The Ricky McCormick Notes
UnsolvedSummary
On 30 June 1999 the body of Ricky McCormick, aged 41, was found in a field in St. Charles County, Missouri. Investigators believed he had died elsewhere and been left there. The medical examiner recorded the cause of death as undetermined. The only clues were two encrypted notes in his trouser pockets, written in capital letters, numbers, dashes and parentheses.
The FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit worked the notes "over the years", with help from the American Cryptogram Association, and did not solve them. In March 2011 the Bureau published images of them and asked the public for ideas. They are still unread. A complication runs underneath the whole case: McCormick’s family say he could write nothing but his name.
What is documented
The find. From the FBI’s own account: "On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri found the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field." And: "The only clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets." People’s 2025 account places the field in St. Charles County and reports that the medical examiner ruled the cause of death undetermined.
The notes. Handwritten capital letters and numbers, with dashes and parentheses. People described them in 2025 as "about 30 rows" broken into sections. The FBI page the Registry read gives no line or character count.
What the Bureau tried. The Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit at Quantico worked the notes "over the years" with help from the American Cryptogram Association and did not solve them. The unit lists them among its top unsolved cases.
What the unit chief said. Dan Olson, who headed the unit: "We are really good at what we do… but we could use some help with this one." On the obstacle: "Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls", and "This is a cipher system we know nothing about." On why it matters even if the content is trivial: "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."
What the Bureau asked for. Two specific things: another sample of McCormick’s notation or a similar system, which would give context or allow comparison; and fresh ideas. No reward was offered.
The last days. On 25 June 1999 McCormick visited Forest Park Hospital. A clerk at the Amoco gas station near his apartment later told police he was last seen alive there on 27 June, the day the medical examiner estimated he died. Investigators believed the body had been left in the field after he died elsewhere.
The family’s position, which is the complication. McCormick’s mother, Frankie Sparks: "The only thing he could write was his name. He didn’t write in no code." A cousin said he "couldn’t spell anything, just scribble". The family did not learn of the notes until they were made public in 2011.
A cryptographer’s reading. Elonka Dunin, a St. Louis cryptographer who has studied some of the world’s most famous unsolved codes: "I don’t think McCormick wrote these notes. Perhaps he was a courier."
Pattern counts. Counts taken from the released images give roughly 64 occurrences of the pair "SE" or "5E", eleven of "WLD", ten of "NCBE", five of "PRSE" or "PR5E", and about eleven dashes.
Leading explanations
A personal shorthand rather than a cipher (unattributed; hypothesis, untested). That the strings are an idiosyncratic private abbreviation system, so there is no key to recover and no systematic cryptanalysis can work. No named researcher in any source the Registry retrieved has published this.
He did not write them (Dunin; hypothesis, untested). That the notes originated with somebody else and McCormick carried them. It is consistent with the family’s statements about his literacy.
They encode his movements and will identify a killer (the investigative hope; untested). The unit chief’s stated reason for publishing: "Breaking the code… could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide." Nothing in the sources the Registry retrieved establishes that the notes relate to the death. They were found on the body, and that is the only documented connection.
What the popular version gets wrong
"The notes are known to be about his murder." Nothing in the sources the Registry retrieved establishes that. They were in his pockets when he was found, and that is the only documented connection to his death. The unit chief himself allowed that the content might turn out to be a grocery list or a love letter.
"McCormick wrote them in a code he invented." Contested by the people who knew him. His mother says he could write only his name, a cousin says he could not spell, and the cryptographer Elonka Dunin doubts he wrote them. The Registry records the authorship as unestablished.
"The FBI gave up." The Bureau published the notes specifically to get help and asked for a second sample of the notation. As of 2025 reporting, they remain on its list of top unsolved cases.
Current status
Unsolved. Twenty-seven years after the death and fifteen after publication, neither note has been read. The Bureau’s own route forward was a second sample of the same notation, which it asked for specifically, and fresh ideas from the public. Who wrote the notes is not settled, and the family’s account cuts against the assumption that McCormick did. Whether the notes have anything to do with the death is unknown, and the cause of death itself was never determined. Another sample of the same notation, a reliable account of who wrote the notes, or a solution reproduced independently and confirmed by the Bureau would change this record.
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Part 2: Help Solve an Open Murder Case." Published March 2011. Source of the circumstances of the find, the account of the unit’s work, the request for help and every Olson quotation above. The page as served carries no byline or date; the publication month is taken from contemporaneous coverage.
- Martinez, E. (2011). "FBI seeks public’s help cracking cryptic notes in 1999 murder victim’s pocket." CBS News, 30 March 2011. Source of the description of the characters used.
- Coulter, C. (2025). "Coded Notes Found in Ricky McCormick’s Pocket Still Baffle FBI More Than 25 Years After His Body Was Found in Missouri Cornfield." People, 27 September 2025, read as republished by AOL. Source of the county, the undetermined cause of death, the last days, the row count, the family and Dunin statements, and the FBI’s continued listing of the case.
- Tritto, C. (2012). "Code Dead: Do the encrypted writings of Ricky McCormick hold the key to his mysterious death?" Riverfront Times, 14 June 2012. Could not be opened directly; the family statements and the Dunin quotation are taken from the People account, which quotes it.
- Gessler, N. (2011). Page of pattern counts taken from the FBI’s released images, Duke University. Source of the repetition figures. The page carries no explicit byline; the attribution rests on its contact address.
Last reviewed: November 2026. Records are provisional. Where the evidence changes, the entry changes. Found an error? Tell us.