48 Hours - The Ivy League Murder

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

A newly engaged Yale graduate student is gunned down by an unknown attacker after a fender bender. Was it extreme road rage or was he targeted? Anne-Marie Green reports.See Privacy Polic...y at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. You start dealing with a series of shootings that's a little out of the ordinary. Take me through that. The first shooting occurs on December 11, 2020 2020 at Huntington Street in New Haven. There's a report of five gunshots in the area. The residents were struck multiple times. The house was occupied, but nobody was hit. When police responded, they located multiple 45 caliber shell casings at the scene.
Starting point is 00:00:59 There's a second shooting that occurs January 15th, 2021. The third shooting occurred February 5th. A fourth incident occurred on February 6th. It's another residence. It was occupied, but nobody was hurt inside. There were five rounds that were shot in. It was occupied. Fortunately, nobody was hit.
Starting point is 00:01:19 The residence was struck multiple times by gunfire. Nobody was injured. Patrol officers located one 45 caliber located in multiple casings, 45 caliber. 45 caliber shell casings were located at the scene. Four shootings over a few months, do they have anything in common? The common denominator was the caliber
Starting point is 00:01:39 of the gun that was used. It's 45 caliber casings that were located at all four of those scenes. And in the last two shootings, there was a description of a dark-colored SUV. Are officers concerned that at some point, someone is going to get hurt? Yes. 830 Saturday night, residents in the East Rock neighborhood heard the distinct sound of gunfire. Fire.
Starting point is 00:02:09 On February 6th at around 8.30 p.m., we get the report of a person shot at Lawrence and Nicholls Street in New Haven. That person was later identified as Kevin Jong and was pronounced deceased on the scene. We located eight 45 caliber shell casings. There were a few 911 callers that saw a dark colored SUV flew the area. A sense of shock and sadness has settled on the Yale University
Starting point is 00:02:36 community after the Saturday night shooting death of grad student Kevin Jian. What's up everyone? Welcome to another episode of Fitness with Kevin. I'm Kevin. It still doesn't feel real. You know, like it still doesn't feel real. You're such a cutie. He was just a very happy person, a very genuine soul.
Starting point is 00:02:55 The victim was a student at Yale's School of the Environment, originally from Chicago. He was an Army vet who posted on Facebook just a week ago his joy in getting engaged. He was so in love with Zion. He was just like, oh Zion is and Zion that like everything was about Zion. He really loved her. So you guys walk up to the scene, what do you see? Kevin's body, he was laying on his right side. His feet were on the stop line here, and his head was towards the first line of the crosswalk. And then we see the casings.
Starting point is 00:03:36 There's a shell casing by the bottom of the S and a few feet from the P. And then there were six more spread out by the first crosswalk line. We could see gunshot wounds to his upper body and to his head. There were some shots that were at close range. There was something personal about this? Yes. We'll use Facebook as a tool to try and get a little background on an individual who they're friends with.
Starting point is 00:04:03 And so you're going down the list of names. Nothing, nothing, nothing, and then you're like, whoa. There's our connection. Anne Marie Greene reports the Ivy League murder. It was a cold night in February 2021 when lead detective David Zoweski and his colleague Stephen Cunningham arrived at the crime scene. The patrol officers had already been out there canvassing the area. They were knocking on doors looking for anyone that might have seen anything or heard anything.
Starting point is 00:04:41 The crime scene detectives were starting to locate all the shell casings. 26-year-old Yale graduate student Kevin Jong was lying in the street, shot eight times. His body was still unseen, covered in a white sheet. When you saw the body, what did you see? What we could see were gunshot wounds to his upper body and to his head. And you could see stippling on the left side of his head. Stippling is a burn pattern caused by gunpowder exploding from a weapon fired at close range. About a hundred feet down the street, There was a Prius just parked in the middle of the road with his hazards on.
Starting point is 00:05:27 They quickly discovered the Prius belonged to Kevin. Crime scene detectives noticed a peculiar bit of damage that suggested it had been hit from behind. There was an impression that was left on the back bumper that looked like a license plate holder. So this is like a license plate holder. So this is like a fender mender. It's not a violent crash. No. There's not much damage.
