Hollywood often portrays forensic science in a fascinating light. Many people have probably aspired to work in a lab and analyze delicate evidence after watching an episode or two of CSI investigation.

But it can be a different story once you’ve done the real work. You’ll likely have some remarkable answers to Reddit Questions like this: “What was the most shocking thing you discovered in your lab?”

As usual, those with first-hand experience, or who know someone who has, provided some of the most shocking reactions. Prepare yourself for read stories about babies testing positive for illegal substances, toys stuck in internal organs and oddly shaped kidneys.

Enjoy scrolling, but maybe don’t grab a bite to eat in the meantime.

#1

That he WAS the father.
I am an accountant/billing clerk at a clinic and we tested a baby to see if he was the father.
Mom and Dad both had blond hair, my wife had blue eyes, and they both looked snow white.
Child was REALLY black. Has been tested before and he had no condition, he was just black.
The father wanted a paternity test because when you have two white parents and a black child, it raises questions.
It turned out that the mother had a black grandfather, but this was not apparent from his appearance and she did not know of his existence.
The child was biologically theirs, but just looked completely different.

Image credits: anonymous

#2

During my MSc in forensic pathology and anthropology there is a final practical part of the exam. The examiner brought in a large cardboard box. The type/size you would store documents in.

When it was thrown on the table, it looked like a broken plant pot. None of the pieces were larger than 1.5 inches in diameter. He then said, “Can you find all the pieces of *sample of bone* and reconstruct it, please?

It turned out to be a girl of about 16 years old, whose boyfriend had smashed her head with a rock and cut her into small pieces, after which he buried her in a field.

The only reason she was found was because her decomposing flesh caused the plants near her body to grow strangely large and lush for a dry, forgotten field.

Image credits: anonymous

#3

I was working as a scanning electron microscope technician for the R&D department of a private company when the chief scientist gave me an unknown sample to cut up and examine. It had several layers of paint on it and he wanted to know what elements were in it. Most of the layers were normal elements (O, Al, Cr, etc.), but one layer had a peak at Pr (Praseodymium), which is so rare that I forgot it was an element at all. I thought I was going crazy, but my engineer double-checked and it was definitely in there. It turns out that Praseodymium is used in certain military paints.

Image credits: jablair51

#4

Candle in an old man’s bladder.

Image credits: sagegreenpaint78

#5

Not a huge shock compared to others, but the first time you see a computer covered in blood and riddled with bullet holes is a moment you’ll never forget.

Image Credits: TollinginPolitics

#6

I was present at an autopsy and saw that the person examined had one large kidney extending on both sides of his body, instead of two, one on each side of his body.

Image credits: anonymous

#7

I’m just starting out here so what I find shocking is probably very minor, but I had a deceased person who died and was found with multiple bottles of isopropyl alcohol around her with straws in them. She was literally drinking isopropyl alcohol through straws. It was clearly destroying her, but I can’t shake the thought of it. How bad is your addiction that doing something like that makes sense? Just the thought of it makes my stomach turn.

Image credits: anonymous

#8

Horseshoe kidney. There were multiple autopsies going on at the same time and when it was discovered all the doctors stopped their work and looked at the cake. So I guess the chance is greater than 1:500.

Image credits: anonymous

#9

This is my grandfather’s story. When he was working in Forensics, he had to take a body that was found at the bottom of a lake. After checking it out, he discovered that there was apparently a Hot Wheels car in the left lung. He assumed that they had swallowed it while they were underwater.

Image Credits: Pizza-pasta-deadpool

#10

My friend’s wife works there. Taking blood samples from babies who tested positive for (illegal substances) was apparently quite common, but the most recent shocking discovery was that the building’s plumbing was designed to allow chemical waste to flow back into the water fountain drain, and management didn’t really care.

Image credits: gritwoodser

#11

So not forensic (at all), and neither am I. I had a professor at the university who got her PhD while working at the Mayo Clinic.

Year after year a man would come in to be tested for a disorder/disease that landed his father in that same hospital. Year after year he would test negative. But every year he would get tested in an attempt to stay ahead of it. Because genetics.

One year he tested negative as usual, but the staff had an idea. They opened the archives, dug up his father’s file and put it next to his. The DNA didn’t even come close.

Poor man has no idea that his deceased father was never his biological father. And the hospital has no right or obligation to inform him.

Image credits: anonymous

#12

I don’t work in forensics, but you may be interested to know that bear semen is one of the most common substances found in the bodies of deceased humans in forest areas.

Image Credits: Nehal_Sanctus

#13

The (crime) weapon in the bottom left drawer of my intern.

Image credits: shiek39

#14

I worked in a lab for a while. Nothing out of the ordinary until we found out that one of our coworkers got fired for having dicks, a gun, and other stuff in his office. I know this isn’t exactly what the thread was going for, but this was by far the most shocking discovery.

Image Credits: GumbieX

#15

I was working late one night in the lab, well, one thing led to another and we

DID THE MONSTER MASH, WE DID THE MONSTER MASH.

Image Credits: InjuredAtWork

#16

My ex worked in a genetics lab.

It was not uncommon for a newborn baby’s hand to be cut off to be taken for genetic testing in the event of miscarriage or premature death.

Image credits: ledow

#17

A friend’s mother used to work in forensics and we got to hear all sorts of stories, the most memorable one being when they found a dismembered girl’s body in a garbage bag.
At first they thought that some sick person had (killed) her and cut her up, you know, like sick people do. But after further investigation they discovered something in her lady parts, along with a giant hole. After some scientific investigation it turned out to be something, namely an acrylic nail.
It turned out that she and her friend did it when her friend’s nail broke and ripped her open from the inside and she bled to death. The friend in panic chopped her up and tried to throw the body away.

Edit: For anyone saying this is fake, I don’t know if it is. Like I said, this was told to me by my girlfriend’s mother, and she wasn’t homophobic or anything. It seems a little unlikely, but people are weird creatures, so who knows.

Image credits: lemmondoodles

#18

I’m no scientist, but my last job involved running scientific testing equipment and sending results to the company’s legal team. Using an XRF gun, I discovered that nearly 50 percent of this large company’s inventory contained more than the legal limit of lead and several other harmful chemicals. (At a company where most people touch the product every day.) The legal team certainly had their work cut out for them.

Image credits: nryporter25

#19

Years ago when I was working as a DNA analyst, our lab received a limp Caesar salad from a local restaurant, including takeout. Apparently, the gentleman who ordered the salad said it had blood in it. The restaurant owner said that was impossible and that the customer must have bled in it so he wouldn’t have to pay. The customer then decided to immediately bring his salad to our lab, along with his DNA sample, to prove that it wasn’t his. It turns out that it was his and that he had somehow unknowingly bled in his salad.

Oh, and there was also that one time a father sent some of his daughter’s dirty sanitary products to the lab to be tested for sperm.

The most shocking thing, however, was the time a bunch of DNA samples came in. Long story short: one large vehicle, lots of (illegal) substances, two horny couples in a frenzy, one condom being passed back and forth (yes… inside out), and two pregnant couples unsure of the paternity of each baby.

Image credits: cjmd3