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In 1987, Jennifer Pandos, the 15-year-old daughter of Ron and Margie Pandos, disappeared. With her older brother Stephen away at college, the then-high school sophomore lived at home with her parents. According to investigators, she used to wake up at 6 in the morning to take a shower and get ready for school, but on the morning of February 10, 1987, Margie, Jennifer's mother, did not hear any sound from her room, prompting her to go check on her daughter.
Assuming that Jennifer had probably overslept, Margie pushed her room door to open it, only to find it locked. This was worrying, as the teenager never locked her door. Margie then woke up Ron and got him to pry the door open. It is then that they realized that Jennifer Pandos was missing and so was her purse.
She was never seen again.
Almost 30 years after her disappearance, Stephen Pandos, Jennifer's brother, gets the case reopened in the HBO documentary Burden of Proof, which premieres on June 6, 2023. The official synopsis of the docuseries reads:
"When 15-year-old Jennifer Pandos went missing in 1987, her parents told everyone she ran away. Decades later, her brother Stephen begins a relentless odyssey in search of the truth. His investigation into the case threatens to destroy his family as he becomes strongly convinced that his parents are both implicated in the crime."
The synopsis ends with:
"As time passes, more threads unravel and new evidence comes to light, Stephen starts to question everything he has come to believe."
Jennifer Pandos' case still remains an open and active missing persons case
Jennifer Pandos' whereabouts remain unknown even today, nearly three decades after her disappearance. James City County Deputy Chief, Steve Rubino revealed that the only evidence found in the case was a disturbing note left by Jennifer on her pillow. The note, surprisingly, began in the third person. It read:
"Your daughter's with me. She's fine. She's having some problems and needs time away."
Despite the note being continued in the same handwriting, the tense of it changed to first person immediately after the aforementioned lines. It then read:
"I'm fine, I just need time to think. Both of you please go to work tomorrow ‘cause I will try to call you. I won't call you at home, only at one of y'all's work. 'Do not call the police, I can easily find out if you do. I may never come back home. Don't tell my friends about this. Just tell them that I'm sick.
Talking about the puzzling case, Deputy Chief Steve Rubino revealed in a statement made to Dateline that Margie and Ron Pandos did not inform the police for at least three days after finding out about the note on Jennifer's pillow.
However, when police finally did have a look at the note, they theorized that Jennifer Pandos, being left-handed, had written the note with her right hand. There wasn't any suspicion of foul play or of a third party being involved as the handwriting on the note was "unpracticed" and "awkward".
Upon investigation into Jennifer's whereabouts, police found no other evidence apart from the note left by her. They also investigated Jennifer's ex-boyfriend, Tony Tobler, as her neighbors and friends reported that the duo had been going through a rough patch in their relationship. However, after several interviews and polygraph tests, Tobler was not deemed a suspect in the case.
Deputy Chief Rubino told Dateline that investigators still continue to find new evidence pertaining to the case and have since undertaken numerous interviews, cadaver dog searches, and polygraph examinations. However, the Deputy Chief confirmed “there’s never been any evidence to explain her disappearance” and “her body has not been recovered.”
Since the disappearance, the Pandos family has moved away from Williamsburg, but they still keep their hopes alive to find Jennifer someday.
HBO confirms that Burden of Proof docuseries will see new evidence come to light regarding Jennifer Pandos' disappearance
The new HBO documentary, Burden of Proof, will see Stephen Pandos, Jennifer Pandos' brother, get his sister's disappearance case reopened and embark on his own journey to solve the baffling incident. Based on its trailer, the documentary will feature not only testimonials and interviews with Jennifer's parents, but also see Stephen confront his estranged parents.
In the trailer, Stephen points his finger at his parents, claiming that when it came to Jennifer's disappearance, his parents did not tell him anything and instead kept quiet. He's also of the opinion that there was foul play involved in the case as far as his parents were concerned, and he has even wanted to sue them for the same. His suspicions stem from the parents' inability to report the disappearance earlier and also the fact that both the parents had failed the initial polygraph tests.
It is also revealed in the trailer that the docuseries will see new evidence about the case come to light as the series explores the shocking 'troublesome' and 'problematic' past of Jennifer Pandos before her eventual disappearance.
The four-part docuseries Burden of Proof premieres on June 6, 2023, only on HBO.