Starting point is 00:05:53 One witness told detectives she heard the sound of an accident and went to the window to look. When they look out, they see Prius come to a stop and put his hazards on. They see a dark-colored SUV pull up behind it and then reverse back towards the intersection. They see the operator of the Prius walk out and approach the SUV, most likely to see how they were, exchange insurance information. When the operator gets to the black SUV, they hear a round of gunshots,
Starting point is 00:06:32 and they see the muzzle flash from the gun, from the driver's side of the SUV. Another witness heard the first round of gunshots and went to her window. When she looks outside, she sees a subject wearing all black, standing over another individual who's laying on the ground. She hears another round of gunshots, and she can see the muzzle flash from the gun as he's firing.
Starting point is 00:06:59 She sees someone standing over another person, which means the victim is already down and they're still shooting. Yes. What did you think? There's a little bit more to it. It seems a little bit more personal when you have someone that's laying on the ground and not moving,
Starting point is 00:07:16 what would cause someone to continue firing at them? The detectives were able to confirm these accounts when they got a look at video from a neighbor's security system. It was located on the inside of a window facing outward. Because most of the frame is a reflection of the interior of the house, we've zoomed in to focus on what's happening on the street, a warning this may be difficult to listen to.
Starting point is 00:07:41 We hear the collision between the two cars and then that's when you see Kevin's Prius pull into frame and the SUV pulls up behind him and then reverses out of frame. You see Kevin exit his vehicle and then scream, and then six more gunshots. Moments later, the video shows the SUV driving off into the night. Can you make out any details when it comes to the SUV? Unfortunately not. You could kind of get the idea of the potential make and model of it with the taillights, but you couldn't discern any identifying features.
Starting point is 00:08:41 Investigators soon felt the dark SUV and the.45 caliber shells recovered at the scene pointed to a potential link to those earlier shootings around the area that police had been investigating. Four times over a two-month span, someone fired shots into family homes. The fourth incident occurred just one hour before Kevin Jong's murder. We had detectives in the bureau looking into each of the incidents to see if there's any more of a connection to link them. Two bullets came in through this window and ended up in this wall. Paul and Niree White's home was the target of the third shooting.
Starting point is 00:09:25 We had just finished dinner. I had a fire going. Nyree, a schoolteacher, headed upstairs to take a shower. Paul, an educator with degrees from Yale, Harvard, and Columbia University, was sitting downstairs. All of a sudden, something comes through this window. Then a second bullet came through. You heard the pop and the glass going everywhere with that one. Paul shouted a warning to Nyree. Get down. Someone's shooting. And then I heard bang, pop again.
Starting point is 00:09:59 And I turned and I literally saw the frame of the door just splinter. And then she yells back at you. Right, that's's shooting upstairs. It was over in a matter of moments, and no one was injured. Do you feel lucky? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Detectives interviewed the whites
Starting point is 00:10:24 and the occupants of the other houses. There didn't seem to be any connection between them. And none of them, investigators say, had any connection to Kevin Jong. But the shell casings from all the shootings would later tell a different story. When the casings are sent to the lab, they all came back as matches to the casings found at the homicide. The casings matched, but Kevin was the only person murdered, and detectives didn't know why.
Starting point is 00:10:57 It could have been a road rage incident that turned a little too violent. Or was Kevin Jong targeted? The car accident was deliberate to get him out of the vehicle. Possibly seemed like it was planned. And if he was specifically targeted, what could have happened in his life to drive someone to do this? MUSIC I'm Natalia Melman-Petruzzella, and from the BBC, this is Extreme, Peak Danger.
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Starting point is 00:12:40 made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing orange jumpsuit it's not real now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace from law and crime this is the rise and fall of getting listen to the rise and fall of getting exclusively with one 3 plus. with Wondery Plus. It was late when Detective Zewesky and Cunningham left the crime scene on February 6th. They went to Kevin Jong's home, looking to find a family member to notify about what had happened.
Starting point is 00:13:23 His mother, Linda Liu, came to the door. It's gotta be the hardest conversation. It is, they always are. Hi, Mom. Hi. Happy birthday. You wanna be direct and upfront and make it clear. As horrific as it is for them.
