Serial podcast witness Jay Wilds breaks silence: ‘You’ve got to help me, or I’m going to tell the cops about you’.

SERIAL latest: Jay Wilds, the man who put Adnan Syed behind bars for the 1999 murder of his girlfriend, speaks out for the first time about drugs, Adnan and the killing that shocked the world.

SERIAL may be over until next year, but questions about Adnan Syed’s guilt remain, torturing the podcast’s devotees worldwide.

So it’s little wonder that when news broke of key witness Jay Wild’s first-ever interview on Tuesday, the world once again spiralled into a mass of theories and analysis focusing on that one infuriatingly enduring question: who really killed Hae Min Lee?

1999 MURDER BAFFLES WORLD: Serial podcast reopens cold case

MYSTERY: Who really murdered Hae Min Lee

BURIAL GROUND: Baltimore’s Leakin Park

Almost two decades after he first put high school student Adnan Syed away behind bars for life, the reluctant Jay has emerged out of the safety of silence to offer his side of the storyto The Intercept.

“@natashavc: Hi, I interviewed Jay from Serial. https://t.co/KpRcdpky4o pic.twitter.com/iMThT7Ddg1” @NewYorkRic

— Chris Rini (@RiniMMA) December 30, 2014

In Serial — the podcast based on a 15-year-old murder cold case of Hae Min Lee — made up almost entirely of suspense, misinformation and circumstantial evidence, Jay has become one of the podcast’s most arresting — and divisive — figures.

Despite being dragged into the spotlight after Serial’s star narrator and co-producer, Sarah Koenig, decided to ask all the hard questions — most of them relating to Jay — he managed to stay silent until now, refusing all interviews and denying Koenig a recording for Serial.

Sarah Koenig Producer of Serial podcast

In Part 1 of the two-part interview, Jay — who believes he was treated unfairly by Koenig — told The Intercept that Serial “painted a highly misleading portrayal of him and his role in the case”, despite admitting, on record, that he lied to police and to the court during Adnan’s trial.

Whether a calculated tactic to pull on the heart strings or simply the truth, Jay consistently brings up his family — especially his grandmother — as the reason for why he lied during the case.

When asked why he helped Adnan bury Hae’s body, he says: “Because at the time I was convinced that I would be going to jail for a long time if he turned me in for drug dealing, especially to high school kids”.

“I was also running [drug] operations from my grandmother’s house. So that would ruin her life too.”

He also uses his grandmother as justification for lying to the police about where and when he first saw Hae’s body. During the trial, Jay says Adnan showed him Hae’s body — dumped in the boot of Hae’s car — outside Cathy’s house.

(For those confused, “Cathy”- not her real name — is Jay’s friend, and the person Jay claims her and Adnan spent time with after Jay picked up Adnan from the murder scene, and before he helped him bury Hae’s body. It’s all a bit muddy).

“I saw her body later, in front of my grandmother’s house where I was living. I didn’t tell the cops it was in front of my house because I didn’t want to involve my grandmother.”

Adnan Syed 1998 Serial podcast

Hae Min Lee, the murdered ex-girlfriend of Adnan Syed. Her murder investigation was unofficially re-opened by Serial producer Sarah Koenig on October 3, 2014. Picture: Supplied.

In the interview, Jay says Adnan “manipulated him into what was being done” by saying: “You’ve gotta help me, or I’m gonna tell the cops about you and the weed and all that shit”.

Jay admits that he was unwilling to cooperate with police until they “made it clear they weren’t interested in my ‘procurement’ of pot”.

He also says police had to “chase” him around before finally cornering him, at which point he still refused to answer their questions — “I wasn’t fully cooperating, so if they said, ‘Well, we have on phone records that you talked to Jenn.’ I’d say, ‘Nope, I didn’t talk to Jenn” — until Jenn told him she talked to the police, and advised him to do the same. (Jenn is Jay’s friend, whose house he claims to have been at when Adnan called him from a landline outside Best Buy, asking to be picked up after strangling Hae).

Leakin Park crime scene Serial podcast

In the podcast, Koenig spends much of the time contemplating Adnan’s motive for murdering his ex-girlfriend, with whom he says he was on friendly terms.

She often muses that his personality and actions did not match the level of devastation he was described to have felt when Hae left him.

To Jay, however, Adnan looked “real hurt and [in] pain” following the breakup.

“I think that was his first real girlfriend, and I think that’s why his reaction was so strong. I don’t think it meant that much to her … [but] he seemed to be far out of his realm when it came to Hae leaving him.”

“And the other thing about it, I mean, there looked like there was real hurt and pain. What else could motivate you to choke the life out of someone you cared about?” Jay poses during the interview.

Adnan Syed 1998 Serial podcast

Listeners and redditors have already begun discussing the explosive interview, with many agreeing that although Jay came off “incredibly well, very genuine and believable ... I know loads of this can’t be true”.

User afwaller also points out that Jay admits to lying to police and to court, and tries to “justify these continued lies with some shaky reasoning”.

“He admits he lied, and the story he told in court wasn’t true … Lying with no real motivation, ego and pride thrusting you to disparage other people and make up stories, that’s borderline personality behaviour there. Maybe. Jay should stay silent. But he won’t.”

Twitter sphere is also awash with doubt, with many calling Jay a liar:

After reading Jay's interview today... #serialpodcast pic.twitter.com/fKZDmFN9sE

— Gabe Fonseca (@MrGabeFonseca) December 29, 2014

Jay's story from @serial is a lot like Oliver Stone's Alexander. It wasn't good to start with and with each revision, it somehow gets worse.

— Alex Beene (@aabeene) December 30, 2014

Others, however, are less sceptical, and think that Jay’s confessions only implicate Adnan:

i think i may be the only one in the world that believes jay and not adnan #Serial #serialpodcast

— Fortich, Marc (@ohhimarc) December 30, 2014

As for the truth? The fact is, no one will probably know the whole truth about what happened that night.

In the final episode of Serial, Koenig herself admitted that despite liking Adnan, she would “not swear that he was innocent”.