
FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery - coondoggie
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/fbi-wants-public-help-solving-encrypted-notes
======
double122
I thought this could be a fun 'challenge'...

I'm inclined to believe that this is potentially ciphered in English, due to,
what look to be stiking similarities between the alphabetic character
frequencies of the notes:

<http://d122.com/murdermystery/freq.png>

and the frequencies of characters in English:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:English_letter_frequency_(...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:English_letter_frequency_\(alphabetic\).svg)

If anyone else wants to have a play here is my (rough) transcripts and an ODS
with some frequencies:

<http://d122.com/murdermystery/1.txt>

<http://d122.com/murdermystery/2.txt>

<http://d122.com/murdermystery/freq.ods>

I'll update here if I find anything interesting. Lots of patterns repeated in
this text!

~~~
reduxredacted
Excellent. I personally love this sort of thing, though I'm rarely successful.

I was typing out the letters as I saw them, and I noticed that I interpreted
many of your "S" as the number 5, but after looking at the way he wrote "S",
it appears relatively consistent throughout the text.

So letter groupings became interesting: SE - 66 matches RSE - 18 matches

In the first document TFNRE appears twice.

Here's my interpretation from looking at the two documents (I really wish
there were seriously high resolution scans of these docs, it'd help to sort
out the asterisks which I used to represent characters I couldn't reasonably
identify)

    
    
        (M*ADMKNE#R-N-STA-KNARE) (ACSM)
      *TFRNENP*NSEWPBSERCBBNSENPRSEINC
      PRSENMRSEOPREHLDWLDNCSE(TXFLFTCXLNC*E)
      AL-*RPPITXLYPPIYNCBEMEKSE*C*SEPRSE
      WLDRCBRNSE*T*SNE*TXSE-C*SLE-CITRSEWLDNCBE
      ALW*PNCBETSMEL*SERLSEVRGLSNEASNWLDNCBE
      (NOPFSENLRENCBE)NTEGDDMNSENCURER*BR**
      (TEWETFRNENC**TSENCBEI*G)
      (FIRSEPRSEONDE71NCBE)
      (CDWSEPRSEONSE74NCBE)
      (PRTSEPRSEONERDE76NCBE)
      (TFNGCMSOLEMRDELUSETOTEWLD*WLD*CBE)
      (194WLD'SNCBE)(TRFXC)
    

Page 2

    
    
      ALPNTEGLSE-SE ERTE
      YLSE MTSE-CTSE-WSE-FRTSE
      PNRTRSEONDRSEWLDNCBE
      *WLDXLRCMSPNEDVLDSTSMEXL
      DULMT6TUNSENCBEXC 
    
      (*UNSARSTENMUNARSE)
      KLSE-LRSTE-TRSE-MKSEN-MRSE
      (SAE6NSESEMRCE)
    
      NMRCBRSNEPTE2*TEWSRCBKN*E
      **MLSE74SPRKSE29KENO*OLE17SRTRSE
      8S*LECLG*E**NUTRE*KRSEPSESHLE
      6SIMTCSEHTLSENCUTCTRSNMRE
      99.84S2UNEP2SENCRSEAOKTSENSKSEN*SE
      NSREONSEPVTSEWLDNCBE(JXORL)
      *NMSENRSEINRNTRNTRLERCBRNSENTSRCR*NE
      LSPNSENGSPSEMKSERBSENCEAVXLR
      HMCRENMRENCBE     1/2MUNDDLSE
      D-W-MIYMPL XDRX
    
    

This is the sort of problem I'd like to give to my child (as Douglass Adams
states throughout his books) ... no bias or formula to work with. The "Street
Smart" comment struck me a bit. When I was a kid, being "Street Smart" was a
compliment used in contrast to someone who is "Book Smart". Being "Book Smart"
was bad. Street Smart == Application of knowledge, Book Smart == would beat
you at trivial pursuit/Jeopardy, but wouldn't know what to do with that
knowledge.

EDIT: Ahh, half my comment was missing!

