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.
Every county has only one medical examiner (or coroner). The other people doing autopsies are pathologists. They are all (almost always) doctors. So as long as you're okay with completing med school and then whatever residencies are required, it's never too late to change your life!
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Wow, that's a really specific question. The answer is: you never know until you try. I don't have a lot of luck with plastic bags but my newer co-workers, who have a little more patience with fluorescent dyes than I do, often get good results. It doesn't matter to the fingerprint whether the purse was unattended or not and it doesn't matter how many people handled it, it matters how they handled it. As long as they picked it up by its very edge, they wouldn't harm anything. So it's perfectly possible to get a decent print off it, but I also would not be at all surprised if I didn't because, as I said, plastic bags are very hit-or-miss. Retrieving fingerprints is largely a matter of luck. That's why we never say never.
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I'm sorry, I have absolutely no idea what that is.
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See the first Q&A about fingerprints for more info, but purses (fabric, vinyl, leather) are not good surfaces for prints so you might be out of luck. Is there anything on or in the purse that they had to have touched (not just knuckled or pushed aside, actually gripped) that is smooth and glossy? And that hasn't been touched a number of times since? That might be a possibility.
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Football Official
Do you think it's ok for NFL refs to play fantasy football?
Waitress
Do you get annoyed when people use Groupons?
Security / Bodyguard
Have you ever had to disarm an attacker?
Well, time and a moist environment definitely don't help, but I'm afraid that's a question for a pathologist. Sorry I can't be more help.
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Again--pathologist's area of expertise, not mine. The foreign DNA should be simple enough to obtain but as for pre- or post-mortem...I would guess they might figure it out if there was tearing or damage that seemed post-mortem (no bleeding or bruising). Otherwise, I don't know. Sorry!
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Stay in school and take lots of science courses.
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