Original subtitles

Tonight on history's greatest mysteries:

Eric: Ready to find d.B. Cooper?

Woman: Do you think that he could be

d.b. Cooper? -Yeah, I do.

Eric: I think I've pinpointed where it is.

Eric: This could be our smoking gun.

Woman: They've got to take this back and reopen it.

It's a mystery that's confounded law enforcement

for 48 years.

On November 24th, 1971,

a man who would become known as d.B. Cooper

hijacks a plane and then jumps out,

taking with him a ransom of $200,000.

I'm Laurence Fishburne and tonight;

who is d.B. Cooper,

and how did he escape?

Neither his identity nor his body has ever been recovered.

It's impossible.

Or is it?

Can investigator Eric ulis finally close

the only unsolved skyjacking in US history?

Eric and his team will reexamine

the plane's alleged flight path.

They'll search alternate landing sites for fresh clues

and profile a possible suspect.

Tonight, a search for new answers

to one of history's greatest mysteries.

Who is d.B. Cooper?

Fishburne: D.B. Cooper investigator Eric ulis

is on his way to Washington state,

but his research and investigation started

12 years earlier in Arizona.

Eric: I've always had a fascination with aviation,

which is what I believe

ultimately drew me into the case.

Here was a man who developed a cult-like following

over the years,

despite the fact that nobody really knew

anything about the guy at all.

He became a legend overnight.

Man: I think d.B. Is like coolest guy in america.

He did the ultimate crime.

Eric: Eventually, I found the case was being hijacked

by conspiracy theories and so forth,

and I just ended up getting sucked in

to this d.B. Cooper vortex.

And, ultimately, I decided that I was gonna undertake

an investigation of my own into the case.

Man: Over the years, more than 1,000 suspects

have been scrutinized.

Geoffrey: When this case happened in the 1970s,

the era of DNA was not upon US,

and agents really didn't look out to preserve

this evidence in the way that we do now.

Eric: In order to identify where the FBI and others

went sideways with this case,

I knew that I was going to have to personally read

all 20,000 pages of redacted FBI files

regarding the case.

Fishburne: Thanks to a freedom of information act

lawsuit filed in 2016,

every few months, the FBI releases files

from the case in chronological order.

This constant drip of new information

and new sources is key to Eric's theory

about what really happened on northwest flight 305.

Eric: The night of the skyjacking,

we know a man boarded northwest orient flight

in Portland destined for Seattle.

He bought the ticket with a $20 bill at the airport.

There was no ID required.

And he gave the name Dan Cooper to the ticket agent.

He would end up taking a seat

in the very back row of the jet,

18e to be exact.

The flight attendants recall d.B. Cooper

being a guy who is in his mid-40s,

dressed as a business person wearing a black suit,

wearing loafers with a skinny black tie,

and a raincoat.

And he would later put on a pair of dark sunglasses

as the jet was about to take off.

By his side, he had a black attache case.

As the plane starts taxiing toward the runway,

d.b. Cooper hands one of the flight attendants,

Florence schaffner, a note.

Which says that he has a bomb.

Man: Thirty-six passengers got off the jetliner

in Seattle last night.

Left aboard four crew members and the hijacker,

dressed in a business suit, demanding $200,000

with the full ransom collected from the Seattle banks,

and four parachutes aboard.

The plane headed for Reno.

Eric: What many people don't know was that

Reno was not the intended destination.

Cooper actually requested that the plane fly

to Mexico nonstop.

But the problem is, is that he wanted the jet to fly

with the landing gear down.

He wanted the jet to fly with the flaps down.

He wanted the jet to fly at a very slow speed,

and not fly over 10,000 feet in altitude.

So there was simply no way

that they could fly nonstop to Mexico City.

They would need to refuel somewhere.

And they decided Reno.

According to Eric,

Cooper's request to be flown to Mexico was a ruse.

Seven minutes after the plane left Seattle,

the flight crew received an alert.

The rear airstairs were activated.

Eric: The boeing 727 was unique

in that it had airstairs that would deploy

from the back bottom of the fuselage.

In fact, it's these air stairs

that the passengers actually boarded the jet with.

Fishburne: Roughly 27 minutes

after the airstairs' deployment alert,

the crew experienced a cabin pressure disturbance.

Eric: At approximately 8:12 pm, the pilots experienced

what they described as a pressure bump on the plane.

What felt like a popping in the ears.

This pressure bump was created

when d .b. Cooper jumped off the back airstairs

and the airstairs snapped back up

into the bottom of the fuselage.

That bump holds the key to everything.

Estimating where and when

that bump took place is key.

It determined the area in which FBI, air force,

and local law enforcement members looked for Cooper

in a coordinated ground search that lasted for months.

Eric: The FBI never found anything

in their original search area.

And my research indicates

that the reason they came up empty-handed

was because they were actually searching in the wrong place.

Why were they searching in the wrong place?

Because the flight path was off.

Understanding that pressure bump

and identifying the correct search area

will allow US to ask the basic fundamental questions.

To test his theory about the plane's path,

Eric is meeting with the person charged

with tracking flight 305

on the night of the hijacking.

The air traffic controller on duty, cliff ammerman.

Cliff: My name is cliff ammerman.

And, I'm a retired air traffic controller.

I worked at the Seattle center air route traffic control

from 1969 till 1998.

Eric: Did the FBI or law enforcement at all

ever reach out to you?

Never did.

I never got a request like that at all.

What did you know about 305?

I mean, I assume you knew it was a skyjacked jet?

Cliff: We knew it was a hijacking.

We didn't have a flight plan on it

because nobody knew exactly what the routing was gonna be,

so we were told, "just follow him.

Keep everybody else away from him."

It became fairly obvious that he was on Victor 23.

Victor 23 is one airway in a low-altitude airway structure

that's nationwide.

It's a system of ground-based navigational aids

that pilots can follow,

and it allows them to hold a track over the ground.

Just like when you're on interstate 5 in a car,

Victor 23 is a highway in the sky.

Eric: The first priority here when tackling this case

is trying to figure out the path that the jet took.

Can you Gauge how precisely you could identify

the exact location of flight 305?

Yeah. What I'm looking at is a map

on a video screen.

Aircrafts are being presented in

what would look to you like an equal sign.

And on the leading slash,

the aircraft itself could be anyplace on that line.

So it could be in the center, it might be at the left side

of the line, it might be at the right side. We don't know.

Any idea of roughly what kind of distance

you're looking at there?

I would guess four to five nautical miles long,

that line is.

How do you know that he's actually within Victor 23

if you've got sort of that much

play there? -Cliff: Sure. Sure.

It's very uncertain just exactly where the airplane was

within that target area that we're seeing.

So, where's the airplane actually?

Eric: There's quite a bit of variance in there.

Indeed, the jet could have actually been a handful of miles

outside of this Victor 23 airway,

and not have been noticed by anyone.

It seems to indicate that the jet indeed took a path

that was more along the western side,

that lines it up with the money find and all that good stuff,

that is not at all consistent

with the official version of the flight path.

The pilot of northwest 305 also said

that they were not looking far enough west.

Eric: Well, that confirms it for me.

Yeah. -That's an area that

they should have looked, but they didn't look.

Fishburne: Convinced the plane was actually eight miles

west of the original FBI search zone,

Eric and his team head up to a remote wilderness refuge

that's never been searched.

They're looking for any evidence of d.B. Cooper,

including possible remains of his parachute.

Hey. Hey. How's it going? -How's it going?

Eric ulis. -Hey. Ryan.

Fishburne: To maximize the time he'll have on the ground,

Eric first takes to the sky

to see how closely his search lines up

with an area known as Tina bar.

In 1980, the FBI found important evidence there.

Man: A child has led the FBI to the start of a trail

it hopes it'll help them solve

the eight-and-a-half-year-old mystery of skyjacker

d.b. Cooper.

