Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. One November night in 2010, a 24-year-old woman named Jennifer walked downstairs into the living room of her parents' house to say goodnight to her mother.
But before she walked over to the couch where her mother was to give her a hug, Jennifer noticed something moving around outside on the dark street.
Jennifer stopped where she was and just looked out the window, but she couldn't see anything unusual.
So she walked over to the front door and looked out the little window on it, and still she couldn't see anything.
So she shrugged and walked back over to her mother, who had clearly noticed Jennifer looking outside like she had seen something, and Jennifer just said, oh, I thought I saw something moving around out there, but it was nothing.
I think it was just a parked car. Then the two women said goodnight, and Jennifer headed upstairs and went to sleep.
But it would turn out, there actually was something moving around outside the house that night that shouldn't have been there.
And about 30 minutes after Jennifer had shrugged it off and gone upstairs, that thing had made its way across the street, up the stairs, and into their house, right up to Jennifer's room.
But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, please offer to fold the Amazon Music Follow Buttons laundry, specifically their whites, but make sure you eat an entire bag of Cheetos and don't wash your hands right before you begin.
Okay, let's get into today's story. Are you searching for a romantic summer getaway?
Escape with Rich Girl Summer, the new Audible original from Lily Chu.
The phenomenally talented Philippa Soo returns to narrate her fifth Lily Chu title.
This time, Philippa is joined by her real-life husband, Steven Pasquale.
Set in Toronto's wealthy cottage country, aka the Hamptons of Canada, Rich Girl Summer follows the story of Valerie, a down-on-her-luck event planner posing as a socialite's long-lost daughter while piecing together the secrets surrounding a mysterious family. and falling deeper and deeper in love with the impossibly hard-to-read and infuriatingly handsome family assistant, Nico.
Caught between pretending to belong and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in, Valerie learns her summer is about to get far more complicated than she ever planned.
She's in over her head and head over heels.
Listen to Rich Girl Summer now on Audible.
Go to audible.com slash richgirlsummer. When it comes to hiring great talent, Indeed is all business needs.
Their sponsored job feature puts postings at the top of search results, helping employers reach ideal candidates faster.
With 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs, according to Indeed data, businesses can build their dream team without delay.
No monthly subscriptions or long-term contracts.
Employers only pay for results. Every minute, 23 people are hired through Indeed worldwide.
Speed up hiring today with a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash WonderyUS.
Just mention hearing about Indeed on this podcast.
Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Indeed is all you need.
On the night of November 8th, 2010, 53-year-old Bic Pan and a few of her friends were learning how to line dance at a church in Toronto, Canada.
Bic and her friends had been going to the dance class every week for a while, and Bic finally felt like she was getting the hang of it.
Bic was average height with long black hair, and she wore workout clothes, glasses, and bright red lipstick.
And while she danced, she felt her feet aching and sweat was running down her face, but she couldn't stop laughing because she was having so much fun.
When the last song ended, she and her friends made their way out of the church into the parking lot.
It was a mild November night for Toronto, with temperatures around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
But after getting hot and sweaty while dancing, Bic felt a slight chill when she stepped outside.
She and her friends laughed more as they talked about some of their least graceful moments on the dance floor.
Then they all said goodnight, and they'd see each other at the church the following week for more line dancing.
And Bic walked across the parking lot, got into her Lexus car, and drove off towards her house in the suburbs.
And while she drove, she looked out the windshield at Toronto passing by and she thought about what a fun night she had just had.
And she felt happy and like she belonged here in Toronto.
And that was a big deal for Bic because it had taken her a long time to feel that way.
Bic had come to Canada about 30 years earlier in the late 1970s when her family fled Vietnam as political refugees after the Vietnam War.
She had grown up speaking Vietnamese and Cantonese, and so when she came to Canada in her 20s, learning English had been hard for her at first.
And she had struggled to find work, and she didn't feel like she fit in anywhere she went.
But then, Bic had reconnected with a man she had known briefly in Vietnam, Han Pan.
Like Bic, Han had come to Canada from Vietnam with his family following the war, and Han had also grown up speaking Vietnamese and Cantonese.
And so, when Bic and Han met in Canada, it was like they finally had someone who understood everything they had gone through, and they had quickly fallen in love and gotten married, and a few years into their marriage, they had started a family, having a daughter and then a son.
And together, Bic and Han had worked hard to make money and put enough away to give their children more opportunities than they had when they were growing up.
And while it had never been easy, Bic felt like she and Han had achieved that goal, because when the children were young, they had done really well in school and had participated in different extracurricular activities and had made great friends.
