
"The King Road Killings" will be back in late August with an update on the Kohlberger case. Meanwhile, check out this episode of "Inside the Midnight Order," which explores one of the biggest murder cases in North America: the case of Robert...
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Mr. Moore
When the Moore family ditched cable Internet and switched to Zigly Fiber, they got so much more. Mr. Moore got more upload speed for next level gaming and livestreaming to the masses with reliable service. Mrs. Moore is no longer her family's IT guru, leaving her more time to stream games into overtime.
Nancy Schwarzman
Let's go.
Mr. Moore
And young Mason Moore got more done quickly uploading HD product demos and video conferencing without FreeSync.
Kaina Whitworth
The numbers look good Brad.
Lorimer Shenher
You're on mute.
Mr. Moore
Switch from cable Internet to ziply Fiber and get more of what you love for $65 less per month than cable@ziplyfiber.com.
Kaina Whitworth
If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well researched true crime stories. Each week we deep dive into a variety of mind boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heists to whodunits. We're your go to podcast for mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Kaina Whitworth. I want you to know about a new series I'm co hosting. It's called Inside the Midnight Order. It's a companion podcast to Freeform's true crime documentary series Sasha Reed and the Midnight Order, which is now streaming on Hulu. And there's a special episode of the podcast that I want you to check out. In this episode, I tackle one of the biggest murder cases in North America. The case of Robert Pickton, a pig farmer who claimed he killed 49 women. I talk with Lorimer Shenher, who was head of the Missing Persons unit while Pickton was under investigation, and my colleague Brian Buckmire, a trial attorney and ABC News legal contributor. Find out the latest developments in the case and what Robert Pickton's own lawyer thinks could happen now that Pickton has died. Here's the episode. A note before we begin. This episode contains graphic descriptions that may be disturbing to some listeners. Hey there. I'm ABC News correspondent Kaina Whitworth.
Nancy Schwarzman
And I'm Nancy Schwarzman, the director and executive producer of Sasha Reed and the Midnight Order.
Kaina Whitworth
From ABC Audio and Freeform, this is Inside the Midnight Order. The final episode of the series grapples with the scrutiny around the Pickton case and what will happen next, especially now that Robert Pickton himself is dead. Nancy, what was it like to find out that Robert Pickton had been murdered. Right before the series came out, we.
Nancy Schwarzman
Learned that Robert Pickton died when Sasha was at CrimeCon in Nashville. And we were essentially soft premiering the show to thousands of people. And all of a sudden we learn Robert Pickton is dead. He succumbed to his injuries in prison. And it's just. Just this gasp. You know, Sasha announced it. She herself was shaking. Lorimer was there with us. Lorimer Shenher, who's really dedicated many years of his life, both in law enforcement, as a whistleblower, as an author. We're all there. And. And, oh, my God, this just happened. And really raises the question, was this a planned hit and why? What else gets buried when Robert Pickton is killed?
Kaina Whitworth
How do you think the Midnight Order will proceed with their investigation now that he's gone?
Nancy Schwarzman
In a way, it feels like a door has closed. There was the person who was at the center of it all who never really used his voice. I think the Midnight Order has gotten their hands on his first unpublished book and are really digging through it. Is there more in there? Are there leads to look at? Also, there might be more people who could come forward now that this happened, Keeping eyes and ears open, and obviously the inbox is open if people should choose to come forward with more information. In a way, it's, oh, this huge chapter has closed, and Pickton was promising someday he was going to talk and tell it all, and now he can't. But he did leave a trail, and it could open the door to other people coming forward.
Kaina Whitworth
As we close out this series, what do you hope the viewer and listeners of this podcast take away from it?
Nancy Schwarzman
I hope that the Midnight Order inspires audiences the way they inspired me to really understand. If you have a passion for forensics, if you have a passion for crime, if you have a passion for data, there could be a place for you. And I think certainly bringing the empathy lens isn't just being a good human being. The people who are close to the victims have information, and the people that know the world, whether you think they're unsavory or not trustworthy, the people who know the streets have information, and we should listen to them. And I love that the Midnight Order does that. Kayna, we talked about mentorship in episode one and how important it is for Sasha and now really how important it is for the entire Midnight Order. I know that Sasha is continuing to seek out mentors who've been in the field 20 years longer than her, women who are turning to her and bringing her in and bringing her up and they're sharing information about cases. These are not Internet sleuths. These are academics. These are PhDs. These are people that have real skills and real knowledge. I also want to debunk the idea that if you're obsessed with crime, it's for some negative reason. I think we myself am very drawn to crime because it shows us who we are as a society. It shows us where our scars are. It shows us where our forgotten people are. It shows us where things have gone terribly wrong and how to fix them. What can we do next time to make sure people are listened to, evidence is collected, DNA is preserved, all avenues are explored. No bias is brought in. How do we fix it? For the next time, for this episode.
