Confessions from the other side of the crime scene tape

Clea Koff is a forensic anthropologist turned author, known for her 2005 memoir Bone Woman. She has worked in areas of war crimes, and has run an agency dedicated to finding missing people. Her debut novel, Silent Evidence (Avon), is inspired by her work. It begins the Jayne and Steelie series, which follows two forensic anthropologists who make profiles of missing persons to match them with unidentified bodies.

I'm a forensic anthropologist, crime novelist and scaredy-cat. Yep, I'm the person watching that horror movie from behind their hands. When people have reacted in disbelief ("But this is your world!"), I've responded with something like, "But forensic scientists arrive after the slaughter." Or even: "You know the crime scene tape is already up when we get there, right?"

Most of the time, my profession is safe - barring biohazard - and I like it that way. (This sense of safety was challenged when I worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals but we'll get to that.) In the United States, most forensic anthropologists work behind the closed doors of the medical examiner's office to determine the identity of the dead.