Forensic Scientist

Forensic Scientist

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.

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Last Answer on July 21, 2022

Best Rated

I am 51 and for most of my life wanted to be a medical examiner....in your professional opinion should I pursue this? thanks

Asked by brown over 11 years ago

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!

what causes bird foot injury to humans?

Asked by talha over 11 years ago

I'm sorry, I have absolutely no idea what that is.

How difficult, or possible is it for a state lab to lift prints off a small baggie/residue found in an unattended purse,during a chaotic police raid, possibly handled by several, the prints needing to be good enough to be used as evidence in court?

Asked by pazley over 11 years ago

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.

Something really valuable got stolen from my hand bag . Is there a way that a forensic can be done for fingerprints so I can catch the culprit.

Asked by keshni over 11 years ago

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.

What type of factors make it particularly hard to determine the time of death?

Asked by Lee over 11 years ago

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.

Would you often go home smelling like a cadaver? And health-wise, is a morgue extremely STERILE, or is it like a hospital i.e. just a cesspool of germs waiting to infect?

Asked by Jeremy almost 11 years ago

I'm sure I did. I actually don't have a good sense of smell, so it probably did get into my clothes and hair more than I realized. You keep smelling it yourself because it gets stuck on your nose hairs (according to popular wisdom) so a whiff comes back to you for a few hours afterward. 

ME and Coroner's autopsy rooms are very clean, but that is not the same as being sterile. Except for items used to collect samples for DNA analysis, sterility is not really such a factor--you can't infect the patient. They do take steps to keep from infecting the staff, of course. No food or drinks in the autopsy room, using 'clean' pens and 'dirty' pens, gloves and aprons. I've never heard of anyone catching any loathsome diseases from working there. 

Do you have a graduate degree? Is it true that nobody hires Ph.Ds for forensic positions? Have you met or dealt with forensic chemists?

Asked by Lindsey about 11 years ago

No, I have a BS in Biology, though one of my co-workers has a Master's in Forensic Science. PhDs are often hired for DNA work but yes, probably not for the average forensic position just because they would probably want a higher salary.

And yes, I knew a number of forensic chemists at the coroner's office because they would analyze the blood, urine and gastric on all deceased. They had BS's in chemistry. I don't know if they have forensic chemistry majors now, but they didn't then. At other labs chemists do all the drug testing on suspected substances.

Hope that helps!