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This episode of Profiler Africa focuses on one of the most critical — and least visible — parts of the justice system: victim identification.

Paul Llewellyn and forensic psychologist Gerard Labuschagne speak to Brigadier (Ret.) Helena J (Ras) Van Zyl, who spent decades leading forensic identification and disaster response within the South African Police Service.

The conversation explores how identification is achieved when bodies are damaged, records are missing, or disasters overwhelm systems — and why science alone is never enough.

This is a grounded, professional discussion about process, responsibility, and the human cost of getting identification wrong.

Analytical. Evidence-based. Uncomfortable — because reality usually is.

Trust nobody.

👉 Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/profiler👉 Become a Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/@PROFILERAFRICA/join👉 Subscribe to Profiler Africa for weekly episodes📩 Contact / sponsorships: profilerafricainfo@gmail.com

Serial killers are often imagined as obvious — strange, isolated, visibly dangerous.

In reality, the greatest danger lies in how ordinary they can appear.

In this episode of Profiler Africa, Paul Llewellyn and forensic psychologist Gerard Labuschagne discuss why recognising serious offenders is so difficult — and why studying the psychology of killers is not about curiosity, but survival.

Rather than analysing a single case, the episode explores how internal fantasy, control, and secrecy can exist unnoticed, sometimes for years, before becoming reality.

The conversation examines:

• why outward appearance tells us very little• how violent fantasy can remain hidden• what profiling is actually designed to detect• why “gut instinct” is unreliable• the difference between fascination and survival• why, as the episode concludes, it is the living you have to worry about

This episode is analytical, evidence-based, and deliberately unsettling — because understanding violence requires confronting uncomfortable truths.

Remember:
Trust nobody.

Over the past few months, several of our documentaries temporarily disappeared from this channel.

That wasn’t an algorithm issue.

It was the result of an ongoing legal battle over ownership, authorship, and exploitation of African-made crime television — a case now before the courts.

The documentaries are now back on the channel.
We’re asking you to watch, share, and amplify them.

To help people understand what’s really going on, we published a short explainer video:
🎥 The Case of the Missing Crime Shows
👉 https://youtu.be/bhSo9Rf8ock

This is not about creative differences.
It’s about whether African creators can defend their work when powerful interests attempt to take control of it.

To continue this fight properly, we’ve launched a BackaBuddy campaign to help cover ongoing court costs.
So far, R9,187 has been raised — and we’re genuinely grateful.

If you’d like to support the campaign or learn more:
👉 BackaBuddy link in the description

This isn’t behind-the-scenes drama.
It’s about accountability, transparency, and whether stories from this continent can be protected.

Thank you for watching.
Thank you for sharing.
And thank you for standing with us.

This week on Profiler Africa, hosts Paul Llewellyn and Gérard Labuschagne unpack one of the most disturbing family murder cases in South African history — the Griekwastad murders.

In a quiet Northern Cape farming town, an entire family was brutally killed. What followed was an investigation that challenged assumptions about motive, youth violence, emotional detachment, and the limits of early detection. This episode traces the case from the very first report at the police station through to conviction — and the ongoing controversy surrounding parole.

We also explain why, due to changes in South African law, the convicted offender is not named — and why that does not prevent a full psychological and investigative examination of the case.

This episode explores:

• how the case initially presented to police

• behavioural red flags that shifted the investigation

• motive versus emotion in family annihilation

• what the case reveals about adolescent offenders

• and why Griekwastad still unsettles the country today

This discussion leads directly into Episode 3 of Murder on the Mind, premiering this Thursday — a deeper psychological examination of the same case.

📩 profilerafricainfo@gmail.com
🌍 plotshift.co.za

What happens when a criminal case is built not on physical evidence — but on memory?

In this episode of Profiler Africa, co-hosts Paul Llewellyn and forensic psychologist Gerard Labuschagne examine recovered memories and their use in criminal prosecutions.

The discussion explores how memory functions, why it is inherently unreliable, and how therapy — when poorly conducted — can unintentionally create false or contaminated memories. Drawing on South African case experience and international forensic standards, the episode explains why recovered memories are treated with caution in many courts — and what happens when that caution is ignored.

This episode is not about disbelief.
It is about evidence, due process, and preventing injustice on all sides.

📩 profilerafricainfo@gmail.com
🌍 plotshift.co.za

In 2022, a 13-year-old boy was murdered in Klawer after stealing fruit from a garden.

The man responsible, Daniel Hugo Smit, chased the child in his vehicle, abducted him, and killed him. Claims of occult influence and diminished responsibility were rejected by the court, which sentenced Smit to life imprisonment.

In this episode of Profiler Africa, Paul Llewellyn and forensic psychologist Gerard Labuschagne unpack:

• the psychology of rage-based violence

• entitlement and escalation

• why this was not a psychosis-driven crime

• how offenders rationalise extreme acts

• what this case teaches us about prevention

📩 profilerafricainfo@gmail.com🌍 plotshift.co.za

Durban, March 2011.
Four men murdered in eight days — two decapitated. All strangers. All ambushed and hacked to death with an axe.

The killer: Joseph Phindile Ntshongwana, former Blue Bulls flanker whose life collapsed into delusion, paranoia, and violent psychosis.
Family saw the warning signs — hallucinations, erratic behaviour, and a fixed belief in a daughter who didn’t exist.

In this episode, forensic psychologist Prof Gerard Labuschagne joins host Paul Llewellyn to unpack how the murders were linked, what the forensic evidence proved, where delusion meets legal responsibility, and why every appeal failed.

Profiler Africa — where psychology meets the crime scene.

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Rate and review.
Share with someone who loves true crime.

This week, we break down the case of Annerize LeoniceSmith, who poisoned her partner Russell Kriel, a respected teacherand rugby mentor, and hid his death for 46 days.
We explore the domestic violence that led up to the killing, the psychology ofpoisoning, the extended deception, and what the sentencing tells us aboutintimate partner homicide in South Africa.

Featuring forensic psychologist Professor GérardLabuschagne, who prepared the pre-sentencing risk report.

Support the show: Subscribe, rate it, or Buy Me a Coffee:buymeacoffee.com/profilerafrica

Email: profilerafricainfo@gmail.com
Website: plotshift.co.za

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