The first break in the only unsolved

airplane hijacking in United States history

came on a Columbia river beach,

along the Oregon-Washington border

where an eight-year-old boy

dug up the shreds of $3,000 on sunday.

The money was found about 20 miles

from the FBI's original search zone.

Also, it was found about eight or nine miles

against the current along the Columbia river.

So there was no possible way

that the money just washed ashore.

The bundles of 20s were found

just below the surface of the sand,

neatly stacked upon each other

with the original rubber band still intact.

So by all appearances,

it looks like somebody actually buried

those three packets of 20s.

Fishburne: Since it's impossible to know the precise

altitude at which Cooper pulled his parachute ripcord,

Eric plans to search a wide area the FBI missed.

The first is an island a few miles north of Tina bar.

The second zone is an extended Meadow

along the tree line on the west side of the train tracks.

If Cooper landed there,

Eric believes he could have walked south

along these train tracks

crossing over from the mainland

at the river s bridge to Tina bar.

Eric thinks Cooper might have buried the ransom here

temporarily, and then fled.

The third zone, private properties

across from the refuge provide access

to a large untouched ravine

which could have given perfect cover for d.B. Cooper.

Eric: Part of what has guided me

to these three specific search areas

is that they're pristine and largely untouched

in the last 50 years.

Eric ulis. Good to meet you.

I'm thinking about, you know,

the 12 years of research

I have put into this case.

This is what I have been waiting for,

the opportunity to actually get boots on the ground

and dig through the brush

and look for those missing parachutes,

look for any sign of d.B. Cooper.

Fishburne: Eric ulis has investigated

the d.B. Cooper case for 12 years.

Cliff: The pilot of northwest 305

also said that they were not looking far enough west.

Fishburne: Convinced the FBI misjudged

the hijacked plane's flight path,

Eric's assembled a team to look for new evidence.

They hope to find something to reopen this cold case.

Alex: Hey.

Eric: Hey, you guys. How you doing?

Alex: Alex gall with archeological services.

This area was home to thousands of native American's villages.

So in order for the project

to have special access to the refuge,

it needed an archeologist to join the project,

and, that archeologist is me.

Given the terrain, it's gonna be--

require a lot of luck.

Fishburne: Accompanying Eric on his mission,

geophysicist, Colin miazga,

who will help examine any ground disturbance

or man-made materials left behind by the skyjacker.

Colin: With my geoscience background,

you look for man-made objects.

In this case though, there's a very small object

in a very big area, so it's incredibly challenging.

There's just so much ground to cover,

and the only real best way to do that

is by physically walking over the area.

Who wouldn't wanna be the person responsible for solving,

a 50-year-old case that the FBI gave up on,

essentially?

Fishburne: He's also enlisted the help of

local search and rescue volunteers,

Jason Cole and Barry Wells.

Both have a vast knowledge of the area.

I was here when the event happened,

and there was a lot of theories going around.

Eric: So, today, what we're gonna be doing

is getting on the boats.

We're gonna be traveling along the lake river

up to the Columbia river.

Then once we're on the Columbia river,

we're gonna go upstream a little bit.

This area we're talking about here

was not part of the original search area.

And obviously, the fact that it's a refuge as well

and is off-limits to people,

-essentially-- -Jason: Yeah.

Provides a real opportunity

where the stuff would have never been found.

Ready to find d.B. Cooper?

Fishburne: With restrictions in place

to protect the local wildlife,

Eric and his team must also contact

the state environmental expert

before they can begin their search on the island.

Hey, Brent. How you doing? Um...

Brent: Good, Eric.

We'll work our way north,

see if we can actually get over to where you are

because I think the refuge is where we wanna start

versus the dnr land.

- And then we'll-- -Brent: Right.

We'll go from there.

Let's get these guys over on this shoreline here.

Landfall, here we go. -Right now, we're on,

Washington department of natural resources land.

And basically at the tree line there

is where the wildlife refuge starts.

They'll be limited in the tools they can use,

and are forbidden to dig anything up

or remove any evidence from the refuge.

If you wanna go over some of these,

maps that I pulled. -Eric: This is 1970.

Alex: So this '70.

Compared to now, the footprint...

Alex: It's pretty-- it looks pretty stable.

Eric: Looks pretty consistent.

So the only-- the only thing

that might give US a little pause

is the 1996 aerial.

Eric: I know there was quite a bit of flooding in '96.

So it looks like to me that this area here

is actually under water.

In 1996, there was actually

a very big flood in the area.

In reality, if the parachutes were in that area,

they could have easily been swept out to the Columbia river

and out to the pacific ocean.

I believe that the parachutes

were placed a little bit farther inland

which wasn't affected nearly as much.

Alex: So you said the parachute was white and the--

Eric: The parachute itself was white.

--And the pack was green? -That's correct.

Alex: Always helps me to know what colors to be looking for.

It's dark green. Yeah. Yeah.

Fishburne: Eric's team is looking for d.B. Cooper's

missing parachutes and other evidence,

including his attache case,

ransom notes, or unrecovered money.

They must notify local authorities

and the FBI immediately

if they find anything.

But Eric's search permit for the refuge

is limited and will expire.

We'll just start working off from this direction

and work our way through.

Eric: A little bit of rain. -Woman: Today.

Until end of day and tomorrow.

Eric: I think we got to go a little farther down

to the open field basically.

Brent: I was surprised-- or is.

At how he was dressed as businessman.

Eric: You bring up a great point

because a lot of people said, you know,

"who in their right mind would jump

into the middle of the woods wearing, loafers

and a-- and a tie." -Brent:

Eric: And I've always argued, nobody.

I believe that the evidence clearly shows

that d.B. Cooper intended to jump

initially in the outskirts of Seattle.

Fishburne: After the skyjacking,

flight attendant, Tina mucklow,

told authorities that d.B. Cooper

was visibly frustrated and complained to her

about how the money was delivered.

Tina: He, made me feel very sure

that, we had a very real

and horrifying threat.

Eric: When the money showed up,

it was not in a knapsack

as he requested.

It was actually just delivered

in a white open-top

canvas bank bag.

It didn't have any zippers, didn't have any snaps,

didn't even have a handle on it.

Cooper needed to figure out a way

to secure the top of that bank bag.

If he didn't, the force of the free fall

would have immediately ejected

all of the cash out of that bag.

It was also reported by copilot, bill rataczek,

that Cooper had difficulties lowering the airstairs.

He called US on the interphone and requested that,

he was having trouble with the stairs.

"I can't get the stairs down."

Eric believes these delays forced Cooper

to jump into rougher terrain

than originally planned.

Eric: I think that's really ground zero,

-as far as-- -Alex: Yeah.

Eric: --Searching for the d .b. Cooper's parachutes

if he landed in this area.

And basically we need to start right around here

where these thicker bushes are,

but start working our way down

around to the south.

Alex: Along the edges?

Fishburne: To ensure a thorough ground search,

the team walks at arm's length from each other,

searching in a traditional grid pattern.

Let's move.

Eric: Looks like a UN-penetrable wall back there,

so I'm not even gonna try that.

Alex: It's pretty thick in front of US here.

Eric: This stuff is brutal.

Woman:.

Yikes.

Eric: Yeah.

That looks prime spot to dump a parachute.

Alex: Exactly.

Fishburne: Eric believes Cooper left his parachute

behind wherever he landed.

Eric: All the soil around here is pretty packed Clay.

Um, there's no way he's digging

more than whatever he could kick with his boot.

Alex: Right. And it's dark too,

right? -Eric: Yeah.

Alex: So he couldn't get too far in there.

Eric: No.

Although the parachute

may have deteriorated,

metallic and nylon material could have survived.

Alex found some... -Let's check it out.

It's really the first sign of human activity

I've seen in here.

Yeah.

