Zan was arrested late Tuesday night at her King Avenue apartment in Dayton.
“We have been looking at her the entire time,” said police Capt. Ron Hess.
Her son, Cody Wayne Henderson, 19, of Madison Twp. in Butler County, was charged Oct. 21 with aggravated murder for stabbing his stepfather.
‘Looking at her since’ murder
Charles Zan had more than 40 stab wounds when he was found in the couple’s bed at the Guest Suites Apartments in Miamisburg.
Hess declined to comment if Pandora Zan committed the murder and what evidence led to her arrest.
“What we’re saying is that we have been looking at her since October,” he said.
She is in the Montgomery County Jail and scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. video arraignment Friday. A preliminary hearing will be scheduled for next Thursday, May 6, but the case likely will head straight to the grand jury, Hess said.
He said Miamisburg Municipal Court Judge Robert E. Messham Jr. is expected to set bond on Pandora Zan tonight.
“We’re asking for as high of an amount as he can go,” Hess said.
Family seeks justice
The victim’s family said they are relieved with Pandora Zan’s arrest.
Michael Zan, Charles Zan’s younger brother and an officer with the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland, said his family has suspected Pandora Zan’s involvement in her husband’s murder all along.
“We knew from day one she was responsible in this,” he said. “I hope that the system prosecutes them both, and we would like to see them both get the death penalty. We think they both deserve it.”
Pandora Zan’s son, Henderson, remains in the county jail on a $1 million bond for aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault and tampering with evidence.
Michael Zan said it was especially difficult to face Pandora Zan following his brother’s death.
“To have to look at her in the face, just knowing what she did, and that we couldn’t take my brother back home with us to bury him in our hometown, because she was the wife and had the rights over him, it was, you have no idea how hard that was for us,” he said.
Pandora Zan was the third wife of Charles Zan, who was a corrections officer at Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon.
Michael Zan expressed gratitude to Miamisburg police Sgt. Tom Thompson and Detective Jeff Muncy for breaking the case.
“They did a job that I didn’t think was going to be done,” he said. “It took six months to do it, but they finally got Pandora locked up.”
‘It’s been brutal on my family’
Police arrested Pandora Zan about 3 p.m. Jan. 3, in the parking lot of the T.J. Maxx store at 131 N. Springboro Pike after she passed fraudulent $50 bills, said Miamisburg Detective Sgt. Tom Thompson.
She was charged with misdemeanor petty theft and felonious forgery. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March to up to five years of community control, according to county court records.
She was also convicted in 2002 for the armed robbery of a clothing store in Warren County. She served nearly 14 months in prison.
Public records show the Zans lived in turmoil for much of their seven-year marriage, facing home foreclosure, bankruptcies and separations. On her personal Web site, pandisbipolarlife.com, Pandora Zan said her mental health problems were to blame for most of their troubles.
During Pandora Zan's 911 call, she could be heard talking about a break-in, saying she had been hit on the head and that when she came to, she found her husband stabbed to death. Listen to her 911 call.
“It’s been brutal on my family,” Michael Zan said. “With her involvement, I’m hoping they both get capital punishment.”
Staff reporter Kelli Wynn contributed to this report.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-9338 or kmcallister@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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