Trail of hijacker 'D.B. Cooper' may be warming up
He bailed out with $200,000 36 years ago -- and in southwest Washington state, he's evolved into a local hero.
ARIEL, WASH. — In this damp, largely forgotten corner of the state, where loggers and former loggers live and drink in obscurity, the talk of the town has swirled around a dirt-stained clump of fabric recently unearthed not far from here.
It turned out to be part of a nylon parachute that roughly matched the dimensions of the one used by legendary hijacker "D.B. Cooper," who leapt from a jetliner with $200,000 into folk-hero stardom 36 years ago. He is believed to have landed somewhere in this area. Neither Cooper nor his chute was found.
Until perhaps now. The FBI, which took custody of the chute, expects to have some answers this week. "Could be his, sure," says Dona Elliott, owner of the Ariel Store, an old-time saloon and hangout for the 700 residents of this community 35 miles north of the Oregon state line.
"If it is, we're going to have to have a party," says Elliott, 71. Residents celebrate D.B. Cooper every year, regardless, right here at the Ariel Store. Last year's party drew 260 people.
If this is D.B. Cooper country, the store is the unofficial capital. Inside the rustic confines is a virtual shrine to Cooper. Newspaper clippings and memorabilia tacked on the walls share space with mounted deer heads and bobcat skins.
"If it's his, then the money must be around here, too!" says Ty Alsteen, 37, who has stopped in for a beer and nachos in the middle of the day. Alsteen's comment elicits a murmur of excitement from others in the room.
The parachute could add one more piece to the puzzle whose pieces have come few and far between. FBI agent Larry Carr, in charge of the case, says the recent discovery is the first "significant lead" since he decided to "reenergize" the investigation in the fall.
This month, a couple of children playing outside their home found the fabric sticking out of the ground in a spot where their father had been grading a road. The kids and their father, over several days, dug out as much as they could, eventually cutting the fabric loose from the cords.
The kids, who had heard about the D.B. Cooper case, talked their dad into contacting authorities.
"If it weren't for the kids, the father probably would have thrown it out with the trash," Carr says.
It turned out to be a parachute canopy that generally matched the 26- to 28-foot-diameter chute believed to have been used by Cooper. He used a parachute system known in military circles as an NB6, kept by Navy pilots in case "they had to bail out of their aircraft," Carr says.
- Sky Diver Jumps to Death Mar 13, 1989
- The Legend of a Jet Age Jesse James Dec 06, 1996
- No Fear of Flying: Sky-Diving Made Easy by Modern Equipment Jun 24, 1990