Kaina Whitworth
We are going to focus on the Pickton case and where it stands. Now I'll speak with Lorimer Shenher, writer and former lead police investigator in Vancouver's Missing Persons unit, as well as trial attorney and ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire. That's coming up after a quick break.
Mr. Moore
When the Moore family ditched cable Internet and switched to Zigly Fiber, they got so much more. Mr. Moore got more upload speed for next level gaming and live streaming to the masses. With reliable service, Mrs. Moore is no longer her family's IT guru, leaving her more time to stream games into overtime.
Nancy Schwarzman
Let's go.
Mr. Moore
And young Mason Moore got more done quickly uploading HD product demos and video conferencing without freezing.
Kaina Whitworth
The numbers look good.
Lorimer Shenher
Brad, you're on mute.
Mr. Moore
Switch from cable Internet to Zibli Fiber and get more of what you love for $65 less per month than cable@ziplyfiber.com.
Brian Buckmire
Beautiful anonymous changes each week. It defies genres and expectations. For example, our most recent episode, I talked to a woman who survived a murder attempt by her own son. But just the week before that, we just talked the whole time about Star Trek. We've had other recent episodes about sexting in languages that are not your first language or what it's like to get weight loss surgery. It's unpredictable, it's real, it's honest, it's raw. Get Beautiful Anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts.
Kaina Whitworth
Okay, Brian and Lorimer, welcome. So, Lorimer, let's start here with you. I want to give listeners a sense of your work in Vancouver and then let's get into the Picton case. So. So first tell me, when did you begin your tenure with the Vancouver police?
Lorimer Shenher
I started in 1991, and then I was in the Missing persons unit in 1998.
Kaina Whitworth
Initially, when you started with Vancouver Missing Persons Unit. I mean, what was the one driving force in your mind?
Lorimer Shenher
Well, I know what I was told I was supposed to be doing, which is work on all the missing persons cases that came into that office, but also to focus on what at the time were 17 missing women cases from the downtown east side. They were concerned at the time that it might represent a pattern, and they wanted me essentially to either confirm that or discount that something was going on.
Kaina Whitworth
This Robert Pickton case has often been referred to, I mean, as, you know, North America's most heinous crime. And, Brian, you're a Toronto native. What was it like for you? When did you first hear about this Pickton case and what stood out to you the most about it?
Mason Moore
Initially, I think when we first heard about this case. I'm in high school, and so the headlines I recall, and I even spoke to some of my childhood friends before doing this. It was like RCMP or Mounties, botched investigation. A very specific and protected class of women, those being Native American women, are not being given the due process of finding out their murderers. The butcherer, the pig farmer. Those nicknames are often thrown out as this mass serial killer. And I think, especially as a Canadian, we don't hear about mass killings in the same way that you hear about them in America. And I don't mean that in a disparaging way. If there was a serial killing or like, oh, it happened in America, right? We Canadians don't do this type of thing. And so I think when we heard about it to this degree, it was really shocking.
Kaina Whitworth
Lorimer, you're also the author of a book titled that Lonely Section of Hell, the Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer who Almost Got Away. I mean, quite a title there, but really, I mean, this book is your account of all the things that went wrong during this investigation of Robert Pickton. At what point did you feel like this book needed to be written?
Lorimer Shenher
There was a period in the summer of 1999 where we were extremely close. I felt like we were on the cusp of breaking the case. We had a couple good sources come forward. We were, I thought, working closely with the rcmp, and I felt like it was imminent that the case was gonna break. And what happened is it didn't. And it ended up really being shelved. And I just couldn't understand what was at play. And then when the search actually started on the Picton Farm in February 2002, I literally sat down that day and started banging out the first draft of the book.
