Welcome to Melissa's Forensic Final Project



My Experience in the Forensic field:

At the age of 16 my parents gave me a round trip plane ticket back to my home town of Miami, Fl. While in the airport on the way back to Philadelphia, I stopped in one of the news stands and picked up a book called 'Neanderthal' by John Darnton. By the time the three hour flight was over, I had almost finished the book and was hooked on the idea of going to college for a degree in Anthropology - the study of human beings - so that I could study human evolution. So much for marine biology and dolphin training!

College life..:

I started college at 17 at Penn State University for that degree in anthropology, but I found the environment boring, and ended up transferring to Temple University in downtown Philadelphia. It was here that I got my first real taste of human evolution, and surprise, surprise, I found that boring too. Around this time however, shows like C.S.I. and the numerous crime shows on the Discovery Channel started popping up. Plus, the local coroner had just been thrown in jail for stealing money from the state, and the county was assembling a new coroner/forensic team. I figured it was as good a time as any to jump head first into this interesting, new field of Forensics.

"I see dead people...":

I got hired at the Berks County Coroner's Office in March of 2001, while doing my last semester at Temple. I accompanied the coroners on calls of natural and suspicious deaths. Including at least two murders. If you've never seen a dead body before - and I don't mean the ones who are laid out all pretty in a casket - believe me when I say, it's a sight (and smell!!) you will never forget! I personally don't think deceased individuals look real - they remind me of mannequins in a department store. Of course those are the ones with skin...

What the hell am I talking about??:

I'm sure you've heard the stories before - 'skeleton found, identity unknown.' Those were always my favorite cases. You're probably thinking - because they didn't stink, right? Actually.. decaying bones smell pretty rank too, and often still have some flesh on them. I liked these cases because it brought up two mysteries: how the person died, and who they were. It's this second question that always intrigued me more. If you don't have a face, memorable eyes or great hair, how are people going to recognize you? That's when the 3D Facial Reconstruction comes in.

Interested? Try some of these sites:


Here's more of my own stuff: