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.
32. It was my second career, I majored in political science during my first round at college and was a personnel secretary for ten years first.
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The 'forensics industry' encompasses at least twenty different areas, from pathology to accounting, so any certifications would be administered by that disciplines organizing body. Fingerprints, for example, are regulated through the International Association for Identification. Death Investigators have their own organization. Whether or not these certifications are required for your job is up to the agency (such as your city police department or a county medical examiner's office) hiring you for that job.
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Biology would help with the natural fibers (like cotton or fibers from plants, or hairs from animals like wool) and chemistry helped with analyzing synthetic fibers with polarized light or fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Those last two don't work on natural fibers because they're not consistent all the way through like a synthetic fiber, that comes out of a machine.
Fiber analysis was usually only examined in cases of stabbing, strangling or bludgeoning, where there had to be close physical contact between victim and suspect. (A gunshot didn't mean there had to be contact.) It was only a small part of my days. Very little is done any more because you can only say the fibers are consistent with having come from a particular sample, you can't say they did, as in DNA or fingerprints. You can't even give a statistic for how likely it would be to find a particular fiber unless it came from the suspect, etc., because we can't know how many items with that fiber are in the environment.
Only collection would be done in the field, to do anything more you would need the microscopes and the equipment at the lab.
Hope that helps!
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Most people are cross-trained in more than one area. In smaller agencies people might have to wear a lot of hats.
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Air Traffic Controller
What was it like in the tower on 9/11?
Physical Therapist
What's the most dramatic "before-and-after" improvement you've ever seen with a patient?
Air Traffic Controller
Have you ever ordered a pilot to abort mid-takeoff?
I’m sorry but I have no idea. I’ve never worked in Toxicology.
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Sure, email me at lisa-black@live.com.
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Large paper bag. Casting agents usually warm up so that might create moisture inside a plastic container or bag. A cardboard box might be good as well to give it enough support to keep it from cracking.
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