Kaina Whitworth
In episode five, they bring up the victim 97 case. In 1997, there's a young woman who finds herself at the Pickton farm in Robert Pickton's trailer. And she says he attacks her. She's able to get away, and in doing so, Lorimer, she escapes, right, with, like, a handcuff still around her wrist. Is that accurate?
Lorimer Shenher
That's right.
Kaina Whitworth
So then what happens?
Lorimer Shenher
She ends up at the hospital, and Robert Pickton drives himself to the same.
Kaina Whitworth
Hospital because she stabbed him right in trying to get away.
Lorimer Shenher
She did. She cut him across the neck and I think hit his jugular vein, actually. And he got himself to the hospital. They reached being treated in fairly close proximity. The police were called, the investigation began, and everything was proceeding for what would be a slam dunk, you know, attempted murder, forcible confinement, conviction.
Kaina Whitworth
Well, I don't want to overlook the detail.
Lorimer Shenher
Right.
Kaina Whitworth
That again, she has this handcuff around her wrist. Did they find the key to that handcuff in Robert Pickton's pocket?
Lorimer Shenher
Yes, they did. It would have been an easy investigation. And it was. And I know that the detective that did the investigation, he did a good job. It was actually the Crown Attorney that ultimately decided not to bring the case. For reasons that are still completely unclear to me. The prosecutor had done no interviews for anybody else, no interviews with the couple that had picked this woman up, no interviews with the ambulance people that had attended to her, no interviews with doctors. So they had done nothing to shore up the story or the credibility of the case. This prosecutor just thought, oh, I don't think she's credible. And this young woman had gone to, you know, she'd gone to every meeting with the prosecutor. She had more than fulfilled her end of things. So it was a really odd call. The whole thing really pointed, I think, to a good likelihood of conviction.
Kaina Whitworth
And I just want to note that the prosecutor mentioned here was questioned during the missing women inquiry, which you heard about in episode five of the docu series. The prosecutor testified that shortly before the trial, the victim was too high on drugs to testify and because of that, didn't feel that she would be a good witness because she was, quote, in very bad shape. The official report that resulted from the inquiry did say, however, that more could have been done to prepare victim 97. So this is 1997, in 2002, when authorities do eventually make their way out to this Picton pig farm. What was that like?
Lorimer Shenher
At the time, there was something that seemed to slow or stop the RCMP from pursuing all the information that my team was bringing to them at the time around things that were happening out there and even things that were coming from source information. And, you know, it was just a really difficult thing to understand. The book obviously details this a lot. Just my efforts to try to find out what was it that was thwarting this investigation or any investigation going forward.
Kaina Whitworth
And, Brian, maybe from the legal perspective, too, you can shed some light on this. I mean, I've covered plenty of stories where you really think that different entities of law enforcement work really cohesively, Right. If it's a unified command on something, say even the FBI is leading a charge. But then you have all kinds of different local authorities that are also involved. How do lawyers navigate all of that while at the same time wrestling with the fact that the Picktons essentially told law enforcement, come back when it's not so muddy.
Mason Moore
Basically, there's a different relationship between local law enforcement than there is with state or federal, with. With that community. And so how they interact with them may be different. So to your point of the Pictons kind of saying, come back to local law enforcement when things are ready. The Pictons may be someone on law enforcement's cousin uncle. They trust these people. They're not the Pictons to local law enforcement. It's Bobby from down the street. And so trying to kind of do that patchwork of working with a suspect or individual is different for different law enforcement. And things fall between the cracks.
Kaina Whitworth
And for our listeners, Lorimer is nodding his head, saying, yep, yep. That that is what it's like. And I also want to touch on some things. And I, in no way in this moment do I want to be disrespectful. But I also want listeners to understand what the search was like at the Picton farm. I mean, this took years to even do. My understanding was it took almost every hazmat suit in the country to even conduct this search. And that, you know, it started with the inhalers and the purses, but then body parts were found. And in the ways that they were found, I read that skulls had been split in half and that hands had been put in them. I just think that it's important that people understand what this was like for investigators and searchers to go through this and to see what they saw. Because the outcome of the trial, I think, is a bit shocking when you know what they saw. So can you elaborate on that at all, Lorimer?
