And then, in 1980, something changed.
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## The Boy on the Beach
On Sunday, February 10, 1980, the Ingram family drove from their home to Tena Bar—also spelled Tina Bar in some records—a beach on the Washington side of the Columbia River, approximately ten miles northwest of Vancouver, Washington.
The trip was recreational. They planned to picnic and build a campfire. Eight-year-old Brian Ingram was tasked with smoothing sand to clear a spot for the fire.
He began raking the ground with his hands. A few inches down, he felt something—a packet of paper, wrapped in rubber bands, partially buried. He pulled it out. Then another. Then a third.
The packets were deteriorated. The bills inside were warped, blackened in places, shrunken in others. Some had been reduced to fragments too small to read. Only about 30 or so were in what the family described as good condition. The rubber bands were still in place around each packet.
Brian’s family, recognizing that the bills might be significant, did not attempt to spend them or clean them or determine their value on their own. The next day, they brought all three packets to the FBI.
The bureau confirmed what the serial numbers established: the bills were part of the ransom paid to Dan Cooper on the night of November 24, 1971. The FBI had microfilmed all 10,000 bills before delivering them, and the serial numbers were on record. The packets contained 290 bills—two packs of 100 and one pack of 90—with a face value of $5,800.