Theodore Ernest Mayfield was a Special Forces veteran, a pilot, a competitive skydiver, and a skydiving instructor who was considered a suspect early on in the DB Cooper investigation. According to FBI Agent Ralph Himmelsbach, Mayfield called him less than two hours after Flight 305 landed to offer possible leads on Cooper's potential landing zone and information about local skydivers. Mayfield's daughter added that he called her from his home phone number on the night of the hijacking and seemed calm.
Prior to the skyjacking, Mayfield had served time for negligent homicide after two of his skydiving students died when their parachutes failed to open, and he was later found indirectly responsible for 13 additional deaths related to faulty equipment. Mayfield denied any involvement in the hijacking and died in 2015.