And now that their kids were in their 20s, they were pursuing good, stable careers, and so Bic was finally giving herself a chance to relax a little and enjoy the place that had been her home for 30 years.
At about 9.30 p.m., Bick pulled into her secluded neighborhood in Markham, a large suburb of Toronto, and she drove towards her house.
Big, two-story homes lined the streets, and the neighborhood was calm and quiet.
Bick pulled into her driveway, and she noticed that most of the trees in her and her neighbor's yards had started to lose their leaves.
She thought that was a shame, because she loved the burst of color that changing leaves gave the neighborhood in early fall.
Then, Bic opened the garage door and parked her Lexus in the garage next to her husband Hans' Mercedes-Benz.
Bic closed the garage door, stepped out of her car, and winced a little because her feet had gotten even more sore from her night of line dancing.
Then she went inside the house and walked down a long hall into the living room.
Bick's house was big, with high ceilings, hardwood floors, a basement that had been converted into a family room, and a staircase that led to four bedrooms on the second floor.
But the prized possession in the house, at least as far as Bick was concerned, was the piano in the living room downstairs.
When Bic and Han were younger, they had worked and saved to buy that piano for their daughter, Jennifer.
And as Jennifer grew up, Bic and Han knew they had spent their money wisely, because Jennifer had been a gifted piano player from the time she was a little girl.
And even now, at 24 years old, Jennifer still played the piano regularly and made extra money working as a piano teacher.
And listening to her daughter play that piano in the living room was still one of Bic's favorite things in the world.
Bic walked through the living room, past the piano, and slowly made her way upstairs.
Her feet felt like they were pounding, so she held onto the banister to make her climb a little easier.
And when she got to the second floor hallway, her daughter, Jennifer, popped out of her bedroom, smiled, and said hello.
Jennifer was 5 foot 7 inches tall, with black hair tied into a long ponytail, and she wore a white sweatshirt, black yoga pants, and a pair of glasses with black frames.
Jennifer was about to go back to school and start classes at a nearby college to become a pharmacist, and she had lived with a friend closer to Toronto for a while, but now she'd moved back home with her parents, and she'd managed to save up a good amount of money for school from teaching her piano lessons.
Bic knew Jennifer was very much a young Canadian woman who saw her Vietnamese parents as somewhat old-fashioned, but Bic hoped that she and Han had at least passed on their beliefs about working hard and saving money to their daughter.
Bic and Jennifer talked to each other in Vietnamese, and Jennifer laughed while Bic recounted stories from that night's dance class, and Jennifer's laugh was infectious, so before long, Bic started laughing too.
Then, Bic said she wanted to get changed, so Jennifer went back into her bedroom, and Bic headed down the hall to her and Han's bedroom.
When Bic walked in, Han was already drifting off to sleep in bed, but he woke up enough to say hello to his wife and ask how her dance class went.
Bic said she'd had a great time and couldn't wait to go again next week, and then she changed into her pajamas, which had pictures of Winnie the Pooh on them.
Then Bic told Han goodnight and walked back downstairs.
She went into the kitchen, grabbed a large bowl out of a cabinet, went over to the sink, and filled the bowl with ice-cold water.
Then she walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
She put the bowl down in front of her on the floor and then put her feet inside the bowl.
Bic smiled and leaned back on the couch.
The ache in her feet was finally starting to go away.
Bic grabbed the remote off an end table, turned on the TV, and found the channel that showed Chinese news programs in Cantonese.
Because as much as Bic might have finally felt at home in Canada after living there all those years, she still enjoyed ending her nights by watching the news in one of her first languages.
Then Bic heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
She turned and saw her daughter, Jennifer, walking into the living room.
Jennifer headed towards her mother on the couch, but then suddenly stopped cold.
Jennifer turned and looked out one of the living room windows to the street in front of the house, like she saw something that she couldn't quite make out.
Then she walked to the front door and looked out the small window on it, and she leaned in close to try to get a better look.
Bic turned away from the TV and asked her daughter if everything was okay, and Jennifer, who now had a chance to see what was out there, realized that what she had seen outside was just a car parked across the street.
So she stepped back from the door and told her mom that, you know what, everything's fine, it's just a car.
Then Jennifer said goodnight to her mom and headed upstairs.
Bic turned back to the TV, and as she watched the news, she stretched out a little more on the couch, and she felt like this was the perfect end to her day.
At almost 10.15pm, about 45 minutes after Bic had gotten home, she was still downstairs soaking her feet and watching the Chinese news.
And Jennifer was lying in bed in her room upstairs.
