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Skydiver's murder by parachute may be linked to US mystery
September 23, 2003
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When John Andrews, a US deputy marshal in Illinois, saw his friend plummeting out of the sky, his parachute trailing like a useless rag in his wake, his first thought was that he was witnessing a terrible accident.
Yet despite hitting the ground at 120 kmh, Cary Hopwood, the skydiver, survived. Hours afterwards, with Mr Hopwood unconscious in hospital with injuries to his head, leg and pelvis from which he would only partially recover, an examination of his harness revealed that, far from being an accident, he had been the victim of an act of malice.
It is a case that bears a chilling resemblance to that of Stephen Hilder, a British parachutist who was murdered in July. In fact, the similarities are so great that the file on the US incident, with the names of all those present at the time of the attempted murder in February 1996, has been passed to British police investigating Mr Hilder's death.
Sheriff Harold Johnson, of Fayette County police in Illinois, who is leading the hunt for 36-year-old Mr Hopwood's attacker, said he hoped that by collaborating on the cases, a breakthrough might be found that would clear up both mysteries.
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Police who are investigating Mr Hilder's murder said they, too, were considering the possibility that the incidents were linked.
"There was nothing extraordinary in Stephen Hilder's private life, no love rivalries or anything," a spokesman said.
"That is why we are looking at the case of Mr Hopwood. It's not dissimilar and it would be foolish to rule out anything, including that they could be connected."
Mr Andrews, also a skydiver, was off-duty when he witnessed Mr Hopwood's fall. "Cary," he said, "had been equipped with a video camera on his helmet to film the jump for the MTV channel and when you watched it you could see what had happened."
Mr Hopwood's father, Bill, said: "It shows him opening his chute, pulling the ripcord and the pilot chute just floated away." In fact, it was later established that the main bridle had been carefully chopped in two.
He added: "He deployed his emergency chute and one riser [the webbing that attaches the canopy to the body harness] had been cut. It should have just spiralled into the ground, but it got enough air underneath it that it held him.
"You can see his hands reaching up grabbing and he says, 'Oh my God, I'm gonna die'. He's trying to reach up and you can see the cords fluttering. Then he hits the ground and the camera goes thud. It's horrible."
Significantly, Mr Hopwood's son had not been wearing his own parachute that day, but one belonging to Kirk Verner. Mr Verner, a world champion skydiver, was the son of Dave Verner, the owner of a skydiving centre in Vandalia, Illinois, from where he made the fateful jump.
A problem with Mr Hopwood's own equipment had led him to borrow Mr Verner's, leading police to suspect that Mr Verner had been the intended victim.
Sheriff Johnson asked several skydivers to take lie detector tests, which they did and passed.
However, two declined. One was Daniel Wright, a former employee at the skydiving centre, whose refusal, and the fact he had quit acrimoniously, meant he became their main suspect.
The other man who refused to take a polygraph, surprisingly, was Kirk Verner. Mr Andrews said: "After it happened, Kirk was terrified that someone was trying to kill him. He and his wife went home and barricaded themselves in.
"The next day he had totally changed. It was as if he had come to an arrangement with whoever it was who was after him but I know for a fact that he did not speak to the main suspect."
The Telegraph, London
