+-SEATTLE — Four decades after a skyjacker dubbed D.B. Cooper bailed out of a U.S. jetliner in mid-air and vanished with $200,000 in cash, federal agents are pursuing new clues pointing to a suspect they believe is long dead, an FBI spokesman said on Tuesday.


..The latest lead in the case originated with a source in law enforcement, who directed agents to a person who was close to the suspect and obtained objects now being analyzed to see if they bear fingerprints matching those left by the hijacker on the plane, said Frederick Gutt, FBI special agent in Seattle.

Gutt declined to reveal the law enforcement source, the person the FBI was led to, or the deceased individual whose fingerprints are being examined.

But he said the suspect in question is someone who was not previously known to investigators.

The case of D.B. Cooper, a moniker given to the skyjacker by the media after he disappeared, has endured as one of America's great unsolved mysteries.

It began when a man dressed in a black suit and tie hijacked a Seattle-bound commercial flight on Thanksgiving eve 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom from the airline, strapped 21 pounds of $20 bills to his body and jumped out of the jetliner after it took off again, presumably wearing a parachute.

He was never seen again, and was believed by some to have likely perished when he bailed out of the aircraft.

The FBI official said that authorities have ruled out Kenny Christiansen, a former Northwest Airlines employee once suspected in the case.

"Yes, there is a lead in this matter that's being pursued," Gutt told Reuters. "It's someone who surfaced who hasn't surfaced before. It came from someone who's close to someone who is deceased. So far, we haven't been able to dismiss it."

The FBI office in Seattle said that the potential suspect died 10 years ago, NBC affiliate KING5 TV said. Gutt said the deceased had ties to the Pacific Northwest.

The informant gave the FBI an item to be examined for fingerprints that could then be compared to partial prints left on a magazine on the plane and parts of the airliner itself, The Seattle Times reported.

The seattlepi.com quoted Gutt as saying that initial item turned out to be "not good for prints."

But Gutt told Reuters that "we're seeking to compare prints and finding stuff that can add more solid evidence. We have to wait. We're still recovering some additional items. It's a process, and it's not a priority matter."

He also said the new lead, first reported over the weekend by The Telegraph newspaper in London, actually originated over a year ago.

The Seattle Times, using material from its archives, reported that the hijacker had identified himself as Dan Cooper when he boarded a flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971. D.B. Cooper was a man from Portland who was quickly cleared, but whose name stuck in media reports.

Shortly after the plane took off, the skyjacker handed a note to a flight attendant that said: "I HAVE A BOMB IN MY BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF NECESSARY. I WANT YOU TO SIT NEXT TO ME. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED."

The flight attendant put it in her pocket without reading it, but Cooper said: "Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb" and opened his briefcase to show several red cylinders and electrical wires.

The plane landed, the ransom was paid, and passengers were exchanged for parachutes. It then took off with Cooper and the flight crew on board, heading toward Mexico.

About half an hour into the flight, a cockpit warning light indicated that the rear stairway had been extended.

"Is everything OK back there?" the pilot asked. Cooper yelled back, "No," then jumped, according to the Times.

The air temperature was minus 7 degrees, with strong winds and freezing rain and some people believed he must have been killed.

Authorities thought he would have landed near Ariel, Cowlitz County, in Washington state, but the weather was so bad that the manhunt was delayed for days.

It sure makes a better story if he did survive and manage to live off his randsom. I'm torn between them actually solving the mystery or having "D. B". live on unsolved.

My theory is he's alive and finally going to let himself be discovered so he can go to jail for healthcare and stuff since he probably blew the money and is now old and having health issues.

Tadpole wrote:My theory is he's alive and finally going to let himself be discovered so he can go to jail for healthcare and stuff since he probably blew the money and is now old and having health issues.

Zane needs a like button.

He'll be surfacing and becoming a major celebrity, book deal, movie deal, Barbara Walters, followed everywhere by paparazzi, etc. etc. He'll come back and donate the $200,000 to a children/tsunami/quake/flood/AIDS/human right charity and become the darling of the party circuit.

There will be a huge build-up, months of publicity, and a live Geraldo Rivera TV event showing him walking out of the forest, all grizzled, into the blinding lights and cameras, with the obligatory Sheriff Deputy pushing his head down into the car. Then, Act 2, the lawyer press conference... starring Ms. Gloria Allred! "Ladies and gentlemen of the press, Mr. Cooper is the victim here, and the facts surrounding his suffering emotional abuse at the hands of the flight attendant will support a complete dismissal of the case... pardon me I have his agent on the phone... his movie agent, not his FBI agent... that's all for now" and the rapid fire questions as she retreats from the mike with a smile.

If the statute of limitations has run out on the hijacking, and since nobody was injured in the incident, this is not so ridiculous of a possibility in today's media circus world if he is actually still alive.

If they can let that murdering trailer trash scumbag POS party animal mom off, DB Cooper looks like Mother Teresa.

Tadpole wrote:My theory is he's alive and finally going to let himself be discovered so he can go to jail for healthcare and stuff since he probably blew the money and is now old and having health issues.

All of the serial numbers were recorded & non of it has ever showed up in circulation. The only money recovered was around $6000, found in 3 packs of $20's, half exposed in a sandy river bank. I think he survived the jump but lost the money. Just a guess...

L-19 wrote:

Tadpole wrote:My theory is he's alive and finally going to let himself be discovered so he can go to jail for healthcare and stuff since he probably blew the money and is now old and having health issues.

All of the serial numbers were recorded & non of it has ever showed up in circulation. The only money recovered was around $6000, found in 3 packs of $20's, half exposed in a sandy river bank. I think he survived the jump but lost the money. Just a guess...

Ya? maybe he had to buy off the 42 brown bear beach party or be dinner $6000 in fish or whale would do it Then when the bears figured out they couldn't spend it they ditched the money

Lol bears don't take AmEx !

The story I saw said they think all the cash had to be together until pretty close to that spot. If it had broken up earlier the odds of 3 bundles in the same spot on the shore would be almost impossible. He should have asked for $100's would have been 1/5 the weight. I've never jumped but I'd say 20+ pounds is a lot to hold on to when the canopy opens!

I've live up there and see their freezing rain and how fast it can put 1/4 inch of ice down. If he jumped in that stuff his parachute probably turned into a frozen umbrella. I think he's dead, otherwise why would you do that and then never spend the money? I saw a show and the bills they found could have come down several streams making is impossible to tell where the money could have washed down from.

Maybe to solve the mystery, they (FBI) need to figure out who 'went missing' on that date. Seems the ransom money not being spent is a pretty big 'clue'......
He might have been 'on' the top of a low tree for a couple seasons doing his best 'Christmas Tree Angel' imitation. Those trees are quite numerous/thick in that part of the woods. He wasn't (apparently) an experienced parachutist, and weather was foul, and some of those ridges/mtns. in the area are high enough for a fast rate of decent even if he got good silk.......

My life may be boring compared to DB's, but mine continues (for now anyway.....)....
lc