Her room was filled with Jennifer's college textbooks that she had marked up with notes over the years, and she knew when she went back to school soon to pursue her career as a pharmacist, she'd have to start hitting the books again. but she still had a couple of months before classes started, so she wasn't thinking too much about school yet.
Instead, she had spent most of the night just texting with some friends and with her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Wong.
Jennifer and Daniel had dated for years, going back to their time in high school together, and Jennifer had thought they were destined to get married someday.
But then, over a year earlier, Daniel had broken up with Jennifer and he'd started seeing someone else.
But even after they'd broken up, Jennifer and Daniel remained friends.
They had a lot in common, they liked spending time together, and they were both willing to give advice when the other one needed it.
And recently, their text messages and occasional phone calls had gotten a little flirtatious.
And so Jennifer thought there might be a chance that she and Daniel could get back together.
So she laid in bed with her phone in her hand, looking at the last text she'd sent to Daniel and wondering if she should send another one.
But then Jennifer heard the sound of the front door downstairs open and slam shut.
And then Jennifer heard the sound of someone walking through the house.
So, confused, Jennifer stood up, slipped her phone into the waistband of her yoga pants, and she walked over to her door, she opened it up, and she called downstairs to her mom to see what was going on.
And then Jennifer heard the sound of her mother screaming.
So Jennifer rushed out into the hallway, but before Jennifer could do anything, she heard loud footsteps at the bottom of the stairs, and then suddenly she saw this huge man dressed in black running up the stairs towards her.
Then Jennifer heard Bic shout something in Vietnamese and she heard men yelling at her mother downstairs in English.
Jennifer shouted to her mother again, but the man dressed in black was still coming up the stairs towards Jennifer.
And when he made it all the way up the stairs, he grabbed Jennifer, raised a pistol to her face and yelled, where's the money?
And then he pushed Jennifer back into her bedroom.
When they were in the bedroom, the huge man in black shouted again at Jennifer, So Jennifer ran to her bedside table, she opened a drawer, grabbed an envelope, and took out $2,500 in cash, some of the money she had been saving from teaching her piano lessons.
The man grabbed the cash from Jennifer and put it in his pocket.
Then he took Jennifer roughly by the arm and led her back into the hallway.
He brought her down the stairs and put her in the living room.
Jennifer looked around, but she didn't see her mom or her dad anywhere.
And then the man in black grabbed Jennifer and led her to the basement door.
And when the door was opened up, Jennifer's heart started pounding because she could hear in the basement her mother and father yelling in a mix of Vietnamese and Cantonese, and Jennifer could tell they were scared and confused.
The man with Jennifer told her to walk down into the basement, and with each step she took, the yelling from her parents got louder and louder.
Jennifer finally reached the bottom of the stairs and she saw her mom and dad on the basement couch.
And she saw two more men dressed in black pointing guns at them.
And the men kept screaming at Bic and Han demanding to know where they kept all of their money.
But Bic and Han were so scared and they struggled to reply in English.
And when they spoke, the men with guns didn't really understand them.
And so they got angrier and angrier and just began yelling louder and louder at the parents.
And so Jennifer, not knowing what else to do, just yelled in Vietnamese for her parents to please try to stay calm.
And Han, when he heard this, he looked up from the couch and he saw his daughter at the bottom of the stairs.
And at that point, he took a breath and he looked right at one of the gunmen.
And in English, Han said, please don't hurt our daughter.
And then that gunman who Han was speaking to turned to the man in black who had been leading Jennifer around and told him to take Jennifer back upstairs and keep looking for the money.
So the big man in black led Jennifer back up the basement steps and as Jennifer walked up to the first floor, she could hear her parents screaming again and the gunman just screaming right back at them.
Once Jennifer and her captor were out of the basement, he led her from room to room on the first and second floors, and he had her pull drawers out of cabinets, throw mattresses off the beds, and basically tear the house apart looking for more money.
But all Jennifer could find was about $1,000 in cash tucked away in Bic's bedside table, and she said she didn't know about any other money in the house.
So, almost 20 minutes after the three intruders had first entered the house, Jennifer's captor walked her across the upstairs hallway, and when they reached the top of the stairs, he told her to get on the floor.
Then he pulled two long black shoelaces out of his pocket, he crouched down, and he grabbed one of Jennifer's arms, and he tied it to a metal bar that supported the banister on the stairs.
Then he took the other shoelace and tied her hands behind her back.
Once the man was sure Jennifer was restrained, he left her there and he headed downstairs and Jennifer heard the sound of the basement door open and slam shut again.
