Fair points. Let me try to counter them:
1. It's possible that the packets remained in the bag until very shortly after arriving at Tena Bar. Between the bag deteriorating, the flooding, etc., I don't think it impossible. Also, the packets were not buried deeply in the sand. Ingram said he merely swept his over over the sand for the firepit.
2. Hayden and Tomahawk are actually right beneath the FBI flight path which takes the planes virtually over the I-5 bridge. Also, I am assuming a no pull which would result in no drift - only forward throw from when he jumped.
3. The west side of Hayden is no populated and undeveloped. Marine Park would also be virtually empty in the winter. The corpse could have landed in brush or undergrowth, been covered in snow, or both. My point is that were not talking downtown Portland.
4. It's possible the drifting could have occurred at night. Given the average current speed of that part of the Columbia, it would have taken between 12 and 18 hours for it to drift to Tena Bar. Flooding would have made the current even faster. Assuming the bag had opened to free the three bundles, that means that the rest of the money would have become free and ended up on the bottom of the river along with the body.
5. The timing of the jump has always been a bit of a question mark. The best we can tell is that it happened somewhere between 8:10 and 8:15. Also, as you yourself have pointed out, the speed of the flight seems to fluctuate. Thus, the flight could have been farther along the flight path than thought.
6. This I have no answer for, just guesses. I would like to know how thoroughly the FBI searched missing persons. Then you take a guy like Dick Lepsy who never would have been accounted for. There could be explanations for this.
I appreciate your thoughts, Eric. I'd like to hear more give and take on this from you and others.
I just think a guy could sit there for a thousand years placing packets of twenties (paper currency) along the shore and never once would any packet--let alone three right next to each other--get buried by wave action. Moreover, that all three would get buried deep enough to avoid detection for eight years.
Remember too, Tena Bar started undergoing constant unmitigated erosion as of August 1974. Additionally, if the packets self-buried in May/June 1972, they would have also survived the May/June 1974 flood.
I simply look at everything related to Tena Bar and walk away thinking, "I don't see any possible way those three packets ended up here without being transported and buried by a human."
Thanks, EU. However, I think you're misunderstanding. I'm not suggesting a dozen loose packets of money floated down the Columbia and miraculously ended up stacked on top of one another on Tena Bar.
Rather, the money remains packed tightly inside either the bag or the chute pack. It's attached to a 6 month old corpse that has sat mostly frozen for the winter month and floats over night to Tena Bar. The bag eventually opens on Tena Bar. Some of the money fails to be buried and like the body eventually ends up at the bottom of the Columbia. The $5800, however, is left on Tena Bar covered in a layer of mud and silt from the '72 flood until it's discovery in February 1980.
The forces of nature are weird things. We have all heard stories of tornadoes destroying entire towns but leaving a statute of the Virgin Mary completely unscathed. I don't think that it's impossible for a few stacks of money (that are already stacked/packed tightly) to spill out that way and become covered.
Again, just a theory, but I think it is sound. I'm not married to it, but I'd appreciate anyone poking holes in it.
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