PHILADELPHIA, P A – Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and Lansdale Borough Police Chief Michael B. Trail announced the arrest of Chong Ling L. Dan, 50, of Lambert Street in Philadelphia, for First-Degree Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Murder and other charges related to the Nov. 28, 2020 shooting murder of 30-year-old Ebony Pack in her car in Lansdale.
Dan is the second defendant arrested for Pack’s murder. Co-conspirators Ricky Vance of Philadelphia was arrested in April and an arrest warrant for Terrance Marche was issued in August. Marche is still being sought by law enforcement.
Pack’s murder happened a little before 10 p.m. at the intersection of East Hancock Street and Church Road in Lansdale. A joint investigation of the murder by Lansdale Police and Montgomery County Detectives found video surveillance of the shooting from the nearby North Penn School District Educational Building, which showed that the victim’s vehicle was travelling eastbound on East Hancock Street and stopped at 9:56 p.m. for a red light. A second vehicle pulled alongside the driver’s side of Pack’s vehicle and then quickly drove away. The victim’s vehicle rolled through the intersection until it crashed into the light pole. Officers arrived to find Pack suffering from several gunshot wounds, still sitting in the driver’s seat of her Nissan Sedan, which had numerous bullet strikes on the driver’s side door. Pack was the sole occupant of the vehicle. The victim was pronounced dead at Abington-Lansdale Hospital.
The investigation found that Dan was a co-conspirator in the homicide of Ebony Pack, who had begun dating Dan’s former girlfriend. The girlfriend broke off her relationship with Dan in July 2020, when she started dating Pack. At that time, Dan’s former girlfriend was “holding” $19,000 for him, and when they broke up, he demanded the money back. She returned $10,000 and said she spent the other $9,000. From July until the time of the murder in November, the former girlfriend told detectives that Dan had been “harassing and abusive” toward her, so much so that she had obtained a Protection From Abuse Order against Dan, who had threatened her as well as was disparaging and harassing about Pack. The former girlfriend told detectives that at one point, Dan threatened “I’m gonna fix her” or “I have something for her.”
The investigation found that Pack’s vehicle was followed from the Bensalem entrance to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, through the Fort Washington exit and into the intersection where she was killed by a passenger in a dark-colored Cadillac owned by Vance. The Cadillac displayed counterfeit paper Delaware registration tags that were procured for Vance by Marche. Testing on the Cadillac showed particles indicative of gunshot residue on the car’s passenger side, which is consistent with the video of the shooting.
On the evening of the murder, cellphone records from phones belonging to Dan, Vance and Marche reveal that the three men were together leading up to the time of the murder, with all of the phones in the area of a West Mount Airy residence that Dan was known to frequent. The cellphones stay at that residence with no outgoing activity throughout the time of the murder. Then after the murder at approximately 10:25 p.m., Vance’s and Marche’s phones begin communicating again with each other.
Vance was arrested on First-Degree Murder and related charges on April 22, 2021. Shortly thereafter, Marche was driven to the Philadelphia International Airport by his fiancé for a flight to Honduras, where he was meeting with Dan. While in Honduras, Marche’s fiancé was communicating regularly with Marche until all communications stopped abruptly in mid-May and she was told by Dan that Marche “went missing.” Dan returned to Philadelphia without Marche.
“Detectives have worked diligently to solve the puzzle of Ebony’s death and the evidence they have uncovered points to Dan, whose anger and jealousy provided the clear motive for the killing of his former girlfriend’s new love interest,” said Steele. “Ms. Pack was an innocent victim, and we will continue to work to get justice for her.”
Dan was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Edward Levine. Bail is not available for First-Degree Murder charges, and the defendant was remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 3 p.m., Dec. 15, 2021 before Judge Levine.