Part 63, page 24

Transcript

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WASHINGTON Columbia River Longview Suspected Bailout Site Kelso Kalama Woodland Lake Merwin OREGON CANADA WASHINGTON Money Found Here Vancouver Lake Vancouver Portland

AP Photo Newsday Map

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Rotting Cash a Clue To 1971 Hijacking

The Los Angeles Times Washington—A young Vancouver, Wash., family on an outing along the Columbia River Sunday suddenly stumbled across 12 stacks of moldering money—part of $200,000 that notorious airline hijacker D.B. Cooper had made off with more than eight years ago, the FBI said yesterday.

With the bills traced to the Cooper loot, 30 agents from the Portland and Seattle FBI offices have begun a search of the area for more of the money—and possibly some sign of Cooper or, more likely, his remains.

The family found the money—"several thousand dollars," according to one official—about five miles northwest of the Interstate 5 bridge that spans the Columbia and separates Washington from Oregon, FBI agent William M. Baker said in Portland. The bills were partly buried in sand that the family was scooping out to build a fire.

The discovery, by Harold Dwayne Ingram, 27, his wife, Patricia, 26, and their 8- and 3-year-old sons, marked the latest twist in the bizarre saga of the now-legendary Cooper, who parachuted from a Northwest Airlines jetliner on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, never to be seen or heard from again.

Law enforcement authorities long have believed that Cooper died in his plunge from the Boeing 727, because he was wearing only a business suit and street shoes when he jumped into a howling wind and freezing rain with an unreliable parachute.

The saga began when Cooper boarded the jetliner in Portland for a flight to Seattle. Once airborne, he demanded that the airline have $200,000 in $20 bills and three parachutes on hand when the plane landed in Seattle. He threatened to blow up the plane if his demands were not met. The airline complied, providing the parachutes and money. The FBI said yesterday that the serial numbers of the bills had been recorded.

Cooper permitted the airliner's 36 passengers to leave the plane in Seattle. He then ordered the crew to head for Reno and told the pilot to fly at a relatively low altitude and open the plane's rear stairway.

Crew members said they believed he jumped, using the least reliable parachute, over southwest Washington. Law enforcement officials have theorized that his body is in Lake Merwin, 30 miles north of Portland, or entangled in thick bushes. The decomposed money was found 17 to 20 miles from what is believed to have been the jump site.

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Newsday 2-13-86 pp 1 & 4

Date: NY file Edition: Author: [illegible] 6.27 [guess: initials] Title:

Character: Classification: Submitting Office: ☐ Being Investigated

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DB Cooper-26325 164-81-[illegible]

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'97[guess: 7] Crime All Clue to Nosslov [guess: Nosslov] Front Page 4 2/13/86

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SUP. B[illegible]