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.
I am an expert in some areas of forensic science. I am not an expert in law, public safety policy or our political system.
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We’ll hold the scene as long as we need to get everything done, and that could be a day or two or three, but for a kidnapping it probably wouldn’t be more than a day, just enough to collect all the victim’s stuff, and collect fingerprints, hairs, fibers, anything that might belong to the kidnapper. We eventually get tired and want to go home (though we can go and come back, so long as it hasn’t been ‘released’) and the police department don’t really want to hold it longer then absolutely necessary, because they have a cop or two sitting there doing nothing but guarding the scene, and it takes them off the road. Hope that helps!
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I'm sorry, but I have no idea. I don't work in digital forensics.
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If it were allowed to dry and kept dry, then it's possible, though the odds would be incredibly slim since the decomposition fluids from the body would most like overwhelm it. It's worth a try.
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Sr. Software Engineer
Are those $12,000 "learn to program" bootcamps a rip-off?
Stand-Up Comedian
What types of crowds are the worst for you to to perform for?
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What's the most unethical thing you've seen casinos do to "part you from your dollars?"
I don’t see why not. But I wasn’t aware hair could be tested for alcohol, I thought it was only drugs and heavy metals.
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You just do. Somehow you can either tolerate it or you can't, or you learn to cope with it. There are cops who can work homicide for thirty years and still have a weak stomach. They just don't let it keep them from doing their jobs.
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Hair is just dead cells, so once something is there, it stays there. Hair grows at about 1/2 inch per month, in general (mine, to my frustration, grows much more slowly). So if your hair is longer than say 6 inches, the cocaine will still be there. If your hair is much shorter, then I don’t know what’s happening.Hope that helps.
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