ABSTRACT
The importance of examining documents for indented handwriting impressions has been addressed in Chapter 26. While this method has the potential to identify the author or creator of a suspect document, it can also produce conclusive evidence relating to the date, or order, of execution. In cases involving several sheets of paper with dated handwritten entries, the presence and location of indented impressions may point clearly to an earliest date of entry. Dating through the use of indentation analyses can be broken down into five scenarios:
1. Indented impressions on a questioned document that can be sourced to handwriting on a document of a known date
2. The presence of indentations on a document of a known date that can be sourced to the questioned document (Figure 29.1)
3. Unsourced impressions sufficiently similar in content to enable identification of the questioned document as a probable substitute page (Figure 29.2)
4. Alignment characteristics of indented impressions resulting from multiple entries 5. Indented impressions, sourced to questioned handwriting, overlapping with known
handwriting in a fashion suitable for sequence-of-entry evaluation (see color Figure 29.3 following p. 366).
