A band of amateur scientists selected by the Seattle FBI to look for clues in the world's most infamous skyjacking may have found new evidence in the 45-year-old case.

They're asking for the public's help because of new, potential leads that could link DB Cooper to the Puget Sound aerospace industry in the early 1970s.

The scientific team has been analyzing particles removed from the clip-on tie left behind by Cooper after he hijacked a Northwest Orient passenger jet in November 1971.

A powerful electron microscope located more than 100,000 particles on old the JCPenny tie. The team has identified particles like Cerium, Strontium Sulfide, and pure titanium.

"These are what they call rare earth elements. They're used in very narrow fields, for very specific things," said Tom Kaye, lead researcher for the group calling itself Citizen Sleuths.

Kaye says the group is intrigued by the finding, because the elements identified were rarely used in 1971, during the time of Cooper's daring leap with a parachute from a passenger jet.

One place they were being used was for Boeing's high-tech Super Sonic Transport plane, which was developed with government funding in the 1960s and 1970s.

Kaye wonders if Cooper could have been a Boeing employee or a contractor who wore a tie to work.

"The tie went with him into these manufacturing environments, for sure, so he was not one of the people running these (manufacturing machines). He was either an engineer or a manager in one of the plants," Kaye said.

Kaye says Boeing was developing cutting edge monitors, like radar screens, that used some of the elements found on the tie.

The FBI closed the case last year unsolved. The bureau was clearly frustrated by the lack of credible leads.

In 2009, the FBI allowed Kaye's team unprecedented access to analyze the evidence in the case.

Kaye's team continues to investigate, even though the FBI is unlikely to re-open the case.

Kaye funding for additional research came from the Travel Channel television show "Expedition Unknown," which paid for untested tie particles to be shipped to a Chicago laboratory for further examination.

To read the complete article or watch the video, see:
New evidence: Was DB Cooper a Boeing employee?(www.kvue.com/news/crime/new-evidence-was-db-cooper-boeing-employee/386175639)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
D.B. COOPER RANSOM BANKNOTE OFFERED(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n35a35.html)
CERTIFYING THE D.B. COOPER RANSOM BANKNOTES(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n36a20.html)
D. B. COOPER MYSTERY CONTINUES(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n48a43.html)