Ricky McCormick /// The McCormick Code /// Part 1 | Forensic Files

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details major phone
carriers make you sign contracts with rigid data plans to trap you into a kind of forced phogy sounds pretty insecure
if you ask me at Consumer Cellular we believe in a more consensual and healthy form of phamy free of contracts and more
flexible to your data needs this way you stick around not because we force you to
with contracts and fees but because you love our phone plans like ardently love our phone plans monogamously Consumer
Cellular when Freedom calls we're here to answer call us at 1 888 [Music] [Applause]
freedom welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that knows that the zuder film was edited and it
turns out JFK shot first he is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen and it's good to
see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend today we are drinking codebreaker
by the Beautiful Minds over at the Dayton Beer Company codebreaker is a no funny business Imperial double IPA super
strong and hoppy if you like bitter strong beers then this is for you and codebreaker was brought to us by these
Beautiful Minds first up we have Laura in Teddington New Zealand a big cheers mates to Brad and SE home Australia and
a thank you goes out to Anna and her mom Paula in Mount Pleasant Michigan and from lawrencville Georgia we have a big
shout out to Becca and a long distance cheers to our friend Tony G down in Lake Wales Florida and last but not least we
have Chrissy in Columbia South Carolina so thanks to everybody for helping with this week's beer run if you want to fill
up the fridge for next week's shows go to True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button and a reminder to
everybody we're about 6 months behind maybe a year behind maybe three years behind we're not really for sure we're
just really far behind on the beer shout outs so be patient all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody
gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime late June
1999 a woman finds a body near a cornfield off a rural road just about 20 M north of St
Louis investigators are quick to make an identification however the medical examiner is uncertain as to how the man
has died police have their theories and suspicions they believe the man had been
killed somewhere else and dumped in a spot between the road and [Music] cornfield the man was 41-year-old Ricky
McCormick a loner his friends called him a vampire because he would leave home after the sun went down and not return
until it was coming up again Ricky had a checkered past and a police record some suspect he may have
been dealing drugs Ricky was associated with some bad people is it possible that Ricky's past
or the circles that he may be running in led to his death Ricky was always a little odd but
leading up to his death he was behaving especially strange did Ricky know he was in trouble
and if so did he know who was after him why didn't Ricky seek the help of others
around him did Ricky fear that his loved ones would be in danger if they knew what he
knew after his death police discovered some strange Clues clues that suggest Ricky knew who was after him and
why this is the case of Ricky McCormick [Music] [Music] June 30th 1999 near West Alton Missouri
a woman is driving her car on a Road off of rout 67 there is a large cornfield that runs
along the side of this road well she spots something in the open part of the field the kind of find that is going to
ruin the rest of your day Captain it appears to be a dead human body police are called to the scene and they find
what most Reports say a body that was very badly decomposed later the authorities used
fingerprints to identify the body to be that of 40 1-year-old Ricky McCormick McCormick was a high school dropout who
had held multiple addresses in the Missouri Illinois regions of St Louis bellw and fair viiew Heights at the time
of his death Ricky worked and lived about 20 miles from where his body was found Ricky did not drive or own a
vehicle so finding his body there was strange in itself MH due to the decomposition of the body the medical
examiner could find no cause of death there was no indication that anyone would have a motive to kill Ricky
McCormick and no one had even reported him missing so the authorities at the time initially ruled out
homicide but keep in mind his body where I have an issue with this Captain is his
body is found almost 20 mil from where he lived and worked right what is the reason that he was miles away from his
current address and as we said he did not own a vehicle and the area that he was found in there is no public
transportation in that area he didn't take a bus to get there he wasn't reported missing which is strange as
well now Ricky McCormack he was last seen alive just 3 days earlier before his body was found the body was found on
June 30th so when the reports come out that his body was badly decomposed I'm thinking that they mean
in relation to either when Ricky was last seen or when they believe the time of death to be now both of these would
be on the 27th just 3 days earlier so was this a murder wasn't this area known to be a Dumping
Ground yeah yeah police would later say that this was a Dumping Ground for quote
known criminal activity MH but it was also very hot so the decomposition could have happened quicker because of the
temperatures and possibly yeah so let's go through this I actually looked up the
weather report for that week that he was missing so uh some reports state that he
went missing on the 25th we now know that not to be true there there are reports that would later come out that
he was seen on the 26th and then the 27th M so let's start with the 27th that was a Sunday and it's June it's the end
of June so you would expect a hot day 90° was the high captain and 69 de was the low so a pretty warm day on that day
now on Monday the 28th 86° was the high 71 was the low and then on Tuesday June 29th 75° and 62° so the 29th is not
particularly hot I would say 75 being the high 62 the low there was no rain uh on two of those days and a very light
rain on the Monday before he was found on that Wednesday June 30th here's the thing that that jumps off the page to me
is when we hear the description of this area of where his body was found now I know that that we said a country road
okay so probably not traveled often or you know you wouldn't expect a lot of traffic going through
there right however this body doesn't seem to be concealed in any manner there's a corn field near this road if
somebody wanted to conceal him you could have put him in the cornfield mhm however it looks to me like somebody
just pulled up and dumped him that that he would have been killed elsewhere and dumped in this area because it states
