Did a secret obsession lead an MIT “genius” to mastermind the murder of a Yale grad student?

It was a cold night in February 2021 when lead detective David Zaweski and his colleague Steven Cunningham arrived at the crime scene.

Det. David Zaweski: The patrol officers had already been out there canvassing the area. They were knocking on doors looking for anyone that might’ve seen anything or heard anything.

Det. David Zaweski: The crime scene detectives were starting to locate all the, uh, shell casings.

Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old Yale graduate student, was lying in the street, shot eight times.

Det. David Zaweski: His body was still on scene … covered in a white sheet.

Anne-Marie Green: When you saw the body … what did you see?

Det. David Zaweski: 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 —

Det. David Zaweski: There was a Prius just parked in the middle of the road with its 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. 

Det. David Zaweski: There was an impression that was left on the back bumper that looked like a license plate holder.

Anne-Marie Green: So, this is like a fender bender. It’s not a violent crash.

Det. David Zaweski: No. There’s not much damage.

One witness told detectives she heard the sound of an accident and went to the window to look.

Det. David Zaweski: When they look out, they see a Prius come to a stop and put its hazards on. They see a dark colored SUV pull up behind it and then reverse back toward 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.

Det. David Zaweski: 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.

Det. David Zaweski: But she sees someone standing over another person, which means the victim is already down. And they’re still shooting.

Det. David Zaweski: Yes.

Anne-Marie Green: What did you think?

Det. David Zaweski: There’s a little bit more to it. It seems a little bit more personal. When you have someone laying on the ground 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.  

Det. David Zaweski: It was located on the inside of a window, facing outward.

Det. David Zaweski: We hear the collision between the two cars.

Det. David Zaweski: And 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.

Det. David Zaweski: You then hear two gunshots.

Det. David Zaweski: A scream.

Det. David Zaweski: And then six more gunshots.

Moments later, the video shows the SUV driving off into the night.

Anne-Marie Green: Can you make out any details when it comes to the SUV?

Det. David Zaweski: 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.

WERE RANDOM SHOOTINGS IN NEW HAVEN RELATED?

Investigators soon felt the dark SUV and the .45 caliber shells recovered at the scene pointed to a potential link to 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’s murder.

Det. David Zaweski: 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.

Paul Whyte (points out where the bullets came in): Two bullets came in from this window and ended up in this wall.

Paul and Nyree Whyte’s home was the target of the third shooting.

Paul Whyte: 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.

Paul Whyte: 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.

Paul Whyte: Get down. Someone’s shooting.

Nyree Whyte: And then I heard bang-pop again and I turn, and I literally saw the frame of the door just splinter.

Anne-Marie Green: And then she yells back at you.

Paul Whyte: Right, that someone’s shooting upstairs.

It was over in a matter of moments and no one was injured.

Anne-Marie Green: Do you feel lucky?

Paul Whyte: Yes.

Nyree Whyte: Absolutely.

Paul Whyte: Absolutely.

Detectives interviewed the Whytes and the occupants of the other houses.

Det. David Zaweski: There didn’t seem to be any connection between them.

And none of them, investigators say, had any connection to Kevin Jiang. But the shell casings from all the shootings would later tell a different story.

Det. David Zaweski: 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.

Det. David Zaweski: It could have been a road rage incident that turned a little too violent.

Or was Kevin targeted?

Det. Steven Cunningham: The car accident … was it deliberate … to get him out of the vehicle … Possibly something that was planned.

Det. David Zaweski: And if he was specifically targeted, what could have happened in his life to drive someone to do this?

SURVEILLANCE VIDEO CAPTURES KEVIN JIANG’S FINAL MOMENTS

It was late when detectives Zaweski and Cunningham left the crime scene on Feb. 6. They went to Kevin’s home looking to find a family member to notify about what had happened. His mother, Linda Liu, came to the door.

Anne-Marie Green: It’s got to be the hardest conversation.

Det. David Zaweski: It is. They always are.

Det. David Zaweski: You want to be direct and upfront and make it clear. As horrific as it is … for them. … So, we explained to her that he was shot and killed in the area of Lawrence and Nichols Street in New Haven.

Anne-Marie Green: Can she even comprehend that?

Det. David Zaweski: 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. Liu began to tell them about her son.

Det. David Zaweski: It was just the two of them. And he was actually supporting her.

