Elizabeth Heiter | Creating an FBI Profiler

I’ve never worked for the FBI. Never coordinated with local law enforcement on investigations ranging from serial killers to child abductions to terrorism. Never had to interview suspects, been threatened by suspects or attacked by suspects just when I thought I was safe. And I’ve never had to create a victim profile of a teenage girl, seemingly loved by everyone, after she’s gone missing and left a note behind foretelling her own death.

But the heroine of my Profiler series, FBI Special Agent Evelyn Baine, has done all of these things. And because I’m a stickler for accuracy, I had to figure out how to do all of them, too.

Before my heroine could become a criminal investigative analyst (profiler) for the FBI, she had to first get through the Academy and work as a regular Special Agent. So, I began by researching those things, everything from how a NAT (New Agent in Training) graduates from the FBI Academy to what kind of squad she might be working when she was finished. I dug into books by former FBI profilers, dozens of them, to get into the nitty gritty of creating a criminal personality profile. But the best part of the research, hands down, was visiting the FBI Academy and FBI field offices, and talking to the agents who actually do the work.

Along the way, I learned that profiling actually involves a lot more than just creating a profile for an unknown subject (UNSUB). While those criminal personality profiles are key – they narrow down the attributes that will lead police to a perpetrator (things like if the perpetrator is married, what kind of job he holds, whether he would have tried to insert himself into the investigation, and much more) – profilers also have to look at the victims. To figure out why a particular person was targeted, profilers also create what’s known as victim profiles.

For Evelyn’s upcoming investigation in STALKED, my latest Profiler book, the victim profile was key. Because when a teenage girl goes missing from inside her high school and police discover she left behind a cryptic note foretelling her own death, there are no obvious suspects. No useful forensics. Not even a crime scene they can truly identify. So, all they have is the girl: Was she really what she seemed or was she hiding a dark secret that could have gotten her killed? And if she’s still alive, can they find her before it’s too late?

Those are all questions for a profiler, and the answers, of course, are never simple. You can learn more about STALKED at my website

About Elizabeth Heiter

Elizabeth Heiter likes her suspense to feature strong heroines, chilling villains, psychological twists, and a little bit (or a lot!) of romance. Her research has taken her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations, and onto the FBI Academy’s shooting range.

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English Literature. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. Fresh Fiction called her debut suspense HUNTED a "fast paced and thrilling start to a new series," Affaire de Coeur gave it 5 stars, calling it "very well done with a fantastic ending," and Bookreporter said HUNTED was "a thriller that grabs readers from the first page...Heiter has hit a high note right at the start of her writing career!"

The Profiler | Lawmen

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