In November 2022, 22-year-old college student Jasmine Pace went missing after visiting the apartment of her boyfriend, Jason Chen, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After her family tracked her vehicle and gained entry to Chen's apartment—finding her driver's license and credit cards—police executed a search warrant and uncovered large amounts of blood. Chen was apprehended at his parents' residence in Nolensville with cuts on his hands and feet. Cell phone data led investigators to a suitcase dumped near the Tennessee River containing Pace's body, which had suffered 60 stab wounds. In January 2025, Chen was convicted of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Country: United States
State/Province: Tennessee, United States
City/Region: Chattanooga
Incident Type: Domestic Violence Homicide
Relationship Status: Dating
Relationship Duration: A few months
Incident Date: Nov. 23, 2022
Relationship Origins:
Relationship Stages:
Contributing Factors:
Red Flags:
Motives:
Relationship Outcomes:
How the relationship or connection began.
A few months
Important relationship phases recorded for this case.
Reported red flags or early concern points.
Contributing factors and possible motives from the available sources.
2022-11-23
Recorded relationship or case outcome.
English labels are shown first. Original-language titles are preserved for source verification.
Dr. Grande · Original language: English
College Student Found in Suitcase After Pursuing Creepy Boyfriend | Jasmine Pace Case Analysis
Domestic Violence
The victim and offender met on a dating app in early 2022, reconnected after briefly losing touch, and kept the relationship quiet from family. Text messages revealed that Chen was losing interest while Pace valued the connection more. On November 23, 2022, during an encounter in Chen's apartment, a fatal violent escalation occurred involving 60 stab wounds, followed by elaborate post-offense concealment, impersonation, and body disposal.
Police established the timeline using vehicle GPS data, cellular location history, surveillance video, and witness testimony from an apartment neighbor. Search warrants revealed extensive blood evidence in Chen's apartment despite attempted cleaning. Chen was arrested on November 29, 2022, at his parents' house in Nolensville with hand and foot injuries, and the victim's body was recovered in a suitcase on December 1, 2022. At trial in January 2025, Chen claimed self-defense against a wine bottle attack, but the jury convicted him of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in 44 minutes, leading to a life sentence without parole.
Initial confusion involved misleading social media posts and text messages sent from the victim's phone after her death to make it appear she was alive and staying with a friend. Family members noted an unusual Facebook post featuring an old photo lacking her shoulder tattoo, prompting them to track her vehicle themselves.
Vehicle GPS showed Pace arriving at Chen's apartment at 11:42 p.m. on November 22, 2022. Around 2:11 a.m. on November 23, a neighbor heard screams and footsteps. Pace sent a pin drop to her mother at 2:18 a.m. before being fatally stabbed 60 times. Chen later purchased cleaning supplies, sent decoy texts, packed Pace's body into a suitcase, dumped it by the Tennessee River, relocated her car, and fled to Nolensville.
The sudden, severe escalation from emotional detachment to lethal force indicates extreme latent danger. Chen exhibited calculated post-offense behavior including staging alibis, impersonating the victim on her phone, concealing evidence with cleaning supplies, and dumping the body in a suitcase near the river.
Digital forensic tracking of vehicle GPS, cellular pin drops, and phone usage proved vital in disproving staged alibis and establishing the precise location and sequence of events, overriding the perpetrator's attempt to impersonate the victim.
Pace's mother noticed that an uncharacteristic Facebook post showed an old photograph missing Pace's shoulder tattoo and that Pace's vehicle seat was adjusted for a much taller driver.
Cell phone data from Chen's phone led investigators directly to Suck Creek Road near the Tennessee River, where the suitcase containing Pace's body was located.
Key evidence included blood patterns matching Pace across Chen's hardwood floors, carpet, and bathroom, purchasing records for cleaning alcohol and paper towels, video surveillance of Chen rolling a suitcase, and 60 distinct stab wounds on the victim.
Neighbor Courtney reported waking up at 2:11 a.m. to a female scream, footsteps as if someone was being chased from the bedroom to the front door, a sad but assertive female voice, a slamming door, and walking sounds.
Initial reports treated Pace as a missing person, but physical entry into Chen's apartment by family members revealing her ID and credit cards, followed by search warrants and phone tracking, rapidly shifted the case to a homicide investigation.
The exact verbal dispute or specific trigger immediately preceding the physical attack in the apartment remains unconfirmed due to conflicting defense claims and the lack of surviving witnesses.