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.
Wow, that's kind of hard, possibly because we in forensics don't 'solve' cases, the detective does. We provide them the information that hopefully solves or helps to solve the case. Some that took a surprisingly short time: we had a would-be rapist drop his wallet at the scene. I recently had a burglary/arson/car theft in which I had some decent fingerprints, but they didn't match anyone in our city database. The detective had no leads at all and no idea where the car was. Then as is routine I checked the prints against the neighboring city's database, and got a hit, they questioned the suspect and he confessed. In my small town we often have the killer waiting at the scene and telling us that they did it. However, after sitting in jail for a while they may decide they were justified, so the legal trial may not even begin until 2-3 years later. One that took longer: we had the brutal double murder of a woman and a young girl in 1989. Despite a copious investigation of every friend, acquaintance, fingerprint or hair involved, no leads. Then two years ago a man was arrested on a relatively minor charge and his DNA was searched and hit on the unsolved murder. Hope that helps!
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Yes. I don’t know if it’s actually from the poop or from the skin cells sloughed off on it, but you can.
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Sorry, but I’m not trained in digital forensics. I have absolutely no idea.
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Fingerprints develop randomly as a child is moving around in the womb before birth, so they are not dictated by genes. That said, there can sometimes be vague similarities among family members (like having radial loops, all arches, or whatever). There are three patterns, loops, whorls and arches, and you can easily have some of your fingers have loops and then a few have whorls, or they can be all one type, or any combination.
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You would need another forensic pathologist to review the work of the first forensic pathologist.
Best of luck.
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Large paper bag. Casting agents usually warm up so that might create moisture inside a plastic container or bag. A cardboard box might be good as well to give it enough support to keep it from cracking.
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Go to college and major in forensic science or one of the natural sciences. Best of luck!
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