Does Jay's Intercept interview shed new light on an old piece of evidence that was overlooked?

This is a part of something larger I’m writing, but I won’t be finished for a while and I feel that the quicker this theory gets out, the better. Before I go into my "theory" – I feel pompous just typing that – I want to say that I believe the truth of what happened lies in the interviews with Jay and Jenn. Unfortunately, lies also lie in the interviews with Jay and Jenn. But as state prosecutor Kevin Urick once said, the spine of Jay's story never shifted. While that is partially true, finding the spine in these interviews is quite a task. But in my opinion, it’s there. The cell phone records and tower pings certainly help. There is also a piece of physical evidence that, now more than ever, makes so much sense. To me it clarifies statements Jay made that were glossed over by the police. This isn’t a "new" piece of evidence – it's been there, but it wasn't taken seriously. I thought it was strange, but it wasn't until Jay's Intercept interview that it became much more valuable.

For me, Jay's first interview contains the majority of the "spine" of this case. Going into that interview I believe Jay thought that if he just said what he did that day, putting Adnan in his shoes through most of it, and casting himself as the “helper” (which I think could be Jenn in actuality, I also think someone else had some involvement ), he'd probably be ok. Jay likely thought he'd be in a “his word vs. mine” battle with Adnan. He probably knew the cops would have some phone records, but figured phone records don't show where you are...oh, they do? That created a problem for Jay coming out of the first interview and into the second. Luckily for him, he had a three-hour unrecorded interview before his second official interview. His story, the way he was telling it, was out of order. Many of the things he says happened did happen. It's just that they didn't happen in the order he said them, and he switched the names of the people involved. Any time Jay thought of something he did, he just inserted Adnan’s name. If there’s one thing we know about Jay, it’s that he lies – but the spine stays the same.

As I was starting the first interview, I noticed on page 19 that Jay was discussing what he and "Adnan" did after they buried Hae. The first part of this, as Jay is going into where they went, it’s kind of disjointed and I believe that is because Ritz was interrupting Jay, something both detectives do far too often in both interviews. I think if we heard the audio it would be clearer. I’m going to join those sentences at the end so what he said can be better understood:

Joined together statements without Ritz interrupting what Jay was saying:

Jay: We go down, we went to Belvedere first than he ah drove me over back over this side of town. Um the Players Club at Wagon Wheel

Ritz: What’s Belvedere?

Jay: it's a strip, you figure the strip's already hot anyway. um

Ok, this was a detailed memory of how they tried to get rid of Hae's car. First I want to add some context to Jay saying “‘he drove me back over this side of town”. This interview is taking place at

Baltimore Police Station, 601 East Fayette Street. It is literally on the border of what the city calls Central district and the Southeastern district. You walk one block east from the police station on East Fayette street and you’re in Jonestown, in the Southeastern district. Now let's focus on the Players Club, which is never mentioned again in this case. The "Players Club inaudible" is why Ritz asks "You guys go over there and just listen to music" – he knows where Jay is talking about. The "Players Club inaudible" is the Players Club at Wagon Wheel, which is a strip club in Southeastern district of Baltimore, 4 miles east of 601 East Fayette St. This is a specific event that Jay remembers and purposely, mentions but that is completely absent after this interview – because of the cell phone records. There were no pings by the Players Club, so there’s no need for the Players Club. In the first interview – again, this is before Jay is aware that there is such a thing as a cell phone tower – he puts himself on the other side of the city. In interview two, he does mention "driving around all in the city" but neither detective follows up on where in the city. Why? Because there was no cell phone ping on Adnan's phone "all in the city." Why were they near the Player’s Club? After looking at Google Maps I think I can understand why. It’s an industrial area with wooded areas, and plenty of spots you could hide a car for sure. Unfortunately for Jay, and whoever, I believe weather conditions and uncertainty lead to them abandoning the idea of dumping the car in this area.

So if there were no cell phone pings anywhere in the city, Northern or Southeastern district, which Jay claims to have went in his first interview, that just doesn't make sense right?  Well, it didn't make sense, until Jay's interview with the Intercept.  

Before we get into the Intercept interview, MacGillivary did ask one follow-up questions, “how long were you driving around?” and Jay says "30 minutes." Where they left Hae's car was a five-minute drive from where she was buried.

Intercept: Did you go to Leakin Park immediately after agreeing to help?

Jay: No. Adnan left and then returned to my house several hours later, closer to midnight in his car. He came back with no tools or anything.

