Episode 14: What Jennifer Did

In this episode we cover the Netflix documentary "What Jennifer Did" about Jennifer Pan. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hey, all you true crime demons. And dudes. Welcome back. I'm Sarah. And I'm Tina. And if you're new here, hi. Hello. We're so glad you're here. And if you're one of our regulars, you already know we love talking about true crime with you.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yes, we do. And today's case, it is messy, it is layered, and it is unbelievable. Today we are talking about a documentary called What Jennifer Did on Netflix. And this is a little bit of an older one. It's from 2024.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

It's only two years.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

We do some older, older ones. No, but 2024 is old, like with as fast as the true crime world moves. That's so old. But anyway, this one the deeper you go, the worse it gets. So let's get right into it. We are in Markham, Ontario, in 2010. And Markham is described as a quiet, family-oriented, low-crime town. Not they always. Right. It's the kind of place where people don't lock their doors twice and where the neighbors all know each other. So when something like this happens, it doesn't just shake a family, it shakes the entire community. Now, our story begins with an emotional 24-year-old Jennifer Pan sitting in a police interview room. A detective tells her to take a deep breath and tell me what happened tonight. We then hear a 911 call. Jennifer is screaming, help me. Someone broke into our house. My parents are yelling downstairs. And in the background, you can hear her father screaming in horror. Now, in the interview room, Jennifer tells police that she heard two pops, and then she heard her mom screaming for her, and then more shots. And Jennifer, as she's describing this, she's crying, she's struggling to speak. And at first you feel for her. You really do. I mean, I did. Now we move to the crime scene.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Well, yeah, you put yourself in that position, don't you? And you can just imagine how horrifying that would have been.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Exactly. So Detective Bill Cortiz gets the call late at night, and even he is shocked because violent crime doesn't happen in this town. Inside the home, there is blood everywhere and clear signs of a violent struggle. Jennifer's mother, Bic, is dead. Her father, Han, has been shot in the head and is in a medically induced coma. And this poor man, he was shot through the eye. The bullet traveled through his skull and down into his jaw and neck. And the police genuinely did not know if he was gonna survive long enough to be able to tell them anything about what happened, which means Jennifer at that point was the only witness. And then there's this detail that just sticks. Bick had just come home from line dancing. That was something that she did every Monday night. She was on the couch, soaking her feet, trying to unwind, and she is murdered in her own home. Police found the bucket that she was using to soak her feet still by the couch. And this really got me. Like, you can't be more of an unsuspecting victim than that.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

And I thought that was so sweet. I was just picturing little Asian lady like blind dancing at the wall by herself.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

I love it. Such a wholesome thing. I know. So investigators started looking at the scene, and right away something is off. Yes, the house is ransacked, but there's cash, a wallet, an expensive camera, even a safe. And all of it is still there. None of it is taken. And that's definitely not how a robbery works. Dumbest robber's ever. Right? And even more interesting, there is no sign of forced entry. So now they're thinking, was this even a break-in? Jennifer does tell them though that three men came in. They were all black males, one with dreadlocks, one thinner build, and one with a Jamaican accent. They demanded money, dragged her to the stairs, and tied her to the banister. Her parents were taken downstairs into the living room, and minutes later she hears, you lied to us, and then gunshots. So, of course, police immediately throw all of their resources into tracking down the suspects behind this horrible crime that has shattered that family and the whole community. They start with a canvas of the neighborhood. And the community is, of course, on edge. People are scared, confused, and desperate for answers. And honestly, I don't blame them because if this is a random attack, that's terrifying. You're thinking, Am I next?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

