The Ivy League Murder | Full Episode

[Music] [Music] 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 11th 2020 at Huntington Street in New Haven there's a report of five gunshots in the area the residence was

struck multiple times the house was occupied but nobody was hit when police responded they located multiple 45 caliber shell casings at the scene

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 into was occupied fortunately nobody was hit the residence was struck multiple times by gunfire nobody was

injured Patrol officers located one 45 caliber located 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 com down there was the caliber 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 our officers concerned that at some point someone is going to get hurt yes 8:30 Saturday night residents in the

East Rock neighborhood heard the distinct sound of gunfire on February 6th at around 8 :0 p.m. we get the report of a person shot

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 a ceas on the

scene we located 845 caliber shell casings there were a few 911 callers and saw a dark colored SUV Fleet the area a sense of shock and sadness has

settled on the Yale University Community after the Saturday night shooting death of grad student Kevin Gian 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 he's such a cutie he was just very happy person a very genuine Soul 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 oh wow he was so in love with Zion he was just like oh Zion this 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 there's a

shell casing by the 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 contract

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 and so you're going down the list of names nothing nothing nothing and then you're like whoa there's our connection

[Music]

[Music] it was a cold night in February 2021

when lead detective David zesi and his colleague Steven Cunningham arrived at the crime scene the patrol officers had already out there cing the area they were

knocking on doors looking for anyone that might have seen anything or heard anything 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 on scene covered in a white

sheet when you saw the body what did you see what we could see were contract wounds to his upper body and to his head and you can 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 100 ft down the street

there was a Prius just parked in the middle of the road with his hazards on 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 fender mender it's not a violent crash no there's not much damage one witness told detectives she

heard the sound of an accident and went to the window to look when they look out they see a 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 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 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 a someone that's laying on

the ground and and not moving 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 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 walk out of frame to approach the SUV you then hear two gunshots a scream and then six more [Music]

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 making model of of it with the tail lights but you couldn't discern any

identifying features 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 1 hour before Kevin jong's Mur 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 Nae White's home was the target of the third shooting we had just finished dinner I had a fire going Nae a school

teacher headed upstairs to take a shower Paul an educator with degrees from Yale Harvard and Columbia University was sitting downstairs all 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 Nene get down someone's shooting and then I heard bang pop again and I turn and I literally saw the frame of the door just splintered and then she

yells back at you right that that's someone 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 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 s 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 it could have been a road rage incident that turned a little too

violent or was Kevin Jong Ted the car accident was a 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] [Music]

it was late when detective zesi 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 his mother Lindo came to the door it's got to be the hardest conversation it is they always

are Hi Mom Happy Birthday you want to be direct and up front and make it clear as horrific as it is for them so he

explained to her that he was shot and killed in the area of Lawrence and nickol 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 yell University and was

in the Army National Guard Kevin was deeply religious 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 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 she posted the proposal on

Facebook oh wow this was just one week before he was

[Music] murdered he was so in love with Zion you could tell he didn't even have to really

say too much nausea hubard 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 genuiness and

his love towards her and I was like wow I hope I find someone like that Zion Perry grew up in Pennsylvania where she was an honors high school student a

couple met in January of 2020 when Zion was still an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT he said you know I met her at

Christian retreat and she's 's very kind and we enjoy talking and just have great conversations together then she uh came to do her PhD at Yale they clearly

shared a lot in common they both Lov nature I mean sence a scientist she's studying molecular biophysics and biochemistry so you know he was studying the 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 zesi 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 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 5 or 10 minutes after he' 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 being involved in anyway did she have any idea who would have done something like this at that point I know nothing that she

told us that she 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 that night yes we had a little bit but there wasn't a lot to go on I just had somebody drive through

my yard here how you doing but just 15 hours after the shooting what are you doing back here they got a huge break little did we know that we'd get the phone call the next day I just got in

here accidentally and I got stuck was like okay [Music] 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 so I text him and I was like answer your phone please and obviously he never answered

me Lieutenant hubard reached out to Captain Jamila a and of sharing the news about Kevin wasn't tragic enough someone posted the chilling video of his murder

online and his fellow soldiers now saw saw and heard Kevin's final moments alive to this day I can still hear him

yeah him screaming mhm yeah I was like why did I listen to that detective zoy 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 Argent and nearby North

Haven Police Department was urgent two incidents that 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 900 p.m.

less than a half hour after Kevin was killed I'm the uh security guard at uh Sims Metal Management I just had somebody drive through my yard here they

didn't know where they were going so I had been chasing them around the yard and they just pulled way in the back off the property like a black

minivan SUV type of thing police body cameras were rolling when Sergeant Jeffrey Mills and officer Marcus Ares spotted that vehicle stuck

on snow covered railroad tracks how doing not far from the rear exit of the Sims scrap metal yard they approached the driver stuck what are you doing back here

though I just got it here accidentally and I got stuck is there any way to get us stuck here uh the only thing I can do is call you a tow truck okay cool thanks

the motorist was 29-year-old kingin pan from Malden Massachusetts okay do you have your driver's license on you yes registration his driver's license and criminal background were clean during

the encounter Sergeant Mills noticed a yellow jacket on the passenger SE 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 so it's

nothing you think yeah he's he doesn't look like he's trying to scrap anything I mean no I've been on the tracks I don't know how many times with vehicles that were you know called into suspicious or whatever

but kids go back people always come down there according to the security guard and they turn around in the front lot and they leave cuz they missed the highway or something did he look nervous he wasn't nervous at all he was

perfectly calm so what what do you recommend I do I mean if I can get it off the track I prefer to drive 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 well have the tow truck drop you off the hotel you pay for a credit card and you can arrange pick it up the car in the morning

okay let's let's get the whole H then yeah let's do that if it is difficult that's probably the safest thing to do okay okay the tow truck came uh it took a little work but it got it off the

tracks he gave uh Mr pan a ride back to Best Western and I cleared the call like any other call but hours later there was another

call to 911 February 7th around 11:00 a.m. hello

can I help you it's the police department uh hello I work at r here in North Haven mhm we found a gun um and

probably like 10 boxes of um 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 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 Reef case 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 pen 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 um now we've got a firearm and then officer bian shows me a yellow jacket that was in it and and the suspect was wearing a

yellow jacket jacket so he might be best this this and when we got here I went in to

the front desk and spoke with the attendant there and asked the walks on pan it checked in which they checked it and said yes he did and 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 power and that matched the casings that were at the

scene zesi immediately sent detectives to meet Mills at the Best Western uh 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 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 a graduate student at

