A Robbery Gone Wrong
It was a quiet night on the 8th of November in the town of Markham. It was 10.30 at night, and the Pan household was getting ready to go to bed. It was a forgettable day, one where nothing of particular interest occurred. The daughter, Jennifer, enrolled in the prestigious University of Toronto for pharmacology, was preparing for another long day of lectures ahead. The parents, Hann and Bich were Vietnamese immigrants of Chinese descent, . They immigrated to Canada, and built a life of sacrifice, hard work, with expectations of excellence.
From achieving straight A’s, to almost competing in the Youth Olympics for figure skating, Jennifer was widely regarded as the perfect student. Her Olympic aspirations had come to an abrupt end when she experienced a horrific injury to her knee ligament at the young age of 14. As one door closed, another one opened. She was also talented in music. Her mastery of the piano, and her exceptional talent with the flute was made well-known to Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School, where she attended.
Bich was in the living room, having just returned from line dancing, while Jennifer and Hann were upstairs. Suddenly, three armed men ran into the home. They demanded the Pans to surrender their wealth. In fear, Bich frantically called out for Hann. They then surrendered to the armed intruders. Curious, Jennifer peered outside her bedroom door, when one of the intruders swung the door open and proceeded to tie Jennifer’s hands behind her back.
“I have a gun behind your back. Do what I say and no one gets hurt. Where’s the money? Show me where your money is.”
Jennifer was then dragged down the stairs. The Pans were now at the mercy of the intruders. Bich was then forced to surrender her purse. Jennifer was tied to the stair bannister, while the intruders continued to ransack their home. Suddenly, both Hann and Bich were ordered downstairs to their basement, while Jennifer remained tied to the stairs.
“You lied. You lied. You lied to us!” cried a female voice.
Pop. Pop.
Jennifer recounted that she heard two pops, and the subsequent wailing of her mother, Bich. She had heard a few more pops, and suddenly, just as quickly as the chaos had occurred, the house fell silent once again. This time, a deafening one.
An Investigation, All On Tape
“911 Do you require-”
“Help me, help me please. Help me.”
“Ma’am Ma’am calm down”
The local police rushed into the violent scene. In front of their eyes were the distressed, anguished cries of a mortally wounded Hann, with a bullet going through his eyes, and lodged into the back of his throat, as well as the lifeless body of Bich. Medical crews quickly descended upon the Pan household. Hann, the father, was placed into an induced coma and arrived at the Markham Stouffville Hospital via air-ambulance. At the same time, Bich was officially pronounced dead, and Jennifer was transported to the local police station.
Investigators, worried that Hann might lose his battle with the Reaper, decided to interview Jennifer. The lead investigator, Bill Courtice watched from afar, using live footage from several surveillance cameras placed in the room. After going through the series of events, the interviewer decided to extract information about the armed, and prone-to-violence suspects.
“Tell me about the guy who tied you up, can you describe his race to me?”
“Yes, he was Black, with dreadlocks”
“Okay, and number two guy?” – Investigator
“He had a hoodie but I could tell that he was darker than the first guy”
“So he’s a male Black as well?”
“But thinner build”
“But thinner build, okay”
“And then another one with a Jamaican accent”
Now, detectives have a rough description of these belligerent and cruel people. It was a group of three men of African descent, one with a distinct Jamaican accent. After further questions, Jennifer provided a motive to the investigators. Hann drove a Mercedes, while Bich drove a Lexus, relatively pricey and luxurious vehicles. These men had to have seen these flashy cars, and decided that there were more valuables inside the house. To investigators, initially this seemed like a robbery gone horribly awry.
Ransacked room, messy interior, blood-stained carpets, all hallmarks of a robbery gone wrong, yet there was an opened safe, an expensive video camera, a wallet with 20-dollar bills, and some nice watches. These unmoved items perplexed investigators, but the investigation still went on. A neighbourhood-wide canvassing operation was in full effect, trying to obtain all possible evidence, no matter how big or small.
After an exhausting six-hour canvass, investigators got one of their biggest leads yet, a man associated with the Pans, named Danny Wong. Danny was a drug dealer, who was in a romantic relationship with Jennifer prior to the home invasion. Investigators were confused that Jennifer did not mention anything about Danny, a suspicious person with a shady background that might be the reason the innocent family got targeted. As a result, they invited Danny to the station for a recorded interview.
“Do you understand the criminal consequences of making a false statement?” – Investigator
“Yes.”
“So, just say your name and say-”
“My name is Daniel Wong-”
“Just speak up a little louder.”
“My name is Daniel Wong, and I give consent that this is being taped.”
“Okay, good!”
