Forensic Scientist

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We spent 24 hours with forensic scientist and mother of three Sharon Neville-Stewart.

If you thought an episode of CSI was action-packed, then a day in the life of forensic scientist Sharon Neville-Stewart might just have you on the edge of your seat. Like the characters in the popular television series, Sharon has dedicated her life to helping to solve major crimes, but unlike her TV counterparts she has to fit in a whole lot of ‘real life stuff’ as well.

The 42-year-old mother of three from Sydney’s Maroubra juggles her demanding role as team leader in the major crime section of the NSW Health Department’s division of analytical laboratories with raising her growing family, completing a masters degree in science management, and maintaining an exercise routine that saw her lose 22 kilos last year. This is how she does it…

5.45am: Sharon is up and at ’em. “I’m always ready to go in the mornings,” she says. “I don’t find it too hard to get out of bed, but I think that comes from having children because I wasn’t like this in my youth!” Her day begins with an hour-long walk, a routine she started last year as part of her commitment to losing the weight she’d gained through having children. “It creeps up on you slowly, but before you know it you’re overweight,” she says. “I decided I was going to change my lifestyle and now I’m committed to going for at least one walk every day and eating healthily.”

Sharon also uses this time to think about work and family matters. “I don’t listen to music while I walk, so it’s a good time to relax and plan my day and just think.”

7am: Sharon returns from her walk refreshed and energised. “I always feel better afterwards. It gets me ready for the day. I don’t think exercise is tiring; I think it’s rejuvenating,” she says.

Sharon’s husband David is up by now and he makes breakfast smoothies while Sharon prepares lunch boxes for their three children – Adam, 14, Alanah, 11, and Lachlan, five. This is one of the rare times of the day that Sharon and David are together without the children. “I think that little bit of time in the morning is when we do most of our chatting. It’s probably the only time that we’re alone and not asleep!” reflects Sharon.

7.30am: The children start to get up, and Sharon helps Lachlan get ready for school. The kitchen is buzzing as everyone grabs breakfast and prepares for the day ahead.

8.30am: The family is out the door… David heads off to his role as ANZ bank’s trustee services manager for NSW and ACT. He travels to Canberra for work once a month and occasionally to Melbourne and the Gold Coast. Adam catches the bus to school, but Sharon drops off Alanah and Lachlan before making the 45-minute journey to her laboratory in Lidcombe, an outer western suburb of Sydney. The trip to work is the only chance she has to catch up on the day’s news. “I don’t have time to read the paper or watch the evening news, so the car radio is the only way I can keep up with what’s going on,” she explains.

9.45am: Sharon arrives at the lab, grabs a coffee and starts work on a major crime case. On any given day Sharon and her team of six biologists might work on one case or 10, depending on how complicated they are. And as surprising as CSI fans might find it, real life Australian forensic labs work somewhat differently to the show’s version. “One person doesn’t get to do everything the way they do on TV,” explains Sharon. “Everyone has their own individual job to do on a case, so we all bring a piece of the puzzle to the table.”

Sharon ’s team is responsible for identifying biological material on items found at a crime scene to generate DNA profiles. They go through exhibits such as knives, cigarette butts, chewing gum, clothing, hair, blood, skin or semen to seek out microscopic pieces of evidence. “There’s usually DNA all over everything – some of it could belong to the victim, some could belong to the victim’s family or friends, some could belong to the suspect and some could even belong to the crime scene investigators, because it’s impossible to control the shedding of your own DNA,” Sharon explains.

“In the lab we have to wear gloves, masks, hair coverings and coats, and we don’t approach any staff member working with an exposed item.” To help identify the DNA, Sharon relies on crucial information from the crime scene detectives. “If we have a knife it helps to know whether it was found with the victim’s body or away from the crime scene and so on,” she explains. “We don’t see the bodies, which is good, because I don’t think I’d like to see one, but we have to be sure that we get all the relevant information about the body so that we know what to look for.”

Once Sharon has made sure that all the relevant examinations have been carried out by her team, she compares the final DNA profiles to those in the division’s database in the hope of finding a match. In the meantime, other laboratories within the division are carrying out their own analysis. It all comes together when Sharon attends crime reviews with detectives, crime scene examiners, forensic pathologists, fingerprinting experts, hair experts and ballistics experts to discuss all the results for a particular case. “I don’t know how one person could do everything, because there is so much to get through,” she says.

