The real D.B. Cooper’s identity may have finally been unmasked after a pair of siblings believe their late father may have been living a secret double life.
D.B. Cooper, also known as Dan Cooper, is a man who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft, on November 24, 1971.
The flight had been midway from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, when Cooper told a flight attendant that he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 (roughly $1.5million in today’s money) in ransom, as well as four parachutes after landing in Seattle.
He allowed the passengers to leave the flight in Seattle, before instructing the flight crew to refuel the aircraft and fly toward Mexico City, stopping off to refuel in Reno, Nevada.
Around 30 minutes after taking off from Seattle, Cooper opened the aircraft’s aft door, deployed the staircase, and parachuted out into the sky over Washington.
His real identity as well as his whereabouts – and whether or not he survived the jump – have never been conclusively determined.
A small amount of the ransom money was recovered on the banks of the Columbia River near Vancouver, Washington, in 1980 but the rest has never been found.
The crime remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in the history of commercial aviation, and the FBI had long speculated that Cooper may not have survived the jump due to the inclement weather, lack of proper skydiving equipment, the forest terrain and lack of detailed knowledge of the landing area, as well as the remaining ransom money having disappeared and never been spent.
Now, a pair of siblings in North Carolina believe they have evidence to show their late father may have been Cooper after allegedly finding his parachute hidden in their home.
Chanté and Rick McCoy III claim their father, Richard McCoy Jr., may have been the infamous hijacker, the Cowboy State Daily reports.
The pair waited until their mother’s death in 2020 to come forward with their theory, amid fears she could be implicated in the crime after finding the parachute that allegedly belonged to Cooper in her storage stash outside the house.
When she died, the siblings met with aviation YouTuber Dan Gryder, who examined the parachute and believes it could be the one Cooper used in 1971.
Gryder told the outlet: “That rig is literally one in a billion.”
He claimed the parachute the McCoys found matched the modified chute made by veteran skydiver Earl Cossey for the police as part of Cooper’s demands.
People also speculated whether Richard Jr. may have been the elusive fugitive because of his own criminal past.
Five months after the hijacking, Richard Jr. was caught during a similar highjacking in Utah, and eventually died after a shootout with police when he broke out of prison.
The McCoys told Gryder that they had been aware of the truth for several years but had feared going public in case their mother was implicated in both hijackings as a result.
Since Gryder published images of the parachute, the FBI has allegedly reached out to the McCoys to see the evidence.
The siblings told the outlet that the FBI had searched the North Carolina complex for additional clues and had taken possession of the parachute in 2023, with Rick also having provided a DNA sample for investigators.
He claims he was told that the next step may be to exhume his father’s body, but the request has yet to be made. The FBI has not year addressed the claims or the case publicly.
The case was officially closed in 2016, 45 years after the crime took place, due to a lack of leads.
Featured image credit: YouTube/Dan Gryder
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Massachusetts woman dies after having to be surgically removed from cockroach-infested mattress
By Kim Novak
A Massachusetts grandmother has died after tragically being found fused to a mattress infested with cockroaches, bedbugs, and feces in her home.
Dinora Cardoso, 79, died after having to be surgically detached from the rancid mattress, with her daughter, granddaughter, and nurse being accused of severe neglect.
The woman died in hospital two days after being removed from the mattress she’d become adhered to, having suffered from the flesh-eating disease necrotizing fasciitis, and sepsis due to infected ulcers, officials revealed.
First responders had been called to the house after Dinora’s daughter, 53-year-old Eva Fontes Cardoso, had called an ambulance, but medics were unable to separate the woman from the mattress where she lay.
Eva, along with Dinora’s granddaughter Kayla Cardoso, 31, and nurse Lisa Hamilton, 64, are facing charges of manslaughter, caregiver neglect of an elder, larceny, and Medicaid fraud in connection with Dinora’s death.
Dinora’s daughter had received up to $140,000 for caring for her mother, according to Law & Crime, but allowed her diabetes to go completely unmonitored, and left the elderly woman alone for weeks as insects began to infest the fetid bed.
Dinora had to be transported to the hospital with the mattress still attached to her, before she was able to be separated from it, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office announced in a press release.
Just a week before the call was made to the ambulance service, Lisa, who is a registered nurse, had reported that Dinora was “clean, well cared for, alert, and her diabetes was well-controlled,” according to prosecutors.