But we just said in the Skyland Eve Swamp was, you know, somebody goes missing and they're like, is it a kidnapping? We don't know. Am I next? It happens so often in these until they figure out what's going on, and so everybody's like, is this gonna be a whole string of invasions or murders or whatever?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Exactly. So during the neighborhood canvas, a name does come up, and that name is Danny Wong. Who is Danny Wong, you may ask? Well, that is Jennifer's ex-boyfriend, her drug dealer ex-boyfriend, the one that she just didn't mention to the cops during that first interview. Red flag alert. I like your little picture of your red flag on your notes. So Danny is brought in for questioning, of course, and he does admit that he used to deal drugs, but he says that he has since cleaned up his life. Right. Right. He says that he and Jennifer dated for a long time in high school and after about six to seven years, but her parents forced them to break up. Their the parents said that they didn't think he was good enough and he had no future and no stability. And you're in a drug dealer. And I mean, they yeah, they weren't wrong. Like the man was literally a drug dealer. Like, think of all the possible careers that you would want your daughter, your daughter's boyfriend to have. Doctor, artist, engineer, maybe a teacher, drug dealer. Not top of the list, no. Definitely not top of the list. So Danny's interview progresses and he drops a frickin' bomb. He tells police that he and Jennifer had been getting hundreds of harassing calls and texts in the months leading up to this. Over and over, someone would call, but they would never say anything. It would just be silence on the phone for like five to ten seconds, and then they would hang up. And they would also get texts that said things like, We're watching you, and bang, bang, bang, ha ha ha. And I'm sorry, like that is so creepy. And then Jennifer's parents get shot. Like, that's not a coincidence.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, when they said like the pauses and hanging up, I was like, that's not that harassing. Like it's annoying, but it's not harassing. And then the bang bang bang one gave me cold chills.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Chills. So yeah, this is also yet another glaring detail that Jennifer never mentioned to the police. And this is something crazy to admit in an interview after your parents have been shot. Like, I could not believe that. Somebody texted me bang bang bang. Yeah, kind of relevant. Right? So now the cops are obviously wondering like, what else are you not telling us? So now they start digging more into Jennifer. And this is where things really start to click. Her parents were apparently extremely strict. She was not allowed to have a boyfriend, no social life, and basically no freedom at all. They drove her everywhere to school, piano lessons, and home. That was her entire life. She was not allowed to do anything else. And I'm just gonna say it, this did not just feel like strict parenting to me. This felt like control to the point of captivity. And Jennifer was 24 years old at this point. Oh, hell no. Right? I mean, can you imagine? I cannot imagine being 24 and living that way. So, all that said, I'm not using it as an excuse for Jennifer's actions, but I just feel like it gives us some very important context. And her piano teacher even said that at one of her lessons one day, she broke down crying. And she said that she was so unhappy and had no freedom and was constantly watched. And that definitely gives us some more context. It seems like Jennifer did not have anybody else that she could open up to about her struggles except her piano teacher. And that was so sad to me.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Because she wasn't allowed to go anywhere. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Exactly. So she just had no outlet, no support system. But Jennifer is obviously no saint. And now we are gonna delve into her many diabolical lies. So Jennifer told her parents that she went to college and earned a bachelor's degree in science. Her parents would literally drive her to school, drop her off, and pick her up at the end of the day. But she never attended class. So what was she doing all that time? Like we have no idea, but she never went to college. For four years, she faked it. So she wasn't that held in captivity because she had Yeah, she who knows what she was doing those days. Probably hanging out with Joe. Probably. So she actually forged transcripts, student loans, and even a fake degree from the University of Toronto. Yeah. Major commitment. And when asked whether her parents ever questioned any of it, she said no. And that is wild. Like you just said, the commitment is unmatched. So now detectives are thinking, if she can lie convincingly enough to that degree for that many years and to her own parents, she can lie about anything. Then there's the 911 call. She says that she was tied up, but somehow she called 911. So the cops bring her in and have her physically demonstrate it. She seems to be able to pull it off, but she can't lift the phone past her waist. So they ask her how she was able to hear the 911 operator with the phone down at her waist, and she said she put the volume on max. And I'm just like, hmm, I don't know if that's But how did they hear her? Right. And how did they hear her? Like it it didn't exactly add up, but like it was possible. So they moved on. But meanwhile, the biggest question still remains why was she spared by these brutal gunmen while her parents were not? And when asked, she says the only reason she can think is that it's because she cooperated. And obviously that doesn't make sense. And the cops knew it didn't either, but they didn't have any evidence at that point to back up their skepticism. Soon though, that changes. Jennifer's father wakes up from his coma. That's the turning point. So detectives rush to the hospital and they describe a hospital room full of buzzing machines that are keeping Jennifer's father alive. He can barely speak. His right eye is severely bruised, and there's a dot right by his nose. That's where he was shot. Now the detective asks him to detail what happened that evening. And he says, I was on the couch getting pistol whipped. My wife was on the other couch begging for her life. Jennifer was not tied up. She was walking around freely, talking casually with the gunmen. And this is it, folks. This is the moment that everything flips. Jennifer's dad even tells the police use your police techniques to find out what Jennifer did. Chills, y'all. Just chills. So now the police know they just gotta prove it. Enter Bill Gates. This man specializes in detecting lies and he is not playing games. He conducts another interview with Jennifer and he starts out with friendly conversation, talking about the piano, saying that he used to play too, and he's building some good rapport with Jennifer, but then he slowly starts pressing. He was really good. He was good. Like, that's what I want to do now. Yeah, inspired me. I don't think I could be that good though. Oh, I could be that good. Yeah, you probably could. Okay, so he gets Jennifer talking about her life, and she admits that she was deeply unhappy. She said she felt that Danny was the only good thing in her life, and that without him, she now felt empty. She even admits that she would self-harm. And then he flips a switch. He lies to Jennifer. He says that they have satellite technology that can basically see inside the house and verify her story. And oh my God, y'all, like I'm so glad that we don't really have that technology because you do not want to see what I'm doing in my house. Like I'm horrified and just thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

