FBI No Longer Actively Investigating D.B. Cooper Case

The FBI has called it quits on one of its most infamous criminal investigations, announcing Monday that the agency will “no longer actively” be investigating the D.B. Cooper case.

In 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked an airplane full of passengers in Oregon, stole $200,000 and then parachuted out of the plane never to be seen again by authorities. The FBI dubbed the man D.B. Cooper and started on an almost 50-year-long investigation to catch the thief.

“Following one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in our history, on July 8, 2016, the FBI redirected resources allocated to the D.B. Cooper case in order to focus on other investigative priorities,” the FBI’s Seattle field office said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the investigation by its official name, NORJAK.

The FBI added that, “during the course of the 45-year NORJAK investigation, the FBI exhaustively reviewed all credible leads, coordinated between multiple field offices to conduct searches, collected all available evidence, and interviewed all identified witnesses.”

The case has drawn much public speculation about who the suspect could be, but there was never enough evidence to convict anyone.

“Although the FBI will no longer actively investigate this case, should specific physical evidence emerge ― related specifically to the parachutes or the money taken by the hijacker ― individuals with those materials are asked to contact their local FBI field office,” the FBI said.

[Politico]