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.
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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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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Email me at: lisa-black@live.com.
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I would try oblique lighting—try laying the piece down as flat as possible and then hold a flashlight to the side so the light beam travels across the piece instead of down onto it. Adjust the light to where it’s the most helpful. With the ziploc bag you might also put a piece of dark paper inside it to increase the constraint. That’s all I can think of since I’m not an expert in questioned documents. Best of luck!
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Waitress
Do you get annoyed when people use Groupons?
SWAT Team Commander (Retired)
How do you decide whether to try and kill a hostage taker?
Tattoo Artist
Have you ever messed up while giving someone a tattoo?
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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Bodies begin to deteriorate immediately, but the process might progress more slowly or less slowly depending on temperature, humidity, exposure or any medical conditions of the victim.
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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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