What did Jennifer Pan do? | As featured on Netflix’s What Jennifer Did

The new Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did shines a chilling spotlight on a young Canadian woman named Jennifer Pan, the daughter of two Vietnamese refugees who, on the 8th of November 2010, were attacked in their home by a trio of invaders. 

Jennifer called the police to tell them about the invasion, claiming she had been tied up by the men. But while she initially seemed to be uninvolved in the attack on her parents, the truth was far different.

What did Jennifer Pan do?

On that fateful night in November, three intruders entered the Pan residence. They shot and killed Pan’s mother Bich-Ha Pan and wounded her father Huei Hann Pan. 

Jennifer rang the police to tell them about the ‘invasion’ but during their investigation, the police discovered no sign of a break-in. When searching the house, they also found cash and valuable items that hadn’t been taken by the criminals. This was despite the house being ransacked.

When Jennifer’s father regained consciousness, he alerted the authorities to his daughter’s suspicious behaviour in the days leading up to the assault. According to him, Jennifer had been seen with one of the attackers. 

Further suspicions arose concerning Jennifer. How was she able to make a phone call to the emergency services with her hands tied behind her back? It became apparent that Jennifer wasn’t the innocent she claimed to be. This apparent home invasion had actually been orchestrated by her and her former boyfriend Daniel Wong. 

Why did Jennifer Pan want her parents dead?

Jennifer didn’t have an easy life with her parents. They demanded high grades from her and restricted her social life. Parties and boyfriends were not permitted. Instead, her life revolved around her studies, piano lessons, and figure skating training.

When her grades started slipping, she lost the opportunity to attend Ryerson University in Toronto. But rather than tell her parents about this, she pretended to attend Ryerson anyway.

This charade continued for several years, during which time Jennifer told her father she had been accepted into a prestigious pharmacology programme. This was another lie.

Jennifer was dating a man named Daniel Wong, a small-time drug dealer whom Jennifer knew from high school. She sometimes stayed with him, unbeknownst to her parents who thought she was staying with a university friend. 

Eventually, Jennifer’s parents discovered the truth about her so-called career and her relationship with Daniel. They took away her freedom and forbade her to see Daniel.

Understandably, Jennifer was upset about her parents’ strictness. However, that shouldn’t have given her cause to want them dead. But want them dead she did and together with Daniel and three other men – Eric Carty, David Mylvaganam, and Lenford Crawford – a plan was formed to kill them. 

On the 8th of November, 2010, Wong allegedly unlocked the door to allow the three hitmen into her home. They fatally wounded her mom but failed to kill her father. 

Initially, Jennifer was considered an innocent victim. But during police interviews, the truth came out. She and the other men were arrested and charged with murder. Subsequently, her father applied for a lifelong restraining order to stop Jennifer from contacting members of her family again.

What happened to Jennifer Pan?

On December 13, 2014, Jennifer, Wong, Mylvaganam, and Crawford were found guilty of both attempted murder and first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Eric Carty was convicted of the murder in 2015 and he was given an additional 18 years in prison, on top of the 25 years he was already serving for an unrelated homicide.

Jennifer appealed against the charge of first-degree murder in 2023, along with her co-conspirators. The court accepted the appeal but a hearing date has not yet been set.

At the time of writing, Jennifer is serving her prison sentence at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Ontario, Canada.

 

Read More: What happened to the men who killed Bich-Ha Pan


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