D.B. Cooper Money Found - February 1980 | KATU In The Archives 

I totally agree. When those money were found, that pretty much put an end to this story. Since nothing else was ever found after 1980, most likely the money was the last physical piece of evidence we'll ever get. His body has disintegrated long time ago, some bones and pieces of the parachute might still be there, buried somewhere on the river floor, but we will never find them. The only hope is DNA, but from what we know they don't have his full DNA profile, otherwise they would already identify him. Still it's strange how with all the publicity of this case he was never identified

@@JohnBrown-yx4ec Many different explanations for this, my mind goes to all the pilots and vets who wound up leaving the service and living overseas. Cooper may have been a guy like that, estranged from all family and friends, living abroad as an ex-pat at the time, but returned to the states to do the hijacking. I doubt that is the case, though. He was probably an unemployed guy without much family, if he's never supposed to call anyone or be anywhere, who would know he isn't around? Who knows. It's possible he survived, but I think it's a slim chance given the money find.

@@VanishedPNW Yes, most likely he was a lonely man with minimum ties to the society who was never reported missing. If he had a job he quit or was fired way before the jump, so nobody was looking for him on that side. Place where he lived? The landlord probably went in only after a month or more, didn't find any personal belongings and didn't bother to report it. Family? That's more interesting. He might not communicate with any relatives at the time, but later on, with all the publicity for decades, how come no one ever came forward (that includes possible ex wives and girlfriends)? I think someone in his family suspected it, but decided not to contact police, and now of course they're all gone. And of course, we both know it can't be anyone who was still alive and living a regular life after 1971. Those theories about suspects like Rackstraw or Petersen doing it just for the sport and then coming back to their everyday lives are ridiculous. As far as him being able to survive, the odds are really against it. The possibility of him surviving the jump itself AND not being injured too badly AND somehow making it out of the wilderness AND not being caught right away AND not being found later, is extremely small

@@JohnBrown-yx4ec Yes, you're 100% correct. Plus, there are hundreds of redacted suspects still in the FBI files. They may have already found em, but for whatever reason were too inundated, or simply were incorrect in assuming a lead was bogus, or some other reason which prevented a follow-up up on a lead which was potentially case-ending. There all kinds of juicy leads with no demonstrable resolution in the FOIA-released FBI 302s available online. It's basically those 302s which convinced me of his death after 15 years of idle, hobbyist investigation (they were released in 2017 and are still being released as we speak). If they would unredact the files, perhaps we could follow-up long ago abandoned leads that they didn't bother calling back on. Anyway, the last few lines of your comment are spot-on. In addition, I really think he'd have been caught if he survived, and the reason is because Cooper behaved pretty carelessly at several points in the hijacking, such as getting excited about the money after receiving it, and then letting the passengers go before his parachutes were brought aboard, then trying to hand out bundles of ransom cash while grinning ear-to-ear to the stewardesses, then, after being rejected, trying to give them each change from the drink he bought. Plus, he didn't wear a disguise. Plus, he left his drinking glass, cigarettes, tie, etcetera aboard the jet, the whole "master criminal" rhetoric is just sensationalism. He was careless. The same reason he needed to hijack and ransom a jet is the same reason he would have been likely caught. It is inherent in his actions that he clearly had issues with controlling his impulses, and likely also struggled with long-term planning. Besides, I think a certain amount of celebrity was desired by the hijacker. Not saying I think he thought he'd be famous, but I do believe he thought he'd make the news, and that he loved that idea. I think a guy like that will likely tell the wrong woman he's the hijacker some day if he survives, and she will in-turn notify the authorities. At the end of the day, the money was found embedded in the sand just 70 inches from the waters of the largest river west of the Mississippi. In what universe does anything other than he landed in the river make any sense? It's (the money find) is not that mysterious, people just make it more sensational and mysterious by virtue of the fact that they've got to invent all kinds of whacky ideas for how the money got there while still being "convinced" of his survival. For most, it seems they really want him to have survived, and they get real upset if you demonstrate the absurdity in *wanting* him to have been anything more than an asshole. My thoughts. As demonstrated in recent times, so many missing persons cases where an individual seemingly vanishes are due to water. How many stories have there been the last five years where investigators find missing persons in dried up lakebeds, creekbeds, etcetera?

@@VanishedPNW Again I completely agree with everything you said. I'm sure FBI did have the real Cooper as a suspect among others, but they could never confirm it was him because his body was never found. Hopefully one day all the files are released and we can use his DNA to see if the DNA of the ascendants of those unknown suspects match it. Totally agree with the psychological profile of Cooper you gave. I see him as one of those typical "normal", middle class people who suddenly go into a mental breakdown after losing their jobs, or going through a divorce, or both, and decide to rob a bank, or kidnap someone for ransom, or hijack a plane. Their plan is usually "perfect" - until the getaway part comes. They immediately get caught or shot by police. In this case the guy killed himself. He obviously didn't realize what he was doing when he jumped into the night storm, without even knowing how to use a parachute. Money really messed with his brains. He could land in Columbia river, but he could also land somewhere else, and his remnants were flushed down into a smaller river by floods, and then part of the money disconnected and traveled farther down into Columbia. The residue on the cash shows that the money were submerged under water a while after the jump, so that could mean he landed in the forest. I don't think he was even able to open the parachute. Maybe he was trying to open the dummy they gave him, and the time for opening the parachute was only seconds at that height. If that's the case, there is no "parachute". There is a small bag that either ended on the river floor, or "grew in" into the forest floor and got covered by plants and then disintegrated long time ago. His body was "disposed" immediately by forest bugs and then bones washed down into the river together with cash. Yes, it's very annoying to see all these stupid comments from people who don't even know the basics of this case, but are convinced he survived. These fantasies about a "real life James Bond" who got away with the money are laughable and have nothing to do with the real Cooper. Reminds me the Nazis Bormann and Muller case (I'm sure you're familiar with it), who for many decades thought to be able to escape to South America, and then it was proved that they never made it further than a mile from the Hitler's bunker. P.S. Isn't it cute how in the 70s they called taking tens of hostages and threatening to blow them off with a bomb, a "hijacking"? 😉

Huh?

Whaaaaa

Liar

Funny, so did I and a half-eaten sandwich, which indicates that he was disturbed and had to make off in a hurry. Tyres tracks indicate he was driving a semi, with the name of a parachute manufacturer upon it.

It is amazing how many people come along to give their slant upon the story, as they do other stories, and we are to be convinced by what they say. One man, one plane, a load of money, a parachute, man leaps out of plane, some of the money is said to have been buried, then the story changes to suite a cock and bull story that he died.

What is a hoax? That money looks pretty legitimate to me. It seems like he died and his body will not ever be found, it is a large forest and river he could be anywhere there.