'Tattered pants found - Cooper probe on in county' (The Columbian) with map and photo
Document date 24 November 1976
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Id: Cooper-Part-53:260-262
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:260-262 Document: Clipping 'Tattered pants found - Cooper probe on in county' (The Columbian) with map and photo Id: Cooper-Part-53:260-262 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A260-262 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 53 pp. 260–262 (DB Cooper-22598–22600), News clipping, dated 24 Nov 1976 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A260-262
[illegible] Rev. 11-11-[illegible]
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(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Tattered pants found Cooper probed on in county
By DAVID KERN Columbian Staff Writer
ARIEL — Seven FBI agents searched 3½ hours without success today for clues in the D.B. Cooper sky- jacking case following the discovery of a pair of tattered, moss-stained pants in a tree three miles southeast of Merwin Dam.
"We searched and we didn't find anything else," said John Pringle, assistant agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office. "There's no way anybody can say whether his body is in there. The undergrowth is ex- tremely thick and it's been five years and you never know."
Pringle said they were calling off the search at least for the time being and would probably return to Seattle.
The agents, carrying shovels and axes and wearing coveralls, were seen by one resident as they got out of their cars about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday on Lynch road in the Green Mountain area of northern Clark County and begin searching the woods. The gray-blue glen plaid pants were said by the FBI to have been found late last month by William Lynch, a Woodland-area hunter, as they were hanging about 25 feet above the ground in a Douglas-fir.
Authorities were quick to warn that the pants found by Lynch might not be Cooper's and that the discovery
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) P [illegible] TH "N [guess: Lynnp] [guess: CIOn]
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Date: 11-24-76 Edition: Author: Editor: [guess: R.C. Campbell] Title:
Character: or Classification: [guess: S] [illegible] Office: b6 [guess: being] investigated b7C
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DB Cooper-22598
[...beginning cut off] might have stemmed from a hoax. However, the FBI, in Seattle said it is following up on the pants discovery as seriously as it does all clues in the Cooper case. Ray Mathis, an FBI spokesman in Seattle, told The Columbian late Wednesday morning that "about a half-dozen" agents were sent to the scene to search for additional clues. But, Mathis cautioned, "We consider this a routine lead. The only thing special about this is it comes five years after" the skyjacking. It was Nov. 25, 1971 — Thanksgiving Eve — that a man identified as Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 jetliner, demanded and received $200,000 and ordered the plane to fly from Seattle to Mexico with a refueling stop in Reno., Nev. Thirty-six minutes out of Seattle, he parachuted to the ground clutching the money in a suitcase. "All we want to do is pose the question, 'Are these his pants?' " FBI agent Dick Dyer of Vancouver said Tuesday afternoon. But still, since this week is the fifth anniversary of Cooper's disappearance, chances may be good that the pants were planted as a hoax, authorities caution. "We've been getting pants, parachutes, parachute cords for five years," said John Reed, agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle office." Dyer said Lynch found the pants off Lynch Road, a former logging road now little more than a trail. He spotted the slacks from a nearby ridge. At first, Dyer said, Lynch thought they might be a deer. Dyer said Lynch remembered it was the second Saturday of deer hunting season when he found the pants — Oct. 23. "He didn't realize the significance of the pants until he started seeing stories about Cooper in the news- papers again," Dyer said. When reached by The Columbian, Lynch was reluc- tant to talk about his find, saying he wanted no publicity. Lynch called the Clark County Sheriff's Office last week and Dyer was notified. The agent traveled to the area Tuesday with Lynch to view the scene of the discovery. There are questions whether the pants could have been worn by Cooper. The waist size is 36 inches and the inseam is about 33 inches, Dyer said. Cooper was described as being about 170 pounds and about 5'-10". Thus, it would ap- pear the pants in the tree would normally be worn by a man larger than Cooper as he was described. Probably an even more intriguing question is: how could the pants be in the tree with no sign of Cooper or his remains discovered nearby in the initial search by Dyer and Lynch?
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Map shows area of search.
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DB Cooper-22599
Staff photo by Reid Blackburn FBI agent Dick Dyer, left, and Sheriff Eugene Cotton examine trousers found in tree.
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DB Cooper-22600