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.
Because fingerprints, tire tracks, footwear impressions and sometimes handwriting can, with sufficient individual characteristics, be identified to a specific person or item. (Glass can as well in the case of a 'jigsaw' match, when it physically fits into a piece of evidence.) These analyses require human attention and thorough training and competency and are not quite as simply done as adding a blood sample to a thermocycler for DNA analysis. Explaining DNA analysis takes a highly trained analyst but the actual process is largely automated.
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Sorry for the delay, I’ve been on vacation. I guess it depends where the activity took place. If it all took place in bed and they washed the sheets, then there may not be any to find. An alternate light source can look for possible spots of semen, but the problem is many things can fluoresce, such as vaginal secretions, sweat, saliva, cleaners, certain fibers, etc.
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Take as many science and then math courses as you can.
Best of luck!
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I am not sure that it would be possible to detect freon, particuarly the type of freon, as I have no idea what instrumentation would be used or its limits of detection or what effect contact with live or dead would have on the compounds, whether it would tend to react with them or not. I do think it's highly unlikely they would look for that as they would most likely, after the prints had been developed and photographed for the ridge detail, swab up the prints and test them for DNA from the person who left the prints. That process would be designed to detect DNA and nothing else. I suspect these results would come from a magical movie 'Batcomputer' that can tell you every single thing about anything on the planet you drop into it.
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For school projects please email me at: lisa-black@live.com
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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 whereever 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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