Pandora Zan to Speak from Prison After Mother-Son Plot to Kill Ohio Corrections Officer

Pandora Zan was an accounting specialist born in Cincinnati but raised in Franklin, Ohio, as featured in the 2019 Snapped episode. With her first husband, she had two children: a daughter, Misty Henderson, and a son, Cody Henderson.

Pandora Zan — previously named Pandora Henderson — met Charles Zan in 2001 through an online dating site.

Born in West Carrollton, Ohio, Charles Zan was also separated when meeting Pandora Zan online. Charles Zan had two sons, according to his online obituary, and he’d previously served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1987 and then in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988 to 1992.

He spent 15 years as a corrections officer at the Warren Corrections Institute until his 2009 death.

On October 17, 2009, shortly after 6:00 a.m., Miamisburg Police were called to the couple’s studio apartment, where they found the husband brutally stabbed to death in bed. As seen in Snapped, authorities reported that the victim sustained dozens of knife wounds to his upper body, including a slash wound to the throat and having the weapon embedded into his eye.

Pandora Zan said she initially woke once the attack began but was soon knocked unconscious by one of two intruders purported to have broken into the residence.

According to court records reviewed by Oxygen.com, two laptops and a firearm belonging to Charles Zan were reportedly missing from the home.  

Pandora Zan was initially believed to be a victim, and she agreed to speak to the police on multiple occasions. Ohio investigators chased up on several possible leads proffered by Pandora Zan, including an alleged lover of Charles Zan’s who’d also worked as a corrections officer.

Police also investigated a lead that a disgruntled inmate at Charles Zan’s place of work reportedly threatened the victim shortly before the murder.

Two days after Charles Zan’s murder, Pandora’s daughter, Misty, joined Pandora at the police station to explain that Cody (Charles Zan’s stepson) was the person behind the murder. Pandora Zan agreed to let police listen to her calls to Cody when Cody confessed to stabbing Charles Zan “a bunch” of times, as featured in the Snapped episode.

Cody confessed to killing his stepfather, stating the victim was allegedly abusive toward the grown children and Pandora Zan, though police said there was nothing to substantiate any claims of abuse. The 19-year-old was arrested on Oct. 20, 2009, on aggravated murder charges, though Pandora Zan remained free.

Months later, Miamisburg Police Captain Ron Hess said authorities had been looking at Pandora Zan “the entire time,” according to The Springfield News-Sun.

“We knew from day one she was responsible in this,” said Charles Zan’s younger brother, Michael Zan. “I hope that the system prosecutes them both, and we would like to see them both get the death penalty. We think they both deserve it.”

Pandora Zan was arrested in January 2010 — months after her son — for orchestrating the murder.

Prosecutors stated that Pandora Zan wanted her husband dead so that she could inherit from multiple life insurance policies, which totaled about $500,000. Friends of Cody Henderson said at trial that he admitted to agreeing to kill Charles Zan on his mother's behalf for a $25,000 payout, according to court records.

Cody Henderson’s girlfriend at the time told the court that he’d previously discussed the plan but claimed she didn’t go to authorities because she didn’t believe he was serious. According to the girlfriend’s testimony, Cody left his friends in the car when going into the apartment with a pair of gloves, returning with blood on his clothes and a pair of laptops.

At the time, the friends believed he was only going to rob the electronic devices.

As part of a 2011 deal with prosecutors, Cody Henderson avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, according to the Dayton Daily News. Pandora Zan also received a life sentence plus 25 years without the possibility of parole.