Janice R. Andrews
A long-standing mystery surrounding one of the most infamous crimes in U.S. history may have taken a surprising turn. Two siblings from North Carolina, Chanté and Rick McCoy III, are now claiming that their late father, Richard McCoy Jr., was the notorious D.B. Cooper, the man behind the 1971 skyjacking that remains unsolved after over five decades.
Their allegations emerged after the siblings reportedly discovered a parachute, which they believe to be the one used by Cooper, hidden in their family home. The FBI seized the parachute in 2023 for further analysis, although the case itself was officially closed in 2016.
The Infamous Skyjacking
On November 24, 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305, which was traveling from Portland to Seattle. Cooper handed a flight attendant a note claiming he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. After receiving the ransom, Cooper released the hostages in Seattle and directed the crew to fly towards Mexico. Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Cooper jumped out of the plane with the money, vanishing without a trace.
The FBI initiated an extensive investigation that spanned years, but the case, known as NORJAK (Northwest Hijacking), remains unsolved. In 1980, part of the ransom money was found buried along the Columbia River, but Cooper’s true identity was never confirmed.
McCoy’s Troubling Past
Richard McCoy Jr., a former Army pilot and skilled skydiver, was no stranger to hijacking. Just five months after the D.B. Cooper incident, McCoy carried out a similar hijacking in Utah. After being captured and sentenced to 45 years in prison, McCoy escaped from a federal facility in Pennsylvania. He was killed in a shootout with the FBI in Virginia Beach in 1974.
For years, McCoy’s name had been linked to the D.B. Cooper case. Now, his children assert they’ve known the truth about their father for years but kept it a secret out of family concerns.
Expert Analysis of the Parachute
Aviation YouTuber Dan Gryder, who examined the parachute found by the McCoy siblings, described it as “one in a billion,” suggesting it could very well be the one used in the hijacking. The FBI has also collected DNA samples from the McCoy family to investigate further.
Ongoing Mystery
While the FBI has closed its investigation into the NORJAK case, occasional tips continue to spark renewed interest in solving the mystery. The McCoy siblings’ revelations add another layer to the enigma, though it remains uncertain whether these new developments will lead to a definitive conclusion.
Over the years, several suspects have been considered, including skydiving enthusiast Sheridan Peterson, who passed away in 2021, but none have been conclusively identified as Cooper. For now, the mystery of D.B. Cooper endures, with the McCoy siblings’ claims offering a fresh, intriguing possibility.