Lorimer Shenher
I think what you outlined, Kaina, is kind of an interesting almost split screen that has always existed in this case. Which is the reality of the evidence and the sheer horror and nastiness of what obviously went on where the split screen is. And this is something I've sort of been trying to reconcile as I'm writing a new book about all these factors. You know, the RCMP and how they somehow curated this investigation to bring it to the prosecutors. But what I've discovered is that there is a institutional wide awareness in the RCMP of not ever doing anything where they can be criticized, of making investigative choices, even where they will be beyond public criticism, versus making the right investigative choice. Your job as an investigator, especially when you're putting a case together, is to accurately portray a narrative. And that narrative is what you're going to bring to prosecutors. And they're going to use that narrative to prosecute the case. It becomes the story of what happened. Right? And I believe the RCMP brought a very flawed narrative of the case forward. I believe they curated the narrative of the case right from the get go to satisfy their own aims. And then when it was prosecuted. That's why we saw such a bizarre outcome to this case. You know, where you had the jury asking the judge, what do we do if we think Robert Pickton is guilty, but we don't think he acted alone? I mean, that is the fundamental question in this. And I believe that it can be traced back to that narrative of the case.
Kaina Whitworth
Both the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department issued public apologies for essentially not catching Pickton sooner and also acknowledged some mistakes, though they both blamed the other agency for missteps and defended their own handling of the case. They said they did the best they could based based on the information available at the time. But let's dive into that big overarching question here of was Robert Pickton capable of doing this on his own? I mean, the remains of 33 women were found on the Picton farm, is that correct?
Lorimer Shenher
Yeah, 33 women remains found. And then also countless DNA profiles found on that farm of men and women that came and went on that farm over the years. It doesn't track with the kind of idea that we have of a serial killer who's maybe a single person, like a Robert Pickton or a couple of people working in partnership. But this case is not that case.
Kaina Whitworth
So, Brian, the numbers here, right? So we've got the remains of 33 women found on the Picton farm, as Lorimer points out, countless DNA profiles. But when we get to court, the number starts dropping, right? 27 charges against Robert Pickton. But then one of those falls off and it gets narrowed down, what, to six. So how does that happen? And even in the six, he's only convicted of second degree of murder. Right. How does that play out in the legal system like that?
Mason Moore
Easy answer. It's not what you know, it's what you can prove. And when it comes to a trial, especially as a prosecutor, you don't want someone like me who can pick apart your weaker cases and then use those cases to color the entirety of the trial. Think of Harvey Weinstein. Why they only go forward with certain victims and not all. Think of even as you see the investigation of Rex Heuermann, they're really making sure that DNA is attached to specific victims, even though they believe that Heuerman is attached to more in terms of whittling it down to six charges associated with a limited number of victims, the reality is the court system is not made to try that many victims at once. From a sense of how long are you going to keep these jurors here to hear 27 cases? I think ultimately it comes down to what courts call judicial economy. The cost of trying to convict a person where six convictions will get you the same amount of jail time as 26 or 27 or 56 or 100. There is no death penalty in Canada. Robert Pickton got the highest amount of jail time that an individual can get with a second degree charge of murder. And as I often tell people, just because you get the possibility of parole after 25 years doesn't mean you're going to get it, especially for a case as heinous as this. So I think the courts and the prosecutors look at it and say, how long is he really going to stay in jail? How long of a trial are we going to do this for? And how many victims are we gonna drag through the court system where the ultimate result is gonna be? He's gonna spend the rest of his life in jail.
Kaina Whitworth
And so, Brian, for those other 20 charges that were stayed, I mean, what kind of recourse do those families have legally?
Mason Moore
So, unfortunately, the short answer is none. This is where you have to advocate and you have to go to the voter's box. Because every country and then every state or province or territory has what's called victims rights. And they can at times drastically differ from state to state. Under the British Columbia Victims Crime act, there's very few rights. If the prosecutor decides to dismiss your case because you're not one of the six, you don't necessarily have a right to say, well, I want my day in court. Unless your province, state or territory says that you have an actual right to have your day in court. That phrase is generally meant for a defendant, and so they don't really have much recourse.
Kaina Whitworth
We have more with Lorimer and Brian after the break.
Nancy Schwarzman
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Kaina Whitworth
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Nancy Schwarzman
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Kaina Whitworth
This case is clearly not over. Took another interesting turn. So Robert Pickton was transferred from the Kent Institution in British Columbia to another institution in Quebec in 2019. And Lorimer, is there anything significant about that transfer? Any difference in these two prisons? Any idea or opinion as to why that transfer was made?