Starting point is 00:13:41 So we explained to her that he was shot and killed in the area of Lawrence and Nickel Street in New Haven. Can she even comprehend that? She's absolutely devastated. She falls to the ground crying. The detectives wanted to know everything about Kevin and why he may have been targeted that night. Linda began to tell them about her son. It was just the two of them, and he was actually supporting her. She told us that he was a grad student at Yale University and was in the Army National Guard. Kevin was deeply religious.
Starting point is 00:14:16 He and his mother were part of the congregation at Trinity Baptist Church. Pastor Gregory Hendrickson knew them both and says that Linda, a divorced single parent, got Kevin through a tough childhood where he was often bullied. She was very committed to sort of seeing him come through and eventually he thrived on the other side of that. I think he had a sense of honoring his mom by as she had cared for him when he was a child, caring for her as she was getting older. Kevin bought this house in 2019, and Hendrickson says he invited his mother
Starting point is 00:14:51 to come live with him. She was living alone. She was living on the other side of the country. She didn't have a lot of family support around her, and he wanted her to come and be with him during his studies at Yale. Police also learned that Kevin had recently gotten engaged to his girlfriend of a year, Zion Perry.
Starting point is 00:15:11 She posted the proposal on Facebook. This was just one week before he was murdered. He was so in love with Zion. You could tell he didn't even have to really say too much. Najah Hubbard, who served with Kevin in the Army National Guard. Oh my gosh, so I remember one time he was on the phone with her and I was like, wow, like you could hear the genuineness and his love towards her. And I was like, wow, I hope I find someone like that. Zion Perry grew up in Pennsylvania,
Starting point is 00:15:53 where she was an honors high school student. The couple met in January of 2020 when Zion was still an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. He said, I met her at Christian retreat, and she's very kind, and we enjoy talking and just have great conversations together. Then she came to do her PhD at Yale. They clearly shared a lot in common. They both loved nature.
Starting point is 00:16:19 I mean, Zain's a scientist. She was studying molecular biophysics and biochemistry. So he was studying in the School of the Environment. They're both brilliant and hardworking students. And yet they didn't feel like their accomplishments were what defined them at the deepest level. Zawasky and Cunningham then interviewed an emotional Zion. She told them she and Kevin had spent the day together. They had gone ice fishing and had dinner at her house, and then he left her house around 8.30 that night.
Starting point is 00:16:51 Kevin didn't get far. His Prius was struck by the dark SUV just two blocks from Zion's house. Close enough for Zion to hear the gunshots that followed. She remembers hearing the gunshots, but she thought there was a good five or 10 minutes after he'd left to when she heard the gunshots. So she didn't think he was anywhere near the area and didn't think twice about him potentially
Starting point is 00:17:22 being involved in any way. Did she have any idea who would have done something like this? At that point, I don't know. Nothing that she told us that she could think of. After speaking with Zion, detectives were no closer to figuring out why Kevin would be a target. Seemed like just an innocent, innocent guy. Did you think this was going to be a tough case though? It seemed like just an innocent, innocent guy. Did you think this was going to be a tough case though? That night, we had a little bit, but there wasn't a lot to go on. But just 15 hours after the shooting, they got a huge break.
Starting point is 00:18:02 Little did we know that we'd get the phone call the next day. They got a huge break. Little did we know that we'd get the phone call the next day. I just got here accidentally and I got stuck. And it was like, wow. News of Kevin's murder spread among his loved ones and closest friends. I was at home and I actually got a phone call from another soldier and she was saying, I know you guys were close, and her voice cracked, and she told me that he had passed away, and I was, like, not comprehending what was going on.
Starting point is 00:18:50 So I text him, and I was like, answer your phone, please. And obviously, he never answered me. Lieutenant Hubbard reached out to Captain Jamila Aye, and if sharing the news about Kevin wasn't tragic enough, someone posted the chilling video of his murder online, and his fellow soldiers now saw and heard Kevin's final moments alive. To this day, I can still hear him screaming.
Starting point is 00:19:19 I was like, why did I listen to that? Detective Zewesky and Cunningham were back at their desks in headquarters, struggling for answers and leads to pursue. Day two, you get a phone call. Yes. The call from a sergeant at nearby North Haven Police Department was urgent. Two incidents had happened in North Haven the night before and then earlier that morning. It began with a 911 call from a local scrap metal yard around 9 p.m., less than a half hour after Kevin was killed.