Det. David Zaweski: She told us that he was a grad student at Yale 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 Liu, a divorced single parent,  got Kevin through a tough childhood where he was often bullied.

Pastor Gregory Hendrickson: 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 a house in 2019 and Hendrickson says he invited his mother to come live with him.

Pastor Gregory Hendrickson: 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 then that Jiang had recently gotten engaged to his girlfriend of a year, Zion Perry. She posted the proposal on Facebook. This was just one week before he was murdered.

Nasya Hubbard: He was so in love with Zion — you could tell — he didn’t even have to really say too much.

Nasya Hubbard served with Kevin in the Army National Guard.

Nasya Hubbard: I — oh my gosh. … 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.

Perry grew up in Pennsylvania, where she was an honors high school student. The couple met in January 2020 when Zion was still an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.

Pastor Gregory Hendrickson: He said, you know … I met her at Christian Retreat … she is very kind and we enjoy talking and um, just have great conversations together. … then she, uh, came to do her PhD at Yale.

Pastor Gregory Hendrickson: They clearly shared a lot of common — they both loved nature. … I mean, Zion was … a scientist … she is 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.

Zaweski and Cunningham then interviewed an emotional Perry, and she told them she and Kevin had spent the day together.

Det. David Zaweski: 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 Perry’s house — close enough for Perry to hear the gunshots that followed.

Det. David Zaweski: She remembers hearing the gunshots, but she thought there was a good five or ten 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 being involved in any way.

Anne-Marie Green: Did she have any idea who would have done something like this?

Det. Steven Cunningham: At that point, no. Nothing that she told us that she — she could think of.

After speaking with Perry, detectives were no closer to figuring out why Kevin would be a target.

Det. Steven Cunningham: It seemed like just an innocent — innocent guy.

Anne-Marie Green: Did you think this was gonna be a tough case though?

Det. David Zaweski:  That night —

Det. Steven Cunningham: Yes.

Det. David Zaweski: — 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.

Det. David Zaweski:  Little did we know that we’d get the phone call …

Det. Steven Cunningham: And it was like, wow.

THE MAN STUCK ON THE TRAIN TRACKS

News of Kevin Jiang’s murder spread among his loved ones and closest friends.

Nasya Hubbard: And 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 then … like, 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.

Hubbard reached out to Capt. Jamila Ayeh. And if sharing the news about Jiang 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.

Nasya Hubbard: … to this day. … I can still hear him — hear him screaming … I was like, why did I listen to that?

Detectives Zaweski and Cunningham were back at their desks in headquarters, struggling for answers and leads to pursue.

Anne-Marie Green: Day two … you get a phone call.

Det. David Zaweski: Yes.

The call, from a sergeant at nearby North Haven Police Department, was urgent.

Det. David Zaweski: … 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.

911 CALL: I’m the, uh, security guard at … Sims Metal Management.  … I just had somebody drive through my yard here … they didn’t know where they were going. … So I’ve been chasing them around the yard and, uh, they just pulled way in the back, off the property … it’s like a black minivan, SUV type of thing.

Sergeant Jeffrey Mills and Officer Marcus Artaiz responded and spotted that vehicle stuck on snow-covered railroad tracks, not far from the rear exit of the Sims scrap metal yard. They approached the driver.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: How you doing?

QINXUAN PAN: I’m stuck.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: Oh, yeah. What are you doing back here?

QINXUAN PAN: Stuck here.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: What are you doing back here, though?

QINXUAN PAN: I just got it here accidentally, and I got stuck. … Is there any way to get unstuck here?

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: Uh, the only thing I can do is call you a tow truck.

QINXUAN PAN: OK, cool. Thanks.

The motorist was 29-year-old Qinxuan Pan from Malden, Massachusetts.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: OK. Do you have your driver’s license on you?

QINXUAN PAN: Yes.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: Registration?

QINXUAN PAN: Yes. You can take this. OK.

His driver’s license and criminal background were clean. During the encounter, Mills noticed a yellow jacket on the passenger seat. He also saw a blue bag and a briefcase in the backseat, but not much else.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS (bodycam): He took a wrong turn. … He got lost, and he thought the Jeep was probably chasing him, the security guy.

Because Sgt. Mills hadn’t heard about Kevin’s murder, he wasn’t particularly concerned.

OFFICER MARCUS ARTAIZ (bodycam): So, it’s nothing you think?

