Jennifer Pan Paid to Have Her Parents Killed but One Survived — Where Is She Now?

In the U.S., one of the most well-known cases of parricide is that of the Menendez brothers. Parricide is defined as the killing of one's parents and is fairly uncommon. This might be why the media latched onto the story of the wealthy siblings who murdered their parents and claimed it was in self-defense due to years of abuse. What resulted from this was a heavily publicized trial that wouldn't be repeated until the O.J. Simpson trial two years later.

Despite how rare parricide is, it happens all over the world. In November 2010 in Canada, a young woman named Jennifer Pan was accused of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot with her folks as the targets. Fortunately, it wasn't a complete success and one of her parents lived. Why would a daughter do such a thing to her parents and where is Pan now? Here's what we know.

Nearly 15 years after a home invasion killed Pan's mother and injured her father, she was granted a retrial in May 2023, per the CBC. At that point, Pan had been in prison since 2015 after a judge found her guilty of first-degree murder and "sentenced [her] in 2015 to life in prison with no parole for 25 years for first-degree murder, and life for attempted murder."

During the appeal process, Pan was represented by Stephanie DiGiuseppe who told the outlet, "It's a very important day. Her fight is not over." The three men Pan hired to kill her parents were all convicted of the same charges and also appealed their first-degree murder convictions. The appeal was granted based on the fact that the jury in the original trials was only provided two scenarios for the attack. In both, first-degree murder was the only option. Manslaughter and second-degree murder should have been on the table.

As of the time of this writing, a new trial date hasn't been scheduled yet. Pan's lawyer is confident this is a positive step in the direction of her exoneration.

The CBC reported that on Nov. 8, 2010, "a woman who was killed in an apparently random home invasion in Markham, Ont. ... was shot multiple times along with her husband." Three men broke into their home and demanded money. Apart from the couple, their then 24-year-old daughter was in the home although she wasn't injured. Chief Armand La Barge said, "The daughter was tied up and separated from her parents at that time and the suspects spent approximately one half-hour in the house, searching it for cash and valuables."

Pan was arrested two weeks later after authorities noted several inconsistencies in her story. After waking up from a coma, her father also informed police that he saw his daughter whispering to one of the home invaders in a manner that seemed quite friendly. Four years later, Pan was found guilty along with the three men she hired.

During the trial, the prosecution claimed that Pan wanted her parents dead because they didn't approve of her relationship. Pan had been dating her boyfriend Daniel Wong since high school, via Toronto Life. Eventually, he began dealing drugs, but this was just the tip of the iceberg. Pan's entire life was also a lie. The pressures of being a successful second-generation Canadian immigrant got to Pan. She lied about graduating high school, attending university, and getting a good internship while in school.

When her parents found out what was happening, Pan was told she had to stop seeing Wong. He was also getting tired of all the sneaking around and broke up with Pan. When he started seeing someone else, Pan concocted another lie to try and get him back. In the end, they did reconcile and decided there was only one way they could be together — if Pan's parents were dead.

For more on this story, stream What Jennifer Did on Netflix starting on April 10, 2024.