They added: “She made no mention of pressure ulcers, feces, bedbugs, or cockroaches.”
.jpg_QfjLqO?tr=w-1024,cr-0.0.1024.696&config=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)
Lisa had been responsible for visiting Dinora at least once per week to check on her care, medical conditions, and medication intake, the press release confirmed.
Eva had been employed as her mother’s personal care attendant (PCA) while her niece Kayla served as her grandmother’s health care proxy and PCA Program Surrogate, according to the Mirror US.
As well as the severe neglect the trio is accused of subjecting Dinora to, they are also accused of fraud after allegedly billing MassHealth for services that were never provided, including claims for services supposedly undertaken while Dinora was in hospital.
The three women are also accused of charging for services posthumously, according to prosecutors, while bank records allegedly show that Eva regularly gave some of her PCA cheque to Kayla.
Eva allegedly received over $140,000 from MassHealth for her PCA care of Dinora, while officials added that Lisa’s report about the patient’s condition contradicted EMT and hospital records, which showed that Dinora’s diabetes was completely uncontrolled and that the infestation of insects in her bed would have been present for at least many weeks before the medics were called out, an an expert entomologist confirmed.
A grand jury indicted the three women on November 19, and they were arrested and arraigned on November 22. They are due in court on January 15.
Featured image credit: thenakedsnail/Getty Images
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Hannah Kobayashi’s dad’s cause of death confirmed 2 weeks after her disappearance in Los Angeles
By Kim Novak
The cause of death of Ryan Kobayashi has been confirmed, after he tragically passed away two weeks after his daughter, Hannah Kobayashi, went missing.
Hannah Kobayashi, 31, who is from Hawaii, has been missing in Los Angeles since November 11 after failing to get on a connecting flight to New York.
She had been due to travel to New York on a “bucket list” trip, where she was set to meet up with her aunt, but never made it onto the plane.
Her last posts had been from Los Angeles, where she’d attended an event at The Grove, but her loved ones grew concerned when they received text messages which they said did not sound like Hannah.
In them, Hannah spoke of having her identity stolen and being duped by someone, and communication soon stopped from her phone.
Her father, Ryan, had joined other family members in Los Angeles to help with the search but was tragically found dead in the early hours of Sunday morning,
The L.A. County medical examiner has now confirmed that the 58-year-old died by suicide.
His cause of death was multiple blunt force traumatic injuries with his location of death listed as a parking lot near LAX airport, according to the medical examiner’s report as cited by People.
A spokesperson had previously told the outlet that law enforcement was called to the parking structure for “an apparent suicide”, with Hannah’s aunt and Ryan’s former sister-in-law Larie Pidgeon claiming he’d had a mental health emergency brought on by the stress of her disappearance.
Larie said on Monday: “We’ve been searching tirelessly. I think it just became so overwhelming for him driving the streets, going to Skid Row and seeing where his daughter could possibly have ended up.”
She added to the New York Post that she believes the conspiracy theories surrounding her disappearance had been weighing on Ryan before his death.
Larie told the outlet: “It’s bulls**t! It’s such bulls**t! If Ryan is looking at all this s**t, imagine that weighing on him?
“He broke. He died of a broken heart. We were tirelessly searching, and Ryan was a big, giant teddy bear. He’s sensitive.
“Imagine looking in places like Skid Row, picturing his daughter being sex trafficked, not getting sleep. He just broke.”
A GoFundMe has been set up for Ryan’ fiancée Li, in which his niece Emi Ko wrote: “He has been living his absolute worst nightmare, since Hannah’s disappearance, and now, with his passing, our family is grappling with unimaginable grief.”
She went on to describe him as “a truly remarkable person who lit up every room with his positivity and kind heart”, adding: “Ryan’s love for his family was boundless, and he would do anything to protect and care for his daughters.”
Hannah’s last known pinned location had been at LAX at around 4PM on November 11, with the family later getting a confirmed sighting of Hannah and an unidentified person getting on a train, but she has not been seen since reportedly exiting at Pico Station.
The family has vowed to keep searching for Hannah, with Larie telling People: “We’re still here. We’re a family doing the best we can now with two tragedies.”
