Good Samaritan sought in Woodinville murder case

King County detectives want to know who mailed a murder victim’s personal effects to family members.

Family members received an envelope in the mail last week with Earl Cossey’s driver’s license, credit cards, and casino gaming cards.

“A Good Samaritan likely found the items, saw the address on the driver’s license, and mailed it to Cossey’s house,” said sheriff’s office spokesperson Cindi West. “The family had his mail forwarded to a relative’s house shortly after his death.”

If you have any information related to the case or the items mailed, you’re asked to call the King County Sheriff’s Office at 206-296-3311.

Family members found Cossey, 71, dead April 26 after they were unable to reach him for several days. He was last seen alive four days earlier.

Cossey is a former skydiving instructor who played a bit part in one of the Northwest’s most enduring mysteries.

On Nov. 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper, later mistakenly identified as D.B. Cooper, hijacked a Northwest Orient plane from Portland, Ore., to Seattle. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes, and he asked to be flown to Mexico.

Somewhere near the Oregon line, Cooper leapt out of the plane. Despite intensive searches, no sign of Cooper ever emerged. Investigators doubt he survived and have never been able to determine his true identity. A boy digging on a Columbia River beach in 1980 found three bundles of weathered $20 bills – Cooper’s cash, according to the serial numbers.

The parachutes provided to the skyjacker came from an Issaquah skydive center which had recently purchased them from Cossey. The one Cooper apparently used was a military-issue NB6, nylon, 28-foot with a conical canopy.

West has said investigators have found no link between the murder and the Cooper case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.