Jennifer Pan (born June 17, 1986) is a Vietnamese Canadian woman who was convicted of a 2010 kill-for-hire attack targeting both of her parents, murdering her mother and injuring her father. The crime took place at the Pan residence in Unionville, Markham,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, in the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater ...

. Pan was found guilty on multiple charges and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

with the possibility of

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

after 25 years, the same penalty as her co-conspirators.

Early life and education

Jennifer Pan's mother, Bich Ha Pan (pronounced "Bick"), and father, Huei Hann Pan, were immigrants from the Chinese

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...

in Vietnam ( Viet Hoa) to Canada. Hann was born and educated in Vietnam, moving to Canada in 1979 as a

political refugee The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

. Bich also immigrated as a refugee. The couple were married in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anc ...

and lived in Scarborough. Their two children are Jennifer, born 1986, and Felix, born 1989. �
Version in Simplified Chinese
The Pans found work at

Magna International Magna International Inc. is a Canadian parts manufacturer for automakers. It is one of the largest companies in Canada and was recognized on the 2020 ''Forbes'' Global 2000. The company is the largest automobile parts manufacturer in North Ameri ...

, an auto parts manufacturer in

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

. Hann worked as a tool and die maker, while Bich made car parts. Hann and Bich were thrifty and by 2004 were financially stable enough to purchase a "large" house with a two-car garage on a residential street in Markham, a city in the Greater Toronto Area with a large Asian population. Bich drove a Lexus ES 300 and Hann drove a Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W203). They had accumulated $200,000 in savings. Jennifer's parents set many goals for their children and had extremely high expectations of them. Jennifer was made to take piano lessons at the age of four, as well as

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are men ...

classes where she trained most days during the week. She had hopes of becoming an Olympic figure skating champion until she tore a ligament in her knee. Jennifer attended Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School where she played the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

in the school band. According to her high school friend Karen K. Ho, Hann was seen as "the classic tiger dad," and Bich was "his reluctant accomplice." The Pans picked Jennifer up when classes ended each day and monitored her extracurricular activities very closely. They never permitted her to date boys while attending high school, or to attend high school dances out of fear that these activities would distract her from her academic commitments. Jennifer was not permitted to attend any parties during the time her parents believed she was attending university. At the age of 22, "she had never gone to a club, been drunk, visited a friend's cottage or gone on vacation without her family." Jennifer and her friends reportedly regarded this upbringing as restrictive and greatly oppressive. Despite her parents' high expectations that Jennifer receive good grades in lower school, her grades throughout high school were somewhat average (in the 70% range) except for music. She forged

report card A report card, or just report in British English, communicates a student's performance academically. In most places, the report card is issued by the school to the student or the student's parents once to four times yearly. A typical report card ...

s multiple times using false templates, deceiving her parents into thinking she earned straight As. When Jennifer failed calculus class in grade 12,

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, although it also operates facilities elsewhere in Tor ...

rescinded her early admission. As she could not bear to be perceived as a failure, she began to lie to those she knew, including her parents, and pretended she was attending university. Instead, she sat in cafés, taught as a piano instructor and worked in a restaurant to earn money. In order to maintain the charade, Jennifer told her parents she had won scholarships, later falsely claiming that she had accepted an offer into the pharmacology program at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. She went to the extent of purchasing second-hand textbooks and watching videos related to pharmacology in order to create notebooks full of purported class notes that she could show her parents. Jennifer also requested permission from her parents to stay near the campus with a friend throughout the week. She was actually staying with her boyfriend, Daniel Chi-Kwong Wong, whom she had met in high school. He was of mixed Chinese and Filipino ancestry,Grimaldi, , 9781459735262,

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

br>PT 31
: " ..ommenting on the fact that he was only half Chinese. " ..ou're artFilipino."" resided in

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

, and worked at a

Boston Pizza Boston Pizza (BP), known as Boston's The Gourmet Pizza Restaurant and Sports Bar outside of Canada, is a Canadian multinational restaurant chain that owns and franchises locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico. History Boston Pizza ...

restaurant.Grimaldi, , 9781459735262
PT 90
. "Daniel Wong is arrested at work in front of his colleagues at Boston Pizza on April 26, 2011." Wong, once a student at Mary Ward, transferred to Cardinal Carter Academy in North York, Toronto, due to low grades, and later studied at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...

. He was an active marijuana dealer.

Adult life

While pretending to complete her degree at the University of Toronto, Pan told her parents that she had started working as a volunteer at

The Hospital for Sick Children ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

. Hann and Bich soon became suspicious when they realized she did not have a hospital ID badge or uniform. On one occasion, Bich followed her daughter to "work" and quickly discovered her deception. Livid, Hann wanted to throw Jennifer out of the house, but her mother persuaded him to allow her to stay. As she had not completed high school due to failing

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arit ...