~~~
Plutoniumrings

        (MnD MKNE#R-N-STA-KNARE) (ACSM)
      oTFRNENPtNSEWPBSERCBBNSENPRSEINC
      PRSENMRSEOPREHLDWLDNCSE(TXFLFTCXLNC*E)
      AL-pRPPITXLYPPIYNCBEMEKSEinCdSEPRSE
      WLDRCBRNSEnToSNEnTXSE-CrSLE-CITRSEWLDNCBE
      ALWlPNCBETSMELrSERLSEVRGLSNEASNWLDNCBE
      (NOPFSENLRENCBE)NTEGDDMNSENCURERcBRne
      (TEWE TFRNE NCbrTSE NCBE InG)-
      (FIRSE PRSE ONDE 71 NCBE)-
      (CDnSE PRSE ONSE 74 NCBE)-
      (PRTSE PRSE ONER DE 75 NCBE)
      (TFNGCMSOLEMRDELUSETOTEWLDnwLDnCBE)
      (194WLD'SNCBE)(TRFXC)
    
      ALPNTEGLSE-SE ERTE
      YLSE MTSE-CTSE-WSE-FRTSE
      PNRTRSEONDRSEWLDNCBE
      nWLDXLRCMSPNEDVLDSTSMEXL
      DULMT6TUNSENCBEXC 
    
      (mUNSARSTEN MU NARSE)
      KLSE-LRSTE-TRSE-MKSEN-MRSE
      (SAE6NSESEMRCE)
    
      NMnRCBRSNEPTE2pTEWSRCBKNsE
      86MLSE74SPRKSE29KENO*OLE17SRTRSE
      356LECLGsEouNUTRf*KRSEPSESHLE
      651MTCSEHTLSENCUTCTRSNMRE
      {99.84.52} UNEP25ENCRSEAOKTSENSKSENrSE
      NSREONSEPVTSEWLDNCBE(JXORL)
      *NMSENRSEINRNTRNTRLERCBRNSENTSRCRsNE
      LSPNSENGSPSEMKSERBSENCEAVXLR
      HMCRENMRENCBE     1/2MUNDDLSE
      D-W-MIYMPL XDRX
    

Here is an updated version of your work. I went through and replaced all the
asterisks with the letters. The lines I replaced are in lowercase. The
asterisks that remain are characters that are to scribbled to read.

The lines that Have the dash - next to them stand out heavily. As someone has
stated before (I believe it was thinkalone 6), they may represent Interstates.
The biggest question is what language did Ricky McCormick speak? Was he known
to use any slang?

Another part that stuck out at me was the numbers 99.84.52. I would have to
take a punch and say that it is a PO box combination code. I put the numbers
in brackets {---} to spot easlily. But what got me was the lines before and
after the numbers, 651MTCSEHTLSENCUTCTRSNMRE and UNEP25ENCRSEAOKTSENSKSENrSE
It has to be an address of some sort and location. UNEP25ENCRSEAOKT. This
looks possibly like an adress. I focused on that portion for a few minutes and
could not bypass the feeling of an address. Where to I dont know. But thats
all Ihave for now. I am going to get some sleep and dive back into it when I
wake up. If you have any comments or even something to help or add, Email me
when you reply so that I will know when to check. Thanks! Y! Plutoniumrings

~~~
Shibalba
I think the 99.84 is a radio station

~~~
guids
My first though also, but 99.84 isnt a radio station (Im in st louis); 99.9
used to be the classical station here though; I see nothing St. Louis related
in the texts, that makes much sense unfortunately

~~~
Shibalba
My bad, so many people are going onto other sites and just posting garbage..

I got a site with a pic of the guy

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371604/FBI-asks-
cod...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371604/FBI-asks-code-
breakers-help-solving-murder-Ricky-McCormick.html)

------
te_platt
I have a nephew who has Asperger's Syndrome - severe. One of the things he
loves to do is invent languages and list thousands of words as a dictionary
and even write short stories with them. The image seems to have just a touch
of the same feel. Significant repetition (NCBE) and limited variation of the
letters (E is overrepresented). The story hints that the victim wasn't
competent mentally. It mentions he could read and write; why mention that
unless people would think he couldn't for some other reason?

Anyway, just a thought, probably doesn't mean anything.