he's found in an area an open area in a grassy area between the country road and
the cornfield now keep in mind the person that found him first discovered this body she's not she's not looking
for anything she's not walking alongside the road when she spots this body she's
driving so it it to me seems like it's right out in the open where just about anybody if you were traveling during
daylight on that road that you would see his body it's never a mannequin right right right never well I was actually
very happy that when I found reports about this no one mentioned the word mannequin because they always do um the
thing though that gets me Captain is I think this has to be a murder and I tell you why because I think that if he would
have somehow died there mhm you know let's forget about how he would have got there let's say he manages to get there
or he's there for some reason and he dies there yeah okay let's just stay on that point real quick okay think it's
out of the realm of possibilities that this individual that does not have a car and probably has multiple times use his
feet as Transportation oh of course that that it's not out of the realm of possibilities that he would travel now
this is a far this would be a very long walk mhm um this would take several hours right well this was a man too that
was known to Hitch rides and I and I don't I I say hitch rides because that's how his family described
think ACH ask a ride right you know so he could have got a portion of the way without
even walking exactly so let's forget about how he could have got there because we we both agree he he could
have potentially got there right this is what I have a problem with if he would have somehow died of natural
causes at that spot on the TW he was last seen on the 27th mhm his body was badly decomposed and we're stating so
you can't say like all right he managed to get there and he didn't die until the
29th or the 30th he Pro most likely died on the 27th when they believe the time of death to
be if he died and fell in that spot I think he would have been found before the 30th you know we have two and a half
three days go by his body wasn't concealed in any manner at all somebody else would have spotted this body body
possibly but I I guarantee you there was people that drove by that body she wasn't the first person that drove by
the body and said oh my God it's a body so my other thought too m is regarding the badly decomposed body I I don't
think that we're seeing temperatures or the elements being harsh enough to expedite the decomposition to this point
I think I think what we're looking at is that he was killed where and he was kept
somewhere and probably dumped in off the side of the road in the middle of the night before she found him the next day
at daylight yeah the temperatures weren't that hot I also just question you know this Ricky seemed a little bit
of a loner and yeah they have eyewitness reports saying that they saw him 3 days
earlier but there's a lot of people that mistaken you know can be mistaken when they oh yeah I saw him on Thursday but
you actually didn't you saw him on Monday mhm so that is a possibility well and the thing I think here Captain this
is just my suspicion what would speed up the decomposition process if he was in somebody's trunk in the trunk of
somebody's car for for a couple days it would get it would get quite a bit hotter in that trunk uh in that vehicle
yeah and that could speed that up so I think that might be what we're looking at but what we do know we're looking at
here Captain is that they do eventually change this to a homicide investigation and I think what we have is you know
well let's let's talk about that for a little bit because initially the the coroner couldn't really figure out the
time of death mhm um cuz the autopsy I don't think was done correctly they also didn't state it was a homicide at the
initial um autopsy right they just said he died how we don't know well they they
were actively investigating a homicide in this situation and what I okay but why though because your coiner comes out
and says we don't know how he died right right and then so they're actively pursuing it as a murder investigation
but why we have no cause of death well because they did change it to possible homicide right this is where the case to
me just starts getting weird right right from the get-go well is is that you have
one person saying we don't know how he died and then later on we have the FBI coming out saying he died by a
gunshot so how was that gunshot not found in the first autopsy we have the I we do have the FBI stating that I found
one local report of the police a police officer stating that the man appeared to
have suffered a head injury now they don't go into specifics on the head injury what my guess is Captain is that
either a you're right and this this examination was not done properly or B it was conducted properly that they
don't come up with a cause of death MH and so what happens in a lot of these cases and we've seen it in other cases I
believe it was the bill coin's case as well where if they're not certain as to the cause of death you got to keep in
mind they're making that recommendation based off of the evidence that's in front of them off of the information
that they have at the time so if they examine the body and they say well we can't determine that this was a homicide
it's an unknown cause of death well then the investigators the detectives that that responded to finding this body come
to the medical examiner and say look from our trained eye from our years of expertise in this area we feel we
have a homicide here and why because we suspect this this this and this that's why I think in that first report we see
where it says he it wasn't known you know he didn't seem to have any known enemies or they couldn't find any known
motive for somebody to want to kill him so I think what we have here though is I
think we have the police and the investigators going back to the medical examiner and saying a couple things one
we think he was killed elsewhere why do we think that my guess is that they they
share my thought that his body probably would have been found earlier had he had
he remained there for days the other too is the speeding up of the decomposition to the body you know
that didn't just happen on its own and if you can if you can prove or if you can say that you know what the the
natural elements the elements in the weather at that time in that place did not speed up this process at all then he
has to have been Elsewhere for a portion of his death well didn't Ricky wasn't he
known to have some health issues yes he did have some health issues and I think that's what led to some of this
