Forensic Scientist

Forensic Scientist

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.

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Last Answer on July 21, 2022

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A girl was found dead in warf.When some one find the dead body her right hand was not touching ground,it was raised from surface.Also the body had the refreshness.Also her stomach contain the carrot ,it is known by postmortem report.say your thought

Asked by Abi almost 9 years ago

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!

Like someone ripped out his brain and placed it in the mans hand. And then ripped the wife's heart and placed in his other hand. ... sorry if im taking up too much of your time.

Asked by Paula again over 8 years ago

Oh, sorry, for some reason I thought you meant that the guy had done it himself. In that case it is quite possible of course. The scene would be very bloody, of course, with all those injuries. The bodies would bleed out but probably more from gravity than from the heart pumping because they would have died so quickly. (At least I’m assuming the attack was over quickly.) The heart is about the size of the person’s fist and, obviously, would be blood covered after removal. A brain is grayish white and convoluted and other than some blood smears would look fairly neat, if the entire thing was removed carefully as one would at an autopsy. The killer would need a scraping tool and the expertise to do that. Otherwise it would probably look pretty mangled, but still largely a grayish white color.Hope that helps!

Can the fingerprints of a living person be taken off a dead human body, namely the skin of the corpse? If so, what are the easiest places for that?

Asked by R-Mod over 8 years ago

Yes. It's not common, but prints have been lifted using superglue or the more recent RTX. The best areas would be those that are smooth, clean and largely free of hair.

What college classes would benefit a forensic degree best? Biology, Chemistry ?

Asked by Sarah over 8 years ago

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.

What are the most common mistakes a killer/murderer that gets them caught?

Asked by bart white over 8 years ago

The vast, vast majority of people who kill people didn't plan to kill someone, so they often leave fingerprints, blood, witnesses, text messages, and then come up with some sort of story that sounded good in their head but wouldn't fool a 6 year old.

If a person died from a bullet wound within an hour and his eyes are open and he was shot 24 more times will his eyes stay open or would they shut from muscle contractions. If alive with 1 shot, then shot 24 times will eyes be open or shut

Asked by Ggrreenn almost 9 years ago

I have no idea. It could be either. It doesn't matter how many times they were shot. As far as I know it would only matter if their eyes were open or not at the moment they died, not what happened before or after they died.

why did you choose this job/career

Asked by anthony melendez over 8 years ago

if you have homework assignment interview questions, please email me all of them at once at: Lisa-black@live.com and I’ll get back to you.