~~~
jarin
"McCormick was a high school dropout, but he was able to read and write …"

As a high school dropout myself, I'm a little insulted by the implication that
all high school dropouts are illiterate!

~~~
fluidcruft
On the other hand, hopefully we don't graduate illiterates.

~~~
jarin
Well, I guess that depends on whether your standards for literacy include
knowing the differences between "they're", "there", and "their".

~~~
electromagnetic
Personally, having worked as a writer and wanting to be a novelist, my
standard for literacy does include knowing the differences between
"they're/there/their", "we're/were/where/wear", etc. So from what I've seen
about 50% of students are graduated illiterate.

I'd also add that they should know how to use who and whom, but then that
would be making our population 90% illiterate.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Whatever happened to whom? You never hear or read it anymore.

It's gone the way of will and shall, nobody seems to know or care about the
difference.

"Do not ask for who the bell tolls..." -- sounds like crap, but that's the way
they'd write it today.

~~~
andrewcooke
no they wouldn't. they'd write "don't ask who the bell tolls for." which
sounds fine.

------
noonespecial
We know that he's had this "language" since he was a child so I'm going to go
out on a limb here (and introduce no small measure of my own bias) and guess
its not a cerebral cipher that will easily be unraveled by simple frequency of
note correlation.

I've likely got a touch of Asperger's myself and I know I have a bigger touch
of synesthesia. I remember vividly during my childhood certain words being an
explosion of color and texture and even having under-tones of other unrelated
sounds. Even today I've got my own little "esperanto" in my mind for words and
concepts that don't feel right in normal language. I use them on occasion on
my unfortunate family, although its tough to say "oranger than orange with a
texture like crumpled sandpaper and snow" succinctly.

Is there a way to just output the letters as a stream of phonyms? I tried
"say" at the command prompt but this ends up reading the names of the letters
and not their sounds. I'm going to guess this "code" is a stream-of-
consciousness type thing and would be very interested in hearing it slurred
out fast as basic sound.

~~~
thinkalone
> Is there a way to just output the letters as a stream of phonyms?

After noticing the frequency of NCBE, I focused on these three lines from the
first document:

    
    
      (FLRSE PRSE ONDE 71 NCBE)
      (CDNSE PRSE ONS*E 74 NCBE)
      (PR+SE PRSE ONREDE 75 NCBE)
    

They seem pronounceable in a sort of pig-latin style - "Flur-say pur-say ohn-
day 71 nick-bay"

> although its tough to say "oranger than orange with a texture like crumpled
> sandpaper and snow" succinctly.

As a side-note, do you know of any books/novels that authentically explore
with that kind of language and method of internally expressing concepts? I
think it's interesting to learn how people interpret the world.

~~~
noonespecial
I lit on that too. I find myself adding syllables and sounds to words in my
mind all the time to "smooth their edges". Some words just don't fit together
without "help".

I thought maybe "Firse Perse On de 71 Nice be"

I'm perusing the thought that maybe he's taking notes on how people treated
him or something.

~~~
thinkalone
Yeah, I think it is more phonetic shorthand than any kind of cypher.
Unfortunately, it's a long shot that we'll be able to get any insight into it
without knowing more about the victim's personal characteristics or habits.

~~~
Shibalba
are there any freeways around st louis that would go along with these numbers?
If he is street smart, and the family said that in 1999....maybe is was
homeless, but creative at getting what he needs.

~~~
jaredmck
71,74,75 are all interstates in/around Cincinnati

~~~
Shibalba
AHA!....i think he was going around and looking at cars on the sheet that says
NOTES, that would explain the reccurences and the circling, he was keeping the
vehicles separated.....he went to go see a car and got murdered by the owner??
oh yeah i live in SOCAL, so the freeway thing was a longshot....i also believe
that this man has Aspergers and Dyslexia....but they balled up his symptoms as
Aspergers. One word keeps calling to me .... PSESHLE....take the first three
letters PSE change them to SPE and add SHLE SPESHLE....this guy had the
basics, mixed with his own different thinking style.