, she eventually began working to finish high school completely and was later encouraged by her parents to apply to university. She was, however, forbidden to contact Wong or to go anywhere except for her piano-teaching job. Nevertheless, she and Wong spoke secretly during this period. By the time Jennifer was 24, Wong had grown weary of trying to pursue a relationship with her, as Jennifer was so daunted and restricted by her parents that she lived at home and only met him in secret. Wong broke off his relationship with Jennifer and began to date another young woman. After learning of the new relationships, Pan claimed to Wong that a man had entered her house, showing what appeared to be a police badge, after which several men had rushed in and

gang-rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

d her. She claimed that after this, a bullet was mailed to her, and that both of these events were orchestrated by Wong's new girlfriend.

Murder

In spring 2010, Pan was in contact with Andrew Montemayor, a high school friend who, she claims, had boasted in their high school years about robbing people at knife point, an assertion denied by Montemayor. Montemayor introduced her to Ricardo Duncan, a " goth kid" whom Pan claims she gave $1,500 to kill her father in the parking lot at his workplace. Duncan alleged that she once gave him $200 for a night out, but that he returned it, and that he rebuffed her when she asked him to kill her parents. Pan and Wong were back in contact at this time and, according to the police, came up with a plan to hire a professional

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...

for $10,000 to kill her parents, calculating that she would then inherit $500,000. They planned to move in together. Wong connected Pan with a man, Lenford Roy Crawford, Jamaican-born, whom he called Homeboy, and gave her a

SIM card A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout) A GSM mobile phone">Global System for Mobile Communications">GSM mobile phone iPhone_6s.html"_;"title="T-Mobile_nano-SIM_card_with_NFC_capabilities_in_the_SIM_tray_of_an_iPhone_6s">T-Mobile_ ...

and an iPhone so that she could contact Crawford without using her usual cell phone. Crawford contacted another man, named Eric Shawn "Sniper" Carty, who in turn contacted Montreal-born David Mylvaganam. Crawford lived in

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it ...

and Mylvaganam lived in Toronto, while Carty, who previously lived in Rexdale, Toronto, at the time did not have a fixed residence. The Crown (prosecution) stated that Mylvaganam was one of the hitmen. Carty was later convicted for an unrelated 2009 murder. The murder took place at the Pan house in Unionville neighbourhood in

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest ...

. On November 8, 2010, Pan unlocked the front door of the family home when she went to bed, then spoke by phone to Mylvaganam. Shortly afterwards, Mylvaganam and two other people entered the home through the unlocked front door, all carrying guns. In the court testimony, the Crown did not establish the identity of the other two hitmen; Wong and Crawford were at work. Carty stated that he was the driver for those who broke into the house, and that he selected them and was involved in plotting the attack. He did not state that he was one of the three or that he directly attacked others. The identity of the triggerperson remains unknown. After demanding all the money in the house and ransacking the main bedroom, the three men took Bich and Hann to the basement where they shot them multiple times. Bich was killed but Hann survived his wounds. The three men then took all the cash that was in the house including $2,000 from Pan and left. Pan claimed that they tied her up, but that she managed to free her hands and dial

9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency ...

. Hann Pan was treated at

Markham Stouffville Hospital Markham Stouffville Hospital is an acute care community hospital with two sites: the Markham site, with diagnostic and emergency services, and clinical programs in childbirth, children's health, surgery, medicine, cancer care and mental health; a ...

,Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
17
. before being moved to a trauma unitGrimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
27
. at Sunnybrook Hospital in

,Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
35
. by aircraft.

Investigation and arrests

The evening after the murder, Pan underwent her first interview with the police.Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
18
. Pan was arrested on November 22, 2010, during her third interview at the Markham police station (5 District) of

York Regional Police The York Regional Police (YRP) are a law enforcement organization that serves over 1.1 million residents in the York Region of Ontario, Canada, located north of Toronto. YRP was formed in 1971 from the police forces maintained by the nine municip ...

.Grimaldi – Interview date: , 9781459735255 p
66
. "During her third police interview, on November 22, 2016, Jennifer opens up to Detective Goetz .. – Arrest: , 9781459735255 p
74
. Also , 9781459735262,

br>PT 273
. " ..oetz returns before calmly stating, " ..t this point of the investigation I will be arresting you for murder, .." During that interview Pan admitted that she had hired the killers, but claimed that she hired them to kill her and not her parents. The interrogating police officer, William "Bill" Goetz, falsely told Pan that he had computer software that could analyze untruths in statements and that there were satellites that used

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from arou ...

technology to analyze movements in buildings; in Canada, police are legally allowed to lie to those they are interrogating in regard to the evidence in the trial,Grimaldi, , 9781459735262,

br>PT 62
. "Police in Canada might be allowed to lie to suspects about the evidence they have collected, .. as well as in regard to the strategies they are using. Goetz had used the Reid technique to obtain Pan's confession. Mylvaganam was arrested at the Jane Finch Mall in North York, Toronto, on April 14, 2011. Carty was arrested at the prison he was held in, Maplehurst Correctional Complex in

Milton, Ontario Milton ( 2016 census population 110,128) is a town in Southern Ontario, Canada, and part of the Halton Region in the Greater Toronto Area. Between 2001 and 2011, Milton was the fastest growing municipality in Canada, with a 71.4% increase in popul ...

