On February 10, 1987, Margie Pandos did not hear the shower running, which was unusual because her daughter, 15-year-old Jennifer Lynn Pandos, should have been getting ready for school. Jennifer was a sophomore at Lafayette High School in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the family lived in the Kingsmill area of Williamsburg.
Margie and her husband, Ron, knocked on Jennifer’s bedroom door, but she didn’t answer. They tried opening the door, only to discover somebody had locked it. The parents forced their way into their daughter’s bedroom, but their daughter was not there.
Lying on Jennifer’s bed was a note.
“Your daughter’s with me. She’s fine. She’s having some problems and needs some time away.”
The author then changed to a first-person narrative.
“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.”
The parents immediately noticed the last part of the note was not Jennifer’s handwriting. They looked around the room and noticed that the only item Jennifer took with her was her purse, no other personal belongings.
A Venetian blind in Jennifer’s room appeared as if someone had been peering out, either waiting for another person or ensuring nobody was around.
Jennifer appeared to have left her home through a sliding glass door on the patio.
Margie and Ron followed Jennifer’s instructions but notified the police when she didn’t call. For the next several months, family members went door-to-door handing out fliers, trying to find anyone who might have seen Jennifer.
About a month after she disappeared, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children took up Jenny’s case, sending her photograph across the country.
Tips started coming in but did not lead anywhere.
Police believed that Jennifer, who was left-handed, wrote part of the note with her right hand. The handwriting looked like a child wrote it, suggesting the writer used the opposite hand to write the message.
Police labeled Jennifer a runaway and believed she voluntarily left her home that night. As time passed, though, they feared she met with foul play at some point. She never made contact with her family.
The reason Jennifer would have left voluntarily remains a mystery. There were no problems at home, and Jennifer did not abuse drugs or alcohol. She was not involved in any fights with her parents or friends, although she might have been distraught over a break-up with her boyfriend, Tony Tobler.
In 1989, a Pennsylvania man said he had been with a prostitute in New York City who told him her last name was Pandos. The girl had been working the streets for about a year, and someone had apparently beaten her. Detectives were unable to confirm the sighting.
Jennifer remains missing, and the police are still investigating her case.
As far as I can tell, it appears that Jennifer’s parents are still alive. Her mom now lives in North Carolina, and her father is in Texas.
Update:” ‘What does that do to you?’: the man who thought his parents killed his sister.”
True Crime Diva’s Thoughts
I think it’s possible Jennifer was abducted. I don’t believe she ran away, and I especially don’t believe she ran away over a boy (over the break-up with her boyfriend). The note was written by her kidnapper, who I believe was known to Jennifer. I don’t believe she wrote any of that note because why would she write with the opposite hand? It doesn’t make sense because she was writing it to her parents. There would be no point in trying to disguise the handwriting. It could very well have been the kidnapper writing with the opposite hand so nobody would recognize HIS handwriting, which means, in my opinion, he was worried about the parents identifying it. But then again, why write it in 3rd person, to begin with, and NOT disguise the handwriting? Could the 2nd part of the note have been written by a female other than Jennifer? Say, one of Jennifer’s friends who was worried Margie and Ron would recognize her handwriting?
If you really look at the note, a few things stand out. For one, if Jennifer had written it, she would have addressed it to “Mom and Dad.” Second, she would have written the entire note with her left hand AND in the first person. Third, the first part states, “She’s with me,” as if the parents would know right away who it was, yet never said who “me” was. Finally, it says not to tell her friends what was going on. Why would she not want her friends to know? Was it because her friends knew something, and the writer was worried one of them would spill the beans? The note doesn’t make much sense.
The boyfriend, Tony, is key here, I think. He either took part in it or knows who did. Maybe he killed her out of jealousy—the if-I-can’t-have-you-nobody-will scenario. I really don’t know his role in this, but I feel he has an important one. I would really like to know what he was doing the night Jennifer disappeared.
One thing that is possible, and this is IF she voluntarily left her home that night, is that Jennifer was pregnant. She did have a boyfriend, so maybe they had sex before. Maybe the boyfriend wanted to talk to her about the baby the night she disappeared. She left with him, and he killed her because he didn’t want a baby. They were both very young. Having a kid is a lot of responsibility. Some teens can handle it; others can’t. It’s happened before, unfortunately, so why couldn’t it happen here?
