Sent To University Of South Florida For DNA Analysis

Bone fragments found at a museum on the Pacific Island of Tarawa, Kiribati may provide clues to the fate of Amelia Earhart, who went missing in 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

Television station WTVT in Tampa, FL reports that the bone fragments have been sent to the University of South Florida for DNA analysis.

The bones were first discovered about three years after Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in 1937 in a camp site on Nikumaroro Island, an uninhabited atoll, according to Dr. Erin Kimmerle. They were examined by British Doctor David Hoodless in Fiji, but they went missing shortly after that examination.

Recently, bones discovered in the Te Umwanibong Museum and Cultural Centre on the Pacific island of Tarawa, Kiribati. Archeologists with National Geographic contacted Dr. Kimmerle in an attempt to determine if they were the same remains examined by Dr. Hoodless.

Kimmerle compared the remains to Earhart's dental records and a known sinus condition. There were "four or five" boxes containing remains from more than one person, she said, but one set matched the description from Hoodless' notes.

A rush has been put on the DNA tests to determine if they can be matched with any of Earharts' relatives. There is one living niece that may provide the baseline needed to make a positive identification.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report