By Tim Binnall
A diligent D.B. Cooper researcher believes that a tiny metal fragment found on the skyjacker's necktie could point the way to his identity. The optimistic assessment came by way of Eric Ulis, who has spent years studying the case and confidently told a Seattle TV station that "I would not be surprised at all if 2024 was the year we figure out who this guy was." The researcher's reasoning centers around a microscopic piece of metal, said to measure just "three to four percent of a single centimeter," which was extracted from a necktie left behind by the skyjacker as he made his daring escape back in 1971.
According to Ulis, a scientist who examined the necktie was able to obtain over 100,000 tiny particles that had presumably accumulated on his clothing as Cooper went about his life prior to the skyjacking. Some of the pieces, the researcher said, were of a specific titanium steel alloy that was only produced by a facility in Pittsburgh which was a Boeing subcontractor. Following the hypothesis even further, Ulis argues that Cooper was likely an employee at the plant and has even identified a specific suspect: an engineer named Vince Petersen, who passed away in 2002. "He’s a compelling person of interest," the researcher declared, vowing to "continue to dig into" his theory to see if it might finally unmask the now-legendary skyjacker.