Crack this code and, maybe, solve murder

The FBI's code unit has not been able to crack the code found with the body of Ricky McCormick in 1999. STORY HIGHLIGHTSAuthorities trying to solve case of man found dead in MissouriTwo pages of encrypted notes were found in his pocketFBI unit specializes in cracking codes Quantico, Virginia (CNN) -- If you like spy thrillers, Sudoku and the daily crossword puzzle, you might want to try this: help the FBI crack a secret code.

It could solve a suspected murder.

Ricky McCormick's decomposing body was found in a field near St. Louis, Missouri, in 1999. It wasn't clear how the 41-year old unemployed McCormick had died, but law enforcement believed he was murdered. Their best clue: two pages of encrypted notes written by McCormick and found in his pocket.

They might tell investigators where McCormick had been, what he had been doing and who might have wanted him dead. But they couldn't break the code.

In 2001, local law enforcement turned to the FBI Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit for help. Its analysts, statisticians and mathematicians have puzzled over the two pages of numbers and letters intermittently for 10 years trying to figure out what they mean, but they haven't found the key.

"We're beat," says the head of the unit, Dan Olson.

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