Forensic Scientist

Forensic Scientist

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.

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Last Answer on July 21, 2022

Best Rated

Hi, so how do you get used to blood and gore?

Asked by Crazy about 5 years ago

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.

I know they use interrogation techniques, polygraphs, and have experts who recognize truth and deception. But do and could someone use hypnosis?

Asked by DJ about 5 years ago

Supposedly, but I don’t know of any cases personally.

Does this job ever depress, upset, disgust, or cause you anxiety? Does this job ever make your life a living hell?

Asked by Cillian over 5 years ago

No. Like any job it can be tiring and tedious at points, but the only time it makes me anxious is always due to bureaucratic issues, which, again, you’re going to have in any job.

How did your knowledge of bloodstain pattern analysis help you to secure convictions in past experience?

Asked by Jason Tulanda almost 6 years ago

In my personal experience, I have only testified to bloodstain pattern analysis once, and it didn’t really tell anything significant about the case because there was blood everywhere, and the fingerprints in blood weighed more than the patterns.

Will Nancy Drew make you a better in a job like this is what is in the game anything similar?

Asked by asdfasdfasdf about 5 years ago

I don’t know that game.

Oh, also how can you tell if someone makes a new account?

Asked by Sam about 5 years ago

I don’t know.

Hi! I was wondering something about timing. Say a kidnapping takes place in a hotel room. How long is the room cordoned off? At what point is the evidence collected and taken away? When can the room be let again? (Working on a novel!)

Asked by Nico over 5 years ago

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!