FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

[Joe Snodgrass]

On Apr 1, 10:54 am, David Bernier <david... at videotron.ca> wrote:
> haha doh wrote:
> > On Mar 31, 3:15 pm, Joe Snodgrass<joe.s... at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>
>
> >> As to which crime was being committed, I'm going with numbers running
> >> or loan sharking.  There's no reason for any crook to keep any record
> >> of any other crime, except prostitution, where phone books come in
> >> handy.
>
> >> Thievery is not an honest business, and records of what went down,
> >> where and with whom can only hurt you.  Unless of course, it's a grand
> >> list of felonies that he was using to blackmail the participants.
>
> >> But I can't see gathering that much info from blackmail.  I always
> >> thought it involved one guy blackmailing one victim.  This would imply
> >> a factory scale process, and he'd need some way to lure his prey into
> >> the trap.
>
> >> Of course, that WOULD be a good way to get murdered.
> > This is him
> >http://img851.imageshack.us/i/4d93ac54b10bcimage.jpg/
>
> True indeed! , according to a story posted on March 30 on the
> website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
> <http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/ad567e00-5b13-11e0-8ed4-0012...>
> .
>
> That web page has a link to a 1999 article on the discovery of the body:
> <http://www.stltoday.com/news/article_bcc02074-5b1a-11e0-b199-0017a4a7...> .
>
> An officer with the local Major Case Squad unit is quoted there. I quote
> from the 1999 story:
>
> << "We cannot find any motive for his death, " he said.
> "We're not absolutely sure that this is a homicide." >> .

What's the cause of death?