New Netflix documentary explores chilling story of daughter who hired hitman to kill 'tiger parents'
Jennifer Pan went to chilling lengths to keep up her decade-long ruse, with her horrific crimes detailed in the Netflix doc
Avid true crime lovers better hold onto their hats, as Netflix has dropped a harrowing new documentary which will no doubt leave viewers blown away.
This streaming service blockbuster chiller tells the almost unbelievable story of Jennifer Pan, who was jailed back in 2010 for hiring a pair of hitmen to murder the very two people that brought her into this world: her parents.
This tortuous true tale differs hugely from the classic 'whodunnit?' murder-mystery, and instead, explores the circumstances which led the Canadian student to believe that murder was the only means of escape from her difficult home life.
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With all of its wild twists and turns, it's now been made into a new true crime documentary, titled What Jennifer Did, which features never-before-seen interview footage and spine-tingling first-person accounts.
And as you'll see, it truly is a story that's stranger than fiction.
A gruesome crime scene
In the dead of night, back in November 2010, a band of masked intruders 'broke into' the Markham, Ontario, home of Vietnamese immigrants Bich Ha Pan and Huei Hann Pan, who lived their with their daughter, Jennifer.
What appeared at first to be an armed robbery - with the three men demanding that the married couple hand over all of their money - soon evolved into a brutal killing, after the group took Jennifer's parents down into the basement and shot them.
Her mother Bich was instantly killed upon impact, while her father Hann managed to survive the ordeal, crawl back up the stairs and be rushed to the nearest hospital.
Emergency responders arriving onto the scene were met by an apparently distraught 24-year-old Jennifer, who claimed she'd had her hands tied behind her back by the intruders.
Suspecting something out of place while Huei and his daughter were being treated in hospital, investigating officers firstly began wondering how it was that Jennifer had called the emergency services with her hands tied.
Suspicions rise
They also discovered that, during the evening in question, the front door to the property hadn't been locked - as it usually was.
This, in turn, caused questions to arise as to why Jennifer alone hadn't been dragged to the basement below, and why only her parents were chosen to be killed.
It wasn't until the student's father Heui was interviewed by police, however, that the authorities were finally able to put the pieces to this complex jigsaw together.
The grieving husband told officers that, while he and his late wife were presumed dead in the basement, he could hear his only daughter whispering with one of the masked bandits.
And within two weeks, Jennifer was arrested, confessing she'd hired the men - but claiming that she hired them to kill her and not her parents.
Behind closed doors
Amid the court case, reporters, spectators, neighbours and friends of the family couldn't help but wonder what could have possessed a seemingly successful University of Toronto student to commit such a heinous act.
Except, Jennifer wasn't a university student when she commissioned the murderers. In fact, she wasn't a student at all...
As the Netflix documentary explains, Jennifer's vendetta against her mother and father dates all the way back to her high school days.
The naturally average-achieving student claims she was consistently pressured by her parents to achieve top-notch grades, become an Olympic athlete, a martial arts professional and an award-winning musician.
Their pressure supposedly came at such an extent that Jennifer was forced to feign enrolment at the University of Toronto, where she claimed to be studying pharmacology.
On top of their education assertiveness, Bich and Huei were also restrictive over who their children dated, and were displeased with Jennifer's choice to strike up a relationship with her boyfriend Daniel Chi-Kwong Wong, forbidding her to see him.
They also dropped her off and picked her up from every alleged class, forbade parties and social occasions, and vetted her choice of friends.
Jennifer's parents soon began growing suspicious of their daughter's work, having never laid their eyes on her supposed hospital badge, and eventually, after following her to 'work' one day, they discovered her deceit.
Her father sought to kick her out of their home, but was calmed down by her mother.
The deal is done
By this point, however, the pressure and dissatisfaction that her parents thrust upon her had reach an irreversible extent.
And after Daniel ended their relationship, any trace of Jennifer's happiness disintegrated.
With the help of a notorious high school friend, Jennifer rounded up a group of hitmen and paid them to kill her parents, also hoping to pocket a colossal $500,000 in inheritance.
Following an emotional court case, she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 25 years and no possibility of parole for the murder of her mother, and attempted murder of her father.
Jennifer's web of lies has now been exposed in Netflix's new documentary, which features police footage and gripping conversations with those at the heart of the story.
Watch What Jennifer Did on Netflix now.
Topics: Crime, True Crime, Documentaries, Netflix, TV And Film
Rhianna Benson