As she identified and autopsied victims of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, Dr. Marcella Fierro faced one boy's father. The man had three questions for Fierro, Virginia's chief medical examiner: Where had his son been shot? How long had he survived? Had he suffered?

"I said, 'No, he didn't,'" Fierro told an audience of 50 at Sheppard Memorial Library Thursday night. "He was immediately relieved. Although his grief hasn't gone away, he at least is not tormented by concerns that his son suffered. ... I know I did something good that day."

Recounting that exchange was the closest Fierro, a model for best-selling novelist Patricia Cornwell's fictional crimefighter Kay Scarpetta, came to sharing a war story from her more than 30 years as a medical examiner.

"If you came looking for bodies, there are not going to be any," she said, drawing a basset-hound moan from one of her 50 listeners. "This is going to be a data-driven talk."

That data, culled from Fierro's survey of 79 female medical examiners, helps explain a trend she's seen over the last 30 years in forensic pathology: booming interest in the field among women.

Fierro, who worked at East Carolina University from 1992 to 1994, recalled being one of four women at a conference of the National Association of Medical Examiners in the mid-1970s. Today, 252 of the group's 949 members are female, she said.

Fierro's survey subjects cited interest in puzzle-solving, surgery and interacting with police, the courts, other doctors and the community as leading reasons they became forensic pathologists.

"It's a problem-solver's dream job," she said.

Once in the field, female medical examiners find myriad rewards, Fierro said. Each case offers a new challenge, and the work draws on knowledge of every medical field, she said. Forensic pathologists speak for the dead as no one else can, Fierro added.

Fierro probed their dislikes, too: heavy workloads, lower pay than other medical specialists and, most of all, politics.

Some factors cut both ways. Helping families find closure, as in Fierro's Virginia Tech case, can be rewarding. Telling relatives about an unwelcome suicide can be wrenching. Likewise, interacting with the legal system drew mixed responses.

Television's influence, too, has brought mixed results. Fierro credited shows like "CSI" and "Crossing Jordan" with drawing more women in forensic pathology. She also said the programs create unrealistic expectations.

"Oh Lord, can you explain that we're not 'CSI,' please," she said. "We can't just do it in an hour, or two hours, or even 48 hours. All right? It doesn't happen like that."

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