Serial Season 1, Episode 1, The Alibi: The Podcast That Started It All

January 13, 1999. Baltimore County. Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old senior at Woodlawn High School, leaves school and never makes it home. Weeks later, her body is found in Leakin Park. Police zero in on her ex-boyfriend, 17-year-old classmate Adnan Syed. He is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and he has always said he didn't do it.

Fifteen years later, journalist Sarah Koenig and the team behind This American Life decided to take another look, one episode at a time. The Alibi dropped in October 2014 and kicked off a phenomenon. Serial became the first podcast to win a Peabody Award and turned millions of people into armchair detectives. In this first episode, Koenig lays out the case, the timeline, and the people involved, including a classmate who says she was with Adnan at a crucial moment on the day Hae disappeared.

So why didn't the jury ever hear about that alibi? That's the question that hooks you, and it's never let go. The legal saga has twisted ever since: Syed's conviction was vacated in 2022, reinstated by Maryland's highest court in 2024, and in March 2025 a judge reduced his sentence to time served. He's free, but his murder conviction still stands.

This is where the true crime podcast boom began. Listen to The Alibi tonight and see if you can stop at just one episode.