A Bit About Me:

My name is Gisela K. (Kirsten) and I am South African. I am married to Raphael (“Mr. Grizzly”), who is Swiss, and we have three cats, Fury, Willow and Pepper. We got married in July 2013 in George, South Africa and relocated to Switzerland in February 2024.

I grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, and am a former competitive swimmer. I was a butterfly swimmer (50m/100m/200m) competing at Senior National level since I was 12 years old. At the time, I was the youngest to qualify for this level. Due to this, I received a full swimming scholarship at Crawford College Pretoria (a private school). My swimming career ended when I suffered significant hearing loss (I was 90% deaf when I was 16 and developed coping skills to lip read) and had to undergo surgery (stapedectomy) on both ears to replace my stirrups (the smallest bone in one’s body). I accepted that my days spent training for 3 to 4 hours a day in the pool towards the dream of one day qualifying for the Olympics were over, and had to find a new dream and career.

I have always been creative, empathetic, and love animals, so I used to dream of becoming a vet, but my family did not have the resources for me to go to University. So, I decided to apply for various opportunities in South Africa, imagining what could be possible. I knew that if I could achieve something that no-one thought I could, I would inspire others to do the same. In 2003, I was 1 of 8 out of 4000 applicants to be selected as a South African Airways cadet pilot: I was awarded a full scholarship with our national carrier to become an airline pilot (yes, my ears passed the test, even though the yearly medical exams were always stressful). In 2013, I was at the peak of my career as a Senior First Officer on the Airbus 319/320 with 5500 flying hours, but the airline was not doing well financially and would eventually be liquidated. I am a risk strategist by nature, so I decided to hang up my wings proactively and out of sheer curiosity, decided to take a completely different path.

I’ve always had a flair for poetry and won an international award when I was younger for a poem I wrote about swimming. In 2013, I decided to learn everything I could about the world of self-publishing books, and Raphael and I published over 50 titles in various genres before I was ready to self-publish books under my own name (vs a pen name). While I was writing books, I worked as an au pair, recruitment consultant, project manager in a drone company, as a marketing manager at an aviation magazine, and as a marketing manager at a world-class swimming facility. In 2019, right before the pandemic hit, Raphael got a job opportunity as a software engineer at an aviation company that he has always wanted to work for, so we moved to the Netherlands. Being in a country where I knew no-one and did not speak the language (still don’t) had its challenges, but I like a challenge. I started a travel writing website and got to know many parts of the Netherlands very well, but within a few months we were on lock down, which lasted for almost a solid 2 years here without easing restrictions. That’s when I decided to write my very first true crime book, and in the summer of 2020, I self-published ‘Jeffrey Dahmer, The Milwaukee Monster’, followed by three others in this series. These books were intended to be factual and not “story time” books, which is a style you’ve come to know on my YouTube channel: chronological bullet points and layers of information that we carefully explore in a true crime case. I planned to write 100 or more of these books, and had a podcast to discuss them. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to stay in the trenches of one serial killer case at a time for months and months of my life. That abyss, like Gacy’s crawlspace, can get really dark, so I decided it would be best for me to share my hard work with the world in a different format.

At the end of June in 2021, I uploaded my first YouTube video. After approximately two weeks I decided to take the plunge, get a camera, and start livestreaming so that I could discuss cases with all of you. This felt so much more fulfilling than sitting in a quiet room writing books that only received ratings as interactions, I wanted to discuss cases in far more depth with you than that. Through every deep dive, every trial, every press conference, and every turn, we have grown together as a community, carefully studying the patterns we find, helping to educate ourselves on how we can stay safe, raising awareness on domestic violence, coercive control, stalking, catfishing, and all aspects of true crime. Together we strive to help victims and their families have their voices heard and to stand with them as they fight for justice for their loved ones who were stolen from them in the worst way possible. It’s been a life-changing experience and I could not be more proud of this community, one that I hope you will become part of if you aren’t already.

I have worked very hard to overcome many obstacles along the way, including the anxiety of being in the public eye (when I am usually someone who prefers to be the quiet observer), and to bring you the best content I possibly can almost every single day. I create true crime content on YouTube, Patreon, and for YouTube members, which keep me busy full-time, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to do so. It’s because of you, the Grizzlies, always showing up, sharing your thoughts, lifting me up, that we are here.

Thank you. Now, let’s get back to it!

With love and respect,

Gisela.