| Killing of Bich Pan | |||||||
| Location: | Unionville, Markham, Ontario, Canada | ||||||
| Type: | Homicide by shooting, parricide (attempted) | ||||||
| Motive: |
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| Perpetrators: |
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| Fatalities: | Bich Pan | ||||||
| Injuries: | Hann Pan | ||||||
| Verdict: | Guilty on all charges (first-degree murder conviction overturned on appeal pending retrial) | ||||||
| Convictions: | Attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder | ||||||
| Charges: | First-degree murder
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On November 8, 2010, police in Markham, Ontario, Canada, a suburb outside of Toronto, responded to a report of a robbery and assault at the Unionville home of Hann and Bich Pan, ethnically Chinese Vietnamese immigrants. Both had been shot repeatedly; Bich died of her injuries and Hann was permanently blinded. The investigation revealed that the crime was not a robbery but instead a kill-for-hire orchestrated by the couple's daughter Jennifer Pan (born June 17, 1986). She had expected to inherit her parents' money and was angered that they had forbidden her to see her boyfriend after they discovered she had been deceiving them about her education.
At trial, Pan was found guilty on multiple charges and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years, the same penalty as her co-conspirators. In May 2023, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ordered a retrial for Pan and her conspirators on the first-degree murder charge but upheld the attempted murder conviction. Two of them were not present during the crime; in their stead were two others who have never been identified publicly. It is still not clear who actually fired the shots.
Jennifer Pan's mother, Bich Ha Pan (pronounced "Bick"), and father, Huei Hann Pan, were ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam (Viet Hoa) to Canada.[1] Hann was born and educated in Vietnam, moving to Canada in 1979 as a refugee. Bich also came to Canada as a refugee. The couple were married in Toronto and lived in Scarborough. Jennifer was born in 1986, and Felix in 1989.[2] [3] The Pans found work at Magna International, an auto parts manufacturer in Aurora. Hann worked as a tool and die maker, while Bich made car parts. By 2004, Hann and Bich purchased a house with a two-car garage on a residential street in Markham, a city in the Greater Toronto Area with a large Asian population.
Jennifer's parents set many goals for their children and had extremely high expectations of them. Jennifer was made to take music theory and harmony lessons at the age of 12, as well as figure skating classes, where she trained most days of the week. Her aspirations to become an Olympic figure skating champion ended when she tore a knee ligament. At Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School, Jennifer played flute 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 at the end of school each day and closely monitored her extracurricular activities. They never permitted her to date while attending high school or attend dances, out of fear that these activities would distract from her academic commitments. Jennifer was not permitted to attend any parties during the time her parents believed she was at university. At 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' expectations that Jennifer receive good grades in lower school, in high school they were somewhat average (in the 70% range) except for music. By forging report cards, she deceived her parents into thinking she earned straight As. When Jennifer failed calculus class in grade 12, Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) 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 piano 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. 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 she could show her parents.
Jennifer also requested permission from her parents to stay near campus with a friend (actually her high school[4] boyfriend, Daniel Chi-Kwong Wong,[5] who later transferred to Cardinal Carter Academy in North York due to low grades) during the week. Wong, of mixed Chinese and Filipino ancestry, lived in Ajax.[6] [7] He was an active marijuana dealer and managed a Boston Pizza.[8] [9]
While pretending to study at Ryerson, Jennifer told her parents that she had started working as a volunteer at The Hospital for Sick Children. Hann and Bich soon became suspicious when they realized she did not have a hospital ID badge or uniform. Bich followed her daughter to "work" and quickly discovered her deception. Greatly angered, Hann wanted to throw Jennifer out of the house, but Bich persuaded him to allow her to stay. As she had not completed high school, 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 due to his parents being from different ethnic backgrounds (according to Jennifer), or to go anywhere except for her piano-teaching job. The two still remained in discreet contact.
By 2009, Wong had grown weary of trying to pursue a relationship with her because of the restrictions imposed on Jennifer by her parents. Wong broke off the relationship and began to date another young woman. After learning of this new relationship, Jennifer falsely informed Wong that a man had entered her house, showing what appeared to be a police badge, after which several men rushed in and gang-raped 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.
In spring 2010, Jennifer was in contact with Andrew Montemayor, a high school friend whom, she claims, had boasted of robbing people at knifepoint (which he denies). He introduced her to Ricardo Duncan, a "goth kid" whom Jennifer claims she paid $1,500 to kill her father in the parking lot at his workplace. Duncan said that she once gave him $200 for a night out, but he returned it, and rebuffed her entreaty to kill her parents.
