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At the time of her disappearance in November 2022, Jasmine “Jazzy” Pace was a 22-year-old community college student living in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Those who knew & loved the petite girl who stood at just 5’2”, described her as having a personality that far exceeded her physical stature. She was said to be fiercely loyal to those she loved, exceptionally reliable & always placed her family members at the center of her life. She adored her two nieces & her godson & hoped to one day become a mother herself. Jasmine was also a lover of animals & cherished her four cats. In the months leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday in 2022, she had been wading her way through grief as her beloved grandmother was dying of cancer.
Jasmine’s parents, Catrina Bean & Travis Pace, who were by now divorced, were unaware of the fact that their daughter was in a relationship with a man she’d met through a popular dating app. Jason Chen was a first-generation Chinese American immigrant who was studying computer science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. It was later determined that their relationship was on-again, off-again after they met sometime in 2021 until they rekindled things somewhere around mid-2022.
Despite the fact that they had been seeing each other for the past several months, Jasmine wasn’t quite ready to introduce him to her family. Because she kept the relationship on the downlow, little is known about the true dynamic of the relationship & will forever be locked in mystery.
When Jasmine suddenly vanished in the days before Thanksgiving, investigators were left to follow digital breadcrumbs left behind that led to a horrific end for the young girl. Jasmine maintained her normal family interactions right up until the last time her family saw her two days before Thanksgiving, Tuesday, November 22, 2022. That night, Jasmine was grief-stricken as her grandmother, who’d raised her, had been rushed to the hospital that night & later died. Catrina watched as her daughter climbed into her white Chevy Equinox at 11:30 pm, having no way of knowing that her child was headed toward a violent end.
Earlier that Tuesday evening, Jasmine texted her mom about the fact that she was planning on staying at her friend Emma’s house for the rest of the week. Catrina found this somewhat strange since it was the holidays & Jasmine was deeply family-oriented, making it very unlikely that she would skip a major family gathering without further explanation.
When Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, rolled around & Jasmine didn’t arrive for their family gathering, they were immediately concerned since it was so out of character. Their worry only grew when they came across a strange Facebook post on Jasmine’s account that was posted on Saturday, November 26. The caption read, Enjoying Thanksgiving with my baby while the post featured a photo of her wearing sexy black lingerie. On top of the fact that Jasmine would have never posted such a revealing photo, the image was clearly old, proven by her lack of current tattoos which were extensive down her right shoulder & arm. It also didn’t sound like the verbiage she would use & she tagged friends in her post which was something that wasn’t typical for her.
Jasmine’s family was immediately alarmed by the situation; she wasn’t the type of person to blow off her family without contacting them, especially during a major holiday. They were also completely unaware that she was even dating someone at this point in time. Even more concerning, the photo was clearly not taken during the timeframe it was posted because of the lack of distinctive tattoos she’d gotten during different times in her life & was likely many months old.
Since Jasmine mentioned staying with her friend Emma, Catrina reached out to Emma who confirmed that Jasmine wasn’t there & she hadn’t heard from her. Normally Jasmine & her mom spoke multiple times a day yet Catrina had been unable to reach her.
Immediately alarmed by Jasmine’s absence at Thanksgiving dinner paired with the suspicious post, Catrina began tracking her daughter’s location using her My Chevy app which allowed her to monitor the location of Jasmine’s Equinox. With this, she was able to determine that her car was parked at a location that Jasmine had no known connection to, the Signal View Condominiums off Mountain Creek Road in Chattanooga.
When the Pace family drove out to this spot & examined Jasmine’s car on Saturday, November 26, they found the driver’s seat pushed back to a point that suggested that Jasmine, given her small stature, had likely not been the last person to drive her car.
During this time, Catrina also took a close look at her daughter’s phone records through their family plan. She was able to see that on the night of Tuesday, November 22, the last time they’d seen Jasmine, she had a conversation that lasted 71 minutes.
With this, Catrina called the number & a man named Jason Chen answered. When she asked him about his interaction with Jasmine, he claimed they’d spoken for a few minutes that night which was clearly a blatant lie based on the black & white phone records. Not only was this troubling, but he also had an air about him that indicated he wasn’t very concerned about the fact that Jasmine was missing.
