L.D. Cooper's DNA Is No Match to Hijacker D.B. Cooper's, Says FBI

Uncle L.D.

L.D. Cooper, the FBI's "most promising" lead to date in the D.B. Cooper case, has different DNA than what the FBI has on file for the real hijacker.

That's according to the FBI and L.D.'s niece, Marla Cooper, the woman who gave the feds their supposed big break, then immediately cashed in with an ABC interview and a book deal.

Apparently the FBI-performed DNA test that was supposed to help prove if Uncle L.D. was really the hijacker came back recently.

KPLU reported Friday:

A DNA test has failed to connect a deceased central Oregon man to the unsolved 1971 hijacking of a Northwest Orient jet. This according to the man's niece. She came forward this week to finger her uncle as the legendary fugitive D.B. Cooper.

I spoke with Geoffrey Gray, the author of the forthcoming book SKYJACK: The Hunt for D.B Cooper, last Thursday about Marla Cooper's claim.

He told me then that he thought the supposed break in the case was "bullshit."

What we now know is a retired police officer called and introduced police to a suspect that overheard him confess when she was 8 years old. And even though [Marla Cooper] said she rediscovered the memories after talking with her parents, she said she didn't believe her father sometimes because he was a conspiracy theorist.

In a case this big, with the stakes so high, that kind of evidence doesn't cut it. The Cooper files is littered with better suspects and better evidence than that.

The FBI's spokesperson in Seattle confirmed the negative result to NPR, though he stressed that the DNA sample on file for the hijacker is "not a very good sample."

It's unknown how on earth the feds plan to ID the real hijacker if their DNA sample is so crappy.

But rest assured that the highly paid professionals at the FBI will no doubt keep trying.

Follow The Daily Weekly on Facebook and Twitter.