------
parfe
Just goes to show how dead a language Lisp really is when even the FBI can't
find someone that understands the code.

~~~
dkl
Wow, this is what gets upvotes these days. Nice.

------
jrockway
If I ever murder anybody, I'm going to leave a lot of "encrypted notes"
around. It will turn out that one is a review of a restaurant and the other is
just random noise.

~~~
jerf
For double bonus points, make sure you have enough entropy in your code that
it "trivially" decodes to your restaurant review in one half, and the other
half is just plausible-looking noise.

------
jshort
A better image of the text can be found on the FBI's site:
[http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/march/cryptanalysis_032...](http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/march/cryptanalysis_032911)

------
giberson
I kind of wonder if this is an alternative to the old "You've won a free trip,
come to this location to collect your prize" used to catch criminals on the
lamb.

It seems like this might be a ploy to tempt the ego of the murderer into
providing the decryption of his own note. In other words, solving this puzzle
may land you directly on the suspect list.

~~~
sophacles
A bit of pedantry: it is "on the lam" not "on the lamb" but that is a common
enough misconception that I feel pointing it out is actually productive rather
than nit-picky.

~~~
random42
Absolutely. I am not a native speaker, so I appreciate it, when people improve
my knowledge of the English language.

~~~
Natsu
I just read your last two comments carefully. If you hadn't mentioned it, I
would have thought that you were a native speaker of English.

The lam/lamb mistake is exactly the sort of thing that even native speakers
would screw up. You also have an extra comma in "appreciate it, when" but
that's minor.

It's probably because you invite people to correct you that you're so good.

------
portmanteaufu
I know that it isn't practical for the FBI to publicize the approaches that
they've attempted in deciphering this, but I'm very discouraged by the
prospect of spending time on what might be simply redoing a small corner of a
failed effort by someone much more qualified.

~~~
proexploit
I agree. I'm certainly not their ideal codebreaker but would have given it a
go for fun trying to come up with some off-the-wall stuff based on what I do
but the lack of disclosure is a huge turn off.

~~~
pero
How about them not feeling charitable enough to offer any reward for something
they've probably wasted many thousand man-hours on?

~~~
jclaassen
Yeah, but think about how many more thousands of man-hours would be wasted if
there was a reward.

------
justatry
This was super interesting to try. Even more interesting are the thoughts
everyone has had. My version, parsed so I could take a look at patterns.

    
    
    				(PI)		
    

(mndmvneaRSE-n-sta-unare) (alsm)

tf r nen pt NSE N PSER cb NSE N PRSE inc

PRSE N MRSE opreh ld-en-ld NCBE (tfxl ftexl NCBE)

al-pr ppit xly ppiy NCBE mek SE inc d RCBR NSE PRSE

WLD RCBR NSE ntog nen tx SE - crsle - cit r-SE WLD NCBE

alwlp NCBE tsme LRSE RLSE urglsneas N WLD NCBE

(mopfsen LSRE NCBE) ntegddm NSE n curer cbrnt

(te-n-et-frne NCBR tse NCBE ing)

(flr SE PRSE ON DE 71 NCBE) (cdn SE PRSE ON s DE 74 NCBE) (prt SE PRSE ON re
DE 75 NCBE)

(tf nbcmspsolemrdeluse tote WLD N in ld NCBE) (194 WLD's NCBE) (trfxl)

some combinations:

tf, tfr, tfn, tfxl, ftexl, trfxl

"rcbr nse prse wld rcbr nse" (this seems poetic in structure)

ncbr, rbcr, ncbe

(se could = it, at, on, we, he, in) se, nse, nen, mrse, prse, pser, rlse,
lrse, rse

I find WLD the most intriguing since there seems to be a contracted version of
it also. WLD'S. Could be- can't, you'd, she'd, who'd, why'd, how's, who's,
won't- as each of these form a new word when removing the contraction.

