September 27, 2022 • 28 mins
Today's guests are producer Jeff Shane and investigative reporter Conor Powell.
Conor is a journalist and podcast host whose latest series is Lords of Soccer, how Fifa stole the beautiful game and the largest corruption scandal in the world. He’s also the host of KT Studios' upcoming podcast, Death Island You can follow Conor on Twitter @conormpowell.
Jennifer Pan seemed to have the perfect life, but was it really the perfect lie? When her shiny veneer began to crack someone would be pushed to make a deadly decision.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
You see stars, you feel giddy, But sometimes that makes
you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just
because the story starts out with once upon a Times
doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy
and Love, a production of Katie's Studios and I Heart Radio.
(00:24):
Today's guests are true crime producer Jeff Shane and journalist
and podcast host Connor Powell. Connor is a journalist and
podcast host whose latest podcast is Lords of Soccer, How
FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game and the largest corruption scandal
in the World. He's also host of Katie Studio's upcoming podcast,
(00:45):
Death Island. You can follow Connor on Twitter at Connor M. Powell.
Episode forty six, The Case of the Overachiever, The Tiger
Parents and the Deadly Double Life. Back and Han Pan
were a perfect example of the American dream. Both had
(01:08):
immigrated to Toronto from Vietnam in the late nineteen seventies.
They found work at a car manufacturing company and got
married in a small ceremony in nine six. Soon after,
they had a daughter, Jennifer, and three years later a son,
Felix By two thousand and four, the Pans had saved
enough to buy a large home with a two car
(01:29):
garage on a quiet residential street in Markham. Markham is
an upscale suburb around thirty minutes outside of Toronto. Mr.
Pan drove a Mercedes and Mrs Pan drove Alexis. While
the money house and cars were nice, the Pan's greatest
achievement was their children, especially their daughter Jennifer. A social
(01:51):
butterfly with a distinctive, high pitch laugh, Jennifer could seamlessly
float between different social circles at school. Standing at five
ft seven in, classmates considered her quote pretty but plain.
She rarely wore makeup and never took off her round
wire frame glasses. After receiving treatise in high school, per
(02:11):
her father's decision, Jennifer attended an elite college to study medicine.
Although he hoped she'd be a doctor, Mr Pan decided
Jennifer didn't have the stomach for it. He urged her
instead to be a pharmacist. After receiving her bachelor's Jennifer
began attending a prestigious pharmacy program in Toronto. She also
(02:33):
spent her time volunteering at a hospital. She was truly
the daughter her parents dreams she would be. Here's Jeff.
Jennifer was really committed from a young age to lots
of activities and extracurriculars. She started piano lessons at the
age of four. She also became a world class figure skater,
(02:54):
and her sights were set on the two thousand and
time Winter Olympics in maccouver and things were going well
until else she tore a ligament in her knee, which
basically shattered her dreams, but that didn't stop her from
continuing to practice. Some nights in elementary school, Jennifer would
come home from skating practice at ten PM, to homework
till around midnight, and then head to bed. And remember,
elementary school, she's what you know, ten to twelve years old,
(03:17):
and she was a good student. She expected to be
named valedictorian of her middle school, and when she didn't
get it, she was both shocked and confused. But instead
of talking about her heartbreak, she told everyone she was okay.
It's something she later referred to as her happy mask. Connor,
what do you make of this overwhelming pressure? But not
only Jennifer's parents put on her, but it sounds like
she put on herself a little bit. Yeah. I think
(03:39):
anytime you're talking about wanting to be the valedictorian in
middle school and also trying to compete for Winter Olympics
and ice skating, you're talking about a pressure filled young life.
And I think that's what you see about her story
from an early age. I mean, she was just in
this cauldron of pressure, both probably academically athletically, and then
also I'm I'm her her own background culturally, there was
(04:01):
a lot of pressure to sort of be the daughter
they wanted her to be, both as a student, as
an athlete, but also as a young Vietnamese girl. We
did a little bit of research and found that of
American middle schoolers feel pressure to get good grades, and
one percent of those students also feel the pressure to
(04:22):
get involved in extra curricular activities, and another one percent
of those students feel the pressure to be good at sports.
So there definitely is some pressure, But it sounds a
little bit like Jennifer was in the minority in the
sense that she was feeling pressure kind of in every
facet of her life, not just getting good grades, but
also being good at sports and being involved in kind
of things outside of the day to day of school.
(04:44):
All kids put pressure on themselves to do well. Parents
put pressure on their kids to learn and to be athletic,
and you know, not just to have fun. But I
think anytime you start talking about Olympic dreams, that's just
a whole another level of pressure for any young girl,
particularly one that's you know, in middle school. Yeah, Connor,
you post a podcast in the sports world kind of
(05:04):
about the pressure is probably some athletes face. Can you
tell us about that and how that might relate to
the story. Yeah, the Lords of Soccer podcast is all
about the corruption within FIFA and one of the things
that we see in global soccer that FIFA is sort
of a lorded over. You know, this entire program of
building national teams to compete for a World Cup championship.
(05:25):
Is that countries like Qatar, which is going to host
the upcoming World Cup in a few months. You know,
they were literally spending millions of dollars going around the world,
particularly in Africa, looking for the next big soccer player,
the next big thing that they could both market and
then also bring home to play for Qatar's national team.