Starting point is 00:20:02 I'm the security guard at Simmons Metal Management. Police body cameras were rolling when Sergeant Jeffrey Mills and Officer Marcus R. Tyes spotted that vehicle stuck on snow-covered railroad tracks. How you doing? Not far from the rear exit of the Sims scrap metal yard, they approached the driver. What are you doing back here though? I just got here accidentally and I got stuck.
Starting point is 00:20:48 Is there any way to get stuck here? The only thing I can do is call you a tow truck. Okay, cool, thanks. The motorist was 29-year-old Kin Shin Pan from Malden, Massachusetts. Do you have your driver's license on you? Yes. Registration?
Starting point is 00:21:03 His driver's license and criminal background were clean. During the encounter, Sergeant Mills noticed a yellow jacket on the passenger seat. He also saw a blue bag and a briefcase in the back seat, but not much else. He took a wrong turn. He got lost. And he thought the Jeep was probably chasing him, the security guy. Because Sergeant Mills hadn't heard about Kevin's murder, he wasn't particularly concerned.
Starting point is 00:21:28 — So it's nothing, you think? — Yeah, he's— — He doesn't look like he's got a scrap, I mean— — No. — I've been on the tracks, I don't know how many times, with vehicles that were, you know, called in as suspicious or whatever, but kids go back there. People always come down there, according to the security guard, and they turn around in the front lot,
Starting point is 00:21:44 and they leave because in the front lot and they leave because they missed a highway or something. Did he look nervous? He wasn't nervous at all. He was perfectly calm. So what do you recommend I do? I mean, if I can get it off the track,
Starting point is 00:21:56 I prefer to drive it myself. It was just like, oh, sorry, I got stuck on the tracks. Can you help me get off? So how about you get a hotel for the night? We'll have the tow truck drop you off at the hotel. You pay for a credit card, and you can arrange picking up a car in the morning.
Starting point is 00:22:11 Okay, let's get the hotel then. Yeah, let's do that. If it is safe. That's probably the safest thing to do. Okay. Okay. The tow truck came. It took a little work, but it got it off the tracks. He gave Mr. Pan a ride back to Best Western, and I cleared the call, like any other call.
Starting point is 00:22:29 But hours later, there was another call to 911. February 7th, around 11 a.m. Hello, can I help you? This is the police department. Uh, hello. I'm working at Arby's here in North Haven. Mm-hmm. We found a gun and probably like 10 boxes of bullets. An employee found a couple of bags on the grass at the north entrance here. When they brought them in, there were three bags. This one, that one, and this. Got it.
Starting point is 00:23:00 Took a better look at the bags that it came in, and here's a blue retail bag with a Massachusetts logo on it and a small leather black briefcase. And it instantly hit me. These are the bags that were in Mr. Pond's car the night before. The Arby's was right next door to the Best Western where Penn was dropped off. And by then, Mills had heard about the murder in New Haven. What's going through your brain? At that point, knowing that New Haven had a homicide, they were looking for a dark-colored GMC SUV.
Starting point is 00:23:35 Now we've got a firearm. And then Officer Bianchi shows me a yellow jacket that was in it, and the suspect was wearing a yellow jacket. Jacket. He might be at the hospital. The score's over there. I'm gonna go over there and take care of them. And when we got here, I went in to the front desk and spoke with the attendant there
Starting point is 00:23:55 and asked if the box on Pan had checked in, which they checked in and said yes, he did. I mean, he hasn't checked out yet. That's when Mills alerted New Haven Homicide about Pan. Do you immediately think there might be a connection with the homicide? There's a very good chance the vehicle matched. And the items that were left behind at the Arby's restaurant, it included a.45 caliber handgun,
Starting point is 00:24:21 and that matched the casings that were at the scene. And that matched the casings that were at the scene. Zawieski immediately sent detectives to meet Mills at the Best Western. So we got a key, went to room 276. We knocked on the door, we entered the room, the room was clean, nothing in it. It didn't appear that anybody stayed in it for the night At first, we were like, oh, we lost them. New Haven police sent investigators, including Detective Joe Galvin, to track down Pan. Galvin went to Malden, Massachusetts, where Pan lived with his parents and was
Starting point is 00:24:57 a graduate student at MIT. Right outside of Boston, very affluent homes. There was no one there when we knocked on the door. So the day after the homicide, we were unsure if maybe the family saw on vacation, out of state, out of the country. But police were also worried. Were they given the heinous act
Starting point is 00:25:22 that occurred in New Haven the day before? Were they potentially kidnapped heinous act that occurred in New Haven the day before? Were they potentially kidnapped by their own son? Were they victims of another horrible crime? UFO lands in Suffolk and that's official, said the News of the World. But what really happened across two nights in December 1980, when US servicemen saw mysterious lights in the forest near RAF Woodbridge and claimed to have had a close encounter with an actual craft?