confusion you know he had um some asthma issues and he had some heart issues as well M well I'll tell you what let's
let's go through his background let's go through uh the timeline leading up to what I'm going to go ahead and call a
murder well you have every right to do that I mean that's what the FBI calls it okay well Ricky was born June 14th
1958 uh he grew up living in the St Louis area and he lived there throughout different times of his adult life in
fact his address at the time of his death was a St Louis address his mother Frankie Sparks describes her son as
challenged now I have some questions about the relationship that he had with his mother his Frankie his mom is she's
a straight to Theo kind of blunt speaking person right mm uh she uses some negative terminology when she
speaks about her son but then on the other hand Ricky lived with his mother as an adult
not all the time but on and off right so where one gives the appearance of a poor
relationship between the two the other may suggest otherwise Ricky's cousin this is Charles McCormick these two guys
they were tight they had a relationship that was much more like two brothers uh for most of their lives Charles says
Ricky would often talk like he was in another world mhm and he suspects Ricky might have suffered from maybe
schizophrenia okay yeah or bipolar disorder yeah didn't his like doctor when he was a kid uh see the mom called
him slow right this is what the mom called him not what we're calling him but she called him slow and then the
doctors were saying cuz he was he wasn't he was never diagnosed with anything right but didn't one of the doctors say
something about that he had a brick in his a brick wall yeah in his mind well and like you said you know even though
his cousin suspected these possible disorders nothing was officially diagnosed of course MH so some people
close to Ricky suggested that um but but his cousin would possibly be right on the bipolar or uh schizophrenia if if he
was talking in such a way there are some people that go into a manic State and they kind of talk in a way that almost
makes sense but almost seems from another world and speaking of people that Ricky was close with he was also
close with his Aunt Gloria McCormack the family calls her cookie hey cookie it's
unclear if Ricky ever received any formal treatment for any type of Mental Illness but his family members recall
Ricky's displays of what they call unusual behavior and they also stated that uh he was known for concocting and
telling Tall Tales now teachers when he was in school teachers kind of just shuffled him along from grade to grade
but it's believed that he could hardly read or write uh as a youngster yeah for I think his mom said he couldn't read or
write the only thing he could actually write was his name he did eventually drop out of school he dropped out of
high school Ricky McCormick usually relied on occasional odd jobs to help support his income uh he did things like
mopping floors washing dishes busting tables service station attendant um he did receive disability checks due to uh
those health problems that you had mentioned earlier he had a a chronic heart problem uh and he had you know so
he was these health issues probably limited the amount of work or the types of work that he could perform Ricky
preferred the night shift when he did work he did uh he developed a reputation as a night owl he worked at night and he
did his thing at night often he would be leaving his place of residence when the
sun was going down and returning home when the sun was coming up as a teenager and later as an adult he was known to
frequently hitch rides or take the bus to distance himself this is his family saying this to distance himself from the
street toughs who were dealing drugs and picking fights on the street just to be
you know just to be safer now s St Louis is a tough City there are some very rough parts of Old St Louie Ricky did
have a police record he was arrested when he was 34 years old this was in November of
1992 um in St Louis for statutory rape yeah he had some kind of ongoing relationship with this girl that was far
too young to even know or understand being in a relationship with a an adult Ricky fathered two children with this
girl uh they were together I believe for like 3 years in this quote unquote relationship mhm he had been sleeping
with the girl since she was 11 according to the court files um which the court files protect the girl's identity so we
do not know the name of this uh person now while awaiting trial on the first-degree sexual abuse charge Ricky
was represented by a public defender his Council noted that there was reasonable
cause to believe Rick was suffering from some mental disease or defect mhm and his Council requested that the judge
order a mental health exam now this was granted by the court however the court certified Ricky McCormick as fit for
Trial 6 weeks later on September 1st of 1993 Ricky pled guilty to the crime at that moment Ricky became Missouri State
inmate number behind bars in the Farmington correctional center before being sent
home a year later now let's fast forward to June of 1999 so just days before The
Disappearance and murder of 41-year-old Ricky mccormic MH now we said that Ricky
often worked odd jobs well 1999 was no exception for that he was employed uh working at a gas station I believe uh
part-time hours so in June of 1999 actually Captain I I'm wrong we need to go back a little earlier than that we
need to go back to uh the early morning of Tuesday June 15th 1999 so this is two
weeks about two weeks before his death all right Ricky McCormick walked up to the counter at a Greyhound bus terminal
in downtown St Louis and he purchased a one-way ticket to Orlando Florida this was not the first time making such a
trip and traveling by himself it would turn out to be the last of at least two brief trips to Florida that he had made
that year right on this trip once he got there he checked into and stayed at The
aono Lodge Motel in Orlando uh he was in room number 280 phone records show that either Ricky
or his girlfriend this is sandre Jones they made a lot of calls to several different people in Central Florida just
a couple of weeks before Ricky traveled to Orlando and the reason why we say either Ricky or his girlfriend was he
was living with his girlfriend at the time yeah we talked about how he did odd jobs sometimes to make extra money MH
one of the things that he would do is you know if you have something that you need to give to somebody well I can take
it there you I can hitch a ride mhm and so there was a lot of speculation that he was running some drugs for some
people that's possibly what he was doing doing down in Orlando well while he was
there Ricky and his girlfriend exchanged many short phone calls during the two days that Ricky had stayed in Orlando
