A family friend of Adnan Syed has joked that the 41-year-old is not “looking to hook up” with the influx of “thirsty” ladies who have reached out following his bombshell release from prison.
“I keep getting asked this question and I’m only answering it once because first of all this is not my role in his life, but also people get a grip,” tweeted Rabia Chaudry on Wednesday morning.
“Adnan is not looking to hook up or meet any of the very thirsty, er I mean interested, ladies reaching out.”
Ms Chaudry, an attorney and family friend, included a GIF of actor Julia Stiles gesturing to move on.
Mr Syed walked out of court a free man on Monday after spending the last 23 years behind bars for the murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee, who was found strangled to death in a shallow grave in Baltimore in 1999.
The 41-year-old, who was just 17 when he was arrested and charged with murder, was met with cheers from family members, friends and supporters as he left the courthouse.
His case hit headlines all across the globe back in 2014 through the first-of-its kind true crime podcast Serialwhich raised serious doubts about his conviction.
Ms Chaudry is credited with drawing attention to the case, having spent years fighting to overturn Mr Syed’s conviction and reaching out to journalist Sarah Koenig, who then launched the popular podcast series.
In the days since Mr Syed’s conviction was vacated, Ms Chaudry has shared moving photos and videos of Mr Syed – who has spent more than half of his life in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit – adjusting to life back home with his family.
In one touching video, the 41-year-old is seen enjoying sampling food in his home with his brother, after two decades of prison food.
The footage shows Mr Syed looking through the fridge in the home for food, taking out samosas and dumplings while his brother Yusuf stands next to him.
The siblings are seen happily sharing the food.
Mr Syed tries a dumpling and smiles, saying: “Pretty good.”
Ms Chaudry captioned the post: “Leftovers at home never tasted so good!!”
Mr Syed is still on home detention, after a Baltimore judge vacated his conviction and released him on recognizance, pending a new trial.
The prosecution now has 30 days to decide whether to drop all charges against Mr Syed or to retry the case against him.
The state has said it is expediting the results of new DNA testing which they hope could advance the investigation.
High-profile attorney Duncan Levin told The Independent that he thinks the chances Mr Syed will face a retrial is “extremely unlikely”.
“This is pretty much the end of the road,” he said of Mr Syed’s two-decades-long legal battle.
“This was the prosecution’s motion to vacate the sentence so I think they’d like some time to probably tidy up the file but at this time I think it’s extremely unlikely that he’ll get a new court date in the next 30 days.”
Mr Syed’s shock release came days after Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby asked a judge to overturn his conviction, citing multiple issues with the original case including information about two potential alternate suspects.
The suspects, who were not named because of the ongoing investigation, were both known to the initial 1999 murder investigation and were not properly ruled out.
According to prosecutors, one of the suspects had threatened to kill Lee around the time of her murder, saying that “he would make [Lee] disappear. He would kill her”.
Lee’s car was also found directly behind the house of one of the suspect’s family members, prosecutors said.
One of the suspects was ruled out of the case by police based on faulty polygraph tests and both have relevant criminal records – with one convicted of attacking a woman in her car and the other convicted of serial rape and sexual assault.
Ms Mosby revealed that the original prosecutors on the case had failed to hand over the information to Mr Syed’s legal team – something that is a clear Brady violation.
In a new episode of Serial released on Tuesday morning, Ms Koenig revealed that the information about the alternate suspects came to light after a prosecutor stumbled across two handwritten notes naming one of the individuals earlier this year.
The “messy” notes, which were found deep within boxes of files on the case, revealed that two different people had placed two separate phone calls alerting prosecutors to the unnamed suspect prior to Mr Syed’s 2000 conviction.
Despite the tipoffs, the notes were not shared with Mr Syed’s legal team and instead sat gathering dust in boxes inside the state attorney’s office for the past 23 years – all the while Mr Syed was holed up behind bars for a crime he says he didn’t commit.
Prosecutors also cited issues with the validity of cellphone data used to convict Mr Syed, the reliability of the state’s star witness at his original trial and a detective on the case who was later accused of misconduct.
Lee, 18, vanished without a trace on 13 January 1999 after leaving Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland, where she was a senior. Her body was found around one month later buried in a park in Baltimore. She had been strangled.
Mr Syed, who was 17 at the time, was arrested and charged with her murder.
In 2000, he was convicted of murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment and sentenced to life in prison. He has always maintained his innocence.