This could be promising.

Fishburne: Searching on federally-protected land

on an island along the Washington-Oregon border,

investigator, Eric ulis,

and his team make what they hope

is a significant discovery.

Alex found some... -Let's check it out.

It's really the first sign of human activity

I've seen in here.

Yeah.

This could be promising.

Alex: I don't know anything about parachutes

-and the kinds of-- -yeah.

Shroud lines they would use.

The problem is the color of the shroud lines

were, either white or light pink.

And so that would not be part of...

Okay.

D.b. Cooper's parachute.

This area is clear.

Fishburne: After 10 grueling hours,

the team ends the search for the day.

Eric: With the restrictions that we have from the refuge,

limiting the number of people

that we can actually search with,

and seeing how vast this area is,

and how dense the growth is

that we have to fight through,

it just made me realize

how difficult this search

is actually going to be.

Fishburne: With only a few days remaining to search

what he believes is the landing area,

Eric reviews the mystery of d.B. Cooper.

Eric: There are really two parts

to the d.B. Copper mystery.

There's the part that relates to what actually happened...

Man: All these years later,

they're still looking for d.B. Cooper.

Everything FBI special agent Larry carr

has on Cooper fits in one battered box,

mostly what Cooper left on the plane.

Eric: ...And there is this other part

that relates to who the guy actually was.

Larry: D.b. Cooper came from someone.

He came from somewhere.

You know, he just didn't miracle himself here.

And so, someone has information.

Fishburne: During the 45 years that d.B. Cooper's

skyjacking case remained open,

the FBI investigated more than a thousand

possible suspects.

Some simply matched the crime sketch.

Others confessed on their death beds.

Hospitalized here in Florida with kidney disease,

Duane weber motioned to his wife to come close.

He says I have a secret to tell you.

I said, "what?"

He says, "I'm Dan Cooper."

Fishburne: Even a woman was investigated,

pilot Barbara Dayton.

Eric's determined to provide a definitive answer

about one person of interest,

a man DNA-tested in 2003

but never publicly eliminated.

Eric believes this man could be d.B. Cooper.

His name is Sheridan Peterson.

Eric: He actually became a suspect

within one week of the skyjacking.

However, it wasn't even until 2003,

the FBI was actually able to interview him.

That FBI agent was a woman named Mary Jean fryar.

And what she told me when I first reached out to her

has completely changed the trajectory in my case.

I'm Mary Jean fryar.

I'm a special agent with the FBI

from 1985 to 2006.

In 2003, I received,

a communication from the Seattle office

to locate and interview Sheridan Peterson

who was residing in Santa Rosa

and obtain a voluntary DNA sample.

Eric: In late 2007, the FBI announced

that they had a partial DNA profile

that they've got from d.B. Cooper's clip-on tie.

Man: This is the tie we got the DNA from.

Eric: This could explain why the FBI had Mary Jean fryar

obtain a DNA sample from Sheridan Peterson

to compare it against the partial DNA profile.

Mary Jean: When I met with Sheridan Peterson in 2003,

it was special because it was a historic case.

During my training at the FBI academy,

we had instructors that came in

and, talked about it.

Sheridan's alibi, since I talked to him in 2003,

was always that he was present in Nepal

for his children's birth.

He was saying he wasn't in the country

so he couldn't have been d.B. Cooper.

He did show me his birth certificates of his kids,

but his wife could have very easily given birth

without him there.

Sheridan worked in the department

that literally wrote the flight manual

for the boeing 727 jet.

He worked as a smokejumper in Montana.

He's an expert skydiver.

He's a former boeing employee.

Then in 1966,

Sheridan found himself in Vietnam

working as a refugee adviser

until August of 1970

when he and his wife moved to Nepal.

There is nothing that Sheridan can point to

that proves unequivocally that he was in Nepal

at the time that the skyjacking took place,

with the exception of the second wife.

The problem is, according to Sheridan,

his second wife died in 1977.

Eric: Sheridan Peterson was interviewed for a program

related to d.B. Cooper,

and there are some inconsistencies in there.

There are things that he stated that just don't add up.

There are two things that I found

that could rule Sheridan out as a suspect.

There's some discrepancy with respect to eye color.

Specifically, Sheridan has blue eyes,

and the FBI's very first description of d.B. Cooper

had him having brown eyes.

However, very quickly after they put up

the initial description for d.B. Cooper,

the FBI updated the description

and described d.B. Cooper

as possibly having brown eyes.

The second being, we know that d.B. Cooper

definitely smoked cigarettes.

In fact, he smoked eight cigarettes

during the skyjacking.

I have never been able to prove that Sheridan Peterson

was ever a smoker.

Fishburne: Eric's asked Mary Jean

to help secure an interview with Sheridan.

Her goal, get him to request his DNA test results.

Now, we can't use DNA to prove that he was d.B. Cooper

because the profile that the FBI has

is only a partial DNA profile.

But if we can get Sheridan Peterson

to actually request

to get his DNA comparison results

from the FBI,

we may actually be able to prove

definitively that he wasn't d .b. Cooper.

Fishburne: Back on the refuge,

Eric ulis and his team of investigators

continue their hunt.

Yesterday, they searched a remote island.

Today, they're searching an extended Meadow area.

None of this land has been searched before

because the FBI used a different flight path

to calculate its search area in 1971.

If Eric can find any evidence

that d.B. Cooper landed here,

it might lead to finally identifying

the skyjacker.

Eric: All right. So, today,

we're continuing the search

for the missing parachutes.

We've got our survivalist

with US as well, Dan.

I'm Dan baird. I'm a backcountry

guidance survival expert.

I'm not an expert on d.B. Cooper himself,

but to me, it seems like it's a survival situation.

I'm looking forward to the search,

this is gonna be awesome.

There are several copycat jumps that took place

after Cooper's jump.

Every single person

who did it survived.

Fishburne: Although every copycat jumper survived,

none of them got away with the crime.

Most notable, a man named Richard Floyd McCoy

who, in 1972, remained free

for two days before being arrested.

It seems that the real challenge

comes once he hits the ground,

how he gets out of the area.

Dan: Were these tracks in place at that time?

Man: Yes, they were. -Eric: Yeah, they were. Yup.

We're on top of the bnsf railway tracks.

If d.B. Cooper landed in this area,

the railroad tracks provide a perfect corridor

that he could've used to get to tena bar

where the money was found.

Dan: Do you ever think of looking into

what the train schedule was like that night?

If he landed, started walking for 20 minutes,

half hour, I'm sure the train would've gone by.

Eric: There was a railroad conductor

who was driving down the tracks that night

who actually did report to the FBI

that there was somebody on the tracks.

And it's important to remember

that as the conductor was bringing this

to the attention of the FBI,

the FBI actually thinks

that d.B. Cooper landed six,

or seven, or eight miles east

of the railroad tracks.

Eric: Today, we're gonna be doing half of the Meadow,

because there's just too much territory

to cover in one day.

Tomorrow, we'll deal with the other half.

That said, the search starts right here.

Barry: There's gonna be four of US that really have to work

as the actual line searchers.

These guys are gonna be a little bit more independent.

Eric: I'll look along the edge here a bit.

That's due north.

Eric: We need to work our way and go further north.

Colin: It's more of like a pinpoint

-so then it'll open up-- -Eric: Yeah.

Colin: --It'll make it really sensitive

so you pick up everything. -Your receiver, yeah.

And then you can kind of do your crisscross...

And if I left it on that, it would be like, woo.

Colin: Exactly. -It's messed up. Okay.

Eric: Somebody landing in some place like this

in the middle of this thicket, that would be pretty brutal.

I mean, I just don't see how you land

in something like this

without getting injured.

Fishburne: On the night d.B. Cooper jumped,

moderate wind gust upwards of 11 miles per hour

were reported on the ground

with sporadic rainfall.

