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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →A 2024 report describes microscopic metal particles recovered from D.B. Cooper’s tie and a private researcher’s theory linking some of them to a Pennsylvania steel company. Researcher Eric Ulis named deceased Pittsburgh engineer Vince Peterson as a possible person of interest. The reported findings are not concrete, however, and do not establish Peterson’s identity as Cooper. The FBI’s case remains unsolved.
What the new evidence is
In a report published January 3 and updated January 4, 2024, KTVU/FOX 13 Seattle said scientists examining the clip-on tie found on Cooper’s seat extracted more than 100,000 particles using sticky carbon sampling stubs. Some particles were described as stainless steel and titanium. Ulis said he used U.S. patents to trace three fragments to Crucible Steel, a Pennsylvania company he says supplied materials to Boeing. Read the KTVU/FOX 13 Seattle report.
That account reports Ulis’s interpretation; the sources cited here do not include an official laboratory report or an independent assessment confirming the Crucible Steel attribution. A particle found on a tie is a physical observation. Identifying its industrial source is an interpretation, and connecting that source to a particular person is a further inference. Neither step, on its own, identifies who wore or handled the tie, much less who hijacked the plane.
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Why Vince Peterson was named
Ulis proposed Vince Peterson, a titanium research engineer from Pittsburgh who died in 2002, as a possible person of interest. Ulis told the outlet, “I can put him in Seattle, I can put him at Boeing.” He described Peterson as “a compelling person of interest” and said he would continue investigating him.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe theory’s logic, as presented in the report, is that a person connected to Crucible Steel might have had relevant knowledge of Boeing aircraft and a reason or opportunity to travel to Seattle. Those links remain part of Ulis’s theory, not an official identification. The report says he is not ruling out other suspects and acknowledges the findings are “not yet concrete.”
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What the FBI says about the case
The FBI’s case history says an unidentified man hijacked a Northwest Orient flight in 1971 and was never identified. The bureau suspended active investigation in 2016 after pursuing thousands of leads, but says it retains evidence and will respond to credible new information. See the FBI’s D.B. Cooper case history.
The 2024 report does not show that the FBI adopted Ulis’s theory or reopened the investigation. The distinction matters: a proposed lead in a media report is not an FBI determination, and the case remains officially unsolved.
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What would strengthen the theory
To move from a possible lead toward a substantiated identification, the links in the theory would need corroboration. Relevant evidence would include an independently reviewable forensic analysis establishing the particles’ composition and source, records that reliably connect Peterson to the relevant company and Boeing, and evidence linking him to the hijacking itself. The reporting cited here does not provide that corroboration.
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