Family of 'Serial' victim Hae Min Lee say her convicted killer Adnan Syed 'destroyed our family' in emotional letter that slams the podcast's fans for running to defend him

The family of Hae Min Lee, the murder victim from the hit podcast Serial, have issued an emotional statement saying her convicted killer Adnan Syed 'destroyed our family'.

It is the second time they have spoken out in a week following 17 years of silence after the high school student was strangled to death.

Her body was found buried in a Baltimore, Maryland, park in 1999, and Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was charged with her murder.

The 35-year-old Muslim was given a life sentence for her death in 2000 when he was just 19, but he returned to court last week to argue that he deserves another trial and a new chance at freedom.

The emotional letter from Lee's family addressed fans of the hugely popular podcast who have 'run to defend someone who committed a horrible crime.'

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The family of Hae Min Lee (left), the murder victim from the hit podcast Serial, have issued an emotional statement insisting convicted killer Adnan Syed (right in court on Friday) 'destroyed our family'

They say Syed, who is trying to have his conviction overturned in a series of hearings in Baltimore, 'refuses to accept responsibility, when so few are willing to speak up for Hae.'

'Unlike those who learn about this case on the internet,' they added, 'we sat and watched every day of both trials – so many witnesses, so much evidence.' 

The statement was released through the Maryland Attorney General. 

Last week Deputy Maryland Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah read aloud the family's words from the steps of the Baltimore Circuit Court after Syed's appearance in front of a judge.

In his statement he said the family is being forced to 'relive a nightmare we thought was behind us' as a result of the hearing.

'Our family has lived without a heart for over 17 years. And we continue to grieve every day in private.

'We are grateful to all the people who are there and will be there to support and to give Hae a voice. She is the true victim.

'We believe justice was done when Adnan was convicted in 2000, and we look forward to bringing this chapter to an end so we can celebrate the memory of Hae instead of celebrating the man who killed her.'

The family have only spoken to the media once and refused to be part of the podcast. They were interviewed shortly after Syed was arrested and charged with Lee's murder. The victim's mother and brother are pictured 

They have not been at the hearings, which continued on Monday.

On Friday, Syed's lawyers argued that the convicted killer was crippled by the omission of an alibi witness.

Asia McClain, now known as Asia Chapman, would have been 'critical' to Syed's first trial if she had been contacted by his original attorney, David Irwin, a legal expert for the defense, said. 

Syed's attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, proved ineffective by failing to contact Chapman.

Chapman, a former classmate, testified Wednesday that she had a conversation with Syed at the library during the time prosecutors say Lee was killed.

Irwin said Gutierrez's failure to contact Chapman 'was well below the minimum required' for an attorney defending a client and that it was her duty to investigate all possible alibi witnesses.

'If you have a credible alibi witness, that's the best defense you can have,' he said.

Just a year after Syed's conviction, Gutierrez was disbarred in connection with other cases and her failing health due to the effects of multiple sclerosis.

Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah on Thursday tried to poke holes the testimony of Chapman, who wrote two letters to Syed shortly after he was imprisoned in 1999.

'I'm not sure if you remember talking to me in the library on Jan. 13 but I remembered chatting with you,' she wrote in one. 'I have reason to believe in your innocence.'

Chapman wrote that she contacted the library, which is next to their high school campus, and that they had a surveillance system. McClain also told Syed that she was trying to reach his attorney.

'If you were in the library for a while, tell the police and I'll continue to tell what I know even louder than I am,' she wrote.

'My boyfriend and his best friend remember seeing you there too.'

Vignarajah questioned how Chapman knew certain details about Syed's case that she mentions in the letter and whether she had written the second one weeks after she said she did, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Chapman said the information solely came from rumors and information she heard being shared at their high school and not, as suggested by Vignarajah, from a search warrant.

Syed (seen in his jumpsuit waving at the camera) is trying to argue that his case was crippled by the omission of an alibi witness. His attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, proved ineffective

She also shot down the claim that Syed had sent her a letter from jail and asked her to type it, saying she had never even heard of the allegation.

Irwin called Chapman a 'fabulous' witness who would have 'changed the ballgame' had she testified at Syed's original trial.

Also on Friday, an investigator testified that he located 41 possible alibi witnesses for Syed, but only four told him they were contacted by the original defense team for the 2000 trial

Sean Gordon testified that out of 83 potential alibi witnesses, he was able to reach 41. Of those, he said, only four said they were contacted by Gutierrez and none were asked to testify. 

Lee's family last week insisted that they believe justice was done when he was first convicted 

Testimony also has focused on cellphone tower data that prosecutors used during Syed's first trial, claiming it placed him at the scene where Lee's body was found in 1999.

Gerald Grant, a communications forensics expert, testified in Baltimore City Circuit Court that jurors should have been told that AT&T cellphone records used to place Syed at the site were flawed.

The AT&T engineer who testified in the original trial was not aware that outgoing phone calls were reliable but incoming calls were not, Grant said.

A sheet accompanying the faxed records included that disclaimer but was misplaced or overlooked.

Meanwhile FBI Special Agent Chad Fitzgerald testified, the prosecution's first witness, argued that the cover sheet is of no consequence and that testimony given at Syed's trial by AT&T radio frequency engineer Abraham Waranowitz was true. 

Fitzgerald's testimony contradicted an affidavit that Waranowitz wrote last year that says if he'd known about the cover sheet his testimony would have been different.

On Friday afternoon Fitzgerald said he stood by the validity of the original data presented at trial.

But during cross-examination Syed's attorney Justin Brown asked how two calls contained in the data - one traced to Dupont Circle in Washington and another traced to Baltimore - could have been made just 27 minutes apart when it would be nearly impossible to travel the distance in that time.

Fitzgerald said in order to answer he'd need more information.

'It would cause me to do more research,' he said. 

Hae (top circled) was found strangled to death and buried in a Baltimore, Maryland, park in 1999, and her ex-boyfriend Syed was charged with her murder. He was given a life sentence in 2000