(05:45):
And I mean they were going through like hundreds of
thousands of kids every year auditioning these kids, and so
you see this type of pressure from an early age,
not only in Olympic sports like figure skating, but also
in other sports, whether it's you know, baseball, football, but
particularly in global soccer. And that's a part of what
we talk about. Um, the way FIFA has responded to
(06:05):
this that you know, they essentially oversee the system that
they don't really care, that they don't really care what
happens to these young kids. Right. I think people forget
when they're fans of the sports that it's ultimately just
a machine made to make money. Right. Yeah, at the
end of the day. Um, you know, there's an old
saying that sports shouldn't be covered like politics or the
financial industry. But the reality is is like sports is
(06:28):
a financial juggernaut. Is the people who run these sports,
they run it to make money. And so there's a
lot of pressure on kids and then teenagers and then
young adults to perform at these incredible levels. And you know,
the amount of money we're talking about in the World
Cup with FIFA or in the Olympics, I mean you're
talking about a huge amounts of money and Unfortunately, with
(06:49):
that comes a lot of pressure. Despite her parents strict
no boy's rule, Jennifer couldn't help but fall in love.
In two thousands, during her junior year of high school,
Jennifer went on a band trip to Europe. After a
performance in a concert half filled with smokers, Jennifer suffered
(07:09):
an asthma attack. She started panicking and was let outside
to the tour bus and almost blacked out. It was
then a trumpet player, Daniel Long, gently held her shoulder.
He told her to take deep breaths. Daniel missed the
rest of the show to make sure she was okay.
He pretty much saved my life. She later said. It
(07:30):
meant everything. Daniel was a senior. He was goofy and extroverted,
the opposite of Jennifer. He had a big laugh, a
wide smile, and a little belly. Jennifer thought it was cute.
The pair started dating this summer after her junior year,
but her parents were none the wiser. Here's Connor now.
(07:53):
Jennifer and Daniel dated in secret four years. As she
got older, Jennifer would make up elaborate lies to tell
a pair and so that she could go and see
Daniel like she was sleeping at a classmate's house closer
to school. It's actually not that uncommon to do what
Jennifer did. Based on our research, about one in five
people worldwide have a secret lover. I think the difference,
of course, is that she's a teenager at this point,
(08:16):
and a secret lover when you're an adult is a
very different thing. But she obviously was keeping the secret
not only from her family, but presumably probably from a
lot of other people as well. Yeah, Connor, and this
secret lasted for years. By the time Jennifer was twenty four,
After years of living this double life, Daniel grew tired
of the relationship dynamics. He was sick of Jennifer being
(08:37):
terrified that her parents would find something out about the relationship.
He told her to figure out her life and broke
up with her, and understandably, Jennifer was heartbroken. I mean,
this was her first love and she had this parents,
so she didn't really connect with I think she felt
very shell shocked by this ending of the relationship. And
what made matters even worse is shortly thereafter, she learned
that Daniel was seeing a girl named Christine. After finding
(08:59):
out about Chris seen Jennifer came to Daniel with a
somewhat alarming story. She told him that a man had
knocked on her door and flashed but looked like a
police badge. When she opened the door, a group of
men then rushed in and gang raped her in her home.
Then a few days later, she said she received a
bullet in an envelope in her mailbox. She was terrified,
understandably so. And what she told Daniel is that she
(09:22):
thought both instances she suspected were warnings from Christine to
leave Daniel alone. Daniel didn't believe Jennifer, but it did
get the two of them talking and they got back together.
I mean that sounds like a crazy desperate move to
get your ex back to If this didn't happen, to
make up a story that severe, yeah, I mean, if
it didn't happen, that is an incredible story to tell
(09:44):
to get somebody to talk to you. I think the
other thing that's just striking about Jennifer is that even
at age, she was lying to her parents about a relationship,
which you would think at some point, even you know,
she got older, that she would be willing to share
with her parents that she was in a relationship and
why she isn't willing to do that, I think is
something that it sends alarm bells about what type of
(10:08):
life Jennifer is leading at this point. Yeah. I mean,
we don't really know the ins and outs of the
Pan household, but I wonder if the pressure was from
her parents or from Jennifer herself, Like, would they have
been understanding if she had just told them the truth? Yeah?
And the question is is was she embarrassed to tell
her parents at age four that she was in a
(10:29):
relationship or was she embarrassed to tell her parents at
that age that she was in a relationship with this
Daniel guy? And what was it about him that maybe
she was afraid to show her parents who he was
or to tell her parents who he was. We're going
to take a break. We'll be back in just a moment.
(11:02):
On November Jennifer sat in her bedroom watching Gossip Girl
and John and Kate plus eight. Mr Pan was downstairs
watching the news. Mrs Pan went out to line dance
with a friend, and by nine thirty pm everyone was home.
At ten o five, three armed men entered the house
to the front door. Both Mr and Mrs Pan were
(11:25):
brought downstairs at gunpoint. The men were demanding money. Jennifer
was tied up with a shoe lace and dragged from
room to room as the men looked for valuables. Desperate
and scare, Jennifer gave the men twenty dollars in cash
she saved from piano lessons. She also gave them an
additional one thousand, one hundred dollars from her mother's night stand,
(11:48):
but this was not enough. The men grew angry. They
dragged Jennifer upstairs and tied her to a banister. Her
parents begged the men not to harm their daughter. Mr.
And Mrs Pan were then brought to the basement and
covered with a blanket. The assailant shot Mr. Pan twice,
once in the shoulder and then in the face. They
(12:09):
shot Mrs Pan three times in the head. Eighteen minutes
after coming inside, the three men ran out the front door.
Tied up upstairs, Jennifer was able to pull out her
cell phone and call nine one. Take a listen to
a portion of the call. Where are you man that
(12:33):
people broke into money hand? Where are you? What haven't you?
He wrote? Yes, Hello, Hello, I need to tell your
(12:59):
eye Are you God? But I don't know what's happening.
So yeah, that nine one call is pretty alarming and disturbing.
(13:21):
But despite that, police immediately thought the scene looked off.
