By Tim Binnall
The daughter of a man suspected of being D.B. Cooper has called upon the FBI to provide access to the skyjacker's necktie in the hopes that new DNA analysis of the evidence will clear her father's name. The surprising development reportedly came about after researcher Eric Ulis made headlines earlier this month with his theory that microscopic metallic particles found on the object could help identify the mysterious individual behind the legendary cold case. He specifically pointed the finger at an individual named Vince Petersen, who worked as an engineer at the only facility that produced the alloy at the time of the skyjacking. As one might imagine, the man's daughter was not too thrilled when she saw the news that her late father had somehow become a suspect in the Cooper case.
Explaining that she was surprised and dismayed by Ulis' bold assertion, Julie Dunbar reached out to the researcher to express her considerable skepticism over his hypothesis. "I spoke to Eric about this clip-on tie," she recalled, "as far as I know, my dad didn't have one in his wardrobe." While Dunbar conceded that "anything is possible" and that perhaps "it was something that he kept at work" that was subsequently borrowed by the skyjacker, she flatly dismissed the possibility that her father had anything to do with the 1971 caper. "As far as my dad being DB Cooper himself," she declared, definitely not."
Dunbar went on to observe that the incident taking place on the day before Thanksgiving made her particularly skeptical that her father had some role in the event as "my mom would've been furious if he wasn't home and my dad wouldn't have left on a holiday like that unless it was absolutely mandatory for work." She also posited that Peterson pulling off such an audacious scheme would have been completely out of character for the man as he would have found the caper to be rather foolish. "He'd call DB Cooper stupid and ask what that person was thinking," Dunbar said, musing that her late father would be "flabbergasted" by his name being connected to the legendary case.
Despite Dunbar's understandable misgivings about Ulis' theory, the two have now formed a rather unlikely alliance as, in the hopes of clearing her father's name, she has joined him in requesting that the FBI provide access to the necktie so that he can extract touch DNA from a spindle on the piece. Ulis had previously filed a lawsuit in the hope of forcing the government to hand over the precious piece of evidence, but the case was dismissed by a judge back in December. Given the legal reasoning for that decision, it seems unlikely that the FBI will loosen its grip on the necktie even with Dunbar on board with the effort.