There are three particles too
small for your eyes to see,
but one man says they are a big clue
in the unsolved case of DB Cooper.
The particles come from a necktie,
DB Cooper War, when he hijacked a
Northwest passenger jet more than 50 years
ago. Chris Engles reports on the
bold claim by a citizen sleuth who's
been trying to solve the mystery
and the science that backs him up.
It was still the beginning of the jet age.
This was designed to be the
Navy's first supersonic jet.
This is the very first F
8 Crusader ever flown. The
Museum of Flight pays tribute to
the dawn of Jet powered aviation,
going higher, faster. Further, that
was kind of the mantra of the military
with this 1955 Crusader
fighter plane. The very
simple design, very
beautiful and streamlined.
Museum spokesperson Ted Hutter says
instead of aluminum aeronautical
engineers of the day used a little known
high tech metal in jets shown in The
Crusaders design schematics. Titanium
right on the outside.
Right here, this is all titanium.
The Pennsylvania company that
manufactured the titanium for the
Crusader REM crew is suddenly a new
lead in a decades old aviation mystery.
I believe that we have identified not only
the company where DB Cooper came from,
but also the specific division within
the company that DB Cooper came from
Eric Euless of Arizona has been hunting the
skyjacker known as DB Cooper for 14 years.
I'm what you would call a private researcher.
Investigator in the DB Cooper case
euless's. New evidence comes
from something the hijacker left
behind on seat 18 E of the Boeing
727 before he jumped from the
planes rear door with parachutes
and $200,000 ransom from the FBI.
The clues are three microscopic
particles taken from DB.
Cooper's clip on tie recovered right after
the 1971 skyjacking from Seatac Airport.
I have isolated 3 very specific.
Titanium antimony particles
lab analysis shows 3 particles of
an alloy on Cooper's tie titanium
mixed with another earth element
called Antimony Euless discovered
this 1957 document showing the
government granted a patent for a
titanium antimony alloy to remt crew,
which manufactured cutting edge
aerospace metals like those used
on the Crusader fighting jet.
I've been looking for something that I
would call tantamount to commercial DNA.
The idea being that just as human DNA
points to a specific individual commercial
DNA points to a specific company,
EULA says the titanium antimony alloy on
Cooper's tie links him directly to REM crew.
The idea that DB Cooper may have been
tied to the aerospace industry is not new.
These things I'm gonna name some of them,
cerium ultrium and strontium sulfide.
We broke the story when amateur
scientist Tom K first discovered
titanium on Cooper's tie.
After the FBI invited him to
analyze evidence in the cold case,
Kaye's team lifted more than 100,000
particles from Cooper's necktie,
including some that were very
rare in 1971 except in places
like Boeing facilities and other
aerospace manufacturing plants. What
does that tell you about Cooper?
The tie went with him into these
manufacturing environments for sure,
so he was not one of the
people running the machines.
He was either an engineer or a manager.
In one of these plants,
Euless is the first to use Kaye.
Data to trace the origin of the
titanium antimony to REM crew.
A company that could have brought
Cooper here to the northwest.
They would actually work with the
engineers at Boeing on the Assembly floor.
So these guys are actually on the floor
in and around the aircraft in the 1960s.
Furthermore, Euless says REM crew
never sold titanium antimony.
Perhaps the experimental alloy
proved unsuitable for aviation use,
so he says the particles on
Cooper's tie could only have.
From someone inside the
Pennsylvania company, has
this LED you to a specific suspect
who could have been DB Cooper?
Yes, it has led to a specific person
that may well have been DB Cooper and
that I'm looking into that appears
to check several of the boxes.
I'm not releasing the person's
name publicly for obvious reasons,
but I'm going to continue to look into him
posing with DB is a popular
attraction at the Museum of Flight.
Like the statue, Cooper and his
secrets are standing tall for now.
A 50 year history of dead ends
and cold clues that have not
deterred one citizen sleuth,
I am absolutely convinced that I do
have DB Cooper's name in my possession.
So he's confident,
but I will say that in my more than
25 years of covering this story,
I've heard several people say that,
so we'll be following up with
Eric Eulis to see how far his
theory travels after all this.
So REM crew no longer exists.
Its assets were sold to other
companies over the decades.
Euless has been in touch
with current owners of those
companies to see if they have
anything that's helpful after all
these years. So as you said,
you've covered this for years
and years, but could he be on to
something? You know, Joyce?
I'd have to say he could be,
but I think it's a long shot.
I mean, remember, there were more
than 100,000 particles identified on
that tie with an electron microscope,
and these are only three particles,
so the did the wind blow them on the ties.
The contamination from the 50
years it's been an FBI hands.
We know that other evidence in
this case has been mismanaged.
Or is the tie even Coopers?
Did someone else leave it on his seat?
Keep in mind that the FBI
has closed this case.
It closed it unsolved five years ago,
so it's up to citizens like Eric Eulis.
If anyone's going to solve this thing.
At least he hasn't given up.
No, he's very confident
and he's working hard.
And I know there's gonna
be a follow up story here,
so I'm looking forward to
seeing what the guy finds.
OK, so are we OK?
So are bill. Thanks, Chris.