A Review of the Case

Shortly after camp began, we found taped to the front door a ransom note.

"No Cops

$8000 by Friday or O dyes.  Give to old woman ["woman" pasted over "girl"]

then ["teen" with an "h" pasted over "e"] wait at Borden park.  

No cops"

During our discussion of this Lisa gets a call on her phone from Sophie, Olivia's friend, saying that Olivia is not on the train.  Sophie begins her message with, "Shhh. Okay, um yeah . . ."

When Maggie, Olivia's sister arrives home from work and we tell her about the note, she says she needs $8000 for college.

Olivia doesn't come home that night.  Next day, clothes are found on her bed.  [It turns out Maggie put them there.  They are clothes she wants to give to Olivia.]

While Lisa is teaching us about ciphers, Maggie comes in and tells us another way to learn how to code messages.

Next day we find an orange tool box on the front porch and a partial footprint in the dirt.  The partial footprint is large, like that of a man or a tall woman.  The tool box is locked with a padlock.  Underneath the box we find a folded piece of paper with a code on it.

We receive in the printer directions on how to open a padlock, with cipher in Dancing Men code, which we have been studying.

Fortunately we are practicing deciphering codes and picking padlocks.

We deciphered the code first, and it said: "Put this on the front porch."  

We learn how to open padlocks, and find inside the tool box a burned book entitled "Teach Yourself French."  There are gray hairs inside it, but rather obviously put there.

At tea time Jamie, a friend of Maggie's, comes for tea and we find one of Olivia's shoes in her bag.  She will not explain why it is in her bag and leaves after getting upset.

Wednesday we find a bloody knife and another ransom note in Olivia's room.  The blood turns out to be fake, but we do get a couple fingerprints.  The note says, "No cops.  Keep your head and pay or we cut toe and fingers."   Later we find a jar of fake blood in the fridge and a recipe for fake blood and a list of ingredients on the cabinet.

Later that day we find a note in the mullions of the side door.  We decipher the note to read: "only eight k more to go. Here we come Fr"  

When Maggie comes home we get her to give us a finger print.  It is inconclusive that Maggie's finger print matches the one on the bloody knife.

In the mail came a letter for Olivia, that reads: "I find I have to communicate to you formally now about your requesting money for Paris.  Or else I feel I will do something drastic.  The answer is NO.  M."

Thursday, while working in the basement, we hear the printer printing: it is a picture of Olivia on the train.  Later that day we find another note by the side door.  It is only in numbers.  We decipher it as reading: "Last Tuesday"

In the mail comes a note from Rutgers, informing Maggie of her college bill.