The Missing Puzzle Piece

🧩 Do you ever get the feeling that everyone is missing something really big in the D. B. Cooper case? Some unconsidered factor or clue that has been missed, and which has prevented the mystery from being solved in over 50 years?

Clues, clockwise, from top left: 👔Fragments of the pink cut-up front reserve parachute, beside the black clip-on JCPenney tie that were left behind on the plane hijacked by D. B. Cooper; ✈️the aft ventral stairs of the Boeing 727 open in flight, photographed during a test performed by Northwest Airlines together with the Air Force and the FBI, after the skyjacking; 🪂a military reserve NB [Navy Backpack] parachute rig of the type D. B. Cooper may have used for his jump; ✏️two different composite sketches based on eyewitness testimony, and disseminated by the FBI.

👤 Some researchers on the Cooper case discuss the so-called "missing missing" - meaning potential suspects who could be considered missing persons in 1971, but who never got reported as missing. If such an invisibly missing person - AWOL perhaps from his work and family yet also absent from the official missing persons registers - were to commit a hijacking heist, then vanish via death or escape... he might never have popped up as a suspect to the FBI.

👻 I believe this "missing missing" theory is quite plausible. If the real Cooper was someone never considered as a suspect by law enforcement due to being effectively off the grid, that could help explain why the hijacker was never identified or caught. In 1971, in the pre-cellphone and pre-social media age, when central records were not kept electronically, it was much more possible for a man to simply step away from his normal life, and quietly vanish, or take on a new identity.  

🔎 The words "missing missing," and the feeling of missing some important piece or facet of the case, have been echoing around in my head, though, and taken on a new meaning. I was recently discussing the mystery with expert D. B. Cooper investigator Pat Boland, and we spoke of how much evidence is missing in this case. The thought then struck me:

🤯 What if the missing piece is... how much is missing! 

😎 Obviously, this case revolves around the missing hijacker, his missing identity, and the missing loot money. And yet so much more is missing! Things that should not all be missing.

🚬 There's the missing physical evidence, such as most famously the missing hair slide, and the missing cigarette butts. It seems that the FBI lost the microscope slide on which was mounted a hair from the headrest towel of the plane seat where D. B. Cooper sat. There was also mention, though, of a second hair recovered from Cooper's seat, thought to be a hair from the arm or hand. The paper trail of the second hair also leads nowhere, and it's unknown whether it was mounted together with the head hair, or lost or destroyed. As for the stubs of the seven cigarettes smoked by Cooper on the plane during the hijacking, these were apparently disposed of by the FBI, after their crime lab analysis revealed that the cigarette brand was Raleigh and the butts had no helpful fingerprints. Both of these pieces of evidence could have furnished vital DNA if they had been properly stored. Moreover, lawyers have indicated that getting rid of the Raleigh cigarette ends could have been disastrous to the prosecution if the case had ever come to court with a suspect who was a Raleigh smoker.

💺 The hair slide and cigarettes are not the only missing forensic evidence from the scene of crime. The airplane headrest towel from which the hairs were recovered, and the lint sample also collected from Cooper's plane seat also appear to have disappeared. There has been no further mention seen of them since the reports that they were collected, and sent for examination by the FBI crime lab after the hijacking. These items could also yield valuable clues under modern examination, especially the towel, which might have DNA. It seems likely now though that the towel and the lint fibres sample may have met the same fate as the hair samples and cigarette butts.

🥃 Other missing crime scene evidence includes the plastic glass from which Cooper drank (or was that spilled?) his bourbon cocktail; and the 20 dollar bill with which he paid for his drink. Apparently law enforcement never collected these. They seem to have decided it would be too difficult to separate Cooper's glass from the others in the waste, and likewise too difficult to determine which bill in the stewardesses' drinks kitty had been handled by Cooper. This despite taking the fingerprints of all the other passengers and crew, to try to determine which remaining prints were Cooper's. The glass could have yielded Cooper's lip prints and even saliva, if it had been recovered.

🧤 Fingerprints are another "missing" in this case, since the FBI failed to find any complete fingerprints of Cooper's. They found only partial prints that could have been his (meaning the incomplete prints were insufficient to run through catalogues of fingerprint records), along with a palm print (at a time when palm prints were not routinely collected and thus again could not be compared). This has led to theories that Cooper could have carefully wiped down the surfaces before departing, or obscured his fingertips in advance with glue, or somehow smoothed the pads of his fingers with sandpaper or acid! These missing prints theories make the hijacker sound like a professional, or a spy.

📸 Moreover, the crime scene photos are also largely still missing! Even though it's known that many photographs were taken of the interior of the plane by investigators after the skyjacking, only a handful have ever been released. Since the FBI has been releasing its D. B. Cooper records to the public under the Freedom of Information Act for the past 10 years, it's infuriating that these valuable scene of crime images have been held back, unavailable to researchers.

One of the very few available crime scene photos from inside the plane hijacked by D. B. Cooper. It shows the row of seats where the hijacker sat during the flight.

