• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
DB Cooper 'will finally be identified' after 53 years due to huge DNA breakthrough

Home> News> Crime

Updated 13:57 25 Jan 2024 GMTPublished 13:52 23 Jan 2024 GMT

DB Cooper 'will finally be identified' after 53 years due to huge DNA breakthrough

The identity of the plane-jacker has remained a mystery for decades

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

An expert has said the identity of DB Cooper could be revealed for the first time thanks to a DNA breakthrough.

The identity of the illusive skyjacker has puzzled investigators for more than five decades.

On 24 November 1971, Northwest Airlines Flight 305 was hijacked by a mystery man who claimed to be carrying a bomb - he demanded $200,000 in ransom before donning a parachute and jumping from the plane.

The only clue he left behind was a clip-on tie from the US retail chain JCPenney.

Advert

His identity has never been revealed, but investigator Eric Ulis, who has been trying to solve the mystery for more than a decade, reckons that could all be set to change.

A composite drawing of the hijacker known as D.B Cooper from the 1970s.
FBI

Speaking to the Sun, he said that he had recently met with scientist Tom Kaye who has tested the tie twice using a special device that is able to collect the smallest particles.

Kaye was initially hoping to analyse the tie for traces of certain chemicals or metals which could help shed some light on its owner - but the duo claim the device is also able to collect DNA.

The pair now plan on sharing the DNA they captured with a lab that specialises in metagenomic DNA analysis - an incredibly advanced type of DNA analysis that enables scientists to separate individual strands of DNA.

Advert

He told the publication: "Metagenomic DNA is the holy grail where this is concerned because it can separate individually all of the DNA profiles on the tie, even for something like a dog.

"So if DB Cooper had a dog, we'd be able to find that on there.

An FBI wanted poster for DB Cooper.
FBI

"It's critically important because [...] let's say you have a dozen different DNA profiles on that tie from everyone who has come into contact with it over the years, including various FBI agents and Cooper himself.

"We will be able to separate all of those strands individually, and - while we won't know which one is Cooper's - we will be able to gradually narrow them down."

Advert

If all goes well, Ulis is hopeful that this case could be closed by the end of the year.

"By December 31, 2024, this is going to be a new world as far as this case is concerned," he said.

"We're either going to have figured out who this guy is, or we're gonna have a solid DNA profile to work with that's going to be pointing us in the right direction."

Featured Image Credit: FBI/Eric Ullis

Topics: Crime, Science, US News, DB Cooper

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

7 hours ago
  • 7 hours ago

    Everything we know about Texas floods that have killed at least 121 as Trump arrives at disaster site

    The President and the First Lady have headed to the state one week after the horror floods wreaked havoc

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Scientists make surprising discovery at what lies under Antarctic ice sheet after its been covered in ice for 34 million years

    It could help scientists predict the future of the ice sheet

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Paedophile to be surgically castrated after raping girl, 6, in nation's shock new punishment tactic

    It comes a year after a law was passed in Madagascar permitting the controversial punishment

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Scientists think they've worked out what unknown interstellar object in our solar system is

    It came from outside our own solar system

    News
  • All the clues that led scientists to 'finally discover' Amelia Earhart's lost plane solving mystery after 88 years
  • Everything known about DB Cooper as siblings claim dad could be mysterious criminal following ‘one-in-a-billion’ find
  • Jack the Ripper letter ‘could be worth £125,000’ after he’s ‘finally unmasked’ in bombshell DNA finding
  • All key evidence linked to Amelia Earhart as mystery 'finally solved' after 88 years