I also wished there was a much larger version available, if they truly wanted
help that is. Its hard enough to read, especially when reduced in size.

The top right very hard to read. I've seen several versions of it now. I
translated to "alsm" put that into google, and came up with an old google
coder page for Username: alsm...@gmail.com.

------
famousactress
Really intriguing. The first page has 'p1' up in the corner, which makes me
think the sequence of the pages might matter...

The whole thing reminds me of pages in my notebook where I kept all of my
Windows and Adobe license codes.

~~~
Tichy
Maybe he was selling pirated copies of Windows and Adobe in the street?

------
ruttger
[http://groups.google.com/group/sci.crypt/browse_thread/threa...](http://groups.google.com/group/sci.crypt/browse_thread/thread/a7814655b28c696c)

This person Globemaker seems to be on the right track.

------
daliusd
Maybe FBI is simply hiring ;-)

------
earle
This appears to share the same ciphertext characteristics as traditional
prison kites.

~~~
jeffreyg
what makes you say that?

------
cocotel
If you replace the "N"s with and asterisk and "E"s with a slash you get
something that looks like this:

    
    
      (M*D MK*\#R-*-STA-K*AR\) (ACSM)
      oTFR*\*Pt*S\WPBS\RCBB*S\*PRS\I*C
      PRS\*MRS\OPR\HLDWLD*CS\(TXFLFTCXL*C*\)
      AL-pRPPITXLYPPIY*CB\M\KS\i*CdS\PRS\
      WLDRCBR*S\*ToS*\*TXS\-CrSL\-CITRS\WLD*CB\
      ALWlP*CB\TSM\LrS\RLS\VRGLS*\AS*WLD*CB\
      (*OPFS\*LR\*CB\)*T\GDDM*S\*CUR\RcBR*\
      (T\W\ TFR*\ *CbrTS\ *CB\ I*G)-
        (FIRS\ PRS\ O*D\ 71 *CB\)-
        (CD*S\ PRS\ O*S\ 74 *CB\)-
        (PRTS\ PRS\ O*\R D\ 75 *CB\)
      (TF*GCMSOL\MRD\LUS\TOT\WLD*wLD*CB\)
      (194WLD'S*CB\)(TRFXC)
    
      ALP*T\GLS\-S\ \RT\
      YLS\ MTS\-CTS\-WS\-FRTS\
      P*RTRS\O*DRS\WLD*CB\
      *WLDXLRCMSP*\DVLDSTSM\XL
      DULMT6TU*S\*CB\XC 
    
      (mU*SARST\* MU *ARS\)
      KLS\-LRST\-TRS\-MKS\*-MRS\
      (SA\6*S\S\MRC\)
    
      *M*RCBRS*\PT\2pT\WSRCBK*s\
      86MLS\74SPRKS\29K\*O*OL\17SRTRS\
      356L\CLGs\ou*UTRf*KRS\PS\SHL\
      651MTCS\HTLS\*CUTCTRS*MR\
      {99.84.52} U*\P25\*CRS\AOKTS\*SKS\*rS\
      *SR\O*S\PVTS\WLD*CB\(JXORL)
      **MS\*RS\I*R*TR*TRL\RCBR*S\*TSRCRs*\
      LSP*S\*GSPS\MKS\RBS\*C\AVXLR
      HMCR\*MR\*CB\     1/2MU*DDLS\
      D-W-MIYMPL XDRX

~~~
cocotel
"(T\W\ TFR*\" Seems like shorthand for "Tuesday\Wednesday\Thursday-Friday"?

------
rdtsc
someone might have broken the code: <http://i.imgur.com/UOgD2.jpg>

------
ck2
It looks like a personal shorthand to me.

------
cocotel
"(FIRSE PRSE ONDE 71 NCBE)- (CDnSE PRSE ONSE 74 NCBE)- (PRTSE PRSE ONER DE 75
NCBE)"

First Person I saw on the 71 bus? Second Person I saw on the 74 bus? Third
Person I saw on the 75 bus?

When I saw those lines spelled out like that, I read them as above. Just kinda
made sense. Looking at the rest.

------
danssig
>One has to wonder though, if the FBI can't figure this out, who can?

This is frustrating. Why would we assume the best people possible all work for
the FBI? Is there nothing else the best people could be doing? We already know
that everyone isn't hiring the top 1%

