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 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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Sure, you can email me at Lisa-black@live.com.
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That’s a good question, because there is no hard and fast rule—your title is whatever your boss says it is. A CSI may work only at crime scenes or may also do any office or lab analysis as well, it depends on how big the unit is and how work is distributed.
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Yes. Unless they have a crime lab more incredibly equipped than any I've ever visited.
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Radio program/music director
Just how good of a radio host do you think Howard Stern is?
SWAT Team Commander (Retired)
How do you decide whether to try and kill a hostage taker?
"The Onion" Contributors
What's your favorite Onion headline of all time?
I couldn’t. I don’t know if a pathologist or biologist could.
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Take all the science courses you can and visit labs that do the kind of services you’re interested in.
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Sorry, I'm having a hard time picturing how what you're describing would be possible.
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