Kriti Mehrotra
When 26-year-old Kevin Jiang was found brutally shot to death in the middle of a road in New Haven, Connecticut, on the evening of February 6, 2021, it left his loved ones baffled to the core. He was a former Army National Guardsman and a graduate student at Yale, as chronicled in CBS’ ’48 Hours: The Ivy League Murder,’ so no one could have ever even imagined losing him this way. Amongst them was his fiancée as well as the love of his life, Zion Perry, the young woman who had said yes to his proposal to get married a mere week prior on the anniversary of their first meeting.
Zion Perry and Kevin Jiang Absolutely Adored On Another
A native of Philadelphia, Zion Perry developed an interest in STEM at a relatively early age, driving her to study hard throughout her school and even graduate high school with honors. She subsequently enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Engineering, which she earned in May 2020. By this point, she was already head over heels in love with Kevin Jiang after meeting him at a Christian retreat a few months prior, in late January 2020. The fact that he was an aspiring scientist was a significant plus, but they connected over deeper matters like their faith, values, and a passion not only for people but for the world in general.
It was thus no surprise that while Zion then enrolled at Yale University to pursue a PhD, Kevin also found himself at the university’s School of the Environment as a graduate student. The couple started building a happy, stable life together, driving him to get down on one knee for her following a hike on the anniversary of their first meeting, to which she obviously said yes. They shared the happy news with a video of the proposal on Facebook, unaware their joy would be snatched away in the blink of an eye, just a week later, on February 6, 2021. Zion still remembers how she and Kevin spent the fateful day together, enjoying a hike, then ice fishing, before returning to her place for a cozy dinner, all the while planning their future.
Zion Perry Was Once an Acquaintance of Her Love’s Assailant
According to Zion’s accounts, Kevin left her place in the affluent East Rock section of New Haven to go back to the home he had recently bought to share with his mother at around 8:30 pm. However, he never made it back as he was gunned down 2 blocks away. There initially seemed to be no clue about his assailant, but once evidence began to surface and his suspect was identified as a fellow MIT graduate named Qinxuan Pan, the connection was made. The latter was an acquaintance of Zion at the university, and police believed he allegedly harbored a secret, obsessive affection towards her. Therefore, her engagement led him to target Kevin on the fateful night.
Since Qinxuan ultimately accepted a plea deal in connection with Kevin’s homicide, owing to overwhelming evidence against him, his motive was never officially established. He didn’t say anything regarding the same during his 2024 sentencing hearing, either, during which he was handed down 35 years in prison without the possibility of parole. In fact, he didn’t give any reactions at all as the victim impact statements or his sentence was read; instead, he chose to keep his head down.
Qinxuan only looked up once, when Zion took the stand. “It was my great privilege to know Kevin,” she said of her fiancé in her victim impact statement. “He was a man of valor and a man of honor, and would have made a wonderful husband and father, and his blood cries out from the ground.” Then, she directly addressed the convicted killer, stating, “Although your sentence is far less than you deserve, Jesus has given us far less than we deserve, that though judgment is right, there is also mercy.”
Zion Perry Continues to Thrive in STEM
Since then, Zion has preferred to keep her personal and professional experiences well away from the limelight. All we know for certain is that she continues to reside in New Haven, Connecticut, as a McDougal Graduate Teaching Fellow at Yale. Her field of choice is Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, in which she proudly earned her PhD in December 2025. In other words, she specializes in interdisciplinary communication and in teaching ways to apply quantitative approaches to better understand the molecular world as a whole. From what we can tell, she is also a travel enthusiast, having visited London, Oxford, and several English countryside in the summer of 2024. On a personal level, it appears as if she is keeping the memories of her late fiancé alive in her heart.
