(Warning: Graphic description of gore ahead)
As I am currently contemplating about another surge of confirmed cases caused by the pandemic, I dug deeper into the depths of the Internet just to find some inspiration for maybe another story. And just like the last one, it's another true crime story. This time is about a child of an Asian immigrant family, who settled in Canada. She was expected to be the straight-A student, often resorted to means of restricting her movement to achieve their desired future for her but ended up managed to turn her into a killer/liar. Every household with Asian heritage is familiar with the concept of "Tiger Parenting", and what the method is about. While in most cases it would shape the future generation as the most educated one, this method is also susceptible for straining the kids' mental well-being if it's being forced to them without consent.
But for those of you who are not familiar with the concept above, it’s basically a more restrictive form of parenting, where parents are heavily invested into the child's future. Compared to a more permissive-style western parenting, this method is more like the parents' total, almost militaristic control over their children in terms of discipline, academic and intellectual achievements, and their overall contribution to the society. This method is both famous and infamous for its narrowed perspective of what are the things that can be considered as an achievement. Success and achievement are generally determined if the child in question have only A (or even A+) grades on their report cards, or even some sporting achievements or a well-rounded ability with classical instruments. Anything below perfect is considered a cardinal sin and doesn't deserve tender, love and care. Some parents can be so strict, they would ban their children to participate in trivial activities that has nothing to do with academics, like a mere sleepover with their peers, or a small treat of video games one hour per day. This will even escalate as far as setting some forms of punishment if the kid fails to fulfill their supposedly and allegedly impossible high targets being set upon them. They are also not a fan of complimenting children on public premises either. One of which was detailed by an Asian American author Amy Chua in her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, where she detailed one occasion where she reportedly yelled at her daughters, calling them 'garbage'. If you ask me what tiger parenting is, I have to answer that question with: A narrowed mindset of how the kids should do with their lives, fueled by their own fears instilled by their parents from the moment they were able to crawl, walk, speak, write, and read. Sure, some kids have nerves (and balls) of steel and thrive under pressure, but for others, when getting an average grade is hard enough for one reason or another, setting the highest target possible would be a total impossibility for them.
With the definition out of the way, let's travel to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where the story took place, and meet the Pan Family. Huei Hann Pan and Bich Ha Pan first came to Canada from Vietnam as political refugee in 1979. They later married and settled in Scarborough. Along the way, they welcomed daughter Jennifer (born in 1986) and son Felix (born in 1989). The Pans worked at an auto parts manufacture in Aurora, Ontario, where Hann worked as a tool and die maker, and Bich worked as car part maker. They worked themselves hard enough to save money with the hopes that their children would have the opportunities they've missed out.
When raising their children, the Pan household adopted the 'tiger parenting' strategy, with Hann acted as a 'classic tiger dad' while Bich acted as the 'reluctant accomplice'. They often emphasize this on Jennifer, as recounted by her high school friend Karen K. Ho, stating that the Pans always picked her up when classes ended each day and monitored her extracurricular activities very closely. They enrolled Jennifer into a piano class at the age of four, as well as figure skating class where she trained most days of the week. She once had hopes to be an Olympic caliber figure skater and won few piano competitions; but her dream of making it into the Winter Olympic Games went up in flames after she tore a ligament on her knee. during her lower school years, she managed to get top grades. But, instead of excitement, her parents seemed to demand perfection above perfection from Jennifer, straining her mental health as it went on. During high school, her grades averaged about 70% except for her strongest subject being music. It wasn't a bad grade overall. In fact, most parents in this case would say, "Well, it's better than failing altogether". But not the Pan household. If they found out about her failing grades, it would be hell to pay. But the one that broke her the most was when her early application for a top university was rescinded after failing her calculus class in grade 12. Bear in mind, her grades began slipping from grade 8. Fearing her parents' wrath, she began forging her report cards to convince Hann and Bich that she actually earned top grades, instead of average ones. This then evolved to a full-on lie to evade her parents' scrutiny. What she told in front of parents were lies about accepting scholarships, to the extent of accepting an admission from the University of Toronto, claimed to be majoring in pharmacology program. But what goes on behind their backs is she worked part-time in a restaurant as well as teaching piano classes. Remember those restrictions tiger parents often put their child into in order to fully focused on their academics? One of those restrictions was she was not allowed to see or even date the opposite sex. During her grade 11 days, she started dating Daniel Wong, another Asian descent, in this case being Chinese-Filipino, and stayed with him during her "college days", with the excuse of not wanting to endure commutes to campus. During this time, she "worked" as a volunteer at a hospital to further impressed her parents, but they became suspicious for the lack of hospital ID. When the cover was blown, she finally worked to finish her high school and applied for university, as well as keeping her piano-teaching job, but barred from seeing or contacting Wong. Nevertheless, they kept contact in secret until Wong himself fed up with the state of their relationship, with Jennifer basically being locked inside an imaginary cage by her parents.
