Profiler: True Crime Africa

What was it actually like to train as a criminal profiler at the FBI Academy at Quantico when profiling was still an emerging discipline?
In 1990, Amsterdam homicide detective Carlo Schippers was selected to spend an entire year at Quantico, training and working alongside some of the pioneers of modern criminal profiling.
John Douglas was running the unit. Carlo was taught by figures including Robert Ressler, Roy Hazelwood and Ken Lanning. His training included forensic pathology, abnormal psychology, studying solved murders and eventually working on real cases submitted to the FBI by police departments across the United States.
It was also a remarkable moment in profiling history. The Silence of the Lambs had been partly filmed at the FBI Academy and was released while Carlo was there. He remembers taking the same elevator seen in the film down to the underground Behavioral Science Unit, watching the media descend on John Douglas and attending a special preview of the movie with FBI Academy staff.
Carlo joins former head of the SAPS Investigative Psychology Section Dr Gérard Labuschagne and Paul Llewellyn to give a rare first-hand account of that year: how FBI profilers were trained, what the work actually involved, what Hollywood got wrong and how Carlo eventually took what he had learned back to the Netherlands and became the country's first profiler.
Carlo also discusses his new book, Denken als de dader — Thinking Like the Offender, looking back across his 45-year police career and the reality of working with homicide, serial murder, sexual offending, missing persons, stalking and coercive control.
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Brian Mudyiwayana did not rely on force to find his victims.
He relied on trust.
Lt Col Elmarie Myburgh joins Paul Llewellyn and Dr Gérard Labuschagne to take listeners inside one of South Africa's most disturbing serial murder investigations.
The discussion explores how promises of employment and relationships became methods of victim selection, how investigators linked murders across multiple towns through behavioural analysis, victimology and forensic evidence, and what Myburgh observed during her interview with Mudyiwayana after his conviction.
The conversation also examines offender psychology, post-offence deception, rehabilitation, parole and why power, control and excitement became central to the court's understanding of the offender.
Brian Mudyiwayana was convicted of six murders and sentenced to six life terms plus 17 years' imprisonment.

The murders began appearing across southern Gauteng. Women were being raped, robbed and killed. As investigators started connecting the dots, a disturbing picture emerged — they were hunting a serial offender.
In this episode, Paul Llewellyn is joined by former SAPS profiler and investigator Lt Col Elmarie Myburgh to revisit the case of Lazarus Tshidiso Mazingane, the man who became known as the Nasrec Serial Killer. Together they walk through the investigation as it unfolded, from the first signs of linkage to the arrest and conviction of one of South Africa's most notorious serial offenders.
They also examine the behavioural themes at the heart of the case: escalation, victim selection, control, behavioural linkage and the investigative lessons that remain relevant today.
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Most people assume someone caught with child sexual abuse material is simply looking at images. Investigators, psychologists and behavioural specialists see somethingvery different.
In this episode of Profiler Africa, Paul Llewellyn speaks to Dr Gérard Labuschagne and Kirsten Clark about the psychology of child sexual offenders, the growth of online exploitation networks, and the landmark Gerhard Alberts case that helpedchange how South African courts approached these crimes.
A discussion about offender behaviour, cognitive distortions, digital investigations, risk assessment, and the uncomfortable reality that some of the most dangerous offenders can appear completely ordinary.
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From the recent Pretoria Boys High controversy to the Primrose Primary shooting and the infamous Krugersdorp sword attack, South Africa has repeatedly been forced to confront the reality of violence in schools.
In this episode of Profiler Africa, Paul Llewellyn is joined by Dr Gérard Labuschagne and former SAPS Investigative Psychology specialist Kirsten Clark to examine the warning signs that often emerge before violence occurs, the psychology behind threats and targeted attacks, and why schools frequently miss opportunities to intervene before tragedy strikes.
The discussion explores threat assessment, leakage, grievance, behavioural warning signs, and the critical difference between punishment and prevention.
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