Featured Image Credit: FBI/Probable Cause: Dan Gryder/Youtube
Topics: News, US News, True crime
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: News, US News, True crime
In 2016, the FBI insisted that the investigation into DB Cooper had been closed, but back in 2023, they reportedly took ‘evidence’ from siblings who claimed their father was the mysterious hijacker.
DB Cooper’s highjacking of a plane has gathered worldwide fame over the years, as people have remained curious about the real identity of the man.
For those who don’t know, a man who bought a plane ticket under the presumable fake name Dan Cooper would go on to threaten to blow up the aircraft unless his demands were met.
Cooper bought a Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 ticket on 24 November, 1971 and demanded $200,000 in $20 bills - which is worth around $1.54 million in 2024.
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As well as this, he demanded four parachutes.
It's become a story of legend, and the focus of countless TV shows and true crime documentaries.
Most notably, the man is thought to have succeeded in his heist. Upon landing in Seattle, the 36 passengers were released in exchange for the money, and Cooper demanded the plane take off again, along with several crew members, headed to Mexico City.
He then proceeded to parachute out of the plane with the ransom money at night somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada. The man known as 'DB Cooper' has not been seen by authorities since.
Well, reportedly, North Carolina siblings have now come out and insisted that their late father was the elusive highjacker.
According to a New York post report, Chanté and Rick McCoy III claim their father, Richard McCoy Jr, was the fugitive, and they have known this for years.
They said they waited until their mother’s death in 2020 to come forward and went as far as to say it was taboo topic in the family out of fears their mother could be implicated.
They believed she could get in trouble, because the parachute that allegedly belonged to Cooper was found in her storage stash outside the house.
They met with aviation YouTuber Dan Gryder, who said that ‘the rig is literally one in a billion’ and was the one used by Cooper.
Gryder added that the parachute at the home matched the modified parachute prepared by veteran skydiver Earl Cossey for police to give to Cooper.
The FBI also allegedly reached out to the siblings in 2023 to see the evidence themselves, and they searched their mother’s home for additional clues while also getting a DNA sample from Rick.
FBI agents told him that the next step would be to exhume his father’s body. However, the government agency is yet to make that demand, stating in 2016 that they had closed the case due to a lack of leads.