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.
Interesting question, but I doubt I can be of much help. A body can do one of two things after death--decompose or desiccate. So it might turn into sludge or it might become a mummy. It might depend on temperature or pH levels (more relevant if the car was buried) to determine which way it would go. Being sealed would definitely slow the process to a crawl. I had a body in an attic once that was partially wrapped in plastic, and after three years the wrapped areas still had plenty of flesh and the unwrapped parts were down to bone.
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I was going to email your teacher but you didn't give me her complete address, just her name. Please go to my website and hit 'contact me' and let me know where to send a response. Thanks and good luck with your project.
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1. Review earlier answers to similar questions.2. Take as many science classes as you can.3. Check out the websites of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the International Association for Identification and any others you can find, and look at their Employment Opportunities section. Job postings will tell you what qualifications are required.4. Call all the crime labs in your area (city, county, state and any other location where you might want to work) and ask what degrees their staff have and what are required. (For instance my agency only requires a HS diploma but we all have at least a B.S.) Every agency will have their own requirements. Best of luck to you!!!!
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Yes, we do it every day.
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Police Officer
Have you ever been shot or seriously injured on the job?
Security / Bodyguard
Have you ever had to disarm an attacker?
Former IRS Revenue Officer
Are IRS auditors more accommodating when you're polite with them?
I spend about 90% of my time sitting in front of a computer looking at fingerprints. The rest of the time I go to crime scenes to photograph and process for fingerprints and collect items of evidence. When I was at the coroner's office I probably spent 40% of the time examining victim's clothing, 10% on gunshot residue testing, 30% on hairs and fibers, and 20% everything else.
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It could help if it's pulled hair, not cut, and if they were super-careful to leave no fingerprints or any other kind of possible DNA samples so that the police had no choice but to test the hairs for possible suspect DNA. It would also depend on the scene--if it's a heavily traveled bank, for instance, so there is a ton of discarded hairs, the police would hardly test them all. If they leave a tuft of hair on say, a chain-link fence used to get away, where the police couldn't help but notice it, then they'd have a better chance of making it a useful diversion.
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How much chemistry you need depends on what type of work you do. As long as you're not actually working in toxicology or DNA, you shouldn't need to be a great chemist as long as you can reliably work with chemicals and combine them properly (like following a recipe). And as long as you are a reliable and honest employee then the job is secure, once you get it, but I will be honest--there's a lot of competition in this field right now so getting into a position might be difficult. You should definitely have a back-up plan.
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