NEW YORK (Court TV) — A notary who approved an allegedly forged deed to a missing New York millionaire's townhouse testified that Sante Kimes posed as Irene Silverman shortly before the 82-year-old's disappearance.

New York prosecutors are trying to prove that Sante Kimes and her son Kenneth plotted to steal Silverman's $5 million townhouse. The mother-son defendants are on trial for second-degree murder and kidnapping in the presumed 1998 death of Silverman. The former ballerina has been missing since July 5, 1998. However, police have never found Silverman's body and the state is armed with only circumstantial evidence. In addition to murder and kidnapping, the Kimeses also face conspiracy, robbery and forgery charges.

Noel Sweeney identified Sante Kimes as the woman who posed as Silverman in court Thursday. She also identified Kenneth Kimes as the person who greeted her at Silverman's mansion and led her to Sante, whom she remembered was coughing and wearing a Victorian nightgown. The forged deed approved the transfer of Silverman's $4 million Manhattan townhouse to the Kimeses for a fraction of its value.

Sweeney said that Sante appeared to sign the documents she later notarized. However, Sweeney admitted she did not actually see Sante sign the deed; she did not watch Sante's every move and did not see the pen touch the paper. Sweeney also said she did not inspect the documents before Mrs. Kimes appeared to sign them and did not ask for a picture identification card from her. She accepted a Social Security card as sufficient ID.

Under cross-examination, Sweeney's credibility appeared to be further damaged when she admitted picking out the real Silverman in a police photo lineup as the woman who signed the deed.

Last week, another notary, Donald Aoki, told jurors he refused to notarize the deed because it had been signed before his scheduled appointment. He added that the woman claiming to be Silverman — presumably Sante Kimes — refused to provide another example of the signature in front of him.

Despite having no body, the prosecution's circumstantial evidence against the Kimeses seems strong. Investigators found Silverman's keys on Kenneth Kimes when he and his mother were arrested July 5, 1998 — the day of the disappearance. The Kimeses were arrested on a warrant from Utah, where they were accused of using a bad check for $14,900 to buy a Lincoln Town Car.

Police also found cassettes of Mrs. Silverman's telephone conversations, apparently taken from wiretaps, as well as the forged deed, loaded .9 mm and .22 caliber pistols, several wigs and masks, plastic handcuffs, $30,000 in cash, an empty stun gun box and a pink liquid substance similar to a known "date rape" drug.