Jennifer tried to stay as calm as she could, but she was borderline panicking.
However, as she laid there, she felt that she could actually move her hands a little bit behind her back.
So she took a deep breath and stretched her fingers out to feel her phone tucked into the waistband of her yoga pants.
And she slowly pulled the phone out and held it in both of her bound hands, and she was able to crane her neck around just enough to see the keypad.
But then the basement door flew open, and Jennifer heard the sound of footsteps running across the floor downstairs.
And then she heard the front door open and close, and she thought she heard one of her parents screaming, and then the front door opening again.
So Jennifer took another deep breath, she looked down at her phone, and she managed to punch in 911.
And when the emergency operator picked up, Jennifer started yelling that people had broken into her house and she didn't know if her parents were okay and they needed to send help immediately.
Minutes after this 911 call, Constable Mike Stesco of the Markham Police sped through the streets of the Pan Family's quiet neighborhood with his sirens blaring.
Stesco's rookie partner, Brian Derrick, was in the passenger seat, and the young man couldn't believe what was happening.
He was shocked when they got the call that there had been a break-in nearby because breaking and entering, and most major crimes, were rare in this part of town.
But over the years, the older cop, Stesco, had learned that dangerous people can be anywhere, even in nice neighborhoods with big houses and luxury cars parked in the garage.
Stesco eased off the gas when he saw flashing lights from police cruisers and ambulances right outside of the Pan's house.
He parked the car and he and his rookie partner, Derek, stepped outside.
And immediately, Stesco worried that they were dealing with something far worse than just a robbery.
Because Jennifer's father, Han, was lying on his driveway and blood was pouring down his face.
Paramedics were already hovering over Han, so Stesco, Derek, and several other officers walked towards the front door.
They had no idea if the robbers were still inside, so they all drew their weapons and quickly talked about doing a sweep of the house to look for the intruders.
And then one of the officers opened the front door and they all rushed inside.
And right away, they heard the sound of a young woman screaming upstairs.
Derek and a few other officers rushed upstairs past Jennifer.
They searched all of the rooms to make sure no intruders were up there.
And then when it was all clear, they came back to Jennifer.
Derek cut Jennifer's hands loose, he helped her up, and then started walking her downstairs.
And as they walked, all Jennifer kept asking was whether or not her parents were okay, but Derek didn't have an answer.
Then Derek led Jennifer outside towards the paramedics, and at that point, Jennifer saw her father, Han, on a gurney being loaded into the back of an ambulance.
And she yelled out, Daddy, are you okay?
But Han didn't answer back. And the ambulance door shut, its sirens rang out, and Han was raced off to the nearest hospital.
At this point, paramedics rushed over and surrounded Jennifer to see if she was injured, and they wanted to know if any of the intruders had assaulted her.
And while Derek stayed with Jennifer outside as she talked to the paramedics, his partner, Constable Sesko, was inside the house still, following a trail of blood across the hardwood floors that led from the living room on the first floor to the basement door.
The basement had not been cleared yet, so Stesco still had his weapon drawn.
He opened the basement door and slowly descended the stairs, and he could hear each step creak under his feet as he moved deeper into the basement.
And when Stesco got about halfway down the stairs, he could finally see into the small family room the pans had set up in the basement, and his eyes went wide.
He stopped, turned back to the open door, and yelled for paramedics.
Then, Stesco rushed down the rest of the steps into the center of that room, and he saw someone lying face down on the floor with a blood-soaked blanket covering their face and part of their back.
Stesco yelled to this person to see if they might respond, but he knew it was no use.
And seconds later, paramedics rushed in, and they tried to revive the victim on the ground, but it was too late.
Jennifer's mother, Bic, was dead on the basement floor.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. For the first time, my show, Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode.
A Redacted Medical Mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations.
Listen now on the Medical Mysteries or Redacted feeds or search A Redacted Medical Mystery wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, it's Mr. Balan. I'm excited to tell you about something special.
For the first time, my show, Mr. Balan's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted, Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna, to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles.
This special episode is called A Redacted Medical Mystery.
In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker, leading straight to classified government operations hidden for decades.
To listen and uncover the truth alongside us, head to either the Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or Redacted show pages right now.
Or search for A Redacted Medical Mystery in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're fascinated by unexplained medical stories, well, stick around on Medical Mysteries.
Every week, we dive deep into cases that will leave you questioning everything you know about the human body.
And if government conspiracies are more your style, Redacted is your go-to for stories that unravel secrets never meant to see the light of day.
Remember, you can listen to both shows early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus.
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime.
To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin.