and he made at least one call to the St Louis gas station where he worked those part-time hours Ricky's girlfriend
sandre told police after his death that she suspected Ricky was running drugs that he went to Florida to pick up some
marijuana according to the Sheriff's Department uh their invest ative report the girlfriend's explanation went
something like this Ricky would like you said would accept offers to pick up and
deliver packages for money mhm and he made trips to Florida before and on several occasions when he came back he
brought marijuana into their apartment where the two lived in this poor area this uh poor area south of downtown St
Louis right the drugs would usually be sealed in ziplock bags rolled together into bundles she told the police Ricky
told his girlfriend that he was holding the stashes of weed for a guy named Baja
hamdalah okay all right the police report Baha hamdalah yeah the police report States this you can't make this
stuff up Baja hamdalah um everyone called this dude Bob thank God for me because I I'm I'm
probably not saying his name correctly it's Wooster so Bob and Rick I not only you know Ricky not only held weed for
Bob but he also worked for him at the gas station MH Ricky didn't tell sandre much about these trips to Orlando he
actually told her very little about these trips she didn't know who he met with while he was there or even you know
by name who he might have been going to Orlando to see but his girlfriend sandre
said that the last trip had been very different from the other trips because when Ricky got back from Orlando she
said Ricky was different he was very [Music] scared this show is sponsored by better
help do you look forward to the holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's
natural to feel some sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can
counteract some of those feelings therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel
grounded and to give you the tools to manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better
help a try it's entirely online designed to be convenient flexible and suited to
your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist
at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with better help visit betterhelp.com
Garay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp hp.com at Consumer Cellular you get the
same exact coverage as the largest carriers but for up to half the cost same thing up to half the cost up to
half the cost for the same thing 50% the money for 100% the same thing I hope I'm
making myself clear Consumer Cellular when fre calls we're here to answer call us at 1888 Freedom half the cost savings
based on cost of consumer cellular single line 5 GB data plan with unlimited talking text compared to
lowest cost single line postpaid unlimited talk text and data plan offered by T-Mobile in Verizon May
2023 you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to tackle your dream kitchen
remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you
can do this when you Angie that [Music] all right we're back cheers me mes cheers Captain let's go to June 22nd
1999 so just about about eight days before Ricky's body was found now on the afternoon of June 22nd at 3:00 in the
afternoon Ricky McCormick walked into the Barnes Jewish hospital uh into the emergency room mhm he's complaining of
chest pains in shortness of breath he was by himself when he checked into the hospital now Ricky as we had stated he
had suffered from both asthma and chest pain since childhood yeah he told his doctors that
he did not abuse drugs or alcohol and now this is a statement that friends and family would later back up as well Ricky
did however and this is not good if you have have asthma and chest pains well not good anyway uh he did smoke at least
a pack of cigarettes a day since his childhood uh and he drank a lot of coffee practically all day long by his
own estimate by Ricky's own estimate he told his doctors that he drank on average more than 20 caffeinated
beverages a day that's a lot that's a lot and I like my coffee but that's a lot that's a lot of coffee well doctors
ruled out a heart attack uh but they decided to keep Ricky there for observation for two days so Ricky didn't
leave the hospital until June 24th uh he was scheduled to return for a follow-up visit uh this was scheduled
for the following week but of course he never made it to the follow-up visit now
Ricky uses public transportation uh he took the bus to get to his aunt cookie house uh to her apartment and once he
arrived there she said that he only stayed for about an hour uh she told police that he would visit her often he
was extremely close to her he was actually by her account closer to her than his own mother MH and that's cuz
your own mom thinks you're slow so yeah maybe that's has a reason why you're not
visiting her all the time and like we said she has some negative things to say about her son right and here's one thing
that proves that he's closer to his aunt than he is to his mother mother his mother lived right around the corner
from Cookie's apartment yet he would often go and visit Cookie's house without ever going over to his mother's
MH so she said that Ricky would go over there and talk with her sometimes for hours uh but as mentioned on this
occasion he only stayed for about one hour and she said that he seemed less chatty on this visit than
typical she said that she thinks he had something on his mind something intense let's say um she said that she
offered him a ride uh but he insisted that he not take the ride and he left her house on foot yeah maybe something
intense on his mind or maybe the fact that he was in the hospital for two days with with chest pains and possibly but
but cookie looking back what she she says something like he appeared to be mindfully watching his words when he was
speaking with her she thinks that he was worried that he was going to say something he didn't want to tell
her or you know that he that he didn't want to reveal too much to her when he was there visiting with her MH now
Cookie's last image of Ricky is of him walking down her street around 5:00 p.m. the next day on June 25th Ricky once
again was in the emergency room but this time he went to Forest Park hospital this is less than 2 miles from Barnes
Jew Jewish hospital where he had been just days before mhm this time he complained that he was having trouble
breathing following an afternoon of mowing grass doctors diagnosed his wheezing as an asthma attack he was not
admitted to the emergency room however he was officially released at 5:50 p.m. so less than an hour after arriving
there now it's not clear what time he actually left the hospital because cookie says his says that she heard from