When the Pace family contacted Investigators, they seemed unconcerned about Jasmine’s disappearance, mentioning the fact that she was a legal adult. Regardless, the family was undeterred & continued their own detective work.
After they obtained surveillance video from the Signal View condo complex where her car had been located, footage showed Jasmine’s SUV entering the parking lot at about 8:30 pm on Wednesday, November 23, the day after they last saw her, but they were unable to make out the details of the driver.
Catrina also saw that Jasmine sent her a random pinned location at 2:18 am on Wednesday morning, three hours after she left her house, which led them to apartments at 110 Tremont Street.
Catrina & Travis Pace were determined to get inside unit 210 despite the fact that their knocks at the door had gone unanswered. After they gained access to the unit using a credit card, they came across a notebook that indicated the occupant’s name: Jason Chen. This was the same man that Catrina had spoken with after looking through their call logs who Jasmine had spoken with for 71 minutes on Tuesday night.
As they looked around, they came across some of Jasmine’s items inside the apartment which included her driver’s license, credit cards as well as a travel bag she owned. They also noticed cleaning products within plain sight, suggesting they’d recently been utilized.
Armed with this information, the Pace family went back to police & this time, they began to take things more seriously. After police obtained a search warrant for the unit close to midnight, their findings were indicative of a grim outcome. Blood stains were located throughout the unit, including on the living room floor, the bathroom grout, the bedroom carpet as well as blood spatter on doors & walls. Inside the single bedroom, evidence suggested that the bed had been relocated in order to conceal a large bloodstain. When investigators utilized Bluestar forensic agent, the hallway of the unit illuminated, confirming that extensive blood evidence had been cleaned.
There were also sticky notes of various colors & sizes, some that had written notes & drawings that detailed Jasmine’s tumultuous childhood including times she ran away, a period of homelessness & a time she fled to Canada.
When detectives utilized surveillance video from the apartment complex as well as the surrounding areas, this allowed them to place the pieces of the puzzle together regarding Jasmine’s last movements.
Jasmine’s car entered the apartment parking lot on Tremont Street just before midnight on Tuesday, November 22, shortly after she was last seen by her family. At approximately 8:30 pm on Wednesday, November 23, a figure wearing a light-colored hoodie drove Jasmine’s SUV, traveling from Jason Chen’s building to the Signal View Condos.
A dark-colored Prius then came to pick this person up, which police deduced to be Jason Chen, & drove him from the condos, back to his apartment complex. It was determined that the driver of the Prius was a hired rideshare driver.
Footage from a Ring camera captured Jason leaving his building multiple times that Wednesday, including 8:27 pm, minutes before Jasmine’s car was moved to the Signal View Condos. He also drove to Walmart, entering the store at 10:44 am where he purchased Band-Aids, peroxide & various cleaning products. Oddly, several of the items were scanned in as asparagus at the self-checkout he utilized at 10:58 am. According to cell phone data, Jasmine’s phone accompanied Jason on his trip to Walmart that morning despite the fact that the store’s surveillance proved he’d shopped alone.
He made a later stop at Walgreens at 1:41 pm where he purchased paper towels & during this time, he was driving Jasmine’s car. His phone pinged at the location while Jasmine’s phone did not.
At 3:50 pm when both Jason & Jasmine’s phones pinged in the downtown area together & at 4:03 pm he texted Jasmine’s phone asking if they were still on for dinner that night. Despite the fact that he’d deleted text messages themselves, investigators were able to view screenshots of these conversations. This later proved that Jason sent these messages to Jasmine’s phone after the time she was believed to be deceased which read, slept like a baby & hey, are we still good for dinner tonight?
At 4:08 pm data from both Jason & Jasmine’s phones were on Suck Creek Road which runs along the Tennessee River & later became a critical part of this case in locating Jasmine’s remains.
From here, he went back home at 5:08 pm where he remained for about an hour until approximately 6 pm when he was seen struggling to pull a large suitcase from his building to the parking lot & then his black Toyota Camry was seen leaving the area.
