She saw the tiny skeleton hands of a little boy. “I wondered who had held the hand of that little boy… And what would the mother have given to hold that little hand just one more time?” Micki Pistorius has spent decades hunting and helping to catch dozens of notorious and sadistic criminals during her decades-long career. Among them: serial predators, stalkers, people threatening the president, and even a cannibal. But her first-ever investigation is still firmly etched into her soul. In this exclusive interview, the world-renowned criminal profiler and author shares her journey, and takes us deep into the minds of the “normal” people who walk among us, silently preying on their next victims. Criminal profiler, Micki Pistorius, has helped catch more than 25 serial killers (Credit: Helen Cilliers) Ask any little girl what they want to be when they grow up and you might hear responses like a doctor, a lawyer, an artist, a ballerina, an engineer, or a professional athlete. It was no different for a young Micki Pistorius, who was raised in the conservative 70s and 80s. “I have always wanted to be a writer,” Pistorius told Bored Panda during our interview. But life had other plans. After obtaining her BA degree, she went on to become a journalist… A job she held for just over a decade. Yearning for more knowledge, she decided to go back to university and study psychology. Somehow, Pistorius ended up with a thesis topic of serial killers while pursuing her Masters. She still doesn’t quite know how, nor why. But it was a move that would shape her life, and see her become her country’s first-ever criminal profiler, and a leading global expert in her field. “One day, a psychologist from the South African Police Service called the head of the department of psychology and asked for a nominee for a psychological profiler. Since I was doing my Doctorate Thesis on serial killers, I was appointed, and I joined the South African Police Service on 2 February 1994,” Pistorius tells us. “I became a profiler by accident.” It was a tumultuous time during South Africa’s history. The country was navigating its rocky transition from apartheid, and gearing up for the first-ever democratic elections. For years, a serial killer had been unleashing a reign of terror on poverty-stricken areas of Cape Town. The naked bodies of several young boys had been discovered in shallow graves near train stations, many with their hands bound behind their backs. Newspaper clippings, dated January 1994, during the Station Strangler's reign of terror It’s suspected that between 1986 and 1994, 21 young boys and one adult were abducted, raped, and murdered near railway stations in and around Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats. People were living in fear and the police needed help catching the man who’d now become known as the “Station Strangler.” Within days of starting her new job, Pistorius was taken to a crime scene. There, she saw the tiny skeleton hands of a little boy. Up until then, she’d only seen crime scene photos. Now, things were real. “I wondered who had held the hand of that little boy. Did the killer hold his hand when he led him all the way into those dunes?” pondered the expert at the time. “And what would the mother have given to hold that little hand just one more time?” It affected Pistorius deeply but also motivated her to continue to want to catch this killer. And others who carry out similar heinous crimes. “A wave of nauseating smell” is how she describes her next crime scene. The first had just been bones. This one was a lifeless body. “What I saw next was this little boy lying on his stomach and the maggots. There were spades full of maggots all over this little boy… I could hear those maggots eating his flesh,” recalled the expert. She says it sounded like somebody was crumpling newspaper, and for a long time, Pistorius couldn’t stand anybody crumpling newspaper anywhere near her. The child’s hands were tied behind his back. He was wearing his underpants. He appeared to have been strangled with his tracksuit pants. That little boy had a name, a family, a future ahead of him… all brutally cut short by some unknown predator who needed to be caught urgently. Ricardo Resende / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Around 2,000 suspects were processed in the 6 months that Pistorius and the investigating team spent working on the case. Until one day, thanks to Pistorius’ profile and a police identikit, there was finally a breakthrough. A woman called in, claiming that a patient at the psychiatric hospital where she worked could very well be the “Station Strangler.” Not only did he look the part, but he’d arrived at the clinic with a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of the “Station Strangler.” Norman Afzal Simons appeared as any other ordinary man. A teacher, he was well educated and spoke with the confidence of someone who had his whole life planned out. Normal Afzal Simons, a teacher dubbed the Station Strangler, was arrested in April 1994 “Looking into the eyes of this killer… such a normal man,” Pistorius said of the first time she ever met him. He enjoyed listening to classical music, could speak French and wanted to visit Denmark one day. It didn’t exactly scream “murderer”. Simons had even previously gone to the police, requesting to sign up as a reservist so that he could help find the notorious Station Strangler. But Pistorius knew better. She says it’s common for serial killers to attempt to insert themselves into the investigation, and it’s not like they wear a big, red flag around their neck. “A serial killer does not froth at the mouth,” the expert told Bored Panda during our interview. “They are people, your neighbour, priest, brother, father or mother or sister. They blend in.” Pistorius likens a serial killer to a shark in an aquarium. “We are amazed at how they graciously blend