The Biggest Break Yet in the D.B. Cooper Mystery Came From DNA

He got off a Boeing 727 in mid-air in 1971 and the FBI never got a name. Fifty-three years, more than a thousand suspects, and every one of them collapsed. But the man left one thing behind on his seat: a cheap black clip-on tie. It sat in a sealed evidence envelope for half a century while investigators chased serial numbers, deathbed confessions and famous names, and nobody thought a strip of polyester was worth anything. It was worth everything. Because that tie had been against one throat and nobody else's. Somebody finally swabbed it for DNA.