🕵‍♂️ As we catalogue all these missing items, it starts to feel as though the FBI must either have been utterly incompetent... or else for whatever reason, someone did not want the Cooper case solved. Now obviously in 1971, the forensic science of criminal investigation was in its infancy compared to now. Nobody knew that DNA forensics would be coming in the future. Also, the FBI seemed very diligent and thorough in other aspects of their investigation into D. B. Cooper's crime. Nevertheless, there has been a lot of carelessness in the evidence collection, handling and preservation decisions in the D. B. Cooper case.

🧐 To misquote Oscar Wilde: " To lose one piece of evidence may be considered a misfortune; to lose dozens looks like carelessness" ... or worse.

🗃 Additionally, there is much more missing than only the physical evidence of the case (although that is certainly the most disappointing in terms of missed opportunities for DNA). There's also a remarkable amount of missing testimony and documentation. And I'm not just talking about those vast swathes of redacted information from the FBI's copious investigative files. The redactions are a topic for another day.

🗂 Missing witness testimony has led to massive gaps in our, and the FBI's, knowledge of this case. What about the missing communications transcripts from the most crucial portion of the flight, the time when Cooper is thought to have jumped? How unlucky and inconvenient for investigators... but convenient and fortunate for Cooper! How about the missing testimony regarding the sequence of the pressure bump during the hijacked flight, which only came to light four decades later?

👔 Why are the witness reports for some passengers and crew so incomplete, as though agents thought their testimony wasn't important? Where is the chain of custody for the black necktie that Cooper is believed to have accidentally left behind on the plane? That tie was mailed around the country to several different FBI offices, handled by ungloved agents, and allegedly even worn by agents as a joke prop at office parties! The tie is now so contaminated that when the era of forensic DNA rolled around, the crime lab found partial DNA sequences from three different men on the tie. Nobody knows if any of that DNA was Cooper's, and it's effectively useless for matching with suspects. The unused parachutes that Cooper left on the plane have likewise been badly contaminated due to how they were handled over the years.

🪂 And why are we missing clear and accurate descriptions and specifications for the parachute that D. B. Cooper jumped with? Where is the parachute packing card that we have never seen an image of, and that was reportedly found on the plane after the hijacking? The records and descriptions that we have for the chute are incredibly contradictory and confused. Since the FBI had access to the rigger himself who prepared the parachutes that Cooper was given, why are the rigger's records for the parachute that Cooper apparently jumped with... missing?

✏️ We are of course also missing any accurate image of Cooper. There is no known photograph of the hijacker. Instead we have multiple unhelpful sketches, based on the testimony of willing witnesses, but looking like pictures of completely different men. These sketches have led to hundreds of disparate-looking men being suggested as suspects for supposedly "resembling the sketch." We're missing a definitive description of the hijacker too, since different witnesses reported his age, height, hair and clothing colour quite differently.

😶 Missing... missing... missing... missing..... It's all a bit much. I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories. On the other hand, I don't believe the FBI was generally this grossly incompetent, even back in the 1970s. A certain amount of missing evidence can be put down to the era of the crime, the complexity of the case, and the unfamiliar and technical aspects, such as aviation and parachutes. Clearly the FBI were not prepared for this new type of crime and criminal. It's also common for witnesses to give differing descriptions after a crime. Nevertheless, Cooper seems to have been either unbelievably lucky, or unbelievably well prepared - or both.

🤔 When you add it all up: the missing physical forensic evidence (every item left on the plane seat by Cooper missing - except that highly contaminated tie!), plus the missing documentation of testimony and critical and cogent specifications (like contemporary descriptions of the pressure bump and details of the parachute).... The case is a mess. Much more of a mess than it should be.

🕶 Was Cooper really a master outlaw? Or even, was he possibly a current or former government operative, whether secretly sanctioned or gone rogue? Earlier we considered the possibility that Cooper was one of the "missing missing." Who better than a man who operated outside of normal society as his career? A career criminal that had never been caught... or a trained covert operative...? Either type could be such a "ghost" and leave no helpful trace for investigators. A government operative in particular could have pulled this off most easily; and a cover-up would explain why there is no useful evidentiary record. Sounds like a fanciful plot for a movie or novel, but it could explain so much.

D. B. Cooper's Thanksgiving Eve hijacking took place during Nixon's presidency.

🤨 And we now know that in the previous decade the U.S. government had trained men to parachute out of Boeing 727s. This was also the era of nefarious government agency cover-ups. This D. B. Cooper skyjacking was just 9 years after the U.S. Department of Defence's Operation Northwoods proposal for a false flag operation that would include hijacking civilian aircraft! This was obviously also the era of the infamous Watergate "burglary" that involved covert operatives and led to then-President Nixon's dramatic resignation. It's hardly a conspiracy theory to suggest involvement of covert government personnel, when other similar secret activities in the 60s and 70s are now so well documented.

✈️ I'm not 100% wed to the idea that Cooper was this type of man. Still, I would not be at all surprised if it turned out that he was, given the suspicious amount of missing evidence. Some exciting and capable persons of interest are being researched currently who could fit this covert type of "missing missing" profile. I for one am staying tuned and ready for any extra missing pieces of this puzzle to show up out of the blue.

~ D. B. Cooper Investigator 😎🔍🐊

P.S. Update: I have just found documentation that suggests both missing hairs from D. B. Cooper's plane seat may have been mounted by the FBI Crime Lab onto the same glass microscope slide... meaning that if one hair is lost, they both are.