Danny, a man convicted for both possession and trafficking of drugs, was the ex-boyfriend of Jennifer. Their relationship lasted from their high-school graduation to approximately two years before the home invasion. He claimed that he and Jennifer had planned to stay together, but her parents got in the way.
“Her parents were pretty strict, they pretty much drove her to the path where there’s no time for a relationship. I didn’t make enough money. I was working at Boston Pizza and they didn’t approve of that.” – Nam Nguyen, High-School Friend
Danny said that he and Jennifer had been dating for seven years, yet he had never met her parents in a formal setting. Jennifer was adamant in continuing the relationship, but Danny broke it off with her, leaving her in pure heartbreak.
“I told her, y’know your parents don’t want us to be together, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I just moved on.”
“Okay, and do you have a girlfriend?”
“Sorry?”
“Do you have a new girlfriend?”
“Currently, I am seeing someone”
“Oh okay, what’s her name?”
“Christine.”
What Love Does to You
They say that love is like a drug. One hit, and you will get addicted. Jennifer’s relationship with a drug-dealer was one her parents would never approve of. The relationship between Jennifer and Danny started out positively at first, but it then became a cycle of arguments, break-ups, and consequent reconciliations. Yet, Jennifer was infatuated. Once, she worked for an entire summer just to save up enough money to surprise Danny with a brand new paintball gun. Jennifer would rather spend thousands of dollars on Danny, someone she deemed more important than herself.
“We’re scratching our heads as to why they would shoot this innocent woman and try to kill her husband, and uh steal a relatively small amount of cash. It just, uh, it just makes no sense.” – Chief Armand LaBarge, Chief of Police for the District of York
After hours and hours of even more meticulous canvassing, the detectives seized a roll of CCTV film, from a neighbour whose house was opposite the Pan residence. The footage provided a clear view into the home invasion, yet something was off. The front door seemed to open itself.The investigators, looking back at the crime scene evidence photos, this time with more scrutiny, believed that there were no signs of forced entry. Now, they are starting to doubt Jennifer’s story.
“Someone invaded your home, ma’am?”
“Someone broke in, and I heard shots, like pops. I don’t know what’s happening, they just broke in and tied me upstairs.”
“They just broke in, and tied you up?”
“Yes.”
The investigators invite Jennifer back for a second meeting. This time, instead of comforting her and gently asking her for more information, the investigators had certain questions for her. Questions meant to probe deeper.
They started off with her relationship with Daniel, and Jennifer told them that Christine, Daniel’s new girlfriend, told her to leave Daniel alone. She then told investigators how Christine had ill-will towards her for still being close with Daniel, despite Christine’s numerous warnings. The investigators were puzzled why Jennifer had not initially mentioned this.
After asking more questions, Jennifer told them about how her father had found out she was dating Daniel, behind his back. This absolutely infuriated Hann, and he gave Jennifer an ultimatum. Daniel, or her family. Jennifer chose her parents, but it came with consequences. Her phone was taken away, and she unwillingly relinquished her freedom. Her parents drove her everywhere. The only place she was allowed to go other than her home, was for piano lessons.
“Then, one day, at one of the lessons, she started to sob and just started to break down. I had never seen that from her, and she says: ‘Fernando, my parents, they don’t trust me. Where I go, they follow me around. They don’t want me to go out with my boyfriend. He’s not acceptable to my father. He doesn’t want me to waste time. They are driving me crazy.’” – Fernando Baldassini, Jennifer’s Piano Teacher.
Investigators started to piece together a motive, yet they still acted indifferent towards Jennifer. Despite this, she was the prime suspect in the back of their minds. She had this distinct animosity towards her father, especially with how her father vehemently disapproved of Daniel. Jennifer said that Daniel helped her when her asthma struck throughout their whole trip of Europe.
“You still have feelings for Daniel, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
Expectations of Excellence
“When you look back at our high school, everyone was expected to be a doctor, a dentist, a lawyer or an engineer. I mean, we had a lot of immigrant families, people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, all over the place. And we all had the same kind of pressure from our parents.”
The constant pressure and controlling behaviour from her father, only worsened after he found out she betrayed his trust by lying to him about not being in a relationship. The only thing Jennifer wanted was peace. A life where she could love without pressure, a life where she could do what she wanted. A life free from the grip of her father.
“That’s hard already, but for Jennifer, she was not anywhere close to being top of the class. Not even in an earshot. This was a school where getting straight A’s is kind of a standard.”
All of Jennifer’s lies, which started small, snowballed and turned into a massive burden on her.
