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.
You can't go wrong with as many science classes as you can get, and especially anything that's specifically forensics. Programs that have hands-on labs for processing evidence and crime scenes would be great. Titles and job requirements aren't uniform, so the only way to know is to call the crime labs in your area or whereever you might be interested in working and ask them. At the coroner's office we had to have at least a bachelor's in a natural science (this was before they had forensic science majors). At the police department where I am now, they only require a high school diploma but you get more points in the interviewing process for having a four year degree, so we all have one. You can also go on the websites for professional organizations such as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and check out their job vacancy postings and see what the various positions require. Good luck.
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That's an excellent question that I wish I had a better answer for. I'm guessing it depends on the interviewer's history and experiences. For instance due to curriculum changes, in my area we actually get much better-trained candidates from the community college and the for-profit local schools than the large, more prestigious university. It depends on what the curriculum entails and how much hands-on work and practice in your specific field (which may be difficult to do in an online course, but if the bricks and mortar schools don't provide it either, then perhaps it makes little difference). If I were you I would detail that as clearly as you can when applying for jobs.
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I'm sorry but I would not have the slightest idea. It would depend entirely on the path of the bullet and what it hit. Sorry I couldn't help!
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I'm sorry, I thought I answered this one. We work 40 hours per week, some of us are on four 10s and some on rotating 12 hour shifts. Each of us takes a turn on being 'on call' for overtime calls.
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Toymaker
With all the high-tech kids toys, is there still a demand for traditional ones?
Former IRS Revenue Officer
Did you ever deal with people who tried the 'Wesley Snipes' defense?
Auto Mechanic
What car brands are most/least likely to end up in the shop?
Wow I am sorry I somehow didn't answer this question!! In my experience we do a presumptive test for both and then send to DNA testing because they will confirm the presence of DNA in the quantitative step. We do have the OBTI test for human blood but there's no reason to do it u less we're in a huge hurry to confirm human blood.
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I'm sorry to hear about your father. The hyoid would normally be observed during the course of an autopsy, but I have had pathologists tell me that people can be strangled without breaking the hyoid, and the hyoid can be broken due to other reasons,so it doesn't conclusively prove anything one way or the other.
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Your nuclear DNA is the same in the skin cells holding your hair in place, your saliva, your blood, your skin, your bone marrow etc. Your friend's DNA is of course different from yours, but the same in their saliva, their blood etc. The criminals probably threw someone else's hair around the crime scene so it wouldn't match them.
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