Close and Careful Examination of Four Unique

¶ … close and careful examination of four unique handwriting specimens, suspect K3 has been identified as a potential match for the original note left at the bank. There are a few notable differences between the actual piece of evidence and K3's sample, mainly the difference in the capital letter "I," which is not written in cursive script in the teller's note and is rendered differently in the sample. However, handwriting does change over time or due to the person's emotional or psychological state (Lecture Notes). In almost every other respect, K3's sample matches the teller note.

Individual letter formations are all but identical, with some unusual flourishes making the suspect's writing stand out. For example, in the one-letter word "a," the suspect uses an unusual upward stroke as a starting point to writing the letter. None of the other suspects have this particular quirk in their handwriting. A similar flourish can be seen in the way the suspect renders other letters, such as the letter "m" in several words. Other identifiers include the pointy nature of letter formations, particularly the lower case "s." The letters "m" and "n," when they begin a word as in "me" and "not" have an extra stroke at the beginning that makes the "n" actually look like an "m."

The overall slant of the text in Q1 is slightly to the right, as is suspect K3. In fact, on first glance, K1 appears somewhat similar to the handwriting on the note, but a further look shows that K1's writing slants to the left. K1 also lacks the signature start to the letter "a" that is evident in both the original note and in K3's sample. The size of the lettering and the consistency of size is also comparable between Q1 and K3. The way the "t" is crossed all the way through also makes K3 stand out as being the match.

One notable feature of the teller's note is the large gap between the sentence reading, "I have a gun," and the following sentence reading, "Do not push the alarm!" The space between these two sentences is unusually large. First letters of each sentence are rendered separately from the rest of their words, leading to a disconnected capital letter each time. Moreover, both the original Q1 and the sample K3 are written in cursive but with the first letter of each sentence disconnected, rendered as if in plain print rather than being linked with a connector line to the rest of the letters in the word. There is also a notable angularity in the shapes of all the letters, including the loops in letters with tails, like lower case "y" and "g." The spacing between words is fairly consistent. Based on these features, the suspect K3's handwriting positively matches that found on the teller's note. Computer analysis might help to verify these conclusions.