That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
Hey listeners, Mr. Ballin here. What if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now are all connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation?
You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing tales out there.
Well, I've discovered a new podcast that uncovers real-world mysteries unfolding right now. much like how another Ballin' Studios podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries, brings hidden government secrets to light, and it's called Lawless Planet.
Host Zach Goldbaum reveals how shocking tales of murder, cover-ups, and mysterious deaths are all part of something bigger. the systematic destruction of our planet.
From activists who vanish in the Amazon to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes, these aren't just stories about the environment.
They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried.
Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.
At 1.30 a.m. on the morning of November 9th, so over three hours after the home invasion had begun, Jennifer was sitting on a bed in a hospital room in Markham.
Doctors had examined her and found that she was physically okay, but they had given her anxiety medication to help calm her down.
The door to the room opened and Jennifer looked up and saw Constable Derek, the rookie cop.
He was young and handsome and he had a nice smile and he was Scottish and still spoke with a soft Scottish accent.
Derek walked over to Jennifer and asked her if she was okay, and she said she was, but really all she wanted to talk about was her parents.
Where were they? When could she see them?
And Derek, as gently as he could, told her that her father had been airlifted to a trauma center in Toronto and that he was in a medically induced coma.
An induced coma is used by doctors in some instances to help protect an injured person from suffering brain damage.
Jennifer asked if her dad was going to be okay, but Derek said it was just too early to tell.
Then she asked what happened to her mother, and Derek glanced at the floor for a second, and then he looked up at Jennifer, and he said he was so sorry, but her mother had been killed.
Jennifer just stared at Derek for a long time, unable to speak.
It was like she was so shocked by what she heard that she just froze.
Then Derek broke the silence by telling her again how sorry he was, and he said he hated to put her through anything else, but he needed her to come to the police station right now to help police figure out what happened.
And Jennifer, who clearly was in shock, just nodded her head and said she'd help any way she could.
And so Derek helped Jennifer gather up her things and he led her out of the hospital to a squad car and as they drove through the dark, empty streets in the early hours of the morning, Jennifer just stared out the window.
Suddenly, the town she had grown up in looked different and she knew her life would now never be the same.
At 2.45 a.m., so about an hour after Jennifer had left the hospital, Derek led her into a small interrogation room at the Markham police station and helped her into a chair at a wooden table that was pressed up against the wall.
Derek walked across the room and took a seat.
He was there just to observe while a member of the York Regional Police conducted the actual interview.
And the regional police officer knew how shaken Jennifer was, and so he reassured her that they were all just there to try to get as much information as possible as quickly as possible.
Jennifer said she understood, and then she did her best to walk the officer through what she had seen in her house the previous night.
She told him about the big man dressed in black grabbing her, pulling her out of her room, dragging her down into the basement where her parents were, and then taking her back upstairs to look for money.
Then she said the man had tied her to the banister, tied her wrists, but she still could move enough to get her phone and call 911.
And she said when she was making that call, she heard what sounded like one of the intruders running across the first floor and running outside.
And then right after that, she had heard the sound of someone screaming and also going out the front door.
And she didn't realize it at the time, but now she thought that that second person, the screaming, must have been coming from her father and he must have been trying to get out of the house because she knew police had found him in the driveway outside when they had arrived.
The officer asked Jennifer if she could identify any of the men who had come into the house, but she said they were all dressed in black and their faces were covered and they were all much bigger than she was.
Then the officer leaned in a little closer to her and asked Jennifer what was her relationship like with Daniel Wong.
And immediately a confused look came across Jennifer's face.
And she said she and Daniel had dated for years, but now they were just friends.
The officer nodded and then asked her if she knew that Daniel was a drug dealer.
And for a second, Jennifer just stared at him.
And then she said, well, Daniel did sell a little marijuana when he was in college, but that's it.
And sensing the direction that the police were taking this, Jennifer said again that, you know, Daniel was just her friend and that there was no way he could have anything to do with anything like this.
The officer scribbled some notes down in a small notepad and then quickly moved on to another line of questioning.
And for the next two hours, he and Jennifer would talk through the night several times over, and by the end of the interview, all the police really knew was that they were looking for three tall young men.
And despite what Jennifer might think about this, the police believed that her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Wong, could absolutely be one of those three men.
At 10 a.m., about five hours after Jennifer left the police station, she was pacing back and forth in a waiting room at a Toronto hospital.
Jennifer's younger brother, who was a college student, had come back into town early that morning when he got the news about the attack on his family.
And now he was sitting in a chair watching his sister walk back and forth while they both waited anxiously for any news about their dad.