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Starting point is 00:27:29 Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. With Kinshin Pan and his parents missing from their home, Detective David Zewesky turned to his computer searching for Pan. The first thing I want to know is who he is and if there's any connection between him and Kevin. I see that he has a Facebook page. What was his page like? There was not much activity at all. His last post was back in 2016, and he
Starting point is 00:28:20 had a few photos with some other students, but that was it. Is that when you first found out that he's an MIT grad student? Yes, that was the first time we got the connection between him and MIT. So I check his friends list to see if Kevin is in there. Is he? Kevin is not listed, but I do notice that Zion Perry is listed.
Starting point is 00:28:42 Zion Perry, Kevin's fiance, who also went to MIT. Now we have a connection. I got in contact with her. She explained that they had met at MIT back in 2019, and they were more associates than friends. Nothing romantic? No. She said that they never dated, They never had any romantic relationship.
Starting point is 00:29:07 The last time she spoke with him was May of 2020. He reached out to her through Facebook Messenger to congratulate her on graduating. He asked to FaceTime with her, and she politely declined it. She must have been wondering why you asked me so many questions about this guy. What'd you say to her? She was, and that's what I told her,
Starting point is 00:29:28 that he was a person of interest in this. And she was completely shocked. He was barely a part of her life and why he would have been involved with this in any way. What did she have posted on her page? The last things that she had posted were the engagement between her and Kevin. Oh yes, yes, definitely.
Starting point is 00:29:49 Wow, this is so pretty. Wow. Wow. Are you starting to formulate a theory about the case that goes a little beyond possible road rage? Yes. It did seem like there was a secret obsession of pans going on behind the scenes that Kevin wasn mother Linda Liu and father Mingxuan Jiang and nearly 700 people on a virtual vigil for Kevin.
Starting point is 00:30:31 Zion addressed the mourners. One day I will get to see Kevin again, yeah, in heaven and when everything is made right. I thank Ms. Liu and Mr. Jiang for raising such a fine young man and for bringing him into the world. He gave me a lot of joy. He's a very thoughtful, warm boy, taking care of me and I miss him. He's a nice boy. Everybody likes him. Thank you. Thank you, you all. That week, Pastor Hendrickson eulogized Kevin at his funeral. We come to you today remembering Kevin, grateful for his life, grieving over his loss. Zion read a poem Kevin wrote to her.
Starting point is 00:31:32 It began, If this world falls apart, it will be all right because we have each other's hearts. A medical officer also trained to operate tanks. Kevin was buried with full military honors just two days before his 27th birthday, on Valentine's Day. Meanwhile, Detective Galvin, a member of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Connecticut, along with Supervisor Matthew Duffy and Deputy Marshal Kevin Perot, were utilizing their vast resources to urgently gather
Starting point is 00:32:10 intelligence on pan. MIT graduate, not socially active, degree in computer science. Grad student in artificial intelligence. Lawyer William Gerais. Very smart. Genius? Genius. Socially, not a genius. The Marshals discovered Pan had three active phones, and they noticed that in the months before Kevin was killed, Pan was using one of those phones to contact car dealerships. He would tell them all the same thing.
Starting point is 00:32:43 He said he's going for a test drive. I believe he said he was going on a camping trip. Investigators were able to match the date of Pan's test drives with each of the 45 caliber shootings in New Haven, including Kevin's murder. It was all part of a plan, investigators say. They believe that Pan likely fired shots into those homes to ultimately mislead them, hoping they would think Kevin's murder was just another random shooting.
