I read somewhere there had been much flooding in the area over the years, and the location the cash was discovered was by no means necessarily anywhere close to where it had landed. The bundles were highly eroded, as one might expect if it had been tumbling around in a river.
Notably, none of the currency has ever turned up in circulation or banks anywhere, the serial numbers were recorded. What good is 200 large if you didn’t spend it. I think he must have been killed. Defective chute?
Or the landing went awry and he lost his grip on the cash.