~~~
Shibalba
Please dont put the FBI on a pedestal

------
dward9
When i first attempt a cyrptoquote I stick with familiar terms, vowels in
particular and repeating letter such as "RCNNBSE" could be "tallest" because
of the repeating NN...then work off of that. Put enough familiar words and
letters for "RCNNBSE" together and try to decipher. It sounds like he(she) is
describing a location. either but landmarks or directional bearing 71 NCBE, 74
NCBE, 75 NCBE... 71 west (east perhaps) 74 west (east perhaps) 75 west (east
perhaps)

194 WLD'S NCBE 194 west

------
tkctkc
It is just a key for an encrypted ebook.

When you start to download an Adobe PDF a small file with the extension .acsm
is first downloaded. This is used by Adobe Digital Editions to send the
activation ID to the delivery server which will use that ID to generate an
encrypted PDF/ePub eBook, which is then downloaded to your PC.

Write the code in a file and save it as 'foo.acsm' Login to the dead guys
account and download his encrypted adobe ebook.

------
snappergrass
one of those notes appears to be in lisp

------
Susu
Has anyone else noticed that there seem to be no Q's or Z's in the text? That
leads me to believe that the code is somehow related to the telephone dial (or
keypad). There are a couple of characters that look slightly like Q's, but
which I think are R's and there is one character on the NOTES page that looks
like a Z, but which I think is a 2, since it comes after the string of
numbers.

------
jedsmith
How do they know the notes compromise clues in the case? They could be pages
of a shopping list, for all we know.

~~~
quux
True, but even a shopping list could reveal information that narrows down
where the killer lives or shops or something.

------
uptown
Anybody have a copy of the legible characters so each of us doesn't need to
transcribe the same text?

~~~
scythe
That's assuming that a copy of the legible characters wouldn't lose any of the
original information -- the way words are written could matter.

~~~
reduxredacted
Precisely my thinking. It would have been helpful if there were higher
resolution scans of these images.

I had difficulties reconciling 5's and S's, or the various ways in which the
letter "B" was written (it really looked like there were two "B"'s in the
document, though that would be difficult to tell even with higher-res photos
as anything handwritten is subject to whatever surface it was written on).

~~~
Shibalba
I noticed that too, he has a fast b and a slow b, and he was right handed ( if
the smudge is his hand)...I think the page with NOTES on the top was two days
and the second paper was the third day.

------
hardik988
This guy seems to have done a pretty comprehensive analysis:

[http://groups.google.com/group/sci.crypt/msg/9d801bc10df8b58...](http://groups.google.com/group/sci.crypt/msg/9d801bc10df8b584)

------
oscardelben
Interesting:
[http://groups.google.com/group/sci.crypt/browse_thread/threa...](http://groups.google.com/group/sci.crypt/browse_thread/thread/a7814655b28c696c)

------
jjek
heres a queston:

Who added the computer j in the paranthasis at the top of page one and the
paranthasis themselves in this section do not appear to be the orginial
writers in either style nor weight.

I would go futher to say that someone has "worked" on this document.

------
mkjones
Looks like LISP to me. Or just the rantings of someone out of touch with
reality.

~~~
wlievens
Might as well be Perl code.

------
electrichead
Reminds me of the movie 'Spider' - maybe it's just nonsense.

------
Shibalba
Im new, and i have been looking into the decoding of this code, i cant say
why....but i cant stop thinking about this.

------
tkctkc
D-W-M14 is a gun

------
jockc
I'm guessing ROT13

------
stefanherz
it's a trap

------
thirsteh
Richard Feynman totally would have cracked that one!

