Biography — Elmarie Myburgh

A retired Lieutenant Colonel of the South African Police Service, she dedicated close to three decades to criminal profiling within South Africa's law-enforcement system, serving from 1994 in the SAPS and from 1997 in its Investigative Psychology Section (IPS), where she was one of the very few specialised criminologists in the country.

Her academic training includes a Bachelor's (Honours) in Criminology and Psychology from North-West University and a Diploma in Criminal Justice and Forensic Auditing from the University of Johannesburg, complemented by international training in crime scene assessment, criminal behaviour analysis and profiling, investigative interviewing, and violent risk assessment and management. Over the course of her SAPS career she contributed to close to seventy serial murder cases and more than ninety serial rape investigations in South Africa and neighbouring countries, providing crime-scene analysis, behavioural-pattern analysis, offender profiling, structured victim and suspect interviewing, and risk assessment. She has frequently testified in the High Court as expert on behavioural linkage analysis, and she played a central investigative role in the case of the so-called "Facebook Rapist". She has been featured in true-crime media as a defining figure of investigative psychology in South Africa.

At Evidentia she brings into the Master in Criminal Profiling the field-tested perspective of South Africa's high-volume serial crime context — a body of operational experience few academic profilers anywhere in the world can match.

Areas of expertise

Elmarie Myburgh's work centers on investigative psychology, criminal profiling, behavioural linkage analysis, serial crime investigation.

Education and affiliations

Elmarie Myburgh holds Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Criminology and Psychology from North-West University, South Africa; Diploma in Criminal Justice and Forensic Auditing from University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Specialized international training from Crime scene assessment, criminal behaviour analysis, investigative interviewing, violent risk assessment.