The long-running mystery surrounding the identity of D.B. Cooper, the notorious airline hijacker from the 1970s, could be inching closer to resolution. Recently, the children of Richard Floyd McCoy II, who has long been considered a primary suspect, revealed that a significant piece of evidence—a parachute and logbook—has been handed over to the FBI.
Chante and Richard McCoy III discovered this intriguing evidence on their family’s property in 2022 and reached out to podcaster Dan Gryder in 2020 to share their findings. Gryder, who has extensively investigated the D.B. Cooper case, produced a two-part series on YouTube detailing the new evidence, which appears to resemble the parachute used during the infamous hijacking when Cooper leapt from a plane over Washington state in 1971.
The FBI has taken notice of the potential connection, initiating contact with both McCoy III and Gryder to examine the parachute and logbook further. Richard Floyd McCoy II was previously apprehended for a similar hijacking five months post the Cooper incident, yet authorities were unable to compile enough evidence to secure a conviction against him.
Following the death of their mother, Karen, the McCoy children began to suspect that their father could indeed be D.B. Cooper. This intriguing turn of events has reignited public interest in the case, which the FBI closed as unresolved in 2016, marking it as the only unsolved hijacking in the U.S. history.
While the FBI has yet to issue a comment on this recent development, the discovery of new evidence could potentially lead to breakthroughs in this nearly half-century-old mystery, offering hope that the truth about D.B. Cooper may finally come to light. The continuing investigation underscores the resilience of those seeking justice and clarity, even decades after the initial crime.