Netflix’s latest crime documentary, What Jennifer Did, has left viewers shocked, but one question almost everyone is asking is, "Where is Jennifer Pan now?"
What Jennifer Did dives into a case that shook a quiet Canadian town. On 8th November 2010, Jennifer Pan made a call to 911 saying that men had broken into her house, shot both of her parents and fled. At face value, it looked like a home invasion gone wrong. Intruders break into the home of a family that neighbours described as hospitable and hardworking and terrorised them, leaving their daughter Jennifer as the only witness. But as investigators looked into the case and asked why intruders would target the Pan family, the case became even more chilling as it was revealed that the intruders were hitmen hired by Jennifer to kill her parents.
The documentary, directed by American Murder: The Family Next Door director Jenny Popplewell, uses police interrogation footage and testimonies from those who worked on the case, Jennifer’s classmates and her parents’ friends to explain this crime that seemed to have been decades in the making.
Although the documentary tells us what Jennifer did, many viewers still want to know more about Jennifer Pan and where she is now.
Who Is Jennifer Pan?
Jennifer Pan was raised by Vietnamese immigrants Bich Ha Pan and Huei Hann Pan. To her parents, Jennifer was a mostly well-behaved daughter, a gifted pianist who had been a straight-A student at Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School in Markham, Ontario. Her parents had high expectations and were very strict with her. She did so well in school that she told her parents she received a scholarship to Ryerson University in Toronto. However, this was all a lie.
Jennifer had lied about everything. She was not a straight-A student, nor did she receive a scholarship to study pharmacy; in fact, Ryerson had rescinded their offer of admission. However, she forged her report cards and later her university diploma to meet her parents’ expectations.
Jennifer’s former classmate Karen Ho revealed in Toronto Life that Jennifer’s father was a “classic tiger dad,” she “discovered later that Jennifer’s friendly, confident persona was a façade, beneath which she was tormented by feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt and shame. When she failed to win first place at skating competitions, she tried to hide her devastation from her parents, not wanting to add worry to their disappointment.”
While in school, she had been involved in a relationship with drug dealer Daniel Wong, a man her parents disapproved of. When speaking to investigators while in the hospital, Jennifer’s father, Huei Hann Pan, said that he told Jennifer “she has to cease the relationship with Danny Wong. If not, you have to wait until I’m dead.”
Her parents disapproved of Wong so much that they restricted her movements. Her father would drop her off and pick her up from anywhere she needed to go.
Despite breaking up with Wong at her parent’s request and him being in a new relationship with a woman called Christine, Jennifer solicited Wong to help her stage her parent’s murder as a robbery gone wrong.
What Did Jennifer Pan Do?
On the night of 8th November 2010, Jennifer Pan made a phone call to 911, reporting that intruders had broken into her house demanding money, shot both her parents, tied her up and fled the scene. Her mother, Bich Ha, died from her injuries, but her father, Huei Hann, could still be heard in the background of Jennifer’s 911 call, in need of urgent help.
Not initially suspecting foul play, the police interviewed Jennifer as a victim until their canvas of the neighbourhood for tips led them to find out that Jennifer’s ex, Daniel Wong, was a drug dealer. When speaking to Wong, police found out he had been experiencing several crank calls, which he says Jennifer had also been experiencing but hadn’t mentioned in her initial interview.
It’s during Jennifer’s second interview that she becomes a person of interest to the police. She admitted that she had told her parents lies for decades about her academic success and falsified documents such as scholarships and degree certificates. Something her parents didn’t know about.
After waking up from his coma, Jennifer’s father tells investigators that he remembers his daughter talking with one of the assailants “like a friend” and that her arms were not tied while she was walking around the house. He asks investigators to “use your police techniques to find out what Jennifer did”.
Two weeks after the invasion, the police interview Jennifer for a third time, where she admits to Detective William “Bill” Goetz that she had hired the assailants, but they were supposed to kill her, not her parents, as she didn’t want to live anymore because she was such a disappointment to her family. She explains that she texts them “VIP access” to confirm she had unlocked the door after her mother returned home from line dancing.
Still not believing that Jennifer is telling the entire truth, the detectives get a warrant for Jennifer’s phone that allows them to discover the 24-year-old had paid $10,000 for a hitmen called “homeboy” to enter her family home and kill her parents.
It was discovered that “homeboy” was Lenford Crawford and Daniel Wong had given Jennifer his number. Detectives assumed that Daniel helped Jennifer because if her parents died, she would come into half a million dollars through their life insurance policy.
It reportedly wasn’t Jennifer’s first attempt at killing her parents; 10 months earlier, she had allegedly asked a friend to kill her father and went as far as paying that person, but they didn’t go through with it.
Jennifer was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Her four accomplices, Daniel Wong, and the three assailants who had broken into the Pan house, David Mylvaganam, Lenford Crawford, and Eric Carty, were also charged.
Where Is Jennifer Pan Now?
In December 2014, Jennifer was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Pan, Wong, Carty, Crawford, and Mylvaganam were given life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years and life sentences for attempted murder to be served concurrently.
However, Carty received a lesser sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit murder, giving him an 18-year sentence with eligibility for parole after nine years. But he died in prison in 2018.
In May 2023, the Ontario Court of Appeal granted Pan, Wong, Crawford, and Mylvaganam a new trial for their first-degree murder convictions, stating the original trial judge had made an error by instructing the jury that they were only to consider the option of first-degree murder, and not second-degree murder or manslaughter. To this day, Jennifer still maintains her innocence.
