Part 2: Who is D.B. Cooper? The Bombshell Discovery That Could Solve Infamous Hijacking

This is the second of a two-part series. Part one detailed how new evidence has been unveiled that may crack the D.B. Cooper case, America’s most notorious and only unsolved hijacking 53 years later.

For 53 years, the only unsolved hijacking in the nation's history has remained one of world's greatest mysteries. 

On Nov. 24, 1971, a passenger who checked in as "Dan Cooper" parachuted out of a Northwest flight somewhere between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle with $200,000 in ransom he'd received in exchange for sparing the lives of the passengers and crew.

The man, who was later misidentified by the media as D.B. Cooper, a name that stuck, was never seen or heard from again. 

For decades, the FBI and hundreds of amateur detectives have been clamoring to solve the mystery with little success. 

Some believe he didn't survive the jump, while others speculate the infamous hijacker was a titanium research engineer from Pittsburgh who died in 2002, among many other theories. 

One theory that remains the strongest was that D.B Cooper was actually a man named Richard McCoy II. 

McCoy remains one of the FBI's strongest suspects based on a near copycat hijacking McCoy pulled off over Utah five months after D.B. Cooper jumped out of the plane. 

Now, however, pilot and YouTuber Dan Gryder, who has been investigating the case for 20 years, said he has discovered bombshell evidence that has led to a breakthrough in the case. 

Two years ago, Gryder found what he believes is the uniquely modified parachute used in the D.B. Cooper heist belonging to McCoy that he found on the family's property in North Carolina. 

That ‘One-In-A-Million’ Parachute

How Gryder stumbled upon the parachute was accidental. 

He and his son, Dylan, had stopped by the McCoy family property. The plan was a quick stop to see Richard McCoy II’s grave before heading out to catch their flight.

The pair ran into the property’s renter, who let Gryder poke around the grounds. While searching an outbuilding, Gryder found crates containing the parachute and other gear.

He filmed himself finding the parachute in his YouTube video titled “D.B. Cooper: Deep FBI Secrets, Part 2.”

“This right here is what I’ve been looking for for 20 years,” Gryder said as he held the rig in the air.

Gryder and his son missed their flight that day.

Gryder was astounded by the find, calling it a “one in a billion rig” that matched the modifications veteran skydiver Earl Cossey had repeatedly described he had made before he handed the parachutes to authorities to give to Cooper as part of his demands.  

During the hijacking, Cooper had asked for four parachutes along with the $200,000 in ransom.

Three of those parachutes were generic, according to Cossey’s statements in Bruce A. Smith’s book “D.B. Cooper and the FBI: A Case Study of America's Only Unsolved Skyjacking.”

The other rig Cossey provided was an olive drab green military NB-8 parachute with distinct modifications that make it unique.

Given McCoy’s military background, Gryder posited that he would naturally use the military parachute and canopy.

The military standard bailout rig had been altered by Cossey to be a sport parachute with modifications that make it “as unique as a snowflake,” Gryder said.

These included the moving of the ripcord handle from the left side to right, as well as cutting straps, adding D ring attachments and enlarging the pack tray to hold the larger chute with its deployment sleeve. All with very distinct — and poorly executed — stitching, according to Gryder.

Pilot and author Laura Savino, who was with Gryder and Rick McCoy during the meeting with FBI agents last fall, tried it on, describing it as heavier than she expected once strapped on and buckled.

The gravity of the moment was not lost on her.

“I took a moment to soak in the idea that I could be the first person to have this on my back since D.B. Cooper,” she told Cowboy State Daily in an email. “If that turns out to be true, I knew this would be a moment I would want to remember.”

She agreed with Gryder that the rig was unique with specific modifications and a handsewn pack tray that looked piecemealed together.

“The circumstantial evidence is strong,” she said.

More Evidence Unwound

In addition to the distinct rig, Gryder further unraveled another piece of evidence that some believe had ruled McCoy out as a suspect.

In a sworn affidavit to investigators, Denise, sister-in-law of Richard McCoy and the sister of McCoy’s wife Karen, stated that she was staying with the couple for Thanksgiving weekend while home from college. 

She confirmed their alibi, stating that both were at their residence in Provo, Utah, on Nov. 24, 1971, when the Cooper hijacking happened.

However, when questioned by Gryder in 2021, Denise changed her tune, telling him in a taped recording that the couple was actually gone that weekend for about three to four days.

In her recollection, she now told Gryder that she recalled them having gone to California for the extended weekend, leaving her home to watch Chanté and Rick, then small children.

Both McCoy children, now in their 50s, confirmed the voice on Gryder’s taped interview belonged to their aunt.

Chanté told Cowboy State Daily that though her mother never talked about the D.B. Cooper hijacking nor admitted having any involvement it, she did tell her daughter that she and McCoy had been in Las Vegas the same weekend the Cooper hijacking. They were there for a delayed honeymoon, even though they didn’t gamble or have any money for a vacation. 

In fact, her mother told her daughter that they’d slept in their car because they didn’t have money for a hotel.

Also noted in Calame and Rhodes’ book is the mysterious collect call to Provo, Utah, from the Tropicana Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas the weekend of the hijacking where someone had answered and accepted the charges.

