Dead man’s code still unsolved by FBI and amateur internet sleuths

WHEN this man was found dead, there were no clues other than two coded notes in his pocket. But no one can decipher them.

Dead man’s code stumps internet

WHEN the FBI struggles to solve a case, it will sometimes turn to internet sleuths for assistance.

This is exactly what it did when it was unable to decipher a code located on the body of Ricky McCormick — a man who had been found dead in an abandoned cornfield in Missouri.

However, amateur web sleuths, redditors, government conspiracy theorists and law enforcement have had zero luck deciphering the code, so the mystery remains unsolved.

The body of the 41-year-old was so badly decomposed his fingertips had completely fallen off when it was discovered on June 30, 1999.

Taking into account his 11 month prison sentence for first-degree sexual abuse and his connections to a local drug ring, police immediately suspected foul play.

This theory was only strengthened by the fact his body had been discovered in a field that had developed a reputation as a dumping ground for bodies some 30km from his home.

Although, when the medical examiner looked at his body there were no signs to indicate what had killed Mr McCormick and the level of decomposition didn’t help.

Maryland Heights Police Major Tom O’Connor classified the death as suspicious, but couldn’t prove anything more due to lack of evidence.

“We’ve worked every lead, and not only can we not prove it is a homicide, we can’t even come up with a motive for this guy to be dead,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at the time of the murder.

The meanings of the coded notes remain a mystery to this day.

The only inkling of a clue regarding the suspected homicide was two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets.

Unable to make sense of the notes, the local law enforcement turned to the FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit for assistance.

With the FBI and American Cryptogram Association also unable to crack the code, in March 2011 the law enforcement agency publicly shared the notes online.

CRRU chief Dan Olson said he hoped amateur web sleuths would be able to shine some light on the code, which had puzzled the FBI for 12 years.

“We are really good at what we do, but we could use some help with this one,” he wrote on the FBI website.

“Breaking the code could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide. Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those circumstances.”

Members of Mr McCormick’s family had said he had used encrypted notes since he was a boy, although none of them were able to assist the FBI.

Mr Olson said the FBI was unsure whether anyone other than Mr McCormick knew how to decipher the code.

“Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls,” he said.

“Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea.

“Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter, we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know nothing about.”

The second letter discovered on the body of McCormick.

Despite being first released to the public in 2011, the case continues to grip the internet with the code frequently resurfacing online on cold-case and cipher message boards.

One of the most common theories surrounding the notes is the fact they are not codes at all.

Amateur web sleuths claim the notes show characteristics of someone with bipolar or schizophrenia.

“The cipher honestly looks like schizophrenic shorthand to me. My schizophrenic mother had a similar penchant for writing that made no sense to anyone but her, so I might be biased with my hypothesis there,” one user recently wrote on reddit.

“Having worked with folks who are brain injured, I have to tell you, this looks an awful lot like the sort of gibberish they would write. It made perfect sense in their heads, but wasn’t translating in writing,” wrote another user on a Webslueths forum.

This theory was given further support when his aunty, Gloria McCormick, confirmed he had battles with mental health issues.

“Ricky went to see a psychiatrist, and he said Ricky had a brick wall in his mind,” she told Riverfront Times.

“He said Ricky refused to break that wall. He didn’t like the life of living poor and had an active imagination.”

His cousin Charles McCormick also suspected he suffered from mental illness as he would often talk “like he was in another world”.

Amateur cryptographer Elonka Dunin, who had a character named after her in Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, believes Mr McCormick didn’t hold the mental fortitude to create such a sophisticated code.

She claims the notes might have been communication between two parties and Mr McCormick was only acting as a courier.

Although, redditors have been quick to refute this claim.

“I can’t explain why he would have been shot and the notes left. Either the messenger gave him the messages and shot him, the receiver read the messages and shot him, or someone killed him between A and B. None of this makes sense though,” one user wrote on the Unresolved Mysteries reddit.

CRRU chief Dan Olson also disagrees with the theory.

“I have every confidence that Ricky wrote the notes,” he toldThe Kernel.

“They are done in more of a format of something written to oneself than something written to someone else.”

Another explanation for the code focuses on the number ‘71’, ‘74’ and ‘75’ and the repetition of letters ‘NCBE’.

Users of conspiracy theory discussion board Above Top Secret are divided about what these letters and numbers could reference.

The two most common explanations are the letters and numbers represent street addresses or they are slang for drugs.

“This is not a true code. This is an uneducated drug dealer’s shorthand. It breaks down who he sells to, how much he sells, a short description of how he knows them, recognises them, or if he doesn’t know them,” wrote one user.

“Want to solve it? Talk to a narc or street cop that remembers St. Louis back in 1999. ‘NCBE’ that commonly shows up could easily be Nose Candy Buys Eightball or Nickel Bag Everyday.”

To this day the code remains unsolved and while the FBI is not offering a cash reward, it hopes the satisfaction of solving a perplexing mystery will be more than enough for someone to come forward.