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FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

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douglas9 Donating Member (762 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 06:42 AM
Original message
FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery
The FBI is seeking the public's help in breaking the encrypted code found in two notes discovered on the body of a murdered man in 1999.

The FBI says that officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick on June 30, 1999 in a field and the clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim's pants pockets.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/fbi-wants-public-help-solving-encrypted-notes
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negativenihil Donating Member (772 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 07:00 AM
Response to Original message
1. k&r!
You never know - maybe someone here on DU can crack it....
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Maine-ah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 10:18 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. it says
"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"
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LeftinOH Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 07:26 AM
Response to Original message
2. Many of the notes I leave for myself are indecipherable -sometimes even by me-
a mixture of shorthand, abbreviations, foreign words, different alphabets, etc. It's possible that these messages won't ever be translated.
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Lyric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 07:34 AM
Response to Original message
3. It seems like the code involves all the vowels except for "O"
A quick Google tells me that there's a children's book out there called "The Wonderful O" in which the protagonist's name is Aeiu; all the vowels except for "O". Books are often used as cipher keys. This might be some variation on that.

Just tossing out ideas off the top of my head. I wish they'd done a text transcription of it; those notes are difficult to read.
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cbdo2007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 08:20 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I see the letter "o" in there numerous times.
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Lyric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 03:30 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Those look more like badly-written D's to me, but I could be wrong.
Meh. Like I said, just a random theory.
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starroute Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 09:44 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. It's not a children's book -- it's a book by James Thurber
And therefore full of subtle wordplay and philosophical reflections.
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yodermon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-11 08:48 AM
Response to Original message
5. If it was done with a one-time pad they are wasting their time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad
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