The brother of a victim at the centre of a 'whodunit' podcast popular all over the world has gone on Reddit to condemn the show sensationalising her murder.

Serial, a podcast produced by the team behind the NPR radio programme This American Life, is trying to unravel the mystery of Hae Min Lee's murder. The schoolgirl was killed in Baltimore in 1999, and her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was found guilty of murdering her the following year.

The podcast has become something of a cultural phenomenon, becoming the fastest one ever to reach 5m downloads on iTunes in just eight episodes.

Identifying himself as ‘brotherofhae’, the Reddit user has criticised the show for exploiting his family's loss. He posted the following message on the site:

TO ME ITS REAL LIFE. To you listeners, its another murder mystery, crime drama, another episode of CSI. You weren’t there to see your mom crying every night, having a heart att[a]ck when she got the new[s] that the body was found, and going to court almost everyday for a year seeing your mom weeping, crying and fainting. You don’t know what we went through. Especially to those who are demanding our family respon[d] and having a meetup… you guys are disgusting. Shame on you. I pray that you don’t have to go through what we went through and have your story blasted to 5 [million] listeners. 

Hae’s brother praised the work of journalist Sarah Koenig, whose work on the show has been lauded internationally and enthralled listeners. He posted an email Ms Koenig sent him earlier this year, which has been commended by other journalists as an example of how to sensitively approach the topic while still pursuing a story.

The email was removed from Reddit as it contained Ms Koenig’s personal contact information, but has since been reposted in a redacted form on Twitter:

Sarah Koenig's email to Hae's little brother is a nice little lesson in how to politely approach a subject - @Reddit pic.twitter.com/Qs9xxzjU6b

— Brian Ries (@moneyries) November 18, 2014

(H/T: Business Insider)