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.
Could you clarify that question? I'm not sure what mean.
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I would think they’d have to get rubbed off. I don’t know how one could hold a knife tightly enough to stab someone without smudging all the prints on the grip. Guns, despite what you see on television, are terrible surfaces for prints, though I guess if you were very careful and maybe propped the butt on something, I suppose you could use it without grasping and smudging some areas, like the grip (if it were smooth, otherwise it likely wouldn’t retain any prints anyway) or a shiny, chromed barrel. A knife, maybe if it was big enough that you could grip only part of the handle and leave the prints on the other part undisturbed. Or maybe part of the blade if you didn’t stick it in the body all the way. But I would think it would be tough to do.
Hope that helps!
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Like any job it has its tedious moments, but yes I like it.
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Unfortunately, no, I cannot. I've never worked in toxicology. Sorry I couldn't help.
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We can compare footprints just as finger or palm prints, but there isn’t a database of footprints so you would have to have standards of the suspect’s feet. Otherwise I don’t know what you mean by ‘looked at.’ Everything is looked at, in a sense—there’s ballistics, fibers, bloodstain patterns, arson evidence, toolmarks, video and photo analysis, paint, glass, etc. and etc.
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I have no idea--are you referring to utility companies marking gas lines, etc? My agency has some flags but we haven't used them recently. I suspect if an agency uses different colored flags it might be some internal coding that they use. Sorry I can't be more help.
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I’m not sure what you mean. Do you mean how does a forensic scientist advance in their career, or what scientific advancements have been made by forensic scientists?
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