LIsa Black
Cape Coral, FL
Female, 49
I spent the five happiest years of my life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office I analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now I'm a certified latent print examiner and CSI for a police department in Florida. I also write a series of forensic suspense novels, turning the day job into fiction. My books have been translated into six languages.
Yes and no. Labs and units have expanded a lot in the past 10-20 years especially due to federal grants, but they're not as big as you see on TV. A small police department may do only fingerprints and send everything else to the state lab. A big city facility might take up an entire block or two and do everything from drug testing to paint and glass. As for skills, take as much science classes as you can and try to find programs with hands-on field work. Best of luck!
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It helps. But I know good homicide detectives who do it for years and still have a weak stomach and they do fine.
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Sure, it’s Lisa-black@live.com
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I actually don't know. I haven't done DNA analysis in 20 years so I don't know all the details of what analysis can show. Sorry I can't be more help!
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The basics: our name, address of crime, date, time we arrived, and who else was there (cops, detectives, ME, etc.). Then what we did there, processed for prints, how many photos we took, chemicals used, if we collected evidence. We might also measure the area and make a sketch.
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I’m sorry, but I can’t. I haven’t done DNA analysis in over 20 years. Sorry I couldn’t help!
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I don't know what you mean by that. Different staff might have different specialties, like bloodstain pattern interpretation or digital forensics, but there's pretty standard things that have to be done at every crime scene, like photography and collection of evidence, processing for fingerprints, etc.
I hope that helps.
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