Jennifer had maybe dozed off for a few minutes earlier that morning, but she really hadn't slept in well over 24 hours.
And so she felt jittery and she couldn't stop moving her hands and her mind felt foggy, but she told herself to stay awake and stay calm and just wait to hear any news about their dad.
And then finally, a doctor walked into the room and Jennifer stopped pacing.
The doctor had a very serious look on his face and Jennifer and her brother kind of held their breath.
But the doctor said things were looking good and he believed their father, Han, would recover from his injuries.
And after hearing that, Jennifer's brother got out of his chair and he and his sister hugged.
The doctor told them that they would need to be patient though because Han was still in the induced coma and it could be days before he came out of it.
Jennifer and her brother said they totally understood and they thanked the doctor for giving them the good news and that they would wait to hear more.
When the doctor walked out of the room, Jennifer and her brother just stood there in silence for about a minute.
The news about their dad was very positive, but they both realized that focusing on their dad had given them an excuse not to think about what had happened to their mother.
And now it was like suddenly it had hit them that Bic, their mother, was gone.
And so after this long pause in total silence, Jennifer just looked over at her brother and said she was going to start making some calls to try to start arranging their mother's funeral.
At 4pm on November 10th, so two days after the fatal home invasion, Jennifer's ex-boyfriend, Daniel Wong, sat in a police interrogation room at the Markham police station.
Daniel had black, spiky hair, and he wore glasses, jeans, and a black t-shirt.
He sat across the table from a veteran Markham police detective, but Daniel didn't seem nervous or intimidated in any way.
The veteran detective did not waste any time with small talk.
Instead, he leaned in across the table and asked Daniel point-blank about his history as a drug dealer.
But Daniel didn't flinch. He admitted that he'd sold marijuana for years in college and that he had gotten busted on drug charges when he was younger.
But now, he said, he had a good full-time job managing a pizza parlor and that he didn't deal any drugs anymore.
Then, the detective asked Daniel what his relationship was with Jennifer's parents, Bic and Han.
Daniel very calmly told the detective that he always thought Jennifer's parents were strict when it came to Jennifer dating.
That when she was younger, they really focused on her getting good grades and excelling in school.
But then Daniel quickly added that in his own experience and in the experience of a lot of his friends, Jennifer's parents weren't much different than most Asian immigrant parents.
The veteran detective sat back in his chair and just stared at Daniel for a minute.
He was a little taken aback by how calm and straightforward this young guy was being.
So the detective finally asked if Daniel had any thoughts on who might have wanted to hurt Jennifer and her parents.
And for the first time in the interview, Daniel hesitated.
He looked down at the floor and shifted in his chair.
So the detective leaned across the table again and asked what Daniel was keeping from him.
And at this point, Daniel looked up and he said he might know something, but he had promised he would never talk about it.
And the detective said he understood that, but he needed to know if Daniel had information that could lead police to the men who had broken into Jennifer's house.
Daniel nodded, and in a quiet voice, he told the detective that months earlier, Jennifer had called him crying, and when he had asked her what was wrong, she said that a group of men had attacked her near her house, and they had raped her.
The room went completely silent and the detective just stared at Daniel.
Then the detective said that Jennifer had not told police anything like that.
But Daniel said he wasn't surprised because Jennifer had never told anyone about it other than him.
And she had sworn him to secrecy because she felt sort of ashamed about it.
Following this interview with Daniel, the investigative team still looked at Daniel as a potential suspect, but they wanted to act fast on this possible new lead about this group of men previously attacking Jennifer and raping her.
And they wanted to interview Jennifer again to see if she would corroborate what Daniel had just told them about this attack on her.
So, on November 11th, three days after the home invasion, Jennifer returned to the police station.
And while detectives followed up with her, other members of the investigative team returned to the scene of the crime.
And as they walked through the Pan's house, they found a key piece of evidence that they had overlooked on the night of the actual attack.
And that piece of evidence and information from Jennifer's second interview would put police on the trail of a new suspect.
And then on November 12th, four days after the fatal home invasion, Jennifer's father, Han, came out of his medically induced coma.
And when Han spoke to the police, he gave them information that proved they were already on the right track.
And so eventually, Han's information would lead police to discover exactly what had happened on the night Bic was killed.
Based on Han's information, evidence found at the scene of the crime, interviews, and cell phone data collected throughout the investigation, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened on the night of the fatal home invasion, November 8th, 2010.
At 10.15 p.m., three gunmen dressed in all black sat in a car parked in the shadows across the street from the Pan's house.
