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 entirely on the circumstances and method of murder, wouldn't it? If they are such that it would be impossible for the person to have died by accident, suicide, or of natural causes, then murder would be suspected.
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Yes. I've never heard it mentioned that certain things don't show up until later.
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It can be very stressful at times when unexpected overtime or court interferes with life plans, and at times when we are exhausted/hungry/have five detectives all wanting different things at once. But I just focus on the job what needs to be done right now and looking forward to a shower and bed. No, the job is about what I expected.
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Our office gets journals from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the International Association for Identification, as well as smaller publications like newsletters for the Florida Division of the IAI and the one for the association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts.
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First of all, no teacher should ever tell you you're 'not smart enough' for a field.
Second, not all forensic work involves a great deal of biology--really only DNA analysis and serology do. Toxicology will require a good chemistry background. But specialized fields such as latent prints, crime scene investigator, questioned documents, digital evidence, ballistics and impression evidence would use little to no biology.
If a formal degree becomes a problem, you might want to see if you can start out in an Evidence/Property area and work up from there.
Best of luck!
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Was she washed up out of the water or found on a dock or something? In the first case it wouldn't be interpretable because you can't know where the body was when rigor set in. In the second it might indicate that the body had been moved if the hand position wasn't consistent with where the body was found. I don't know what you mean by 'refreshness'. Stomach contents can help a pathologist estimate how long it had been between eating and time of death, though of course everyone's digestion rate is a little different. I hope that helps!
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I'm sorry I can't help but that's a pathology question. I do not know.
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