Anecdotally, my dear old Mum (now in her mid-70s) worked as a forensics investigator on the Snowtown murders (aka the "Bodies in the barrels" case) in the final stages of her career. She took some samples to the FBI in the USA as part of her work, and snagged me a cool FBI hoodie and t-shirt (well, I thought so anyway). Quite a morbid and disturbing business to be in, but I feel fortunate to have a parent is such a good role model; she completed her PhD around the age of 50, and had another whole career in scientific research and forensics after that. As I'm heading towards the same age it gives me some hope I can also make a sea-change.

I also learned, after asking some questions about the case, that sometimes you are better off being ignorant of the details. And that some people are really capable of terrible, terrible acts against others. :( Fortunately she had quite the grim sense of humour to help her deal with the cases she worked on.