Jennifer and Wong were back in contact at this time and, according to the police, came up with a plan to hire a professional hitman for $10,000, calculating that she would then inherit $500,000. They planned to move in together. Wong connected Pan with Lenford Roy Crawford, Jamaican-born,[10] and gave her a SIM card and iPhone so that she could contact Crawford without using her usual cell phone. Crawford in turn contacted another man,[11] Eric Shawn "Sniper" Carty, USA born,[12] who in turn contacted Montreal-born David Mylvaganam. At trial, the Crown (prosecution) argued Mylvaganam was one of the hitmen. Carty was later convicted of an unrelated 2009 murder.[13]
The murder took place at the Pan house in Markham's Unionville neighbourhood.[14] 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, he and two other people entered the home through the front door, all armed. In court, 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, that he selected them and was involved in plotting the attack. He did not say that he was one of the three or that he directly attacked others. The identity of the triggerman 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 and shot them several times. Bich died while Hann survived. The three men then took $2,000 from Pan and left. Pan claimed that they tied her up, but she managed to dial 9-1-1. Hann was treated at Markham Stouffville Hospital,[15] before being moved to a trauma unit[16] at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto,[17] by air.
Police initially believed the family's wealth lured the perpetrators into the house, but grew skeptical as numerous valuables had not been stolen. It also seemed unusual that Pan was left unharmed and had dialed 9-1-1 with her hands bound. The evening after the murder, police interviewed her.[18] Hann later woke up from a coma recalled to police that he saw Jennifer whispering to one of the hitmen in a friendly and soft manner. She was arrested on November 22, 2010,[19] during her third interview.[20] [21] Jennifer admitted that she had hired the killers, but claimed the plan was to kill her, not her parents.[22] The interrogating officer, William "Bill" Goetz, used the Reid technique to obtain Pan's confession.[23] He falsely told Pan that he had computer software that could analyse untruths in statements and that there were satellites with infrared technology to analyse movements in buildings; in Canada, police are legally allowed to lie to those they are interrogating in regard to the evidence in the trial,[24] as well as in regard to the strategies they are using.[25]
Mylvaganam was arrested at the Jane Finch Mall in North York in April 2011. Carty was arrested at Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, Ontario, several days later.[26] Wong was arrested on April 26 at work. Crawford was the final suspect arrested, in Brampton the next month.[27] Pan was held at Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario, while awaiting trial.[28]
The trial of Pan and her accomplices began in March 2014, in Newmarket; it lasted 10 months. All defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges of first degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. At the trial, York Regional Police evidence included exhaustive tracking of mobile device movements and text message traffic, including over 100 messages between Pan and Wong in the six hours prior to the killing.[29] [30] Further evidence focused on the atypical nature of the "break-in", "robbery", shootings, and irregularities in Jennifer's testimony. Her obsession with Wong, emotionlessness confession regarding the attack, and recognition of the trauma she underwent were also detailed. A major irregularity was that Jennifer was not assaulted, blindfolded, taken to the basement, nor shot, leaving behind an eyewitness to the attack. Hann's very different account also undermined her credibility. The trial included over 200 exhibits; over 50 witnesses testified.
Jennifer, Wong, Mylvaganam, and Crawford were all convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life.[31] [32] [33]
Originally, Carty was tried with the other perpetrators. But Edward Sapiano, his lawyer, fell ill, so in mid-2014 Carty's 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.
Hann and Jennifer's brother requested a restraining order to ban her from any further contact; it was granted over Jennifer's lawyers' objections. She is also banned from ever contacting Wong.[34]
, Pan was incarcerated at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener.[35] Wong, previously held in Lindsay, was at Collins Bay Institution in Kingston. Mylvaganam was at Atlantic Institution in Renous, New Brunswick.[36] Crawford was at Kent Institution in Agassiz, British Columbia.[37] Carty, who requested to be sent 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.
In May 2023, the Court of Appeal for Ontario granted an appeal by Jennifer and her three co-conspirators on the first degree murder charge and ordered a new trial, on the grounds that the trial judge had incorrectly instructed the jury to only consider two scenarios that would justify a first-degree murder conviction, instead of allowing them to consider scenarios that would lead to second-degree murder and manslaughter convictions. The court also upheld the convictions for attempted murder of Hann.[38]
According to the South China Morning Post, the case "sent shockwaves across Canada and the Asian diaspora." An editorial in the Northwest Asian Weekly suggested consideration of the "idea of recognizing the mental and psychological symptoms that parenting may have gone too far" in the Pan household.[39] A story in Toronto Life magazine brought the case to widespread attention, framing it as an instance of tiger parenting gone tragically wrong.
In 2016, journalist Jeremy Grimaldi published a true crime book about Pan called A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story. The podcasts Casefile, My Favorite Murder, Wine and Crime and the Deadly Women series also covered the case.
Bich Ha Pan's funeral was held in November 2010 at the Ogden Chapel in Scarborough. A funeral for her father was held, according to Jennifer, prior to Bich's to satisfy a Chinese custom that older members of the family have their funerals first. Jennifer had been asked to organize both funerals.[40] Bich Ha was buried on November 19.[41] Hann could not attend due to his injuries.[42]
In April 2024, Netflix released What Jennifer Did a documentary about the case. Directed by Jenny Popplewell, it interviews police officers and people around Pan and contains footage from her police interviews.[43] Shortly after its release, several news outlets reported that Netflix had apparently used AI-generated images of Pan in the documentary without disclosing this information.[44] [45] [46] In an interview with the Toronto Star, executive producer Jeremy Grimaldi denied the allegation. He said distortions to the images were caused by the use of photo editing software to anonymize the photos to protect the identity of the source who supplied them.[47]
Other sources