Jennifer Pan lived with her mother, Bich Ha Pan, and her father, Huei Hann Pan, in Canada, she had one younger brother called Felix. The parents were political refugees who when in Canada worked hard to ensure their children had opportunities and the upbringings they did not. They set high goals for their children and expected great things from them. Jennifer took classes in piano and figure skating from a young age, when she tore a ligament in her knee her dream of becoming an Olympic figure skater ended. Jennifer was not allowed to date, attend school dances or parties. At the age of 22, Jennifer had never drunk alcohol, been to a friend’s house or been away from her parents for long. Despite the high expectations, Jennifer generally got average-to-low grades and forged her report cards to make her parents believe she was an A-grade student. When Jennifer failed calculus class in 12th grade her early admission to Ryerson University was rejected.
Jennifer could not bear being seen as a failure and lied, telling her parents she was going to the University of Toronto to study pharmacology. When her parents thought she was at university, she sat in cafes and worked as a piano instructor and waitress to earn money. Jennifer purchased second-hand textbooks, watched videos about pharmacology and created notebooks full of alleged class notes to show her parents so that they would believe her.
Jennifer also got permission from her parents to stay on campus with a friend, though she was actually staying with her boyfriend who she met in high school, Daniel Chi-Kwong Wong who was a marijuana dealer.
While pretending to be studying Jennifer told her parents that she started working as a volunteer in a hospital, her parents became suspicious as she did not have an ID badge or any form of uniform and the details seemed vague. On one occasion Jennifer’s mother followed her to work and began to discover her lies. Jennifer’s parents realised she have been deceiving them and found out she had not completed high school due to failing calculus. Jennifer began to work to finish high school and was later encouraged to apply for university. She was forbidden to contact Wong or to go anywhere except for her piano teaching jobs and was ordered to move back into her parents’ home. Jennifer and Wong kept in contact in secret as Jennifer’s parents monitored her strictly and gave her little freedom.
When Jennifer was 24, Wong had grown tired of being in a relationship with Jennifer due to her restrictive parents and only being able to meet in secret. Wong broke off the relationship with Jennifer and began dating another woman. When Jennifer learned of Wong’s new relationship she told him several men had gang-raped her and that this had been set up by Wong’s new girlfriend, she also claimed the girl had sent her a bullet in the post.
In 2010, Jennifer offered an acquaintance money to kill her parents, he refused. Jennifer and Wong were back in contact and came up with a plan to hire a hitman, claim Jennifer’s $500,000 inheritance and move in together. They planned to pay $10,000 for the murder of both Jennifer’s parents. Wong gave Jennifer the contact details of Lenford Roy Crawford and a new sim card and iPhone to contact Crawford. Crawford contacted Eric Shawn “Sniper” Carty and David Mylvaganam to inform them of the job.
On the night of 8th November 2010, Jennifer unlocked the front door of the family home when she went to bed and spoke to Mylvaganam on the phone. Mylvaganam and two other unidentified individuals then entered the home carrying guns. Carty later claimed he was the getaway driver. The men demanded all the money in the house be given to them and ransacked the main bedroom. Jennifer’s parents were taken to the basement and shot multiple times, her mother died instantly but her father somehow survived. Jennifer claimed she had been tired up but managed to break free.
Police quickly became suspicious of Jennifer’s involvement at the time, she had not been assaulted, blindfolded, taken to the basement or shot and they questioned why the attackers would leave behind an eyewitness. Jennifer’s father’s record of the events also differed greatly from Jennifer’s version and she appeared nervous when questioned about details. She was arrested on 22 November 2010. During an interview, Jennifer admitted to hiring the killers but claimed she had hired them to kill her and not her parents.
Jennifer, Wong, Mylvaganam, and Crawford were all convicted and each received a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years for the murder of Bich Ha Pan and attempted murder of Huei Hann Pan. Jennifer was banned from ever contacting her family or Wong again. Carty pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit murder and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Brianna Zunino Denison was a 19-year-old psychology student from California.
Brianna was last seen alive on 20th January 2008 at her friend’s house near the University of Nevada Campus, she was staying there after attending a party nearby. At 9 am, Brianna’s friend woke up and could not find her, a small bloodstain on the pillow Brianna had used led the friend to worry and contact the police and Brianna’s parents immediately. Brianna had left her phone, shoes and clothes inside the home and was wearing only a tank top and slacks.
A search for Brianna began, the blood was found to be Brianna’s and touch DNA belonging to an unidentified male was found on the doorknob and the couch where Brianna had been sleeping. Worryingly the DNA was linked with at least two previous sexually motivated attacks in the area within the last few months.
On 15th February that year, Brianna’s body was found lying in a ditch under tree branches. She had ligature marks on her neck and had been strangled with women’s underwear. The autopsy also confirmed she had been raped.
On 25th November, James Michael Biela, 27, was arrested and charged with murder, sexual assault and first-degree kidnapping. His DNA was taken and matched to the DNA found at the crime scene. Biela had also sold his truck and his girlfriend had found women’s underwear in his truck previously that did not belong to her.
Biela was found guilty of all charges relating to Brianna and sentenced to the death penalty. He was also found guilty of two additional counts of rape and kidnap involving two other victims. Biela had attempted to appeal his death sentence, but it was last upheld in June 2019.

