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.
Again, I don't like the stress of people asking for the impossible, then assuming you aren't delivering it because you're lazy. There are tons of cases I worked, especially at the coroner's office, where I never found out what happened--unless I'm called to testify in the trial, I have no idea if the killer was ever caught or if the case remains unsolved. The cops would tell me if I asked, but I forget to ask because by then there's new cases. There are fingerprint hits I've made where the person wasn't arrested, and I don't know if it's because the person had a good reason to be in the home, or if the prosecutor got cold feet, or whatever. I could probably find out if I tracked down the detective in charge and reminded them of the exact case, etc., but who has that kind of time? Then there are other cases that I do so much work on, go through a trial, and I know everything about them.
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Clothing is kind of interesting because there's so much variety to it and it can give you a lot of information, with blood, gunshot residue and holes made by weapons. I also enjoyed working with fibers because there is a lot of variety to them as well, and they're colorful, but often I'd have way too many and then it would get tedious. No one examines fibers any more, they're not unique enough.
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I'm afraid I don't have any idea. I've never met one, only forensic anthropologists. At the coroner's office our forensic anthropologist was a professor at Kent State and would come up and give a report on our skeletal remains when requested.
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Repeat, see above.
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Former IRS Revenue Officer
Did you ever deal with people who tried the 'Wesley Snipes' defense?
Border Patrol Agent
What's the most creative way you saw cartels getting drugs across the border?
Call Center Representative
Are you allowed to hang up on a caller if they're being very rude?
As far as I know, it doesn't. As long as YOU weren't convicted of a felony.
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How many shots and do they exit the body?
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How long it takes to get DNA results depends entirely on where you are sending them and how backed up they are. Our state lab used to take at least 6 months, but things have improved and now it is only a few months. However if we have a homicide that really needs quicker answers, sometimes they can do that. If the police department or state attorney's office are willing to pay (probably at least a grand. sometimes per sample) the samples can be sent to a private lab that can get results in as little as three days. It's expensive, but it also has to be a lab that is accredited and that the agencies trust. You can't assume anything from a long wait other than that the lab is backed up. They might have an overwhelming amount of cases, they might not have enough manpower, or they might not be efficiently run. It's impossible to guess.
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