In the spring of 1999, Ricky McCormick was found murdered and dumped in a Missouri cornfield. The only clue: two crumpled sheets of paper in his pocket, written in a seemingly secret code. The FBI’s top cryptanalysts hoped the notes would be the key to justice, but they were tormented by a message they couldn't break. For years, the code was dismissed as meaningless scribbles, a claim supported by Ricky's own family. Now, decades later, amateur cryptographers and investigators are still fighting to solve the puzzle. Was the cipher a desperate final journal entry from the victim, or a calculated killer's taunt written in a system the world has never seen?

WARNING: This episode contains discussions of a decades-old murder, disturbing accounts of coded criminal activity, and unsettling details of a life cut short. Listener discretion ...