in with the other fish,” she says, “oblivious to their danger because a shark is also a fish, until they attack… and then it is too late.” What might surprise many is that, according to Pistorius, most serial killers do not suffer from grave mental pathologies. “Serial killers are not aliens or monsters,” she says. “They have parents like everyone else.” Simons had allegedly told detectives during their interviews that, as a young boy, he was molested by his brother. And had said that he’d heard the voice of his sibling in his head while carrying out the crimes. Pistorius explains that when someone suffers trauma at a young age, they take on the role of the passive receiver or the victim, while the perpetrator is the aggressor. And this doesn’t just extend to physical harm. “When I asked the serial killers I interviewed what hurt them the most when they were children, none of them answered the physical abuse they suffered,” the expert reveals. “They all answered what hurt them the most was their parents telling them they were worthless.” For some victims of childhood trauma, she says, the only way to end the cycle is to kill off the victim. They think, “If I’m doing it to someone else, I am no longer the receiver victim.” The expert notes that with Simons’ last (known) victim, he chose someone who was his age when he himself was molested. “Psychologically, he was committing suicide as a little boy trying to get rid of the victim feeling,” she said. Pistorius also reveals that during the investigation, detectives had published the names of the victims in the order that they’d found the bodies. This seemed to irritate the killer because when the team discovered yet another body, there was a note in the pocket reading “Number 14. Many more to score.” This showed that they were looking for a perfectionist, says Pistorius. “One of the little boys' shirts was so neatly tucked into his pants - the killer sodomised him and then dressed him,” she adds. But there was something else: the fact that the boy had been dressed showed that the killer wanted to undo what had happened. Pistorius knew then that there was a brief window to catch this killer. A period of opportunity where his conscience would slip up and he’d confess. She told detectives as much and not long after, Norman Simons was arrested. “During that window of working with his conscience he made certain admissions,” Pistorius says. She says that when police took him to point out the crime scenes, he led them to another one that they didn’t know about. Simons reportedly told the detective that he’d dropped some coins there, and at the scene, they found the coins and some clothing. But no victim. No lifeless body. Michael D Beckwith / Unsplash (not the actual photo) A year later, in 1995, Simons went on trial. On that day, with a heavy heart, Pistorius picked up the mothers of several victims to accompany them to court. While a total of 22 victims were discovered between 1986 and 1994, Simons was tried for and only convicted of one murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, Pistorius has publicly stated, and told Bored Panda, that she has no doubt that he committed more crimes. “He had information only the killer would know,” she says. “Most people who doubt it was him do not have the full behind-the-scenes details that the investigation team was privy to.” “No more killings of that precise modus operandi took place after his arrest,” Pistorius has also said on her YouTube channel. Pistorius tells Bored Panda that on 9 December 2008, during an inquest, “Regional magistrate Marelize Rolle found enough prima facie evidence to pronounce Norman Simons responsible for another 6 murders. She did not order a prosecution due to the time lapsed since the murders were committed.” In 2023, Norman Simons was released on parole. A move Pistorius believes was a bad idea because, as she says, serial killers will go on to commit more murders. “I visit this community often and believe me, even after 30 years, they have not recovered from the trauma,” the profiler tells Bored Panda. During Simons’ time behind bars, Pistorius has gone on to help catch dozens more serial killers. Each has left an indelible mark on her life. “Profiling does not just consist of AI-generated statistics and probabilities – it needs to get into the soul of the perpetrator to differentiate him or her from all the other candidates who may match the probabilities,” the expert says. So exactly what is it that drives a serial killer? According to Pistorius, their crimes are based upon their fantasies. “We have total control in our fantasies but not in reality,” she explains. “So they recommit to get the reality to match the fantasy where they feel omnipotent and in control. There is no greater control than that over life and death.” Pistorius says that while serial killers tweak and change, the basic element of the fantasy remains the same and becomes their signature. “It is the task of the professional profiler to unravel and recognise that idiosyncratic signature of the killer,” the expert tells us. According to a recent VICE article, the US has 3,615 documented serial killers, accounting for 66.2% of all known cases worldwide. “Two in every three documented serial killers in recorded history operated on American soil,” the site notes. The piece includes some disturbing statistics, too: “Americans are statistically more likely to live next to a serial killer (1 in 94,800) than to win the lottery (1 in 292.2 million) or get bitten by a shark (1 in 11.5 million).” The thought of living next door to a serial killer, and not having the faintest clue, sounds terrifying. Especially since, as Pistorius has told us, “they are such normal people.” “It is difficult to imagine normal people can commit the atrocities we are often faced with, but it is true,” says the profiler, adding that, in her line of work, “The