Confessions of a Serial Alibi

A story of murder and an unlikely alibi witness as featured in NPR's This American Life's hit podcast Serial.

 

In 1999 Adnan Syed was arrested for murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. But at the same time he was accused of the crime, Asia McClain claims she saw Syed at the local library.

When McClain hears of Syed’s arrest, she wrote to him to let him know that she might be his alibi. In spite of the opportunity to have him proven innocent, Syed’s attorney did not take any action. Later, his attorney was disbarred due to numerous health problems including multiple sclerosis. She died in 2004.

Over a decade after Syed’s arrest, NPR’s This American Life’s Sarah Koenig investigates the old case. Her interviews with McClain become the first subject of Koenig’s hugely successful podcast Serial and the story became an international internet phenomenon.

Determined to set the record straight and the truth free, McClain reaches out to Syed’s new defense attorney and on November 6, 2015, the court ordered an investigation to determine whether Syed’s case be re-opened "in the interests of justice for all parties.” Finally, McClain can become the key alibi witness that she was always meant to be.

Now, in Confessions of a Serial Alibi, Asia McClain tells her story for the very first time.

Asia McClain Chapman was born on June 26, 1981, in Hollywood California. Her parents, Carl and Michelle McClain, were separated in 1986, which resulted in her relocation to Baltimore, Maryland. After growing up in the Baltimore County school system, Asia graduated from Woodlawn Senior High School in 1999 and soon left for college.

In search of a fresh start, in 2005 Asia made the decision to drive across the country in her Nissan 240SX towing a U-Haul trailer full of her belongings. After several years of living in Portland, Oregon and working full-time as personal assistant, in 2008 Asia met her future husband Phillip Chapman. The couple married in 2009 and are now the proud parents of two rambunctious little boys, Lucas and Alexander. Asia also is currently pregnant with her third child due in July 2016.?

Asia lives in Spokane Washington, and spends her days as a stay at home mother, board secretary of Solutions Automation and small business owner of Diamond Concepts. Asia enjoys writing in her spare time, cooking, gardening and working with her hands in addition to editing her local MOMS Club International newsletter.