Three cases of Royal Identities vs. D.B. Cooper

Got myself working on an update article on the DNA fingerprinting research in the cases of Louis XVII, Tsar Nicholas II and that of Stephanie Beauharnais/Caspar Hauser. To get a basic understanding of this technique, nothing beats the Human Genome Project website's Section on DNA Forensics.

But the case of Dan Cooper, the infamous D. B. Cooper, has suddenly caught my attention. It was 1971 when he skyjacked that plane over Washington State and jumped away with $200,000 ransom money. He used a parachute and went down in the Washington forests in the middle of the night. He was never arrested, and some of the money ($5,800) was found 9 years later in the bank of the Columbia river, Washington.

I had forgotten completely about this case and had not read or seen anything about it since 1998, when I read about those D. B. Cooper annual commemoration parties which take place in the town of Airel, Washington to celebrate the 'landing'. It remains the only officially unsolved case of skyjacking in the United States. Happy hunting!

PS. Exploratoria is now setting an online forum to discuss DNA evidence in High Profile Cases. Also in the plans is an online DNA evidence museum - will keep you posted.