Jan Canty, Ph.D.

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A native Detroiter, Jan Canty, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, photographer, educator, consultant, and cancer survivor. She holds a terminal degree in psychology as well as a post-doctoral fellowship from the Wayne State University School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. Then life happened. And grew dark.

Her spouse of 11 years went missing and was found murdered in July of 1985. The media exposure was relentless. Reporters followed her to the medical examiner building, disrupted the funeral, and published a map of her house. After the trial and convictions of the two assailants, she quietly moved deep into the Midwest and began her 30-year redacted life. She taught psychology at a small, rural college away from tourists, airports, memories, and intrusive questions. She later adopted two special needs sisters and remarried a Lt. Colonel Airborne Ranger. She worked as a forensic psychologist in a large mental hospital and taught graduate school in the evening. Her chosen specialty was cross-cultural psychology which lent itself to photography and international travel to remote villages on five continents. Dr. Canty was awarded Faculty of the Year her second year of teaching. She received awards for her photography. While preparing for her fifth triathlon she fell climbing a muddy hill and broke her arm. A day later she had a cancer diagnosis, a titanium rod in her arm, and began the year-long process of undergoing a stem cell transplant

Life circumstances delivered her to be uniquely qualified to address surviving murder both from a professional and a personal viewpoint. This is the underpinning to her true crime memoir, A Life Divided (in print and audiobook format). She also launched a podcast for other so-called homicide survivors entitled “Domino Effect of Murder” in 2020 and developed a private Facebook group for people struggling with grief after homicide (called Homicide Survivors and Thrivers).

Dr. Canty presently lives and works (as a consultant) for the federal government and spends her free time with family and friends, two Saint Bernards, continuing her photography, gardening, and traveling.

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