Private researchers have spent years examining the case from outside the FBI. Some of these researchers have conducted more sustained investigation of specific aspects of the case than was possible with FBI resources—individual private researchers have devoted years to specific suspects, specific locations, or specific pieces of evidence.
None of this has produced a verified answer.
The most honest conclusion about this record is that the case may be intrinsically resistant to resolution because the critical evidence either does not exist or cannot be recovered. If Cooper died in a river or forest in November 1971, and his remains are not recoverable, and the money he carried was lost with him, then there may never be physical evidence sufficient to establish his identity. The tie’s DNA profile is too partial. The particle analysis is too indirect. The composite is too general. The witnesses’ memories, however honest, could not capture the kind of identifying detail that would allow a match to a specific individual.
This is not a failure of investigation. It may simply be a reflection of what this particular case left behind.
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## The Names People Have Suggested
Over more than fifty years, the list of men who have been suggested as possible D.B. Coopers—by private researchers, by family members, by journalists, and occasionally by the subjects themselves—runs into the hundreds. Most were examined and set aside quickly. A small number received sustained attention.
The most commonly named suspects, beyond those already discussed, include men who had some combination of parachute experience, aviation knowledge, criminal history, or physical characteristics consistent with the witnesses’ descriptions. Some were Northwest Orient employees who had detailed knowledge of the 727. Some were former military paratroopers who had jumped in the Pacific Northwest. Some were men whose lives contained unexplained financial windfalls in the years after 1971.