Starting point is 00:33:15 He planned it, and he knew we'd be looking at these other things. Yeah, he did his best to mislead us. And now we knew that, yes, this wasn't a random incident out there, that he was targeted. They also discovered that not long after Kevin's murder, Pan called his parents and they made a cash withdrawal of about $1,000. They had tremendous assets, somehow from Shanghai. Access to large sums of money, several million dollars.
Starting point is 00:33:49 The Marshalls zeroed in on Pan's parents and picked up a ping on their phone at this North Carolina gas station. Our task force found it on the ground. The cell phone was crushed. Like a car ran over it. Three days later, investigators caught up with Pan's parents driving near Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia State Police pulled him over. He's not in the vehicle.
Starting point is 00:34:17 Nope. Police told them they suspected their son had killed someone. Were they shocked? No. They weren't shocked that their son had killed someone. Were they shocked? No. They weren't shocked that their son was being investigated and connected with a cold-blooded murder. They may have been, but they didn't lead on to us at all. They didn't lead on to us at all.
Starting point is 00:34:37 The father said our son called, said he was in Connecticut and needed help. He asked us to bring cash. Then once we picked them up in Connecticut, he took the wheel and then they take this very long drive down south. Van's father didn't say why his son was heading in that direction. And he says he's quiet, acting weird, doesn't really say what's going on. They make it down to Georgia. He pulls over and he gets out of the car and walks away. He said no words to them.
Starting point is 00:35:08 Just walked away from the car. That was their story. Pan's parents agreed to be photographed. Pan's mother declined to answer any questions without an attorney. But she later volunteered that her son walked away from her and his father and likely killed himself. The Marshals were skeptical.
Starting point is 00:35:28 We knew after talking to the parents that they would go to jail for him. Knowing the degree that the parents were helping him and his resources, his intelligence, we had to take a different approach on it. We needed to focus in on the parents because they probably would lead us to him. They would go to the ends of the earth to help support and hide him. And what does that mean? Patience. And they would need plenty of it. Weeks went by without an arrest. They wondered if they missed something and if their murder suspect had outmaneuvered them.
Starting point is 00:36:13 What do you think of PAN's plan to mislead investigators? See more of the evidence at 48hours.com. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudine Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media.
Starting point is 00:36:45 To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. Five weeks passed without a solid lead on the MIT student wanted for Kevin Jung's murder. U.S. Marshals are leading a nationwide manhunt this morning for the man charged in the murder of a Yale grad student. You give me a real sense of the pressure. Yeah, because this became so high profile so fast, it was just heightened. Then the manhunt for Pan suddenly heated up. Police said his mom told them she suspected her son killed himself, but they noticed his parents had a lot of banking activity.
Starting point is 00:37:37 We start to see large sums of cash being withdrawn. How much? At that time, it was about 5,000, 10,000. That's a large sum of money that someone could use to get out of the country. They still have family in China. And then Pan's parents rented a car. They stopped traveling south again.
Starting point is 00:37:55 But the vehicle's GPS system the marshals were tracking went dark. Did they turn it off? It was disabled. By then, investigators said they knew that their son had disabled GPS systems in several cars he drove in the run-up to Kevin's murder. Counter tactics. Counter tactics. At one point, surveillance cameras at this Georgia mall recorded Pan's father purchasing a computer. Now this is during COVID, so everybody has their masks on.
Starting point is 00:38:27 We see the father walk in, and probably about 10 minutes later, we see an individual fitting the description of the son. So the story of the suicide out in the woods, that's not true. So from there, the parents end up traveling back north. Once we're in Connecticut, the GPS comes back on. We felt the clock was really ticking. And it ticked away for nearly two more months until May 4, 2021, when Pan's parents drove off for a third time. But there was a difference.
