The Mystery of Ricky McCormick’s Death Message

The body of a man was found decomposing in a cornfield near West Alton, Missouri. More than 12 years later, the FBI released two notes containing his death message.

L. Small
5 min readApr 5

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The Mystery of Ricky McCormick’s Death Message. Source.

The body of a man was found decomposing in a cornfield near West Alton, Missouri. There were no signs of shooting, beatings, or abuse, even though the body of the victim, who was estimated to have been dead for only 3 days, was no longer recognizable. More than 12 years later, the FBI released two notes containing his death message.

A woman was driving alone in a cornfield on Route 367 in St. Charles County near West Alton, Missouri, on June 30, 1999. She was shocked when she crossed the route and found a dead body. The body was unrecognizable because it had undergone severe decomposition, as if it had been there for a long time.

The police, assisted by a team of investigators, finally managed to identify the corpse through fingerprints. The body was recognized as that of a 41-year-old man named Ricky McCormick. But strangely, there was no missing person report from his family. Ricky’s family only learned of his death after being contacted by the police.

Who was Ricky McCormick really?

Ricky McCormick. Source.

Ricky McCormick was unemployed and a school dropout; he was also unmarried but had four foster children. He also had several residential addresses, including St.Louis, Belleville, and Fairview Heights, but sometimes he lived with his elderly mother, Frankie Sparks.

McCormick apparently had a criminal record as well as a health record. Five days before he died, he was seen undergoing a medical checkup at St. Louis Forest Park Hospital on June 25, 1999.

On March 29, 2011, almost 12 years after Ricky McCormick’s body was found, the FBI released two notes on their official website. These two notes contained a series of random letters and numbers whose contents were incomprehensible. These two notes apparently came from the pants pocket of McCormick, who died…

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L. Small

"One arrow alone can be easily broken but many arrows are indestructible" ~Genghis Khan~