(TNS) — The decades-long D.B. Cooper mystery has a Pennsylvania connection that might have finally led to the culprit after more than 52 years, according to an amateur investigator.
Eric Ulis recently told the Fox news station in Seattle that he has pinpointed links between three microscopic particles found on Cooper’s clip-on tie and a Pittsburgh-area steel plant, Popular Mechanics reported.
Ulis said the particles were unique in that they contained titanium and stainless steel. The FBI has closed the case and stopped searching for Cooper, but the case has taken on mythic proportions and spurred countless sleuths, conspiracies and TV programs.
The black tie, bought for $1.49 from JCPenney around Christmas in 1964, was left behind on the seat of the Seattle-bound Northwest Orient Airlines passenger plane that Cooper highjacked on Nov. 24, 1971, in Portland, Ore.
Cooper received $200,000 in ransom and allowed passengers to leave once the plane landed in Seattle. He demanded that the plane fly to Mexico City, but he disappeared after opening the plane’s rear staircase over southern Washington and parachuting out with the money.
Police have said the hijacker used the alias “Dan Cooper” to buy his ticket and the media mislabeled him D.B. Cooper.
Over 100,000 particles were found on the tie, which the FBI refuses to release, Ulis told the news station. However, he has used FBI records to trace one to now-defunct Crucible Steel, which was a Boeing subcontractor at the time.
The U.S. Sun reported that the subcontractor produced specialty metals used in airline manufacturing and employees would frequently make the trip to Boeing’s plant in Seattle.
Ulis told the Sun that he spoke with a former Crucible employee who said colleague Vincent Petersen matched the physical description of Cooper. Zeroing in on Petersen, Ulis said he learned that Petersen frequently traveled to Seattle to visit Boeing.
Petersen, a titanium research engineer, died in 2002 and Ulis said that his son has rejected the theory that his dad was Cooper.
