Smithsonian Institution Department of Anthropology memorandum report on partial human skeleton
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Document date 24 October 1975
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Id: Cooper-Part-70:003-004
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-70:003-004 Document: Smithsonian Institution Department of Anthropology memorandum report on partial human skeleton Id: Cooper-Part-70:003-004 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-70%3A003-004 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 70 pp. 3–4 (DB Cooper-29013–29014), Memo, dated 24 Oct 1975 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-70%3A003-004
OPTIONAL FORM NO. 10 MAY 1962 EDITION GSA FPMR (41 CFR) 101-11.6 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT Memorandum
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Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution
SUBJECT: Partial human skeleton
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The remains include: skull vault lacking almost all occiput, left vertex to nose root, face; vertebrae C3, T11 and 12, L3, left ribs # 1 - 5, 9, 11, right ribs # 5, 8 - 11 with some ends broken post-mortem; pelvis; left humerus, right clavicle + scapula, femora, right tibia and fibula, right talus. The bone is generally tan color from soil staining (sandy dark soil with remains) but the right lower extremity and skull are sun-bleached white, indicating decay in a partly sheltered wooded (?) area and scattering. Remnants of dried ligaments at knees and a shred of scalp in the right vertex area contrast with some weathering cracks and the beginning of spongy bone decay and suggest sharp temperature change in a rather dry area; this fits the animal gnawing (rodents?) on right knee and left shoulder. Time since death may be from under two to five years (conceivably more) if death in the cool season ex- plains persistence of some soft tissue.
Sex criteria are male.
Age criteria are from 20 (skull) to 27 years.
Race appears White based on limb proportions, pelvis, and 2 wavy brown hairs sticking to the scalp remnants.
Stature estimate is from 67 3/4 to 70½" and build is average to slender.
Unfortunately there are no teeth for identification.
Possible identifying traits include: inward bowing of humerus; healed fractures of front part of right ilium and of front lips of bearing surfaces of right hip socket with consequent wear on the head-neck junction of the femur by the labrum and/or the ring fibers of the capsule (the left side shows a lesser degree of this same stress-wear, and a congenital obtuse femur neck angle may contribute); the preserved two vertebrae from the bottom end of the thoracic series suggest a very slight lateral curve with convexity to the left, and also show Schmorl herniations of the disks into the vertebral bodies; the skull vault seems a bit small (but restoration is uncertain).
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SEARCHED............INDEXED............ SERIALIZED........... FILED............... OCT 24 1975
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b6 Per FBI b7C
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DB Cooper-29013
FBI Laboratory # PC-M 1890 (National Park Service #75-1005) Page 2
Possibly the skeletal damage to back and right hip occurred in a single accident (motorcycle? parachute-jumping?, a fall?) several years ago.
The fresh breaks of the shattered skull vault might in part have occurred at death (or soon after). A "dent" near the cartilage end of left rib #4 and a 5 - 10° inward bending fracture of right rib #9 in the mid-axillary line (but not on ribs 8 or 10) may also have occurred at death.
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DB Cooper-29014