Siblings Believe Missing Plane Hijacker DB Cooper Was Their Dad — And They Found His Parachute

The mysterious disappearance of DB Cooper has fascinated conspiracy theorists and true crime fans for decades. In November 1971, Cooper boarded a plane heading to Seattle from Portland, but halfway through handed a flight attendant a piece of paper. On it, he had written, "Miss — I have a bomb in my briefcase and want you to sit by me." Cooper demanded $200,000 as well as two front and two back parachutes be delivered to him when they landed in Seattle. He also requested the plane be refueled.

Once they arrived in Seattle, Cooper allowed everyone to deboard the plane apart from all necessary crew. When his demands were met, he instructed the pilot to fly toward Mexico City. Somewhere outside of Portland, Cooper jumped out of the plane, which landed safely in Reno sans the hijacker. He was never found but in November 2024, a possible discovery of his parachute might be the key to figuring out what actually happened. Here's what we know.

According to The U.S. Sun, in 2023 Rick and Chante McCoy stumbled upon one of their father's old parachutes hidden in a storage shed on their grandmother's property. Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. had been on the FBI's suspects list for years, due to the fact that the Vietnam veteran was an "experienced skydiver who carried out an almost identical skyjacking to Cooper five months later in April 1972."

Rick was in the process of filming a documentary about Cooper with independent investigator Dan Gryder when the parachute was discovered. "The FBI hasn't authenticated it yet, but I've given them possession of it," Rick told the outlet. This caused renewed interest from the FBI who then asked Rick for a swab of his cheek for DNA analysis. "I had to think about it because I wasn't super thrilled about them having my DNA, but I eventually agreed to," he explained.

Apart from the parachute, there was more circumstantial evidence that supports the theory Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. was DB Cooper. Karen McCoy, Rick and Chante's mother, apparently confessed several times over the years. Not only did she reveal that their father was the elusive skyjacker, but Karen said she drove him to the airport that day. This is the reason why the siblings didn't come forward until her death in 2020. They were afraid their mother would be implicated in the crime.

Rick also gave the FBI a logbook that belonged to his father. In it, Richard wrote in great detail about several practice jumps he made before the Cooper hijacking and the one he definitely did in 1972. "I also had a copy of his jump instructor's logbook and the dates for the jumps listed line up perfectly," said Rick.

Richard was arrested in Provo, Utah in April 1974, two days after the copycat hijacking in which he attempted to steal $500,000. He was convicted of air piracy and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Two years later, he escaped from Lewisburg Penitentiary using a fake gun he made out of toothpaste.

On Nov. 9, 1974, Richard was killed in a shootout with police. He had been on the run for a few short months. Regarding the DB Cooper of it all, Rick is convinced his dad is the infamous thief. "I don't think we're too far away from this case being closed," he said.