A question regarding the Tena Bar area at the time of the hijacking....

We know the Fazio place was there of course. Does anyone have an accurate idea of how many other residences there were along the Columbia River in that area in 1971? (let's say a few miles in each direction of Tena Bar). I know it can't be many. Was the Fazio property extremely isolated or where there some additional properties up and down the Columbia?

It was Tina Bar, a few residences (northish?) of the Fazios, and the folks using or living at the Marina at Caterpillar Island - Amazon the parachute lady at Dropzone actually lived in a boat at the Marina at one time. But here's the rub ...

A relative of mine worked for law enforcement on the Vancouver side at the time of the Ingram find. (FBI Agent, Dorwin Schreuder and I have talked about this at some length because of course Dorwin was working for the FBI at Portland, and knew this area well also). My relative pointed out the railroad line directly behind the Fazio property. He said that in addition to the Fazios and people living at Caterpillar Island Marina and few north of the Fazios, there was a constant transient population and a few hobo camps on the Washington side, in addition to people constantly coming and going from the Fazio beach. Service calls to the hobo encampments near the bridges and along the rail line stretching to the Fazios was routine. In Dorwin's words: "These were people you did not want to mess with!" Dorwin and my relative think that if Cooper wandered into one of these areas ignorant of the risks, and was discovered, some of these people could have made quick work of Cooper and his money ... with Cooper's body tossed into the river. My relative rates this as a very real possibility and it could explain how money got to Tina Bar. The rail line comes from the north on the  east side of Vancouver then follows the river behind the Fazios and River Road, then bends north again before the Lewis River. Tom Kaye mentions an option like this on his website. Cooper may have survived the jump and walked back to Vancouver trying to get across the river and back to Portland and was encountered by unsavory types ... who dispensed with him. My relative has always thought this is a very real possibility. He says its the first thing that came to his mind when money turned up at Tina Bar - that Cooper had actually come back from where he bailed and was in the Vancouver area trying to get back to Portland and was intercepted.

The FBI checked morgue and hospital reports immediately after the hijacking. When the Tina Bar money was discovered the FBI rechecked hospital and morgue reports for the Portland-Vancouver area trying to cover the 'interception' option. Then of course the official FBI theory of the money coming from the Washougal was given, while behind the scenes other options including an 'intercept theory' was investigated. People were interviewed but many years had passed and nothing connected ...

My cousin insists the money at Tina Bar means Cooper survived the jump and was back in the Vancouver-Portland area after jumping somewhere north of Vancouver. Something then happened to cause his money to turn up at Tina Bar. But, by 1980 too many years had passed for anybody interviewed to know or admit anything and the transient population had changed completely. And to quote my relative: "we weren't looking for Cooper around here (at Vancouver) at all ... all the action was at Portland or north of here".     
           

I knew we had to think out of the box to solve the mystery.

Hobo pack murder.

A skydiver's worst nightmare.

Bad exit spotting can be very risky, especially at night.

Hobo camps don't show up on FAA sectional charts.

River sharks.

Oh, the humanity.

377

Dorwin and I have talked about this at length. Living and working at Portland Dorwin knew Tina Bar and the whole area well. He says that he and friends and fellow agents encountered some of these transient areas several times during his life, and they backed out "immediately". Dorwin describes several actual incidents in detail. It's one option that could account for Cooper's body being snagged on debris near Tina Bar then being dredged up years later along with some of his money. My cousin is absolutely adamant something like this has to be involved. He says the idea of river currents randomly bringing Cooper money onto Tina bar is "absolutely ridiculous".

Both he and Schreuder say this was an option everyone took very seriously, but there was basically nothing they could do or investigate years after the fact. A large effort was made to check hospital and morgue records again - produced nothing. My cousin insists: "The money is there because Cooper was there or somewhere in the area himself and something happened". My cousin says the idea of a plant is a far fetched. My cousin thinks dredging is the only answer and that cannot happen unless Cooper was in the area and something happened, for the dredging to reveal it later ... then Tina Bar becomes involved.

Tom accounts for an option like this on his website - read it.

 

I knew we had to think out of the box to solve the mystery.

Hobo pack murder.

A skydiver's worst nightmare.

Bad exit spotting can be very risky, especially at night.

Hobo camps don't show up on FAA sectional charts.

River sharks.

Oh, the humanity.