Pathology: Blunt Force Trauma

When determining blunt force trauma, a pathologist will look for internal bleeding and/ or organ destruction. It is characterised by injury by forceful impact and does not include injuries that penetrate the skin. Blunt force trauma can occur in many different situations including falling, car crashes or being struck with a weapon. Blunt force trauma does not always result in death and when it does, does not always immediately cause death but can result in bleeding and blood accumulation that later result in the person dying.

When examining head injuries, pathologists will look to determine the contact point which is where the head injury was inflicted. Sometimes with head injuries the ‘contre coupe’ effect can be seen which happens when the person is struck on one side of the head so hard that the brain is moved inside the skull violently enough to cause damage on the opposite side.

When investigating a murder, examining contact points and the extent of internal pleading can provide details about how the person died and how the blunt force trauma was inflicted. Pathologists can estimate whether a weapon was used and, if so, the approximate size and weight of the weapon. The information can also be used to approximate the strength and size of the attacker.

The Murder of Annie Le

Annie Le was a 24-year-old doctoral student at the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology, High. She was clever and hardworking; so much so that her high school classmates voted her as “most likely to be the next Einstein ”. Annie was researching the treatment of diabetes and certain forms of cancer. Annie was engaged and due to be married to her partner Johnathon Widawsky on 13th September.

On 8th September 2009, Annie went to Sterling Hall of Medicine on the Yale campus. At 10 am, she went to another campus building on Amistad Street where her research laboratory was located, she had left her phone, credit cards and cash at Sterling Hall. Annie was last seen on CCTV entering the Amistad Street building just after 10 am, she was never seen leaving the building. Later that day, when Annie did not return home, one of her housemates called the police and reported her as missing.

On 13th September, and on Annie’s planned wedding date, her body was discovered inside the wall in the basement laboratory in the building she was last seen in. Bloody clothes had previously been found hidden above the ceiling tiles in the same building. The building and the surrounding area were monitored by about 75 security cameras and Yale identification cards were required to open and access the building. Due to the high-security level of the building authorities stated it would have been extremely difficult for someone without a Yale ID card to enter the laboratory where Annie’s remains were discovered, this led them to focus their investigation on Yale employees and students.

An autopsy found that the cause of death was traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression. It was likely that Annie had been strangled to death.

On 17th September, police arrested Raymond Clark, a 24-year-old laboratory technician who had been working in the building when Annie had disappeared. DNA samples were taken from him. Clark initially pleaded not guilty but later entered a guilty plea in exchange for a 44-year prison sentence. He also entered an Alford plea for the charge of attempted sexual assault of Annie. And Alford plea is a guilty plea that does not admit the facts but concedes the sufficiency of the evidence provided. Clark was sentenced to 44 years in prison in June 2010. He is scheduled for release in September 2053.

The Murder of Brooke Wilberger

Brooke Carol Wilberger was a 19-year-old American student from Oregon. She had three sisters and two brothers and was described as a devout member of the church.

In May 2004, Brooke was on summer vacation and was working for one of her sisters. On 24th May 2004, Brooke was last seen cleaning lamp posts in a parking lot her sister managed.

In November 2004, a foreign exchange student attending the University of New Mexico was beaten and raped before escaping. She identified Joel Patrick Courtney as her attacker; he played guilty to the attack. Police eventually linked Courtney, an Oregon native, to Brooks disappearance. In August 2005, Courtney was charged with 19 counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, sexual abuse, rape and sodomy. It was revealed that Courtney had been close to the area where Brooke had last been seen and had been driving a green van that was spotted by witnesses near the scene. Brooke’s DNA and hair were found inside the van.

