Toronto-area murder is now the subject of a new Netflix documentary
A Toronto-area kill-for-hire attack is set to be the subject of a new feature-length documentary on Netflix titled What Jennifer Did.
The 90-minute documentary by Jenny Popplewell, who also directed American Murder: The Family Next Door, details the story of former Markham resident Jennifer Pan, who was convicted of a 2010 kill-for-hire attack targeting both of her parents.
On the night of November 8, 2010, Pan made a frantic 911 call, telling dispatchers that she was at home with her mother, Bich Ha Pan (pronounced Bick), and father, Huei Hann Pan, when gunmen broke into their Unionville residence and demanded money.
The three gunmen then took Bich and Hann to the basement, where they shot them multiple times. Bich was killed instantly, but Hann fell into a coma and survived his wounds.
Although the family first appeared to be victims of a deadly home invasion, all that changed when Pan’s father came out of his coma and told police that his daughter seemed to be familiar with the gunmen who broke into the home.
Pan’s parents reportedly had high expectations of their children, which included monitoring their extracurricular activities and not permitting them to attend parties.
Over time, Pan reportedly began to forge her report cards, falsely claiming that she was attending university, winning scholarships, and even volunteering at the Hospital for Sick Children.
After her parents discovered her web of lies, she was forbidden to contact her boyfriend at the time, Daniel Chi-Kwong Wong, who was an active drug dealer.
Pan and Wong eventually reconnected and, according to police, came up with a plan to hire a professional hitman to kill her parents. Three hitmen — named David Mylvaganam, Lenford Crawford, and Eric Carty — were hired to commit the murders.
In her third interview with police, Pan confessed to hiring the hitmen and leaving her front door unlocked. Although she told police that she had hired the men to kill her, investigators discovered that she had attempted to pull off a murder-for-hire just 10 months earlier.
Pan was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Wong, Mylvaganam, and Crawford were also convicted, each receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Carty’s case was declared a mistrial, but he eventually received an 18-year sentence after pleading guilty, although he died in jail in 2018.
In 2023, the Court of Appeal for Ontario argued that the jury should have been given the option to select second-degree murder or manslaughter and overturned the first-degree murder convictions for Pan, Wong, Crawford, and Mylvaganam.
The Supreme Court of Canada is still deciding whether it will hear the case.
What Jennifer Did premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, April 10.
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