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BUSINESS APRIL 15, 2009

The Unsolved Murder of Janie Louise Pang

By MARK MAREMONT

IRVINE, Calif. -- Mid-1997 was a tumultuous period for Danny Pang, the CEO of Private Equity Management Group in
Irvine, Calif. He left a venture-capital firm where he was a top executive, accused of a $3 million theft from an escrow
account, which he denies. And in May of that year, somebody murdered his wife.

Janie Louise Pang, who was 33, had worked on and off as a stripper. She had married at 16 and had two children
before she married Mr. Pang.

That marriage evidently was stormy. The police were called to their home four times for domestic-disturbance
complaints, including a 1993 incident in which Ms. Pang said she was afraid Mr. Pang "was going to kill her."

She also told police her husband had drained value from her parents' home and spent it on "gambling, women, alcohol,
etc." She said Mr. Pang once had broken her nose, forced her to withdraw $70,000 from the bank and gambled it away
in one night.

Mr. Pang, through a spokesman, denied any of these events took place and said any police reports of abusive conduct
refer to a different Danny Pang. But the reports include the Pangs' correct birth dates. Mr. Pang didn't face any
charges because of the calls.

In May 1997, Ms. Pang hired an investigative agency, which, according to court records, observed her husband holding
hands with another woman. The next day, Ms. Pang was scheduled to meet with the investigator at noon. Shortly before
that, the doorbell rang at the Pangs' home. According to court records, the family's maid heard Ms. Pang, her
5-year-old at her side, answer the door and begin talking to the visitor, who asked if she was "Miss Pang."

She then began screaming. The maid saw her run through the house, chased by an elegantly dressed man carrying a
briefcase and holding a gun. As Ms. Pang cowered in a closet, he shot her dead.

While police investigated the sensational murder, Mr. Pang, who had been out of town at the time, tussled with others
over control of $750,000 in proceeds from his wife's life insurance. The beneficiaries were her son and daughter by her
first husband. Mr. Pang fought and lost a battle with the biological father over control of the proceeds.

After the stepson turned 18 and collected his share, Mr. Pang "cheated" him of most of it through various schemes,
according to the boy's biological father, John Beuschlein. In 2001, the stepson sued Mr. Pang. John Beuschlein says the
matter was settled with Mr. Pang agreeing to repay the stepson.

Through his spokesman, Mr. Pang didn't address the allegation of trying to defraud his stepson but provided an email
from the stepson calling the dispute a "misunderstanding."

Four years after the murder, police arrested a suspect, who had drawn suspicion because he knew Mr. Pang and, days
after the murder, had faked a suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge. When the man went on trial in 2002, the defense
tried to point the finger at Mr. Pang instead, introducing a police and Federal Bureau of Investigation memo saying
Mr. Pang shouldn't be ruled out as a suspect and might have ties to Taiwanese organized crime. Mr. Pang's lawyer

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The Unsolved Murder of Janie Louise Pang - WSJ.com http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123976601469019957.html#printMode

denied any such ties, and Mr. Pang wasn't charged.

The trial ended with a hung jury, split 10-2 to acquit the man on trial. One juror, Monica Bartolone, says, "There were a
lot of us who thought [Mr. Pang] killed her or had her killed," because it appeared that his wife wanted a divorce and
"she probably knew a lot of his business." The case prosecutor says he "didn't believe there was anything to indicate
[Mr. Pang's] involvement" in the murder.

The lead investigator, Sgt. Yvonne Shull of the Orange County sheriff's department, says Mr. Pang was generally
uncooperative and gave her just one initial interview before his attorney "came forward and said he's not talking."
When called to testify at the trial, Mr. Pang invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to. "Anytime you have a husband
who takes the Fifth and isn't going to talk to you about his own wife's death, it makes the trial more difficult," says Sgt.
Shull. "You have to wonder if there's something there we didn't find. Or is this guy just paranoid?"

Through his spokesman, Mr. Pang called the idea that he was uncooperative with police "completely untrue" and said
he wanted to testify but took his lawyer's advice not to. As for the jurors' comments, Mr. Pang said this just showed the
lawyer was successful in shifting blame to "an innocent man."

Write to Mark Maremont at mark.maremont@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A6

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