Courtney confessed that he had abducted Brooke from the parking lot on the morning of 24th May 2004 before driving her to the woods at the side of town. He had returned to town to buy food, leaving Brooke bound in his van. The next morning, he had raped Brooke and bludgeoned her to death. Courtney pled guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. His guilty plea spared him from the death penalty as did his plea bargain that he would provide information about the location of Brooke’s body. The deal also called for Courtney to be imprisoned in his home state of New Mexico. Brooke’s body was recovered from a wooded area on the Oregon Coast Range.

The Murder of Tasha Santiago

Tasha Santiago was a 25-year-old transgender woman living in California. Tasha had spoken of returning to Puerto Rico to spend time with family. At the time of her death, Tasha was working as a prostitute.

On 10th December 1990, the police responded to multiple calls of shots being fired at the Woolley Johnson Motel in California. When they arrived they found the victim, Tasha Santiago, dead on the driveway with shattered glass around her and the murder weapon, a handgun, left at the crime scene. Witnesses recalled seeing a car with two men inside. Officers soon found out that Tasha had been inside the phone box making a call to the police telling them that two men who had attacked her a day previously had turned up where she was and that she was afraid. Tasha was put on hold for one minute and by the time the operator got back to the phone, the phone line was dead. It is believed that as Tasha made the phone call the killers pulled up to the phone box to confront her and kill her.

It was discovered that Tasha had an assault case from one day previous to the murder, she had been jumped by two men in an alleyway but had managed to escape. Todd Alan Thornton, 25, and Jeffrey Todd Hammons, 24, both marines, had met up with Tasha on 9 December 1990, Hammons had paid her for oral sex behind a dumpster while Thornton had kept lookout. Hammons had been unable to ejaculate and blamed Tasha causing an argument to break out, Hammons had shouted for Thornton to cold Tasha down while he beat her but Tasha had escaped. She reported the attack to the police. In a hearing, a fellow marine testified that “He (Hammons) said he was going to go back to find that girl and get his money back,” and that Hammons and Thornton had gone to Hammons’ home to get a gun.

The details of the investigation are unclear, seems that both men went on trial in 1991, although it is difficult to find any information on what happened or what sentences were given. I was also unable to find any photographs of Tasha.

John Wayne Gacy’s Clown Costumes

The Murder of Jessie Wright

Jessie Wright was a 16-year-old girl living in Islington, London. Her family remember her as a beautiful, bubbly girl with a zest for life. She planned to complete her GCSEs and begin a hair and beauty course. Jessie was recovering from a serious illness and brain surgery, her final operation was due to be five months after she was tragically killed.

March 2010, Jessie ate a late dinner with her Nan and then left her Nan’s flat to walk home, this was the last time her family saw her. Jessie’s partially naked body was found in a secluded spot the next day, she had been thrown into a well and landed sprawled on the ground below.

Suspicion quickly fell to a local man called Zakk Sackett. It emerged that Sackett was obsessed with Jessie and claimed to have been in love with her, Jessie’s friend recalled him swearing and making lude suggestions such as ‘I will have you in my bed,’ to Jessie, who attempted to ignore him and walked away. Jessie’s uncle testified that he had warned Sackett to stay away from Jessie after he had previously tried to drag her into some bushes in a park. Sackett initially lied that Jessie’s boyfriend had come round and threatened both of them, Jessie’s boyfriend had never met him and had not been in the area on the night of the murder. He then claimed to have been at home for most of the night and not to have seen Jessie. Sackett’s lies continued and in court, he told the jury that he had had sex with Jessie three times including on the night she died but denied raping her. He claimed she had died of natural causes when they had been having consensual sex and that he had been unable to resuscitate her. This was dismissed by the court who were able to prove Jessie had died from compression of the neck consistent with both manual strangulation and a ligature. Just minutes after the murder, Sackett had sold Jessie’s mobile phone for £15. Local residents had also expressed their fears of Sackett including emails to social services stating that he 'was going to end up killing someone.’

Sackett was convicted of murder and rape, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years.

The Murder of Jennie Poole

Jennie Poole was a 24-year-old mother of two living in Dublin. She worked as a healthcare worker. Jennie was described as a great mother who would do anything for her children.

On 17th April at around 2 pm, neighbours heard screaming coming from Jennie’s apartment and saw a man jump from her balcony and run. The police were called and found Jennie dead in her home, she had suffered blood loss from a stab wound to her neck. Jennie’s 4-year-old son had been in the apartment when she had died.

Jennie’s boyfriend, Gavin Murphy, 29, was arrested and charged with murder.