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 am not sure that it would be possible to detect freon, particuarly the type of freon, as I have no idea what instrumentation would be used or its limits of detection or what effect contact with live or dead would have on the compounds, whether it would tend to react with them or not. I do think it's highly unlikely they would look for that as they would most likely, after the prints had been developed and photographed for the ridge detail, swab up the prints and test them for DNA from the person who left the prints. That process would be designed to detect DNA and nothing else. I suspect these results would come from a magical movie 'Batcomputer' that can tell you every single thing about anything on the planet you drop into it.
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Take all the science courses you can and visit labs that do the kind of services you’re interested in.
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I’m not sure what you mean—when I decided to go into forensic science (in which case it would be “that sounds really cool, like I could solve mysteries without being a cop”) or more like my very first day on the job (which would be “I hope I don’t screw up “).
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Sorry, I'm having a hard time picturing how what you're describing would be possible.
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Every agency will have their own requirements depending on the position and their preferences. For crime scene or to work in an evidence dept, a criminal justice major may be fine. If you can find a forensic science program that may be great. There is no one answer because it depends what positions they have at each agency.
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It may depend on how fresh the stain is and how fresh your reagents are. Plus just becuase something fluoresces does not mean it’s semen (see answer above).
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I would expect it to be like any other interview--they will ask about your education and experience. If there is any practical experience you have, such as lab analyses, fingerprinting, what programs you used, they may ask specific questions about that such as which software did you use, did you use a mass spec or an electron microscope, etc. If there's things you haven't done, you might say you're aware of the theory of, say, bullet trajectory analysis but haven't had any hands-on experience. That's perfectly okay, no one is an expert in everything. Best of luck!
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