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FBI close to solving D.B. Cooper mystery?

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The FBI has revealed that it believes it has a new lead on one of the nation's most elusive fugitives, as new information was released on the D.B. Cooper mystery.

It's been almost 40 years since famed hijacker D.B. Cooper disappeared when he jumped out of a plane with $200,000 in FBI cash over the state of Washington on Thanksgiving Eve 1971.

"We do have a promising lead," FBI spokeswoman Ayn Sandalo Dietrich told The Seattle Times, after a British newspaper reported the development in a lengthy feature story on the case.

Dietrich, of the Seattle FBI office, cautioned that the FBI is not on the verge of a "big break," but is carrying out "due diligence" on the new information, the Times reported.

Dietrich said the FBI received a tip in the past year from a member of law enforcement who directed the bureau to a credible person who might have helpful information on a suspect.

"I can't get into specifics," Dietrich said, declining to provide any details on the potential suspect.

Cooper's body was never found, and only a portion of the ransom money — whose serial numbers the FBI had recorded — was found along the Columbia River west of Vancouver in 1980.

Cooper jumped from 10,000 feet into a storm, with air temperatures around 7 degrees below zero, strong winds and freezing rain, The Seattle Times reported.

Authorities estimated he landed near the small community of Ariel, Cowlitz County, east of Woodland.

For more on the story, go to http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015787564_dbcooper01m… Ad]]

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