IOWA DIVISION OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
CRIMINALISTICS LABORATORY
QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS SECTION
ANONYMOUS NOTES AND LETTERS

Anonymous notes and letters make for some frustrating cases. The writer will often attempt to disguise his/her handwriting and perhaps take special care not to leave latent prints. In many cases, there is no logical suspect. There are some observations we have made in the laboratory that may be helpful in investigating these cases.

Anonymous notes are seldom random. The writer usually some association with the victim and often is the victim. Victims are responsible for such notes with sufficient frequency that investigators should consider this possibility from the outset. Be alert for situations in which being a victim or being threatened could be turned to personal advantage. Wives whose husbands are traveling, informants, students, and people with difficulties at work who might be aided by being cast in the role of a victim, are especially likely to fabricate such notes. Look for a motive for, or a history of sympathy-seeking or attention-getting behavior.

The writer may also be someone mentioned in the note (usually in a favorable light), or someone the anonymous writer purports to be defending.

There are other variations. The important thing is not to accept these notes at face value. If the note is handwritten or handprinted, dictated (request) and collected (non-requested) known writings of the victim and anyone mentioned in the note should be obtained for comparison purposes. If you have no leads, or if the leads are numerous, you should send the note to the lab with the known writings of these "victims" early in the investigation. A lab finding implicating one of these people may save you a lot of work.

Consider other examinations, too. The note may bear indentations of writing done from pages on top of it. These indentations can often be developed at the laboratory, and may provide the clues to the identity of the writer. (Don't try this yourself by any means other than oblique fighting.) If you have access to the home or office in which the note may have been written, be alert to writing tablets which may have been used to write the note, or other sheets of paper which may have been beneath it. These may bear indentations from the questioned note.

Anonymous notes should be examined for latent prints at the laboratory. Contrary to a popular misconception, subsequent handling of the note does not preclude a successful latent print exam. Note that latent print examination on documents is done after questioned document exams.

There may be other possible sources of clues to the identity of the writer, depending upon the circumstances. Consider discussing your case with the Questioned Document examiner.