Dick Lepsy timeline:
1969 October 29-Dick Lepsy disappears from Grayling, Michigan, after being accused of embezzling $2000 in cash and absconding to Mexico via aircraft and is never seen or heard from again.
1971, November 24-The D.B. Cooper suspect hijacks Flight 305 and jumps from the 727 to an uncertain fate.
1976-Dick Lepsy is declared dead by his wife.
1977-Lepsy's mother passes away and family ponders his absence. 
2011-Dick Lepsy is placed on missing person websites for the first time.

What does the daughter think of your investigation?  Is she assisting you?

Is anyone involved at the federal level, such as EVick has with her search for Mel?

I talk with Lisa Lepsy regularly.  We don't talk "Cooper" much, but her attitude is "it could be, it sure looks like him".  I think I mentioned before that her and her siblings feel there is a strong resemblance between their father and the FBI Cooper suspect sketches.  Lisa and I are meeting with a news crew later this month to discuss her father's disappearance.

Together we've chased down every lead we could, and all have ended up as dead ends.  There has been no activity on Dick Lepsy's SS account since his disappearance.  The FBI is aware of Lepsy, though Lisa and I have not been contacted by them.

I think if I took the approach of many of the other suspect promoters and said: "I'm 110% sure Dick Lepsy is D.B. Cooper (like Marla, Jo, etc.), it's him for sure, no doubt about it" and was convincing enough, than maybe Lepsy would get a closer look.  That's not the way I roll.  I'm merely saying I've got a 6' missing person from the Midwest (no accent) with black hair and brown eyes who reportedly spent a couple years in Mexico (Smooth olive skin, tan) after using an aircraft to abscond with somebody else's money.  Don't you find that interesting?

I've got my own missing person story going at the Mountain News. A 28 year-old mother of two didn't come from a night at the local bar last Saturday.  Last seen in the company of a man she had known, and according to the family was a bad boy.

Now, I'm seeing additional stories develop - how the family copes, and what the cops do - and what they don't.  Cops went looking for one day, and that was it.

The family is combing the woods and hillsides of Graham, WA, but they are disorganized, tired, HOT, and discouraged. No one is in charge. The Red Cross, Search and Rescue, etc. are non-existent. I've contacted the county's Dept of Emergency Management to learn the protocols they use to deploy their resources, but have gotten NO response.  Ug.

Basically, it looks like a mess to me.  Worse, the family thinks the media is a villain by getting details of the story wrong. Two family members who I had to contact have asked me not to call them anymore. As far as I can determine, the family does not have a designated media-contact person. I met the father two days ago, but he is always out in the woods searching for his daughter and so is unavailable to give updates.

Nimi, could you please ask Dick's daughter if I could call her to get a larger view of what is going on with my story?  Could you give me her contact information?  Thanks.

I did an impromptu poll of Facebook friends and asked them to state the age of the gentleman in the attached photo.  28 people, male and female, responded within 3 hours and the average age they came up with is 40.25.  High age was 57, low age was 32.  The photo is one I've never seen before and shows Dick Lepsy at age 33.  It was taken in August of 1969.

does anyone know the last time someone was missing in that area around the time Lepsy disappeared, any prior, or after?

Interesting response on Perry in the comments...

I have to agree with 12345. I think Perry wanted to leave the past behind him and start a new life somewhere else. He called his brother years ago. The call was a message that he was OK.

Things to ponder:

The FBI was originally looking for someone from the Midwest because the Cooper suspect had no discernible accent.

-Dick Lepsy grew up in Chicago and lived in Michigan.


The Cooper suspect was described as “swarthy” or having an “olive complexion”.

-Dick Lepsy was allegedly living in Mexico for two years before the hijacking and would have been very tan.



The Cooper suspect demanded “negotiable American currency”, a term thought to be used by someone living in a foreign country.

-Dick Lepsy was allegedly living in Mexico for two years before the hijacking.



The FBI and many experts believe that the Cooper suspect did not survive the jump, so they are looking for a missing person fitting the Cooper suspect’s description.

-Dick Lepsy has not been seen or heard from since the skyjacking and fits the FBI description of the Cooper suspect nearly perfectly.


If you’d like to compare photos of Dick Lepsy to the FBI composite sketches of the Cooper suspect, please go to my website:
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Swarthy? Says who? Robert Gregory?

Gregory is NOT credible in my opinion, as he told the Seattle Times the day of the skyjacking that he only saw the hijacker from the front of the plane when he stood up to disembark. I believe everything he said is suspect, including the FBI testimony that put him in seat 18 C with a few other people.  Himms has never explained how everybody fit there, but Ralph claims DBC was in 18c, Bill Mitchell had his books in 18c, and Gregory says he was sitting there, too!

"Negotiable American currency" is also suspect. As Georger says, "Source, please."

Good points, Bruce.

A couple synonyms of "Swarthy" are "Olive-skinned" and "Tan".  "Swarthy" was used in many newspaper articles of the day to describe the Cooper suspect.  Example: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

At the 27:20 mark of the following interview with FBI Agent Carr, Carr references "swarthy":
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Citizensleuths.com says this about the ransom money:
“Cooper requested "negotiable American currency". This was the most notable line to come out of the Cooper transcripts where passengers on the plane, including the flight attendants, stated that Cooper had no distinguishable accent.”