FD-350 clipping, Daily News (Longview), 'Beach residents groan'

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p.1 Daily News Longview, Wa.

Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Final

Title: NORJAK

Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

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Beach residents groan

By Donna duBeth The Daily News

The handful of residents who live along the beach where part of D.B. Cooper's loot was found Sunday are kicking themselves for not building more sand castles.

They also wonder whether they should have paid more attention to the sand dredging operations along the beach.

Tina Bar is a stretch of sandy beach on the Washington side of the Columbia River northwest of Vancouver. The lonely country road that winds along the beach, Lower River Road, dead-ends about three miles from where a Vancouver family found about $3,000 beneath the sand Sunday while on a picnic. Rabbits bounce on the side of the road at night, startled by occasional passing cars.

Less than 10 houses are along the 12-mile stretch of beach road. Most of the land belongs to large dairy farms. The Fazio Bros. Sand Co. also fronts the river. A road leading through the Fazio gate is a popular path to the beach. It is the same path used by the family the day they found the money. On the east side of Fazio Bros. is Leeward Isle Marina, with a public fishing boat launch and one or two house boats.

During fishing season, the beach is packed from end to end, say local residents Clarence and Barbara Ellis. They have lived in their mobile home just down the road from Fazio Bros. for the past 30 years.

Every day Clarence takes his outboard skiff along Tina Bar patrolling the river and the beach for renegade logs that could damage other boats.

Ellis says that the Army Corps of Engineers continuously dredges sand directly off the shore from where the money was found.

"I betcha that dredging brought that money up and most of it's been destroyed by the dredging," he said. "Even the FBI is going to be able to figure that one out."

Today a spokesman for the Army Engineers said they were working closely with the FBI, checking out that lead. The sand sucked up from the bottom of the river and spewed onto the beach could have contained some or all of the long-sought money. While the dredging is continuous, the last time sand was deposited in that spot was in October 1974.

Another resident of the area said that the money was found too far from the water to have washed up. "It had to be the dredging. Maybe I'll go get me a shovel," said Mrs. J.W. Freeman.

The FBI dug all day Tuesday, finding bits and pieces of $20 bills. An agent guarding the site Tuesday evening said the amount they found during the day was less than the $3,000 orginally dug up.

Tuesday night the Ellis family sat in their home decorated with fishing gear and large plants, amazed that some the D.B. Cooper money was showing up on the same beach their children grew up on.

"To think I worked like a slave all my life and here this money was right in my front yard," said Ellis. "When I think of the times my kids took the four-wheel drive right over that spot. I mean that's our beach. It belongs to the people we lease from and that's the beach we use."

His wife, Barbara, said she felt "kinda sick" not finding it. But she added that she would have turned it in. "Somebody could have lost it," she said.

The beach property actually belongs to the Hans Egger family of Vancouver. A baby sitter at the home said the Eggers were on vacation in California. They learned the money had been found on their property when they listened to a television newscast Tuesday night.

"They were shocked," said the baby sitter.

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SUB. E [illegible]-81-82410 SEARCHED __ INDEXED __ SERIALIZED __ FILED __ FEB 21 1980 FBI - SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-27864

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SUBS. B, E, [guess: G], M

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[guess: Reviewed] v/vi/[guess: 80] #5