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