Each of them held a pistol in their hand.
One of the gunmen stared out the passenger side window at the Pan's house.
He saw the TV was flickering in the living room window and he saw one of the upstairs bedroom lights was on.
The man took a deep breath and then looked at the other two men and told them it was time to move.
Then all three gunmen got out of the car, they crouched down low and ran across the street.
And one of them opened the pan's front door and all three rushed inside to the living room.
Bic looked up from the TV and the gunmen started yelling at her.
Then one of them rushed her and grabbed her off the couch.
The bowl she'd been soaking her feet in fell over and water spilled across the hardwood floor.
Then one of the gunmen dragged Bic through the room and down into the basement.
The other two gunmen ran upstairs and split up when they reached the second floor.
One of the gunmen ran down the hall and threw open the door of the main bedroom, where Han was sleeping, and the gunman screamed at him, and Han jolted upright in bed.
But before he could figure out what was happening, the gunman had shoved a pistol into his face.
Then the gunman grabbed Han by the arm, dragged him out of bed, and forced him downstairs into the basement with his wife.
Once in the basement, the gunman threw Han onto the couch where Bic was already sitting and screaming, and the two gunmen who were in the basement with them yelled at Bic and Han more and more about wanting to know where their money was.
Soon after that, the third gunman came into the basement leading Jennifer, and Jennifer immediately yelled out to her parents to please try to calm down, and when her father, Han, saw his daughter, he began shouting at the gunman not to hurt her.
Then the third gunman took Jennifer out of the basement, while the other two gunmen stayed behind with Bic and Han.
But Bic and Han continued to shout louder and louder at these two gunmen, pleading with them to spare them and to spare their daughter.
And the two gunmen who were down there started to lose their confidence, like it would be really hard to shoot these two people who were begging for their lives right in front of them.
So one of the gunmen walked across the room, grabbed a blanket off the arm of the couch, and threw it over Bic and Han's heads to kind of hide them from view to make it easier to be really aggressive and violent with them.
And then that gunman stepped back across the room and joined his partner, aiming their guns at Bic and Han.
But Bic and Han continued to scream out from under the blankets, asking them to please spare us, spare our daughter.
And finally, the two gunmen just looked at each other, and then they both aimed their weapons, one at Bic and the other at Han, and they both fired.
The first bullet ripped through the blanket and struck Han near the corner of his right eye.
Under the blanket, Han felt blood streaming down his face and his head slumped over.
A bullet from the other gun hit Bic in the neck and blood spatter stained the inside of the blanket.
Both gunmen fired again and they both hit their victims in the shoulder.
And under the blanket, Han and Bic stopped moving.
But one of the gunmen walked back to the couch, raised his weapon to where Bic's head was under the blanket, and he fired one more time.
This bullet struck Bic in the head and exited through the back of her skull, and she died on the basement couch right there.
Upstairs on the second floor, the third gunman stood over Jennifer, who was tied to the banister.
And when he heard those gunshots, he ran downstairs to the basement door, he opened it up and began yelling for his partners to leave.
And then he, the third gunman who had been controlling Jennifer, ran outside.
In the basement, the two gunmen looked at the bodies on the couch and then they rushed up the basement steps.
Neither of those two gunmen saw Han pull himself off the couch under the blanket and pull his wife's body out onto the floor with him.
And they didn't hear Han as he got to his hands and knees and started making his way up the basement steps behind them.
Because those two gunmen who had been in the basement were only focused on getting out of the house and back into their car.
So they had bolted up the stairs of the basement into the living room, but they stopped when they heard shouting coming from behind them.
And they turned around and saw Jennifer with her phone clutched in her bound hands at the top of the stairs.
And then Jennifer said to them she would wait until she heard their car driving off before she called 911 to make sure they had a little extra time to get away.
Jennifer Pan, the daughter who had once made Bick and Hans so proud, had arranged for her parents to be murdered.
Because it would turn out that Jennifer had been living a lie for almost 10 years and her parents had recently figured it out.
Bick and Hun had always believed Jennifer was a straight-A student who had gone on to excel in college.
But the truth was, Jennifer had struggled with her grades and she never even graduated from high school.
But when Jennifer had started to get bad grades in high school, she feared her perfectionist parents would ground her and keep her locked up in the house.
And so she had started to forge her report cards to make it look like she was doing great in all of her classes.
But as the lie went on, it had to get even bigger.
So Jennifer had forged a high school diploma and then she had forged an acceptance letter to a prestigious university and created a fake scholarship for herself that would mean her parents didn't have to pay for her college education.