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: Yeah, he’s —                               

OFFICER MARCUS ARTAIZ: He doesn’t look like he’s got any scrap on him or anything.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: No.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: 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 there … people always come down there, um, according to the security guard … and they turn around in the front lot and they leave ’cause they missed the highway or something.

Anne-Marie Green: Yeah. Did he look nervous?

 

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: He wasn’t nervous at all … He was perfectly calm.

QINXUAN PAN (bodycam): 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.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: He was just like, well sorry. I got stuck on the tracks can you help me get off?

OFFICER MARCUS ARTAIZ (bodycam): So how about you get a hotel for the night. We’ll have the tow truck drop you off at the hotel and you pay with credit card and you can arrange pick it up the car in the morning.

QINXUAN PAN: OK, let’s get the hotel then.

OFFICER MARCUS ARTAIZ (bodycam):: Yeah let’s do that.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: That’s probably the safest thing to do.

QINXUAN PAN: OK.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS: OK.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: The tow truck came, uh, took a little work, but it got it off the tracks. … he gave, uh, Mr. Pan, uh, ride back to Best Western and I cleared the call like any other call.

But hours later, there was another call to 911.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: February 7th, around 11:00 a.m.

911 OPERATOR: Hello. Can I help you? … This is the police department.

CALLER: Uh hello, I work at Arby’s here in North Haven.

911 OPERATOR: Mm hmm.

ARBY’S EMPLOYEE: … we found a gun … and probably like, uh, 10 boxes of, um –

911 OPERATOR: Bullets?

ARBY’S EMPLOYEE: … bullets.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: An employee found a couple of bags on the grass at the north entrance here. When they brought ’em in …

OFFICER #1 (bodycam): There were three bags … this one, that one, and this.

OFFICER #2: Got it.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: I took a better look at the bags that it came in … And here’s a … blue retail bag with the Massachusetts logo on it and a small leather black briefcase. And it instantly hit me. These are the bags that were in Mr. Pan’s car the night before.

The Arby’s was right next door to the Best Western where Pan was dropped off. And by then, Mills had heard about the murder in New Haven.

Anne-Marie Green (with Mills outside Arby’s): What’s going through your brain?

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: 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 Bianchi shows me a yellow jacket that was in it … And the suspect was wearing a yellow jacket.

SGT. JEFFREY MILLS (bodycam): So, he might be at Best Western right now.

OFFICER #1: Let’s go over there.

OFFICER #2: I’m gonna go over there.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: And when we got here I went in to the front desk and spoke with the attendant there and asked if Qinxuan Pan had checked in. Which they checked and said yes he did … I mean he hasn’t checked out yet.

That’s when Mills alerted New Haven homicide about Pan.

Anne-Marie Green: Do you immediately think there might be a connection with the homicide?

Det. David Zaweski: 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 and that matched the casings that were at the scene.

Zaweski immediately sent detectives to meet Mills at the Best Western.

Sgt. Jeffrey Mills: Uh so we got a key, went to room 276 … We knocked on the door, we entered the room. And 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 him.

New Haven police sent investigators, including Detective Joe Galvan, to track down Pan. Galvan went to Malden, Massachusetts, where Pan lived with his parents and was a graduate student at MIT.

 —

Det. Joe Galvan: … right outside of Boston …very affluent homes … There’s no one there. … so we knock on the door. … So … the day after the homicide, we were unsure if, uh, maybe the family, um, was on vacation. … out of state, out of the country.

But police were also worried.

Det. Joe Galvan: … 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?

WAS AN OBSESSION A MOTIVE FOR MURDER?

With Qinxuan Pan and his parents missing from their home, Detective David Zaweski turned to his computer searching for Pan.

Det. David Zaweski: The first thing I wanna know is, who he is … and if there’s any connection between him and Kevin. … I see that he has a Facebook page.

Anne-Marie Green: What was his page like? 

Det. David Zaweski: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: Is that when you first found out that he’s an MIT grad student?

Det. David Zaweski: Yes that was the first time we got the connection between him and MIT.

Det. David Zaweski: So, I check his friends list to see if Kevin is in there.

Anne-Marie Green: Is he?

Det. David Zaweski: Kevin is not listed, but I do notice that Zion Perry is listed.

Zion Perry, Kevin’s fiancee, who also went to MIT.

Det. David Zaweski: Now we have a connection … I got in contact with her. … she explained that they had met at MIT back in, uh, 2019. And they were more associates than friends.

