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.
Unfortunately I can't really discuss that on a public forum. And they're all weird, in their way.
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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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Barring any bizarre circumstances i would think they have only been dead for a short time. But that's really a pathologist's question.Hope that helps!
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That depends on what you want to go into. If you want toxicology, go with chemistry. If you want serology or DNA, go with biology. If crime scene, general forensic science.
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I think those sound like fabulous courses for this field.
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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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Gunshot is the most common, then bludgeoning, then stabbing.
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