First off, the keys to Mr Pan's Lexus were in
plain view by the front door. If this were indeed
a home invasion, the detectives wondered why the intruders didn't
take the car. They also didn't take either Mr or
Mrs Pan's wallets, and most bizarre, why would they leave
Jennifer a witness a lot. Another question they had was
(13:41):
how did Jennifer call then when one if she was
in fact tied up. Not surprisingly, the police had that
question as well, that very same question. Back at the
police station after this all happened, Jennifer was asked by
the police to act out to prove that she could
wiggle her hands and then call nine on one, And
(14:02):
she was actually able to show them how she wiggled
her hands free and got her phone and then was
able to call nine on one. So it sounds like
she had to kind of do this acting out to
prove that she in fact was a victim of this crime.
You know, she was either able to do this because
it's actually what happened, or she was able to do
it because she had practiced and possibly set this up
(14:23):
as well. I think that's the thing that the police
are trying to find out when they're asking a potential
victim to show how they escaped, is there's a little
bit of suspicion there about whether or not this story
that she's telling the police is credible. And yeah, Connor,
I mean you're an investigative reporter. How often do you
think police look at everyone involved? I mean, on the outside,
(14:44):
Jennifer would look like a victim, but they have to
kind of look at every single person who is in
this house, as you know, they might she might have
information that she doesn't even know she has. Yeah, I
think police generally first go to what is the easiest explanation.
The easiest explanation is not usually that a suburban house
is attacked by a bunch of random people and that
(15:05):
one of the victims is able to wiggle their hands
free and call nine and one. That maybe happens in movies,
but it doesn't often happen in real life, and so
I think it's not surprising that police were a little
bit suspicious as they're trying to figure out. I think
the fact that the car keys were left on the
table sends alarm bells to investigators as well. And I'm
sure there were other things about the scene that we're
often and so not surprisingly, you know, they immediately want
(15:29):
to identify who in this scene could be telling the
truth and who in the scene could be lying. In
a stroke of good news, Mr Pan survived the attack, sadly,
though he remained in a medically induced coma. Without any
evidence to go off, Police reviewed the nine one one
call and notice something odd. Hello, Hello, I need your
(16:07):
As Jennifer is talking to dispatchers, Mr Pan screams for
help and runs out the front door. All by Jennifer
is calling out to him. Police wondered what kind of
(16:30):
father would leave their daughter tied up so he could
get help. Police decided to track Jennifer and to see
if she led them anywhere. Well, she didn't go anywhere suspicious.
Her behavior was abnormal at her mother's funeral. She didn't
seem upset, shedding, not a single tear. Jeff, what do
you make of that? It seems really strange, right, Yeah,
(16:51):
It's really hard to judge someone, I think when they're
going through something Everyone grieves differently, as we know. But
having covered a fair I'm out of true crime. The
police definitely are looking at everyone involved in how they're
reacting to certain things, and whether we like it or not,
the detectives probably have a lens of how they think
(17:12):
the victim's daughter should be acting. Yeah, I mean, you
can't judge how people are going to react to trauma.
That's like such a key point that people react differently.
I do think that that reaction, with some of the
other questions about the scene and the getting her arms
free and what eunse is going on, that probably does
start to raise lambells for investigators. Her behavior after the
(17:34):
murders is at best circumstantial evidence. Is that something that
you think detectives would find credible? Can they use that
in court? Like? What is your opinion about that? I
think if they aren't able to find any evidence that
there was a gang of people or that there was
a motive behind this gang coming into this house, you know,
investigators are probably looking at all of these other pieces
(17:57):
of evidence. The behavior is sort of okay, well, how
do we how do we explain the scene that we've
come across, And so you know the behavior, then the
keen on her travels, where she's going, her behavior. You know,
it sounds as if investigators didn't believe the story that
she was telling them. Ultimately, what detectives are trying to
do is help prosecutors eventually build a case and what
(18:22):
is essentially a narrative about what they believe happened in
this crime and her behavior following the murders. If they
believe she's a suspect, then that just lends itself to
the narrative of she's not a grieving daughter, she didn't
cry at the funeral, and not all that behavior can
be presented to the jurors. Whether or not they decide
to believe it is a different question. Yeah, I mean,
(18:44):
prosecutors are looking for facts, but they're also looking for
a motive, and often motives are emotional. And so if
the facts point to something about this murder and this
attempted murder that doesn't quite add up, and then you
also have this sort of motive and you have the
lack of emotion. That is all tools that prosecutors can
(19:05):
use to get a conviction in front of a jury.
Four days after the attack, Mr Pan woke up from
his coma and wanted to talk to the police immediately.
He had a very different story to tell. According to
Mr Pan, the night of the shooting, he saw Jennifer
come downstairs not tied up. She was talking to the
(19:27):
shooters in a friendly manner. But that's not all. He
also told police he had recently discovered his superstar daughter
was actually a fraud, a total fraud. Remember how Jennifer
had been a straight A student and gone to a
great college and was currently studying in a pharmacy program.
None of that was true. Jennifer had forged all of
(19:49):
her high school report cards. She had never even graduated
from high school. She'd faked her diplomas, her transcripts. She
told her parents about classmates and teachers and uses, all
of which were made up. She bought textbooks and wrote
copious notes, all for show. It gets worse than that.
Instead of going to class every day, she would get
(20:09):
on the bus and go to public libraries writing her
fake notes. She also got a part time job tending bar,
something her parents had no clue about. She convinced her
dad to let her move in with a friend part
time to be closer to campus, but she was actually
living with her secret boyfriend Daniel, and when it came
time to graduate, Jennifer told her parents that the extra
large class size meant there weren't enough seats, so graduating
(20:31):
students were only allowed one guest. She said she didn't
want her parents to feel left out, so she gave
her ticket to a friend. I guess the question is
why lie? And why lie to such an extensive degree?
