Part 43, page 427

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particles. Those found in the bills were rounded, worn and considered to have been exposed to exceptional wear and tear. "What we didn't find, is clay or other substances," Fiedler said. These substances could have indicated the money originally had been buried in dirt. When the money was sent back to The Laboratory for examination, most of the bills were compressed together, but a number could be distinguished easily. Field agents had determined that the serial numbers matched those of the $200,000 Cooper skyjacking money. The money was routed to the Laboratory's documents division, the lead division handling the case. First, the money was dried out, using some 23-cent blotter paper, a pair of tweezers, some heat and a careful hand. Individual bills were placed in cellophane envelopes and sent to the Latent Fingerprints Division. The sand particles associated with the bills were routed to the mineralogy section where Fiedler made his analysis. The most impressive analysis was the use of a $36,000 experimental laser beam process to detect fingerprints. The process was created accidentally by Xerox of Canada when it tried using laser beams to photocopy documents. Fingerprints would show up on the paper, making the process unworkable. The substance the laser detects from fingertip contact is unknown. The device, however, has been successfully used in detecting fingerprints that were not visible through conventional chemical and powder detection. Those conventional chemical tests also were applied to the D.B. Cooper money, seeking grease or oil fingerprint stains and amino acid fingerprint stains. All four systems turned up nothing. The money had been exposed to the waters of the Columbia River too long. It was impossible to detect any fingerprint traces, even those of Brian Ingram, the 8-year-old boy who found the money on Tena Bar near Vancouver.

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DB Cooper-17676