If, and that’s a big IF, in my eyes, she did leave her home voluntarily that night, she had every intention of coming home that night. She didn’t take any personal belongings with her other than her purse. If, in fact, the note is true, then she would have taken clothes with her. It was obvious from the note that the intention was for Jennifer to be gone for a few days. And if the part were true about possibly never going home, she definitely would have taken belongings with her. The fact that no clothes, money, etc., were taken tells me the note was a lie to throw the parents and police off.
And let’s not forget this. Jennifer disappeared in February, so it would have been cold the night she left, yet she didn’t take a coat. Only her purse. Even if she didn’t plan on being gone other than for a few minutes or hours, she would have taken her coat. She didn’t. The mean temperature for that month and year was 37 degrees.
Jennifer’s bedroom door was locked. Her parents believe she left through the patio door. If she did leave that way, what was the point of locking her bedroom door? Hell, even if she went out of the bedroom window, why lock the door?
I couldn’t find anything about Jennifer’s friends except one, and she no longer went to school with Jennifer at the time of her disappearance. If she ran away, you could bet your ass one of her friends knew the details surrounding it. And if Jennifer did, in fact, run away, surely she would have made contact by now. I don’t think she had it in her to let her parents worry so much for so long. What is odd about the whole friend thing is that none of her friends were interviewed in any article I read other than the friend from the old school Jennifer attended. It’s the same about Toby. I find that really strange. Usually, the friends are dying to help in the search, and sometimes there is one loyal friend who will spend her life searching for her missing friend.
I also found it strange that there is not one Facebook page set up, or even a website, for Jennifer either. It’s like nobody cared about this young girl. There is just something off about this case. Even if she were a runaway, people would still be looking for her, wouldn’t they? As a parent, I know I would search and search until I found my child. And if I never did, it would not have been for lack of trying.
Sources: The Charley Project, Daily Press
18 comments
I’ve read several situations where in the death of a child or a child goes missing, the parents split. Maybe she was the focal point of their marriage, & when she went missing, they no longer had anything in common. Or the blame game got so bad that they couldn’t take it. Idk. The bedroom door being locked is strange. Was the patio door in her room? Or did she lock it from the outside then shut it, but then why? I’ve gone outside for a quick second or two in the cold without a coat on, any longer than that & I’m going back in. The note seems staged. All the back and forth & switching between persons. Who could have gotten her out of the house at that hour & with no clothes or coat. I’ll have to admit its strange for the parents to move away especially if it’s no closure to the case.
Jennifer lived in Kingsmill.This is the richest community in Williamsburg,Virgnia.The Beverly Hills so to speak.The parents know more than what they have said.I never heard about Jennifer missing unlike the disappearance of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey.Why is that?
I have a feeling the parents know more than what they’re saying. Maybe an accident?? I know damn well if my child went missing I would never leave that city much less 2 years later… what the heck? What if she tried to come back?
Guess they knew she was not coming back.
I totally agree with you. There has got to be more to this. Just so sad.
I was not a friend of Jennifer’s nor did I have any classes with her, although I was a sophomore at her high school at that time. For the people who say that her family and friends were not worried, you are way off. Her picture was in the paper, and her parents were putting out flyers all over. I actually remember one of her friends wrote a very touching piece in the paper about missing her friend. I wish I still had a copy of that. If I remember correctly friends were questioned. As for the parents I believe that they did not just except it, but there was so little to go on. My feeling is that Jennifer met up with somebody who may have been older. Probably somebody who offered sympathy at a bad time. It happens to young girls all the time today. However without the internet in the 80’s it was not as easy to trace as it is today. That’s only a theory on my part, yet I have often thought that.
I was the friend of Jennifer’s that wrote the poem that was published in the newspaper after her disappearance. I was never questions by an actual investigator but I was harassed by the JCC Police. They swore that I knew something and I didn’t. I use to drive around at night looking for her after I would get off of work. I would cry and cry. It was just so devastating to me at almost 17 years old. I sure hope that one day they solve this mystery. I think of her daily.