some people that Ricky actually spent the night at the hospital but he stayed the night in the waiting room before
leaving the next morning and that's going to bring us to June 26th which is 4 days before Ricky you's body would be
found mhm now on that day uh Ricky's girlfriend told police that she spoke with Ricky on the phone around 11:30
a.m. on the 26th right she said that he told her he was out of the hospital and he was on his way to the amicos gas
station to get a bite to eat yeah at least go ahead okay so Amo is that's a gas station right so you're smoking more
than a pack a day right you're drinking 20 some 20 some caffeinated 20 some or more caffeinated beverages day
and you're eating at gas stations yeah well we got to keep in mind Ricky didn't have a lot of money no I know that I'm
just I you know I'm just putting out there that that's another source of not living healthy right you're smoking a
bunch of cigarettes you're drinking a bunch of coffee all the nutritious food served at the uh Amo station yeah and
look trust me you just put Amo out of business no no no no cuz 3:00 in the morning when I'd be driving home from
gigs I mean I tried some weird [ __ ] you know you know like you're you're driving
and you're just hungry and there's some hot dogs and you you don't know how long
they've been there mhm I I'll try them you know 3:00 in the morning roller food is what we call that the food that's
cooked on the rollers that's when you know you're desperate for for food but I want but I should have been a little
more clear because this Amo gas station that's the same one that he works at part-time where he says he's going to
get a bite to eat okay Sobe there could be more involved in this trip to the gas
station possibly or the fact that you know he could go get a couple hot dogs for free there right I used to I worked
at a BP gas station briefly and there were a lot of free meals from from the roller food section at the BP anyway so
he go he tells his girlfriend that he's going to go to this Amo gas station to get a bite to eat he also works at the
Amo gas station now one thing here that I would love to know and I couldn't figure this out because it's not stated
anywhere the person's name but what is stated is at least one gas station employee who remains nameless for some
reason told the police that he saw Ricky there that day at the Amico station but
this employee also says that he saw Ricky at the gas station the next day on June 27th right now medical examiners
while not having determined an exact cause of death they managed to determine that they believe that Ricky had died on
this day so sometime after leaving the Amo station on the 27th Ricky in my opinion was killed by somebody right so
let's go through some of the statements that Ricky's Aunt Cookie uh that she has
stated when she looks back to the last time that she had saw him in regards to the last week that Ricky was alive she
says that she suspects Ricky's hospital visits could have been attempts to find a Hideout you know a place where he
could lay low that maybe he was hiding from somebody right and she saide maybe he knew he had got into something that
put his life on the line and that he knew he could have stayed here uh she says meaning at her home but maybe he
didn't want to put her life on the line as well so following our timeline captain that brings us back to the day
when Ricky McCormick's remains were found badly decomposed in an open field he was lying face down Ricky was wearing
a filthy uh pair of Lee brand blue jeans and he had a stained white T-shirt now Ricky was only 5' 6 in tall and his
badly decomposed body um it only weighed 72 lb when they examined it at the autopsy Advanced decomposition made the
autopsy very difficult the pathologist with the St Charles County Medical Examiner office ultimately ruled Ricky's
cause of death undet determined but the police this is where the police come in and they're talking to the medical
examiner and they say we suspect Foul Play Okay so let's chat about a few things here shall we right time of death
how if they don't know how he died you know bullet wounds no stab wounds possible head injury uh time of
death how do they come up with this answer if they don't know how he died my guess would be stomach contents right we
we know that he tells his girlfriend that he's he's going to this place to get something to eat we know that police
spoke with someone at that gas station who confirmed that he he had seen Ricky on that day and the next day as well
yeah that's so weird cuz you got to place in twice you know and then we also said that he whoever he worked for he
was also known to you know transfer some drugs for that individual as well right
right so so was that the guy or was it another coworker right it does not give the name all we know is that it's a man
that that saw him because the police in in their report it says he right he states that he saw Ricky on this day and
that day now the Curious Thing to me too Captain is I don't know the the situation with him and his girlfriend I
actually I'm guessing and I have little to go off of here but I'm guessing that they weren't super tight because you
know I've been in relationships and and think about this he goes down to Orlando
and then basically tells her nothing of this trip MH I don't know about how relationships work for other people out
there but relationships I've been in you better tell the woman why you're going to Orlando and what you were doing when
you were there you can't just go to Orlando and come back and be like not going to talk about it yeah none your
business the weather was nice but here's here's the weird thing though we have the gas station person stating that they
saw Ricky on two days leading the two days the day before his death and the day that the medical examiner determined
he died MH we have his girlfriend saying that I last spoke to him on the phone the day before the medical examiner says
that Ricky died right right the gas station is blocks it's it's literally a couple
street blocks from where Ricky was living at the time so for him to be at that gas station on two different days
but not have stayed at his apartment that night is very strange to me as well I'm assuming he didn't stay there
because we have sandre the girlfriend saying the last time she saw him was the day before they said that he was dead
yeah or maybe she was staying somewhere else that night right or she wasn't there which a possibility I mean he get
the guy goes to the hospital you know twice in two weeks mhm and she doesn't go visit him once at the hospital so I
mean what kind of relationship is that now the the the uh death was ultimately changed to a suspicious death mhm um not