From her frustration of her parents' restriction being imposed on her, Jennifer made the unthinkable thought at the time: killing her own parents. She first contacted someone by the name of Andrew Montemayor, who (according to her claims) had boasting about robbing people at knife point (denied by Montemayor). He then contacted Ricardo Duncan, who alleged by Jennifer that she gave CA$ 1.000 to kill her father in his workplace parking lot. He alleged that Jennifer gave $ 200 for a night out, later returned, and rebuffed when she asked him to kill his parents. By this time the two lovebirds were back in contact and came up for an idea to hire a professional hitman. Wong then introduced her to Lenford Roy Crawford who in turn contacted Eric Shawn "Sniper" Carty, who in turn, contacted Montreal-born David Mylvaganam. On the 8th of November 2010, there was a home invasion incident took place at the Pan residence in Markham, Ontario. It started as a simple invasion/robbery before the assailants took Hann and Bich to the basement and started a hail of bullets. Bich died instantly for gunshot wounds to her head, while Hann suffered multiple wounds to the chest, once slipped into a coma, but somehow survived. Jennifer claimed at the time that she was tied up and blindfolded but managed to free her hands and called 9-1-1. During her interrogation stages however, her story kept changing, until during one of those interrogations, she confessed to be the mastermind of the incident. In fact, when she went to bed, she unlocked the front door of the house and contacted Mylvaganam. Shortly afterwards, Mylvaganam and other two gunmen entered the house through the unlocked door and proceeded with the assault. Jennifer was arrested on the 22nd of November 2010, while the remaining accomplices were arrested in 2011, Mylvaganam was arrested on the 14th of April, Carty the day after on his own cell block at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex, Wong on the 26th of April, and Crawford, who was the last to enter custody, on 11th of May.
The case then entered the trial stage on 19th of March 2014 and would last for 10 months. All suspects pleaded not guilty for first-degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. More than 200 exhibits and 50 witnesses were presented during the trial, including countless text messages (in fact, there are over 100 texts in the space of six hours before the murder) between Jennifer and Wong, evidence detailing the irregular nature the "break-in", "robbery", shootings, and the constant revision of Jennifer's testimony, as well as the recovering Hann Pan's recount of the incident, which greatly differs his daughter's story. Almost all of them, apart from Carter, were convicted of the crime and received life sentences without parole for 25 years. In a separate trial in December 2015, Carter received an 18-year sentence with parole eligibility after 9 years for pleading guilty for conspiracy to commit murder. He was due to be tried alongside other convicts, but his lawyer fell ill, and the case was declared a mistrial sometime during summer 2014. He unfortunately died on his cell in Kent on the 26th of April 2018. In addition, Hann filed a court order, which was granted despite objections of the defense lawyer to ban Jennifer from speaking to any surviving members of the Pan household ever again. She was also banned to ever contacting Wong again. As of the time of the completion of this article, Jennifer is still serving her sentence at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario, and would be eligible for parole in 2039, her only chance she would ever get. By then, she would be 53 years of age.
After finishing the Chris Chan story (which is quite disturbed and demented in its own right), I instantly recalled this specific story while researching about an arson case in Japan (spoiler alert: If you ever watch some anime like Clannad or K-ON! along the way, then you know exactly what I am talking about), and another murder case in the name of romance (I've talked about this briefly in my incel-related article). This case is intriguing based on the fact that a certain form of parenting can actually cause more harm than good, if the child in question doesn't have the mental strength or support that they desperately need. It's okay to guide them towards a better life, but don't turn their life to a living hell just because you want them to have a better life. As members of the generation that one day would become parents themselves to the next generation, it's imperative for us to learn how to recognize the child's needs, and simply not to follow one's ego for the sake of their future, just because you never achieved something. Let this be a lesson that a child is not a property of their parents to brag about, but a gift from The Man Above to be loved and cherished for the rest of their lives. Stay safe, wash yourselves, get those jabs, and stay vigilant.
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