Seattle Special Agent Larry Carr, who took over the Cooper case two years ago, believes it's possible the hijacker took his name from the comic book (the enduring "D.B." was actually the result of a media mistake). That's important because the books were never translated into English, which means the hijacker likely spent time overseas. This fits with Carr's theory that Cooper had been in the Air Force.

 Agent Carr's Theory

Larry Carr thinks it's highly unlikely that Cooper survived the jump. "But he came from somewhere and from someone. And that is what we want to know." Based on what he has learned so far, here is Carr's profile of Cooper:

He served in the Air Force and at some point was stationed in Europe, where he may have become interested in the Dan Cooper comic books.

He worked as a cargo loader on planes, giving him knowledge and experience in the aviation industry, which was in its infancy in 1971.

Because his job required him to throw cargo out of planes, Cooper would have worn an emergency parachute in case he fell out. This would have provided him with working knowledge of parachutes but not necessarily the functional knowledge to survive the jump he made.

He may have come from the East Coast, but taken an aviation job in Seattle when he got out of the military. It's possible he lost his job during an economic downturn in the aviation industry in 1970-71. If he was a loner with little or no family, "nobody would have missed him" after he was gone.

Carr discovered the comic book connection on D.B. Cooper Internet forums, where fascination with the case is undiminished. The forums are also where Carr found the "citizen sleuths" who volunteered to help us reinvigorate the case.

Even though our investigation has remained open, it doesn't make sense for the FBI to commit substantial resources to this nearly four-decade-old crime, Carr says. "So if the public can help, by whatever means, maybe we can shake something loose."

Enter Tom Kaye, a paleontologist who usually searches for dinosaur bones in the Wyoming desert. With a team that included a scientific illustrator and a metallurgist, and assistance from a veteran Cooper searcher and Brian Ingram--who was eight years old in 1980 when he found $5,800 of the ransom money on a sand bar along the Columbia River (the only physical evidence in the case after Cooper jumped from the plane)--Kaye recently spent time conducting soil, water, and other experiments on the Columbia and some of its tributaries.
"The FBI threw out the challenge," he said, "and we've taken the bait."

Using technology unavailable in 1971, such as satellite maps and GPS, Kaye hopes to pinpoint exactly where Ingram found the money nearly three decades ago. He plans to retrace the plane's flight plan to determine more exact coordinates for Cooper's landing zone. And using an electron microscope, he wants to figure out if pollen found on a tie Cooper left behind on the plane came from a specific region of the country.

And that stack of dollar bills on fishing line? Kaye conducted experiments to help determine if the money Ingram found floated there over time, or was buried there shortly after Cooper jumped.

"After 37 years," he said, "we're trying to use science to narrow all the possibilities."

It's yet another twist in a case that continues to fascinate the nation.