More on Sohus Grand Jury

A Los Angeles County grand jury looking at the 1986 disappearance of LASFSians Linda and John Sohus are expected to hear from two handwriting specialists about the authenticity of a postcard from Europe purportedly signed by Linda Sohus, received by sf bookstore owner after she had vanished. The Boston Globe reports:

Prosecutors reviving the case have subpoenaed Katherine Koppenhaver, a handwriting analyst who has testified in more than 350 cases….

Last summer, The Pasadena Star-News contacted Koppenhaver and two other handwriting analysts to examine one of the Paris postcards and compare it with a known sample of Linda Sohus’s writing from late 1984. Koppenhaver and another analyst concluded that the postcard they examined was written by someone else. A third analyst, however, believed that both writing samples were from Sohus…

Koppenhaver said yesterday that she gave verbal, not written, findings for the newspaper story. But she reiterated that the known Linda Sohus writing sample and the postcard were written by different people….

Koppenhaver and the dissenting analyst have been subpoenaed in the case. The third specialist contacted by the Pasadena newspaper, Karl Schaffenberger, could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Sheila Lowe, a handwriting analyst from Ventura, Calif., said she mailed prosecutors written findings, including a chart prepared for the Star-News. The different writing samples contained many similar features, suggesting they were written by the same person, she said. “That’s something I’d feel comfortable going to court and testifying in.”

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]