When Cooper hit land, he would've experienced

ground temperatures dropping into the 30s.

Eric: It's so swampy right here.

Eric: Is it dry over there, Jason, or...

Jason: Yeah, if you come around the north side,

follow the grass.

Alex: Can I go forward and back a little bit?

This could be promising.

Found it.

Jason: Yeah, if you come around the north side,

follow the grass.

Fishburne: Eric ulis and his search team

are in a protected wildlife refuge

in southwest Washington,

searching for evidence that d.B. Cooper

landed here.

Halfway through searching a large Meadow area,

they uncover something that could be connected

with this unsolved myself.

Alex: I think I pinpointed where it is.

Fishburne: Cooper's nb6 parachute

had stainless steel parts.

Alex: Just, this must've been an old...

So a hit on the metal detector

is encouraging news.

Alex: Yeah, looks about it.

It's either two separate objects

or one slightly stretched out

like the backpack I think would be.

Eric: All right. We got something on the ground.

Wow. So what does that mean

as far as, the size of the piece?

Colin: With any metal detection,

it's hard to get size

until you start digging it up

because you could have something really small

that's really conductive right at surface

and that's gonna give you a really solid response.

But if you have something larger

that-- that's at depth, it could actually give you a--

it'll give you a smaller response.

And so it's just how close the object is to the sensors.

Fishburne: Although the metal detector

registered a strong hit,

the size of the object, how conductive it is

and how close it is to the surface,

can all influence the strength of the signal.

Alex: It seems really pinpointed

at that little soft spot right there.

I mean, that's a robust signal.

I mean, clearly, there's something down there.

Colin: Well then maybe...

Alex: There we are.

Wire. -Colin: A wire.

What kind of wire though?

Parachute pull cord?

Alex: So the wire has to stay on the ground, so...

Eric: Let me-- let me try to see

if I got cell service in here.

I'll give Mark a really quick call.

Mark Meltzer is an expert skydiver.

He's gonna know this parachute

inside and out.

So, he's the perfect person to reach out to

to see if he recognizes this piece of wire

and if he thinks it has anything

to do with the parachute.

Mark: Eric? -Eric: Hey, Mark.

Yeah, it's Eric. So we found what appears

to be like a wire, buried,

kind of half buried in here.

Is there any sort of wire?

It's a little heavier Gauge wire,

anything like that in the-- in the parachutes,

either the reserve or the, the main

that would-- that's consistent with that?

Mark: In the pilot-- in the pilot chute,

there's a spring, it's not stranded.

It's solid wire, but it's springy.

So what kind of Gauge are we talking about,

relative to, like, the size

of a, a hangar, for example?

Mark: About the same.

Okay. Is it okay if we take a picture

and send the picture to you

and just kind of get your impression?

Mark: Yeah, that's fine.

Okay. Hold on a second here, Mark.

Mark: Is it-- is it rusty?

Eric: I mean, it's not shiny, but it doesn't appear

to be rusted to me, but...

Let me send this over to you.

Hopefully, it lets me

send it out to you here.

And then you can just shoot me a callback

as soon as you have a chance to take a look at it.

Mark: Okay. Try that. -All right.

Thanks, Mark. -Mark: All right.

Eric: There's an old road in here, too,

about a hundred yards in.

- Man: -Eric: Had a gate on it even.

Let's see what kind of metal they used on the fencing here.

But that's what it looks like actually right there.

Eric: Yeah.

Barry: That's what it looks like.

Yeah, as you can see down there-- down there,

that's how they secure the post together

and make them stand up. -Eric: Yeah.

Barry: It looked just like that.

It looked just like that, exactly like that.

Alex: At least we have an idea of what it is now, so--

yeah, that appears to be the case.

I was hoping that we would have found something

a little bit more concrete at this point.

We've only got more day left

to search the refuge,

then it's onto searching the private property.

Fishburne: While Eric and the team call it a day,

retired FBI agent, Mary Jean fryar,

is in Santa Rosa.

She's spoken with Sheridan Peterson.

Eric's key person of interest.

And now, she said she has even more reason

to believe he could be d.B. Cooper.

In September, I received

communication from Sheridan Peterson,

which was very strange.

I've never had another person I've ever interviewed

in my 21.4 years

ever contact me again.

And he sent me two messages

about things that were upsetting him

and signed them both d.B.

I think Sheridan loves the simulation,

the engagement, the thrill of him

being a suspect as d.B. Cooper.

Ashley: Do you think that he could be d.B. Cooper?

Yeah, I do.

Fishburne: To prepare for her meeting,

Mary Jean watches an interview Sheridan did

for a 2016 documentary.

In it, Sheridan acknowledges he sky jumped

at issaquah skyport,

the place that supplied the parachutes d.B. Cooper

requested during flight 305 skyjacking.

Sheridan: I was the most obvious,

suspect of anyone.

I have jumped in issaquah

and I got my instructor's license there.

And that is where the guy got the parachutes

and I had worked for, um, boeing.

Mary Jean: He's building a very good case

against himself.

Sheridan: She said, "where were you?"

And I said, "I was in the park."

"In the park. Come on.

You can think of a better one then."

No, I did not say that.

And they didn't keep track of people

going back and forth from the country.

If he was there, that's great.

But, that doesn't prove that he was there.

Sheridan: And then I told them, I said,

"he had four parachutes."

He had one parachute with a red x cross

and that was a reserve.

Another reserve was perfectly good.

Which reserve do you take?

The one that was Daisy-chained. I remember that one.

This is interesting that he's so detailed.

Man: Took more than taking the right parachute,

it also meant that the person would have to know

those stairs come down on the 727.

Sheridan: I wouldn't know what's on the--

man: So that's what i-- that's what I'm saying,

so anybody is saying that you would've been

a great d.B. Cooper,

not if you didn't know how to get off the airplane.

Yeah.

That made him nervous, you know,

with that conversation.

Didn't know about the stairs

and he's kind of fidgeting with his cup.

Man: And did you ever hear from Mary Jean again?

She came back for some reason

and told me that, there's no match.

Well, it's very fortunate for me.

Mary Jean: I'm about to go see Sheridan Peterson

for the first time since 2003

and I'm hoping that maybe at this point,

he's finally ready to accept

that he's gonna tell US that he's d.B. Cooper.

Don't take it to your death.

Set the record straight.

Put this to rest so that everyone can appreciate

what you did and got away with,

and not let anyone else take credit for it.

Fishburne: With their permit expired at the refuge,

Eric and his team arrive at their final search zone,

a ravine on private property.

It's on lake river

and Eric believes Cooper could have used it

for cover as he made his way to tena bar

where some ransom money was uncovered in 1980.

Eric: How's it going, man? -It's going good.

Good to see you. -Eric: Good to see as well.

Man: Yup. Yup. How you doing?

Good morning. So my name is Eric.

Barry, I wanna thank you very much for, um,

getting these group of people together

and why don't you give me an idea of who we've got here?

Because clearly we have two different teams.

We have, as you see by the different colors of blue

and the red, so, I'm with the southwest Washington

search and rescue

and, these folks here in the red

are with the Clark county sheriff's office.

Eric: How many of you have actually heard

of d.B. Cooper or haven't heard of d.B. Cooper

who are familiar with the case?

Eric: I know you guys are.

It'd be more surprising if somebody

hadn't ever heard of that. -Yeah.

I'd know.

I'm from the east coast, so this is--

i-- I've read a little bit about it

and thought it was interesting and being here

with the rest of the team is,

it's exciting and it's fun.

So, um, you know, hopefully

we do come across something

and, you know, get to learn a little bit more

about the pacific northwest legend.

Eric: There's a lot of evidence

that suggests that d.B. Cooper

landed somewhere in this vicinity.

We did some searching on the refuge side

of lake river.

Now it's time to focus on this side of lake river.