Her father believed Jennifer was always at the top of her class, someone who had a brighter future than him. This was the beginning of her lies. Every transcript, every straight-A exam, all forgeries. She had to be the perfect daughter in her father’s eyes, and maintain the extremely high standard he desired. In grade 12, she failed her calculus class. This caused her initial college to rescind their early admissions letter. Yet, she told her parents she was admitted to the college. They bought textbooks, highlighters, stationeries, and dropped her off at the college. Instead, Jennifer taught piano and worked at a restaurant to earn money.
“Did you go to school for pharmacy? Did you get into university for pharmacy?”
“No.”
“How was this going with your dad?”
“He didn’t know. I lied to him”
“What did you lie to him, what did you tell him?”
“That I was going to school.”
“For?”
“Bachelor of Science.”
“And um, did your mom not know you’re going to university?”
“No.”
Her father insisted that Jennifer needed to study pharmacology. Instead of confessing her previous lies, she forged more documents. The admissions letter from the University of Toronto to study pharmacology? It was a forgery. Jennifer could not bear the consequences of being a failure in her father’s eyes, as she knew her father’s ire would be uncontrollable. She had lived this second-life of lies for more than four years.
“What bothered me the whole time is that, how could she make a phone call while her hands were tied behind her back to a bannister?”
After investigators found out about her double life, their initial sympathetic tone divulged into one of suspicion. Every passing detail was scrutinised and used to ask further questions. Now, she was caught in a trap by the investigators. Jennifer had to show to the camera, and the investigators, how she took her phone. After much struggle, her phone was placed near her waist. She said she yelled into it, while having the volume at maximum, to contact emergency services.
“The elephant in the room is, why would you leave a surviving witness? It doesn’t make sense. When you shoot two people, you’re gonna shoot the third.”
Her story was contradicting itself. Jennifer claimed that she lied to her parents about going to university completely, before circling back and confessing to her dad that she lied about finishing university. Investigators knew that Jennifer was starting to crack. After such long periods of interrogation, they received a call. Hann survived his wound.
“All you can hear is the buzz, the buzz of Mr Pann’s machines.”
Hann then started to recount his side of the story. Initially, his story aligned with Jennifer’s until it took a stark divergence. Hann stated that he was asleep until an armed individual woke him up and ordered him to the basement. Hann recounted that he was on the couch, getting pistol-whipped, while Bich was begging for her life. He then saw something unexpected. Jennifer walked down the staircase, in the company of another armed individual. She was without any restraints, and was in a friendly conversation with the person.
“Use your police techniques. Use your police techniques to find out what Jennifer did.”
Jennifer was brought in for a third and final interview. This time, the investigators were not out for more information, instead they were out for a confession. They invited a renowned interrogator, Bill Goetz, to spearhead this interview. He started off with a more gentle tone, and related to her on her frustrations, slowly gaining her trust, before asking the more serious questions.
“Well, if your parents had let you, would you still be with Daniel? If they didn’t interfere, what would have happened?”
“Maybe I’d still be with him, I’m not sure, but he’d already moved on.”
“And how did that make you feel?”
“Hmm, he was the person who would just… fill an empty void. It felt like a part of me was missing. I wasn’t happy with any parts of my life. My friends were moving on with their life, and it felt that I wasn’t going anywhere. I was kinda being left behind.”
“Now, the reason why I am here today, is that I am an expert in what we call truth verification. I am not a homicide detective. So, my job in any case is to go over all the forensics of that case. I mean, they’re going through that house with a fine-tooth comb. Do you know what satellites can do?”
“No.”
“And basically, if people are moving around in a house, uh it’s like an x-ray okay. Are the people in the positions that the witnesses are telling us they were in? Or, are they different?”
Yet, there was no such technology available, even to law enforcement. Goetz had lied, and used the Reid technique on Jennifer. Even though it may seem unfair, evidence collected under these false pretenses are still allowed and admitted in the court of law.
“Do you know who was in that house that night?”
“No, I don’t know”
“You do, Jen. There’s no question about that, okay? The issue is this, and you have to look at me. Your dad wasn’t supposed to be a witness. That’s where this whole thing went wrong. Okay, your dad wasn’t supposed to live. You gave a description of a Black guy with dreads. There was no Black guy with dreads in there, okay. He gave a good description of the guy you were with, and he’s not even Black.”
“But…”
“Why did you say that?”
“That’s what I remembered.”
“No. You’re involved in this, right?… What happened?”
“…”
“What happened? Jen?”
“…”
“You didn’t think this far ahead, did you? And those guys didn’t show up there to take your money, they came there to shoot your parents. And they didn’t get there randomly. This was set in motion. But once they started, once they came in, you couldn’t stop it, could you? Could you?”
“…”
“Jen?”
“I wanted it to stop.”
Her Story, Her Words
“At this point, I’m almost in disbelief in what I’m hearing.”