When Jason’s phone was analyzed, investigators also found a photo of Jasmine that was taken on the night of her disappearance.
Jason was arrested on Tuesday, November 29 at his parent’s house three hours away in Nolensville. It was at this location that Jasmine’s SIM card was found hidden in a glasses case in Jason’s backpack. When he was apprehended, police noted an injury to his right palm that was consistent with knife slippage. His parents, Shu Fang & Ming Yong Chen, were later accused of harboring their son & obstructing justice. They went on to reach a confidential settlement with Catrina who later filed a $17 million wrongful death lawsuit against the family which accused them of knowingly hiding a murderer.
Jason was initially taken to a jail in Franklin, Tennessee & later transferred to Hamilton county where he was held without bond.
In response to his arrest, Catrina Bean posted to Facebook to thank the community for the outpouring of love & support they’d received, writing, I ask that our community & everyone that has been affected by this horrific event, everyone that has a daughter, a sister, a mother, a grandmother can sympathize with what we are being forced to process. She also shared a video of Jasmine cradling her young niece while singing to her & wrote that this was a glimpse of the real Jasmine.
Evidence proved Jason had been the one to post to Jasmine’s Facebook page from her phone. He also accessed her banking information in order to create the illusion that she was still alive despite the fact that her body lay dead inside his apartment at the time.
Utilizing Jason’s digital trail from his phone, investigators found a suitcase along the banks of the Tennessee River off of Suck Creek Road on December 1. Jasmine’s body was found inside, naked from the waist up, wrapped in three trash bags, still restrained with handcuffs.
After his arrest, Jason’s bond was set at $5 million, something that became controversial within the community given the exceptionally violent nature of the crime. By this point, investigators had evidence that established a solid timeline of events for the trial that began in January 2025, a little over two years after Jasmine’s murder. Because of the publicity of the case, jury members were brought in from Nashville for the trial that began on January 13, 2025.
During the first day of the trial, jurors were stunned when defense attorney Josh Wise made the statement of guilt, Jason Chen killed Jasmine Pace. This was a strategy aimed at reducing the charge from first-degree premeditated murder to voluntary manslaughter; two charges that carry very different sentences.. First-degree premeditated murder would be a life sentence without parole whereas in Tennessee, a conviction for voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 15 years & a $10,000 fine.
Over the course of six days, the prosecution presented a combination of physical evidence, witness testimony & digital forensics. This gave jurors a picture of the horrific details of Jasmine’s final moments before she was brutally murdered.
It all started on Tuesday, November 22 after she left her mother’s home in Chattanooga just before 11:30 pm. She drove her white Equinox to Jason’s apartment at 110 Tremont Street, arriving at 11:42 pm. She headed up to unit 210 where Jason lived in a small, open concept apartment with the kitchen situated only feet away from the living room couch while a hallway extended toward the only bedroom.
According to later court testimony, Jason Chen’s downstairs neighbor, Courtney Brewer was startled awake by a woman’s screams during the middle of the night on Wednesday morning. After hearing these female screams & cries, she heard footsteps running toward the front door & then what sounded like the front door slamming. Courtney indicated that she grabbed her phone to call 911, noting the time to be 2:11 am, but the situation quieted down, so she decided against calling the police.
Days after Courtney heard the commotion from the apartment above, she saw a missing person’s poster on social media with Jasmine’s information & noted her last known location to be at Jason Chen’s apartment. She reached out to the police & provided her statement at that point. She indicated that about an hour after she heard the woman’s screams, she heard the sounds of the garbage disposal as well as the washing machine running in the unit above.
Seven minutes after Courtney was startled awake, Jasmine texted her mom a dropped pin that showed where her device was at that moment. Catrina later indicated that her daughter had never done such a thing in the past, especially not during the middle of the night. Based on the evidence from this case, it’s likely that Jasmine sent this pin because she’d been fully aware that her life was in danger & she was likely attempting to signal for help.