That's a good question. I mean, there's this concept, this idea,
that of tiger parenting, and tiger parenting is this strict
(20:51):
form of parenting where parents are highly invested ensuring their
children's success. Specifically, tiger parents pushed their children to attain
high levels of academic achievement or success, and in one
survey of Asian parents report being tiger parents. Studies have
also shown that it doesn't actually create successful students, but
(21:13):
just the opposite. How did her parents discover this lie? Well, Connor,
It was all going smoothly until Jennifer told her parents
that she was volunteering at a hospital, which meant late
nights and weekend chefs in excuse she made up to
see her boyfriend Daniel. Her dad, Mr Pan was suspicious
as she had no badge or uniform that would indicate
she was in fact working or volunteering at this hospital.
(21:34):
So when her parents followed her to what they thought
was the hospital, but she didn't end up going there,
they then called her roommate who she was supposedly living with,
and that roommate fessed up to the lie. Mr Pan
was furious. He basically locked her up at home. He
didn't allow her to use a cell phone or car.
She could only leave the house to teach piano, and
(21:56):
he would track the mileage on the car to ensure
that she was doing. Just to me, that punishment sounds
severe for a teenager, let alone a twenty four year
old woman. I mean she's a full grown adult and
they're treating her like she's a child. Yes, of course
she lied to them, and that's horrible, but I don't
know if the punishment fits the crime in this scenario. Yeah,
(22:16):
there definitely feels like there's more going on in this family,
you know than meets the eye. That locking her up
as a teenager, you can sort of understand that response.
But she's twenty four, she's working, she has a boyfriend.
I mean, these are all normal things that you would
expect a year old to do as a parent, and
obviously you don't like your child lying to you, but
(22:38):
locking her up seems extreme. Let's stop here for another
break with all this information, please thought. Jennifer back in
(23:02):
for a nine hour interrogation. This time she had a
news story. She had, in fact, hired hitman to break
into her home, but not to kill her parents. Jennifer
had hired them to kill herself. Why, they asked, Jennifer
told them she quote didn't want to be here anymore.
(23:24):
Take a listen to some of her interrogation. When he
came to her your room, what discussions did you have
with the guy that came too? The real discussions you had,
not what you told us? Where was the money? And
I was the money was okay? But he obviously said
I'm here to do what you asked. You never said anything.
(23:46):
What did he said? Just like hand behind your back?
Did he discuss ways with you how he would do it?
Did you request any way for him to do it? Sure?
No one else? Okay? Why didn't they do it the
way you want? So? I asked them by asking to
keeping you in my low when they took them away,
(24:08):
It doesn't seem to make sense. I know it would
makes sense to me. So what Jennifer is describing is
known as suicide by proxy, and suicide by proxy is
where a suicidal person uses another person to kill them,
effectively committing suicide at the hands of someone else. It's
more common with people who entice a police officer to
(24:32):
shoot them, but in this case, Jennifer allegedly hired a
hitman to kill herself, and suicide is a serious and
sadly common act. Nearly eight hundred thousand people die by
suicide in the world each year, which is roughly one
death every forty seconds, and suicide is also the second
leading cause of death in the world for those aged
four like Jennifer. Yeah, it's really tragic, and as Jennifer's
(24:54):
interrogation went on, she explained to the police what went wrong.
She said that she planned to pay the hitman ten
thousand dollars, but at the last minute she had a
change of heart, but the hitman still wanted ten thousand dollars.
She couldn't pay it, so they showed up and killed
her parents instead. I mean, that's true. That is so
tragic and sad. Shocked by her story, police brought in
(25:19):
Jennifer's boyfriend Daniel for questioning. It seemed the couple hadn't
lined up their stories because he had a very different
version of events. Daniel told detectives that Jennifer did indeed
want her parents dead and he had helped connect her
with hitman. Daniel had started dealing drugs and met them
through that. When he mentioned that to Jennifer, it seemed
(25:41):
like the perfect solution to her. Jennifer hoped with her
parents out of the picture, she could collect her five
hundred thousand dollar portion of their estate and live happily
ever after with Daniel. Daniel bought her a burner phone,
which she sent hundreds of texts to the hitman from.
She ended up growing out the SIM card, but not
(26:01):
the phone, which unbeknownst to her, still had the tax
so the police ended up getting tons of evidence against
her from this burner phone. At the trial, Jennifer appeared
virtually cheerful, ambishly picking Lindoffer Lawyer's clothes. Despite this good nature, Jennifer, Daniel,
(26:21):
and the three hitmen were all found guilty on multiple charges,
including murder. They won't be eligible for parole for at
least twenty five years before her sentencing, Jennifer's father made
a final statement to the court, quote when I lost
my wife, I lost my daughter. At the same time,
he said, I don't feel like I have a family anymore.
(26:43):
Some say I should feel lucky to be alive, but
I feel like I am dead too because of a
no contact order made by the judge. It would be
the last thing Jennifer would ever hear her father say. Connor,
work and listeners find more of work and follow you
on social media. The current podcast right now that is
out is The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the
(27:06):
Beautiful Game that's available anywhere you listen to podcasts. It
tells the history of FIFA's corruption um but also its
history of sexism and racism. And we try to explain
why this winner will be watching the World Cup in
Qatar as opposed to what we should have been doing,
which was watching the World Cup this past summer in Qatar,
(27:26):
and how FIFA's corruption led to that. Just uh strange
scheduling of events. And we're really excited that Death Islands
coming out this fall as well. I think if you
are a fan of true crime, both The Lords of
Soccer and Death Island are going to be ones that
you really want to listen to and check out. Yeah,
Connord sounds like Lords of Soccer is not so much
a sports podcast but really a true crime podcast. Yeah, definitely,
(27:48):
you're talking about corruption, You're talking about a whole host
of unfortunately deaths that have led up to the Qatar
World Cup of more than six thousand people have been
killed in building this World Cup infrastruct Sure, and it's
very much a true crime podcast, and I think anyone
who likes true crime will want to check out The
Lords of Soccer shameless plug. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love,
(28:11):
leave us a review and listen to season three of
our hit series, The Pikes and Massacre. Episodes there every
Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to
follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. Crazy in
Love is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris Grieves
(28:32):
and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff Twa.
