Re aerial and ground search, canvasses in Clark and Cowlitz Counties, Washington
Also filed at: Part 115 pp. 40–47
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Id: Cooper-Part-110:258-266
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-110:258-266 Document: Report re aerial and ground search, canvasses in Clark and Cowlitz Counties, Washington Id: Cooper-Part-110:258-266 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-110%3A258-266 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
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FBI 164-81, Vault Part 110 pp. 258–266 (DB Cooper-556–564), Report — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-110%3A258-266
SE 164-81
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On 11/24-25/71, based on information available from NWA, a search area was laid out in the southwest portion of the State of Washington, which was bounded by Woodland, Washington, on the west, Amboy, Washington, on the east, Kalama, Washington on the north and a point seven miles north of the Columbia River, on the south. The prime search area was in an area seven miles east and seven miles west of an eight mile long flight line of the hijacked aircraft, bounded by an area two miles north of Lake Merwin and the Lewis River on the north, Amboy on the east, Woodland, on the west and Battle Ground, Washington, on the south. The search area was divided into six sectors. Four heli- copters and seven fixed-wing aircraft were utilized in an intensive, gridded air search of the prime area and a well executed search of the secondary search area on 11/26, 11/27 and 11/29/70.
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Ground units of local law enforcement personnel and Bureau Agents, made a house-to-house canvas of every dwelling and business establishment on every road in the prime search area from 11/25/71 through 12/3/71. Most of the roads in the full search area were also intensively covered in a door-to-door canvas, with negative results. All leads developed in this search which was coordinated with the air search, were checked with negative results. One item con- cerning a small aircraft flying in the vicinity of two private airfields west of Yacolt, Washington, was completely checked and it was found that the aircraft in question was a private plane flown by a known private pilot in the area and the flight took place the evening of 11/23/71.
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All sightings from the air were checked by ground units with negative results. Lake Merwin was patrolled from the lake by two boats for its entire 42 mile length, of navigable water and also to the full extent of its 80 mile length, with negative results.
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- 262 - DB Cooper-556
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Based upon information received from the Seattle Division on November 25, 1971 preliminary steps were taken to alert all law enforcement agencies in Cowlitz, Lewis, Wahkiakum, and Clark Counties concerning the search which was to be instituted for the subject. A meeting was held with members of the Clark and Cowlitz County Sheriff's Offices and local agencies at the Woodland, Washington City Hall and Police Department which was designated as search headquarters in view of its proximity to the Wood- land airport at which facilities were available for fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. Arrangements were made for helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to be available on November 26, 1971 and the search area was divided into seven sections, one of which was located in the Lewis River area of Cowlitz County and the others in the north- eastern section of Clark County.
On November 26, 1971 personnel of the Clark County Sheriff's Office, under the direction of Sheriff EUGENE COTTON, and Undersheriff THOMAS MAC DOWELL, con- sisting of twelve cars and four aerial observers, seven cars of the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office, and eleven deputies under Sheriff CHARLES E. GILL and Chief Deputy [illegible] In addition, three officers of the Woodland, Washington Police Department and six Agents were at the scene. [illegible]
On November 26, 1971, after law enforcement officers were briefed on facts known to that point and what was being sought and having been familiarized with the prime search area of 150 square miles, the various ground units were dispatched to Cowlitz and Clark Counties with instruc- tions to contact all available residents and businessmen on every road in the assigned section to secure information concerning the subject. The description, then available, was furnished to all personnel involved in the search. Further instructions were given to the officers to request individuals contacted to contact their neighbors and acquaintances to insure that all residents of the prime search area were cognizant of the hijacking and the descrip- tion of the subject.
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b6 b7C [illegible] - 263 - DB Cooper-557
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On November 26, 1971 the banks of Lake Merwin, partly located in the prime search area, were completely patrolled by two boats of the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office with all suspicious sightings personally checked. One sighting of a white object on the south side of the lake was unable to be checked on November 26, 1971 but on November 27, 1971 was checked by helicopter with negative results.
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On November 26, 1971 two Army helicopters, one Bonneville Power Administration helicopter, and one Weyerhaeuser Company helicopter plus five fixed wing aircraft from Woodland and Vancouver, Washington were aloft over the search area for seven hours of total flying time. Several sightings of unidentified items were checked by ground contact with negative results.
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On November 27, 1971 the search was continued with the same number of personnel, ground units, three helicopters and seven fixed wing planes. The search area on this day encompassed a 400 square mile area and was laid out based upon latest data furnished by Northwest Airlines re aircraft's position at time subject left the plane. An area averaging ten miles on the east and west sides of the airline flight path and extending from the vicinity of Kalama, Washington to the suburbs of Vancouver, Washington was gridded and criss crossed by the aircraft mentioned with negative results. All sightings of suspicious items were checked with negative results.