Lorimer Shenher
It appears that transfer was made for his safety. It took him a long way away from British Columbia. If you drew a line straight south from it and then went straight east from Boston, it would put you about 200 miles out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. That's how far east it is. I will say that it's my understanding that he really didn't intend to apply for parole. He didn't want to be released from prison because he felt like he was safer in prison than he would be on the outside.
Kaina Whitworth
What does that tell you about Robert Pickton?
Mason Moore
It's not that crazy of a concept. I have a lot of clients, especially in federal prison, who say, I don't want to get out. Like, I know who's waiting for me. Nine times out of ten, it's involving gangs and they understand the community that they're in while incarcerated and they know the rules and they know how to survive. But if you're Robert Pickton outside, I would one either fear the people who know your name and face and just have a visceral reaction to who you are. And that's a legit fear. But also to the earlier points that we're making, this doesn't look like the job of one person. And Robert Pickton is a loose end.
Kaina Whitworth
Lorimer, in your opinion, who was Robert Pickton afraid of in that moment on the outside?
Lorimer Shenher
Based on everything that I've learned in the last nine months or so, he was afraid of his former friends. He was afraid of their circle in the area in which he lived and worked. He had come to a very sad and sobering realization. I think in the last two to three years that he had been hung out to drive dry by those people and that he had been scapegoated by those people.
Kaina Whitworth
Do you think he killed no one in your assessment and your opinion?
Lorimer Shenher
I don't doubt that he's killed people. What I'm saying is that I think he was part of a much broader. What I really think was an organized crime operation to eliminate people who either owed money or who were problematic in some way for what they knew about things that might have been going on out there. And I think that's what was going on here. I don't think this was a sort of a, the type of serial killing scenario that we normally associate with that term.
Kaina Whitworth
Brian, in your opinion, do you think that his murder had anything to do with this ongoing case and the reasons that he was there?
Mason Moore
Just like outside of prison, inside of prison there's a hierarchy of crimes. There are crimes that other inmates who have, are there for many years, hey, this is a despicable crime and they don't like people around them. The big one that I think comes to mind is child abuse, child rape, child killing. And so I could see, yes, I could see the conspiracy or the thought of because of who he was and because he had information someone had put out a hit on him to some extent. But I can also see someone saying, aren't you the pig farmer? And just for that being a very heinous crime, that is an equally plausible thing in my mind.
Kaina Whitworth
Lorimer, what are your thoughts here?
Lorimer Shenher
I agree with Brian that there are plenty of sort of non conspiracy related reasons why someone may have decided they wanted to attack him in prison. But I will say this. The RCMP began to bring an application through the courts to destroy all the evidence in the Pickton case. It was unheard of to me to destroy evidence from these cases, some of which were still open and are still open. You know, if you ask law enforcement across the country, how long do you hang on to evidence from a murder conviction or that could be useful in open cases, they won't understand the question at first because the answer is really never. You keep it forever or you keep it for 99 years. So I took some steps to make that court application a little more public. And I believe that that could have contributed to the risk to Robert Pickton because I think that several people stood to benefit from the destruction of that evidence. He was in the federal prison system for 12, 13 years, was never attacked. And now, you know, we have this evidence destruction attempt in the media and lo and behold, he's attacked.
Kaina Whitworth
Do you have any thoughts on that, Brian?
Mason Moore
So the lawyer in me says that's a reasonable inference. It definitely is a possibility. But I also want to touch on the destruction of evidence, at least in New York. They cannot, for example, differentiate who has touched a gun if five or more sources of DNA are on it. It's just. It's too complicated for them. But that's today. That doesn't mean that in three years, they can't figure out if 10 different people touch that item. And so law enforcement, defense attorneys, prosecutors, everyone in the criminal justice system is keenly aware of our limitations today. But looking back, what we could do five years ago compared to today is like leaps and bounds. And so it's hard to measure what you should or shouldn't be throwing out today when you don't know what the technology is tomorrow. And so it's a bizarre thing that law enforcement doesn't typically do just because of that very thought process.
