Investigator makes ‘tantalizing discovery’ in search for answers to mystery of DB Cooper

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A search for evidence in the disappearance of skyjacker D.B. Cooper yielded what one enthusiast is calling a “tantalizing discovery.”

Late last week, Cooper enthusiast Eric Ulis conducted a search of a trench on the outskirts of Vancouver, Washington. That was based on new information from a Seattle air traffic controller who was on the job the day Cooper vanished with $200,000 in ransom money after hijacking a flight out of Portland.

The first day of the search spanned roughly 15% of that trench, where Ulis found what he described as a “tattered white flat sheet.” He says that he was able to determine the sheet was bought from a Kmart between 1964 and 1967. Cooper disappeared in 1971.

Ulis plans to further analyze fibers on the fabric to figure out if they’re similar to fibers found on a clip-on tie belonging to Cooper.

He also points to an account from a flight attendant on Cooper’s flight who said she saw him wrap his ransom money in a “white material.”

“Given the flight attendant account of seeing Cooper use a white material to wrap the $200,000 ransom, the mystery of the paper bag, the age of the white flat sheet, and the location of its discovery, the possibilities cannot be ignored,” Ulis said in a news release. “This item is at least 56-years old and was transported to the difficult-to-reach spot, within ½ mile of the 1980 money find, somehow, for some reason, by someone.”

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