Mystery continues; FBI’s DNA test in D.B. Cooper case inconclusive

The FBI said last week it had a “credible” lead in the D.B. Cooper case, which involved the 1971 hijacking of a passenger jet and the suspect’s legendary parachute escape, but a DNA test is inconclusive.

The FBI ran a DNA test after a former Northwest woman reported her long dead uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper, was the legendary hijacker.

“It’s not a positive match, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s still not our suspect,” said FBI Agent Fred Gutt.

Marla Cooper said her uncle arrived at the family home in Oregon, bloodied and bruised, shortly after the hijacking. She said she overheard her uncles talking about having hijacked a plane.

Gutt said the DNA sample taken from the recovered tie isn’t a good one.

“It could be a used necktie, it could have been a borrowed neck tie. It just means that the sample to that matches to what was on the necktie,” he said.

Unless some substantial new evidence, like some of the $200,000 Cooper got away with or a fingerprint surfaces, the case is likely to remain unsolved.

While a true identity may be unclear, investigators do know that on Nov. 24, 1971, a man in his mid-40s and wearing dark sunglasses boarded a Boeing 727 at Portland International Airport. With a ticket under the name Dan Cooper, he took seat 18F, ordered a bourbon and water.

Then he handed a flight attendant a note: “Miss, I’ve got a bomb, come sit next to me _ you’re being hijacked.”

Cooper (a law enforcement official later erroneously referred to him as “D.B.” and the initials stuck) opened a briefcase that appeared to contain explosives and demanded $200,000 and parachutes. Officials met his demands when the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where passengers and two flight attendants were released.

The man in 18F then ordered the flight crew to take the plane back into the air, insisting that it fly at an altitude of no more than 10,000 feet on its way to Mexico through Reno, Nevada.

About 40 minutes after takeoff, a signal light in the cockpit showed that the plane’s rear stairway had been extended. When the jet landed in Reno, the stairs were down and two parachutes, the money and Cooper were gone.

Federal investigators have checked more than 1,000 leads since a hijacker dubbed “D.B. Cooper” parachuted from the plane.

Geoffery Grey, who’s spent years researching D.B. Cooper and has just released the book “Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper,” warned the Ross & Burbank Show of the Cooper curse; “As soon as you’re close to catching him, he manages to get away.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.