No confirmed fingerprints from Cooper were recovered from the aircraft. The man wore no gloves, and surfaces he touched were presumably processed, but the results yielded nothing usable.
The non-functional reserve parachute was found on the plane after landing. The second reserve parachute—which Cooper apparently opened and partially dismantled—had its shroud lines cut. One main parachute was found intact; it is now displayed at the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma. The fourth parachute—the one Cooper presumably took—was never found.
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## Eight Years of Nothing
Between November 1971 and February 1980, the investigation produced no confirmed physical evidence linking anyone to the crime or establishing what had happened to Cooper after the jump.
The case remained open. The FBI’s Seattle field office continued processing leads. By some accounts, the investigation eventually absorbed more than 1,000 serious suspects over its full duration. In its first five years alone, the bureau examined more than 800 possible identities. Each one was eventually ruled out or set aside for lack of evidence.
In 1976, a federal grand jury in Seattle indicted “John Doe, a.k.a. Dan Cooper” in absentia. The purpose was procedural: by obtaining an indictment against a named unknown person, the government preserved the ability to prosecute whoever the hijacker turned out to be, even if the statute of limitations would otherwise have passed. No one has been brought to trial on this indictment.
The FBI ran its official composite sketches through the press repeatedly. Witnesses from the flight had described a man in his mid-forties, white, about five feet ten to six feet tall, with dark hair and a complexion that witnesses variously described as olive or tanned. In 1973, a revised sketch—known as Composite B—was adopted as the most accurate representation of Cooper’s appearance, based on consultation with additional witnesses. The sketch remains one of the case’s most recognizable images. It is a composite drawing based on witness memory, not a photograph of a proven individual.