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.
That would depend a great deal on the circumstances. Any hair actually on the victim that does not appear to belong to the victim would likely be collected. If there was obviously a struggle, if the victim was beaten or strangled, hairs on their hands or caught in their fingers would warrant special attention or any clumps of hair nearby. If the victim's lying on a carpet that apparently hasn't been vacuumed for the past decade, then single hairs might be disregarded. If the person is outside and shot from a distance, then hairs would likely be disregarded.
I hope that helps!
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Trace Evidence, my first book, was optioned and I wrote the screenplay for it. But the producers couldn’t sell it and had to give up. I’ve had nibbles on other books but nothing yet. I keep hoping!
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I don’t know what you mean by pure math. Most crime scene work, fingerprints, tool marks, serology, might need regular adding and subtracting, but I don’t know of any field that uses calculus or algebra. DNA analysis uses a lot of statistics and ballistics and traffic accident investigation might use physics and geometry. But those are the only examples I can think of.
Best of luck!
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What does that have to do with forensics?
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That's an excellent question that unfortunately I can't answer. One probably would use it, but back when I did hairs and fibers it was generally thought that the only way was to extract the dye and do thin-layer chromatography, which we didn't have. We also didn't have a Ramen, so all I could do was microscopic comparison.
Best of luck!
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I don’t really know, but at the coroner’s office I worked at I was told that our coroner was actually the highest law enforcement officer, technically, in the county. She was the only person who could arrest the sheriff if necessary. That never became necessary though so I don’t know how it would actually work.
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Wow, that’s a tough question! I’m not sure I could come up with ten.
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