 She worked as a journalist for eight years, before deciding to study psychology at the University of Pretoria, where she received a Masters in the subject, and also became a lecturer with a reputation for eccentricity.While doing her doctoral thesis on serial killers, the first in South Africa, she developed her theory linking Freudian psychosexual development with serial killing.She was married for eight years, but divorced as a result of work pressures after she became a profiler.