Man Tied to Skyjacker DB Cooper Murdered

Earl Cossey packed famous parachutes
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 1, 2013 1:49 AM CDT
Updated May 1, 2013 6:05 AM CDT
Man Tied to Skyjacker DB Cooper Murdered
This undated photograph provided by the King County Sheriff’s Office in Seattle show Earl Cossey, 71, of Woodinville.    (AP Photo/King County Sheriff’s Office)

A man in Washington state has been murdered more than 40 years after he packed the parachutes used by skyjacker DB Cooper. Earl Cossey, a former skydiving instructor, was found dead in his home of blunt force trauma to the head and investigators say they have no reason to believe the 71-year-old's murder is linked to the Cooper case, the AP reports. After hijacking a flight from Portland to Seattle in 1971, Cooper received $200,000 and four parachutes in return for releasing passengers. After the plane took off again, Cooper jumped out over Oregon and his fate remains a mystery.

In the following decades, the FBI repeatedly asked for Coffey's help identifying parachutes discovered around where Cooper jumped. "They keep bringing me garbage," he said in 2008. "Every time they find squat, they bring it out and open their trunk and say, 'Is that it?' and I say, 'Nope, go away.' Then a few years later they come back." The same year, he infuriated a few reporters who called him on April Fool's Day by telling them that a recently discovered parachute really was one of Cooper's. (More Earl Cossey stories.)

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