Jay’s full answer is a little longer, but that's the part to focus on. After reading that, the cell records they make more sense. Because burying Hae and getting rid of her car, A) takes a lot of time, especially if you didn’t have a plan ahead of time, and B) would likely be something you wouldn’t try to do at 7:00-8:00pm. This answer means that either Jay and Adnan went back later, or Jay and someone else went back. The cell phone records indicate that Adnan was likely at home at 10:30 p.m. The next call on his cell phone was at 12:30 p.m. on 1/14. School was closed that day because of an ice storm, and it looks like Adnan slept in. I’m going to go out on limb and say Adnan and his family would say that he was home sleeping on the night of 1/13 and judging by the lack of cell phone use, I would have to agree. I can already hear the groans that he left it behind on purpose, but that makes no sense – what, all of the sudden 1999 Adnan is aware of cell phone tower records? I don’t buy it. This was a big mistake by Jay. He puts himself in Leakin Park later in the night on 1/13, helping with the burying of Hae. But in his story there are always two people. I want to go back to the part of Jay’s first interview where Jay mentions the first place they go after burying Hae. Mind you, we are now moving the timeline because of Jay’s admission that the burial wasn’t at 7:00 p.m. as previously stated. This I’m guessing is somewhere around, 10:45-11:15 p.m. So they leave Leakin Park and as Jay stated they go to “Belvedere.” After some research of all things Belvedere in Baltimore, there are two things that make the most sense is the one is the Chinquapin-Belvedere neighborhood aka Belvedere in the Northern district of the city. The other is West Belvedere Ave, also in the Northern district. Both are not neighborhoods you want to walking through, definitely not at night. This is roughly a 15 to 20-minute drive from where Hae was buried. This is a neighborhood that has what Jay calls “a strip.” Looking at some crime statistics for the areas, it’s a little shady over there to say the least. One thing I noticed was that it looked similar to the strip off of Edmondson Ave in that it had these alleys and there were grass/dirt lots with a few cars parked. It looked very similar to the lot where Hae’s car was found. Adnan sure knew how to look for a strip! So after not finding a strip they liked, Jay says “he didn’t like that one so we drove back on this side of town and down off Route 40 or Edmondson Avenue.” Now, this is the truth, and a slip-up. In Baltimore, from what I understand, Route 40 is how locals refer to the Pulaski highway that runs up to the Baltimore Beltway. In the other direction it splits off turns into a city street, and at some point changes names twice and eventually becomes Edmondson Avenue. So when Jay says we were over by Route 40, he means Pulaski highway.

Why is this important? Because that’s where the Players Club at Wagon Wheel is located. “How far is that?” you’re asking. A 15 to 20-minute drive from Belvedere if you take the Northern Parkway . So far they have been likely been driving around the city for approximately 40 minutes trying to find a suitable strip. I understand why they are over there, because the further away they get from Woodlawn and Leakin Park the better. Unfortunately, they couldn’t pull the trigger on any of the spots they found. I think the familiarity of Edmondson Ave. and that side of West Baltimore was better suited than leaving it an area that you’re unfamiliar with.

I’m now going to tie this all up with what I see as a crucial piece of evidence that was completely

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overlooked for some reason. Like I said, it’s not new but it has puzzled me for months. It’s the receipt from the Crown Gas Station on the corner of the Northern Parkway and Harford Rd. The address is 6708 Harford Road. This has boggled my mind as I’m sure it has yours. To go along with the receipt we have verification from Hae’s bank that her card was used on 1/13/99 at that location. Before I go any further, I did see that Rabia said on Twitter that it was used the night before, and I’ve learned that the explanation had to do with processing times. The night before, 1/12/1999, explanation is that Hae used it at the gas station some time after 10:30 p.m. on her way home from Don’s. I mapped the trip from Bel Air to Hae’s house many times, and using different routes. To me, it didn’t make sense. It has also been mentioned that Don lived in the Belair-Edison neighborhood in Baltimore – that’s false. I’ve verified Don’s address and it was in Bel Air. This is from Don’s statement that is public. His street address is redacted but his town is listed. Why would Hae skip the Beltway, the quickest way home, and travel two extra miles down Harford passing stores and another gas station, then proceed to take the Northern Parkway which has a bunch of traffic lights, goes through shady areas and is the longer route. I’m sorry, it just doesn’t add up. As for the receipt itself, $1.71 seems like such an odd price. I’ve seen people add soda and candy together with tax and they get close to $1.71, but they never hit it. Why would she go out of her way to this gas station to buy snacks, at close to 11:00pm. I was skeptical and determined to figure out the $1.71.

