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.
Most people die in their homes, so that's the 'normal' place to find them, but there are plenty of more unusual incidents as well. It's never scary, though, since when I go there I'm surrounded by cops, EMS workers, possibly firemen, Medical Examiner staff etc. I always observe the body where it is found, since that is my job. The Medical Examiner's or Coroner's office staff examines the body at their lab, so they can choose to come to the scene or not. If the death appears to be straightforward and natural, they will often not come to the scene and simply have the body transported to them.
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I use it the way you use your computer without writing code. I have chemicals that I use to process for prints, but we just purchase them. There are a few reagents we mix ourselves. At the coroners office we mixed almost all ourselves. A toxicologist, on the other hand, would use it every day.
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She should try to get an internship with a local agency--city, county, state police or medical examiner's. Practical experience will count for a lot. However much depends on what kind of forensic scientist she wants to be--does she want to do crime scene work, in which case most of the training is on the job, or does she want to work in a lab, in which case she'll probably need at least a BA in biology or chemistry. She can check forensic organization websites and government websites for job vacancy postings to get an idea of what the job requirements are. She might also check out entry level positions. At our department we have PSA--Public Service Aides, a paid position that's basically a step between community volunteers and sworn officers. They do more cop-type things, but will make contacts and learn a lot. They do things like direct traffic at accident scenes, take burglary reports and process scenes for fingerprints. She might also want to consider that forensic positions involving crime scene work often have unpredictable hours and sometimes overtime, which might be difficult to juggle with child care arrangements.
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As I'm not trained in digital forensics, I'm afraid I wouldn't know. PS the purpose of this website is not really so that you can cut and paste your homework and get other people to do it for you.
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Gunshot residue can actually refer to two things, gunpowder that flies out of the barrel with the bullet and can land on the victim, and primer residue that can leak out of the back of the bullet cartridge and spray out onto the shooter's hand. But it can also get on the gun or nearby surfaces or people so presence of it on hands does not prove someone fired a gun, and it can wipe off easily so absence of it doesn't prove they did.
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Yes, the arcsin of the width divided by the length of the stain will give you the angle of impact at which the blood struck the surface (usually a wall). The direction of the stains can be traced back to a point of convergence and from there the angles can be traced back to a distance from the wall, giving you the approximate point in space where the blow was struck.
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Yes. I've never heard it mentioned that certain things don't show up until later.
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