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Inside the 'secret society' of female sleuths who have made it their business to weigh in on violent crimes
A group of female true crime sleuths are the subject of upcoming docuseries Sasha Reid and The Midnight Order which is set to follow their efforts to hunt down serial killers and find justice for victims.
The leader of the group is Dr. Sasha Reid - an academic and professor at the University of Calgary, who holds a PhD in developmental psychology, plus two masters degrees, in the areas of applied psychology in human development, and criminology and socio-legal studies.
Over her career, she's also established one of the world's largest databases on serial killers, which also tracks a vast range of psychological metrics.
In the debut episode. Dr. Reid described that her research has considered aspects including how serial killers develop, what their backgrounds are, abuse they've experienced and who their victims are - as well as how to mitigate the risks that serial killers pose.
Dr. Sasha Reid, who holds a PhD in developmental psychology plus two masters degrees, founded The Midnight Order, a group of women who use their expertise to solve violent crimes
The Midnight Order uses Dr. Reid's database of serial killers, which tabulates myriad psychological metrics to form comprehensive profiles
Along with this, she's also developed one of the country's largest databases of 'missing and murdered' people in Canada.
Dr. Reid's interest in crime and murder originated in her teens, when she lost a friend, who was ethnically indigenous, who went missing and was later found dead.
She eventually came to recognize how indigenous women were disproportionally kidnapped and murdered in her country, apparently being 'prime target' for serial killers.
Today, Dr. Reid's 'missing and murdered' database contains nearly 12,000 entries - many of whom are from marginalized populations.
An early major breakthrough for Dr. Reid came when she used her database to correctly identify Bruce McArthur as the serial killer behind the murders of eight gay men, mostly of South Asian descent, in Toronto between 2010 and 2017.
To amp up her investigation efforts, Dr. Reid launched The Midnight Order, an all-women club of experts with specialties including psychology, data analysis and forensics.
'At The Midnight Order, women are the heroes - not the victims,' described Dr. Reid in the first episode of the group.
Describing who she brought in to The Midnight Order, Dr. Reid described: 'I was looking for people who are truly compassionate, and victim-focused and -oriented.'
Many of the members of The Midnight Order come from marginalized backgrounds and witnessed abuse and subjugation of women first-hand
Among the other members of the group is Ayah, a psychotherapist born in Cairo, Egypt, raised in a fundamentalist religion.
Florence, a daughter of Malaysian immigrants, is a data analyst from Toronto, who's long fostered an interest in psychopaths and mass murderers.
Then there's Anjali, a forensic scientist-in-training from a 'rough' area of Calgary who's in her second year of medical school, and who loves 'studying the dark corners of the human mind.'
'I was always really curious why some individuals end up going down a really tragic path,' Anjali described, adding that serial killers are on the most 'intense' part of the spectrum.
Aspiring detective Marina fled with her mom from her abusive father in Kazakstan. Now, she lives a 'double life,' working at a grocery store by day and pursuing her 'true passion' of forensic psychology in her personal time, also volunteering for the police.
Hasti is a victim advocate originally from Iran, where there are 'so many doors closed to women,' she said, circumstances that 'inspired' her mother to get her and her daughter out of the country.
'A huge part of my own advocacy work is hearing from the people who have not been heard before,' Hasti said of what motivates her.
Last but not least, Hana is a database expert specializing in criminal profiling and crime-scene analysis, whose thesis is focused on 'body disposal in sexual homicide cases.' She's also the project coordinator on Dr. Reid's database of serial killers.
In the first two episodes, The Midnight Order gets to work studying a box of evidence gathered by a woman who is convinced that her ex-husband is behind a series of murders of women in the 1980s.
Subsequent episodes follow the gang as they revisit the murders of Robert Pickton, a pig farmer who lived and worked on an enormous farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.
The farm was also likely the site of the murders of close to 50 women, many of them indigenous women, addicts, and sex workers.
Pickton was ultimately convicted for six murders in 2007, and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. However, he was killed by another inmate by May of 2024.
Prior to Pickton's death, The Midnight Order was alarmed on hearing that the police were readying to destroy in the range of 14,000 pieces of evidence in the cases - which would make justice impossible for his yet-to-be-identified victims.
From there, they went about taking stock of the murders likely connected to Pickton, speaking to the families of the victims and beyond - rallying to make sure the outstanding cold cases 'still have a chance of being solved.'