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.
Yes, to some extent. That’s what I’m doing now. It all depends on how much staff and equipment the agency has. For instance I’ll collect items and process them for fingerprints or do preliminary tests for blood or semen, but it’s unlikely that a DNA analyst would also be doing crime scene work.
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Sure you can email me at lisa-black@live.com
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That’s more of a question for detectives, since ‘solving ‘ the case is their responsibility—I’m just there to provide forensic support. But in the cases I’ve been involved with, luck is of course a huge factor.
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My guess would be no. I would think the formaldehyde would destroy the DNA in the cells, though I don’t know for sure, and in any event they weren’t doing DNA in the 70’s so you’d have to find something of the person’s to compare the eyeball DNA. If you have something of the person’s retained from the 70’s, especially hair for example, perhaps there is mitochondrial DNA in some cell in the eyeballs that could still be obtained and compared to the mDNA from the hair.Otherwise I doubt ophthalmologists would take or save retinal scans back in the 70’s. Hope that helps. Best of luck!
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A good way to get a handle on the situation is to look at online job postings from places where you might want to work--the local police department, the county morgue, the state crime lab. They will post the duties and requirements for each position. You can also check the same information on the websites of professional organizations such as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences or the International Association for Identification. That should give you a good start.
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Yes. Unless they have a crime lab more incredibly equipped than any I've ever visited.
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Usually we can assume what kind of cells will be on it depending on where it was collected from—if from a pop can, it will probably have saliva and skin cells. From underwear might have semen. If from a dark stain, probably blood. How long it takes depends on the type of analyses done and the type of DNA testing—STR, ySTR, mitochondrial, etc. It will take at least a day or two, and after that it depends on the lab’s backlog. We send our DNA to a state lab and it will take between a month and four months to get the results back. If detectives or prosecutors want it faster and someone’s budget is willing to pay for it, we can send it to a private, accredited lab and pay for a faster analysis. They can do it in as quickly as three days or up to a week or two depending on what you want to pay for. If you want it in a week it will cost a few thousand dollars—something like $600 a sample plus upcharges for expedited service and an overall charge, if I’m remembering correctly. If you want more like three days it will be more like $5000. That’s for the basic three samples—victim, suspect and questioned sample.
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