What to know about Netflix true-Canadian-crime story What Jennifer Did

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Netflix has simply launched What Jennifer Did, a film based mostly on a 2010 crime by which a Markham girl was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her dad and mom. Right here’s what to know concerning the case.

Who’s Jennifer Pan?

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Jennifer Pan was born in 1986 in Markham, Ont., to ethnic Chinese language refugees who had fled Vietnam for Canada within the Nineteen Seventies. The couple discovered work at Magna Worldwide, an auto-parts firm, and had two kids, Jennifer and her brother Felix, who was born in 1989. In 2004 they bought a home in Markham.

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In line with a 2017 profile in Toronto Life, the Pans had been strict dad and mom who set many objectives for his or her kids. However Jennifer had been doctoring her stories playing cards by highschool and, when she didn’t get into Ryerson, lied and stated she was going to review there for 2 years earlier than switching to a pharmacology program at U of T.

She stored up the ruse all through her alleged college years. “I attempted myself within the third particular person, and I didn’t like who I noticed,” the journal quoted her as saying later, “however rationalizations in my head stated I needed to preserve going — in any other case I might lose all the things that ever meant something to me.”

What was her crime?

In line with police, Pan and her boyfriend got here up with a plan to pay a hitman $10,000 to kill her dad and mom, after which she calculated she would inherit $500,000. On Nov. 8, 2010, she left the door to the household house unlocked and contacted David Mylvaganam, who entered the house that evening with two different folks, all of them armed.

The three intruders demanded cash, ransacked the primary bed room and shot Pan’s dad and mom, killing her mom and injuring her father. Pan stated she’d been tied up, however managed to name 911, which made police suspicious, as did the truth that many valuables had been left in the home by the supposed robbers.

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How was she caught?

Pan’s father advised police he’d seen her whispering to one of many hitmen. Throughout an interview with police she confessed to hiring the hitmen, although she initially stated she’d employed them to kill her and never her dad and mom.

In line with information stories on the time of Pan’s trial in 2014, a detective advised her police had infrared satellites that might detect exercise inside houses, and laptop software program that might know if she made conflicting statements. This helped result in her confession. Pan and three others had been convicted on Dec. 13, 2014, and every obtained a life sentence with no likelihood of parole for 25 years.

The place does the case stand as we speak?

In Might of 2023, the Courtroom of Enchantment for Ontario ordered a brand new first-degree homicide trial for Pan. The court docket stated the unique trial decide erred by suggesting to the jury solely two situations for the assault — one by which the plan was to homicide each dad and mom, and one other by which the plan was to commit a house invasion, however that the dad and mom had been shot in the midst of the theft.

The court docket stated the trial decide ought to have given the jury second-degree homicide and manslaughter as different attainable verdicts within the demise of Pan’s mom.

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“It’s a vital day,” Pan’s lawyer advised CBC Information. “Her struggle shouldn’t be over.”

No date has but been set for the brand new trial.

What concerning the Netflix film?

What Jennifer Did was directed by Jenny Popplewell, whose work contains different true-crime tales akin to 2020’s American Homicide: The Household Subsequent Door. The 87-minute film makes use of dramatic recreations but in addition options interviews with the police who investigated the crime, and clips of Pan within the York Regional Police Division interrogation room. Popplewell additionally interviews Danny Wong, Pan’s ex-boyfriend.

What do the critics suppose?

Writing for the site Prepared Regular Reduce, reviewer Daniel Hart says the documentary lacks depth and fails to offer a lot in the best way of background. Nevertheless, he in the end concludes, “With nice modifying, good commentary, insightful interviews, and loads of police footage, Netflix has one other documentary hit.” He offers it three stars out of 5.

Nick Schager of The Day by day Beast was much less sort, delcaring: “It’s constantly partaking, but in addition not way more revealing than a fast perusal of (Pan’s) Wikipedia web page, and the truth that its real-life saga might not be over solely amplifies the impression that it’s lower than the total story.”

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