And if we mentioned before that police in America can lie, but police in England can't. Yes, which is so crazy. They used to be able to, but something happened? Yes. Um a false confession. Ooh. I'll I'll dig out the story so we can talk about it. But somebody ended up in jail a long time for a murder they didn't commit because they lied to them. And so they're no longer allowed to do it. It was like passed as illegal.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Let's let's dig into that in the after show. That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

But it all that's why it fascinates me every time the American police lied to somebody. And I'm like, Well, apparently the Canadian police can also lie. Yeah, okay. Canadian. Oh sorry, I thought you were in Canada in Canada. Canada. Canada. Canada. Because I'm like, would they have caught her if it was in the UK? But then at the same time, uh it strikes me as crazy that they can still lie to them.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

They can say whatever the hell they want, y'all. So keep that in mind. Bear that in mind. Um but so yeah, he continues to drop bombs on Jennifer. He says, Your dad's story does not match yours. The suspects were not black. You were never restrained. We know that you are lying about everything. We know. We know. And surprisingly, she starts to crack. But instead of telling the truth, she comes up with another lie. Insert one of my famous eye rolls right into the room. I was eye rolling for you. So she claims that she planned her own death. She says that she hired someone named Homeboy and two other unknown men for$2,000. Homeboy the assassin. Right. She says that her parents were not supposed to be harmed in the attack. And that's right. Big fucking oopsies. But yeah, this was a suicide attempt gone wrong, according to Jennifer.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Which is like the elaborate suicide attempt I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Right. The most elaborate, the most convoluted and expensive suicide attempt. Like, I'm sorry, I'm not giving you$2,000 to kill me. It's just not gonna happen. Anyway. Um, so the cops are seeing at this point that Jennifer is obviously not gonna confess. She's not gonna tell them the truth. So they obtain a search warrant for her phone, and it ends up being an absolute treasure trove of evidence. Don't tell me she was asking for a refund because she wasn't dead. I'm not dead. I want a refund. I'm gonna tip to your manager. So they find texts on her phone with Homeboy planning the attack and talking about payment. They were even using code words like VIP access to infer that it was go time, aka time to kill her parents. They also find texts with Danny. Jennifer asks, Do you love me? And he answers, I don't love you like you love me. I love Christine that way. Now, I don't think that we've mentioned Christine up to this point. So I do want to mention that Christine is Danny's new girlfriend. Homegirl. No, not homegirl. So yeah, and that was like that broke my heart for Jennifer a little bit, even though, like, obviously she's a murderer and she's horrible and she's in jail where she belongs. Like, that's just really sad to hear from anybody. Like, you tell them that you love them and they're like, I don't love you like that. That sucks. But anyway, so after Danny tells Jennifer that, Jennifer's like, well, call this off then. And Danny's like, You said you wanted this with or without me. And he became angry and he's like, I always had to walk on eggshells with you. I gave up everything. And he's like, Call homeboy, call it off yourself, basically. So finally they find some more text messages the night of the murder between Danny and Jennifer. And Danny asks, What are you doing? And Jennifer says, waiting for homeboy's call.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