And so while her parents thought Jennifer was off at college being really successful, in reality she was just living with Daniel and making money teaching piano lessons.
Because being a gifted piano player was maybe the only thing that Jennifer was not lying about.
And Jennifer had used some of the money she had made teaching piano to buy college textbooks.
And she marked the books up with fake notes and highlighted random passages so that when she was at her parents' house, she could show Beck and Han how hard she was working at school.
Jennifer had gotten so good at lying that after another four years of living this totally fictitious life, she had convinced her parents that she graduated college with honors and with a degree that would allow her to become a pharmacist.
And she even concocted an excuse as to why her parents couldn't come to her college graduation ceremony.
But Jennifer's lie still had to keep going.
So she had created fake ID badges and employment documents for a job that she didn't have.
And she told her parents that she was moving in with a friend because her friend's apartment was right by where she worked.
And so every day, Jennifer would hang out in cafes or spend time in the pizza parlor where Daniel worked and then occasionally teach piano lessons to make some money and then ultimately return back home to where she lived with Daniel.
But all this lying finally came crashing down when Daniel had broken up with Jennifer, which meant she had to move out and back in with her parents.
And as her father watched her leave for work every day, he started to get suspicious.
Because Jennifer never seemed like she was in a rush to get out of the house, she never came home with work she had to get done, and she never wanted to meet for dinner or anything by where her job was located.
And so one day, Han convinced Bic to follow Jennifer while he was at work.
And Bic quickly discovered that Jennifer did not actually have a job.
And soon after that, Bic and Han had confronted Jennifer and Jennifer's years of lying started to unravel.
And so even though Jennifer was 24 years old, her parents told her that she was not allowed to leave the house without them except to go teach piano.
And they restricted her internet access and they gave her an old flip phone that had limited text messaging capabilities.
And Han checked that flip phone regularly to monitor who Jennifer was talking to.
Han also made Jennifer take courses that would allow her to get her high school diploma, and then he made her enroll in a small local college program that would qualify her to become a pharmacist like she had pretended to be for years.
And so with all of these restrictions, Jennifer started to feel like she was a prisoner in the house she had grown up in, and she wanted out, and she wanted money.
So she decided to kill her parents and get the large inheritance she knew would be coming from their deaths.
Jennifer knew she didn't have the stomach to actually murder her parents herself, but she figured Daniel might know some people from his drug dealing days that might be willing to do it.
But Daniel had broken up with Jennifer and kind of moved on, and so Jennifer needed to lure him back in.
So one night she had called Daniel crying, and when he asked what was wrong, she lied again and told him that she had just been attacked and raped.
And soon after that, Daniel and Jennifer started talking regularly again.
And eventually, Jennifer offered Daniel money to find people to kill her parents.
And so Daniel connected with an old drug buddy who said he'd do it, and that man brought in two more people to do the job with him.
So Jennifer paid those three men to murder her parents, make it look like a robbery, and make it appear like Jennifer herself was a victim.
She gave them a layout of the house and she even unlocked the front door for them when she had gone downstairs into the living room to say goodnight to her mother who was soaking her feet on the night of the murder.
And this bizarre winding story started to become clear to the police when they went back to the scene of the crime.
Because in Jennifer's room, they discovered that she had hidden a burner phone, which is a cheap prepaid phone people can use anonymously, that Daniel had bought for her.
And on that burner phone, police found text messages between Jennifer, Daniel, and another man that sounded like they were planning a crime.
And some of those text exchanges had taken place on the night of the murder.
Then police discovered that Jennifer had called Daniel and the other man from the hospital where Han was to warn them that Han was going to recover.
Finally, when Han came out of his medically induced coma, he told police what had happened in the basement.
And he said when he cried out for the gunman not to hurt his daughter, he watched as his daughter leaned over and casually whispered something to the gunman who was supposedly her captor.
And after that, Jennifer and this third gunman just began laughing together.
And then they casually walked together up the basement steps to the first floor.
And in that moment, Han realized his daughter had arranged for he and his wife's execution.
Jennifer Pan, Daniel Wong, and two of the three gunmen were found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
They were sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole, which was the maximum sentence they could receive for the crime in Canada.
The third gunman was sentenced to 18 years in prison. and after Jennifer's trial, her father Han released a statement.
He said he missed his wife terribly, and he hoped his daughter Jennifer would still become an honest person someday.
So that's going to do it. If you got something out of today's episode, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories just like this one, many of which are not on the podcast.
They're only on YouTube. Again, that channel is called Mr. Ballin.
So that's going to do it. Until next time, see ya.
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
