Sarah Koenig

If they were even $100 short on any given week, they'd have noticed.

So sure, maybe $20 or $40 here or there, but not hundreds and thousands out of the question.

Adnan says it's true.

He did take donation money.

When I first asked him about it, he was unhappy.

I've asked him so many, frankly, insulting things, so many nosy and inappropriate questions, and he's never given me pushback.

But this was the last straw.

What does it have to do with the case he wanted to know?

He's never claimed that he's innocent of killing Hay because he's a perfect or even a good person, he said.

So why talk about this?

And why the double standard?

Why wasn't I going into everyone else's closet and pulling out skeletons that made them look bad?

Why do I protect other people and call him out on everything?

He's endured other stuff in my reporting that he didn't think was fair to him.

But now he was sticking up for himself, he said.

He seemed pissed and hurt, and I understood it.

If you don't want to talk about this, that's your prerogative.

I'm not going to force you to talk about it.

A couple of days and phone calls later, all was calm, and he told me his stealing story.

It was during the summer, maybe the summer before eighth grade, he said.