Bombshell DB Cooper clue could finally solve case after hijacker parachuted out of jet with $200k ransom 53 years ago
A BOMBSHELL new clue could be the key to cracking the notorious DB Cooper case that has left investigators stumped for 53 years.
Dan “DB” Cooper was the alias of a criminal who hijacked Northwestern Flight 305 on November 24, 1971 over Portland.
The mysterious skyjacker held the flight for $200,000 ransom, and parachuted out of the plane with his bounty, never to be seen again.
Now, the parachute that DB Cooper used to make his getaway may have finally been found on the 53rd anniversary of the skyjacking.
The children of DB suspect Richard Floyd McCoy II have finally come forward with their claims.
Chante and Richard III ‘Rick’ McCoy contacted YouTuber Dan Gryder, inviting him into their home in 2022.
Gryder has been investigating the infamous case for years and had previously reached out to the siblings.
Speaking to Cowboy State Daily, Gryder believes that a modified military parachute that was in the Garage of the McCoy home could be the real deal.
Gryder said: “That rig is literally one in a billion.”
And the two McCoy siblings agree, however they refrained from coming forward with their speculation until their mother died, as they believed she was complicit in her husband’s crime.
Many believe McCoy is the infamous hijacker after he jumped from a United Airlines flight flying over Utah in 1972, after $500,000.
Gryder also revealed that the FBI has contacted him after detailing his investigation on YouTube.
The amateur investigator claimed FBI agents met with him and Rick in 2023 to take the harness and parachute into evidence, as well as a logbook Chante found that aligned with the hijacking case.
Following the handover, an FBI agent called Rick a month later to ask for permission to search the family property.
According to Rick, FBI agents with the help of local authorities thoroughly searched “every nook and cranny.”
He said: “It’s a good sign that they’re taking this seriously.”
The FBI has yet to return the evidence, leading Gryder to believe their speculations that the parachute was used in the Cooper hijacking.
Rick has also provided DNA samples to the FBI, but the agency has yet to update the McCoy family of any developments in the case.
THE REAL DEAL
Earlier this year an independent investigator obtained the crook’s DNA.
Cooper made the daring jump with all his possessions, leaving only a black JCPenny clip-on tie behind in his seat.
The tie has long been seen as the most important clue to help finally unlock the mystery.
And Eric Ulis, who has been investigating Cooper for the last 13 years, exclusively revealed to The U.S. Sun on Monday that the criminal’s days of anonymity are now numbered.
Ulis met with Tom Kaye, a scientist who tested DB Cooper’s tie in 2009 and 2011 with a special device that captures particulates in a filter.
The initial reason for Kaye’s tests was to analyze the accessory for traces of certain metals, chemicals, and pollen.
However, the device is also capable of capturing DNA – a realization recently made by Ulis and Kaye.
Kaye’s filter – which has been hermetically sealed for the last 13 years – possesses Cooper’s DNA with “100% certainty”, the pair say.
They now plan to share the filter with a state-of-the-art lab to conduct metagenomic DNA analysis, an advanced kind of analysis that enables scientists to separate individual strands of DNA.
HUNTING COOPER
DB Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305 on November 24, 1971, during a short trip between Portland and Seattle.
Shortly after take-off, Cooper handed a note to a flight attendant sitting behind him, informing her he had a bomb in his briefcase.
In exchange for the lives of the 36 other passengers and six crew on board, the mild-mannered highjacker demanded $200,000 in stacks of $20 bills and four parachutes.
When the flight landed in Seattle, the cash and parachutes were exchanged for all of the passengers and some of the crew.
Following Cooper’s instructions, the Boeing 727 was refueled and took off for a second time – this time in the direction of Mexico City.
But around 8 pm, somewhere over southwest Washington, a light flashed up on the instrument panel in the cockpit, indicating the rear exit door had been opened.
With that, Cooper was gone, parachuting out into the stormy night sky with his ransom in tow.
Virtually all traces of Cooper vanished therein.
The only item left behind on Flight 305 by Cooper was a black, clip-on JCPenney tie with a gold pin.
The only other trace yielded of Cooper since came in 1980 when a young boy digging along the banks of the Columbia River in Tena bar unearthed $5,800 in $20 bills buried in the earth.
The serial numbers of the bills matched those issued to Cooper during the skyjacking but the discovery failed to yield any new leads.
More than 800 potential suspects were eyed by the FBI in the years after the heist, though none were deemed a compelling match.
Today, the incident remains the only unsolved skyjacking in US history.
Who is D.B Cooper?
Richard McCoy II isn't the only D.B Cooper suspect.
The Bureau officially closed its investigation into DB Cooper in 2016, rending the skyjacking of Northwest Flight 305 the only unsolved crime of its kind in US history.
More than 800 suspects were considered in the years that followed but none were deemed to be a compelling match and no arrests were ever made.
Ulis is currently investigating Vince Petersen as the prime suspect in his probe.
Petersen, a metallurgist who died in 2002, would’ve been 52 at the time of the skyjacking and shared several physical similarities with eyewitness descriptions of Cooper.
One of the key items of evidence that led Ulis to Petersen’s door was a series of chemicals found by Kaye on Cooper’s tie that were consistent with rare, specialty metals from the aerospace sector.