Dr. Steven Cogswell from the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s Office, who conducted Jasmine’s autopsy, determined that she had been stabbed no less than 60 times with the wounds concentrated primarily on the upper left side of her body. The wounds were in an area that was localized to a space no larger than a sheet of paper while the pattern suggested that she had been curled into a fetal position in an attempt to protect herself from the frenzied attack.
Based on the lack of defensive wounds to her body, Dr. Cogswell determined that Jasmine had been restrained before she’d been attacked. The handcuffs that were utilized were not professional law enforcement restraints, but had been strong enough to hold her with her right arm shackled to her right ankle & her left ankle linked to her right elbow, with only her left hand free. One chain of the handcuffs was broken, which likely happened during her struggle, allowing her partial freedom. Based on the blood found throughout the apartment, it’s possible she could have stumbled or been dragged, spreading blood as she went.
The knife used in her attack was found embedded in Jasmine’s chest; after it entered her lung, the tip of the knife snapped off at the rib. Investigators believe the weapon had been sitting on Jason’s nightstand after he utilized it to remove the seal from a wine bottle earlier that evening. The medical examiner determined a heartbreaking detail; Jasmine had not died quickly, rather it would have likely taken her five to ten minutes to die.
After Jasmine was murdered, Jason attempted to erase evidence from his apartment while also creating a coverup, taking to her social media account in order for it to appear as if she was still alive & well. He used this time to temporarily hide the truth while he attempted to establish an image of an ordinary routine in the aftermath of horrific violence.
After Jasmine’s death, it was clear that Jason attempted to erase the evidence from his apartment that showed extensive cleaning as blood stains were found absorbed into the grooves of the living room & bathroom floor as well as blood spatter on the doors & bathroom walls. Bedroom furniture was moved around to cover a large bloodstain under the bed which was consistent with Jasmine’s body having been hidden under the bed after her death & before Jason disposed of her body. The hallway was also illuminated with an extensive amount of blood with the use of Bluestar.
Despite the fact that he just brutally murdered the girl he’d been dating, Jason took to Tinder & messaged a woman named Victoria at 9:52 am on that Wednesday night saying, I guess we’re dating now. As he sent this message, Jasmine lay dead inside his apartment. Later that night, he played Call of Duty online with friends where he casually mentioned that he needed to finish cleaning his apartment.
According to the defense, Jason murdered Jasmine in the heat of passion as they painted a picture that while the couple drank wine late into the night, Jasmine heard a Tinder notification repeatedly chiming from Jason’s phone. Fueled by alcohol, jealousy & rage, Jasmine began arguing with Jason & eventually attacked him with a now empty wine bottle. He reacted & kicked her as she fell backwards.
The defense alleged that Jasmine then chased Jason with her broken wine glass & with this, he ran to the bathroom & then to the bedroom. He eventually grabbed a kitchen knife & began stabbing her in self defense & then passed out, only to wake to find her unconscious. Jury members were told that the handcuffs had been placed on Jasmine’s body post-mortem in order for her to fit into the suitcase.
However, this version of events was easily disproved by the medical examiner’s testimony which discredited the defense team’s suggestions that the crime happened in the heat of passion. Not only was Jasmine’s toxicology report negative for alcohol or drug consumption, but based on the location & pattern of her wounds, she had been in the fetal position when she was stabbed. Because of the lack of defensive wounds on her right hand with the majority of wounds to her left side, this indicated that she had been restrained at the time she was stabbed rather than post-mortem as the defense claimed. This also painted the picture of a premeditated attack.
The prosecution also had much to say about Jason’s attorney’s alleged version of events. Coty Wamp told jury members that the evidence in this case gave a very real picture of the events that led to Jasmine’s death. In response to the defense’s claims that Jasmine flew into a rage after she realized Jason was receiving notifications from Tinder, a state expert testified that Jason Chen had not received a single notification from the app that day.
Because Jasmine’s mom entered Jason Chen’s apartment multiple times before the police had a chance to secure & process it, there were questions about the integrity of the crime scene. During her visits, Catrina took notebooks & electronics that included cell phones & an iPad, in a desperate attempt to find her daughter. With this, the defense called in a crime scene expert to argue how this could have contaminated evidence. They even suggested that evidence could have been planted & questioned Travis Pace about his ex-wife’s discrepancies in her version of events.
