The medical examiner could not determine a definitive cause of death because summer heat and humidity had accelerated the body's decomposition. Investigators treated the case as a homicide from the beginning, though there were no obvious signs of trauma left intact.
McCormick was found in a cornfield 15 to 20 miles from where he lived and worked. Because he did not own a car, have a driver's license, or have any ties to the area, investigators believe he could not have gotten there on his own.
The notes consisted of roughly 30 lines of uppercase letters and numbers organized in parentheses. While they initially looked like nonsense, FBI analysts determined they contained structured patterns and rules, though they remain uncracked.
McCormick was functionally illiterate, having dropped out of high school and struggled to spell basic words. However, relatives noted that since childhood, he had a habit of filling notebooks with his own private shorthand and invented symbols.
Baha Hamdallah co-operated the Amoco gas station where McCormick worked the graveyard shift. Detectives scrutinized him due to his volatile history, which included a 1997 arrest for shooting at a man in another vehicle.