…and he died in 1999.
Last week, news that the FBI had made some progress on the decades-old DB Cooper hijacking case – in which a never-identified man made off with the then-princely sum of $200,000, parachuting into the Washington State wilderness leaving nary a trace- heated up forums and news aggregation sites. But the agency gave frustratingly little detail about any breaks in the case, and declined to even hint at who they believe ever-elusive DB Cooper could be.
But then a woman in Oklahoma City came forward and said she has been working with the FBI recently, and that childhood memories of cryptic conversations between her uncles led her to believe the man known as DB Cooper was her uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper. Marla Cooper told ABC News:
“My two uncles, who I only saw at holiday time, were planning something very mischievous,…I was watching them using some very expensive walkie-talkies that they had purchased. They left to supposedly go turkey hunting, and Thanksgiving morning I was waiting for them to return.”
Then Northwest Orient Flight 305 was hijacked, with LD Cooper shortly reappearing, and- recalls Maria- looking battle weary:
“My uncle L.D. was wearing a white T-shirt and he was bloody and bruised and a mess, and I was horrified. I began to cry. My other uncle, who was with L.D., said Marla just shut up and go get your dad,” she said.
As for the fate of the loot, Cooper suggests that it didn’t survive the leap:
“I heard my uncle say we did it, our money problems are over, we hijacked an airplane,” she said.
Cooper says that her two uncles wanted to return to search for the cash, apparently because it was lost in the jump. But her father refused, she told ABC News.
If this turns out to be the end of the DB Cooper saga, will you be disappointed? Is this a satisfying conclusion to the real-life mystery?
