On Saturday, a seminar was held at the Hall of Governors complex in Adelup by author Dr. Tom King, who also conducts archaeological research with the Historic Group of Historic Aircraft Recovery. The group, which has focused on Earhart’s disappearance since the late 1990s, has conducted excavations on Nikumaroro, formerly Gardner Island, one of the islands of Kiribati which is located some 2,000 miles south of Howland Island.
Earhart, whose plane was running low on fuel at the time, was headed to Howland Island.
It is believed that her plane landed along the reef of Nikumaroro.
King presented information regarding DNA samples found at the island from a recent excavation.
He said they recovered a woman’s compact and an item that appeared to be rouge makeup.
He said whenever Earhart was going to talk to the media, she had a compact with her.
Also recovered were skeletal remains.
King said the samples are now being analyzed at the laboratory to determine if they belonged to Earhart based on DNA from her family members.
“It is possible that one of them or more of them will end up matching Earhart’s DNA. We don’t have comparative samples from the Noonan family so…we’re going to have to track down [his] relatives,” King said.
He said they are also preparing to excavate a site on the northern side of the atoll to find Earhart’s airplane, Electra.
King said over the years several theories have surfaced as to where the duo perished.
“There is the hypothesis in this part of the world that she was a spy for the U.S. and she was captured by the Japanese, executed on Saipan, executed in the Marshall Islands, executed in Chuuk, executed in several places.
This is certainly possible, but the only evidence that can support this is anecdotal,” he said.
None were proven to be true, he added.
King hopes to have the testing of the samples completed over the next few months.
