Is this the break in the D.B. Cooper hijacking case?

The Oregonian ^ | 3/26/2008 | EDWARD WALSH

[Rio]

The enduring mystery of D.B. Cooper may have moved a step closer to a resolution of the 36-year-old aircraft hijacking case.

The FBI Seattle field office has recovered a parachute canopy that children discovered in a heavily wooded area near Amboy in southwest Washington. Larry Carr, the special agent in charge of the case, said Tuesday that the location is in the center of an area that has been identified as the most probable landing zone of Cooper, the name given to the unidentified man who hijacked a Northwest Airlines 727 in 1971. The hijacker bailed out somewhere over southwest Washington with $200,000 in cash that he demanded from the airline.

f it is, Carr said, the FBI will return to the Amboy area and "dig and dig and dig" in a search for the parachute harness that the hijacker strapped to his body. The harness should have a serial number and other identifying markings.

If this is not the parachute used by the hijacker, Carr said, "it's one of the biggest investigative coincidences I've ever run into."

If this was the hijacker's parachute, it will solve one mystery but open another, Carr said. In 1980, a boy found $5,800 in deteriorating $20 bills near the Columbia River, part of the cash given to the hijacker.

The FBI's theory since then has been that the cash reached that point by natural means through the watershed that flows into the Columbia. But Carr said there is no way the cash could have reached the Columbia by natural means from the place where the parachute canopy was found.

[Resolute Conservative]

I always felt he pulled it off.

[The Lumster]

Almost pulled it off.

My theory is this: He made the jump OK but lost the money on the way down. That’s why the money has never been found except for the decaying stack of bills found near a river a few years ago.

I also believe the best suspect was Richard McCoy who was caught and convicted of an identical hijacking only a few months after this one. This time the money was found in McCoys house.

McCoy later excaped from prison, went on a crime spree and was eventually killed in a shootout with police all the while claiming his innocence in the Cooper case.

[Alex Murphy]

Adam West is worried right now.

[Beckwith]

What crap!

Just an excuse for the FBI to spend a couple of million digging up the woods in Washington.

[af_vet_rr]

Given the amount of money wasted on other things, I find this a more interesting use of our money - I am certainly curious as to if he pulled it off or not.

[tricky_k_1972]

The serial number 30755 and the date Feb. 21, 1946 are stamped on a parachute found in North Clark County, Wash. as seen in Seattle on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. The FBI is working to find out if it is linked to the infamous D.B. Cooper case from 1971. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey)

Well If anybody is familiar with the type of parachute that D.B. used "Navy Backpack 6 with a 26-foot canopy", maybe you can tell us if this looks like one.

[Rio]

1946 to 1971. That would be a pretty old parachute. Maybe that’s why he didn’t make it.

[King of Florida]

My theory is this: He made the jump OK but lost the money on the way down. That’s why the money has never been found except for the decaying stack of bills found near a river a few years ago.

According to the AP report, the FBI says that if this is his parachute, there is no way that money could have naturally reached the location where it was discovered.