In November 2010, after being entangled in a web of deception, Jennifer Pan hired hitmen to murder her parents.
Jennifer is the daughter of immigrants who moved from Vietnam to Canada in search of a better life. Her father, Huei Hann Pan, and mother, Bich Ha Pan, pushed her from an early age to thrive academically, as well as in music and figure skating, according to Toronto Life.
She was barred from dating until after high school, so she not only concealed her grades from her parents, but also her romance with on-again, off-again boyfriend Daniel Wong. She went from faking her report cards to enrolling at a prominent Toronto institution in order to keep her romance with Wong a secret.
After her falsehoods were exposed, Jennifer hired three hitmen to murder her parents in 2010. Bich killed in the attack, but Hann survived. The 2024 Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did looks into the case, including footage from the night of the incident and her extensive interrogation sessions.
Here’s everything you need to know about Jennifer Pan’s crimes and current location.
Who is Jennifer Pan?
Jennifer was a young woman living in the greater Toronto region who was subjected to what she subsequently regarded as extremely oppressive parenting.
Hann and Bich were stringent, monitoring Jennifer’s academic achievements as well as her extracurricular activities and social life. Hann allegedly restricted Jennifer from dating until after graduation and from attending parties or school dances.
Jennifer met Wong in high school, and the two started dating in 2003. Jennifer’s background, which a friend described to Toronto Life as “absolutely controlling,” forced the couple to keep their on-again, off-again romance hidden from her family, especially because Wong was supposedly a known pot dealer in her neighborhood.
According to Jennifer, Hann and Bich put a lot of pressure on her to succeed academically. Jennifer, despite receiving largely Bs in high school, doctored her report cards to appear to be a straight-A student — and this was only the beginning of her deception.
She eventually forged her own high school graduation after failing calculus and being unable to graduate. Jennifer also altered an admission letter from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University).
The teen agreed to the hoax, utilizing second-hand textbooks and filling notebooks with facts that made it appear she had attended classes. She actually worked as a restaurant server and taught piano lessons, and her parents were only aware of the latter.
After two years of pretending studies at Ryerson, she informed her parents that she had been accepted into the University of Toronto’s pharmacology program and persuaded them to let her live with one of her female friends three evenings a week to reduce her commute time. She was actually staying at Wong’s house with his family.
Her lies began to unravel when she informed her parents that she was volunteering at a hospital blood testing lab. Hann became worried when he discovered Jennifer didn’t have a badge or uniform and allegedly ordered Bich to follow her to the hospital one morning.
Jennifer stated that after her parents discovered the lie, they contacted the friend with whom she claimed to have been staying, who informed them that Jennifer had not been staying there. She then admitted that she had never enrolled at the University of Toronto, had not volunteered at the hospital, and was living with Wong.
According to Toronto Life, Hann had intended to kick Jennifer out, but Bich persuaded him to let her stay. Jennifer, aged 22, posted on Facebook that staying under their roof felt like being “under house arrest.”
Hann and Bich allegedly forced her to stop all of her employment other than teaching piano and kept track of her car’s odometer. Jennifer stated that they confiscated her phone and laptop for two weeks. When they returned her gadgets, they allegedly monitored her messages and emails, as well as forbade her from meeting Wong.
Jennifer’s parents eventually gave her enough freedom to take a calculus course, but she’d frequently go away to visit Wong, according to her statements to the police. When they spotted her going out one night, Jennifer said they insisted she completely cut off communication with Wong.
