DB Cooper Mystery Reignites: Parachute Discovery Links Richard Floyd McCoy II to Infamous Hijacking

The decades-old mystery surrounding DB Cooper, the notorious hijacker who parachuted from Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 with $200,000 in 1971, may finally be unraveling due to a significant new discovery. A parachute found on the property of Richard Floyd McCoy II’s family in North Carolina has sparked renewed interest in the case, suggesting McCoy could have been the elusive fugitive.

The investigation was reignited in 2020 when McCoy’s children, Chanté and Richard III “Rick” McCoy, contacted YouTuber Dan Gryder, an amateur investigator who has been researching the case for 20 years. Gryder was invited to the family property in July 2022, where he discovered a modified military surplus parachute rig in their late mother’s storage. The parachute, described as “one in a billion,” matches the unique modifications detailed by Earl Cossey, who supplied the parachutes for the original hijacking.

The FBI, which had closed the case in 2016, has unofficially reopened the investigation following Gryder’s findings. FBI agents collected the parachute and its harness as evidence and also expressed interest in a logbook found by Chanté, which aligns with the timeline of both the DB Cooper hijacking and a later hijacking in Utah for which McCoy was convicted in 1972. The logbook is seen as another potential link between McCoy and the DB Cooper case.

In September 2023, FBI agents conducted a thorough search of the McCoy family property, inspecting “every nook and cranny” for additional evidence. Despite these efforts, the FBI has yet to confirm any updates or share DNA results from the samples provided by Rick McCoy. The discovery of the parachute, along with the children’s testimony and the logbook, has reignited interest in McCoy as the possible culprit, although some skeptics remain regarding his age and survival chances during the parachute jump.

Gryder and McCoy’s children believe the evidence is strong, with Gryder supporting the FBI’s recent request to exhume McCoy’s body for definitive DNA evidence to close the case. Larry Patterson, McCoy’s skydiving instructor, also supports the theory after reviewing the evidence, stating that McCoy had taken practice jumps in the months leading up to the hijackings, which would have been necessary given his military background in static line jumps).