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.
Wow, that's kind of hard, possibly because we in forensics don't 'solve' cases, the detective does. We provide them the information that hopefully solves or helps to solve the case. Some that took a surprisingly short time: we had a would-be rapist drop his wallet at the scene. I recently had a burglary/arson/car theft in which I had some decent fingerprints, but they didn't match anyone in our city database. The detective had no leads at all and no idea where the car was. Then as is routine I checked the prints against the neighboring city's database, and got a hit, they questioned the suspect and he confessed. In my small town we often have the killer waiting at the scene and telling us that they did it. However, after sitting in jail for a while they may decide they were justified, so the legal trial may not even begin until 2-3 years later. One that took longer: we had the brutal double murder of a woman and a young girl in 1989. Despite a copious investigation of every friend, acquaintance, fingerprint or hair involved, no leads. Then two years ago a man was arrested on a relatively minor charge and his DNA was searched and hit on the unsolved murder. Hope that helps!
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As I’m not a toxicologist, I’m afraid I’d have no idea. Sorry!
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I’m sorry but I have no idea. I’ve never worked in Toxicology.
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I think it would certainly be an asset!
Best of luck.
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Many forensic chemistry departments only analyze possible drugs, so I would think it would be possible to find.
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I would try oblique lighting—try laying the piece down as flat as possible and then hold a flashlight to the side so the light beam travels across the piece instead of down onto it. Adjust the light to where it’s the most helpful. With the ziploc bag you might also put a piece of dark paper inside it to increase the constraint. That’s all I can think of since I’m not an expert in questioned documents. Best of luck!
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32. It was my second career, I majored in political science during my first round at college and was a personnel secretary for ten years first.
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