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, because simply from a news article you have no idea of everything that is going on. The officers might not be (should not be) telling reporters everything they know, in order to weed out truthful and untruthful witnesses. They're also not going to tell reporters (and if they did the reporters wouldn't write it) every last little boring tedious detail of everything they do. And information often gets garbled in translation, from crime scene to cops, from cops to the information officer, from the info officer to the press release, from the press release to the news article, from the neighbor looking over their fence and then talking to the reporter. That's just human.
Lots of time the story I get from Dispatch when they first call me turns out to be a totally different thing when I get there.
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Yes, about 60 times, and I may be going again this week. It's one of those 'doesn't rain but pours' kind of things. I might go twice in one week and then not again for months. It's incredibly frustrating, time-consuming, nerve-wracking and super not fun. You have no control over anything, not when you have to be there, not how long you have to be on the stand, not what kind of questions you'll be asked, and you get no warning of any of these things beforehand.
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As I said above, patience, attention to detail, a tolerance for the more tedious parts of the job, and an affinity for science. A strong stomach helps but I knew guys who were homicide detectives for twenty years and still got queasy at the smell of a dead body, so don't let that stop you.
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No. A .357 can shoot .38 bullets (not vice versa, or the gun will blow up) but 9mm can't shoot 38 bullets because they're shaped a little differently. It's confusing because what we call .38 caliber are actually .357, and 9mm is actually .380--in size, but a 9mm gun cannot shoot .380 bullets. You would have to read the forensic report carefully and maybe ask for clarification. I've never worked in ballistics, so perhaps there's a chance that the report is saying that the projectile had a .380 diameter, not that it was a .380 bullet, in which case it could have come from a 9mm gun?
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Videogame Reviewer
Pick one: Nintendo Ice Hockey, NHL ‘94, or Blades of Steel?
Bouncer
What's the best way to "get in good" with the bouncer at the door?
Server / Bartender
What's the best tip you ever got?
Yes, take all the science classes you can and try to visit local labs to see what the job is really like.
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No, I'm happy where I am.
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it is always helpful to know what will give a false positive result. Hemastix will also react with a few other substances, such as vomit for one. That's why it's called a prelimary test and not a confirmatory test. Good job!
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