My thought is that Cooper,

you know, if he landed in this area here,

would have, you know, walked his way down

to the ravine looking for a path

out of the area,

a path toward he railroad tracks.

Fishburne: Today's search will cover over 12 acres.

So they've doubled their search team.

Each member is outfitted with a GPS tracker

and monitored from a mobile command center.

Eric: All right. Folks, we ready?

Fishburne: If evidence of d.B. Cooper is here,

Eric's confident his team can find it.

Man: Right side good?

Eric: Right good.

Left side. -Left side good.

Man: Okay. Moving. All right. Slow, methodical.

Eric: Just follow this ravine straight down.

Man: Low and slow, folks. Low and slow.

Make sure you clear under trees

and things like that.

Look up every once in a while.

Woman: Yeah, look behind you, too.

Man: And you can break as much as you need to.

Okay. We got permission.

Eric: Keep going. Yeah, looking good.

Man: Keep going. -Eric: Think,

where would I hide a parachute?

One other thing to consider as I look

at these trees up here,

one of the premier suspects

in this case was actually a smokejumper.

If he happened to land in this type of environment,

he would have known exactly what to do

and how to handle the situation

if he had caught up in these trees, you know,

60, 70 feet up.

We know that he had a pocket knife on him

and how he actually used that

to cut some of the shroud lines.

So, he would have figured out a way to get down.

It wouldn't have been an issue for him.

Man: Yeah, something.

Barry: They got, something.

They're digging in something over there, Eric. I'm not sure.

Colin: Eric, do you wanna come over here?

Eric: Yeah. Hold on.

Woman: Right. Holding.

Yes. That's the same area.

Hold this.

The wine bottle like the piece of aluminum.

Yeah, I think that's all it is.

Eric: Yeah, some cork on it. Yeah, it's definitely

like a top of a wine cork.

We know the guy was drinking.

Um, had a bourbon on the flight, you know.

This is one of those things I'm just curious

if he took a couple. -Colin: Yeah.

Yeah. I mean you never know he's got many bottles

with him you don't know, so it'd be the kind items

to save, for the heck of it,

but, yeah.

Seems unlikely that there's any significance,

but, an idea... -Colin: Gives an idea of how--

how sensitive this instrument is.

Eric: Yeah. All right.

Colin: We'll continue. -Eric: Let's just pocket that

and we'll continue, yeah.

Colin: Does that look like something part of a plane?

Cabinet or something?

Hey, Eric. -Eric: Yeah.

Do you wanna come here for a second?

Eric: Yeah. -Colin: Large metal box

and I assume somebody's filled it with rocks,

but I just wanna make sure that...

You don't have any... -Eric: I'm gonna

with me. You see it anywhere.

Colin: This right here.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the kind of thing

that-- I don't know how it ended up here,

but it's certainly not associated with the parachute

or anything like that. -Colin: Yeah.

And it's not associated with anything...

Nothing that I'm aware of, yeah.

It doesn't-- it's certainly much bigger

than the attache case would have been.

It looks just-- up here, it looks to me

just like a, you know, old metal box, so...

Colin: Yeah. It's an old metal box, yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

All right. Good to check out though.

Fishburne: Although they've yet to find definitive evidence,

the search team has recovered a few items of interest,

including this small Gauge wire

which could have been part

of the nb6 parachute.

They also found nylon rope

hanging from a tree

and aluminum that could be from beverages

served on flight 305.

Eric: A few, you know, falls positive, so to speak,

it helps keep a little fresh in your mind

that this is a very real case.

This guy really did really exist.

He really did jump somewhere in this area.

Those parachutes are somewhere in this vicinity,

and it's just a matter of finding them.

Fishburne: Investigator Eric ulis is on the last day

of his search for evidence that could solve

the mystery of d.B. Cooper.

Eric believes the FBI got it wrong

and Cooper actually landed eight miles west

of law enforcement's original search zone.

If he can find any sign of Cooper,

it would prove he survived the jump,

and may be alive today.

Woman: I wonder what this area looked like

for 48 years ago.

Eric: I think it looked just like this.

Fishburne: The ravine the team's searching

has remained untouched by loggers for 50 years.

Eric believes decades of overgrowth

could have helped preserve evidence.

There's an awful lot of vegetation,

and this is exactly the kind of area

that we would expect to find something

if he was in this area and happened to stash up.

Woman: It wouldn't be fun to land a parachute in.

Eric: Yeah. -Woman: You'd get caught up.

Eric: This is actually a pretty long property.

Is it a long line? -Man: Yeah, we're about

a fifth of the way right now. -Eric: Wow.

Watch to your right, folks.

Don't outwalk your flanks.

Hey, Joe. -Joe: Yeah.

Eric: See that big tree on the other side

of that ravine right there?

That one right there? Yeah. -Eric: So once we get to that,

we wanna spread out to the right.

Joe: Okay. There you go, Eric. -Eric: All right.

Barry: All right. -Eric: So you tug like this?

Barry: There you go. Yeah.

And it'd catch you if you fall, yeah.

Man: Excellent. -Barry: There you go.

Eric: All right. This one's still like that.

Man: All right. -Man: All right.

Man: Good job.

Woman: $200,000 in 1971, what would be the value

of that today? -Man: It would be 1.2 million

-today. So, he'd be-- -woman: Wow.

Man: --Be a millionaire in today's dollar.

Woman: All of that for one million?

Eric: The FBI's never been able to prove one way

or the other whether any of the ransom was spent.

If d.B. Cooper did actually spend his money,

my research indicates that there would be approximately

50 of those bills still out there

in circulation today.

There is a very strong chance

that someone out there right now has

one of those bills, but they just don't know it.

As you can see here,

this is not a complete $20 bill.

In fact, I estimate that what we're looking at is only about

25% of the original bill.

Fishburne: After a difficult grid search,

the team finally reaches the ravine.

Barry: Okay, guys. You're gonna have to--

a little slower. It's a little bit more brushier here

for both sides, so...

Fishburne: From here, Eric believes

Cooper could hear trains running on the bnsf

railway tracks, tracks leading to tena bar.

Eric: Look at right here right in front of you.

Woman: There's some white something here.

I don't know.

Man: The material is interesting.

Eric: We have a parachute expert.

Um, I'm gonna, well, ask him about it.

Man: Where'd you find it? -Eric: Just right under

the log here.

Man: It looks like a mixed material,

some of which could be on a parachute's...

Eric: I'll ask the expert and--

man: Yeah. -Eric: --He'll be able to tell

US definitively. -Man: Something with tension.

This had to be on something with some serious tension.

The team sets up a GPS locator on the spot

where the cloth fragment was found

to provide coordinates they can plot on a map.

Eric: The situation we find ourselves in right now

is rare, unique in a very limited time.

So, we just cannot afford to pass up on situations like this.

We have to thoroughly vet this.

We have to figure out what we're working with here

because this may be it.

This may be the one final golden opportunity

to figure out once and for all

what happened to d.B. Cooper.

We'll get it checked out. We'll see what the--

Barry: Yup. -Eric: --Expert says.

Man: Yeah. We'll see.

Fishburne: Could this fabric be part of d.B. Cooper's

missing parachutes?

Eric: It appears to be nylon and canvas,

which looked very durable.

It resembled a piece of a parachute.

It certainly looked like it could be, but I'm not sure.

So, now that we've got the piece in hand,

we've marked where we found it,

we'll present it to our parachute expert,

Mark Meltzer, and he'll be able to tell US

definitively whether or not this is a piece of a parachute

or not.

Fishburne: To learn more about the fabric he found,

Eric heads to la to meet with Mark Meltzer.

Eric: Not only is he very knowledgeable

about the Cooper case, he's also got something like

1,500, 2,000 parachute jumps.