The jury also learned that Jason removed the SIM card from Jasmine’s phone & put his own into the phone. Two prints found on the garbage bag wrapped around her body were also a match to his left ring finger & left middle finger.
Jason Chen chose not to testify in his own defense. After six days of presenting evidence, the jury began their deliberations at 4:15 pm & came back with a verdict in less than an hour’s time. Chen was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder & abuse of a corpse.
During the sentencing phase, the jury was given the opportunity to decide if Chen should have the possibility of parole. Utilizing a translator, Chen’s mother made an emotional plea in which she referred to her son as a very good child who deserved a chance to go home & restart his life, indicating that he knew right from wrong. According to defense attorney Wise, allowing Chen a chance at parole after decades in prison would be a mercy reflective of our humanity as a whole.
Meanwhile, Jasmine’s cousin, Jacqueline White, dropped 60 stones into a glass jar to represent the number of times Jasmine had been stabbed while calling Chen a subhuman villain.
The jury was undeterred by these words & in less than an hour, their decision was final & they made a unanimous decision that Jason Chen be sent to prison without the possibility of parole. They felt that this crime against sweet Jasmine was especially heinous, atrocious & cruel & involved torture & serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death.
Technology played a large role in solving this tragedy & unveiled a killer’s attempts at concealing the unimaginable truth. After Jasmine Pace left her mother’s home late Tuesday night, she headed to the home of a man she’d grown to trust. After he viciously murdered her with no clear motive, Jason Chen went on a mission to conceal his dark, violent deeds, starting with a desperate attempt to erase the evidence as he attempted to clean the crime scene & ending with him callously discarding Jasmine’s body with the goal that she would never be found.
Thankfully, he’d left a digital trail of breadcrumbs behind that not only allowed Jasmine’s family to properly lay her to rest, but also to allow authorities to piece together the last moments of her young life, bringing her killer to justice.
Jasmine’s family cannot imagine the true horrors of what her last moments of life entailed from 2:11 am when the downstairs neighbor was jolted awake by the sounds of her terrified screams to seven minutes later when she texted her mom her location, fully aware that she was in danger. They recall the neighbor’s reports of hearing footsteps running toward the front door followed by the door slamming, knowing that at that moment, she was trying to desperately flee from the monster who was at her heels. How while she was handcuffed, she curled into a fetal position in an attempt to protect herself from a man she previously trusted, who stood above her, relentlessly stabbing her over & over. Now they’re left to mourn the loss of a vibrant soul who left this world far too soon in such a horrific way.
Jasmine Pace will always be remembered as a loyal, hard working 22-year-old woman who was deeply loved by so many; she had a bright future ahead where the possibilities were endless. Her family is forever grateful that her remains were recovered, allowing sweet Jasmine to be laid to rest, but they will forever be forced to endure the trauma of losing her in such a way for the rest of their lives.
If you’re experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
References:
- Medium: The digital deception: The murder of Jasmine Pace
- People: Man who killed girlfriend & stuffed body in suitcase kept sticky notes about her past in his house: Police
- CrimeOnline: Jasmine Pace murder trial: TN man accused of killing girlfriend & hiding body in suitcase kept reminder notes in her past
- Court TV: TN v. Jason Chen: Suitcase by The River Murder Trial
- Fox Chattanooga: ‘I guess we’re dating now:’ Prosecutors show Jason Chen Tinder messages after Pace murder
- Criminal: The murder of Jasmine Pace
- ABC News Channel 9: A timeline of the murder of Jasmine Pace: Jason Chen on trial for murder
- Independent: Family of missing Tennessee 22-year-old probe strange social media posts over a week after she vanished
- Chattanooga Times Free Press: Jason Chen sentenced to life without possibility of parole for murder of Jasmine Pace
- Newsweek: Jason Chen reacts at sentencing for killing girlfriend Jasmine Pace
- Local 3 News: The murder case against Jason Chen; found guilty of first-degree murder of Jasmine Pace
