and a shot of the other bag he brought on board.

Liquor sales soar during shutdown.   

The money sinks...

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The money sinks...

So do diatoms once they die. Could this support the dredge theory?

Once the diatoms die, their "frustules" (outer walls) sink to the bottom of the body of water they are in, forming part of the sediment.

A few questions:
1) Are we looking at diatoms that entered the bills alive, or dead frustules of diatoms that made contact with the bills as a component of the river sediment?
2) if the Columbia's source is 1,200 miles away in B.C., and it is fed by lots of tributaries along the way, and these lakes and tributaries all produce diatoms, are we looking at the most recent summer's bloom of diatoms from the Vancouver area, or last season's corpses from elsewhere that traveled miles to get here? (I suppose this would extend to the money travelling as well). If the latter...
3) Can we use the varieties of diatoms found to "fingerprint" a specific stream or lake where the money sat? (probably covered already, but humor me)

The Citizen Sleuth website states, "The modern bills soaked in the Columbia River were examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM.) At least three different species of fresh water diatoms were found immediately. Subsequent examination of the Cooper bills found no diatoms. Not seeing any diatoms on the Cooper bills does not guarantee that they are not there, so any final conclusions on this would be speculative."

4) Why were no diatoms found on the FBI bills at the time of that examination, but plenty were found later on 377's solitary bill, when they all presumably came from the same source?  Did I miss a post? (Serious question)

5) If the money was wet, and it was found, as Harold Ingram said on camera, "partially on top of the ground," how does the fragility of diatoms in sand disqualify Eric's belief that the bills were saturated in floodwater that would have possibly made direct contact? (Again, serious question.)

I hope my catch-up class is welcomed as a refresher course for some of you.

As it stands right now I'll be burying money on or around Tena Bar in a week to test the diatom theories. Originally I was supposed to travel to the area at the very end of April, however, my flight was cancelled given COVID.

In my mind the fact that summer (June/July) diatoms were apparently discovered on 377's bill, and the fact that the only two very high water events on the Columbia River from November 1971 to February 1980 occurred in the month of June--apparently during the summer diatom bloom--is too much of a coincidence.

Moreover, there is other evidence surrounding the bills that we cannot forget. Specifically: there were three packets stacked upon each other; the stacks were found at a point approximately 50 feet from the water's edge (in 1980) and at an elevation approximately 10 feet above the surface of the Columbia River; very fragile rubber bands were still partially intact; the stacks were found at a point well beyond the dredge spoils placed upon the Columbia in August 1974--the final dredge spoil placement; the stacks were found buried--not just on the surface--more than 8 years after the skyjacking; and finally, the stacks were found many miles from both the FBI drop zone and my drop zone along the Western Flight Path.

All of this leads me to believe that the money had to have been buried--in all likelihood by DB Cooper himself--shortly after the skyjacking, and that the diatoms had to come during one of, if not both, high water events on the Columbia River.

That said, burying the cash in a week or so and letting them stay buried through the summer diatom bloom should help us establish some facts.