to NationsBank 4/20/99 – requested Hae’s bank records;
  • Subpoena to Retro Mural Ambulance 4/20/99 – requested Adnan’s employment records
    • [some docs were returned and in MPIA file but not loaded to this site]

Subpoenas about Telephone records / Other AT&T Work #

Warrants #

Adnan’s arrest #

Seizure and first search of Adnan’s car #

Search of Adnan’s family home #

Seizure of Adnan’s blood and hair #

Seizure of Jay’s blood and hair #

Second search of Adnan’s car #

Witness Interviews and Statements #

The amount and type of evidence for BPD interviews varies greatly but can include Direct evidence: formal interview cover sheets (Information Sheets), Miranda warnings (Explanation of Rights), handwritten and/or typed detective notes, and sometimes cassette recordings with or without accompanying professional transcriptions. There are other indirect sources of evidence such as mentions in court testimony or within another interview including for podcasts, and the police Progress Reports (daily activity reports for supervisors, often written up in bulk days or weeks later).

In the front of the BPD investigation file there is an Index Sheet which mentions just eight “Witness Statements” in “Section F”: Jenn, Jay, Ann, Debbie, Aisha, Kristi V(aka Cathy), Jeff J and Patrice F. For Ann, Aisha, Jeff and Patrice we only have the cover-sheets but not handwritten police notes, typed notes, tapes or transcripts or anything resembling a “statement”.

Some interviews have typed, all-caps police notes, it seems likely done by Ritz, because info is often added beyond his handwritten notes, but when info from MacGillivary is added that is specifically noted. These typed notes make up a with it’s own page numbering running from p3 to p127 (p1 was the “defendant’s schedule” and p2 is missing). In the MPIA 15 459 file they are p908 to p1032.

Progress reports are only listed here if there is some confusion in the record, mostly about dates, although experience shows these progress reports are generally the least reliable, perhaps because they were often backdated. All the progress reports are listed on a separate wiki page.

Ritz, MacGillivary and (maybe, for some days) prosecutor Vickie Wash spent 2 1/2 consecutive days at Woodlawn High School interviewing staff, those records are listed separately below.

Seating diagrams, attendance / library records and even lesson plans and schoolwork were provided during, or as follow up to, these interviews. They can be found via the MPIA files page.

The BPD detectives did make other calls and visits to Woodlawn High. For example: on 2/16/99 Ms Gregg told police they would need a subpoena to get access to school records. On 2/18/99 Asst Principal Garvin was asked about Adnan having a locker. Detectives served that subpoena on 3/4/99 and also visited several times to interview and/or collect various students. This note suggests Garvin was visited again by Ritz on 4/6/99.

Another way of looking at the teacher interviews is by their connections to Adnan and/or Hae. Whose teachers were interviewed, who was asked about Hae, who was asked about Adnan?

Interviews with Woodlawn Staff who taught, knew, or simply mentioned Hae Min Lee #

Hae’s schedule,

H Schab, J Efron, Inez Butler-Hendrix, C Tomlin, D Paoletti, T Kramer, P Gilbert-Nicholson, Coach Schreiner, V Madison, L Woodley* (10)

Neither Hae’s homeroom teacher, Ms Geltman, nor Coaches from her Lacrosse, Field Hockey, or Wrestling teams appear to have been interviewed. (Coach Schreiner taught basketball, Hae wasn’t on the team but several friends of Hae and Adnan, including Stephanie, were.)

*There are no notes of Ms Woodley’s interview, but she testified at both trials about both Adnan and Hae.

Interviews with Woodlawn Staff who were questioned about Adnan Syed #

Adnan’s schedule

Coach Russell, M Muse, B Stuckey, E Graham, T Stanley, J Terry, H Schab, J Efron, S Watts, Inez Butler-Hendrix, T Davis, M Sye, C Tomlin, D Garvin, D Paoletti, T Kramer, P Gilbert-Nicholson, Coach Schreiner, V Madison, B Stoll, C Metzger, L Woodley*, B Gray*, K Brown*. (24)

*No notes are available for Woodley, Gray or Brown, but we know Ms Woodley testified about both Adnan and Hae, that Ms Gray was Adnan’s homeroom teacher, and Coach Brown was a football coach – which Adnan played.

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