Woman Claims Her Now-Dead Uncle Was The Infamous Skyjacker

A woman claiming to be the niece of the man who called himself D.B. Cooper is apparently responsible for the FBI's renewed interest in the case. ABC News reports that Marla Cooper was the person who provided personal items and a photo to the agency which are being used to try to close the case.

Ms. Cooper says that her now-deceased uncle Lynn Doyle Cooper is the person who famously, or infamously, hijacked a Northwest Orient 727 40 years ago, demanded $200,000 and a parachute, and bailed out of the plane over the state of Oregon.

Ms. Cooper reportedly told the FBI she overheard two of her uncles planning something "suspicious" at her grandmother's house when she was 8 years old. They were using some "very expensive" walkie-talkies, and said they were going out turkey hunting on the day before Thanksgiving, which was the day the hijacking occurred. She says her uncle showed up "bruised and bloody" the following day. Ms. Cooper told ABC she heard her uncle say "...our money problems are over, we hijacked an airplane."

Ms. Cooper said her father told her that her uncle had been involved in the hijacking shortly before he died in 1995. She said she never saw her uncle Lynn again, and was told he passed away in 1999.

FMI: www.fbi.gov