Crazy in Love is a production of I Heart Radio
and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,
Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
You see stars, you feel giddy, But sometimes that makes
you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just
because the story starts out with once upon a Times
doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy
and Love, a production of Katie's Studios and I Heart Radio.
(00:24):
Today's guests are true crime producer Jeff Shane and journalist
and podcast host Connor Powell. Connor is a journalist and
podcast host whose latest podcast is Lords of Soccer, How
FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game and the largest corruption scandal
in the World. He's also host of Katie Studio's upcoming podcast,
(00:45):
Death Island. You can follow Connor on Twitter at Connor M. Powell.
Episode forty six, The Case of the Overachiever, The Tiger
Parents and the Deadly Double Life. Back and Han Pan
were a perfect example of the American dream. Both had
(01:08):
immigrated to Toronto from Vietnam in the late nineteen seventies.
They found work at a car manufacturing company and got
married in a small ceremony in nine six. Soon after,
they had a daughter, Jennifer, and three years later a son,
Felix By two thousand and four, the Pans had saved
enough to buy a large home with a two car
(01:29):
garage on a quiet residential street in Markham. Markham is
an upscale suburb around thirty minutes outside of Toronto. Mr.
Pan drove a Mercedes and Mrs Pan drove Alexis. While
the money house and cars were nice, the Pan's greatest
achievement was their children, especially their daughter Jennifer. A social
(01:51):
butterfly with a distinctive, high pitch laugh, Jennifer could seamlessly
float between different social circles at school. Standing at five
ft seven in, classmates considered her quote pretty but plain.
She rarely wore makeup and never took off her round
wire frame glasses. After receiving treatise in high school, per
(02:11):
her father's decision, Jennifer attended an elite college to study medicine.
Although he hoped she'd be a doctor, Mr Pan decided
Jennifer didn't have the stomach for it. He urged her
instead to be a pharmacist. After receiving her bachelor's Jennifer
began attending a prestigious pharmacy program in Toronto. She also
(02:33):
spent her time volunteering at a hospital. She was truly
the daughter her parents dreams she would be. Here's Jeff.
Jennifer was really committed from a young age to lots
of activities and extracurriculars. She started piano lessons at the
age of four. She also became a world class figure skater,
(02:54):
and her sights were set on the two thousand and
time Winter Olympics in maccouver and things were going well
until else she tore a ligament in her knee, which
basically shattered her dreams, but that didn't stop her from
continuing to practice. Some nights in elementary school, Jennifer would
come home from skating practice at ten PM, to homework
till around midnight, and then head to bed. And remember,
elementary school, she's what you know, ten to twelve years old,
(03:17):
and she was a good student. She expected to be
named valedictorian of her middle school, and when she didn't
get it, she was both shocked and confused. But instead
of talking about her heartbreak, she told everyone she was okay.
It's something she later referred to as her happy mask. Connor,
what do you make of this overwhelming pressure? But not
only Jennifer's parents put on her, but it sounds like
she put on herself a little bit. Yeah. I think
(03:39):
anytime you're talking about wanting to be the valedictorian in
middle school and also trying to compete for Winter Olympics
and ice skating, you're talking about a pressure filled young life.
And I think that's what you see about her story
from an early age. I mean, she was just in
this cauldron of pressure, both probably academically athletically, and then
also I'm I'm her her own background culturally, there was
(04:01):
a lot of pressure to sort of be the daughter
they wanted her to be, both as a student, as
an athlete, but also as a young Vietnamese girl. We
did a little bit of research and found that of
American middle schoolers feel pressure to get good grades, and
one percent of those students also feel the pressure to
(04:22):
get involved in extra curricular activities, and another one percent
of those students feel the pressure to be good at sports.
So there definitely is some pressure, But it sounds a
little bit like Jennifer was in the minority in the
sense that she was feeling pressure kind of in every
facet of her life, not just getting good grades, but
also being good at sports and being involved in kind
of things outside of the day to day of school.
(04:44):
All kids put pressure on themselves to do well. Parents
put pressure on their kids to learn and to be athletic,
and you know, not just to have fun. But I
think anytime you start talking about Olympic dreams, that's just
a whole another level of pressure for any young girl,
particularly one that's you know, in middle school. Yeah, Connor,
you post a podcast in the sports world kind of
(05:04):
about the pressure is probably some athletes face. Can you
tell us about that and how that might relate to
the story. Yeah, the Lords of Soccer podcast is all
about the corruption within FIFA and one of the things
that we see in global soccer that FIFA is sort
of a lorded over. You know, this entire program of
building national teams to compete for a World Cup championship.
(05:25):
Is that countries like Qatar, which is going to host
the upcoming World Cup in a few months. You know,
they were literally spending millions of dollars going around the world,
particularly in Africa, looking for the next big soccer player,
the next big thing that they could both market and
then also bring home to play for Qatar's national team.
(05:45):
And I mean they were going through like hundreds of
thousands of kids every year auditioning these kids, and so
you see this type of pressure from an early age,
not only in Olympic sports like figure skating, but also
in other sports, whether it's you know, baseball, football, but
particularly in global soccer. And that's a part of what
we talk about. Um, the way FIFA has responded to
(06:05):
this that you know, they essentially oversee the system that
they don't really care, that they don't really care what
happens to these young kids. Right. I think people forget
when they're fans of the sports that it's ultimately just
a machine made to make money. Right. Yeah, at the
end of the day. Um, you know, there's an old
saying that sports shouldn't be covered like politics or the
financial industry. But the reality is is like sports is
(06:28):
a financial juggernaut. Is the people who run these sports,
they run it to make money. And so there's a
lot of pressure on kids and then teenagers and then
young adults to perform at these incredible levels. And you know,
the amount of money we're talking about in the World
Cup with FIFA or in the Olympics, I mean you're
talking about a huge amounts of money and Unfortunately, with
(06:49):
that comes a lot of pressure. Despite her parents strict
no boy's rule, Jennifer couldn't help but fall in love.
