So he jumped into a heavily forested area at night and decided to carry his parachute out of the woods?
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Kept it as a souvenir? Future bragging rights? Was it cold and he ended up using it for a while to keep warm while he was getting out of the forest and then decided “heck, I may as well keep it?”
He left his clip on tie aboard the aircraft. It was finally analyzed and metal alloys were found on the tie... IIRC the alloys were not common and were traced to a lab in Pittsburgh... a certain technician, who went to Seattle on business fairly often. Go look it up, there’s several vids out. Worth the watch... and much more plausible than this tale of a hidden parachute.
The techie from Pittsburgh has long passed. More details on line. I drove all day and am too tired to try and write it all out.