Netflix viewers discover what Jennifer Pan was doing when she wasn't at university
Last week, Netflix dropped a brand new true-crime documentary - and it's left viewers completely blown away.
What Jennifer Did tells the story of Canadian woman Jennifer Pan who was jailed in 2010 for hiring hitmen to murder the very two people that brought her into this world: her parents.
'Straight-A student' to gruesome crime scene: what went wrong?
Through interview footage and first-person accounts, the documentary tells the story of what happened on the tragic evening and the events that preceded.
The incident occurred in November 2010 when a group of intruders 'broke into' the Pan home in Ontario, home of Vietnamese immigrants Bich Ha Pan and Huei Hann Pan, who lived with their daughter, Jennifer.
Advert
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 managed to survive the ordeal, crawl back up the stairs and be rushed to the nearest hospital.
It was Jennifer who had alerted the emergency services, managing to ring them from her mobile while tied to the staircase.
Jennifer as a suspect
What followed was an in depth police investigation which ultimately led to Jennifer as the police's main suspect.
Authorities were particularly alarmed when they learned that Jennifer had managed to fool her parents into believing she was attending university in Toronto for a number of years.
As the doc explains, Jennifer felt under immense pressure from her parents to be academically successful.
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 actually faked studying at university, creating false documents and forged loan letters.
Following the documentary, many viewers have been left with some unanswered questions.
Over on Reddit, viewers were desperate to know what Jennifer was actually doing all those years.
One wrote: "I just finished watching the Netflix documentary 'What Jennifer Did' and I’m curious or if anyone has any ideas or knows how Jennifer maintain the lie of attending University in Toronto?
"Like what did she do during those years? Where did she go when she was dropped off by her parents?"
So what was Jennifer doing when she wasn't at university?
In the doc, we learn that Jennifer lied to her parents, fooling them into believing she was attending the University of Toronto, when in fact she wasn't in education at all.
Although she had initially received acceptance into Ryerson University (also known as Toronto Metropolitan University), she failed one of her final year exams and therefore the offer was withdrawn.
But instead of confessing this to her parents, Jennifer said she was going to do two years of science before transferring to the University of Toronto's pharmacology programme.
So what exactly was she doing all that time?
Thanks to an article in Toronto Life, Netflix viewers have been able to learn more about what actually happened.
Apparently, Pan bought school supplies - including textbooks - and even pretended to attend fresher's week.
She created fake loan documents and even convinced her dad that she'd won a scholarship.
But when it came to attending classes, she would go to public libraries, and fill her books with research relating to her degree.
At other times she would spend free time in cafés, or visit her boyfriend Daniel - who her parents disapproved of - at York University.
When she wasn't doing this, she even had a part time job as a waitress, as well as teaching piano lessons.
When the time came for Jennifer to 'transfer' to the University of Toronto, she lied and told her parents she'd been accepted onto the pharmacology programme.
The uni was a bit of a commute, so she suggested moving in with a friend for three nights every week.
But in reality, Jennifer stayed with Daniel and his family, telling Daniel's parents that her family were aware of what she was doing.
When it came to graduation, Jennifer and Daniel reportedly hired someone to create a fake transcript.
Meanwhile, she told her parents that the extra-large class size meant there weren’t enough seats at the graduation ceremony.
After learning how Jennifer managed to fool her parents, Netflix viewers have been left shocked.
One wrote: "I had heard about the case before I watched the documentary and I was hoping they would explain that more... Like excuse me she lied about getting an entire degree, can we please elaborate?"
How did her parents discover the truth?
Jennifer had told her parents that she was volunteering at a blood-testing lab, SickKids.
But 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.
When Jennifer's lies unravelled, she had her phone and laptop taken away and was forbidden from seeing Daniel.
In February 2009, she wrote on her Facebook page: “Living in my house is like living under house arrest.” She also posted a note: “No one person knows everything about me, and no two people put together knows everything about me…I like being a mystery.”
Just months later and Jennifer had hired hitmen to murder her parents.
At 9.35pm on 8 November, Jennifer received a phone call. She went downstairs, said goodnight to her mother and unlocked the front door.
At 10.02pm, a light upstairs was switched on, before being switched off a minute later - allegedly serving as a signal to the intruders.
Minutes later, three men carrying guns burst through the door.
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.
You can watch What Jennifer Did on Netflix now.
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix
Lucy Devine