No DNA Match on DB Cooper Suspect

Test on tie doesn't conclusively rule out deceased man

DNA from the necktie of legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper did not match that of the FBI's latest suspect in the mysterious 1971 case.

Investigators had zeroed in on the now-deceased Oregon man, Lynn Doyle Cooper, after his niece came forward to say she suspected he was the culprit who jumped out of a plane above the state of Washington with $200,000 on Nov. 24, 1971. She said she had heard her father and uncle plotting the case and that he had turned up shortly after the incident disheveled and injured.

"I'm certain he was my uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper, who we called L.D. Cooper," Marla Cooper told ABC News.

Special Agent Fred Gutt said the test does not completely rule out the deceased suspect because investigators do not know whether DNA on the tie is the hijacker's. Gutt said there are three different DNA samples on the tie.

The man who called himself Dan Cooper [the D.B. was a transcribing mistake by a cop early in the case] hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines bound for Seattle from Portland, and jumped from the back.

A new book called "Skyjack" based on the unsolved hijacking, is set to come out today. Author Geoffrey Gray told NBC News that he doesn't think the prints found on the airplane can provide a good match.

"The problem with the print is just that there (are) just too many prints. And the prints that the FBI has been able to find aren't necessarily good ones," Gray said.

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