Prior to her disappearance, Hannah had sent concerning messages, with a friend saying she’d text: “Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f**k since Friday.”
Another message read: “I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds … For someone I thought I loved.”
She had also texted the aunt she was meant to meet in New York to say: “I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening.”
Larie also slammed the online conspiracy theorists who have alleged that the family may be involved in Hannah’s disappearance, adding: “It’s people wanting more out of the story than that the world is cruel and evil and a woman traveling alone can get taken in the blink of an eye.
“Everything was normal until the 11th. We’re the kind of family that if you f**k up, you ask for help. She wouldn’t hide something.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
Featured image credit: Facebook/Missing People in America
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Family of Hawaii woman missing in Los Angeles heartbroken as father is found dead during search
By Kim Novak
The family of missing Hannah Kobayashi has shared a heartbreaking update revealing that her father has died during the search.
As previously reported, the 31-year-old had been reported missing after she stopped responding to calls and messages after flying from her home in Maui, Hawaii, to Los Angeles on November 8.
She was scheduled to board a connecting flight to New York City at LAX but never made the onward journey.
Hannah’s family has been raising awareness of the fact she is missing as well as being involved in the search themselves but revealed that her father, Ryan Kobayashi, tragically took his own life this week.
Ryan Kobayashi, 58, had been inn Los Angeles to help search for Hannah, but was tragically found dead near LAX over the weekend.
Police confirmed that he had died after jumping from a parking structure near the airport around 4AM on Sunday, NBC Los Angeles reports.
RAD Movement, a nonprofit which is believed to be aiding the search for Hannah, shared a statement on behalf of the devastated family.
It wrote: “The Kobayashi family endured a devastating tragedy today. After tirelessly searching throughout Los Angeles for 13 days, Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, tragically took his own life.
“This loss has compounded the family’s suffering immeasurably.”
It also requested privacy for the family to grieve but urged the public to continue to search for Hannah.
Hannah’s father had earlier spoken to KTLA about the hunt for the missing 31-year-old, saying on Monday: “I miss her. Just want her to know that, and just want her to reach out – anything.”
Hannah had flown from Maui to Los Angeles on November 8, where she was meant to board a connecting flight to New York as part of a ‘bucket list’ trip to visit her aunt.
However, she never ended up getting on that plane, which departed 42 minutes after she landed in LAX, where she was seen on security footage.
Her loved ones became worried after receiving text messages which they say were out of character for Hannah, in which she told a friend that she “got tricked into pretty much giving away all my funds,” and said she had been stripped of her identity.
Other messages told friends she had been fooled by “someone I thought I loved,” and: “Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f**k since Friday.”
Her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, explained: “She mentioned feeling scared, and that someone might be trying to steal her money and identity.
“Strange, cryptic messages — things about the matrix, it was so unlike her. And then all of a sudden, no more communication.”
Hannah was later seen on security cameras at The Grove shopping center on November 9 and 10, as well as her returning to LAX on November 11 where she again failed to get on a flight, before being seen near the metro station, USA Today reports.
Her loved ones have been unable to contact her since November 11, with them stating that her phone has remained off ever since.
They filed a police report with the LAPD, LAX authorities, as well as the FBI, and family members have been in Los Angeles helping with the search.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
Featured image credit: Facebook/Missing People in America
Georgia mom arrested after letting 10-year-old son walk home alone
By Kim Novak
A mother has been arrested after allowing her 10-year-old son to walk home alone.
Brittany Patterson, 41, from Georgia, was arrested in front of her children on October 30.
She was taken into custody and handed charges related to child endangerment by the Fannin County Sheriff’s Department after her 10-year-old son, Soren, ventured less than a mile away into town the day before Halloween.
Patterson, who believes in free-range parenting, has been fighting back against the charges since they were handed to her and has refused to accept a plea deal.
.jpg_j2kd62?tr=w-1024,cr-0.0.1024.686&config=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)
Soren, 10, had walked less than a mile away into town on October 30, and while he hadn’t asked his mother’s permission, Patterson says she probably would have allowed him to go even if he had.
Sheriff’s deputies spotted Soren wandering through the town, close to the North Carolina border, and called the mom-of-four to let her know where he was.
Patterson was held up at the doctor’s office with another of her sons at the time, so the deputies drove Soren home and later returned to arrest Patterson in front of her family.
She appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend with her lawyer to share her experience, explaining: “It’s definitely been a little traumatizing. My kids have never seen anything like that or been exposed to anything like that, so really their first encounter with police or law enforcement is to see them taking their mother out of their home in handcuffs I think was pretty traumatizing.”
She claimed that law enforcement officials had suggested they’d drop the charges against Patterson if she agreed to put a GPS tracker on her son’s phone so she would be able to know his whereabouts at all times. She says the offer was not officially in writing or offered verbally, but “vaguely hinted at”, according to reports from the New York Post.
Her lawyer, David DeLugas, added: “The irony here too is that the next day was Halloween, where kids walk often without their parents door-to-door in the dark and knock on the doors of strangers, and yet [Soren] was in the middle of the day just walking down the street not a tenth of a mile [away].”
The arrest has also sparked a debate about free-range parenting and the government’s control over the way in which parents can raise their children.
Patterson said: “The reality is as parents we should have that autonomy whether we want to wrap our kids in bubble wrap or whether we want to give our kids a little more freedom and autonomy.
“It should be our decision as parents, and not the decision of some government authority who doesn’t even know our kids or know our family.”
People took to social media to defend Patterson, writing: “The cop said that there was a law that a 10yo could not walk down the street by himself. There is no such law. They are trying to bully her into letting the govt track her child. I hope she sues the c**p out of them.”
Another wrote: “Remember when, as a kid, you could ride your bike, walk, play or explore until the streetlamps went out? Apparently that’s illegal in Georgia. Brittany Patterson caught a reckless conduct charge after police said her son who was 10 walked about a mile to the corner store. She plans to fight her case.”
Someone else added: “This is ridiculous. Arrested for letting her son walk 1/2 a mile in a small town. I walked MUCH further than that when I was 11 & I lived in a very large, major city. This kid lived in a town of only 370 people FFS. Ridiculous.”
Featured image credit: Arman Zhenikeyev/Getty Image
Southwest passengers forced to evacuate smoke-filled plane after ‘smartphone and seat catch on fire’
By Kim Novak
Passengers were forced to evacuate a Southwest Airlines plane on Friday after part of the cabin was filled with smoke due to a fire on board.
According to reports from the New York Post, passengers were forced to evacuate the plane after a phone battery caught on fire while the aircraft was waiting to depart Denver International Airport in Colorado.
Passengers on board claimed that smoke began to fill the back of the aircraft before they were forced to leave the plane.
Jennifer Rodgers, who was on the plane at the time, told CBS News: “Everybody saw the smoke, because it kind of filled the back of the cabin, and then somebody screamed ‘Fire.'”
Seth Anderson, who was also on the aircraft, added: “It must have been burning pretty rapidly, because there was a pause, and then there was again ‘Fire! Fire!’
“And then all of a sudden everybody just started getting up, and that’s when all the panicking started on the plane.”
The incident occurred on Southwest Airlines flight 3316 while 108 passengers were on board, waiting to fly to Houston, Texas.
CNN reports that eyewitnesses claimed the cause of the fire was a passenger’s smartphone, which began to fill the cabin with acrid smoke and caused a seat to catch on fire.
Passengers in the front of the plane were ordered to evacuate the aircraft via the jet bridge, while those in the rear slid down an emergency slide, as captured on video footage.
Crew members quickly leaped into action and used a fire extinguisher board to put out the flame on the seat, Fox News reports.
Jacquetta Anderson, who was also aboard the aircraft, told the outlet of the chaotic scenes that unfolded: “There’s nowhere to go, because they were exiting through the back of the plane. And so I kind of got pushed around a little bit.
“People were yelling leave your stuff. But I actually had two dogs with me, and I wasn’t going to leave them.”
The plane had taxied late due to some technical troubles and Anderson added: “I can’t think enough about that.
“That little delay that we had at the beginning. Really helped us keep on the ground while that was happening, because we would have been up in the air by that time and then that thing would have been on fire. While we were in the air. That would have been a catastrophe.”
Two people were injured in the melee, with one passenger reportedly suffering injuries during the evacuation, while the person whose phone caught alight had to be treated for burns to their hand, the airline said in a statement.
CNN reports that after the incident, the flight was able to touch down three hours later at its destination, William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.
The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into the cause of the incident.
