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.
See above.
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Okay, I am emailing you.
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The coroner's or medical examiners office, or find a college with an anthropology major and ask one of the professors.
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I actually don't know how a DNA analyst tells human from animal DNA, but I don't think it's very difficult. We have an easy field test called Hexagon OBTI that can tell animal from human blood in a matter of minutes.
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Audiologist
How come people with hearing aids still can't seem to hear?
CPR Trainer
Why does the 'official' CPR method change from time to time?
Server / Bartender
How much more do female servers get tipped?
I don't really watch any except the ones on the ID channel, and those are mostly about the investigation. But when they do mention forensic evidence, they're accurate.
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On the shooter's hands, not very long. When we did GSR testing we would not do it if more than 4 hours had elapsed since the shooting. On clothing, it could depend on the type of material and how far away the item was--if it's a smooth fabric it would probably brush right off, but a more fuzzy type of thick material might get some particles stuck in it.
That was talking about primer residue. Gunpowder residue is bigger, heavier, and hot so it can fuse to some fibers or get 'stuck' to the item by the victim's blood.
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It depends on the crime, but in general I guess you look for how the perpetrator got in, how they got out, and what they disturbed while they were there. Then I look for what we could get information from (such as surfaces that they had to touch that are smooth and glossy and might have prints, whether they left blood or bodily fluids behind that could be tested, whether they wrote something or used something that could point to their identity, etc.).
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