Kriti Mehrotra
It was on February 10, 1987, when the entire world for the Pandos family turned upside down with the disappearance of the youngest member of their nuclear brood, Jennifer Lynn Pandos. That’s because not only was she 15 at the time, but the suspicion of who could have been responsible then also fell upon both her parents, as carefully chronicled in HBO’s ‘Burden of Proof.’ Yet for now, if you simply wish to learn more about her mother, Margie Pandos — with a specific focus on her alleged hand in the matter as well as her current standing — we’ve got you covered.
Who is Margie Pandos?
According to Margie’s own account in the documentary series, it was toward the mid-to-late 1960s when she came across Ronald “Ron” Pandos for the first time while working at a local store. “I was head cashier; he was one of the department managers,” she candidly said. “We [soon decided to get] married, and [our son] Stephen came along. It was just very mundane, ordinary.” However, she later did admit life wasn’t easy by this Vietnam War veteran’s side as she essentially had to walk on eggshells all the time owing to his temper as well as his tendency not to listen.
“[Ron] had a very short fuse, very short fuse,” Margie continued. “You just [had to know] when to stop if you were trying to make a point. If you woke him up, you did it from a distance because you didn’t know if he was going to come up swinging or not.” Then, everything changed for the Pandos’ with Jennifer’s vanishing, especially as the police theories eventually came to be that Ron accidentally killed his daughter and disposed of her body following an argument, with her being liable by helping him out, not reporting him to the police, and then defending him in the ensuing years.
It was actually in the 2000s that Margie learned the full extent of the speculation against her as well as her then-ex-husband — they’d divorced in the 1990s, per the original production. Nevertheless, whenever an official tried to contact her regarding what she remembered of the fateful day, she first emailed Ron to discuss the matter, making things appear even worse for her. The fact some initially thought she’d penned the bizarre note on Jennifer’s bed suggesting she’d left of her own free will, along with her seemingly implicating statements on where her body could be, didn’t help either.
But alas, Margie was cleared by the time the early 2020s rolled around as a handwriting analyst determined she couldn’t have written the letter, and detectives found a new, promising lead. That’s when she finally expressed she hated the fact these speculations had ruined her personal relationships with her three sisters, her only son, and thus other relatives like her granddaughters. She completely understood people were just doing their jobs when they came out to speak against her, but she believes there could be better ways to go about the matter so as to not ruin a life.
Margie Pandos is Leading a Quiet Life Today
From what we can tell, 70-something-year-old Margie currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, about 20 minutes away from her son Stephen, who is now trying his best to rebuild their connection. After all, now that he knows his parents didn’t have any hand in his sister’s disappearance or likely death, he is ready to atone for the hurt he caused his mother by shutting her out for over a decade. Coming to her personal standing, it appears as if the Lumberton native is retired and simply leading a quiet life these days, all the while still hoping her daughter’s case would one day be solved.