Anne-Marie Green: Nothing romantic?

Det. David Zaweski: No. … She said that they never dated, they never had any romantic relationship.

Det. David Zaweski: 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.

Anne-Marie Green: She must have been wondering why you asking me so many questions about this guy. What’d you say to her?

Det. David Zaweski: She was, and that’s when 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’ve been involved with this in any way.

Anne-Marie Green: What did she have posted on her page?

Det. David Zaweski: The last things that she had posted were the engagement between her and Kevin.

Anne-Marie Green: Are you starting to formulate a theory about the case that goes a little beyond possible road rage?

Det. David Zaweski: Yes …  It did seem like there was a secret obsession of Pan’s 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 Lui, and father, Mingchen Jiang, and nearly 700 people on a virtual vigil for Kevin. Perry addressed the mourners.

ZION PERRY: One day, I — I will get to see … Kevin again, yeah, in heaven and then everything is made right … I thank Miss Liu and Mr. Jiang for raising such a fine young man and for, yeah, bringing him into the world.

LINDA LIU: He gave me a lot of joy. He’s very thoughtful, warm boy taking care of me. And, uh, I miss him.

MINGCHEN JIANG: He’s a nice boy. Everybody likes him. (CRYING) Thank you. … Thank you, you all.

That week, Pastor Hendrickson eulogized Kevin at his funeral.

Pastor Gregory Hendrickson: We come to you today, remembering Kevin, grateful for his life, grieving over his loss.

Perry read a poem Kevin wrote to her. It began –

Zion Perry: “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, Galvan, a member of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Connecticut — along with supervisor Matthew Duffy and Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault — were utilizing their vast resources to urgently gather intelligence on Pan.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: MIT graduate … not socially active … degree in computer science.

Lawyer William Gerace.

William Gerace: … grad student … in artificial intelligence.

Anne-Marie Green: Genius? 

William Gerace: 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.

Det. Joe Galvan: He would tell them all the same thing. … um, said he was 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 that they would think Kevin’s murder was just another random shooting.

Det. Steve Cunningham: … he planned it … and he knew we’d be looking at these other things.

Det. David Zaweski: Yeah he did his best to … to mislead us. 

Det. David Zaweski: 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 withdrawl of about $1,000.

William Gerace: They had tremendous assets somehow from Shanghai.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: Access to large sums of money … several million dollars.

The Marshals zeroed in on Pan’s parents and picked up a ping on their phone at a North Carolina gas station.

Det. Joe Galvan: Our task force … found it on — on the … on the ground.

The cellphone was crushed.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: Like a car ran over it.

Three days later, investigators caught up with Pan’s parents driving near Atlanta, Georgia.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: Georgia state police pulled them over.

Anne-Marie Green: He’s not in the vehicle.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: Nope.

Police told them they suspected their son had killed someone.

Anne-Marie Green: Were they shocked?

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: No.

Anne-Marie Green: They weren’t shocked that their son was being investigated in connection with the cold-blooded murder.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: They may have been, but they didn’t — they didn’t lead on to us at all. They didn’t lead on to us at all.

Det. Joe Galvan: The father said our son called, said he was in Connecticut and needed help. He asked us to bring cash. Then once we picked him up in Connecticut, he took the wheel. … they take this very long drive down south …

Pan’s father didn’t say why his son was heading that direction.

Det. Joe Galvan: And he says he is quiet, acting weird. Doesn’t really say what’s going on. … //they make it down to Georgia and … 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

Pan’s parents agreed to be photographed. Pan’s mother declined to answer any questons 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.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: 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 …

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: … we needed to focus in on the parents … they probably would lead us to him.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: … they would go to the ends of the earth to help support and hide him.

Anne-Marie Green: And what does that mean?

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: 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?

UNRAVELING QINXUAN PAN’S PLOT

Five weeks passed without a solid lead on the MIT student wanted for Kevin Jiang’s murder.

Anne-Marie Green: Can you give me a real sense of the pressure.

Det. Joe Galvan: Yeah, because this became so high profile so fast … it was — 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.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: We start to see large sums of cash being withdrawn.

Anne-Marie Green: How much?

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: At that time it was about $5,000, $10,000.

Det. Joe Galvan: That’s a large sum of money that someone could use to get out the country.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: They still have family in China.

And then Pan’s parents rented a car.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: And they start traveling south again.