So I don't love you. So I love Christine, blah, blah, blah. But he's calling her, going, Hey, what you doing? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

He was definitely leading her on. Yeah. So now, with all those text messages, the cops are really seeing the big picture. That night, Jennifer's mom came home from line dancing. Jennifer went downstairs to say goodnight, and she unlocked the front door. She then went upstairs and flipped her bedroom light on and off to signal to the gunman that it was go time. And this is so freaking evil, y'all. Like your mom is sitting there soaking her feet, relaxing after a night out. You go downstairs, you tell her goodnight, and then unlock the door for her murderers. She gave birth to you. Right. I mean, there are a lot of people I dislike in this world, like maybe even a couple I hate, but I cannot imagine leaving them like a sitting duck on their own couch in their own home, knowing that someone is gonna come in and murder them. And this is her parents. Like it's just so unbelievable. And she's upstairs. Right. She's upstairs. So now the police tap and monitor the cell phones of the people that they know are involved so far. They really hope to glean more concrete information to charge Jennifer and Danny and also identify and charge the other gunmen. It's it's Homeboy.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Right. I've identified for you. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

So they listen to their phone calls, they read their text messages, and they scan the locations where the phones are pinging, and they are able to learn a lot from this. First, they learn that Homeboy is an associate of Danny's that also deals drugs. Shocker. Right? Shocker. They also intercepted a conversation between Homeboy and a friend where they discuss one of the gunmen being arrested today and charged with conspiracy. And they're like obviously freaking out about it. They know that their goose is cooked. So police are now also able to identify everyone else involved. So Homeboy is Ledford Crawford.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

What a name.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

I know, right? And then there's another one named Eric Carney, David Milvagnum. I probably and I probably butchered that, but it's fine. And then finally, Danny Wong, which is, of course, Jennifer's ex-boyfriend. So he wasn't just the ex, he was the connection, the middleman. And honestly, the digital forensics in this case are so satisfying, so fascinating. They put every piece of this crazy puzzle together. And another side note, like, nothing on your phone is safe from prying eyes, y'all. A camera is watching you everywhere you go now. Just don't commit crimes. Like, it's wrong, it's not smart, you're gonna get caught. Yeah. Anyway, now we learn this was not Jennifer's first attempt to have her parents murdered. Just 10 months earlier, she tried to hire a classmate to kill them. They even went as far as exchanging money, but it fell through. So no, this was not a snap decision. This was very planned.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

You just go around asking your client, hey, what you doing this weekend? Murder my pants?

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Right. Like, that is just so you're you're you're going out with your girlfriend? Okay, no problem. I'll ask my ex. So now we have to ask, like, what in the world was this girl's problem? Like, that's always the burning question. Why? Well, police found her journal during their investigation, and it was absolutely filled with entries about Danny. She wrote only about him, about how she couldn't live without him, and about how she hated her parents for tearing them apart. I wonder if she was gonna take out homegirl next. She probably was. Yeah. Uh so police also found out that the phone calls and texts that Danny was receiving were actually coming from Jennifer the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

And she claimed to be getting them as well. That was what blew my mind, was because when I saw in the documentary that they were coming from Jennifer, I was like, wait a minute, rewind. She was getting them as well. But she obviously she was lying about getting them, and it was just Danny getting them.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah, and I think she did that, A, to cover her ass. But B, I think it also got her like sympathy and concern from Danny over it.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Possibly.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