It gives US the opportunity to give him

that piece of evidence that we found

during the search, see if he thinks

that could possibly come from a parachute,

either the main parachute or the reserve parachute

or something else.

And he actually personally knows Sheridan Peterson.

I wanted to start out talking to you a little bit

about d.B. Cooper's skill level

with respect to parachutes given everything

you know about this case specifically in skydiving

in particular. -What indicates to me

that he probably had some experience

with military parachute gear

is the type of main parachute rigs

that were brought to him were either Navy nb6

or nb8 containers and harnesses and parachute

instructions were brought to the plane,

printed instructions on how to use the gear.

He didn't need them. And Tina mucklow,

the stewardess that spent the most time with Cooper,

noted Cooper taking out a packing card out

of one of the parachute rigs.

And to me, that's a huge clue that Cooper

was most likely a skydiver.

I mean, skydivers know what a packing card is.

Nobody else does. Very well concealed.

So, if Cooper actually found the packing card

and knew how to put on an nb8 or nb6,

that's very telling. -Eric: We did find something

that may or may not be related to a parachute.

Mark: I'd like to see it. -Eric: I'll take it out.

Get this open here.

Mark: Well, it's interesting and it has sort of a ripstop

weave in the-- in the fabric material here,

the porous fabric material.

It has nylon webbing.

And I see nothing in the materials

that's inconsistent with the late '60s, early '70s.

Fishburne: Investigator Eric ulis is in Los Angeles

meeting with parachute expert, Mark Meltzer.

He hopes Mark can shed light

on a piece of possible evidence.

Eric: Looking for the missing parachute,

we did find something that may or may not be related

to a parachute.

Mark: Well, it's interesting and that it has sort

of a ripstop, weave in the--

in the fabric material here, the porous fabric material.

It has nylon webbing.

Fishburne: A ripstop weave is commonly found

in fabrics made to resist tearing.

Yarns are interwoven at regular intervals

in a crosshatch pattern.

Mark: I see nothing in the materials that's inconsistent

with the late '60s, early'70s.

But it's not the right color for a military parachute gear.

This is a turquoise blue and it apparently has leather

over-sewn on the perimeter of the, thing.

And there is no leather on the-- on the type of gear that Cooper

jumped with. It does have components

in common with a parachute gear.

There's nylon webbing.

It has some sort of ripstop weave fabric.

But I can say with a hundred percent certainty

that this was not from d.B. Cooper's parachute gear.

So you've pretty much established

that it's absolutely not related

to the parachute that he jumped with.

What's the possibility that there's some sort of

relation to the dummy reserve parachute?

Yeah. That's an interesting question, Eric.

I've seen some crude things done to those trainee reserves

that the only thing you want to do is have it be able

to be deployed and packed up really quickly.

So, they cut panels out.

They sometimes cut some of the suspension lines off.

It doesn't have to be done to faa specs.

And so, I can't definitively say this wasn't part

of a trainee reserve.

I think it's unlikely.

But I certainly can't rule it out.

Eric: This is very exciting for me

because there's a possibility

that this piece could be part

of the modification that was made

to the dummy reserve parachute.

You personally know Sheridan Peterson.

What are your overall impressions of Peterson

as they pertain to the possibility of this guy

being the real d.B. Cooper?

Sheridan Peterson is absolutely a qualified candidate.

There is no aspect to that jump that he wasn't a master of.

He knew how to jump into the wilderness and egress.

Do I think he's d.B. Cooper?

I just don't know.

Fishburne: To further his investigation,

Eric ulis next visits Claire Peterson,

Sheridan Peterson's first wife.

He hopes she may have some insight into whether

Sheridan could've pulled off the skyjacking.

She also has details about Sheridan's second wife,

the key person who could corroborate his alibi.

Eric: Sheridan has three children,

all grown, with Claire.

They were married in the '50s

and divorced in 1962

which is right before Sheridan moved up to Seattle

and got the job at boeing.

Actually Sheridan started working at boeing

in may of 1962.

So, they went their separate ways right before that.

So, this is gonna be fascinating to speak with Claire

about her time with Sheridan.

Claire Peterson was interviewed

by the FBI in 1974

about Sheridan and about this case.

And at that time, Sheridan was living in Asia.

So, she knew as of 1974 that Sheridan was a suspect

in the d.B. Cooper skyjacking.

Sheridan was 45 at the time of the skyjacking.

And Eric believes his appearance is similar

to the original sketch of d.B. Cooper.

Sheridan lived in Seattle prior to the skyjacking

and was photographed in a suit and tie

while posing as a skydiver.

As a boeing employee,

it's also likely that Sheridan knew

the inner workings of the boeing 727.

And finally, Eric does not believe that Sheridan's alibi

can be corroborated for the time of the skyjacking.

Eric: Hi, Claire. -Claire: Hi.

Eric: Hi. Eric ulis. -Claire: You must be Eric.

Eric: I am Eric. How are you? -Claire: Fine. Thank you.

Eric: Good to meet you.

Fishburne: Claire agreed to help Eric obtain a DNA profile

from one of their children.

It will be compared to the DNA from d.B. Cooper's tie

left aboard flight 305.

If it's a match, Eric could finally have the answer

to the mystery of d.B. Cooper's identity.

Eric: First of all, Claire, thank you very much

for taking the time to sit down with me

and talk a little bit about your life

and your life with Sheridan.

Could you describe just the nature of your relationship

during that seven years with Sheridan?

The relationship was bumpy.

He did have tirades of anger.

I don't think he could control it.

So, I knew there was a time that I was gonna have to say

goodbye to him.

And that's the way it went,

something had to be done 'cause I didn't wanna get hurt.

Eric: In terms of being clever and deceptive

when there's something that he wanted or what have you,

did you detect any of that in him,

the ability to be deceptive?

I think he was deceptive, yes,

in a way that would work for him.

Fishburne: As Eric speaks with Claire Peterson,

former FBI agent Mary Jean fryar is in route

to visit Sheridan Peterson.

In 2003, she interviewed him as a person of interest

and collected a DNA sample.

This is the first time they've met since then.

Mary Jean: I was glad you reached out to me

and, on Twitter.

When you sent me that message that you wish

I was still in the FBI because you had things

that were happening to your computer.

Yeah. -Mary Jean: Do you remember

that in September?

With your book, with your book. -Sheridan: Yeah.

Mary Jean: Yeah. You signed it d.B.

Well, because I thought

I'd amuse you.

Yeah. You did amuse me.

Twice you sent-- you signed d.B.

Yeah.

I was so surprised to find you.

Mary Jean: It's been a long time since we've

seen each other. -Sheridan: Yes, it has,

that was 20 years ago?

Mary Jean: Long time ago. -Heisting of aircraft

and that wasn't me.

There were easier ways

to get 200,000 I would say,

I'm surprised that you guys are still interested.

Mary Jean: They never caught the guy.

Sheridan: They didn't?

Mary Jean: The FBI gave up on it and closed it.

Did they? -Mary Jean: The fact that

people think that you could be d.B. Cooper makes sense.

D.b. Cooper was a-- was a gangster.

He was a thief.

He stole $200,000 and he... -Mary Jean: Yeah. He did.

And he also-- he wanted to blow up a plane.

He would've killed a lot of people.

Mary Jean: Do you think the bombs were real?

They weren't real. No.

Mary Jean: How do you know that?

Investigator Mary Jean fryar

is meeting with Sheridan Peterson.

A man she interviewed in 2003 as a person of interest

in the d.B. Cooper case.

Mary Jean: Do you think the bombs were real?

They weren't real. No.

The FBI found proofs that they--

the bombs weren't real. -Mary Jean: They did?

I don't think-- I don't-- didn't hear that.

Sheridan: Yeah. They've-- they--

once he had jumped, he left the stuff behind.

Mary Jean: He only left the tie behind.