MIT right outside of Boston very aent homes there was no one there when we knocked them a door so day after the homicide we were unsure if maybe the

family um on vacation out of state out of the country but police were also worried

were they given the heinous act that occurred in New Haven the day before were they potentially kidnapped by their own son were they victims of another hor horrible crime

[Applause] with kinhin pan and his parents missing from their home detective David zesi 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 uh post was back in 2016 and he 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 Zion Perry Heaven 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 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 asking me so many questions about this guy what' you say to her she

was and that's what I told her 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 wow this is so pretty 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't aware of and that Zion wasn't aware

of the next day Zion Perry joined Kevin's mother Linda L and father Ming Shen Jong and nearly 700 people on a

virtual vigil for Kevin Zion addressed the mourners one day I will get to see Kevin again yeah in heaven and when everything

is made right I thank Miss Lou and Mr Jang for raising such a fine young man and for yeah bringing him into the

world he gave me a lot of Joy he's a very sful woman boy taking care of me

and uh 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

it began if this world falls apart it will be all right because we have each other's hearts a medical officer also trained trained to operate tanks Kevin was

buried with full military honors just 2 days before his 27th birthday on Valentine's Day meanwhile detective Galvin a member

of the US Marshall's fugitive task force in Connecticut along with supervisor Matthew Duffy and Deputy Marshall Kevin pero were utilizing their vast resources

to urgently gather intelligence on pan MIT graduate not socially active degree in computer science grad

student in artificial intelligence lawyer William J very smart genius genius socially not a genius the Marshalls 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 um he's going for a test drive I believe he said he's going on a camping trip investigators were able to match

the date of pans 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 he planned it and he knew we'd be looking at these other things yeah he did his best to yeah 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 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 on the on the ground the cell phone was crushed yeah like a car ran over it 3 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 nope police told them they suspected their son had killed someone were they shocked no they weren't shocked that

their son was being investigated in connection with a coldblooded murder they may have been there but they didn't they didn't lead on to us at all they didn't lead on to us at all the father

said our son called said he was in Connecticut and needed help he asked us to bring C Ash then once we picked him up in Connecticut he took the wheel and

then they take this very long drive down south F'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 just walked away from the car that was their story p 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 we know 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 what do you think of Pan's plan to mislead investigators see more of the evidence at 48 [Music]

hours.com 5 weeks passed without a solid lead on the MIT student wanted for Kevin jong's murder US Marshals are leading a nationwide manhunt this morning for the

and 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 it is

heightened then the man hunt 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 we start to see large sums of cash being withdrawn how much at that time was about 5,000 10,000 that's a large some 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 sou again 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 runup to Kevin's murder C attack tactics countertactics at one point surveillance cameras at

this Georgia mall recorded Pan's father purchasing a computer now this is during Co so everybody has their masks on we

see the father walk in and probably about 10 minutes later we see an individual fitting the description of the Sun so the story of the suicide out

in the woods that's that's not true so from there the parents end up TR back North once they're in Connecticut the

GPS comes back on we felt we felt the clock was really ticking and it ticked away for nearly two more months until May 4th

2021 when pans parents drove off for a third time but there was a difference they were traveling with another couple what do you think the deal was with the other couple yeah 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 where Marshall's interviewed a clerk after the pant checked out at one point kin Pan's Mother m came to the clerk's

desk late at night and asked to borrow his phone here is a 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 we were the marshals tracked the phone to this Boarding House near Alabama State University in

Montgomery see you guys are closing in 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 looking for he had uh approximately $20,000 cash on him he had his father's passport

father's passport and he had multiple communication devices on him so seven SIM cards seven SIM cards and um and a computer pan 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 test revealed that

Pan's 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 States Attorney Stacy Miranda who knows where that murder weapon ended up but there was so much other evidence that

Pan's lawyer William jeras recommended he cut a deal overwhelming evidence overwhelming evidence on

February 29 2024 3 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 this still might 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 I was dreaming that Kevin will 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 motheral p and 35 years in present is too short and too light Hanan never explained why he

killed Kevin but the only time he looked up was when Zion Perry 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 H what I'm thinking about is my

action and the horrible consequences I feel sorry for what my action is caused and for everyone

affected I fully accept my penalties court is going to impose the agreed upon sense of 35 years in finally judge Harmon passed sentence and pan was

led 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 was had

committed a murder so they might be lucky that they didn't find themselves charged as well 100% 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 without a doubt yeah the officers visited Kevin's grave

after they spoke to 48 Hours Lieutenant hubard recalled her first time there when she says she felt Kevin's

presence and did something happen is this like wind blew you know know did you feel like it was him um I felt like it was definitely

different as it's like a piece kind of like I want you to carry on don't be don't be sad that I'm gone just keep going

[Music] CBS next Saturday a mother vanishes Without a Trace she never would have left like this do you think D Warner was American yes can it be proved without a

body you don't get to get away with murder because you're good at disposing of bodies 48 hours is all new CBS next Saturday 109 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus