Psst, hey, it's your favorite secret host here from your favorite secret podcast.
Today's Mystery is all about an incredibly daring crime that took place thousands of feet up in the air.
It's an unsolved mystery ripped right out of the skies, so stick around.
I'm Carly Q., and this is Who When Wow Mystery Edition.
Ignize a few vlogs you may not know.
Who When Wow made important inventions.
Who When Wow asked all the right questions.
History will never be the same.
So, today's episode actually starts yesterday, when I finally have my performance review.
That's Gustavo. He's the guy from Human Resources who runs these things.
For those unfamiliar, a performance review is when your workplace tells you how you're doing at your job.
It's kind of like an in -person report card.
When this first popped up on my calendar, I was generally feeling… terrified.
Since it's always a bit scary to have your work reviewed.
See, I was also suspicious that it might mean someone was on to us.
What if this was the first step in Butt -Head closing in on us?
What if they knew everything we were up to with this top secret podcast, and I was headed to Butt -Head jail?
But Gustavo didn't say anything about us secretly using the time -traveling elevator or investigating time -sealed files.
Basically, he said I've been doing a great job and they're very pleased with my work.
Except… Your handwriting is a little hard to read.
Hard to read? What?
I've always known my handwriting isn't exactly perfect, but I at least thought it was legible.
That's it! See you next year.
See you then! I was feeling pretty thrown by that, but thankfully I saw a familiar face as I left his office.
Amber! Amber's an HR employee.
She worked down in the basement office with me when she first started here.
We bonded a bit during that time, so I told her about Gustavo's comment on my way out.
Always particular about handwriting though, right?
Like that's his thing about everybody?
I've never heard him bring it up before with anyone.
Nice to see you, Carly.
Yeah, you too. As she walked off, I was definitely starting to freak out.
What's this mean? Am I actually a terrible employee because my letters sometimes scrunch together?
What was he really trying to say?
So this morning when I found Lewis waiting for me down in the basement, I asked him right away what he thought it might mean.
Uhm... it sounds like you're doing a fine job and maybe just have sloppy penmanship.
My rat friend Nibbles chimed in to agree.
No, you two don't get it.
There is no way it's that simple.
Ugh. Because bad handwriting has gotta be code for something more serious.
It must somehow be worse than that.
I mean, right? But before they could answer...
Yeah, a new time sealed file.
Event, November 24th, 1971.
Boeing 727, Seattle, Washington.
Boeing 727. That is a kind of airplane, yes?
Do I look like a pilot to you?
Ask H -Dad. I pulled out my handheld digital assistant device and plugged in the clues from the file.
Boeing 727, Seattle, Washington.
This likely refers to the hijacking of a flight to Seattle on a Boeing 727 airplane by a man known only as DB Cooper.
After takeoff, Cooper told a flight attendant he had a bomb and demanded rental...
Woah. Did they give it to him?
Affirmative. Upon landing in Seattle, Cooper released the other passengers in exchange for the money and a set of parachutes...
Parachutes? To jump?
30 minutes after the plane was back in the air, DB Cooper jumped out.
Neither he nor all of the money were ever found and he was never identified.
It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in history.
Airplane emoji. Pirate ship emoji.
Was he a pirate magician?
Like, how'd he disappear?
Maybe he was vaporized by the high altitude air, is that a thing?
Or maybe he landed on another plane after jumping out of the first one.
Ooh, ooh, or maybe he didn't even jump at all.
He just kind of shimmied around to the back and stayed there till the plane landed.
Pretty sure that's impossible.
Well, I guess we're gonna have to investigate to find out.
See you back here at lunch.
Louis went back upstairs while I got down to work.
And by work, I mean writing out various random sentences to try and evaluate my own hand writing.
Chicken scratch? Okay, nipples.
Then let's see your handwriting.
Okay, wow, that is actually very impressive.
Who taught you a curse at all?
And before I knew it, attention, butthead employees.
Get out your troughs and seat bags.
It's like a horse day!
I grabbed nipples and H -dad and Louis and I took off for the elevator.
Hi, Odie. Basement companion.
Louis, how are you today?
Oh, you know, just fretting over a disastrous work issue as usual.
Only Carly Q. would call a positive performance review disastrous.
And what about the new mystery?
We got one of those too.
It's all about D .B.
Cooper, this guy who hijacked a plane back in the 70s.
Heard of it? I have.
I remembered the news reports just after it happened.
The authorities searched high and low for this Cooper fellow, combing the woods where they believed he might have landed.
But they were unable to find even a single piece of physical evidence from the crime?
Oof, a hijacked plane.
Missing criminal. No evidence.
What a mystery. Indeed, it is.
Now let's review the time travel rules.
No changing anything in the past, and...
Be back here by the end of lunchtime.
Louis got something right.
Are there pigs flying outside my window?
Wait, when exactly are you sending us to?
The night of the hijacking?
That is unfortunately time sealed, but I can send you to sometime afterwards.
I just have one piece of advice for you to keep in mind.
Mmm, yes, let's hear it.
Do not jump out of airplanes at night and night.
Wait, that is not a mysterious latitude.
OK, time to go and bring me back a Rubik's Cube if you can find one!
That wasn't very wise!
You know, I like Odie better when she's giving us riddles.
I mean, obviously I know!
Ahhhhh! Let me tell you, Carly Q and I are so excited to make it wow in you, Newark City!
I mean, New York! And San Francisco with our new live show, Make It Wow, presented by Audible.
There's more to imagine, would you listen?
And apparently you're excited too because our San Francisco performance is filling up and our New York City performance is almost sold out.
So we're adding even more wow with a second show for New York City.
Grownups get your tickets today at Tinkercast .com slash events.
That's Tinkercast .com slash events.
That's it, we'll see you there!
Hm -hm -hm -hm -hm -hm. Okay, stepping out of the elevator and into a quiet stretch of wood.
We were right at the shore of a shallow stream, the water glinting in the sunlight, it was pretty beautiful.
It was as nice as my favorite sewer back in New York, just with fewer empty takeout containers.
I'm not as fragrant.
You should write tour guides, Nibbles.
You're a natural. Am I sensing sarcasm?
Past some trees, I spotted a family beside the water, two parents and some kids, speaking with a woman in uniform.
Looks like a police officer.
Hold on, I'm confused.
Where are we? When are we?
I'm not sure. Maybe a few days after the hijacking?
Nope. The hijacking was in 1971, but the air here smells distinctly of 1980.
It's that unique blend of Calvin Klein cologne and snack pack vanilla pudding.
Oh, I can almost feel my bangs getting higher and higher.
1980? Why did Odie send us here?
I don't know. Let's go talk with that police officer and find out Nibbles hid in my backpack just as the officer saw us and came over.
Grandpa? Yeah? Could he get a smile?
Hi there, Officer Marsdale, Washington State Police.
You must be the local FBI agents from the field office.
Yeah? Yes! We are! Us, yes, us.
That is us. Just a couple of professional FBI agents here to, uh...
take a look. You got here so quick.
Glad you could make it.
So what's the story?
What happened here?
This family's on vacation.
Earlier this morning, their young son found three packets of cash along the riverbank.
Cash?! How much? About $5 ,800 and $20 bills.
The money's a bit deteriorated like it's been out here a while, but I just finished calling in the serial numbers.
Turns out, it matches the money given to a plane hijacker ten years ago.
D .B. Cooper! Exactly.
This must be the first actual evidence that was found.
Um, Officer Marsdale, what can you tell us about D .B.
Cooper? Um, shouldn't you two know more about the case?
Since you're with the FBI?
We like to take an open -minded approach.
Pretend we know nothing.
Okay, well from what I recall, this Cooper figure was described as a quiet man, mid -40s wearing a business suit.
Your FBI colleagues looked into a boatload of potential suspects.
Pretty much all of them have been ruled out.
What about the night of the hijacking?
What exactly happened?
Cooper let the passengers go in Seattle in exchange for $200 ,000, then made the flight crew take off from Mexico City.
But somewhere between Seattle and Reno, he put on that parachute and jumped.
The plane landed safely, the crew were all fine, but Cooper was never seen or heard from again.
Maybe he had help on the ground.
Someone waiting in a getaway car?
But how would they know where to meet him?
Not like they had find my friends.
Find my friends? What's that?
Oh, it's a special FBI thing.
You know, there's a lot of agents and we are all friends and we like to know where everybody is.
Well that's exactly the issue here.
All Cooper said to the pilots was fly to Mexico.
But to rendezvous with someone on the ground, he would have to coordinate a more specific flight path.
Plus it was 8 p .m. on a cloudy night.
So he wouldn't have even been able to see the ground.
Remember what Odie said about jumping out of planes at night time?
Yep, don't do it. So was this Cooper guy like an expert skydiver or what?
The investigators considered that but quickly realized he didn't ask for any gear other than the parachute.
Which means he jumped out of a plane at nighttime while it was raining into a 200 mile an hour wind, wearing loafers and a business suit.
It was raining? That really doesn't sound like a good idea.
I mean what about his loafers?
Definitely not something a professional would have done.
Which is why lots of folks suspect Cooper didn't survive the jump.
Hmm, certainly see why they'd think that.
Alright, I'd like to take a look at the money that was found.
Is that okay? Be my guest.
I'll be here if you have any questions.
We walked over to a sandy stretch of shore where the money was laid out on the ground.
The bills were half disintegrated but still bound in rubber bands.
So almost six thousand dollars shows up here out of the total two hundred thousand.
Does that mean Cooper survived the jump and accidentally dropped this money along the way?
Or does it mean he didn't survive the jump?
But if he didn't then where's the rest of the money?
Well maybe we should look around for more.
Or anything else that might be related.
I mean, if he didn't survive the jump then shouldn't his uh...
remains be somewhere out here too?
Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew...
I don't want to look around for a body.
Gross! No belly aching.
Only investigating.
Alright, come on. We started walking up the river, keeping our eyes peeled for more evidence.
There were various bits of debris caught in the tree roots along the shore.
Look, an empty can.
Maybe Cooper had a soda on the airplane.
Or... maybe it's just trash.
Look, an old lotto ticket.
Maybe Cooper tried gambling with the money.
Or... maybe it's also just trash.
Look, a mini statue of the Seattle Space Needle in mint condition.
Wow, good eye nibbles.
What can I say? When it comes to trash hunting, I have a gift.
Maybe Cooper bought it as a souvenir at the airport.
Or... maybe... Oh yeah, maybe it's just trash.
It would be good to throw all this in the proper receptacle though.
But no more evidence anywhere to be seen.
Sure doesn't look like it.
Bummer. Hey, at least the view was nice.
I looked up to see we were in the shadow of a beautiful mountain above us.
And just then, I realized something.
Hey nibbles, you said we're in 1980, right?
Any idea when? Smells like early spring.
H -Dad, power up. I got a question for you.
H -Dad here, moving and grooving and feeling fine.
What date did Mount Saint Helens explode?
The last eruption of Mount Saint Helens occurred on May 18th, 1980.
Calendar emoji. Mmm, yes!
How about that? Uh, why?
I knew I recognized this mountain.
I've seen pictures in an old book on Washington State.
It's the famous volcano Mount Saint Helens, which exploded just a few months after this money was found.
So... So if there was more evidence around here, it all would have been destroyed when the volcano erupted.
It doesn't explain why nothing else was found before the eruption, but it definitely explains why nothing more was found after the eruption.
That is some great ace sleuth in Kylie Q.
Yeah, you could be in the FBI or the CIA or AAA.
One of those triple letter words.
H -Dad, you done analyzing yet?
What else have you got on the Cooper case?
The investigation into Cooper remained active until 2016, when the FBI suspended it to focus on other teams.
Since 1971, they've identified numerous possible suspects, but none have been confirmed.
Faceless suspect emoji.
Question mark emoji.
So what are the main theories for what happened?
Theory number one. Cooper died on the parachute jump, likely from exposure to the elements since he did not have the proper equipment.
Theory number two? He got away with it.
If D .B. Cooper did somehow manage to land and make it safely into hiding, he could have gone anywhere with that money.
Or at least the money he didn't drop here along the river.
Affirmative. Also, lunchtime ended three minutes ago.
What?! We started racing back for the elevator.
Why didn't you say something earlier?
Yeah, a little earlier would have been nice.
I didn't want to interrupt your mouth say tell us excitement.
Volcano emoji. Next time interrupt us.
Noted. Volcano emoji.
Update that thing. Clearly it's not working up the speed.
Oh, my, Carly. I hope you don't get caught.
Between the handwriting and this, you can be in this.
A few minutes later, we made it back to the elevator.
And? Thanks, Nibbles.
I wasn't thinking about that at all.
If I get in trouble because of you, Carly Q, you'll never hear the end of it.
No! No! No! No! Close one.
We made it. Like everyone's close one.
Just in time, I was starting to get worried about Carly.
How was Washington?
Gorgeous. As for D .B.
Cooper, though, it seems that despite all the mystery, he most likely died on his parachute jump.
And if there was further evidence to be found, either of his escape or his death, it was likely destroyed by the eruption of Mount St.
Helens in the exact same area.
Ah, Lewis? What an intriguing historical overlap.
I've never considered that.
Those really must have been pigs outside that window.
Not that I don't love hogging credit, but that one was all Carly Q.
Thanks. Ultimately, though, it's just like you said, Odie.
Don't jump out of an airplane at nighttime.
Pretty straightforward rule to live by.
It certainly has never led me astray.
Good work, Carly. And Lewis.
As Lewis and I walked back to my desk, I had to confess how good it felt to hear all his nice compliments about the Mount St.
Helens thing. Aw, well, it's very impressive.
Figuring that out was a stroke of genius.
I have to admit, you've gotten really good at this, Carly Q.
You're giving me such a confidence boost.
In fact, you're kind of making me think I was overanalyzing the whole handwriting comment from my performance review.
No. Really? Maybe it's like Odie's riddle today that was actually totally straightforward and not a riddle at all.
They like my work here and I'm good at my job.
I don't need to read so much into it.
Having subpar handwriting doesn't have to be a big deal that secretly means something huge.
It's just something to work on.
Exactly. Plus, you want to know a secret?
What? Your handwriting's bad too?
Oh, no. My penmanship is immaculate.
Obviously. Oh. But I am terrible at texting.
See? Hmm. Ice misery scolding carny A?
Nice mystery solving, Carly Q.
See? These thumbs are too close.
What a day. It sure was nice to hear all that from Lewis.
Right. We both have things to work on.
And what a mystery about D .B.
Cooper. Guess so. You more than me, though.
Before all this, I wasn't really interested in jumping out of an airplane at any time of day, but I'm sure not going to do it at nighttime now.
For all of his careful planning, it seems like that was one element he didn't quite think through.
And with modern technology, it's certainly not something he'd get away with nowadays.
Anyway, that's it for this episode.
Tune in next time for another time -sealed mystery.
Until then, this is Carly Q.
signing off. And remember, you never heard this.
H -DAD initiating end credits mode.
Who When Wow Mystery Edition is an original Tinkercast production with help from GZM Shows.
Handshake emoji. High five emoji.
For Tinkercast, the executive producers are Guy Ross, Mindy Thomas and Meredith Halpern -Ranzer.
The shows are written by Aaron Weissman, Susan Muwati -Darrage and Tom Van Kalken.
The head writer for Tinkercast is Kenny Curtis, and Carly Shiraki is a producer.
Being shoutouts to the rest of the Tinkercast team, including Jed Anderson, Jessica Bodhi, Rebecca Caban, Natasha Crandall, Lizzie Freilich, Kristin Jang, Tui Mack, Erica Medina, Henry Moskal, Jodie Nussbaum, Ali Paxima, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Tyler Thole, Joanna Weber and Anna Zegursky.
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The Who When Wow theme song was composed and performed by The Pop -Ups.
For more information on their three -time Grammy -nominated all -ages music, find them at ThePopUps .com.
Producers for GZM shows are David Kreisman, Ben Strauss, Chris Terry, Amy Servini and Claire McClanahan.
The production manager is Sharon Michaels.
Sound design and editing for Who When Wow Mystery Edition is done by Chris Terry and Oded Levari.
Headphones emoji. Microphone emoji.
Thumbs up emoji. Original music was created by Jennifer Rocamp.
Voice editing is by Yoni Rekim and voice direction is handled by David Kreisman and Amy Servini.
Could you give me another one on that please?
And voice direction is handled by David Kreisman and Amy Servini.
Our main cast features Carly Shirocki as Carly Q, Brandon Salerno as Louis, Melissa Vander Schiff as Nibbles the Rat, Kenny Curtis as H -Dad and Angel Desai as Odie.
Help support Who When Wow by becoming a member of the World Organization of Wowzers and discover WOWs all year long.
Sign up today at Tinkercast .com slash membership.
You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at Tinkercast .com slash YouTube for full -length episodes of Who When Wow Mystery Edition.
And reach out to us at hello at Tinkercast .com if you have a mystery you'd like butthead to investigate.
H -Dad Powering Up. Who When Wow made important inventions.
Asked all the right questions.
History will never be the same.
Who When Wow was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
Shh! I'm sorry. GCM shows.
Imagination amplified.
You can find me at Tinkercast .com slash survey.