Kaina Whitworth
Yeah, I mean, the way that DNA technology is advancing is unbelievable. It's moving at such a fast. Clip, clip here. The RCMP says they have exhausted all investigative leads associated with the materials that are being destroyed. But it's clear that some of the victims families want things to go in a different direction and are very invested in what happens next. And so, in light of that, I want to share with you both that we did reach out to Robert Pickton's lawyer very recently. His name is Ian Runkle, and we asked him about the future of this case. And I'll just read you what he said. He said there is more to uncover, and I hope that Mr. Pickton's death will not be the end of the case.
Mason Moore
Kana, I want to try to translate what Ian Runkle is saying there and give some context to help people understand. In America, people are probably very familiar with the attorney client privilege. I was a public defender for about eight and a half, nine years in Brooklyn, New York. I have clients who are still living. I have clients that are dead, but I still maintain confidentiality. I'm not allowed to tell any of you about who actually committed the murders, who actually did the crimes, whether they're living or dead. I can only give up that information if those clients at one point in time, either explicitly or implicitly said that I can give up that information. And the other thing is, I can only give up information that may further the interests of my client. So when you have an attorney who is saying, I cannot speak to specifics of a case, what they are saying is there is potential information that can implicate my client that I cannot give you. However, giving you that little nugget of there's something that could be uncovered is like saying my client did something bad, but not so bad, and that the so bad information you might hear will not completely exonerate them, but it may give context as to what they did, if that makes sense. So while that statement seems very dry and that attorney is not saying a lot, they are actually saying a lot.
Kaina Whitworth
I mean, I think you're doing a really good job of trying to take apart what could be viewed as a cryptic message here from the lawyer.
Lorimer Shenher
I know that Ian is doing all that he can do, you know, within the kinds of restrictions that Brian is so well outlined. I know there are a lot of advocate groups that are doing what they can do. I know Sasha is doing what she can do. I've met with the Attorney General of British Columbia. I have tried to push them to understand even what's at play here, but we're all just pushing and continuing to push.
Kaina Whitworth
Brian and Lorimer, I am so grateful to you both for this conversation. So thank you for being here.
Lorimer Shenher
Thank you so much for having me. Me.
Mason Moore
Thank you.
Kaina Whitworth
Inside the Midnight Order is a co production of Freeform and ABC Audio and a companion podcast to the Freeform true crime documentary series Sasha Reed and the Midnight Order, now streaming on Hulu. You can also stream the soundtrack. It's available now on all platforms. I'm Kayna Whitworth. My co host is Nancy Schwartzman, director and executive producer of Sacha Reed and the Midnight Order. This series was produced by Camille Peterson, Meg Fierro, Amirah Williams and Jaelyn McDuffie, with assistance from Freeform's Katie Celia and Megan Wattera. Susie Lu is our supervising producer. Music by Nick Senna. Special thanks to ABC Audio's Liz Alessi, Josh Cohan, Madeline Wood and Ariel Chester, and Freeform's Amanda Kell, Ali Braman, Lindsey Chamness, Jasmine Caramzada, Heather Taylor, and Mike Wong. Laura Mayer is executive producer of podcast programming at ABC Audio.
Brian Buckmire
Beautiful Anonymous changes each week. It defies genres and expectations. For example, our most recent episode, I talked to a woman who survived a murder attempt by her own son. But just the week before that, we just talked the whole time about Star Trek. We've had other recent episodes about sexting in languages that are not your first language or what it's like to get weight loss surgery. It's unpredictable, it's real, it's honest, it's raw. Get beautiful anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts.
Summary of Podcast Episode: "Introducing 'Inside the Midnight Order'"
The King Road Killings: An Idaho Murder Mystery
Host/Author: ABC News
Episode: Introducing "Inside the Midnight Order"
Release Date: August 8, 2024
In the premiere episode of Inside the Midnight Order, ABC News Correspondent Kaina Whitworth introduces listeners to a companion podcast for Freeform's true crime documentary series, Sasha Reed and the Midnight Order, now streaming on Hulu. Whitworth sets the stage for an in-depth exploration of one of North America's most notorious murder cases—the Robert Pickton case.
Notable Quote:
Kaina Whitworth [00:30]: "I want you to know about a new series I'm co-hosting. It's called Inside the Midnight Order."
The episode delves into the harrowing details of Robert Pickton, a pig farmer convicted of murdering 49 women. Whitworth interviews key figures who provide insights into the investigation's shortcomings and the broader implications for law enforcement and the community.