But the vehicle’s GPS system the Marshals were tracking went dark.

Anne-Marie Green: Did they turn it off?

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: 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.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: Counter tactics.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: Counter tactics …

At one point, surveillance cameras at a Georgia mall recorded Pan’s father purchasing a computer.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: Now this is during COVID. 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 son. … So, the story of the suicide out in the woods … that’s — that’s not true.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: So from there … the parents end up traveling back north and —

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: Once they’re in Connecticut, the GPS comes back on.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: We felt — 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.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: They were traveling with another couple …

Anne-Marie Green: What do you think the deal was with the other couple?

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: Yeah, make it appear that it’s a regular trip … There’s no big deal, we’re just going on a trip, 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 Marshals interviewed a clerk after the Pans checked out.

Det. Joe Galvan: At one point … Quixuan Pan’s mother. … came to the clerk’s desk late at night and asked to borrow his phone. 

Det. Joe Galvan: After she used his phone, she deleted the number from his phone.

Anne-Marie Green: Were you able to find that number?

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: Yes.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: We were.

The Marshals tracked the phone to a boarding house near the University of Alabama in Montgomery.

Anne-Marie Green: So, you guys are closing in —

Det. Joe Galvan: Yeah.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: They went 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.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: He had, uh, approximately $20,000 cash on him. He had his father’s passport … And he had had multiple communication devices on him.

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: Seven SIM cards —

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: Seven SIM cards and um —

Supervisory Marshal Matthew Duffy: — and the computer.

Pan was arrested for the murder of Kevin Jiang and brought back to Connecticut. He maintained his innocence, but a judge ordered him held on $20 million bond.

Deputy Marshal Kevin Perreault: 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 DNA was on the gun and ammo found outside Arby’s…and Kevin’s blood was also on Pan’s hat, and on the gear shift of the SUV pan was driving the night Kevin was murdered.

Anne-Marie Green: Was there anything missing?

Stacey Miranda: The murder weapon.

Turns out, the gun recovered at the Arby’s was not the gun that was used to kill Kevin.

“Who knows where that murder weapon ended up,” said Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Stacey Miranda.

But there was so much other evidence that Pan’s lawyer William Gerace recommended he cut a deal.

William Gerace: Overwhelming evidence. Overwhelming evidence.

On Feb. 29, 2024, three years after Kevin’s killing, Pan pleaded guilty to his murder in exchange for serving 35 years in prison without parole.

Stacey Miranda: … and had he not been stuck on the railroad tracks, this still might not be a solved case. We might not know who did this.

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.

ESTHER: 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. (emotional)

Then Kevin’s mother decided to speak.

LINDA LIU: To charge the murderer, 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 rose to speak.

ZION PERRY: I wanted to address Pan specifically.  … Although your sentence ifs 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.

QINXUAN PAN: Your honor, um, what I’m thinking about is my action and the horrible consequences. …  I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected … I fully accept my penalties.

JUDGE HARMON: Court is gonna impose the agreed upon sentence of 35 years.

Finally, Judge Harmon passed sentence, and Pan was led away in handcuffs.

Anne-Marie Green: Did you ever consider charging his parents?

Stacey Miranda: We couldn’t charge them … because we couldn’t prove that they knew when they picked him up that he was — had committed a murder.

Anne-Marie Green: So they might be lucky that they didn’t find themselves charged as well.

Stacey Miranda: 100%.

“48 Hours” 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.

Anne-Marie Green: Do you think Kevin would’ve forgiven Pan?

Nasya Hubbard: Yes  … I do.

Capt. Jamila Ayeh: Without a doubt.

Nasya Hubbard: Yeah.

The officers visited Kevin’s grave after they spoke to “48 Hours.” Hubbard recalled her first time there when she says she felt Kevin’s presence.

Anne-Marie Green: And did something happen? 

Nasya Hubbard: It’s just like wind blew, you know? And I was —

Anne-Marie Green: Did you feel like it was him?

Nasya Hubbard: Um, I felt like it was definitely different, as if like a peace kind of like, I want you to carry on, don’t be — don’t be sad that I’m gone. … Just keep going.

Qinxuan Pan is scheduled to be released in 2056, when he is 65 years old.

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Produced by Murray Weiss. Emma Steele is the field producer. Elena DiFiore, Marc Goldbaum and David Dow are the development producers. Gary Winter and George Baluzy  are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.