“I have a gun. Give me $300.”
Here’s a bit of advice: If you plan to rob a bank or a business, say a pizza joint, don’t write your “stick up” note on toilet paper and then leave the roll behind for the police to find when they search your home. If you do, you give the investigators much to work with in connecting you to the crime. Don’t believe me? Ask Eric Frey.
In this case, Frey left behind “indented writing” on the roll and, much to his dismay, investigators were able to match this “writing” that that on the note.
This is definitely an odd case of Forensic Document Examination.
Two other forensic techniques that could enter the picture here would be chemical ink analysis and fracture pattern assessment. The ink on the note could be chemically matched to the marker pen found at Frey’s residence and this could serve to further link him to the note.
Also, since no two things fracture, crack, or tear the same way, analysis of the torn edges could match the note paper to the roll—-if no other tissues had been torn away after the note was removed. The tear line between the roll and the note paper would match and this match is about as good as DNA or fingerprints. Such tears, like broken glass or chipped paint or broken sticks, are called fracture patterns and they are highly individual.
There is an entire chapter on the fascinating field of Document examination in my forensic books Howdunnit: Forensics and Forensics For Dummies.
And a few links for you to explore:
A Simplified Guide to Forensic Document Examination: http://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/docs/how.html
FBI Forensic Ink Analysis: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/lab/forensic-science-communications/fsc/july2005/research/2005_07_research02.htm/
Glass Fracture Patterns: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/241445.pdf
Howdunnit:Forensics and my other Forensic Books: http://www.dplylemd.com/DPLyleMD/Books-Forensics.html