It didn’t take long. You see, if you’re cruising around Belvedere in a missing girl’s car looking for a strip and can’t find one, then head down the Northern Parkway toward Route 40 to look for a spot over there and you suddenly realize that you’re about to run out of gas, you likely panic. Luckily for you, there’s a Crown Gas Station on the corner of Harford Road. How the hell can we know what the price of gas was back then? I can’t tell you exactly what the price of gas was at this station, but in February of 1999 the Baltimore Sun did an article on the recent drop in gas prices. They gave prices from several parts of Baltimore, and they ranged from 69.9 cents to 89.9 cents. One of the few prices they mentioned specifically was 85.9 cents per gallon. I already did the math for you – if you need two gallons of gas, it’d be $1.718. If you bought say 1.99 gallons of gas it'd be $1.709. Well, what if Hae bought gas? Why in the world would a girl that has a job, a car, and money in her bank account buy just $1.71 in gas.

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Click Here to see the locations on Google Maps.

This isn’t the only thing that leads me to believe the receipt was from the person who killed Hae. The fact that the receipt was found in Hae’s car seems odd. Why leave a piece of evidence like that? I think the answer lies (no pun intended) in Jay’s interviews.

Here is a list of statements by Jay that now carry more significance to me:

•He got out of the car and acted like he was carrying her purse and her wallet (1st)

•I just seen him digging in the car (1st)

•He stops and digs in his car some I don’t know what he was getting, he dug in the car some more (2nd)

•The only items I definite that were hers that he had, he had her wallet with all of her, all of her identification, um credit cards, all that (2nd)

•“You indicated he had her wallet?” He didn’t start to go through cards until we actually pulled up to dumpster. “What kind of cards was he taking out?” Um, credit cards, ID cards, bank cards. (2nd)

•“Was he looking for something in the wallet?” He seemed like it, um. He said he was like flipping through her wallet, he was like she ain’t got no cash. And that was all he said to me, but I, I mean he he doesn’t need money, he’s not, he doesn’t need money, he just. (2nd)

Did you get all that? After reading those descriptions, which Jay remembers so vividly for some reason, you have to wonder, what was he digging for? By the way, the gas station receipt was in the trunk. How’d it get in the trunk? I’ll let Jay describe it.

So wait, Adnan has his stuff in Hae’s car now too? Unfortunately for the person dumping all the stuff in the trunk (likely so no one would break into it), “a whole lot of stuff” included the gas station receipt.

I think the receipt is the explanation for the digging, and taking of the purse. Why else would you take the purse and wallet? In theory, you’d have to take off your pair of orange winter gloves to go through the wallet, cards, IDs, and purse. Now your fingerprints are all over those items. Now something else is odd, and it’s that Jay says Adnan was flipping through Hae’s wallet at the dumpster. What? You know what sounds more likely? That you pull up to a pump at the gas station and the person following you comes to the window as you’re flipping through Hae’s wallet saying “she ain’t got no cash.” No cash indeed.

I did a little research on the car Hae was driving, which most of you know was a 1998 Nissan Sentra. I wanted to get the MPG and gas tank capacity for the car and to calculate roughly how much gas they would’ve used going from the gas station to the Players Club to the strip where Hae’s car was found. What it came out to was around 0.40 gallons of gas, leaving roughly 1.60 gallons in the tank, which is about 12% of the tanks capacity. The fuel gauge for a ‘98 Sentra uses four lines to indicate how full the tank was. If everything I’ve speculated were accurate, the marker on the fuel gauge in Hae’s car should’ve been a smidge above E, which is about a fifth full.



There are still many questions to be answered about this theory that I just can’t answer, but I’m going to list them.

• Where is the gas station receipt?

• Was it made available to the defense?

• Who told Rabia that the charge showing up on 1/13 was due to processing? The bank? Police?

• Is “due to processing” a sure fact, or a “could’ve been?”

• Can you lift fingerprints from a receipt?  

• Did the people who processed the car record how much gas was in the car?

• Does Don know what route Hae would've taken home? Did he give her directions?

• Why didn’t the BPD request Hae’s bank records? A private investigator discovered that.

• Did the BPD attempt to speak with anyone from the Crown Gas Station about whether they remember seeing Hae on the 1/12, or if they remember another person buying two gallons of gas late at night on 1/13?

Some of these questions, sadly, likely can’t be answered today.