Jennifer confessed to arranging a targeted killing of her own parents. She initially claimed, with tears flowing down her eyes, that she had paid “Homeboy” $2000 to come into the Pan home and kill her, instead of her parents. What she said was already enough for the investigators to obtain a search warrant for her phone. When the warrant was issued by a judge, they turned the phone on, and recovered multiple text messages.
“Then they called me, and made sure they had access.”
“Okay, so how did they do that though? What was the question on the phone? Was it a text or a phone message?”
“A text, ‘VIP access’.”
“What does that mean?”
“To make sure that there was a way in.”
[Homeboy]: I need the time of completion. Think about it
[Jennifer]: Today is a no go. Dinner plans
[Jennifer]: Do you love me and want to be with me?
[Daniel]: I’m really down right now jen
[Daniel]: I’m sorry
[Jennifer]: What do you mean? What are you sorry for?
[Jennifer]: Can you please answer?
[Daniel]: I don’t know how to say this
[Daniel]: I feel the way u feel, but about her
[Jennifer]: You feel for her what I feel for you?
[Jennifer]: Then call it off with homeboy.
[Daniel]: Call it off with homeboy?
[Daniel]: U said u wanted this with or without me
[Daniel]: U said u wanted this for u
[Daniel]: I was always walking on egg shells with u
[Daniel]: I did everything and lined it all up for u
[Daniel]: Contact homeboy.
[Daniel]: What u doing
[Jennifer] Waiting for homeboy’s call
[Daniel]: Ok
[Daniel]: Be safe
“It doesn’t feel good to have secrets, doesn’t it? Jen?”
There was then a knock on the door. “Give me a second”, Goetz said, then left the room. Inside the cold, isolated room, with sharp stares targeting her through one-way glass, was Jennifer. The person who orchestrated the murder of her parents was her all along. Once Goetz left, Jennifer knew deep-down that it was all certainly over. Jennifer desired freedom, and her father was curtailing it the most. She wanted a life of love, one where she could do whatever she wanted, without having to live up to expectations of excellence. The only place she was allowed to go, other than her home, was for her work as a piano teacher. She was 24, yet her father was treating her as a 14 year old. Jennifer had grown sick of waiting for freedom. She saw all of her friends, thriving and succeeding in life, while she could only drown in the sorrows of her room.
Jennifer wanted freedom.
Freedom, at what cost?
“Okay, I need you to listen close to me, okay, Jen?”
“…”
“At this point of the investigation, I’m going to be arresting you for murder. Also, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. Do you understand that?”
“…”
“Just tell me if you understand those charges. Yes, or no.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, okay. It is my duty to inform you that you have the right to retrain and instruct counsel in private, without delay.”
Afterword
Thank you for reading this long article. It all initially started out as a topic that I had a brief introduction to, via the Netflix show “What Jennifer Did”, which a majority of the information of this article, including the dialogues from CCTV tapes of the investigation which aired on the show too, came from. This story hits closer to home than a majority of these murder-for-hire cases. Instead of a jealous ex, instead of envy, instead of money, the motive of this scheme was freedom. Freedom a lot of us have taken for granted. The freedom to go out with friends, the freedom to have romance while studying, the freedom to live your life. She wanted to obtain this freedom, and in a blind-sighted way, decided that killing her parents was the fastest way to claim it.
Her story is unique in the fact that she decided to take such extreme actions to escape such a household, when a majority of people would bear with it and suffer horrid abuse until they’re allowed to “run away” in a sense. Yet, the situations which breed such hatred and animosity towards her parents are very common in the Asian diaspora around the world. Personally, I know people whose parents have this strict outlook on life too. Their stories, the emotional and physical abuse, the urge to break free from the prison of home, I’ve heard it all before.
Granted, such styles of parenting are still looked down upon in the majority of the Asian diaspora, it is still prevalent, especially in the context of Asian immigrant households. The mentality of “I worked so hard, and sacrificed so much for you to grow up here in a better place ” is the main reason why the parents resort to such cruel and abusive forms of parenting.
They say pressure makes diamonds, but pressure is the same thing that smashes a piece of glass to smithereens. The pressure Jennifer felt was excruciating. Just listening to the forms of parenting and discipline she was subjected to was already heartbreaking enough. For someone as old as 24, she still couldn’t fly free from their parents’ nest. Even though their parents are guilty for subjecting Jennifer to such cruel treatment, her mother didn’t deserve to die, and her father didn’t deserve to suffer from permanent blindness. So, what really is the cost of freedom?
Below are some documents and the link to the Netflix documentary for further reading if you’re interested. Thank you for reading again!
R. V. Pan – Supreme Court of Canada
By: Dylan
Edited by: Sarah