, on April 15, 2011. Wong was arrested on April 26, 2011, at his place of employment. Crawford was the final suspect arrested, entering custody on May 4, 2011, in Brampton. Pan was held at Central East Correctional Centre in

Lindsay, Ontario Lindsay is a community of 22 367 people ( 2021 census) on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough. It is the seat of the City of Kawartha Lakes (formerly Victori ...

as a pre-trial inmate.

Trial

The trial of Pan and her accomplices began on March 19, 2014, in Newmarket and continued for ten months. All pleaded not guilty to the charges of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ye ...

, and

conspiracy to commit murder Conspiracy to murder is a statutory offence defined by the intent to commit murder. England and Wales The offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and retained as ...

. At the trial,

evidence included exhaustive tracking of the mobile device movements and text message traffic, including over 100 messages sent between Pan and Wong in the six hours prior to the killing. Further evidence centered around the atypical nature of the "break-in", "robbery", shootings, and irregularities in Pan's testimony. Pan's obsession with Wong, her lack of true emotion and a confession regarding the attack, and recognition of the trauma she underwent were also detailed. A major irregularity was that Pan was not assaulted, blindfolded, taken to the basement, nor shot, leaving behind an eyewitness to the attack. Evidence from Hann, which differed greatly from Pan's version, also undermined her credibility. The trial included over 200 exhibits; over 50 witnesses testified at the trial. Pan, Wong, Mylvaganam, and Crawford were all convicted on December 13, 2014, and each received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. Originally, Carty was tried with the other perpetrators. Edward Sapiano, Carty's lawyer, fell ill, so around the summer of 2014, his case was declared a mistrial. In December 2015, Carty received an 18-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit murder, with eligibility for parole after nine years. According to Carty, he did not wish to subject Hann Pan to another criminal trial.

Penalties and imprisonment

Jennifer Pan was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years for the murder of her mother, and attempted murder of her father. Pan's father and brother requested a court order that banned her from ever contacting members of her surviving family again. Despite the objections of the defence lawyers, the judge filed the order. Pan is also banned from ever contacting Wong again.Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
314
. , Pan is currently incarcerated at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario.Grimaldi, 1459735250, 9781459735255 p
313
, or , 9781459735262

br>PT273
. Wong, previously held in

, was at Collins Bay Institution in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toront ...

. Mylvaganam was at Atlantic Institution in Renous, New Brunswick.Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
312
. Crawford was at Kent Institution in

Agassiz, British Columbia Agassiz ( ) is a small community located in the Eastern Fraser Valley region of British Columbia, Canada, about 97 kilometres east of Vancouver and 24 kilometres north-east of the city of Chilliwack. The only town within the jurisdiction of the ...

.Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
313
. Carty, who requested to go to a federal prison in Western Canada or Atlantic Canada, was still at the provincial Millhaven Assessment Unit, awaiting his transfer to a federal prison. He later moved to Kent, where he died in his cell on April 26, 2018.

Media reaction

According to the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

'', the case "sent shockwaves across Canada and the Asian

." An editorial in the ''

Northwest Asian Weekly The ''Northwest Asian Weekly'' is a weekly Asian American newspaper based in Seattle, Washington's International District. Distributed for free, it was founded in 1982 by Assunta Ng, founder of the '' Seattle Chinese Post''. It has a circulatio ...

'' suggested consideration of the "idea of recognizing the mental and psychological symptoms that parenting may have gone too far" in the Pan household. �
Also at

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providin ...

A story by Karen K. Ho in ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', '' ...

'' magazine brought the story to widespread attention by framing it an instance of tiger parenting gone tragically wrong. In 2016, journalist Jeremy Grimaldi published a

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

book about Pan called '' A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story''. The '' Casefile,'' '' My Favorite Murder and Crimes of Passion'' podcasts and the ''

Deadly Women ''Deadly Women'' is an American true crime documentary television series produced by Beyond International Group and airing on the Investigation Discovery (ID) network. The series focuses on murders committed by women. It is hosted by former ...

'' series also covered the case.

Aftermath

Bich-Ha Pan's funeral was held on November 15, 2010, and took place at the Ogden Chapel in Scarborough. A funeral for Bich Ha's father was held, according to Pan, prior to Bich Ha's to satisfy a Vietnamese custom that asks for older members of the family to have their funerals first. Jennifer Pan had organized both funerals and had been asked to do so. Bich-Ha was buried on November 19. Hann Pan could not attend due to his injuries.Grimaldi, , 9781459735255 p
59
.

Notes

References

Other sources * Grimaldi, Jeremy. '' A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story''. Dundurn Books, November 12, 2016. ** , 9781459735262. ** , 9781459735255.

External links

Index of articles
– Yorkregion.com
Casefile True Crime Podcast – Case 50: Jennifer Pan
– April 15, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pan, Jennifer 1986 births Living people 2010 murders in Canada 21st-century Canadian criminals Canadian female criminals Canadian female murderers Canadian murderers Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian people of Vietnamese descent Canadian people convicted of murder Canadian prisoners and detainees Canadian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Crime in Ontario Matricides Murder in Canada Murder in Ontario People convicted of murder by Canada People from Markham, Ontario People from Toronto Prisoners and detainees of Canada Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Canada