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.
I doubt it. It depends on how little it was, and if those juvenile records are sealed (they usually are) but if it didn't prevent you from joining the military I'm guessing it wouldn't affect you working in a crime lab.
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I have a degree in biology because they didn't have forensic science degrees at that time. I would think any natural science is a good basis for the field. A friend of mine who teaches at Miami-Dade recommends Miami-Dade, of course; also the University of New Haven, and Keiser University has some good programs.
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I don't know exactly, but I know from personal experience that bruises are strange and unpredictable. I can bump into something terribly hard and have no mark, and then have a huge bruise from some injury I only very vaguely remember. I also don't know exactly how long they take to fade, and that might also be affected by how deep they were in the first place or the physical condition of the person. Sorry I can't be more help.
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With hairs, you can’t identify one to a specific person with only microscopic examination—the main reason it is hardly used these days, and typically only as screening to decide to do DNA analysis. Then DNA analysis is actually done on the skin cells clinging around the root, because the actual hair doesn’t have any nuclear DNA. It does have mitochondrial DNA though few labs can do that.Fiber analysis is also rarely done these days because it can’t be positively identified to an article of clothing, or is it possible (usually) to find out how many of that article had been manufactured or sold and who they were sold to, etc. An analyst can say the fiber is consistent with coming from that article but that’s all. Unless there is a ‘jigsaw match’, a section of the material found that can be fit back into the article of clothing like a puzzle piece.Hope that helps!
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No, thank you. I would never want to be a cop--I don' t know how they do what they do. I would hate having to deal with stressed-out people all day long.
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That completely depends on what kind of evidence and what analysis we’re doing.
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Alas, I really don't know. I think it depends on many cirucumstances, the temperature, the pH and the humidity. I can tell you that covered corpses break down much more slowly than those exposed to air so there's a good chance, if the environment was somewhat cool and dry, that there would be a good amount of flesh left on the body. If the environment was hot and humid, it might be completely decomposed into inches of sludge. Hope that helps.
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