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 was n'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 could n'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 have n't found the key . `` We 're beat , '' says the head of the unit , Dan Olson . On March 29 , the FBI asked the public for ideas . In just a week and half more than 2,300 tips have flooded in . They are still being processed , but so far none of the theories or leads has solved the mystery . Go to FBI site , see if you can help crack code . Could the notes be gibberish ? Olson says they definitely are not . `` We have patterns . We have very consistent character repeating sequences . There are almost rules to whatever language this is . This is not random . This is not just letters put down . '' McCormick had dabbled with ciphers since he was a child and although he was n't well educated , Olson says , his code is unlike anything he has ever seen -- unique and idiosyncratic . He hopes a member of the public might connect it with a hobby , a game or a line of work . The FBI unit often cracks codes in just a couple of hours . It has deciphered secret communications about murder , drug transactions , illegal gambling and human trafficking . One of the toughest cases involved a note composed by Brian Patrick Regan , a former Air Force master sergeant convicted of attempted espionage in 2003 . The note identified seven locations in a Maryland 's Patapsco Valley State Park where Regan allegedly dropped documents stolen from the National Reconnaissance Office . The office builds and operates satellites for government agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency . While in prison , Regan worked with the FBI to decipher the complex code , which he had created but , ironically , had forgotten . Eventually , they were able to associate a sequence of code with the letter `` F. '' The key that unlocked it was the name Frank , handwritten under a gag photograph of a masked classmate in Regan 's middle school yearbook . Olson says computers are n't much use in his line of work . `` These are codes that are made by humans and they 're best broken by humans , '' he says . A simple whiteboard , however , is an important tool . Olson and his team use one to dissect a segment of code , looking for patterns and logic in what appears to be a jumble of symbols . It is collaborative work where creative ideas and unusual insights are encouraged and exchanged . Olson says a good crpytanalyst needs tenacity and high self-esteem . He or she can not be easily discouraged , Olson says , but sometimes needs to recognize that there is a time to step away . Do they ever quit working on a code altogether ? It does n't look that way . In the FBI office is a board holding copies of the FBI 's `` Top 10 '' uncracked coded communications . Over the years , some have been solved and removed . Right now , in the top slot , is a note from the `` Zodiac Killer , '' who murdered five people in California 's Bay Area in 1968 and 1969 . The notes found in Ricky McCormick 's pocket are posted in position No . 3 . Olson is hopeful that sometime soon , with the public 's help , they too will come down from the board and questions about McCormick 's death will finally be answered . Meserve is CNN homeland security correspondent and Cratty is a senior producer .
Authorities trying to solve case of man found dead in Missouri . Two pages of encrypted notes were found in his pocket . FBI unit specializes in cracking codes .