Airliner hijacker D.B. Cooper case, though closed, might resurface

Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The mysterious identity of 1970s airline hijacker D.B. Cooper may have finally been solved by the children of the prime suspect, a podcaster, and a newly discovered parachute.

Chante and Richard McCoy III, the children of Richard Floyd McCoy II, the longtime prime suspect in the notorious hijacking, approached YouTuber Dan Gryder in 2020 about the parachute and logbook they found on the family's property in 2022, Newsweek said Monday.

The connection led to Gryder doing a two-part series on his YouTube channel about D.B. Cooper and the new evidence. The parachute was strikingly similar to the one on airplanes of the early 1970s era and one Cooper took with him when he jumped out of an airplane over Washington state in 1971.

That caught the attention of the FBI, which contacted both McCoy III and Gryder to take a closer look at the parachute and logbook.

McCoy II had been the prime suspect since authorities arrested him for a similar hijacking five months after the Cooper incident. However, they could never stitch enough evidence together to make charges against McCoy stick.

The McCoy children approached Gryder, who considers himself a D.B. Cooper investigator, after the death of their mother, Karen, with their suspicions that their father was D.B. Cooper. Gryder said the FBI has the parachute and the logbook.

The FBI has not publicly commented about the case that was officially closed unresolved in 2016 and remains the only U.S. hijacking that has not been solved.