It was November 2010, the entire Toronto community in Canada was left in shock by a devastating incident. A Vietnamese couple were attacked inside their residence, in what appeared to be a robbery of their home. Tragically, the wife lost her life, while her husband was left in critical condition from a gunshot to his face.
The young Canadian of Vietnamese descent born in 1986, Jennifer Pan, had hired two hitmen to murder her parental controllers when they discovered she had faked her life since high school.
Jennifer Pan – a ‘golden’ child
From time to time the media give birth to events worthy of being the next movie script. This is the case of Jennifer Pan, a young woman who from an early age stood out for her good grades at school. From the age of four, she played the piano, the flute and practiced figure skating.
Jennifer’s parents Huei Hann Pan and Bich Ha Pan demanded perfection of her and exercised complete control of her life. No parties, high school dances, and less going out with boys. In their eyes, their daughter was an A-student, but in reality, Pan had forged all her report cards in high school and was in a loving relationship with her partner Daniel Wong whom she met at the age of 16.
Since Jennifer’s parents would never approve of the relationship, she decided to keep it a secret, adding to this that her boyfriend was a small drug dealer, which took more points from the situation.
It all started from one day in Jennifer’s childhood
One day at the school she attended they were rewarding the most outstanding students, as every year she expected them to say her name, her parents were also present since they were very sure that she would win. This was not the case, they did not mention the name of Jennifer but of another boy from the school; out of grief, her parents withdrew from the ceremony, for them this situation had been a humiliation.
After losing, feeling like a failure, her enthusiasm for school began to wane, she was not paying attention to classes, and her grades began to plummet. Knowing that she couldn’t disappoint her parents more, Jennifer began to manipulate her test scores for 4 years.
The web of lies continued in Jennifer’s life
The web of lies about Jennifer’s life continued in college. Failing to graduate from the college where she was, she lied about admission to college, and therefore lied saying that she went to school, to do projects or to volunteer, although, in reality, she was spending it at her boyfriend’s house.
The future Olympic medalist should now be an eminence from the Pharmacy. She forged an admission letter from Ryerson University and pretended to be a brilliant student awarded a scholarship for her good grades to her parents. The role of her life had no cracks. But this would not last long.
Jennifer’s parents made the shocking discovery about their ‘golden’ daughter
Jennifer made her money by teaching piano and working in a restaurant, until her parents became suspicious about their daughter’s studies and one day decided to drop her off at the place where she was supposedly volunteering.
Jennifer, nervous, tried to prevent them from entering the hospital where she supposedly worked. Even because of his parents’ stupidity, he gets upset and decides to walk to the hospital. They decide to enter and were surprised that some nurse rectified all suspicions by telling them that there was no person by the name of Jennifer Pan working there.
It is then that her parents discover all the lies Jennifer had woven around them from the beginning. Therefore, they decide to impose a tighter control on their now-adult daughter: force her to leave her job, put a GPS device in her car and monitor all her friends. And obviously, they forbade her to continue with her boyfriend Daniel if she wanted to stay living at home; she agreed, but kept talking secretly with him.
Jennifer had to end the only thing that separated them
Daniel, 24 years old, tired of keeping his relationship secret again, got another partner and left Jennifer, this one, desperate, resorted again to her lies, to manipulate Daniel so that he would not leave her.
“He was the person who filled an empty void…so [when we broke up] I felt that a part of me was missing.” ― Jennifer Pan
Their love was so great that Jennifer’s ex-boyfriend told her that if she wanted to get back with him, she had to end the only thing that separated them: her parents!
Jennifer Pan’s revenge – a perfect plan
In the spring of 2010, Jennifer and Daniel came up with a plan to have the freedom to be together, it consisted of killing Pan’s parents and later collecting life insurance for five hundred thousand dollars.
Because Daniel was in the world of thugs, he contacted an acquaintance of his and they paid him 10 thousand dollars, the hitman was accompanied by two other participants to simulate a robbery at the Pan residence in Unionville, Markham, Ontario, in the Greater Toronto Area.
All this was carried out in November 2010. They entered the house, tied up the whole family, covered the parents with a blanket and took them to the basement and then shot them mercilessly.
Call to 9-1-1
Jennifer then called 911 and told the operator that she is tied upstairs, and she heard gunshots. Her conversation with the 911 operator:
Operator: What’s your name?
Jennifer: My name is Jennifer.
Operator: Someone broke in?
Jennifer: Someone broke in and I heard shots like pop. I don’t know what’s happening. I’m tied upstairs.
Operator: Did it sound like gunshots?
Jennifer: I don’t know what gunshots sound like. I just heard a pop.
(Hann Pan screaming)
Jennifer: I’m okay! My Dad just went outside screaming.
Operator: Do you think your mom is downstairs too?
Jennifer: I don’t hear her anymore.
Jennifer: Please Hurry. I don’t know what’s happening.
Operator: Ma’am, Ma’am, Ma’am
Jennifer: I don’t know where my parents are.
According to Jennifer, Hann Pan somehow survived and was heard screaming from a distance in the 9-1-1 call. After the help arrived Hann was taken to the hospital, where he was put in a coma but Bich Ha Pan wasn’t so lucky, she died in the basement. Bich was shot multiple times in the back and then ultimately the fatal shot to the back of the head. When the cops arrived they found Jennifer tied up exactly the way she described on call.
To the rest of the world, Jennifer was a grieving daughter ― the survivor of a horrible home invasion that left her 53-year-old mother Bich Ha Pan shot dead and her 60-year-old father, Hann Pan in a coma fighting for his life, but Jennifer’s ‘story’ backfired.
Why did Jennifer’s story backfire?
Jennifer said that she was tied up on the second floor to the banister. Officers working on the scene found it hard to believe that she managed to call them even after she was tied up.
The fact that the killers left Jennifer unharmed also raised many eyebrows, why would someone leave an eyewitness behind? The officers found it hard to believe when Jennifer said on the call that her father went out of the house, screaming, according to the officers, a father would check for his child in situations like this.
The cops weren’t convinced by her story and started keeping an eye on her. Even at her mother’s funeral, Jennifer didn’t even shed any tears, nor did the crying appear genuine in any way.
Finally, the truth came out
After interrogating Jennifer three times, the police officers realized that no statement agreed, something always changed something in the story. Finally, the investigators managed to get the whole truth out of Jennifer.
It was in early 2015 that 28-year-old Jennifer Pan, along with her boyfriend Daniel Wong and the collaborators of this false robbery, were sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree murder and attempted murder, with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Jennifer Pan now
Jennifer Pan is now 37 years old and it will be at 59 when they review her case and assess her provisional release. As of 2018, Jennifer Pan was serving her sentence at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario. She is also barred from contacting Daniel Wong.
Jennifer’s dad said, “when I lost my wife, I lost my daughter at the same time. I hope my daughter Jennifer thinks about what happened to her family and can become a good, honest person someday.”
When Jennifer Pan and the other convicts, including Daniel Wong, complete 25 years in prison, that is, in 2039, all five may request the procedural benefit of parole. If this precautionary measure proves admissible, Jennifer could return to the streets, but she will always be watched and monitored by the authorities, just as her parents did throughout her life.
Pan Family Murders – Jennifer Pan Interrogation
After reading about the the shocking case of Jennifer Pan, read about Terry Jo Duperrault – the girl who survived her entire family being brutally murdered at sea.
