Image courtesy of fbi.gov
Like solving mysteries? Here's your ultimate opportunity to put your Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, or crime-solver-of-choice cap on to help the FBI decode a message that they think will help solve a 1999 St. Louis murder.
On June 30, 1999, St. Louis police found the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick dumped in a field, with the only clues being two encrypted notes (one pictured at left) found in McCormick's pants pocket. Now, nearly 11 years later, the FBI is asking members of the public to help decode the message. The 30 lines of scribble include a variety of numbers, letters, dashes and parentheses. According to members of his family, McCormick had been writing encrypted notes for most of his life, but none of his family members know how to decipher them. Investigators believe it's likely that he wrote them up to three days before his death.
If you think you have the key to breaking the code, you can submit your information here. There's no reward posted—just the satisfaction of knowing you might help bring a killer to justice.
Here's some tips from the FBI press release on how to solve a cipher:
"Breaking any code involves four basic steps:
1. determining the language used; 2. determining the system used; 3. reconstructing the key; and 4. reconstructing the plaintext.
Consider this cipher: Nffu nf bu uif qbsl bu oppo.
Now apply the four steps:
1. Determining the language allows you to compare the cipher text to the suspected language. Our cryptanalysts usually start with English.
2. Determining the system: Is this cipher using rearranged words, replaced words, or perhaps letter substitution? In this case, it’s letter substitution.
3. Reconstructing the key: This step answers the question of how the code maker changed the letters. In our example, every character shifted one letter to the right in the alphabet.
4. Reconstructing the plaintext: By applying the key from the previous step, you now have a solution: Meet me at the park at noon."