In two thousands, during her junior year of high school,
Jennifer went on a band trip to Europe. After a
performance in a concert half filled with smokers, Jennifer suffered
(07:09):
an asthma attack. She started panicking and was let outside
to the tour bus and almost blacked out. It was
then a trumpet player, Daniel Long, gently held her shoulder.
He told her to take deep breaths. Daniel missed the
rest of the show to make sure she was okay.
He pretty much saved my life. She later said. It
(07:30):
meant everything. Daniel was a senior. He was goofy and extroverted,
the opposite of Jennifer. He had a big laugh, a
wide smile, and a little belly. Jennifer thought it was cute.
The pair started dating this summer after her junior year,
but her parents were none the wiser. Here's Connor now.
(07:53):
Jennifer and Daniel dated in secret four years. As she
got older, Jennifer would make up elaborate lies to tell
a pair and so that she could go and see
Daniel like she was sleeping at a classmate's house closer
to school. It's actually not that uncommon to do what
Jennifer did. Based on our research, about one in five
people worldwide have a secret lover. I think the difference,
of course, is that she's a teenager at this point,
(08:16):
and a secret lover when you're an adult is a
very different thing. But she obviously was keeping the secret
not only from her family, but presumably probably from a
lot of other people as well. Yeah, Connor, and this
secret lasted for years. By the time Jennifer was twenty four,
After years of living this double life, Daniel grew tired
of the relationship dynamics. He was sick of Jennifer being
(08:37):
terrified that her parents would find something out about the relationship.
He told her to figure out her life and broke
up with her, and understandably, Jennifer was heartbroken. I mean,
this was her first love and she had this parents,
so she didn't really connect with I think she felt
very shell shocked by this ending of the relationship. And
what made matters even worse is shortly thereafter, she learned
that Daniel was seeing a girl named Christine. After finding
(08:59):
out about Chris seen Jennifer came to Daniel with a
somewhat alarming story. She told him that a man had
knocked on her door and flashed but looked like a
police badge. When she opened the door, a group of
men then rushed in and gang raped her in her home.
Then a few days later, she said she received a
bullet in an envelope in her mailbox. She was terrified,
understandably so. And what she told Daniel is that she
(09:22):
thought both instances she suspected were warnings from Christine to
leave Daniel alone. Daniel didn't believe Jennifer, but it did
get the two of them talking and they got back together.
I mean that sounds like a crazy desperate move to
get your ex back to If this didn't happen, to
make up a story that severe, yeah, I mean, if
it didn't happen, that is an incredible story to tell
(09:44):
to get somebody to talk to you. I think the
other thing that's just striking about Jennifer is that even
at age, she was lying to her parents about a relationship,
which you would think at some point, even you know,
she got older, that she would be willing to share
with her parents that she was in a relationship and
why she isn't willing to do that, I think is
something that it sends alarm bells about what type of
(10:08):
life Jennifer is leading at this point. Yeah. I mean,
we don't really know the ins and outs of the
Pan household, but I wonder if the pressure was from
her parents or from Jennifer herself, Like, would they have
been understanding if she had just told them the truth? Yeah?
And the question is is was she embarrassed to tell
her parents at age four that she was in a
(10:29):
relationship or was she embarrassed to tell her parents at
that age that she was in a relationship with this
Daniel guy? And what was it about him that maybe
she was afraid to show her parents who he was
or to tell her parents who he was. We're going
to take a break. We'll be back in just a moment.
(11:02):
On November Jennifer sat in her bedroom watching Gossip Girl
and John and Kate plus eight. Mr Pan was downstairs
watching the news. Mrs Pan went out to line dance
with a friend, and by nine thirty pm everyone was home.
At ten o five, three armed men entered the house
to the front door. Both Mr and Mrs Pan were
(11:25):
brought downstairs at gunpoint. The men were demanding money. Jennifer
was tied up with a shoe lace and dragged from
room to room as the men looked for valuables. Desperate
and scare, Jennifer gave the men twenty dollars in cash
she saved from piano lessons. She also gave them an
additional one thousand, one hundred dollars from her mother's night stand,
(11:48):
but this was not enough. The men grew angry. They
dragged Jennifer upstairs and tied her to a banister. Her
parents begged the men not to harm their daughter. Mr.
And Mrs Pan were then brought to the basement and
covered with a blanket. The assailant shot Mr. Pan twice,
once in the shoulder and then in the face. They
(12:09):
shot Mrs Pan three times in the head. Eighteen minutes
after coming inside, the three men ran out the front door.
Tied up upstairs, Jennifer was able to pull out her
cell phone and call nine one. Take a listen to
a portion of the call. Where are you man that
(12:33):
people broke into money hand? Where are you? What haven't you?
He wrote? Yes, Hello, Hello, I need to tell your
(12:59):
eye Are you God? But I don't know what's happening.
So yeah, that nine one call is pretty alarming and disturbing.
(13:21):
But despite that, police immediately thought the scene looked off.
First off, the keys to Mr Pan's Lexus were in
plain view by the front door. If this were indeed
a home invasion, the detectives wondered why the intruders didn't
take the car. They also didn't take either Mr or
Mrs Pan's wallets, and most bizarre, why would they leave
Jennifer a witness a lot. Another question they had was
(13:41):
how did Jennifer call then when one if she was
in fact tied up. Not surprisingly, the police had that
question as well, that very same question. Back at the
police station after this all happened, Jennifer was asked by
the police to act out to prove that she could
wiggle her hands and then call nine on one, And
(14:02):
she was actually able to show them how she wiggled
her hands free and got her phone and then was
able to call nine on one. So it sounds like
she had to kind of do this acting out to
prove that she in fact was a victim of this crime.
