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FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

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Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#91

Post by Shibalba »

reduxredacted wrote: post #53
scythe wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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).

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.

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#92

Post by Shibalba »

noahc wrote: post #57
jcl wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess that he is using "E" as a separator, since it seems to occur at almost all end-of-lines and before punctuation/numbers. And maybe the letter just before "E" has some significance, as there is only a small set of letters that appears there, with "SE" extremely frequent. It's possible that he is stripping out vowels as a kind of shorthand.

I wonder if he might be using a gendered language. Which would explain a high level of xE or even yxE at the end of sentences.

think of it like this miles is mlse to him...he writes as tho he is exhaling at the end of each word. MKSE = makes

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#93

Post by 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.

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#94

Post by schrototo »

noonespecial wrote: post #74
jarin wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, and I think your approach to the cipher sounds like a pretty good one, but why do so many people try to self-diagnose with Asperger's? Pretty sure there are clinically-accepted criteria for it that go beyond "nerdy and slightly awkward".

Its a scale. With a bell curve. No one is 0% and no one is 100%. Why do half of people claim to be above average? "Nerdy and slightly awkward" might just mean "a little bit left of the middle". And some are more than others. How far left do I need to be before I get my official merit badge?

> Why do half of people claim to be above average?

Because of illusory superiority. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority)

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#95

Post by noonespecial »

schrototo wrote: post #94
noonespecial wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a scale. With a bell curve. No one is 0% and no one is 100%. Why do half of people claim to be above average? "Nerdy and slightly awkward" might just mean "a little bit left of the middle". And some are more than others. How far left do I need to be before I get my official merit badge?

> Why do half of people claim to be above average? Because of illusory superiority. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority )

That would be why more than half of people claim this. I should have said "Why could half of people claim to be above the median."

Oh dear. I think I might be below average.

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#96

Post by 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%

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#97

Post by andrewcooke »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #66
electromagnetic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#98

Post by Plutoniumrings »

reduxredacted wrote: post #48
double122 wrote: post #32

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_(... If anyone else wants to have a play here is my (roug…

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 interpr…

    (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

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#99

Post by portmanteaufu »

BobKabob wrote: post #44
portmanteaufu wrote: post #10

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.

On the contrary, sometimes "out of the box" thinking by a non-expert is exactly the lightning bolt from out of nowhere that can cause a breakthrough.

True! ...but if they could tell me that they had already tried X, Y and Z classes of rot cypher, then I'd at least know I wasn't going down a path that's already been examined.

Re: FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

#100

Post by Shibalba »

portmanteaufu wrote: post #99
BobKabob wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, sometimes "out of the box" thinking by a non-expert is exactly the lightning bolt from out of nowhere that can cause a breakthrough.

True! ...but if they could tell me that they had already tried X, Y and Z classes of rot cypher, then I'd at least know I wasn't going down a path that's already been examined.

You could be disregarding the answer from the start, all because the FBI told you to.
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