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.
Almost certainly, no. Unlike television, real forensic equipment is designed to test for certain things. For example the mass spectrometer in the toxicology department is set to test for illegal narcotics and not heavy metals such as arsenic. If arsenic is suspected, it could be detected with a different instrument or different parameters programmed into the same instrument. So I doubt there is any equipment that could be set up to detect microscopic amounts of photographic chemicals, if a photo would even shed any.
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We don't have a set schedule for interns. They'll come in on weekdays, but other than that we work with their school/work schedule.
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They’re all shocking, in their way, But there hasn’t been one in particular that bowled me over.
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Possibly, I suppose. If they were swabbed thoroughly and the swabs picked up a few skin cells, then it would be within the realm of possibility.
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Huh, that's a good question. I hope my books show what it's really like, except, of course, that my protagonist spends much more time out of the lab than in it, which is not at all realistic.
The non-fiction TV shows and books show reality, however, you have to remember that they're presenting cases that most investigators may come across once or twice in a lifetime.
Fiction shows, like "CSI" in which they have computerized databases of every substance in the world including toothpaste and wall paint, or ones in which female pathologists wear cocktail dresses to work. are definitely not realistic at all.
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That's an awfully broad question. What do you think are the physical and chemical properties? Blood has hemoglobin. Hair grows out of your head. Footprints are impressions in the dirt. I'm pretty sure you could write a good answer to this question yourself.
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I used to analyze dried paint with an FTIR, which I believe would detect lead, but as to what would be better I really don’t know. Sorry I can’t be more help.
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