VANCOUVER, Wash. - A team of scientists is in town, helping the Seattle FBI do something it hasn't been able to do on its own. They're trying to find new evidence that will lead to one of the Northwest's most notorious fugitives.
Tom Kaye's casting with cash, which tells you this is ordinary fisherman on the banks of the Columbia River.
Weird science - that's probably the better way to describe the fishing expedition that's going on this week near Vancouver.
Kaye is hoping his experiment can help reel in one of the biggest catches of all: the Northwest skyjacker known only as D.B. Cooper.
"It remains the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history," said Kaye.
Kaye is a member of a scientific team that is in Washington state this week helping the FBI unearth new leads in the 38-year old cold case. The hijacker, an armed passenger calling himself Dan Cooper, demanded parachutes and ransom before his airliner left SeaTac Airport.
Nearly nine years after his daring jump, a family on an outing found some of the ransom money along the Columbia. Kaye, a paleontologist who normally digs up dinosaur bones, said his experiment may tell him if the money floated ashore or was planted there.
"What happens to bones and how they get preserved is the same question we ask about the money: How did it get buried and how did it get preserved?" said Kaye.
The scientists will examine more evidence, like the necktie Cooper left on the plane, at the Seattle FBI later this week.
The Cooper researchers say they've already de-bunked some myths about the Cooper case, but they won't go public with specifics until their research is complete, likely in the fall.
The scientists are volunteering their time to the case and are paying their own expenses.
Tom Kaye's casting with cash, which tells you this is ordinary fisherman on the banks of the Columbia River.
Weird science - that's probably the better way to describe the fishing expedition that's going on this week near Vancouver.
Kaye is hoping his experiment can help reel in one of the biggest catches of all: the Northwest skyjacker known only as D.B. Cooper.
"It remains the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history," said Kaye.
Kaye is a member of a scientific team that is in Washington state this week helping the FBI unearth new leads in the 38-year old cold case. The hijacker, an armed passenger calling himself Dan Cooper, demanded parachutes and ransom before his airliner left SeaTac Airport.
Nearly nine years after his daring jump, a family on an outing found some of the ransom money along the Columbia. Kaye, a paleontologist who normally digs up dinosaur bones, said his experiment may tell him if the money floated ashore or was planted there.
"What happens to bones and how they get preserved is the same question we ask about the money: How did it get buried and how did it get preserved?" said Kaye.
The scientists will examine more evidence, like the necktie Cooper left on the plane, at the Seattle FBI later this week.
The Cooper researchers say they've already de-bunked some myths about the Cooper case, but they won't go public with specifics until their research is complete, likely in the fall.
The scientists are volunteering their time to the case and are paying their own expenses.