Notable Quote:
Nancy Schwarzman [02:36]: "We learned Robert Pickton is dead. It just raises the question, was this a planned hit and why?"
Lorimer Shenher, former head of Vancouver's Missing Persons unit and author of That Lonely Section of Hell, discusses the critical missteps in the Pickton investigation. He recounts a pivotal moment in 1999 when promising leads were inexplicably shelved, leading to a botched investigation that allowed Pickton to evade justice for years.
Notable Quote:
Lorimer Shenher [10:11]: "The prosecutor had done no interviews for anybody else... it was a really odd call."
Shenher emphasizes the institutional failures within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), suggesting that the narrative they presented to prosecutors was flawed from the outset, ultimately hindering a robust prosecution.
Notable Quote:
Shenher [16:00]: "The RCMP brought a very flawed narrative of the case forward... that's why we saw such a bizarre outcome."
Brian Buckmire, a trial attorney and ABC News legal contributor, provides a legal perspective on the prosecution's decision to limit charges against Pickton. He explains that the legal system often prioritizes "judicial economy," leading prosecutors to focus on cases where they can secure convictions, even if that means not all victims receive justice.
Notable Quote:
Buckmire [19:09]: "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove. Judicial economy dictates focusing on cases that will secure convictions."
Buckmire also addresses the heartbreaking reality for families of the victims whose cases were stayed, highlighting the limited legal recourse available to them under the British Columbia Victims Crime Act.
Notable Quote:
Buckmire [20:52]: "Unfortunately, the short answer is none. This is where you have to advocate and you have to go to the voter's box."
The episode takes a speculative turn as Whitworth discusses Robert Pickton's transfer from the Kent Institution in British Columbia to a Quebec prison in 2019, where he was subsequently murdered. Shenher and Buckmire explore possible motives behind Pickton's death, ranging from personal vendettas to broader conspiracies tied to his criminal activities.
Notable Quotes:
Shenher [22:49]: "I think he was part of a much broader... an organized crime operation to eliminate people."
Buckmire [25:23]: "Just like outside of prison, inside of prison there's a hierarchy of crimes... I could see someone putting out a hit on him."
They also discuss the RCMP's controversial move to apply for the destruction of evidence related to the Pickton case, which Shenher believes may have contributed to the decision to eliminate him.
Notable Quote:
Shenher [26:08]: "The RCMP began to bring an application through the courts to destroy all the evidence... I believe that could have contributed to the risk to Robert Pickton."
Whitworth highlights that the Pickton case remains unresolved, especially with his recent death. She shares a statement from Pickton's lawyer, Ian Runkle, expressing hope that more information will emerge despite Pickton's demise.
Notable Quote:
Runkle [28:56]: "There is more to uncover, and I hope that Mr. Pickton's death will not be the end of the case."
Shenher and Buckmire reflect on the implications of Pickton's death for ongoing and future investigations, emphasizing the need for persistent advocacy and legislative support to ensure that other victims receive justice.
The episode concludes with acknowledgments to the production team and contributors who brought the episode to life, including Nancy Schwarzman, Camille Peterson, Meg Fierro, Amirah Williams, Jaelyn McDuffie, and others from ABC Audio and Freeform.
Notable Quote:
Kaina Whitworth [31:09]: "This series was produced by Camille Peterson, Meg Fierro, Amirah Williams and Jaelyn McDuffie..."
Institutional Failures: The Robert Pickton case underscores significant lapses in the investigation and prosecution processes, highlighting the need for accountability within law enforcement agencies.
Legal System Limitations: Prosecutors often face challenges in balancing judicial economy with the pursuit of comprehensive justice for all victims, leaving many families without legal recourse.
Conspiracy Theories: The circumstances surrounding Pickton's murder in prison open discussions about potential conspiracies and the broader implications of his criminal network.
Ongoing Investigations: Despite Pickton's death, there remains a collective effort from advocates, law enforcement, and media to uncover more information and provide closure to the victims' families.
Advocacy and Reform: The episode emphasizes the importance of advocacy in pushing for systemic reforms to prevent future miscarriages of justice and ensure that all victims receive the attention and closure they deserve.
Inside the Midnight Order serves as a poignant reminder of the complexities and challenges inherent in investigating and prosecuting heinous crimes. Through thorough interviews and expert insights, the podcast seeks to illuminate the shadows left by institutional failures and advocate for a more just and effective system.