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.
Because not everyone's fingerprints are in a database. You only have fingerprints taken when you are arrested or apply for a job or some other license for which it is required. Not all of those necessarily end up in a database accessible to the agency that has the unidentified person. And DNA such as hair only helps when you have a profile to compare it to--if the unidentified person is a convicted felon so their DNA might have been entered when they went to prison, or if there are family members available to give a sample (in which case you would have to already have an idea of who the person might be). It's not really like TV. We don't have databases of every single person and every single substance known to man.
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I'm sorry but I am not trained in accident reconstruction. That is a very specialized field. I would have no idea whatsoever.
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I'm sorry but I have no idea. That's a question for a pathologist. Sorry I couldn't help!
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I don't know what malted means, but I suspect the answer is no. Just brushing hair can pull it out just as in a struggle.
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Auto Mechanic
What car brands are most/least likely to end up in the shop?
Border Patrol Agent
Do Mexican authorities help on THEIR side of the border?
Subway Store Manager
Is Subway viewed as a healthy fast food option in Australia?
I've been involved with a number of child murders but in every case the child was killed by someone in their own family, usually a parent. In one case a 6 year old was shot by an acquaintance of his older brother's, but the 6 year old wasn't the target, simply an inconvenient witness. I've never worked one where the child was abducted. I don't have chilidren so it's actually easier for me than for people who do. To me it's largely the same as any other murder, though harder in some ways because the victim looks so vulnerable. You handle it because there's so much to be done and you have to do it right, so thinking about all that keeps you from thinking about the tragedy of this young life.
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I'm not a DNA expert, but I know that half the 23 chromosomes in a person''s nuclear DNA come from one parent and half from the other parent, so part of the father's DNA would have to be present in the child.
Mitochondrial DNA (which is a different substance entirely, a circular structure present in the cell's mitochondria, whereas nuclear DNA is a double helix present in the cell nucleus) is passed from mother to child without recombining, so only the mother's mitochondrial DNA is present in the child. We test for mitochondrial DNA when nuclear DNA isn't available, like when we only have cut hair or fingernails or old bone to work with.
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Sure, I will email you.
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