Fishburne: The only items recovered from the hijacked

plane were a long skinny black clip-on tie.

A gold tie clip and eight cigarette butts.

It's believed Cooper jumped with everything else

including the handwritten note exchanged

between he and the flight attendants.

Why would he do it?

I feel that-- my personal opinion that he,

ended up in the Columbia river.

That money all rotted and everything

was in the sand along

the bank up north of the dalles.

Mary Jean: Actually, I think the money was buried not lost.

Buried?

Mary Jean: Because it was like in a stack in the sand,

not like just drifted there.

If he jumped and then just,

and entirely he was wearing,

he was crazy.

And I'm not crazy.

That took a lot of guts to do what he did.

Yeah. I think so.

Yeah.

Mary Jean: You know, your life story is fascinating.

Can we start after your first wife Claire?

Yeah. So, right after my first wife,

I took a sabbatical in the Philippines.

I was just an English teacher

and I met zeny she lived in a very poor area.

She wasn't, um, well-educated.

But I married zeny and we had two children.

And then I went to Vietnam, with the express purpose

of writing a documentary on the Vietnam war.

You know, I needed a passport.

I have those passports.

Mary Jean: You do? -Ashley: Can we see them?

Sheridan: Yeah.

Mary Jean: This is the-- all your travel everywhere?

Ashley: Wow. -Sheridan: Well, I'm not--

I'm not sure it's all of them, but...

Mary Jean: You keep everything. I love that.

So, here's Kathmandu in August of '71.

Ashley: Yup. -Mary Jean: Now after

August of '71, then where did you go?

Sheridan: I went back to Vietnam.

Yeah. I remember that, we went--

I went back and I left the family in,

Malaysia in penang.

Mary Jean: Your wife died in 1977?

Sheridan: Well, yeah.

I don't want them to know where I am.

I don't want them to know anything.

Fishburne: Back in Idaho,

Eric ulis continues his meeting

with Sheridan's first wife, Claire.

He was not money crazy.

But he did not wanna work but, you know,

he wanted to have a living

and I knew he wanted to go to Asia.

And it looked like he was doing what he wanted to do.

So, you were made aware at some point that he, like,

headed to Asia?

I did know that he left

and he went overseas.

And was there any contact with him

while he was over there? -Um,

probably a couple of letters.

And then-- but for years and years, no contact.

One thing that was intriguing

that we talked about...

Related to, his second wife.

And you're talking about a wife

that he led me to believe was alive.

What did he say to you in 2007

that made you think she was still alive?

I met his, daughter, their daughter,

and she wanted to see her mother and she wanted to see her,

that her mother got over here to the United States

from the Philippines. -What year was this?

Claire: This was, 2007. -So, you talked--

you had a conversation with Sheridan about this--

I did. ---Right here at your house,

where we are right now? -I did. Yes.

What did Sheridan say about... -Well, I asked him.

Why don't you send for her?

Why don't you see that she can get here?

And he laughed and what he said was,

"she wants to bring her entire family over with her."

Clearly, you're under the distinct impression

that his second wife, at least as of 2007

is alive and well and is living in the Philippines,

is that correct? -Exactly.

According to Sheridan, his second wife

had passed away

in 1977.

Well, he's lying about something.

If he is...

Possibly Dan Cooper,

she would know.

Well, that's where I started to really think

perhaps that was he...

Who did it.

He had the knowledge and probably--

he probably had the courage to do something like that.

Mary Jean: Look, I read Eric's work

and I have to ask you.

I want to know how you knew

the reserve parachute was Daisy-chained.

I Daisy-chained it.

Ashley: You Daisy-chained it?

Yeah, I Daisy-chained it.

We use it there, at issaquah, for years.

Fishburne: Sheridan Peterson worked at the

issaquah skydive center in the early 1960s.

The same place that would later provide parachutes

used by Cooper in his escape.

I Daisy-chained it so...

They throw it down and out, see,

the reserve, I put the red x on it.

Ashley: You hadn't been to issaquah in five years.

How did you know that...

That's the same reserve you made?

Well, I was sure it was.

Why would they change it?

Who gave it to him?

Ashley: Linn emrich.

Sheridan: Well, that's why linn emrich

figured it was me.

Linn emrich worked at issaquah skyport

at the same time of the hijacking.

But, the others don't--

no longer think that i'm,

d.b. Cooper.

And you still had DNA out there.

Yeah. You still have my DNA.

There-- it's still there. Yeah.

And I've never heard what-- that it was cleared.

Well, I thought you said that...

Mary Jean: No, because I never found out.

But you-- you can find out yourself.

I can send you the form.

You just make the request and they'll tell you.

Well... -There was a little part of me

that was hoping you were gonna confess

to being d.B. Cooper today.

A little part of you? -Mary Jean: Yeah.

She really is this FBI.

Yeah. -Mary Jean: I just hope that...

Whoever it is

takes some credit for it

before they die, if they're still alive

because it's quite the accomplishment

and so many people have claimed it

or tried to steal it from this person saying,

"I was d.B. Cooper." Or in their deathbed,

or family members who will come out.

But it'll be nice if the person

doesn't let it go himself.

All right. Listen, I have to say goodbye.

Sheridan: Yeah. Yeah. -Mary Jean: Hey.

All right. You take care of yourself.

Sheridan: Yeah.

Mary Jean: I will send you that form.

Sheridan: All right. -All right? Is it...

Sheridan: I will. -Then we can put this to rest.

I'll go back... -Mary Jean: Unless you wanna

confess to me.

Mary Jean: Unless you wanna confess to me.

I got to get on my knees.

Mary Jean: Yeah.

Quality, sister. -You take--

you take care of yourself.

Sheridan: I'm gonna remember this forever.

Mary Jean: Well, good. I will, too.

Fishburne: Twelve years after he began

his obsessive search into d.B. Cooper,

Eric ulis is in Arizona

meeting with one of the only researchers ever

to be given access to Cooper evidence

by the FBI.

Eric hopes that he will finally learn

that the man he believes could be d.B. Cooper...

Really is.

Eric: Tom kaye is a rockstar

in the d.B. Cooper world

and the reason the guy is a rockstar

is because he actually got special access

to the evidence in 2008 as well as 2011.

Knowing this, it only makes sense to see

if Tom kaye happened to extract

some of d.B. Cooper's DNA while testing the tie.

Tom: Eric, glad you made it. -Eric: Hey, Tom.

How you doing, man? -Good to see you.

Good to see you. Come on in.

Back in 2008, I was approached by a Cooper group

that was looking for somebody to analyze the money

that was found on tena bar

and have been buried there for a long time.

Then we went back to the FBI in 2011 and by that time,

we were working with special agent Curtis ang

and he allowed US then to have access to the tie

specifically so we could do a series of tests

and we also vacuumed the tie for particles.

What we found that was really amazing

is we found metallic titanium on the tie.

Titanium is used to manufacture aircrafts

and is found at plane manufacturing plants

like the boeing facility

where Sheridan worked from 1962 to 1964.

There were very few applications

for commercially pure titanium back in 1971.

And I know that some of my research has actually shown

that indeed the 727 itself specifically the engine

has commercially pure titanium.

At that time, titanium wasn't very common.

It was used primarily in aerospace

and also in the chemical industry.

So it goes a long ways towards narrowing down

criteria for d.B. Cooper.

Tom: Now, we knew how vitally important

the particles were on the tie

and we knew what we were looking for

is we hooked up a vacuum

to a filter like this.

This is a sterile filter inside of a sterile jar.

We had a small nozzle coming out at the end here

and then we hook a vacuum to the back end of this

and we vacuum the tie including the knot of the tie.

The tie knot seems like the most logical place to look.

The place that would've been touched the most

by d.B. Cooper.

This filter that remains unopened to this day

has particles from d.B. Cooper's tie in it

but most importantly it also has Cooper's DNA in it.