Gryder believes that McCoy and his wife drove out to Las Vegas, then Portland, days before the hijacking before returning to Las Vegas to launder what little money McCoy was able to stick in his coat before jumping. The couple then returned home to Utah.

Rick, then a toddler, recalls that his grandmother talked about their family visiting her in North Carolina that year around Christmas, despite the family being broke but suddenly flush enough to make the trip. 

While there, McCoy also shipped out a large, mounted mule deer head and other small boxes, according to Chante.  

Logbooks

Adding to the evidence pointing to McCoy as the hijacker is his skydiving logbook.

Chanté provided her father’s logbook that her grandmother had saved showing he’d taken nine practice jumps with his skydiving instructor, Larry Patterson, in the months leading up to both skyjackings.

While McCoy already had his jump wings as a former Green Beret, he would have needed that practice, Gryder explained, because he was used to doing static line jumps in the military, where the parachute automatically deploys upon exiting the aircraft.

Patterson told Gryder that he was shocked to learn that his former student and friend could be the infamous hijacker, but after seeing all the evidence agreed that McCoy was indeed D.B. Cooper.

“He sure pulled one over on me,” Patterson said in Gryder’s YouTube video, “D.B. Cooper: Deep FBI Secrets, Part 2.”

Circumstantially, it’s a slam dunk, Gryder said, but the FBI still needs definitive DNA evidence to close the case.

Gryder supports the agency’s recent request to exhume McCoy’s body.

“The existing DNA marker comparisons studied so far only validate the need for this final extreme step and should close the mystery once and for all,” he said.

Who Was Richard McCoy?

The McCoy children are equally convinced their father was D.B. Cooper as they grapple with their complicated feelings upon understanding both parents could be complicit in the crimes.

Chanté, who describes herself as the historian of the family and keeper of all documents, does not condone her father’s suspected crimes but understands how he must have felt backed into a corner after returning home from Vietnam in a climate hostile to war heroes, even in conservative Utah.

For starters, she grew up teased and embarrassed that her father was a hijacker and “jailbird” who ended up dead in a shootout with FBI after he broke out of prison.

She remembers coming home from school crying after being teased by classmates for her father’s crime while simultaneously understanding they weren’t supposed to talk about it.

She also harbors guilt because she, then a little girl, opened the door to FBI agents when they stormed in to arrest her father after the Utah hijacking.

Despite his crime, Chanté wrestles with the good memories of her dad and his heroism in the war that he signed up to fight and did so bravely, she said, including flying into hostile areas in Vietnam on volunteer missions where other helicopter pilots were hesitant to go for fear of being killed. 

For his service, Richard McCoy was awarded an Army Commendation Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross among several other decorations.

Once home from war, McCoy was in his late 20s and struggled with debilitating migraines while trying to go to school, serve in the Utah National Guard and support a wife and two children. He also was racing to finish his criminal justice degree before he turned 30, the cutoff age for entering law enforcement.

Chanté has learned a lot about her father through his writings, which she received after her grandmother died.

In a paper he had written for English class describing how he won a Purple Heart, McCoy describes the moral dilemma in shooting a man who he thought was unarmed only to learn he was holding a hand grenade. 

In his efforts to not shoot him, McCoy himself was wounded by shrapnel in the arm and leg from the grenade because he could not bring himself to kill a man he thought was unarmed, even in the heat of battle.

There was no justification for unnecessary killing even in the heat of war, McCoy concluded.

“In truth, though, war does not change men; only man can change man,” he wrote in his essay.

Chanté said she’s convinced that all of the weapons used in the Utah hijacking were all for show. This was something that her mother reiterated to her when discussing her father’s action.

She believes her father may have been desperate after learning that his migraine headaches were likely a brain tumor. Instead of getting help, he feared the loss of his FAA license, and with it his dream of going into law enforcement. 

Pressure Builds

On top of this were the family’s money problems and their ability to stay afloat.

“I think he thought he was dying, and everything was going to hell financially,” she said, noting her parents at the time were even talking about getting a divorce. “I think he felt backed into a corner and wanted to save his family.”

Granted, this is no excuse for committing hijackings and traumatizing the innocent victims he scared in the process, she said.

Her father was a God-fearing patriot who served his country only to return to a country that he felt turned on him, Chanté said.

“But at his core, he was a good man and father,” she said. 

Rick agreed with his older sister. To him, despite his crimes, his dad is a hero.

“I just weirdly idolize him even at this point,” Rick said. “He’s always been my biggest hero.”

He said he hears the same story over and over about what a good man his father was from family and friends who knew him. 

“It’s a common theme,” Rick said. “He was the type of guy to give you the shirt off his back.”

That’s the man both kids would like to remember as the father they knew, not the infamous hijacker whose crimes may forever define him to the world.

For Savino, meeting Chanté and Richard II has humanized “D.B. Cooper” for her, and she thinks it’s a story that needs to be told.

Likewise, Gryder hopes the mystery can finally be solved and the real story be told.

In the end, both Chanté and Rick are eager to end this nightmare that they have both lived out. They want to finally move on, grieve and heal.

Unearthing and revealing the new evidence has become a mission for the McCoys to root out the deep family secrets that have shrouded them their entire lives. 

They’re eager for closure and hope that the FBI finds the evidence agents need to close the D.B. Cooper case once and for all.

Contact Jen Kocher at jen@cowboystatedaily.com

Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.