You know, she was either able to do this because
it's actually what happened, or she was able to do
it because she had practiced and possibly set this up
(14:23):
as well. I think that's the thing that the police
are trying to find out when they're asking a potential
victim to show how they escaped, is there's a little
bit of suspicion there about whether or not this story
that she's telling the police is credible. And yeah, Connor,
I mean you're an investigative reporter. How often do you
think police look at everyone involved? I mean, on the outside,
(14:44):
Jennifer would look like a victim, but they have to
kind of look at every single person who is in
this house, as you know, they might she might have
information that she doesn't even know she has. Yeah, I
think police generally first go to what is the easiest explanation.
The easiest explanation is not usually that a suburban house
is attacked by a bunch of random people and that
(15:05):
one of the victims is able to wiggle their hands
free and call nine and one. That maybe happens in movies,
but it doesn't often happen in real life, and so
I think it's not surprising that police were a little
bit suspicious as they're trying to figure out. I think
the fact that the car keys were left on the
table sends alarm bells to investigators as well. And I'm
sure there were other things about the scene that we're
often and so not surprisingly, you know, they immediately want
(15:29):
to identify who in this scene could be telling the
truth and who in the scene could be lying. In
a stroke of good news, Mr Pan survived the attack, sadly,
though he remained in a medically induced coma. Without any
evidence to go off, Police reviewed the nine one one
call and notice something odd. Hello, Hello, I need your
(16:07):
As Jennifer is talking to dispatchers, Mr Pan screams for
help and runs out the front door. All by Jennifer
is calling out to him. Police wondered what kind of
(16:30):
father would leave their daughter tied up so he could
get help. Police decided to track Jennifer and to see
if she led them anywhere. Well, she didn't go anywhere suspicious.
Her behavior was abnormal at her mother's funeral. She didn't
seem upset, shedding, not a single tear. Jeff, what do
you make of that? It seems really strange, right, Yeah,
(16:51):
It's really hard to judge someone, I think when they're
going through something Everyone grieves differently, as we know. But
having covered a fair I'm out of true crime. The
police definitely are looking at everyone involved in how they're
reacting to certain things, and whether we like it or not,
the detectives probably have a lens of how they think
(17:12):
the victim's daughter should be acting. Yeah, I mean, you
can't judge how people are going to react to trauma.
That's like such a key point that people react differently.
I do think that that reaction, with some of the
other questions about the scene and the getting her arms
free and what eunse is going on, that probably does
start to raise lambells for investigators. Her behavior after the
(17:34):
murders is at best circumstantial evidence. Is that something that
you think detectives would find credible? Can they use that
in court? Like? What is your opinion about that? I
think if they aren't able to find any evidence that
there was a gang of people or that there was
a motive behind this gang coming into this house, you know,
investigators are probably looking at all of these other pieces
(17:57):
of evidence. The behavior is sort of okay, well, how
do we how do we explain the scene that we've
come across, And so you know the behavior, then the
keen on her travels, where she's going, her behavior. You know,
it sounds as if investigators didn't believe the story that
she was telling them. Ultimately, what detectives are trying to
do is help prosecutors eventually build a case and what
(18:22):
is essentially a narrative about what they believe happened in
this crime and her behavior following the murders. If they
believe she's a suspect, then that just lends itself to
the narrative of she's not a grieving daughter, she didn't
cry at the funeral, and not all that behavior can
be presented to the jurors. Whether or not they decide
to believe it is a different question. Yeah, I mean,
(18:44):
prosecutors are looking for facts, but they're also looking for
a motive, and often motives are emotional. And so if
the facts point to something about this murder and this
attempted murder that doesn't quite add up, and then you
also have this sort of motive and you have the
lack of emotion. That is all tools that prosecutors can
(19:05):
use to get a conviction in front of a jury.
Four days after the attack, Mr Pan woke up from
his coma and wanted to talk to the police immediately.
He had a very different story to tell. According to
Mr Pan, the night of the shooting, he saw Jennifer
come downstairs not tied up. She was talking to the
(19:27):
shooters in a friendly manner. But that's not all. He
also told police he had recently discovered his superstar daughter
was actually a fraud, a total fraud. Remember how Jennifer
had been a straight A student and gone to a
great college and was currently studying in a pharmacy program.
None of that was true. Jennifer had forged all of
(19:49):
her high school report cards. She had never even graduated
from high school. She'd faked her diplomas, her transcripts. She
told her parents about classmates and teachers and uses, all
of which were made up. She bought textbooks and wrote
copious notes, all for show. It gets worse than that.
Instead of going to class every day, she would get
(20:09):
on the bus and go to public libraries writing her
fake notes. She also got a part time job tending bar,
something her parents had no clue about. She convinced her
dad to let her move in with a friend part
time to be closer to campus, but she was actually
living with her secret boyfriend Daniel, and when it came
time to graduate, Jennifer told her parents that the extra
large class size meant there weren't enough seats, so graduating
(20:31):
students were only allowed one guest. She said she didn't
want her parents to feel left out, so she gave
her ticket to a friend. I guess the question is
why lie? And why lie to such an extensive degree?
That's a good question. I mean, there's this concept, this idea,
that of tiger parenting, and tiger parenting is this strict
(20:51):
form of parenting where parents are highly invested ensuring their
children's success. Specifically, tiger parents pushed their children to attain
high levels of academic achievement or success, and in one
survey of Asian parents report being tiger parents. Studies have
also shown that it doesn't actually create successful students, but
(21:13):
just the opposite. How did her parents discover this lie? Well, Connor,
It was all going smoothly until Jennifer told her parents
that she was volunteering at a hospital, which meant late
nights and weekend chefs in excuse she made up to
see her boyfriend Daniel. Her dad, Mr Pan was suspicious
as she had no badge or uniform that would indicate
she was in fact working or volunteering at this hospital.