The thing is there's only one shot with the DNA here.

I will never see that again.

It is destroyed in the process of getting the DNA.

I think that the lab that's been...

Appropriated for this job is a good one

and they'll do a good job.

The extent of the job that they can do

nobody knows yet, not even the lab.

Tom, I wanna thank you for entrusting US

with this very valuable d.B. Cooper evidence.

We're gonna take it, send it right off to the lab,

see what they can find out and I'll get back to you

with the results as soon as I have something.

Tom: Absolutely. -All right. All right, Tom.

Tom: Let's go get him. -Thanks. All right.

Fishburne: While Eric waits to send

the envac tie sample to a Florida lab

specializing in older forensics cases.

Former FBI agent Mary Jean fryar

receives an unexpected call

from Sheridan.

Mary Jean: When I met with Sheridan Peterson,

I thought it was intriguing and kind of confusing.

They evidently found the guy that made the heist.

Mary Jean: No. They never caught the guy.

They didn't?

Mary Jean: The FBI gave up on it and closed it.

Did they? -During the interview

I thought it wasn't him.

And then when he pulled out the passports, I said,

"I think it be might him ."

So here's Kathmandu in August of '71.

Mary Jean: Now, you didn't have these

when I interviewed you way back when.

There are two faded stamps for Nepal, for Kathmandu

one ended late in 1971

before the hijacking

and then the other one started in April of 1972.

By the time the interview was over

I walked out thinking "I don't know anymore.

I'm totally confused."

Probably about a month after I was up in Santa Rosa.

I called Sheridan and I asked him,

"I thought you were gonna do the paperwork

and follow through with the DNA filing."

And he said, "you told me...

That I wasn't d.B. Cooper

and, you know, I don't think I'm gonna do it."

And then that was it.

The conversation ended.

And I hung up thinking, "my god.

Now, that makes me really suspicious."

He just wants to keep it 'til he dies

which is probably how it's gonna play out.

Fishburne: Five weeks later,

Eric arrives back in California.

He setup a video conference meeting

with a senior analyst at the lab

comparing d.B. Cooper's DNA

to one of Sheridan's daughters.

If his theory is right

he may finally learn the true identity

of d.B. Cooper.

Eric: When I first embarked upon this investigation

I had no idea where it's gonna take me.

I had no idea who I was going to encounter.

Let alone that I'd find a suspect

who couldn't be ruled out by the known facts.

According to Sheridan his second wife

had passed away

in 1977.

Well, he's lying about something.

Eric: I've often said

that I believe with 98% certainty

that Sheridan Peterson could be d.B. Cooper.

But there's always been that missing two percent.

Because truthfully,

I've never been able to find the smoking gun.

There's an awful lot riding

on what the lab comes back with.

That could break the case wide open.

He'll be speaking to an analyst at the lab

tasked with testing a sample

taken directly from the tie

Cooper left behind on the plane.

Should DNA be found within the sample

the results could reopen a near 50-year-old case

and confirm Eric's suspicions

about a person of interest.

Eric: How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

Eric: I'm doing well.

Well, my name is Samantha wandzek

and I currently work at DNA labs international,

we're a private laboratory

out of deerfield beach in Florida

and we have clients in over 40 states.

So it's very easy to go back to any cold case

and find more work to be done.

So for this case, I was actually

the reporting analyst for it.

And how did you tackle this material

that I sent to you to try to ascertain whether or not

there's any DNA or not?

Samantha: Due to the size of the filter

we actually cut it out in teeny-tiny chunks

and then sent the whole filter for extraction.

That's the first stage of the DNA testing process.

We then try to determine how much DNA, if any,

is present in the sample.

If we have enough DNA

we'll then send it forward for implication.

When you have cases that are old,

um, typically you'll see a sample will be degraded.

That DNA is just gonna break apart over time

and you're just not gonna have as much intact DNA.

But I was very surprised with the results.

So there was DNA

in the filter?

We did end up with a profile

from one male individual.

Is there some way to quantify like the strength?

I mean, is it one of these things

where one out of a billion people would...

Match this particular profile,

like, how strong is it?

What can it tell US?

Samantha: Typically, once you have over 20 locations

you would have to see hundreds,

thousands, millions in planet earth,

that are staying in current population

to expect to see that profile one time.

So once you have over those 20 locations

it usually becomes very rare.

So what you're telling me

is that we are the very first people

outside of the FBI to actually have

d.b. Cooper's DNA profile?

I'm anxious to find out what that means?

What can it tell US in comparison to DNA profile

for one of Sheridan Peterson's daughters?

Does it match?

She is not the biological daughter

of the male donor that we found.

Wow.

That's a-- that's a-- that's stunning.

I mean, it's really remarkable

given everything I know about this guy.

It's a game changer obviously.

The one thing that's very encouraging to me though

is that we have a very solid

DNA profile from the tie.

Getting a DNA profile is so important

because it can provide assurance to me and others

that this case is actually solvable.

I do very much appreciate all the effort

that you folks put into this

and I'm just very grateful that we've got

a solid DNA profile and I'm grateful

that we have some resolution

with respect to Sheridan Peterson.

So again, thank you very much

for your efforts and your time.

Please feel free to contact me

with any additional questions that you have.

We will do that.

Fishburne: Now, armed with new information from the lab.

Eric calls agent Mary Jean fryar to share the results.

Right now,

I wanna give Mary Jean a call

and I wanna let her know

what I have learned.

Because Mary Jean has really helped

move my investigation forward

and I'm sure she's gonna wanna know

what I've learned about the DNA.

Hey, Mary Jean. How are you doing?

It's Eric ulis calling. -Mary Jean: Hey, there.

Eric: I've got a DNA update.

Finally have some results

from the lab in Florida.

They did come up

with a full DNA profile

and it's from a male.

Mary Jean: I'm getting really excited.

My stomach is like a knot

because I'm hoping that it's him.

They proved 100% that the DNA

does not match.

Mary Jean: Damn.

Sheridan Peterson is not d.B. Cooper.

Mary Jean: Last conversation I have with Sheridan

he point blank refused to go forward with the DNA--

get the DNA results.

Eric: I am absolutely convinced

that the DNA that we have

is d.B. Cooper's DNA.

So if anybody matches this DNA profile

all 20 points that's your guy.

There's absolutely no doubt about it.

Mary Jean: Can we run it in databases

and find him or is this a lost cause at this point?

They actually can utilize it

to run through the codis system but of course that involves,

you know, law enforcement getting involved,

then the courts getting involved.

Mary Jean: Eric, I think what you've done is...

More than the FBI ever did.

And I would think this is enough

that if we need law enforcement

they've got to take this back and reopen it.

This is damn good evidence.

This is better than I've ever come up with

and maybe they can actually solve this case

with your help. -I honestly believe

we will eventually figure out who this guy was.

Thank you very much. -Mary Jean: Take care.

Fishburne: After narrowing down Cooper's possible landing site

and eliminating an FBI person of interest.

Eric's even more determined

to continue his mission.

I feel very empowered at the moment.

I feel more motivated than ever.

Because having this DNA profile

provides an outstanding blueprint

as I continue to pursue this case.

I am now actually armed

with precisely what I need

to determine who d.B. Cooper was

and more importantly to prove it.

Time in the d.B. Cooper case

has served as a double edge sword.

In one sense you have,

you know, first-hand witnesses

that pass on and memories fade.

But in another sense

we have advances in science and technology.

And I think when all is said and done

time is going to be our friend

because I firmly believe

that this DNA profile is ultimately

what's gonna break this case wide open

and is what is going to solve this case.

Fishburne: The identity of d.B. Cooper

has haunted investigators for nearly five decades.

Who is the mysterious hijacker?

And will we ever finally discover his true identity?

I'm Laurence fissburne, thank you for watching

history's greatest mysteries.