New info from DNA rules out D.B. Cooper suspect

[Pcdunn]

Last night I watched "History's Greatest Mysteries: Final Search for D.B. Cooper" which examines the newest information on the "closed" FBI investigation of the 1971 hijacking of an airplane by an unidentified man known as "D.B." or "Dan Cooper."

It included searchers looking for any evidence of the briefcase or parachutes in the Washington wilderness, and a woman FBI agent reinterviewing a "person of interest" in the case, Sheridan Peterson. He had for many years been a suspect, because he had been an Army Ranger and was trained in parachuting, resembled the composite sketch of Cooper from eyewitnesses, and had worked at Boeing Aircraft.

With the march of technology, DNA was recovered from the skinny black clip-on tie Cooper had left behind on the plane, the only evidence he did so.

Peterson's first wife supplied investigators with a DNA sample from one of his daughters. The lab results stated they got a male profile, but the Peterson daughter's comparsion profile did NOT match.

So Sheridan Peterson can be ruled out as Cooper.

[Pcdunn]

Actually, the daughter's profile would not have "matched"; I meant to say it did not indicate a relationship.

I recommend this program to people interested in watching how people can be evasive. Peterson obviously enjoyed the attention lavished on him as a suspect, while saying the "proper" things about Cooper being a thief and a horrible person.

A couple of other details suggest he was deceitful, but I won't spoil them.

[barnflatwyngarde]

Actually, the daughter's profile would not have "matched"; I meant to say it did not indicate a relationship.

I recommend this program to people interested in watching how people can be evasive. Peterson obviously enjoyed the attention lavished on him as a suspect, while saying the "proper" things about Cooper being a thief and a horrible person.

A couple of other details suggest he was deceitful, but I won't spoil them.

Yeah pc, I saw this documentary a few months ago.

Peterson was clearly relishing the attention the Cooper case was bringing him.

I suspect that he was just a boring little man who relished his 15 minutes of fame.

[Pcdunn]

Agreed. Did you notice his hesitation when she asked him about the second wife being dead in '71? He had to remember that was the story he had spun.

Interesting, given his first wife told the other interviewer that as of 2007 the second wife was still living in the Phillipines.

I did feel a little sorry for the female FBI agent, though. She had bought Peterson's story.

I had seen another special on the Cooper case earlier, and several experts were looking at pics of the suspects. Someone asked about Peterson, and an FBI man was quite dismissive of him, without saying why.

Guess hIs 15 minutes of fame is over at last!

[Damaso Marte]

Well I suppose if they have DB Cooper's DNA, it's only a matter of time before the case is solved due to one of DB Cooper's relatives being identified.

[Pcdunn]

Just watched a new (2023) tv doc on D.B. Cooper which offers a timeline view of the case and some information on more recent searches and recreation jumps.

On series National Geographic Investigates, episode title "The Mystery of the Disappearing Hijacker."

Also alternate theories as to whether Cooper's bag of money fell into the Lewis River, with or without Cooper himself.

[Lewis C]

I'm new to this case, so I don't know much about it yet, but I do have a question. There are several reasons to doubt that Cooper survived the jump from the plane: the weather at the time, the way he was dressed, lack of proper skydiving equipment, the terrain he jumped into, no evidence of any of the ransom money being spent. However, when I look at the people suspected of being Cooper, every one of them was alive after 1971. Why are none of the suspects people that aren't known to have lived beyond 1971 if it's doubtful that he survived the jump?

[Herlock Sholmes]

I'm new to this case, so I don't know much about it yet, but I do have a question. There are several reasons to doubt that Cooper survived the jump from the plane: the weather at the time, the way he was dressed, lack of proper skydiving equipment, the terrain he jumped into, no evidence of any of the ransom money being spent. However, when I look at the people suspected of being Cooper, every one of them was alive after 1971. Why are none of the suspects people that aren't known to have lived beyond 1971 if it's doubtful that he survived the jump?

It’s not generally accepted that he wouldn’t have survived Lewis. I know very little about the case (I’ve seen the Netflix doc and read the book Skyjack a few years ago) so I’m not coming from a position of real knowledge here but I just think it’s a case of some people think that he wouldn’t have survived. Yours is a very fair point though. I don’t know if anyone has looked at anyone who ‘disappeared’ at the right time? It would be an interesting if someone found a suspect who left his house on the day of the hijacking and was never seen again.

The Netflix doc is worth a watch btw Lewis but it does focus on one guys determination that he’s found the right guy. (I saw another more general documentary a few years ago but I can’t recall what it was called) The guy has a group of investigators working for him and I believe that they are the same group who recently claimed to have ‘solved’ the Zodiac case (although none of the Zodiac equivalence of ‘ripperologists’ appear to agree.)

[Lewis C]

It’s not generally accepted that he wouldn’t have survived Lewis. I know very little about the case (I’ve seen the Netflix doc and read the book Skyjack a few years ago) so I’m not coming from a position of real knowledge here but I just think it’s a case of some people think that he wouldn’t have survived. Yours is a very fair point though. I don’t know if anyone has looked at anyone who ‘disappeared’ at the right time? It would be an interesting if someone found a suspect who left his house on the day of the hijacking and was never seen again.

The Netflix doc is worth a watch btw Lewis but it does focus on one guys determination that he’s found the right guy. (I saw another more general documentary a few years ago but I can’t recall what it was called) The guy has a group of investigators working for him and I believe that they are the same group who recently claimed to have ‘solved’ the Zodiac case (although none of the Zodiac equivalence of ‘ripperologists’ appear to agree.)

Thanks, Herlock. I've looked into the case a little more since my last post, and now I think it would be fair to say that the initial assessment by experts was that he was unlikely to have survived the jump, but in the years since then, that assessment has changed. I think now it's more like, maybe he survived, and maybe he didn't. I agree that it would be an interesting line of inquiry to try to find someone that could possibly be Cooper who disappeared shortly before the flight.

This is probably rather unusual these days, but I've never watched anything on Netflix; most of my video watching is on Youtube. The Lemmino video was my introduction to the case, and I watched the Megaprojects (Simon Whistler), and Infographics videos last night.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’ve only just got Netflix so when I do watch tv (which isn’t that often) it’s Netflix docs at the moment. I’m currently watching a long one on the Steven Avery case.