Nov 8 2014

The Best Buy Maps

By Dana Chivvis

In Episode 05, Sarah talks about a friend of Adnan named Ja’uan. The detectives interviewed him on April 20, about seven weeks after Adnan had been arrested. Ja’uan told them that sometime after Hae went missing, he and Adnan had gone to the Best Buy parking lot to smoke weed. The detectives asked him why Adnan would choose that spot. Did it have any significance? Ja’uan told them he thought Adnan and Hae used to go there to have sex.

In the case file, right after the detectives’ notes on their interview with Ja’uan there’s this hand-drawn map.

Ja'uan's Best Buy Map

Presumably, the detectives asked Ja’uan to show them where he and Adnan had parked that day when they went to smoke weed. (And yeah, they interviewed him on 4/20 about this.)

You can see why the detectives asked him to draw the parking lot when you look at this next map, which has Jay’s name on the bottom and is dated "3/15/99."

Jay's Best Buy Map

Jay indicates where Adnan (“Ahnand”) was parked when he arrived at the Best Buy on January 13. The rectangle to the right of that is the store. He also drew in where the payphone was.

Ja’uan’s map of where he and Adnan parked matches up almost exactly with Jay’s map for January 13. Sarah and I drove to the Best Buy and this is definitely the most secluded part of the parking lot. It’s around the corner from the entrance to the store, there’s a row of trees on the side of it, and something that looks like an empty lot directly in front.

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