‘This woman is a monster’

She was a straight-A student, she mingled with every social group at school and had convinced her parents that she was well on her way to receiving an early acceptance into college.

But there was a dark, deceptive side to the angelic young woman, whose accomplishments had filled her parents with pride.

Jennifer managed to fool everyone, including her parents who she lived with in Markham, Ontario, Canada

Jennifer Pan was considered a ‘prodigy’ by her parents.Source:Supplied

JENNIFER CREATED THE PERFECT MASK:

Immigrating from Vietnam to Canada in the late 70s, Jennifer’s father — Bich Ha — met his wife Huei Hann Pan who he married in Toronto.

The pair vowed to put in the hard yards, so their children — Jennifer and Felix — would be able to receive an education unavailable in their homeland.

By 2004, Mr and Mrs Pan had saved enough to buy a large family home, expensive cars and still had $US200,000 saved.

In exchange for building the foundations of a perfect home life, Mr and Mrs Pan expected big things from both their children — but especially from eldest Jennifer.

At age four, she was playing piano. By primary school, her room was filled with numerous awards.

She was, like many Asian children in Canada, also competing in figure skating — which her parents expected would take her to the Olympics.

Above her recreational activities, Jennifer was also expected to excel academically and graduate from the University of Toronto.

But none of this ever happened for Jennifer.

While being a straight-A student in primary school, her marks slipped, and midway through secondary school Jennifer was pulling marks of around 70 per cent in all her subjects.

To deceive her parents, Jennifer created the perfect mask.

She created false report cards, scholarship letters and even university transcripts. The reason?

She didn’t manage to even graduate from high school.

But her lie could only last so long. So instead of coming clean to the two people who drove her the hardest — she decided to organise her parents’ murder.

Jennifer Pan's parents, Bich Ha and Huei Hann Pan. Picture: Court exhibitSource:Supplied

A DAUGHTER’S DEADLY DECEPTION:

In November 2010, when Jennifer was 24-years-old, two men barged into her home armed with guns.

Her mother was shot dead, while her father managed to survive his bullet wounds.

At the time of interrogation, Jennifer claimed she was the one person left standing during the attack.

But in 2015, Jennifer was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years for hiring hitmen to kill her parents.

Her story, which includes intimate details about her upbringing, has been unveiled in a new book titled A Daughter’s Deadly Deception by Canadian journalist Jeremy Grimaldi.

Grimaldi, who covered Jennifer’s trial for 10 months, said her life went from “doting daughter and great student to a murderer”.

“By everyone’s estimation, Jennifer was an angel — and that was in her own father’s eyes as well,” Grimaldi told news.com.au.

“But that started to morph, and in the end she killed her mother. Jennifer’s journey is a very interesting one, but where the really story begins is delving into her past.”

A Daughter’s Deadly Deception.Source:Supplied

During Jennifer’s murder trial, questions of whether her strict upbringing — commonly called ‘Tiger Parenting’ — lead to the young woman reaching breaking point.

Grimaldi, who interviewed several psychologists while writing the book, said that while Jennifer’s educational and recreational upbringing was extreme, it wasn’t to the point witnessed in other households.

“She didn’t go through physical abuse, and a lot of people did say during the trial that what she went though was nothing in comparison [to other Tiger families],” Grimaldi said.

“Her dad did express a lot of tough love and had very high expectations of his eldest daughter, and Jennifer claimed that this lead to her not feeling loved or understanding who she was.

“But what was interesting about Jennifer is that she didn’t explode and stab her parents, which has happened in the past, but she plotted their murder over months and months.

“The book starts with the investigation, then delves into her childhood, and you start to feel sympathy for her.

“But nearing the end, when she does things that are literally crazy and literally insane, you see that this woman is a monster.”

Jeremy Grimaldi, who has followed Jennifer Pan’s case from the beginning, and turned her story into a book titled A Daughter’s Deadly Deception.Source:Supplied

SHE PLOTTED SOMETHING ‘FAR STRANGER THAN FICTION’

Grimaldi, who was given access to police records, court documents and even text messages exchanged during the lead up to the bloodied attack, revealed how Jennifer was “plotting something far stranger than fiction” in the privacy of her own room.

“It was to the point of a Hollywood horror film,” he said.

“Jennifer described herself as friends with everyone, but she lived in a fantasy world.

“But the thing with her is that it’s hard to know what is real, and what isn’t.

“Her friends say they knew a totally normal girl, like very other Asian girl they knew. But when everything began to crumble around Jennifer, they found out her real life — because she lied to everyone all the time.”

JENNIFER’S ‘TIGER PARENTING’ UPBRINGING

“Tiger parents pushed their kids into learning maths two years in advance of class mates,” Grimaldi said. “They weren’t allowed sleep overs or play dates.

“While it is unclear the extremes of what happened in Jennifer’s house, she wasn’t allowed to get less than an A. And she dated before graduating university, which in Asian culture — you can’t do.”

Grimaldi said Jennifer started dating someone called Daniel in Year 10 her parents didn’t approve of. It is unclear whether this contributed to her motive, because to this day Jennifer believes she is innocent and had no hand in organising her mother’s murder, and father’s attempted murder.

“Daniel was half Filipino and half Chinese,” Grimaldo said.

“Jennifer claimed her father was racist against Daniel, which is why he didn’t want her dating him.

“So she created a whole new life so she could be with him.

“Seven years they dated for, and all under her parents’ nose.

“In most cases it’s the boyfriend that is behind all this crime, and not usually the female. But in this case, it was Jennifer who was the catalyst and Daniel was nothing but a pawn in her game. “This strange dynamic is what sets Jennifer apart, because how she acts is very male.”

The family home where the plotting, and horror killing happened.Source:Supplied

Speaking to a psychologist from the Asian American Psychology Association, Grimaldi said that while they were surprised by the details around Jennifer’s crime, the fact that someone could “lose it under this pressure cooker that Asian kids go through” was not surprising at all.

This is what happens when tiger parenting goes wrong.

“I believe that we are products of our environment,” Grimaldi said.

“It’s hard when you are raised inside a home, and Jennifer didn’t have much light outside the home.

“But to be capable of this deception and heinous act, there has to be a hefty dose of blame to go around.

“But no one knew who she was.”

Jeremy Grimaldi’s book, A Daughter’s Deadly Deception, is available on Amazon and Kindle.