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The ground search on November 27, 1971 consisted of contacts by personnel in ground units with as many individuals as possible in the search area. One signifi- cant item developed from this search was that an unidentified light plane, metallic gray in color, flew over a small landing strip in the northeasterly section of the search area with its landing lights on about the time the subject is presumed to have left the aircraft.
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On November 27, 1971 in addition to contacting all individuals in the search area all airfields with any aircraft or parachuting schools or activity were contacted from Vancouver - Camas, Washougal area to Woodland. A number of individuals contacted at these locations gave information pertaining to skydivers, pilots, clubs in- volved in skydiving and other information, all of which has been checked with negative results.
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DB Cooper-558
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Airports and Flight Services:
Scholls, Orchard, Washington [REDACTED b6/b7C] Vancouver, Washington
Evergreen Airfield, [REDACTED b6/b7C] Vancouver, Washington
Pearson Air Park, [REDACTED b6/b7C] Vancouver, Washington Skycraft, Inc. Pearson Air Park Aircraft Specialties at Pearson Air Park - [REDACTED]
Northwest Flight Services, Inc. Pearson Air Park - [REDACTED] Vancouver Flying Service, Pearson Air Park Grove's Flying Service, Camas, Washington, [REDACTED]
Kelso-Longview Airport. Kelso, Washington - [REDACTED]
Farm and Forest Helicopter Service, Napavine, Washington Hillsborough Aviation, Pearson Air Park, Vancouver, Washington Toledo Airport, Toledo, Washington Chehalis - Centralia Airport, Chehalis, Washington
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On November 28, 1971 the house to house canvass of business establishments and houses in the prime search area of 150 square miles was continued by Agents of the Seattle Division. All individuals contacted were queried concerning the subject and were shown composite drawings and given physical descriptive materials. The search area was gridded and close contact was kept with the control point until all streets, roads, highways, and passable by- ways were covered all with negative contacts other than information developed through previous contacts concerning the metallic gray colored aircraft with the landing lights shining. The exact point of this plane's flying during the
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DB Cooper-559
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late evening hours on November 24, 1971 was fixed at the intersection of Grantham Road and County Road 42 in the vicinity of [REDACTED] LaCentre, Washington.
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Another significant item developed from this house to house canvass was that a white car was seen parked on Grantham Road near County Road 42 for approximately two hours from 5 to [guess: 7] p.m. on November 24, 1971 and from 9 to 11 a.m. on [guess: November] 25, 1971. It was pointed out by the individual who furnished this information that the plane with the landing lights lighted which flew low for a time on November 24, 1971 was flying in the vicinity of the area at which this white car was observed. !!
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On November 28, 1971 reports of planes flying at night on November 23, 1971 in the vicinity of the airfields located at View, Washington and in the vicinity of County Road 42 and Grantham Road in Clark County as well as other small airports in Clark and Cowlitz Counties were checked with all flights being explainable and normal.
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On November 29, 1971 the area from Woodland, Washington up the Lewis River Road to Cougar, Washington and Yale Lake was covered on a house to house basis, all loca- tions being in Cowlitz County. The business establishments and private homes contacted all had information concerning the subject and his physical description. One item of interest developed was the presence of two men at the Lone Fir Motel, Cougar, Washington, who stated they were going fishing in an area which had been closed for two months. The arrival of these individuals was 3:00 a.m. on November 26, 1971 and they departed after a short stay the next morning. Appropriate leads for these individuals are being set for the Portland Division.
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Further house to house coverage was afforded in an area near the midpoint of a circle specified by Northwest Airlines as the center of the suspected area in which the subject exited the airplane. Every house and business establishment in a 20 mile square area was contacted or recontacted and it was found all individuals contacted had information on the subject but no information of value other than that previously reported.
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b6 b7C
DB Cooper-560
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b6 per FBI and FAA b7C per FBI and FAA
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[REDACTED] Washington, was contacted on November 29, 1971 and he stated he did not fly on November 24, 1971. He fur- nished information on having met [REDACTED] who has a white car at McClellan airstrip on November 23, 1971 when he flew in there in his 150 Cessna, registration number [REDACTED]
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It was further determined that the Federal Aviation Administration fan marker beacon at a point directly east on Kalama, Washington on Vector 23 was not operating on November 24, 1971. Further information was secured from Melridge Aviation, Vancouver, Washington, a distributor of portable/receivers known as marker beacon receivers which are small enough to fit in the palm of the hand and can pick up a signal on the ground on which a fix from a plane may be obtained.
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On November 30, 1971 [REDACTED] advised SA THOMAS J. MANNING that his depart- ment had received a telephone call from [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Washington who advised that he had rented a [REDACTED] in an isolated area to a man meeting the general physical description of the subject in this matter.
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[REDACTED] advised he and [REDACTED] physically checked the house out on Confer Road in Kalama and found nothing which would indicate anything about the man who rented the house other than that furnished already. by [REDACTED] pointed out that when he got to the house he found that there was no indication that anyone had lived there and in fact he stated that the condition of the house was such that it would have been a hardship for anyone to live there due to its physical condition.