quite a homicide but I think this is what we talked about earlier where we have the medical examiner saying I don't
know and then we have the police saying we suspect Foul Play so yeah what I stated earlier was that the FBI then
comes out years later and says that he died from a gunshot wound that's actually not factual uh we can't find
the cause of death and it's reported in multiple sources that possibly there's a
gunshot uh wound or possibly a stab wound or possibly um head injury head injury mhm so it's not clear either way
yeah I to me though like I said I think that because it took so long for his body to be found I don't think he was in
that field the entire time from the from the time of his death to when he was discovered was almost three days mhm and
I just feel like that to me and I think that's probably what the police were working off of is we suspect fou Foul
Play because a dead body just doesn't transport itself 20 miles away and put itself in a
field yeah but there's also other reports I mean this is what drives me nuts about the news is you know there's
a report that he's found by this lady right she's driving along the freeway she founds there's other reports that it
was found by a farmer so she could have been a farmer well possibly or he could have been not as
close to the road and back a little bit further and was found by a farmer mhm I mean that's possible too that's all I'm
saying so is it you know could he have been there for 3 Days very possible you know depending on where he was found in
what location and by whom right so if he's is he if he's found by the side of the road by this lady then probably not
likely that he was there for 3 Days right but if his body was further back he found by a farmer it's very possible
that he could have been there for three days could have been there for weeks and
nobody found him well he couldn't have been there for weeks well no but what I'm saying you know what I'm saying
something could have been there for weeks but the the thing here is though the the local reports that I found
multiple reports state that he was found by a woman and I I think at one point I
even had her name didn't see a point in including it here in my notes but um I have multiple reports saying she's found
by a woman but all the reports stating it was an open area that it's an open grass area that it wasn't concealed in
any manner right um that it was just laying out in the open now one thing you mentioned earlier is that this was a
quote unquote Dumping Ground right uh the strip of land where he was found has been quoted as criminal Dumping Ground
for years this is what the police say uh and to back that up we have in 1995 authorities discovered the bullet ridden
body of a woman in an abandoned house along the same stretch of US Route 67 and then two years after Ricky's death
state road crews mowing grass some 300 yards approximately 300 yards away from where they found Ricky they found the
nude bodies of two more women so yes this appears to be an area that for some reason dead bodies keep turning up here
okay so Ricky is unemployed and he gets disability mhm so he to supplement his income he he runs
some drugs so there's this guy at the gas station that he works part-time at the gas station but also possibly runs
some marijuana for this individual mhm mhm and then we have his girlfriend saying that well he went to Orlando and
that was possibly cuz he has been there before to get marijuana so then he goes possibly gets marijuana possibly
doesn't get marijuana but when he comes back he's noticeably different almost like he's scared that is what the
girlfriend says right then we have a noticeable difference reported by his aunt right and then we have these things
where he's checking into the hospital but she says that's a way to um get away from somebody and then he's last seen at
this gas station which would be the place that he was employed at the gas station but also to possibly run uh
marijuana for this individual for Bob and then he's right for Bob and then he's found dumped in this area that's
known as kind of a Dumping Ground M so if you follow that that trail then your number one suspect is Bob oh yeah
and and so why are they not saying who saw U Ricky last is that to protect them from Bob I would guess I
would guess that it's one of two things it's either Bob himself or it's somebody that they want
to protect from Bob let's let's get into cuz you're you're you're circling around
something very important here is that when he was discovered dead when Ricky was discovered dead when they when the
police started interviewing Ricky's relatives his friends his girlfriend people that knew him this is one thing
that stood out when his girlfriend was asked was there anyone that may have wanted to hurt Ricky or kill Ricky she
told the detectives that Bob she suspected Bob would want to hurt or kill Ricky the man that Ricky worked for at
the Amico station yeah why and that that she said she suspected he was the same guy that was sending Ricky on these drug
runs to Orlando mhm now so so here's the thing let's go through this Amo gas station because this is where I think
this is the last known sighting of him and there's some bad people that are involved with this gas station so the
original owner of the business listen to what's going on here at the the gas station with the different owners over
the years so this guy the original owner he killed his neighbor with a butcher knife during a front yard argument this
was in May of 1994 that's how I settle all neighborhood arguments MH oh really you
don't want to cut down that tree let me go get my butcher knife mhm yeah and he ended up he ended up serving um he was
later he him self was later killed in prison while serving a life sentence for that second degree murder charge karma's
a [ __ ] yeah so now we have a um another guy um he's a u it's another hamdalah okay his first name is somebody who's
going to have to tell me how to say this ju ma hamdullah he's a Palestinian immigrant who until 2002 he used the
name David rigan mhm he then became the president of the business after this other guy went to prison for killing his
his neighbor right yeah well he hires his brother Bob hamdalah okay now these two brothers they have a very rocky
relationship to say the least in August of 1999 less than two months after Ricky's death police from Maryland
Heights investigated an incident in which David allegedly Shot Bob Bob survived the shooting but filed no
charges against his brother according to police reports detectives looking into the shooting gathered information
linking Bob to a gang in St Louis so these were they also linked Bob to narcotics yeah Bob is reported to be
a violent man and in possession of several weapons including handguns police reports and witness