(21:34):
So when her parents followed her to what they thought
was the hospital, but she didn't end up going there,
they then called her roommate who she was supposedly living with,
and that roommate fessed up to the lie. Mr Pan
was furious. He basically locked her up at home. He
didn't allow her to use a cell phone or car.
She could only leave the house to teach piano, and
(21:56):
he would track the mileage on the car to ensure
that she was doing. Just to me, that punishment sounds
severe for a teenager, let alone a twenty four year
old woman. I mean she's a full grown adult and
they're treating her like she's a child. Yes, of course
she lied to them, and that's horrible, but I don't
know if the punishment fits the crime in this scenario. Yeah,
(22:16):
there definitely feels like there's more going on in this family,
you know than meets the eye. That locking her up
as a teenager, you can sort of understand that response.
But she's twenty four, she's working, she has a boyfriend.
I mean, these are all normal things that you would
expect a year old to do as a parent, and
obviously you don't like your child lying to you, but
(22:38):
locking her up seems extreme. Let's stop here for another
break with all this information, please thought. Jennifer back in
(23:02):
for a nine hour interrogation. This time she had a
news story. She had, in fact, hired hitman to break
into her home, but not to kill her parents. Jennifer
had hired them to kill herself. Why, they asked, Jennifer
told them she quote didn't want to be here anymore.
(23:24):
Take a listen to some of her interrogation. When he
came to her your room, what discussions did you have
with the guy that came too? The real discussions you had,
not what you told us? Where was the money? And
I was the money was okay? But he obviously said
I'm here to do what you asked. You never said anything.
(23:46):
What did he said? Just like hand behind your back?
Did he discuss ways with you how he would do it?
Did you request any way for him to do it? Sure?
No one else? Okay? Why didn't they do it the
way you want? So? I asked them by asking to
keeping you in my low when they took them away,
(24:08):
It doesn't seem to make sense. I know it would
makes sense to me. So what Jennifer is describing is
known as suicide by proxy, and suicide by proxy is
where a suicidal person uses another person to kill them,
effectively committing suicide at the hands of someone else. It's
more common with people who entice a police officer to
(24:32):
shoot them, but in this case, Jennifer allegedly hired a
hitman to kill herself, and suicide is a serious and
sadly common act. Nearly eight hundred thousand people die by
suicide in the world each year, which is roughly one
death every forty seconds, and suicide is also the second
leading cause of death in the world for those aged
four like Jennifer. Yeah, it's really tragic, and as Jennifer's
(24:54):
interrogation went on, she explained to the police what went wrong.
She said that she planned to pay the hitman ten
thousand dollars, but at the last minute she had a
change of heart, but the hitman still wanted ten thousand dollars.
She couldn't pay it, so they showed up and killed
her parents instead. I mean, that's true. That is so
tragic and sad. Shocked by her story, police brought in
(25:19):
Jennifer's boyfriend Daniel for questioning. It seemed the couple hadn't
lined up their stories because he had a very different
version of events. Daniel told detectives that Jennifer did indeed
want her parents dead and he had helped connect her
with hitman. Daniel had started dealing drugs and met them
through that. When he mentioned that to Jennifer, it seemed
(25:41):
like the perfect solution to her. Jennifer hoped with her
parents out of the picture, she could collect her five
hundred thousand dollar portion of their estate and live happily
ever after with Daniel. Daniel bought her a burner phone,
which she sent hundreds of texts to the hitman from.
She ended up growing out the SIM card, but not
(26:01):
the phone, which unbeknownst to her, still had the tax
so the police ended up getting tons of evidence against
her from this burner phone. At the trial, Jennifer appeared
virtually cheerful, ambishly picking Lindoffer Lawyer's clothes. Despite this good nature, Jennifer, Daniel,
(26:21):
and the three hitmen were all found guilty on multiple charges,
including murder. They won't be eligible for parole for at
least twenty five years before her sentencing, Jennifer's father made
a final statement to the court, quote when I lost
my wife, I lost my daughter. At the same time,
he said, I don't feel like I have a family anymore.
(26:43):
Some say I should feel lucky to be alive, but
I feel like I am dead too because of a
no contact order made by the judge. It would be
the last thing Jennifer would ever hear her father say. Connor,
work and listeners find more of work and follow you
on social media. The current podcast right now that is
out is The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the
(27:06):
Beautiful Game that's available anywhere you listen to podcasts. It
tells the history of FIFA's corruption um but also its
history of sexism and racism. And we try to explain
why this winner will be watching the World Cup in
Qatar as opposed to what we should have been doing,
which was watching the World Cup this past summer in Qatar,
(27:26):
and how FIFA's corruption led to that. Just uh strange
scheduling of events. And we're really excited that Death Islands
coming out this fall as well. I think if you
are a fan of true crime, both The Lords of
Soccer and Death Island are going to be ones that
you really want to listen to and check out. Yeah,
Connord sounds like Lords of Soccer is not so much
a sports podcast but really a true crime podcast. Yeah, definitely,
(27:48):
you're talking about corruption, You're talking about a whole host
of unfortunately deaths that have led up to the Qatar
World Cup of more than six thousand people have been
killed in building this World Cup infrastruct Sure, and it's
very much a true crime podcast, and I think anyone
who likes true crime will want to check out The
Lords of Soccer shameless plug. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love,
(28:11):
leave us a review and listen to season three of
our hit series, The Pikes and Massacre. Episodes there every
Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to
follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. Crazy in
Love is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris Grieves
(28:32):
and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff Twa.
Crazy in Love is a production of I Heart Radio
and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,
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