NMIWrecks

I did give Bruce some publishing advice, but it was not to spite you, Robert. I wasn't thinking of you when I did my best to help him in his endeavor. I don't have a beef with you, and I actually think you're one of the nicer people on these forums. That being said, I do think Bruce needs to walk his own path, though. RR Not you, NMI. Robert99 is the guy I was talking about in that post. There are few enough Cooper books out there and some are out of print. Whew. I really try to avoid the hate mongering that goes on in these forums. I like to take friendly jabs at folks from time to time, but I think there are people out there that are down right hateful when it comes to this stuff.

I did give Bruce some publishing advice, but it was not to spite you, Robert. I wasn't thinking of you when I did my best to help him in his endeavor. I don't have a beef with you, and I actually think you're one of the nicer people on these forums. That being said, I do think Bruce needs to walk his own path, though. RR

Hi all, I just put up a webpage comparing photos of missing Michigan man Dick Lepsy with the FBI sketches of the Cooper suspect. Lepsy, a married father of four, disappeared October 29, 1969. His car was found a few days later abandoned in an airport parking lot, unlocked, with the keys in the ignition. He was never heard from or seen again. Lepsy and the Cooper suspect share the same height, weight, hair color and eye color. Take a look if you get a chance: http://www.michiganmysteries.com/#/dick-lepsy-vs-dbcooper/4587446203 Thank you!

That's a total bummer. I am 1000% sure Mr. Mitchell would have identified Dick Lepsy as the Cooper suspect. Now we will never know. Thanks Jo, for souring the milk for the rest of us. I'm sure after a couple statements about D-Web gluing his ears to his head, Mitchell went "Red Alert, Shields Up!" On the brighter side, here is a link to a new article about everybody's favorite Cooper suspect, Dick Lepsy: http://www.northernexpress.com/michigan/article-6677-without-a-trace.html Enjoy!

I was just looking at a couple of photos of Dick Lepsy, who has been missing since 1969 after allegedly taking $2000 from his employer and fleeing to Mexico via aircraft. I noticed he seems to have loose skin on his neck, under his chin. Weird. What's that called? Is that unusual? (see attached)

A youtube video of a news report from the early 1980s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiuYyfG7-P0[url]

A news article on Oregonlive.com dated Aug. 3, 2000 says this: http://www.oregonlive.com/special/current/dbcooper.ssf?/columnists/boule/00/0803_boule.frame "Duane took Jo on a side trip along the Columbia River. Duane knew the area well. "He told me what was up that logging road, or up on that hill." A short while later, Jo says her husband pointed and said to her, "That's where D.B. Cooper walked out of the woods." "I said to him, 'How do you know that?' And he says, 'Maybe I was on the ground.' I just took it as a joke." I don't understand how you can Discuss D.B.Cooper in 1979 and not know whoe he was until 1996. Explanation?

No cat washing here.

Yeah, that's been done multiple times over the years. Nothing, nada, zip. It's like he fell off the face of the earth a couple years after he disappeared in 1969. I attached a couple photos of Dick Lepsy sandwiching the FBI Cooper sketch B. Here's a link to a missing persons website with his story: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lepsy_robert.html

Lepsy was declared dead in around 1977. His daughter had a family friend run a credit check on his SS number in the late 1980s and there was no activity on his SS account reported since his disappearance. A few days after the credit check was run, two men in black suits claiming to be from in insurance company showed up on the daughter's doorstep asking all kinds of questions about her father. She felt rather intimidated by them. Later, when she called the insurance company to complain, they told her there were no insurance agents working for that company with the names the agents gave her.

Great point Robert. The skyjacker sounds like he had the hair of a 35 year old. Just for fun I attached a photo of missing man Dick Lepsy sandwiched between the Cooper sketches A and B. Lepsy was 32 years old in this photo, though he looks much older than most 32 year olds I know.

The FBI has already stated their official position on their website, which says: "And what of some of the names pegged as Cooper? None have panned out. Duane Weber, who claimed to be Cooper on his deathbed, was ruled out by DNA testing (we lifted a DNA sample from Cooper’s tie in 2001). Kenneth Christiansen, named in a recent magazine article, didn’t match the physical description and was a skilled paratrooper." http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2007/december/dbcooper_123107 Now, we've already heard how wrong the FBI is, that they really don't mean what they say and their website is wrong. But if that's the case, then why is everybody wasting so much time trying to convince them to re-look at a suspect that has been officially ruled out? Jo, you say: "Duane Weber was Dan Cooper." If you truly believed this, wouldn't you be content and happy enough just knowing this truth yourself? Why do you have the intense need to make others share in your belief? I truly believe you believe this with all your heart, but maybe you need some kind of validation from others or something? Just thinking out loud here.

