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.
1. Probably not in a forensics lab. I'm guessing that would require carbon dating; an archaeologist would know much more than I would. 2. Possibly.3. Depends on the backlog at the lab (could be weeks, could be many months) and how much you're willing to pay for rush work at a private lab.4. I'm not sure news releases are ever required for anything, unless there's some sort of imminent threat to the public. Sorry but I actually don't know how our public information officer decides when to issue a release or not. 5. News reporters usually come to the scene of a crime or accident when they see something going on, but it depends on how busy they are, who they can spare to go to the scene, and whether they guess this will be a useful story to them. It's entirely up to them. We have a public information officer that they can always contact to get any release-able information.
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Huh...that's a tough question. Nothing really stands out...everything is a little weird in some ways but not incredibly so. Perhaps the most unusual thing I ever had to examine was a safety harness from a window washer who fell 38 floors. Mostly I'm just amazed at the way people live, and the things people do to their houses. (And what they think looks good in terms of decor.)The most fun thing we had, at a homicide scene, was the homeless victim's cat with her litter of small kittens. That rivaled the litter of puppies who had a temporary bed in the master bath jacuzzi tub of a grow house.
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Automatic access to a national fingerprint database. Even though you see it on TV every day, it's not really possible for police departments. At best we are tied into the state database, but not any sort of national or international one, at least not without a lot of hoops.
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I don't get that impression.
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Hospice Nurse
Ever heard any crazy deathbed confessions or family secrets revealed?
Programmer
Why are most developers socially withdrawn?
Radio program/music director
What's your take on the whole Don Imus racism scandal?
Sure, you can email me at lisa-black@live.com.
What we use the most is a camera, and after that a tape measure (to make crime scene diagrams...99.9% these tell us nothing significant, but there could be that rare exception in terms of court testimony).
What is the most helpful to me is our fingerprint database to identify the unknown prints collected from crime scenes and evidence.
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Not regularly, but I’ve caught many reruns over the years.
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Sure, email me at lisa-black@live.com.
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