In 2010, then-teenager Jennifer Pan appeared to be the victim of a horrific home invasion attack near Toronto, Canada, leaving her mother, Bieh Ha Pan, dead, and her father, Huei Hann Pan, seriously injured.
But Pan was not the innocent bystander she claimed to be when the attack was first reported, as viewers of the 2024 Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did are now well aware. When Pan called the police in 2010 about what happened, she said three intruders had tied her up before robbing the Pan family home and killing her mother, according to the CBC. As mentioned, Pan’s father survived the assault, but spent time in a coma. As investigators questioned Huei, and after her father recovered, inconsistencies between Jennifer’s version of events and what her father said were uncovered.
Over time, Canadian police learned it was not a random and tragic home invasion robbery gone wrong. Instead, Pan was accused of planning the attack, along with her boyfriend, Daniel Wong, and two other men, Lenford Crawford and David Mylvaganam, to have her parents killed. Pan’s motive for murder was a strict, high-pressure home life, according to the prosecution. Pan lied to her parents about several opportunities and accomplishments, including a high school diploma, but never graduated. Her parents also disapproved of her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Wong. As her lies caught up with her, and when her relationship with Wong rekindled, Pan felt she had no choice but to kill her family. She paid for the crime with money she thought she’d inherit after her parents died.
Where is Jennifer Pan now and what is her release date?
In 2015, Jennifer Pan, then 28, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole in the first 25 years on a first-degree murder and attempted murder conviction. Her accomplices also served time on those charges. At the trial, Pan admitted that she had plotted in the past to have her father killed and even hired men to kill him, but for several reasons, those plans never happened. At her trial, her father said in a statement, “When I lost my wife, I lost my daughter at the same time.”
In 2023, an Ontario appeals court ruled that Pan would be eligible for a retrial over improper jury instructions, and as a result, her convictions and the convictions of her co-conspirators were thrown out. In its decision, the Canadian court said:
“The jury might have had a doubt about the planned and deliberate murder of Pan’s mother but be satisfied that the appellants knew that the murder of Pan’s mother was a probable consequence of a plan to kill her father. This could give rise to a conviction for second-degree murder.”
via York Region
In August 2023, however, the prosecution appealed the ruling, and when the Netflix documentary about Pan was released, the Canadian Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the case.