Jennifer Pan’s shocking criminal case that took place nearly a decade ago has been thrown back into the spotlight in the form of a Netflix documentary, just released on April 10.
Named What Jennifer Did, the 90-minute production outlines Pan’s horrific crimes involving her plot to hire hitmen to kill her parents, and her web of lies that unfolds as the documentary goes on.
The film features a series of interviews, police footage and photos from the traumatising night in 2010, which ended with Pan’s mother tragically being shot to death, and her father sustaining severe injuries after being shot as well.
So why is this case relevant now? According to Today, Pan and her co-conspirators are getting a new trial, despite Pan being found guilty in 2014 of first-degree murder of her mother and the attempted murder of her father.
Here’s everything we know about Jennifer Pan, what happened, and where she is now.
What did Jennifer Pan do?
In November 2010, a group of men entered the Pan home in Markham, Canada, where they shot and killed Pan’s mother, Bich Ha Pan, and shot her father, Huei Hann Pan, in the head and shoulder. He survived the injuries and fell into a coma for three days, according to Business Insider.
As seen in the footage in the documentary, Jennifer called the police and recounted what happened in the interrogation room, though it’s clear that the detectives seemed suspicious of her from the beginning. The police soon discovered a series of incriminating text messages on Jennifer’s phone.
According to Time, Jennifer, her then-boyfriend Danny Wong, and the two hitmen she hired, Lenford Crawford and David Mylvaganam, were all sentenced to jail time without the possibility of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murder of Jennifer’s mother, and life in prison for the attempted murder of Pan’s father.
Why did Jennifer Pan do it?
The question on everyone’s lips was – what could lead to someone committing such a horrific act? According to Cosmopolitan, Pan, who grew up taking piano lessons and was trained as a figure skater, was allegedly pressured to succeed in school, so she began to fake her report cards. She was reportedly forbidden from dating or socialising, writes the source.
Before the horrifying attack on her parents in 2010, Pan told them she was set to study pharmaceuticals at university – when she was actually working as a waitress and hanging out with her boyfriend Wong, a pizza restaurant worker and drug dealer. When her parents found out about the lies, they told her she had to end her relationship and apply for university – for real this time. The couple split up, but got back together by 2010.
Pan and her boyfriend then came up with a plan to spend US$15,000 to hire hitmen to murder her parents. Pan was 24 years old at the time of the murder.
Who were Jennifer Pan’s parents?
As explained in the documentary, Jennifer’s family migrated from Vietnam to Canada and were described as “hard-working people”. Per Cosmopolitan, her parents both worked for an auto parts manufacturer and built up an impressive amount of wealth over the years. They also have a son, Felix Pan, who isn’t mentioned in the docu.
Hann, who survived the terrifying attack, testified during his daughter’s trial and requested no communication from her, writes BI. “I was very upset because all our effort was to help her attend school and she was not,” he told the court, per CBC. “I told her to cease the relationship with Danny Wong or wait until I’m dead.”
“When I lost my wife, I lost my daughter at the same time,” he said in a statement after his daughter’s sentencing, adds CBC. “I hope my daughter Jennifer thinks about what happened to her family and can become a good, honest person someday.”
Where is Jennifer Pan’s ex-boyfriend, Daniel Wong?
According to Toronto Life, Pan and Wong met in high school, and began dating on and off from around the summer of 2003. Per People, he is now at a correctional facility in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada.
Where is Jennifer Pan now – and what does she think about the Netflix documentary?
Now 37, Pan is currently serving her sentence at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener in Ontario, states People. But the story doesn’t end there.
As reported by various sources, Pan and her conspirators are all currently awaiting retrials, with Pan’s legal team expecting a hearing in the Supreme Court of Canada “probably late 2024 or early 2025”, her lawyer Stephanie DiGiuseppe told Today. They are offered retrials because the jury had not previously been offered second-degree murder and manslaughter as options in the killing of Pan’s mother, per the same source.
“She maintains her innocence and she hopes to one day be exonerated through this long process,” DiGuiseppe said. “I can say that the Netflix documentary paints one side of the story and that Jennifer is very much hoping to have an opportunity to respond to that narrative – which is really the police’s side of the story – at her upcoming trial.”