http://www.koin.com/content/news/topstories/story.aspx?content_id=c8cdd7ec-23d8-4c3d-8dfd-b3d4851101a4

AMBOY, Wash. - There could be a major break in the biggest crime mystery in Northwest history.The FBI in Seattle is beginning analysis of a long-buried parachute - the same type used by skyjacker D.B. Cooper when he jumped from an Northwest Orient Airlines 727 with a 25 pound money bag containing 200-thousand dollars ransom on Thanksgiving eve 1971.

The children of a Clark County contractor found the parachute buried in a field that their father has recently plowed for a road. The chute is white and conical shaped, dirty and deteriorated. Seattle Agent Larry Carr will clean it and search for a label, which could match the chute to a companion reserve chute left behind by Cooper in the plane.

Carr, who's now in charge of the Cooper case, says the parachute was found near the center of the original jump zone identified by searchers in November 1971, between the towns of Ariel and Amboy, Washington. In 1980, a family on a picnic found 58-hundred dollars of the loot on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. How it got there is another mystery. Some scientists believed the money bag traveled down the Washougal River, which is upstream from the beach, miles from where this parachute was recently found.

The Clark County property owner says the plow blade unearthed something. He didn't notice it at first, but later his children, playing there, saw some cloth sticking above the earth. They pulled on it, and more cloth came out. They kept pulling, until the chute's shroud lines appeared. They cut them and notified the FBI in Seattle. Part of the chute remains buried in the field and will need to be dug out with heavy equipment.

Agent Carr showed KOIN News 6 other evidence items in his possession, including Cooper's clip-on tie and clasp, from which FBI forensics experts were able to extract the hijacker's DNA. The agency is releasing this information to the public, hoping it will produce more information about the hijacking case.

3/24/2008

I find this latest find very interesting. Is it just me or if anyone else surprised that they could get dna from someone's clip-on tie? :confused: I am glad they do have his dna because they can rule out or rule in all these people who have claimed to be DB Cooper. If they are deceased they could try and compare the dna to a blood relative and see if its a match.

I find this latest find very interesting. Is it just me or if anyone else surprised that they could get dna from someone's clip-on tie? :confused: I am glad they do have his dna because they can rule out or rule in all these people who have claimed to be DB Cooper. If they are deceased they could try and compare the dna to a blood relative and see if its a match.

I better flee the country now... and fast! omg:

I find this latest find very interesting. Is it just me or if anyone else surprised that they could get dna from someone's clip-on tie? :confused: I am glad they do have his dna because they can rule out or rule in all these people who have claimed to be DB Cooper. If they are deceased they could try and compare the dna to a blood relative and see if its a match.
They could do a DNA test on relatives, but as you may know, the relatives would have to give permission. I can see some relatives denying any blood/DNA test simply to avoid ever having the truth come out. Some people thrive on having a legacy like being related to some famous or infamous person. Other people on the other hand may not want to know their relative did commit a crime.

I look forward to the results of the testing they will do on the parachute. Please keep us updated.

So, they found the parachute... but no skeletal remains around?

If it is indeed a parachute of the same type used on American airplanes at the time DB Cooper had hijacked the plane, and that no remains was found in the vicinity, that should be a rather conclusive indication that Cooper survived his jump.

So, they found the parachute... but no skeletal remains around?

If it is indeed a parachute of the same type used on American airplanes at the time DB Cooper had hijacked the plane, and that no remains was found in the vicinity, that should be a rather conclusive indication that Cooper survived his jump.

Not necessarily.

Although I'm inclined to agree with you, the body could have been dragged off by wild animals, or maybe he survived for a short time but succombed to the elements a short distance away. It certainly is a great clue, but the absense of evidence is not evidence of absense.

Yeah, of course. :lol:

Yet, if the shock of the fall wasn't sufficient to kill him, and I doubt it wouldn't, he couldn't have gone very far. Death by freefall or by parachute-linked problems are usually instantaneous. So if he died later after having landed, it wasn't due to his fall.

My take is that he died of exposure somewhere else in vicinity.

I'm curious, though. Was the parachute found near the spot in which money bills linked to the ransom years ago?

Yeah, of course. :lol:

Yet, if the shock of the fall wasn't sufficient to kill him, and I doubt it wouldn't, he couldn't have gone very far. Death by freefall or by parachute-linked problems are usually instantaneous. So if he died later after having landed, it wasn't due to his fall.

My take is that he died of exposure somewhere else in vicinity.