Hi all, It's Friday night and time for an obligatory Dick Lepsy post! I just want to thank everyone for all the hate mail you PM'd me after my "Hitler" pic n post. My point was we should try to keep an open mind and a sense of levity while sharing and looking at each others information. Sorry if I offended anybody. Attached is an image of Dick Lepsy circa 1968 with FBI sketch A and B.

I'm good for about one of those a week. I think "D-Web" is not only respectful, but also trendy. I have a friend whose last name is Keupper. It's pronounced "Cooper". Has anybody looked into the name "Dan Keupper"? Maybe it was used as an obscure alias? I was looking over photos of those who have been ruled out by the FBI as Cooper suspects and Dick Lepsy and comparing them to the FBI sketches. They all have some resemblance to either sketch A or B. Then something occurred to me. Check the attachment below and let me know if you see a resemblance. Creepy!

Wow, if we can put D-Web at Tena Bar within a year before the money being found, it's pretty much a done deal! I'm sure you told Mr. H and the Fazio you and D-Web were there within a year and they can verify this, right? Because if you didn't tell them this critical information that could be a huge step in solving this case, then one wonders why you didn't? Jo, I think your credibility is on the line here.

Jo says: A couple guys did "just vanish" before the skyjacking and have flown under the radar because of certain circumstances pertaining to their disappearances: Dick Lepsy and Melvin Wilson. I attached an image comparing a few different faces, including Duane Weber, with Cooper sketch B. All three guys are in the ball park looks wise, I guess.

I think it was Albert Einstein who said "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Dick Lepsy is a new name and a fresh face. He's exactly the type of person the Cooper suspect will end up being. A random person from the mid-west with no connections to the skyjacking or the Pacific Northwest.

What makes any of the multitude of so called "suspects" suspects? Of course there's not a direct link to any of them, otherwise, the case would have been solved. It's all conjecture. People have been looking for "something" to link suspects to the case for over 40 years now, and where has that gotten us? Mel Wilson's story is better than Lepsy's, I'll give you that, but Mel also has blue eyes. That's a big obstacle to overcome. I can suspend disbelief though and think both guys should be looked at. These are the type of suspects who should be looked into, not the "same ole, same ole". With DNA testing becoming less expensive, maybe we can start eliminating some of these new suspects and look for more that fit the criteria of not being seen since the skyjacking event.

I'm glad to see my book: "Still Missing...", made it to the front page of that esteemed list. It's good to know that people are taking a serious look at Dick Lepsy as a suspect in this case. His probably the best suspect out there right now, and one of the only ones that haven't been officially ruled out by the FBI. I believe Dick Lepsy will lead to the solution of the Cooper Case. If it's not him, it's someone like him: a person missing since the skyjacking event who has flown under the radar, but matches the physical description closely. Hopefully the FBI will share the DNA results which can be checked against missing person DNA via the NAMUS website. Time will tell.

The following narrative is merely conjecture, but could explain a couple details of the skyjacking: A man suffering a midlife crisis decides to abandon his wife, children and job and abscond to Mexico with a couple thousand dollars of his employers money and possibly a female accomplice. After spending some time out west, the romance wears off and the mans paramour starts missing her family and friends and decides to head back home, leaving the man stranded in an unfamiliar locale, alone. He cannot return home, because he will be arrested and the embarrassment of his predicament is overwhelming. A couple years after fleeing his home, the holiday season approaches and the man is low on funds, missing his children and family and becomes extremely depressed. The thought of going through Thanksgiving with strangers again gnaws at his stomach and he becomes despondent. And Christmas alone again? Terrible. About a week and a half before Thanksgiving, the man reads in newspapers about a bumbling skyjacker named Paul Cini. This clown Cini even makes the national TV news. Broke, hungry and alone, the man who is unable to ever go back home and is at the end of his rope thinks to himself "If I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out big." Improving on Cini's fiasco, the very intelligent man comes up with a plan. If he succeeds or not does not matter because he has nothing, therefore he has nothing to lose. If he dies or is captured, at least he will be famous and get some of the attention he thinks he deserves. If he gets away, he'll have plenty of money to repay his employer if he returns home or at least live on the run a little more luxuriously. The lonely man's mind is set. He does not care if he dies, at least his loneliness with end, and he will be famous. And if he lives, he'll be rich and will have redeemed himself in his eyes. The lonely man sits in the plane, giving orders. He is calm. He accepts his fate. At the end of his flight he steps to the rear of the plane jumps out into oblivion, into anonymity. If Richard Floyd McCoy, with his vast experience in pressure filled situations, was nervous, sweating bullets, and curt with the aircrew, then what would be the mindset of a man in a similar situation that was calm, didn't perspire and was polite throughout the event? Maybe someone who knew he probably wasn't going to make it and was fine with that.

