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.
Usually, as far as I know, the detective is in charge of the investigation. The CSI doens’t work for them but is there to provide technical support and advice, but ultimately, the detective has the final say. And unlike TV, the detectives are interviewing witnesses and deciding who to arrest. Best of luck!
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Titles and job requirements aren't uniform, so the only way to know is to call the crime labs in your area or wherever you might be interested in working and ask them. At the coroner's office we had to have at least a bachelor's in a natural science (this was before they had forensic science majors). At the police department where I am now, they only require a high school diploma but you get more points in the interviewing process for having a four year degree, so we all have one. You can also go on the websites for professional organizations such as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and check out their job vacancy postings and see what the various positions require. Good luck.
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Get everybody out of it, and then take pictures.
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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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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!
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Gunshot residue can actually refer to two things, gunpowder that flies out of the barrel with the bullet and can land on the victim, and primer residue that can leak out of the back of the bullet cartridge and spray out onto the shooter's hand. But it can also get on the gun or nearby surfaces or people so presence of it on hands does not prove someone fired a gun, and it can wipe off easily so absence of it doesn't prove they did.
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At a guess, I would suggest: slash marks that are too wide for a knife, some partially healed, would indicate animal claws inflicted at different times, but none deep enough or near vital arteries to cause bleeding out. Then water in the lungs would indicate drowning, though that is not always a definite indicator. Drowning is an elimination diagnosis, as in you eliminate other possible causes.
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