SEATTLE (AP) — Amateur scientists chosen by the Seattle FBI to search for clues in the mystery of the skyjacker known as D.B. Cooper may have found new evidence.

KING-TV reports a team has been analyzing particles taken from a clip-on tie left by Cooper after he hijacked a passenger jet in 1971 and then vanished out the back wearing a parachute and pack with $200,000.

An electron microscope located over 100,000 particles including Cerium, Strontium Sulfide and pure titanium. Lead researcher Tom Kaye says the elements could have been found in the manufacturing of Boeing's high-tech Super Sonic Transport plane.

Kaye wonders if Cooper could have been a Boeing employee or a contractor who wore a tie to work and said the public's help is needed to discern whether that's possible.

The FBI closed the case last year.

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