Part 52, page 86

Transcript

The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.

Recently, however, we learned that there may be DNA-related evidence in the Cooper case. We should have thought of this before, as certain objects that Cooper came in close contact with (such as a glass he drank from and cigarettes he smoked) could still be kept in an evidence room. In recent years quite a few old crimes have been solved with the aid of DNA technology. And in fact, since the other crimes we were investigating were also old crimes, we had made the effort to obtain DNA material from our suspect, without his being aware of it. From my client, we obtained some handkerchiefs with the man's blood on them and have had both nuclear and mitochondrial profiles done by a private lab, Orchid Cellmark. We also have a full set of the man's fingerprints.

I then contacted [REDACTED] whose book we had read. I discussed the case with him, and asked him if it was possible that there was DNA evidence in the Cooper case, and he said he thought there was. This was vital to me, as I don't think it would be possible to prove or disprove our suspect's guilt on any other basis than hard physical evidence. I don't want to waste my time or yours pursuing mere theories or possibilities.

[REDACTED] gave me your name as the case agent in the Cooper case and encouraged me to contact you. I thought I would write you first, to give you some background on this matter. I will try to contact you by phone sometime next week in the hope that we can discuss the matter further.

As mentioned, the odds that our suspect is guilty of the Cooper skyjacking are small, but nevertheless they are not negligible. With the recent developments in forensic technology, perhaps we have a real possibility of resolving this case. I look forward to going into the matter further with you.

Sincerely,

[REDACTED]

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DB Cooper-21699