Sorry Jo, I apologize. Unfortunately I have lost the ability to edit those posts. To mitigate the damage, I freely admit there are other pictures of your husband that look much more like the Cooper sketches and I made a poor choice in selecting the image I did. My intentions were not to be rude or hurt anybody's feelings. If there is anything else I can do, please let me know. Ross

Here is a link to the FBI's official website: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2007/december/dbcooper_123107 The FBI states on their website "Cooper was no expert skydiver" and "The hijacker had no help on the ground, either" and "As many agents before him, Carr thinks it highly unlikely that Cooper survived the jump." Now unfortunately, my mind is bound by common sense and reason, so I find myself asking this question: "What if the FBI is right?" And if the FBI is correct, wouldn't we be looking for a missing person who flew under the radar for many years and has some physical features which resemble the FBI Cooper sketches, but looks just enough off to remain hidden? Wouldn't we be looking for a "Dick Lepsy" or another missing person just like him? As for the FBI, maybe they're sick and tired of, "Coopersleuths" telling them how wrong they are. I agree with Robert, Marla devastated the chances of ever resolving this case, but many others have joined her in souring the milk of the FBI's investigation. Because of the the Coopersleuth shenanigans of the past, the FBI will more than likely never investigate Dick Lepsy. And sadly, there is no known connection between Lepsy and the Cooper suspect, but of course, there wouldn't be, would there? Otherwise he would have been looked at already. If you read this forum, I'm kindly asking for your help. I can't do this on my own, I need your help. I want to add Dick Lepsy to the list of people that have been officially eliminated by the FBI as Cooper suspects (see attached). This is not a personal attack against anyone, or their beliefs. I believe that if we were all in the same room together enjoying a beer or coffee, we would all get along smashingly and would have quite a conversation. Maybe someday this will happen, and who knows, we may even solve a few missing person cases between now and then. Ross

I'm thinking about hanging "Wanted" and "Have you seen me" posters in airports around the country with the attached image of Dick Lepsy and his daughter circa 1965. Anything's worth a shot

There is no missing woman from Grayling. A woman was rumored to have and a relationship with Dick Lepsy, but I tracked her down and she denied leaving with him. I talked with the only surviving member of the Grayling Police Department and he stated the police initially thought Lepsy left with that woman, but later confirmed she was away at college at the time. If a woman did leave with him, she came back and left him out west, because there isn't any missing women from the Grayling area. Grayling is a small town. I stirred things up pretty good and word got around town about this case. This yielded no further information on Lespy, which was a bit surprising. There's no proof that the Cooper suspect survived the jump either. Both positions are based on suppositions and I'm aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both positions. I agree with the FBI's official website that the Cooper suspect did not survive the jump

You both make valid points. I just read this on the FBI's official website: "And what of some of the names pegged as Cooper? None have panned out. Duane Weber, who claimed to be Cooper on his deathbed, was ruled out by DNA testing (we lifted a DNA sample from Cooper’s tie in 2001). Kenneth Christiansen, named in a recent magazine article, didn’t match the physical description and was a skilled paratrooper. Richard McCoy, who died in 1974, also didn’t match the description and was at home the day after the hijacking having Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Utah, an unlikely scenario unless he had help." How did you get your suspects ruled out by the FBI? Is there any way I can get the FBI to rule out Dick Lepsy as a suspect? I think we would all rest easier if we can get this done. Thoughts?