Starting point is 00:39:04 They were traveling with another couple. What do you think the deal was with the other couple? Make it appear that it's a regular trip. No big deal, we're just going on a trip to meet some friends. We're not here to help our son. Pan's parents and their unwitting companions were eventually placed under surveillance at a North Carolina hotel,
Starting point is 00:39:23 where Marshalls interviewed a clerk after the Pans checked out. At one point, King Chin Pan's mother came to the clerk's desk late at night and asked to borrow his phone. Here is the picture of Pan's mother making the call that broke the case wide open. After she used his phone, she deleted the number from his phone. Were you able to find that number? Yes. The Marshals tracked the phone to this boarding house near Alabama State University in Montgomery. So you guys are closing in?
Starting point is 00:39:57 Yeah. They went out there with a small army, around 20 guys. They ended up finding his room, and they knocked on it, and he just came out and said, I'm who you're looking for. He had approximately $20,000 cash on him. He had his father's passport. Father's passport. And he had multiple communication devices on him.
Starting point is 00:40:19 So seven SIM cards. Seven SIM cards and the computer. Seven SIM cards, seven SIM cards and the computer. Pen was arrested for the murder of Kevin Jong and brought back to Connecticut. He maintained his innocence, but a judge ordered him held on a $20 million bond. Huge relief. His case was delayed by the pandemic, but investigators had amassed a trove of evidence. Remember that license plate imprint on Kevin's car? Police say it matched the plate on the bumper of the SUV Pan was driving when Kevin was rear-ended. And forensic tests revealed that Pan's
Starting point is 00:41:00 DNA was on the gun and ammo found outside Arby's, and Kevin's blood was also on Pan's hat, and the gear shift of the SUV Pan was driving the night Kevin was murdered. Was there anything missing? The murder weapon. Turns out the gun recovered at the Arby's was not the gun that was used to kill Kevin. Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Stacey Miranda.
Starting point is 00:41:27 Who knows where that murder weapon ended up? But there was so much other evidence that Pan's lawyer William Gerace recommended he cut a deal. Overwhelming evidence. Overwhelming evidence. On February 29, 2024, three years after Kevin's killing, Pan pled guilty to his murder in exchange for serving 35 years in prison without parole. And had he not been stuck on the railroad tracks,
Starting point is 00:41:59 this still might not be a self-case. We might not know who did this. Bring out Pan, please. At his sentencing in April, This could not be a soft case. We might not know who did this. Bring out Pan, please. At his sentencing in April, Pan sat silently as Kevin's loved ones and friends described their loss. By court order, the camera was fixed on him. Some of Kevin's mother's remarks were read by a family friend.
Starting point is 00:42:21 I was dreaming that Kevin would have a few beautiful children after getting married. This beautiful and joyful dream is destroyed. I am left alone by myself. I will never see Kevin smile again. Then Kevin's mother decided to speak. To charge the mother of Pan 35 years in prison is too short and too light. Pan never explained why he killed Kevin, but the only time he looked up was when Zion Perry
Starting point is 00:42:57 rose to speak. I wanted to address Pan specifically. Although your sentence is far less than you deserve, there is also mercy. May God have mercy on you, and may he have mercy on all of us. Then Pan briefly addressed the court. Your Honor, what I'm thinking about is my action and the horrible consequences.
Starting point is 00:43:28 I feel sorry for what my action has caused. And for everyone affected, I fully accept my penalties. The court is going to impose the agreed-upon sentence of 35 years. Finally, Judge Harmon passed sentence, and Pan was let away in handcuffs. Did you ever consider charging his parents? We couldn't charge him because we couldn't prove that they knew when they picked him up that he had committed a murder. So they might be lucky that they didn't find themselves charged as well.
Starting point is 00:44:02 100 percent. We reached out to Pan's parents for comment, but did not hear back. Now Kevin's friends are left to wonder what Kevin, a man of deep faith, might have thought about his killer. Do you think Kevin would have forgiven Pan? Yes. I do.
Starting point is 00:44:23 Without a doubt. Yeah. The officers visited Kevin's grave after they spoke to 48 Hours. Lieutenant Hubbard recalled her first time there, when she says she felt Kevin's presence. And did something happen? It was just like wind blew, you know? Did you feel like it was him? I felt like it was definitely different
Starting point is 00:44:50 as it's like a peace kind of like, I want you to carry on, don't be sad that I'm gone. Just keep going. KIN SHIN PAN is scheduled to be released in 2056 when he is 65 years old. Join me Tuesday for Post Mortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

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