moment you think: ‘this is too horrible to be the work of a sane person,’ you will lose sight of your target.” A serial killer’s craving to kill other people to feel better about themselves is the main thing that sets them apart. “Serial killer cases are notoriously difficult to investigate because they are stranger-upon-stranger murders,” Pistorius reveals. “There is no obvious suspect as in other murder investigations, because the motive is hidden in the subconscious of the killer and the suspect blends into the community.” The expert says unraveling the hidden motivation from the crime scenes is a key element to the profile. “When one deciphers the hidden motive, based upon the killer’s idiosyncratic fantasy, then you know the killer better than they know themselves,” she says. “Serial killers themselves do not know why they feel compelled to murder – they often try to find the reasons, but fail,” reveals Pistorius. “The profiler knows.” The key, and often one of the biggest challenges, is to catch the killer in as short a time as possible, to prevent them from killing more innocent people. Something that really bothers Pistorius is how the media often portrays serial killers, and how the public buys into the hype. “I have a problem with synthetic sensationalism which we often find in the press, movies, blogs and websites where serial killers are elevated to pop culture icons and the blood and gore is used as click bait. This is disrespectful to the families and human dignity of the victims,” she says. “Certain aficionados hold themselves as experts on serial killers because they read many books.” What Pistorius wants you to know is that when it comes to real-life crime scenes, there are no “special effects” like the ones we see in the movies or a tv-series. The real victim, unlike the actor playing the ‘dead body,’ does not get up after the director calls “CUT.” They don’t simply wash off the stage make-up and head out for a drink with their friends. JOSHUA COLEMAN / Unsplash (not the actual photo) “Crime scenes are messy and an onslaught on one’s senses and soul,” Pistorius says. “The first sight of a decomposing body with their guts spilling out, their eyes eaten by vermin, displayed with no sense of human dignity, reverberates even in the most hardened and professional law enforcement officers – this was a person who was once loved by someone. No amount of creative licensing, digital art editing, or imagination can recreate the revulsion of reality.” However, Pistorius adds that she can understand the public’s interest and obsession. “Since the dawn of humankind, people need to know more about that which they do not understand, to conquer their fear,” she tells us. “However, when public interest drives irresponsible media coverage, the far-reaching consequences are not always calculated or considered: perceptions of perpetrators, victims, and law enforcement can become distorted; criminal investigations can be compromised; and dangerous myths take root, but more damaging to the individual and the collective psyche of society is how the victims are reduced to mere statistics or sensationalized details.” Pistorius warns that the erasure of victims’ identities perpetuates the myth of the killer as the central figure, overshadowing the real human cost of their crimes. “Victims' families often find themselves revictimized by invasive and insensitive media coverage,” she says, adding that constant reminders of the crimes, coupled with sensationalist depictions of their loved ones' deaths, can compound their grief and trauma. “Ethical considerations are frequently overlooked in the pursuit of a compelling headline, leading to the exploitation of victims' suffering for entertainment purposes,” Pistorius cautions. And the work she does is anything but entertaining. “Anyone working on a serial killer investigation, the profiler, the detective, the crime scene analyst, the mortuary attendant, the pathologist…all breathe, see, smell and hear the horror – and may develop idiosyncratic symptoms,” Pistorius once wrote in a blog post on her website. After suffering through years of secondary traumatic stress, Pistorius eventually retired from the police force in 2000, having served as the founder and Deputy Director (full Colonel status) of the Investigative Psychology Unit. She had been involved in more than 35 serial killer investigations by then. But that doesn’t mean she’s hung up her serial killer hunting boots just yet. “I have recovered from that trauma,” she tells us. “I have found a balance by fighting for justice and hopefully inspiring others to fight for justice even if they think their contribution may be insignificant. We can all make a difference.” During her career, she’s trained more than 300 detectives in the investigation of serial killers. “I also trained profilers, detectives, prosecutors and psychologists in England, Namibia, Mauritius and France,” she tells us. Mikki Pistorius' life story has been turned into a television series called “Catch Me A Killer” (Credit: Helen Cilliers) After decades of catching killers, Micki Pistorius, has finally found her peace. And in a way, she’s gone back to her childhood dream of becoming a writer. “Currently, when I am not consulting or presenting guest lectures, I love to write articles blending crime, anthropology, archaeology and mythology and profiling on my Substack platform,” Pistorius reveals. She’s also written a biography, which was turned into a television series aptly titled, “Catch Me A Killer.” She lives a semi-normal life and is still involved in helping police put society’s most tormented, sadistic and dangerous criminals behind bars. Pistorius writes, dissects and analyzes true crime. She testifies in court, gives talks and occasionally grants interviews to media outlets, like the one she kindly agreed to for Bored Panda. You can follow Pistorius’ writing here.