377

My cousin is simply trying to connect the dots - for him as a LE person its a very straightforward practical matter.

If Cooper did not land in the area, if the money was not a plant, if the money didn't wash in in some complicated scenario from someplace (God only knows where@!), then the only known option is the dredging that did happen at Tina Bar in 1971. And, for the Dredging to happen Cooper has to be in the river (as Tosaw etal thought).

The only way to get in the river is: (a) he jumped off a bridge on the Columbia, (b) he was thrown off the bridge, (c) his body was thrown in the river from somewhere close by that it snags close by, (d) Cooper throws his bag of money into the river, etc.

Money at Tina Bar has to connect with some plausible physical event involving Cooper himself or his money. 

The money at Tina Bar did not get there via a UFO or because of some technical fact in some manual on the 727!   

How would Cooper's hypothetical ambushers have missed getting all the money?

The way to deal with robbers is to give them your money not toss it in a river.

Think he might have dropped it seeing trouble ahead, intending to return, and the robbers didn't notice the drop?

Sure Cooper would have been accosted but if he had little or no money whats the point in dealing with him further after that is taken from him?

Taking what was in his wallet is unlikely to have spurred a killing.

Why would they kill Cooper if they hadn't robbed him of a very substantial sum?

377

The dredge is very hard to dismiss, or even laugh at. I find it hard to dismiss the fact of the bottom of the river being planted right in the crime scene? if that money was still secured with the cord and in the bag. I strongly believe it could of fused together.

I have a fireplace out back of my house. one of those old 70's type, the metal ones, remember those  anyway, I put my junk mail in the fireplace, and over a short period of time they all become locked, or fused together. the same happens when I have a bunch of crap (paper) in the bed of one of my trucks.

My rubber band gave way this month. this was part of a display I did some time back with a bundle trying to determine if they double banned the rubber bands. anyway, as most know, Tom Kaye sent me some of the bands he used. I put the bundle which was similar to about $2,000 in my bathroom. not much of a test, but none the less they failed.


I still have the USPS folder Tom sent me. it's dated 4/09/15

I made my bundle soon after getting the bands from Tom.
Bundle made in April of 2015, and they failed in December of 2016.

You should have put a sandbox in your yard and buried the stack a few inches below the soil.

well, when I made the bundle I didn't really have any intentions past the original reason of making the bundle. I remember putting the bundle on a shelf above the washer & dryer, and then seen it months later putting it in the bathroom.

I still have about 20 bands, so I will hit the beach and get some sand and make a box, but keep in mind I'm thousands of miles away from Portland....different ballgame....I guess it will still give us some results....

How would Cooper's hypothetical ambushers have missed getting all the money?

The way to deal with robbers is to give them your money not toss it in a river.

Think he might have dropped it seeing trouble ahead, intending to return, and the robbers didn't notice the drop?

Sure Cooper would have been accosted but if he had little or no money whats the point in dealing with him further after that is taken from him?

Taking what was in his wallet is unlikely to have spurred a killing.

Why would they kill Cooper if they hadn't robbed him of a very substantial sum?

377

Quote Tom Kaye:

After 40 years, no body or other evidence has ever been found, suggesting that the idea Cooper died in the jump may be in error. A mechanical explanation has additional obstacles, so the processes that transported the money out of the woods and then twenty miles to the sand bar remains a mystery.

The money find on Tena Bar is complicated. The rubber band experiments allow less than a year for the money to become entombed in the sand.

The money continues to resist all natural explanations for how it arrived on Tena Bar. The story behind the money may be as big as the Cooper story itself. There is no hard evidence that Cooper died in the jump so it remains a primary debate. If Cooper walked out of the woods, there would certainly be easier ways to explain the money if human intervention was involved.


We tend to want to believe Cooper had full control, full clarity, a flawless plan, and 100% luck at all times in the full execution of his plan (whatever that was). The money ending up at Tina Bar seems to be an anomaly. Cooper could very easily have been trying to make his way back to where the crime started at Portland, for any number of reasons. The fact of money at Tina Bar suggests something went awry which could even include Cooper tossing the money off the railroad bridge at Vancouver himself. Maybe Bill Rollins is right and Cooper's primary goal was an exorcism of his grudge and the money was only a token of his revenge and not important to him in the grand scheme of things? You would have to have been there to know - or know Cooper personally.