The water is a little higher
than on used to seeing it.
I've been here many times over the years.
His name is Eric. You listen one time,
professional blackjack player who's
become one of the nation's most
respected amateur sleuths into one
of this nation's deepest mysteries.
We are walking along the Washington
side of the mighty Columbia River,
where it runs North and South.
This water has already passed by Portland,
OR, on its way to the Pacific.
If you go out about 15 feet,
that's the precise.
The money funds was now offshore
and this is the money.
Nearly $6000 of badly deteriorated,
20s found by a child in his family
digging on a beach known as Tina Bar.
Back in February 1980.
That was 41 years ago
and so far is the only physical evidence
found on the ground connected to DB Cooper.
It was a man actually ticketed as Dan Cooper,
who notified the crew of Northwest Airlines
Flight 304 from Portland to Seatac,
Airport's saying he had a bomb.
The initials DB stuck due to an
error in a news story at Seatac.
He demanded $200,000 in cash for parachutes,
refueled airplane and along with just the
pilots took off from Seatac heading South,
demanding the plane be flown to Mexico.
But it was over Southwest Washington,
wearing one of the parachutes.
He had the back stairway
unique to the Boeing 727,
lowered and jumped into the rainy
darkness of Thanksgiving Eve 1971.
There have always been competing theories.
One of those theories
was that DB Cooper landed in the
Wide Columbia River and drowned,
and that's why the money washed
up on Tina Bar and most people.
I would rather think that he
got away with it and they're
reluctant to accept my theory
that he drowned that night. King
Five was there in 2005 when
former FBI agent Richard to saw
in retirement spent his own money
to hire A barge and dive teams.
In October. This is a third for Dan Cooper
looking for evidence of the parachute.
The bank bag holding the money,
the briefcase holding what
was thought to be a bomb.
More likely a fake or even
remains of Cooper himself,
the FBI and even to saw himself
dug up the beach on Tina Bar,
looking for more cash.
But beyond the three packets of money
found with rotting rubber bands in 1980,
nothing else was located.
Ulysse thinks they were
looking in the wrong place.
He's looking further away from the river,
so I believe the parachutes,
the money and the briefcase were all buried.
I don't think it was one big pit.
I believe he probably had three
smaller sized holes with items
in different holes. Euless
has something the FBI and
to saw didn't have diatoms.
Diatoms are the microscopic remains of
Algy that were discovered on the money
by another civilian investigator, Tom K.
They're a major clue and here's the thing.
Kay says different types of Algy grow
during different seasons and the Algy
on the money was from the spring,
not the late fall of 1971
when Cooper jumped, so
we know with certainty that that
money did not enter the Columbia
River on the night he jumped,
or for any period of time after
he jumped for several months. So
the money you list theorizes
probably stayed buried high and dry
until the water rose in the late
spring of 1972. Six months later,
I think. Hearing about the flood,
he realized that he better
come back and get the money.
Otherwise they're going to be swept
out to the Pacific Ocean or may
just become uncovered and somebody
may happen to come across it.
I think unbeknownst to him,
three of those packets were left behind,
so now he digs along with
the help from volunteers,
who have also been drawn into
what's called the Cooper Vortex.
Further up on what was beach now
covered in recent decades by an erosion
resistant layer of rocks and dirt
big rock, they just pulled out
of the bottom of this hole.
In the bottom half of
the rock is just sand,
so I know we were at the beach level.
At this point you
list doesn't expect to find more money,
but he's betting the parachutes are
there and maybe even that briefcase.
I think it would be provided
treasure trove of evidence,
not the least of which may be DNA
that could break the case wide
open right there.
Then consider this just weeks ago.
U S. Marshals solve the case
even older than Coopers in 1969.
Twenty year old.
Ohio Bank Teller Ted Conrad, left,
work one night with a bag loaded with
$215,000 in cash, only to vanish.
Conrad would live on as Thomas
Rendell from Massachusetts.
He married, raised a family and was
deeply involved in his community,
even with pals and the police force.
The money long gone,
but the case solved in the wake of
his recent death that we're looking
at here, could we see that kind
of moment for a DB Cooper?
I think in more ways than one.
We may see that the one thing that I
thought about when I heard the story
about this guy is that that illustrates
perfectly well that DB Cooper,
like this guy that robbed the bank,
didn't have to be a Black Ops guy
didn't have to be a CIA project
or anything of that nature.
He just had to be somebody.
Who is just one step ahead of
the authorities and lay low
and didn't talk about it?
That's all it takes for this
guy to get away with it.
Like the Conrad caper,
the DB Cooper Mystery has long
been fodder for TV whodunit shows,
some of which you list himself has appeared.
While these crimes have held our
attention for a half century or more,
nobody was murdered.
No kidnapped child was involved,
yet it sticks with many of us,
including here.
It doesn't matter, probably not,
but it's just a really cool
story near Vancouver, WA.
Glenn Farley King 5 News.