My journey in forensics began with my interest in photography and biology while still in High School. I walked to the Santa Ana Police Department one day and met two Detectives, who then introduced me to the Crime Lab and that lead to an internship my first semester in college. While an intern, I was introduced to the multiple science disciplines. The most fascinating aspect of forensics looking back were the many growth spurts, twists and turns, and new paths our field has taken in the 34 years I have been active. I first trained to use this new database we called CALID and began “tracing” fingerprints for entry. After I learned to process evidence and mix chemicals and with my background in photography my interest took me to working crime scenes in our busy city in the early 1990s. After a few years working nights, I got promoted, came back to the lab, and started my journey in latent prints in 2004.
The cases I have worked have taken me to places I never imagined. I have had the opportunity to testify in multiple disciplines not only in superior court, but federal courts in Santa Ana and San Jose as well. Not all my cases have taken me to court however. Within a few months in my career, I and another off duty employee rendered aid to a 9-person fatality and although I received a life-saving award; that experience was bittersweet. It was around this time I was first introduced to self-care and mental health in our field as first responders. Early in my career our department started debriefs as did our unit and eventually peer support was put on the map.
Although most of my focus has been on latent print work, I am trained in crime scene investigation including trajectory and blood stain analysis. I am also a court qualified expert in all these areas in superior court and federal court.
Academically, I pursued my BSc. degree at the University of La Verne in Organizational Management, I attended Chapman University completing courses in the Criminal Justice program with an emphasis in organized crime and white collar crime, and I am currently enrolled at Regent University’s law program. I have taught crime scene investigation at Santa Ana College as a adjunct professor, brought back the CSI class to the curriculum, and have taught other shorter courses along the way.
In my journey, I have also traveled to Sri Lanka and taught crime scene investigation in the area of wild life forensics to the wild life rangers in the country. I will never forget that Sunday when Colombo was bombed and debating if I should continue to the country for about a second. I decided it would be the safest place once I arrived with our entire team intact. My interest in ballistics and explosives were useful in training this group because of the additional dangers the animals and rangers encounter.
In this career journey, if we are lucky, we can do it all but just not all at the same time. Finding and maintaining a healthy balance with work and play have now led me to become a new director for SCAFO – something I had to postpone while I was busy being a preemie mom to my now teenager heading off to college very soon. I am also involved in my agency’s POA as a union and wage negations representative.