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Forensic study is '99 %' sure Amelia Earhart bones have been discovered

History March 8, 2018
Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, disappeared during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. Since then researchers have been searching for confirmation of her remains. In a new study, one researcher used newly available forensic technology to study data from bones found in 1940 and believes them to be Earhart's.

A new scientific study claims that bones found in 1940 on the Pacific Island of Nikumaroro belong to Amelia Earhart, despite a forensic analysis of the remains conducted in 1941 that linked the bones to a male.

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I've seen this story in a few different places. Why is it being treated as "news"? This version of Earhart's disappearance has been well documented for a number of years, and a very good book published about it some years ago:

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i think it’s news because the researcher says he’s more or less proved it with forensics and submitted it for peer review. He’s been on Nikimoruru (sp) train for awhile

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But the bones are lost, so he's working with the same data from the original study, and he's come to the same conclusion that someone else did ten years ago.

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I don’t know what to tell you except that TIGHAR - the group led by Ric Gillespie - is touting the study too . The paper includes use of tech that wasn’t available for the older study

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I think the difference is the original measurements by Gillespie et al said it was mostly similar and the Jantz study says 99 percent certain

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“Until definitive evidence is presented that the remains are not those of Amelia Earhart,” anthropology professor Richard Jantz writes, “the most convincing argument is that they are hers.”

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OK, that makes sense. But I still wish that the media release was more clear that the research was confirming a previous hypothesis.

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I occasionally see TIGHAR publish their attempts to solve Amela Earhart's disappearance and I think this is a substantial development:

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I would not say it is proof but it really ratchets up the likelihood and possibly some more TIGHAR funding to go back to the island for more expeditions.

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