Man connected to DB Cooper case murdered near Woodinville



WOODINVILLE - The King County Sheriff's Office is investigating a homicide outside of Woodinville.

Friday afternoon a woman found her father;s body in his home and now the entire property has been sealed off as a crime scene.

Sgt Katie Larson said "We want to look everywhere, so we're going to be looking inside the house, in the yard, in the woods.  Because certainly we don't want to find out something down the road that we may have missed."

The home belongs to 71 year-old, Earl Cossey.  Neighbors Jill Comsa and Jerry Saunders say he used to teach at nearby Leota Junior High.

“The children that he taught, they all really respected him and liked him. He was good,” Comsa said.

Saunders said, “This was a shock to us because this doesn’t happen in a neighborhood like this.”

But like most others in the area, this community has seen it's share of property crime this year.  Police say there have been 20 home burglaries in the area.

Comsa said, “It has changed the way we lock our doors. Yes. We close our garage door.”

The King County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning to nearby residents. “This is a very quiet area,” Sergeant Larson said. “And, I would just at this particular point just tell the residents use prudence. Use caution.”

As for Cossey's connection to the infamous DB Cooper plane hijacking of 1971 - ?  A local sky diver at the time, Cossey packed the parachutes used on the plane. When another media outlet asked about that possibly being related, the King County Sheriff Sergeant smiled, but said  that’s “A big leap.”