Hi Wendy, Jennifer Pandos was my cousin. I live in PA and she would often come to visit her grandmother and we would have sleep overs and spend weeks together in the summer. Jennifer’s grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. From what we understand, her parents never even told her grandmother that she was missing because they didn’t want her to worry ( she was older at the time and passed away never knowing). It is very strange. We heard from her father that there were possible sightings of her, but those leads never turned into any info. My sister and I remember her grandmother telling us than Jenny called her and asked if she could come live with her, but we couldn’t be sure of the exact time frame, whether it was before or after she went missing, because like I said…they never told her grandmother she was missing in the first place? I’m sorry you had to go through the loss of a friend at such a young age. We no longer have contact with her mother or father. It is a mystery…..
Hi Wendy, I was Jennifer’s cousin. I tried to send you a private message on facebook after I saw what you posted on here. I tried to reply to this last night, but it didn’t post for some reason? Jenny used to visit her grandmother in PA where I am from and we would spend 2 weeks together every summer. We didn’t find out she was missing until way after the fact….very strange. I have a lot to say, but I’ll wait to see if I hear back from you first. I’m so sorry you had to lose a friend at such a young age, under such unimaginable circumstance. It remains a mystery, but I wonder things too….
The note is strange I think her parents are some how involved. Maybe they accidental killed her in a argument . To just move away and divorce is just strange I wonder if she had siblings ? Her story always gets me thinking where can she be ? I also think the note is to throw people off about don’t call the police I’ll find out really how can her-parents not think for them selves that they do what the note said and not call police did there daughter really have that power if my child was missing I’ll call police and anyone I want I would not do what a darn note says come on who else thinks it’s weird?
Totally agree with you!! 🙂
I totally agree that the brother has something to do with her disappearance. He is a “hot head” who still thinks the laws do not apply to him. He presents himself well, but behind it all is a very disturbed man who I have no doubt could do something so horrendous and get away with it. He is a real life “catch me if you can”. Why has he never been mentioned?
Jennifer had an older brother who I knew to be a hothead. I’ve always suspected him as being central to her disappearance.
Maybe she was having a psychotic episode. The note just seems so odd to me like worrying about what her friends think. I suspect she wasn’t in her right mind when she wrote it. This is similar to the Katrina Nash case. Remember Elisa lam how she was looking strangely out the elevator and all that weird behavior.I’d like more information. There’s not much out there.
This story is very odd. I feel like she was lured from the house by someone she knew. If I think that someone I know wants me to come out for a second or two I might be in too much a hurry and just go out with a jacket.
Perhaps that was her in NYC and the people who took her knew her well enough to stage the note and bedroom so the parents wouldn’t think of it being strange enough to call the police asap. I can see how a kid kidnapped into a sex ring can try to reach out to someone if she’s trying to get help. Then again, maybe the guy who came forward something to do with her going missing.
I also find it strange on the parents part, I don’t know why but I just do.
I’ve been researching this case for a long time. I live in the state where she went missing and am familiar with the area. I too find the note extremely odd. It makes no sense to me that someone would change the letter from sounding like her to sounding like someone else.
I agree with you that it seems like no one cares. The story pops up in news articles from time to time but nothing ever seems to be initiated by her family. Also extremely strange to me is that her parents split and both of them moved out of state 2-3 years after she went missing. If my child went missing I can’t imagine I would ever want to leave that house, much less the state, in case she returned or tried to contact me by phone or mail.
Hi Veronica! Thanks for commenting! I thought the same exact thing about the parents. It just appears as if they accepted she ran away OR there’s more to this than they’re saying. And that note….could have been to throw police off. I don’t know. It’s just weird.
I knew Jennifer, and we went to the same school for a little while. We weren’t majorly close, but we shared a close friend. I’ve always been troubled with her disappearance, and the circumstances too. I’ve been keeping track of this case, and have been doing some investigating myself. I have 2 grown children, and 3 grandsons now, and when my youngest was 13 she ran away from home with an older girlfriend. I moved heaven and earth(so to speak) to search for her, and I contacted the police. I can’t imagine leaving the area with my child still missing. I have always thought the note was weird, and probably a way to throw the parents and police off. I hope one day we have all the answers to this mystery. She is always in my thoughts and prayers.
Thank you for commenting. I can’t imagine how hard it was for Jennifer’s friends when she disappeared.
I know exactly what you mean. I was in the same boat a few years ago with my then-teenage son. Like you, I did whatever I could to find him and I also called the police. We even had a U.S. Marshall working with us and the FBI was on the verge of getting involved before we found him. There is no way I would have moved away if he was still missing.