By Steve Neavling
Netflix is set to premier a docuseries this summer about the mystery behind the 1971 skyjacker case of D.B. Cooper.
The true crime mini-series, “D.B. Cooper: Where Are You,” focuses on the FBI investigation and “citizen sleuths” who have been trying to solve the mystery.
The series debuts on July 13.
The case has baffled the FBI, which never determined the identify of D.B. Cooper, making the case the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history.
A man who went by Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 24 and claimed to have a bomb. He forced the plane to fly to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he got $200,000 in ransom money. He subsequently parachuted from the plane and was never found.
The FBI said it had ended its investigation in 2016, saying the suspect may have died during the treacherous jump. But a year later, the bureau said it may resume the search after a team of private investigators coordinated by a filmmaker found “an odd piece of buried foam” that they believed may be material from Cooper’s parachute backpack.
On the 56th anniversary of the hijacking in 2017, the FBI publicized a letter that someone claiming to be the suspect sent to newspapers.
Ralph Himmelsbach, the lead FBI agent in the case, died in October 2019.
After his retirement, Himmelsbach wrote the book “Norjak: The Investigation of D.B. Cooper” and “The Secrets of the FBI.”
Here is the trailer:
