Ivy League grad student, US Army veteran's killer had eerie motive: detective

Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old graduate student at Yale's School of the Environment, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds outside his car in New Haven, Connecticut on Feb. 6, 2021. 

Jiang's death sparked a nationwide manhunt, until authorities arrested Qinxuan Pan, a longtime Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher originally from China. 

David Zaweski, the lead homicide detective in Jiang's murder, spoke about the investigation in a new "48 Hours" special, "The Ivy League Murder." 

Jiang's murder initially appeared to be a violent case of road rage, police said, according to the episode. However, Zaweski wondered whether there might be more to the case.

Investigators had few leads and just an image of a dark SUV from surveillance footage at the scene. However, they soon got a call from nearby North Haven police, sharing information about a motorist named Qinxuan Pan, who had gotten stuck on a railroad track and called 911 about a half hour after Jiang's murder. Officers, who were unaware of Jiang's murder at the time, questioned Pan and helped him get a tow and a nearby hotel room.

North Haven police also mentioned another 911 call made the next day from an Arby's, which was next door to the hotel where Pan had been taken. Employees at the Arby's had found a bag containing a gun and a box of .45 caliber bullets. At the scene where Jiang was killed, authorities had already discovered eight .45 caliber shell casings lying near the victim's body. 

Zaweski said investigators then used Facebook to try and find a connection between Pan and Jiang. They discovered that the connection was Jiang's fiancé Zion Perry, who was listed as a friend of Pan.

Authorities learned that Perry and Pan had met each other at a Christian group when she was an undergraduate at MIT. Perry was photographed speaking with Pan at a university swing dance in March 2020. They were seemingly just acquaintances, and Perry had not communicated with Pan since leaving MIT and going to Yale.

Jiang's murder took place just one week after Perry posted their engagement news on Facebook. On the day of the murder, Jiang and Perry had spent the day together. 

In the months leading up to Jiang's death, a gunman had fired .45 caliber bullets into several homes, but in those cases, no one had been hurt. Investigators believed Pan had been responsible for those shootings, as part of a plan to mislead them after Jiang's murder into believing his death was just another random case. 

"This wasn't a random incident out there," Zaweski said. "He was targeted."

After a nationwide manhunt, authorities arrested Pan in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 14, 2021, at an apartment rented under a fake name and in possession of $19,000 cash, seven cellphones, seven SIM cards and his father's passport. 

At the time of his death, Jiang was a devout Christian and veteran of the U.S. Army and a National Guard reservist. He was pursuing a graduate degree at the Yale School of the Environment and was killed a week before his 27th birthday. 

"Kevin's life was short but colorful, and brought so much joy, happiness and positivity to those around him," his mother, Linda Liu, said at his funeral. "Although Kevin is gone from us now, Kevin is the most wonderful gift God has ever given me on Earth."

Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.