1-1.30pm: Sharon makes herself a quick sandwich, then heads off with workmates for a 30-minute walk around the local golf course. “We call it a lab meeting, because we usually discuss work,” she says.

2pm: Sharon and her team are back to their cases. Their work is meticulous and time consuming, the pay is not great and the department is under-staffed, but Sharon finds her job fascinating. “You have to love the science and you do need good attention to detail and a lot of patience, but it’s extremely interesting and very fulfilling to know that your work is helping to solve a serious crime against someone.”

Sharon says advances in science have made a huge difference to her job. “When I started, you needed a bloodstain the size of a twenty-cent piece, and you might have found that it was blood type A, but about forty per cent of the population also have blood type A,” she explains. “Now, a bloodstain the size of a pinhead can generate a DNA profile. If the suspect’s DNA profile matches, it strongly supports the proposition that the bloodstain originated from that suspect, as we would generally expect a particular DNA profile to be found in fewer than one in ten billion individuals.”

Sharon is often called on to provide evidence in courts around the state, to guide juries on what weight to place on DNA evidence. “Going to court can be a bit nerve-racking and sometimes I have to travel long distances, so it’s not easy, but it really is very interesting,” she says.

7pm: Sharon leaves work. Meanwhile, her mother will have picked up the children from school to look after them until Sharon and David return from work. By 7.45pm Sharon has arrived home, but the family doesn’t always eat together. “David or I will cook dinner, depending on who gets home first. Whoever is in the house when dinner is ready, eats.” Sharon often eats dinner alone, but says, “Everyone is usually around telling me about their day unless, of course, I’m competing with The Simpsons, in which case I’m left alone.”

8.30-9pm: Lachlan and Alanah go to bed. “The kids are pretty good,” says Sharon, who has developed an easy routine with her children over the years. “We’re not strict with them, but they have a routine, so Alanah usually takes herself off to bed.”

9pm: While David and Adam are watching TV or doing homework, Sharon will go for a quick 30-minute walk or put in some study for the masters degree she’s undertaking at UTS ( University of Technology, Sydney). “I decided to do it because my role at work requires me to manage people and that’s not something I’ve done very much of. I want to be able to manage my team the best way that I can,” she says. Sharon might also use the evening to prepare for a court appearance, but she doesn’t watch any television. “If I had my way I’d get rid of the television, but that would cause an uproar,” she laughs.

10.30pm: Depending on how much study or work she has, Sharon will go to bed anywhere between 10.30pm and 1am. Needless to say, it doesn’t take her long to fall asleep. “David can’t believe it, but I’m literally asleep in two minutes.”

Weekends: Saturday and Sunday tends to be family time in the Stewart household, but it’s still go-go-go. On Saturday mornings Sharon takes Alanah to netball while David takes Adam to soccer. Lachlan tags along with one of them. “ Lachlan doesn’t play any sport just yet, but I don’t know what we’ll do when we have three games on at the same time!” Saturday afternoon is when Sharon and David do most of the household chores, such as shopping and cleaning, and occasionally Sharon will go into the lab to catch up on overdue work.

Sundays are the quietest day for the Stewart family. “We might do the coastal walk (from Coogee to Bondi Beach), go to the beach or enjoy a barbecue with my mum,” says Sharon.

A life less ordinary

Sharon says she finds her busy life both exhilarating and exhausting. “I’m energised by what I do, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of time off now and then,” she admits. While her work is important, Sharon says she doesn’t have trouble leaving it behind her when she goes home. “I feel very lucky to have found a job that I honestly love and can’t wait to get back to, but I also don’t talk about work at home and it doesn’t really play on my mind in a negative way,” she says. “Forensic cases with children are more difficult to deal with emotionally, but I try not to dwell on them. I know I’ve done my part and that’s all I can do.” When it comes to squeezing everything into her busy schedule, Sharon says she steers clear of television and tries to make the most of every hour in her day.

Words: Linda Peatling. Photography: Andrew Lehmann