statements spanning several years illustrate repeated episodes of Violence by this man right shortly after moving
to St Louis in 1997 from Cleveland Ohio Bob who was then 22 years old he was cruising the streets of St Louis in a
blue Mazda Protege when a police detective saw him pull up alongside a man named Terrence Clark and they saw
Bob lean out of his car window and fire a shot at this man with a 38 caliber revolver according to the police report
of the incident in a w in witness statements well these are Bad Dudes it's the dicknose Brigade well not only Bad
Dudes Captain uh this Bob guy apparently he's a bad shot as well because he pulls
up next to this guy leans out his car fires at the guy the guy is unharmed he's like you know like the Matrix he he
doesn't get hit by a single bullet now you know Witnesses saw this we have a police officer that sees this go down
they end up arresting Bob for this but he ends up never being prosecuted about 9 months later in March
of 1998 Bob was visiting one of his older brothers at his brother's job his brother worked at a like a Family Market
a small grocery store or something and Bob goes there to visit his brother at some point they get in some kind of
argument and uh then Bob allegedly grabs a gun and he goes across the street and he starts
firing from the other side of the street at his brother these guys are big [ __ ] what they so several shots were
fired and he ended up actually hitting his brother uh with one of those shots so he he was shot uh okay so his brother
shot him at some point and then a different brother different brother yeah it's a violent family no but just
love it too though it's like you know Ju Just Be A Man if you really want to fight him but do a little fist of cuffs
right stop put Toe to Toe right yeah get your get your fist out do a little fist
of cuffs well he Bob took off after shooting his brother he but then he six days later he ended up turning himself
in um and yeah and they was me they charged him with it now uh then his brother comes forward and tells police
that he doesn't want them to prosecute his brother for this right so later that same month while working at the family's
Amo station Bob was arrested again this time on a felony charge of SE second degree assault for allegedly beating a
man with a Rusty Hammer MH so Bob allegedly threatened to kill this man uh that was described by his family and
acquaintances as a sometimes homeless drug addict now Bob beat the man because according to Bob he wanted the man to
get off of the property and according to the incident report Bob told the police I just
figured I'd take care of this myself yeah on August dick dick knows look he he's probably one of these guys
I'd love if there was a picture of this guy but he's probably one of these guys he all big and tough and he goes out
there and there's this homeless guy that you know is bothering him right and B bothering the customer so he has to go
out there you know somebody goes well just call the cops no I'm just going to go beat him up yeah loser well the
here's another strange incident and this could just be a coincidence could be a coincidence I don't know but on August
7th of that same year this is just two weeks before that was that case was scheduled
to go to court for Bob beating this guy with the Rusty Hammer the man the victim
that the guy that he beat he's gunned down just blocks from the Amo station on a residential street oh really yeah in a
neighboring housing project so the pending charges went away and the man's murder remains unsolved to this day mhm
now confidential informants have told the police that this man was killed because Bob either a paid for the man to
be killed or that he ordered it to be done according to St Louis police reports well he probably ordered it or
paid it because we know that his shot is so bad mhm that you know he had H somebody he probably couldn't even you
know hit a sleeping homeless man here's the thing though um by the end of 1999 it was learned that the St
Louis police department they were investigating a man named Gregory Lamar Knox mhm now Knox was a major drug
dealer who operated at in and around a housing complex where Ricky McCormick had lived M Knox was also a suspect in
several homicides including at least two murder For Hire schemes and according to
police records a confidential informant also told police that Knox was responsible for the murder of a black
man who worked at a gas station whose body was was dumped near West Alton sounds to like they're
describing Ricky McCormack without saying his name yeah yeah so St Louis Police Captain they they've also linked
uh the Bob guy and his alleged family to criminal activity and and a possible connection with this Gregory
Knox okay just a lot to uh unwrap here MH okay so first of all if he was murdered quote unquote
most likely he's working for Bob Bob's a piece of [ __ ] right Bob you's a piece of
[ __ ] probably Bob right right if he's going to if he's going to die I'm guessing
by uh gunshot mhm but we have no evidence of a bullet hole right right so then I'm guessing no
gunshot guy says that he saw him at the gas station the day before they think he
died and the day of and the day of so and the cops think that uh the body was moved
yeah you killed him at the gas station then you moved the body yeah and here's the thing Ricky would have gone
to that gas station it would have been his natural habit to probably go to that gas station multiple times a day within
the same day right but he he we have no report of him going there you know recently right
so all I'm saying is no report of him going there recently what do you mean just go down this rabbit hole with me
for a second okay so he gets back from Florida we have no report of him going to the gas station that he works at that
he possibly runs some drugs here and there for Bob I think we could we should assume that he had visited the gas
station at some point between returning from Florida and going going into the hospital maybe but he goes to the
hospital twice but at some point he gets out of the hospital the second time and
he tells his girlfriend I'm going to go there to get something to eat and maybe he was going to do that but also maybe
he was going to try to set something right I need to go talk to Bob I need to go apologize for whatever or I just need
to see if he needs any work done whatever so last place scene a a bunch of you know criminals
working there running in the place um possibly murderers guy ends up dead if he was
murdered that's that's the place you look the second one where he lived in this uh Community where it was run by a
drug dealer mhm is it possible that um Ricky ran some drugs for him that's very possible too but because the cops
believe the body was moved I'd say it's more likely Bob and in the gas station yeah and well what's what is Bob's
