HONOLULU — A Delaware man hopes to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart, and he’s leading a $2 million expedition beginning today to follow up two clues. The famed Kansas flyer and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished 75 years ago over the central Pacific during her attempt to be the first to fly around the world. Ric Gillespie, founder and executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery – called TIGHAR – is returning to Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, an uninhabited and remote atoll in the Republic of Kiribati. Gillespie theorizes that Earhart’s Lockheed Electra ran out of fuel and crashed at Gardner Island, which 400 miles southeast of Earhart and Noonan’s destination at Howland Island. A rival scientific group plans an expedition to Howland Island later this summer to pursue the more traditional theory that Earhart and Noonan crashed near Howland. Gillespie offers new clues he says indicates that Earhart survived the crash but later died on Gardner Island. The first was discovered in June, when five broken pieces of a 1930s-era glass jar of anti-freckle cream. The reconstructed glass shards look a lot like the container from Dr. Barry’s freckle ointment, which was sold in the 30s and known to have been used by Earhart, Gillespie told ABC News. One of the pieces appears to have been used as a cutting tool, he said. In 2010, a women’s compact buttons and a zipper from a flight jacket, all American-made in the 30s, were unearthed on the same island, he said . Clue number two comes from a grainy photo discovered in March, taken off Gardner Island, that shows what appears to be a landing strut and wheel from a Lockheed Electra. Armed with these new clues and a specialized, underwater search vehicle, 18 researchers led by Gillespie are leaving Hawaii and heading for Gardner Island. Because of the 75th anniversary of her disappearance, the St. Joseph News-Press reports interest in Earhart’s birthplace at Atchison is high. Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum historian Louise Foudray told the paper she likes to stress Earhart’s accomplishments but everyone wants to talk her about disappearance. “Everyone loves a mystery,” she said.. California muralist John Cerney is donating a giant highway piece depicting Earhart with her plane, approximately 12 feet tall by 38 feet wide, and it will greet visitors entering Atchison. It will be put together July 18 south of Atchison. Kiribati is probably most known to Americans the Gilbert Islands, home of the Tarawa atoll, scene of the first and extremely bloody World War II amphibious invasion by American forces against a Japanese-defended Pacific island. Kiribati officials have been negotiating with officials from Australia, Fiji and New Zealand to accept Kiribati citizens as permanent refugees. Kiribati is expected to be the first country in which all land territory disappears because of rising ocean levels because of climate change.
Tuesday, July 3, 9 a.m.
