He planned perfect crime, but AI researcher’s made one mistake

Qinxuan Pan, a former MIT AI researcher, meticulously plotted what he believed to be the perfect murder, but a small mistake during his escape led to his downfall.

Pan, 34, was convicted of killing Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang in 2021, a crime that sent authorities on a months-long manhunt before his eventual arrest. His elaborate plan involved multiple shootings to mislead investigators, but a fateful error—getting his SUV stuck on train tracks—put him on law enforcement’s radar.

A calculated crime

Pan shot Jiang eight times after rear-ending his car in New Haven, Connecticut, just one week after Jiang’s fiancée, Zion Perry, announced their engagement on Facebook. Investigators later discovered that Pan, who had a distant acquaintance with Perry from MIT, was secretly obsessed with her.

Detectives believe Pan orchestrated a series of previous shootings in an attempt to create a pattern of gun violence in the area, making Jiang’s murder appear random.

The getaway gone wrong

After the killing, Pan fled but soon got his SUV stuck on railroad tracks. A responding officer helped him arrange a tow and a hotel stay, unaware of the murder. Hours later, a gun and bullets matching the crime scene were found near the hotel, alerting authorities. By then, Pan had vanished.

With the help of U.S. Marshals, investigators tracked Pan’s parents, who were moving large sums of money and had taken him south. His mother’s phone call from a hotel ultimately exposed his hiding place in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was arrested with cash, multiple devices, and his father’s passport.

Justice served

Pan pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison in April 2024. Jiang’s mother and fiancée expressed disappointment at the length of the sentence, believing it to be too lenient for the murder of an innocent man.

Despite the tragic loss, friends of Jiang—who was deeply religious—believe he would have forgiven his killer.