Sheridan Peterson served in the Marine Corps during WWII and later became a technical editor at Boeing. Peterson bore a striking resemblance to the Cooper description and had experience as a smokejumper — a trained wildland firefighter placed at the site of the fire via parachute — making him a prime suspect during the Cooper investigation.
In a 2007 issue of Smokejumper magazine, Peterson taunted police about his potential involvement in the skyjacking, writing, "Actually, the FBI had good reason to suspect me. Friends and associates agreed that I was without a doubt DB Cooper. There were too many circumstances involved for it to be a coincidence. At the time of the heist, I was 44 years old. That was the approximate age Cooper was assumed to have been, and I closely resembled sketches of the hijacker. But what was even more incriminating was the photo of me simulating a skydiving maneuver for Boeing's news sheet. I was wearing a suit and tie — the same sort of garb Cooper had worn, right down to the Oxford loafers. It was noted that skydivers don't ordinarily dress so formally."
When officially pressed by FBI agents, Peterson denied any involvement in the Cooper hijacking, claiming that he had been in Nepal. He died in 2021.
