Cortney Merkel

Photo by Agata Schoenborn

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Working with the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, Cortney scours crime scenes collecting fingerprints, fibers, DNA evidence, and footprints (here, captured in a plaster casting). The job entails thinking like a criminal: “A doorknob is the last place to get good fingerprints. Burglars like to unscrew light bulbs during a break-in, so we dust them for latent prints.” The often-grisly work includes analyzing bullet-trajectory and blood-spatter patterns. “I’ve seen it all,” says the Supervisory Special Agent and Chief Security Officer, who tracked the Truth or Consequences serial killer at her last post. “You learn to compartmentalize the bad stuff; you can’t take it home with you.” Agents collect evidence as a collateral duty, bureau-lingo for a volunteer job. “I do it for the victims,” Cortney says. “Even if the perpetrator’s in custody, we may find the one piece of evidence that links him to the crime scene and leads to a conviction.”