I'm curious, though. Was the parachute found near the spot in which money bills linked to the ransom years ago?

in a yahoo article I was reading about this, it actually said something about how the money being found in a different location doesn't match up, and that if this is actually his parachute, it throws out all of the theories they had made before, when they originally had found the money.

Yeah, of course. :lol:

Yet, if the shock of the fall wasn't sufficient to kill him, and I doubt it wouldn't, he couldn't have gone very far. Death by freefall or by parachute-linked problems are usually instantaneous. So if he died later after having landed, it wasn't due to his fall.

My take is that he died of exposure somewhere else in vicinity.

I'm curious, though. Was the parachute found near the spot in which money bills linked to the ransom years ago?

Your points are really good. And I also agree that with no body near the chute, it really makes you wonder if he didn't make it out of there.

I recall reading a book I got at the library when I was in junior high that was said to be written by a lady who claimed she found D.B. Cooper in the woods and took him in. Together, they got him back to health and then laundered the money in Las Vegas. It was an interesting read, if nothing else.

What I remember in the book, though, was that it said he planned to land in the trees and thus help break is fall in unfamiliar remote terrain. But what this lady claimed was that he ended up landing in the open and broke his leg in the dark. If he did break his leg (especially the femur) he would probably be dead pretty quick.

I heard someone say recently, "If he did survive, he would have come out of hiding by now." Yeah, so he can be arrested and sent to jail? If he did make it, I think he would go well out of his way to not make any noise.

Like hostedbyrobertstack said, I also heard that the money was a significant distance from the chute. The only problem with the money is that (I think) it was buried. Would Cooper really have done that?

This is going to be interesting... :D

When the boy found the money, it was found scattered along a river, am I right?

Could it be that the money fell to earth in random spots while DB Cooper fell to another area? Isn't there that possibility that he let go of the money during the fall?

When the boy found the money, it was found scattered along a river, am I right?

Could it be that the money fell to earth in random spots while DB Cooper fell to another area? Isn't there that possibility that he let go of the money during the fall?


Hmm... I thought it was buried, but maybe it had fallen and just got covered. At the time I thought Cooper stashed it, but maybe not? :confused:

Hmm... I thought it was buried, but maybe it had fallen and just got covered. At the time I thought Cooper stashed it, but maybe not? :confused:
What I recall, the money was somewhat covered. I wondered if maybe the money actually fell somewhere else, like higher in the mountains and eventually made itself down the river or creek, wherever it was found. I realize it was a long while after the hijacking, but it was also not an area that was very easy to get to, from what I recall.

When things have been uncovered/discovered, etc. we tend to hear how they were buried and over time the elements exposed it. I would think that a running river can surely push something along, cause it to be stuck within rocks, in the river bed, in the dirt, etc.

Why is the FBI even bothering to still looking for this person? Hasn't the statute of limitations expired on this case? You think it would have, after all it happened in 1971 (before I was even born), and the guy was probably in his 30's or 40's then! He'd be very old now, or most likely dead.

According to Special Agent Robbie Burroughs of the FBI office in Seattle, there is no statute of limitations in this case.

According to an article I read, the reason the statute of limitations argument does not come into play here is because in 1976 when the SoL would have expired, a "john doe" indictment was issued in the case so that law enforcement could reserve the right to bring the skyjacker to justice when he was found.

According to an article I read, the reason the statute of limitations argument does not come into play here is because in 1976 when the SoL would have expired, a "john doe" indictment was issued in the case so that law enforcement could reserve the right to bring the skyjacker to justice when he was found.
This is true. Also the fact it is a federal crime.

Hijacking is one of those crimes that the U.S. Government will never just let expire. This was, and still is, a very big deal.

Apparently its not Cooper's parachute:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080402/ap_on_re_us/cooper_parachute

Wow! That proves... absolutely nothing. :lol:



It was fun while it lasted.

April Fool's on us. :lol:

Wow! That proves... absolutely nothing. :lol:



It was fun while it lasted.

I agree it was fun for awhile thinking there would be a break in the D.B. Cooper case. He will always remain a mystery.

I have a book about mysteries that was put together by the editors of Reader's Digest. There is a section in the book pertaining to the Cooper case, and it mentions that a parachute was found. I have never been able to verify this information through other sources. If anyone can confirm this, I would be curious to know.

Hi
This is deffinantly a very good unsolved mystery.

suzanne

Did you guys already talk about this?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/01/cooper.chute.ap/

Cossey, who sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s, had provided the chutes that the FBI gave Cooper. He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute "absolutely, for sure" could not have been one of the four that he provided.

"The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon," he said. "This 1945 parachute was made of silk."


-OverMachoGrande