A NEW Netflix documentary delves into the chilling case of Jennifer Pan who hired a hitman to kill her parents.
The Canadian woman went to extreme lengths to keep up her decade-long ruse.
What is What Jennifer Did about?
What Jennifer Did is a new documentary by American Murder: The Family Next Door director Jenny Popplewell.
What first appears as a home invasion very quickly unravels, and it becomes clear that Jennifer Pan knows more about what happened than she is letting on.
Her parents Huei Hann and Bich Ha Pan were both refugees from Vietnam, who believed their daughter to be an exemplary straight-A student.
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Jennifer had told her parents that she had earned a scholarship to Ryerson University in Toronto, while convincing them that she was a gifted figure skater and pianist.
However, their daughter had fabricated her entire life, in a bid to meet their expectations and keep them satisfied.
Her false stories included lying about studying pharmacy and even forging a diploma.
Jennifer’s parents eventually came to know the truth about her lies.
They discovered she had been romantically involved with drug dealer Daniel Wong.
As a result, Huei and Bich restricted her interactions with Wong.
Jennifer then plotted to get rid of her parents.
She solicited Wong to orchestrate their murder, aiming to stage the incident as a botched robbery.
On the night of November 8, 2010, Jennifer made a frantic 911 phone call, saying intruders had shot both of her parents and fled.
Her mother succumbed to her injuries at the scene, while her father sustained serious wounds.
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Jennifer was initially interviewed as a victim and witness but after her father survived the attack he told cops she had spoken in "friendly" terms to one of the perpetrators.
Police then put Jennifer under surveillance as a “person of interest”.
After questioning she was eventually arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder,
The three assailants were revealed to be David Mylvaganam, Lenford Crawford, and Eric Carty.
Who stars in What Jennifer Did?
The documentary relies on police interrogation footage, including interviews with Jennifer after the crime.
It also features new interviews with detectives and friends of the Jennifer's family to get closer to the truth.
It is unclear if Jennifer will be speaking in the documentary.
Is What Jennifer Did based on a true story?
Yes, it is based on the crime committed by Jennifer Pan, who lived in the upscale neighbourhood of Markham.
Jennifer plotted to have her parents killed in a fake home invasion after they forbade her from seeing Wong.
The then 24-year-old shelled out $10,000 for assailants to enter the family home and shoot her parents in the head - but miraculously her father survived.
Writing in Toronto Life, her former classmate Karen Ho said her father was a “classic tiger dad,” and the family had expected her to keep her head down and get good grades.
She said: “I discovered later that Jennifer’s friendly, confident persona was a façade, beneath which she was tormented by feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt and shame.”
Ho also explained her strict upbringing was common for immigrant parents who came to Canada from Asia.
In her final semester, Jennifer did not pass her calculus class, which kept her from graduating.
Consequently, Ryerson University rescinded their offer of admission.
Rather than coming clean, Jennifer acted as if everything was normal.
She graciously accepted a new laptop from her father, purchased second-hand biology and physics textbooks, and even pretended to participate in freshman week activities.
Jennifer even falsified documents to show she had secured a loan and informed her parents she had been awarded a $3,000 scholarship.
When classes began, Jennifer travelled downtown daily using public transportation.
However, instead of going to university lectures, she spent her time in public libraries.
There, she would study and take notes on subjects she assumed would be part of her first-year science curriculum.
This charade went on for two years.
Her father began asking whether it was possible to transfer to the University of Toronto, and once more, Jennifer deceived her parents by claiming she had been accepted there.
She persuaded her parents to allow her to stay with a friend in the downtown area for several days each week, though in reality, she was residing at her high school sweetheart's home.
As another two years lapsed, she pretended to graduate from the University of Toronto.
Jennifer and her boyfriend Wong found someone who was able to forge a college transcript that showed straight-A grades.
When she claimed to be volunteering at a hospital, her father grew suspicious after he noticed she had neither a uniform nor a key card to get into the building.
Hann took matters into his own hands one day and insisted on driving her to work himself.
Following that, he arranged for his wife to discreetly follow Jennifer into the hospital, where they discovered she was nowhere to be seen.
It was then that Jennifer confessed that she had never attended the University of Toronto and had been staying at her boyfriend's house.
Her parents banned her from contacting Daniel, but the pair schemed to kill her parents and collect a $500,000 inheritance.
It was at this point, she reportedly sent a text message to the assailants, signalling them to enter the house.
The suspects found and took some hidden money before forcing the parents into the basement, where they were each shot multiple times.
A point-blank gunshot wound proved fatal for her mother, while her father miraculously survived despite being shot in the face,
After the killers had escaped, Jennifer retrieved a cellphone from her waistband and dialled 911.
It was after this point, that her recollection of events and story fails to add up.
After waking up from a three-day medically-induced coma, Hann provided investigators with details about the home invasion, casting suspicion on Jennifer.
He remembered seeing his daughter interact with one of the men "like a friend" and noted that her arms were not tied behind her back as she was escorted around the house.
This led investigators to bring in the then 24-year-old for questioning, where she quickly admitted to arranging for the men to murder her parents.
Jennifer was convicted of first-degree murder as well as attempted murder in December 2014.
Her accomplices - Wong, Mylvaganam, Crawford, and Carty got life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years on the murder conviction and life for attempted murder with the sentences to be served concurrently.
However, Carty was then given an 18-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit murder, with eligibility for parole after nine years.
He passed away in prison in 2018.
Currently serving time in prison, Jennifer still maintains her innocence.
In May 2023, the Ontario Court of Appeal contended that the jury should have been presented with the choices of second-degree murder or manslaughter as possible verdicts.
This led to the overturning of the first-degree murder convictions for Jennifer, Wong, Crawford, and Mylvaganam.
The Supreme Court of Canada is now in the process of determining if it will review the case.
How to watch What Jennifer Did?
What Jennifer Did will be available to watch on Netflix.
You will be able to stream the documentary from April 10, 2024.
