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.
That's an awfully broad question. What do you think are the physical and chemical properties? Blood has hemoglobin. Hair grows out of your head. Footprints are impressions in the dirt. I'm pretty sure you could write a good answer to this question yourself.
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The job requirements are whatever the hiring agency says they are, so it could be anything from a high school diploma to a PhD in genetics. The only way to know is to call the department or check their website for job vacancies.
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It all depends on the circumstances of the death (fire victims can have a smoke smell, of course) but mostly the degree of decomposition. That's the only thing that makes a difference, otherwise everyone is the same.
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Possibly, I suppose. If they were swabbed thoroughly and the swabs picked up a few skin cells, then it would be within the realm of possibility.
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That all depends on where you work, what the caseload is, and what your job duties are. If you work someplace with a huge backlog and more work than you have personnel for, it could be stressful. When I was at the coroner’s office it was exhausting, we had a ton of work, not much staff, were underpaid, and my boss was a little crazy, but i loved it so much I didn’t care. At the police department now we have just enough people to manage the work, so even though it gets busy at times we stay on a pretty even keel. Good supervisory management is key (in any field). Best of luck!
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I'm not sure what you mean: a) how long after a print is left will ninhydrin still detect it, in which case I can say from my own experiment that there's little rhyme or reason to this, sometimes older prints develop better than newer ones or vice versa, or b) how long does a print developed with ninhydrin last, and the answer to that is that ninhydrin is a dark purple dye, so it is permanent, though it will continue to develop so that the entire page may eventually turn purple so we use a fixative chemical on the now-visible print so that will stop the ninhydrin from darkening the paper further. I hope that helps!
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That depends entirely on where you want to work and what you want to do. If you want to do DNA analysis and testify in court about it, you may need a PhD in genetics. If you want to work at crime scenes bagging and tagging evidence, you may need only a high school diploma, with added hireability for advanced degrees. The only way to know is to check job opening notices or call the agencies and ask. Best of luck to you.
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