relationship with this Gregory Knox because you have okay here's the the word on the street is this right that
there the police are being told by people on the street that this Gregory Knox is rumored to have killed a black
man that worked at a gas station and his body was dumped near West Alton that 100% describes our victim Ricky
McCormack right okay and then there's other people stating that you know this guy was a big-time drug dealer in
Ricky's neighborhood the problem with that though is we have the gas station which is essentially in the same
neighborhood right so you have two things either did did Ricky do something to piss somebody off enough to want to
kill him like his girlfriend told the police you know look at Bob MH or was he competing with this drug dealer and lost
some kind of turf war that that that Knox killed him to win some kind of turf war yeah over Bob not over Ricky well
after the police find out about all this information all the things that they're
hearing from these people on the streets they decide that you know within weeks they start conducting stakeouts of the
gas station and of several homes of the owners and the employees of this gas station now this doesn't turn into any
arrest it doesn't lead to any arrest despite their ongoing suspicions and investigation the detectives they could
never substantiate claims from the informant suggest suggesting a connection between Bob and his family
and Knox to prove that one or either you know that one or both of them were responsible for Ricky McCormack's
death but both of these men Bob and Knox they both they still ended up going to prison Knox was arrested in July of 2000
he plad guilty to charges of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and carrying a firearm during a drug
trafficking crime a March 2001 report to Congress noted Knox was a suspect in at least
four homicides that occurred in 1998 and 1999 in the St Louis area he was also the number one supplier of Narcotics to
lale park Holmes area in South St Louis on October 13 2000 your boy Bob uh he was not my boy his dick NOS he was now
managing another store at the time this is called Charlie's Food Market in Madison Illinois where he got into an
argument with a customer different versions of this event uh would be later presented in court but ultimately a jury
convicted Bob of first-degree murder after he shot the man in the face with a 9mm Glock outside of the
store yeah this guy's a real piece of work in September of 2002 a judge sentenced Bob to 38 years in prison for
the killing however later Bob when he's going through the appeals process he caught a break in which later the courts
decided that the gun went off while Bob and the man were struggling for control of the gun mhm so on May 15th 2008 Bob
walked out of court a free man and he has married and relocated to Cleveland Ohio
son of a [ __ ] yes he's he's starting over in good old Cleveland Ohio and as for Knox I think he was don't quote me
on this but I think he was released from prison in 2013 or 14 great great so we we have some bad criminal elements that
are very close to Ricky McCormack all right so if he was murdered if Ricky was murdered then
it's one it's by one of these guys right I think so yeah I pretty simple it seems
like that to me now now something that we purposely have not mentioned yet uh this is because it was not publicly
known until 12 years after Ricky McCormick was murdered MH that when they found Ricky's body homicide detectives
they searched the 41 year-olds victim's pockets for Clues regarding his identity
and possible leads as to who could have killed this guy yeah and they found several things in his pockets now one of
them was a ticket for an emergency room visit we knew he had those two visits uh
shortly before his death but they also found two pages of notes these were written in some strange kind of code the
detectives eventually passed these coded pages on to the FBI and after examining
the documents the FBI concluded that these ciphers could tell us who killed Ricky McCormack
[Music] all right thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend we'll see you guys
tomorrow as we dive into the cipher and until then everybody be good be kind and
don't [Music] litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your Master Chef
dreams when you find a professional on Anie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel
connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well inside to outside repairs to Renovations
get started on the Angie app or visit angie.com today you can do this when you Angie
that

Ricky McCormick /// The McCormick Code /// Part 1

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.TrueCrimeGarage.com)

Episode 187 - Late June, 1999 a woman finds a body near a cornfield off a rural road just about 20 miles north of St. Louis. Investigators are quick to make an identification however the Medical Examiner is uncertain as to how the man has died. Police have their theories and suspicions. They believe the man had been killed somewhere else and dumped in a spot between the road and cornfield. The man was 41 year old Ricky McCormick, a loner. His friends called him a vampire because he would leave home after the sun went down and not return until it was coming up again. Ricky had a checkered past and he ran in some circles that likely could have led to his death. When searching the dead man’s pockets police discovered a strange clue. Two pieces of paper and on each of them long messages written in code. The FBI has released these codes to the public with their own message that these notes could tell us who killed Ricky McCormick.

Beer of the Week - Codebreaker by the Dayton Beer CompanyGarage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

Ricky McCormick's mysterious death raises questions about drug ties and possible murder in St. Louis, with coded notes found at the scene.

Key points

The Discovery of Ricky McCormick. A woman finds a body near a cornfield, leading to a complex investigation.
Ricky's Mysterious Circumstances. Ricky's body is found far from where he lived, raising questions about his death.
A Shift to Homicide Investigation. Authorities change the investigation focus to homicide after initial uncertainty.
Ricky's Last Trip to Florida. Ricky McCormick traveled to Orlando, raising suspicions about drug running.
Mysterious Hospital Visits. Ricky visited the hospital twice before his death, raising concerns.
Ricky's Body Found. Ricky's remains were discovered in a field, leading to a suspicious death investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the case of Ricky McCormick.

Introduction to the case

4:58WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.