A timeline contradiction is not merely two different times. It appears when two claims cannot both be true after accounting for clock source, time zone, travel duration and the difference between a scheduled event and an event that actually happened.
Pass 1: extract claims without judging them
Write each statement as actor, action, place and time. Preserve words such as around, after and before; false precision can create a contradiction that the source never claimed.
Pass 2: classify every timestamp
A calendar entry is a plan. A card charge is a transaction. A photo time may describe capture, edit or upload. A location visit may be inferred from a device. Label the record before treating it as ground truth.
- Planned
- Self-reported
- Device-generated
- Server-generated
- Observed by an independent person or system
Pass 3: test the physical path
Place events on a line and add minimum travel time. If a person appears to cross a city in two minutes, check whether one record belongs to a device, account, vehicle or scheduled post rather than the person.
Pass 4: find an independent pair
Two records from the same synced account may share one failure. Strong corroboration comes from different systems: a transit tap plus a watch workout, or a location visit plus a merchant receipt.
Pass 5: explain every surviving record
A good conclusion accounts for both the suspicious evidence and the apparently innocent evidence. If one record remains unexplained, keep the conclusion provisional.
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