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.
My job isn't like TV--I'm not involved in every single aspect of the investigation. My job is to provide forensic support to the detectives, so in any given case I estimate I know perhaps 20% of the overall information relating to the crime. I don't know what witnesses, victims, suspects have said, what financial or phone records might show, etc. etc. The detectives would probably tell me if I asked, but I'm usually too busy with all the other cases to ask.
Who to arrest and who to prosecute is up to the detectives and the prosecutors. They don't ask my opinion, and in light of the first paragraph, I probably couldn't give them an informed one.
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Sorry it took me so long to get back to you!
Yes, fingerprints are impressions made by the oil and sweat on our fingers. If a surface is very dusty, we take away dust on our fingers instead of leaving prints on the object. It will look like fingerprints should be there because there will be finger marks in the dust, but actually we just removed dust.
Hope that helps!
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At my department I mostly work with fingerprints, analyzing and comparing fingerprints that I collect off pieces of evidence or pick up at crime scenes or ones that the officers submit after they collect them at crime scenes. I will also go to crime scenes, photograph, collect prints, items of evidence, maybe test for blood or collect samples of blood with sterile swabs. There’s also a lot of time spent writing up all this information in our reports and other paperwork. If I worked in DNA or ballistics or toxicology, I would probably spend all day in the lab doing those types of analysis. So it depends on where you work, what services they provide, and what your exact position is. I hope that helps!
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Wow, that’s a tough question! I’m not sure I could come up with ten.
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What is your favorite part of this job?All the interesting, different, bizarre stories that make up the crimes that have happened that we have to investigate.
What is you least favorite part of the job?Being 'on call' and knowing you can be interrupted at any moment of the day and have to go to a crime scene, even if it's the middle of the night or a holiday. I've also had to change vacations because I have to testify in a trial. I hate that.
Being around the dead is something you either get used to really quickly or you don't. The dead will not bother you, but the living can drive you crazy! And stress depends where you work. I have a great office and a relatively low-crime area, so unless we have a lot all happen at once, which is not too often, it's really not that stressful. If I lived in a more hectic place with too many demands and not enough time or resources, it might be a different story.
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Yes.
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I’m sorry but I have no idea. that would be the detective’s job, not mine.
Best of luck!
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