And as usual, money may have also been a factor here. Jennifer would have Wound up with about half a million dollars plus their family home, which was paid off in full if both of her parents had passed, which thankfully they did not. And she also would never have to confess to them that she didn't have a degree. Right? But then this detail. Right before her mother was executed on her knees, she said, Don't hurt my daughter. Those were her last words. So yeah, that one doesn't leave. That's a mother's love. Mm-hmm. Truly. So Jennifer and her co-conspirators were sentenced to life in prison. No parole for 25 years. And her father obtained a lifetime no contact order on Jennifer. And that is just so heartbreaking for a father to even have to do. This poor man. But I get it. Yeah, 100%. Jennifer, of course, still maintains her innocence to this day. And just to bring things current, in 2025, there was a legal update. Jennifer's attempted murder conviction was upheld, but her first degree murder conviction was overturned, and a new trial was ordered due to issues with jury instructions. She is still in prison currently, though, and that is not changing anytime soon. Okay, so what do you think? Was this about money? Was this about control?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

So it seems to have been like a hot mess of everything. It seems like I think the money was a bonus to her because she wasn't living a rough life where she needed the money. It wasn't one of those stories where she'd run up a bunch of debt and she was trying to find a way out of it. I think the money was just the added bonus. I think the issue was she had told so many lies that she knew eventually they would come out. Her parents were super, super controlling, and she wanted to be with Danny. So I think her motivation was more lifestyle. She was trying to get out from under the thumb, and she was trying to never have to admit to them everything she lied about. I do I do think the money was an added bonus.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

I agree. I think that the main motivation was Danny. I think that she truly believed that if they were dead, that she and Danny would be together. But Danny, as we discussed, already had another girlfriend, this Christine. And yeah, homegirl. And I didn't mention this, but there was a quote from her father after he woke up from his coma, and they'd had a discussion about Danny, and he told Jennifer, you have to call off the relationship with Danny, or you'll have to wait until I'm dead. And that is just so freaking chilling.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

That's him signing his own death sentence.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Yeah, yeah. I mean, thankfully not. Thankfully he's he's still alive. But like, think of the pain that he's dealing with every day.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

If he lost his wife and his daughter, in a horrific, horrifying way in front of his eyes. Mm-hmm. He pretty much lost his daughter, and then he has to live knowing that his daughter was responsible for all of that.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah, and imagine, like, you you if your daughter can do this to you, you can't trust anybody. You will never trust anybody ever again.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

So do you think that maybe what the money brought to the situation was that Danny would then be more attracted to the coming back and being with her because she has this fully paid-off house and half a million dollars? Because if Danny was the main motivation, but he'd already moved on. I I still feel like the super controlling parents and the being caught in the lies that she'd already told. And obviously she can't get a job with a bachelor's degree that she doesn't have. So this was all gonna come to light soon. I I truly believe that the main motivation was getting out from under that lie and under that control. Uh, because she knew that Danny had moved on to another girlfriend. But I'm thinking that maybe the money helped her think, well, you know, Danny's not gonna want to turn down this cash cow.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Yeah, maybe she thought that the money would kind of lure him in, like, oh, think of all the drugs that you can buy with this. All the drugs. I never thought of it that way, but that's a good one. I guess we should wrap it up because we need to discuss this more in the after show right now.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

In the after show. I need to skim through my notes to see if I've got anything you don't. There was a couple of things that sprung to mind as you went through, and I I was like, shall I? No, I'm gonna save that for the aftershow.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Save it for the after show. And you guys, if you are not already a subscriber, I'm not gonna hard one about this because I know it's annoying, but our after shows are amazing. It's like you're sitting here and just chatting with us, like we're all friends, and it's four dollars a month, and it really helps us continue to do this. So if you can spare the four bucks, great. If not, we're still gonna give you an episode every week. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

And I think you get to know us a little bit better when you listen to the after shows because we talk about how our past experiences like pop into our heads when we're talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Like all the people we've murdered. Oh no, no, no. Like the last episode that we just recorded, the after show episode, we talked about how awful we were as teenagers. So that's always fun to hear about. Right?

SPEAKER_01 27:10

All of our dirty secrets.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Okay, well, thank you guys so much for listening. And until next time.