Sarah Koenig

At parties or events, he'd be the first one to ask, how can I help you, auntie?

Do you need help setting up those tables, uncle?

This was what Ali, disguised and anonymous, had to say.

Normally, I probably wouldn't pursue rumors that on their face aren't connected to the crime at hand.

But in this case, I decided it was worthwhile because of where these rumors come from.

I think these rumors are coming from a feeling that a handful of people have, I've heard this from about four people, people who knew Adnan growing up, that Adnan was capable of committing this crime.

I think they believe they saw things in his personality that they think I am not seeing, namely that he's duplicitous.

The term psychopath gets thrown in sometimes.

People told me he used his charm and his smarts to deflect suspicion or weasel out of things when he got caught, pretty much what the judge said to him at his sentencing.

Which brings me to the only rumor I heard that at least partly checked out.

It was this.

Adnan stole money from the mosque.

Donation money.

I heard various versions of how this happened or could have happened.

But from what I can tell, the basic story is people who come to pray on Fridays, and it's a lot of people, many hundreds, some of them put donation money into boxes.

And that's what Adnan skimmed.

Two people told me they saw him do it.

One person told me he'd seen it several times.

He wouldn't go on tape.

But the other guy did.