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He advised that one item found in the house was a cash register receipt from the Tweedy and Popp Store, phone ME 2-2290, dated October 12, 1971 for $23.07. [REDACTED] stated that this store was checked out and it was found to be a hardware store located at 1916 North 45th, Seattle, Washington.
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b6 per FBI b7C per FBI
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- 267 - DB Cooper 561
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SE 164-81 TJM:kdl
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On November 30, 1971 all doctors, clinics, hospitals, and agencies which could render medical assistance to an individual who could have broken limbs or severe abrasions from being in a heavily wooded area were contacted and were also circularized with a composite photograph and description of the subject in Clark, Lewis, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, and Skamania Counties.
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One individual was developed as meeting the physical description of the subject and was identified as [REDACTED] b6 per FAA b7C per FAA
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A Bonneville Power Administration helicopter and one fixed wing aircraft upon a partial clearing of the weather continued an air search concentrating on the area which has a center point of a circle as furnished by Northwest Airlines. The search took in an area approxi- mately 150 miles square and nothing of a positive nature was found.
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Federal Aviation Administration representatives in Portland, Oregon on November 30, 1971 advised even though the fan marker beacon east of Kalama, Washington was not operational, it would have been possible for someone in the hijacked aircraft to make use of a locator signal from an FAA beacon on Mt. Brynion in Kelso, Washington if a beacon signal receiver had been used in the plane.
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Further house to house canvassing was conducted by Agents in the prime search area near the center of the circle as provided by Northwest Airlines. Nothing of significant value other than that already secured was found.
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On December 1, 1971 a fixed wing aircraft from Woodland, Washington was aloft and covered an area during a slight period of clear weather which encompassed the area from Woodland, Washington north to Silver Lake in Cowlitz County, a distance of 40 miles and a section 10 miles on either side of the flight path of the hijacked aircraft. While this was being conducted, Agents in ground units
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DB Cooper-562
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were conducting door to door canvass in the vicinity of the southerly end of Cowlitz County. Total area covered by air was 800 square miles with negative results.
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Information was developed that a hitchhiker in the vicinity of Castle Rock, Washington had been picked up by an individual who was identified as [REDACTED] b6 a resident of Cowlitz County, and this individual had a b7C large number of twenty dollar bills in his possession. Investigation by the deputies of the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office and SA THOMAS J. MANNING failed to show any twenty dollar bills in the possession of [REDACTED] and the identity of the so-called hitchhiker who made the phone call to the Sheriff's Office was found to be false.
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Information was developed at Ridgefield, Wash- ington that a salesman for a soft drink company had infor- mation that an individual of his acquaintance was the hijacker. Appropriate lead was set out to the Portland Division concerning this matter.
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Contact made with [REDACTED] b6 Vancouver, Washington, reflected that the emergency equip- b7C ment on aircraft can be activated automatically upon reaching a gravitational force of 5 Gs.
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On December 2, 1971 ten Agents walked in a defined search pattern the area in the immediate vicinity of the circle of search as set forth by Northwest Airlines. The terrain was found to be composed of fields which are being farmed and a number of impenetrable thickets which have fallen logs, hidden beaver ponds, and creeks and generally hazardous and most difficult terrain to search on foot. It was noted that in getting into the thicket and under- brush growth, it was so heavy that even if an item was five yards from the observer, it could easily be missed due to overgrowth problems. The area covered in this physical terrain search was 1 1/2 miles long and 2/3 of a mile wide and took approximately five hours. Negative results in the search.
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On December 3, 1971 [REDACTED] was contacted at Brush Prairie, Washington and gave information on a disbanded parachute jumping club, The Century SkyDivers. He advised he [REDACTED] for skydivers under the Century club at Evergreen field for a number of years and in his opinion the problems a person would have in jumping from an aircraft such as the Boeing 727 and landing safely were very great. He advised that the one main problem a person would have making such a jump would be vertigo.
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Investigation conducted in the vicinity of Ridgefield, Washington to resolve sighting of individuals near railroad track by conductor of Burlington-Northern Railroad with matter resolved with negative results.
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Investigation to locate CB transmitter with skip name of [REDACTED] [REDACTED] and interviewed December 3, 1971 with negative results re information on flights or parachutists.
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An airplane belonging to [REDACTED] of Vancouver, Washington was checked at Pearson Air Park, Vancouver, to determine condition of headliner and information furnished by [REDACTED] was found to be correct with regis- tration number [REDACTED] and no KDR letters visible on plane.
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Contact made at Skycraft, Inc. at Vancouver, Washington and [REDACTED] of that company advised a beacon marker receiver is so small it would be very easy to conceal one in one's pocket and pick up a signal from the ground when you were in a plane in the air near the transmitting signal.
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Investigation to establish alibi of GARY SAMDAL of Rockford, Illinois was conducted at Longview, Washington by contact with relatives and friends.
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DB Cooper-564
Serials: SE 164-81