TIGHAR PRESS RELEASE New Evidence in the Amelia Earhart Mystery! Bones Found in South Pacific Likely Amelia Earhart … “This analysis reveals that Earhart is more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99% of individuals in a large reference sample.” Richard L. Jantz, PhD Nikumaroro – from Tighar Facebook Not so Fast! For those of you not familiar with TIGHAR, the acronym stands for The International Group for Historical Aircraft Recovery. Its executive director, a fellow named Ric Gillespie founded TIGHAR in 1985. It’s a non-profit organization funded by donors and sponsors. Gillespie has taken a salary to support the ideals of TIGHAR. Those ideals, according to TIGHAR’s website is the promotion of responsible aviation archaeology and historic preservation. Don't let that fool you. TIGHAR devotes almost all of its substantial resources hoodwinking the public into believing Amelia Earhart landed at Nikumaroro, a three-mile sliver of land in the Phoenix Island(s) Group. So, that you don’t have to dust off an old world atlas or wait for Google Earth to load, Nikumaroro is close to the equator and smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Recently, FOX News and a fair amount of other media outlets including USA Today splashed a tale taken from a TIGHAR press release. “It is with 99 per cent certainty, bones found in 1940 on Nikumaroro are that of the famous missing aviator.” 1 Hogwash! It all started in April of 1940 when human bones, a skull, and bottle were found on Gardner Island (Nikumaroro) by some unknown native colonist. Near the spot of this find was evidence of a camp site. Natives also found an old sextant box and a sole of a shoe – about an English size 10. This same hand painted sextant box was described by experts as likely originating from the 1800’s. It did not appear “under any circumstances have been for a sextant used in modern trans Pacific aviation.” It was concluded that quite possibly this unknown castaway used the box to keep his possessions. A little history of Gardner/Nikumaroro is in order and for good reason. There is limited information who visited Gardner Island from the 1700’s to the early 1900’s. The island was first named in 1825. So, at least we know of one ship that visited the island when John Quincy Adams was President of the United States. No doubt the island had been visited many times in the 1800’s simply because man’s curiosity gets the best of him. There is a possibility, though never confirmed, that Gardner Island had been temporarily settled in the 1890’s and abandoned shortly thereafter. In November 1929, the Norwich City, departed Melbourne Australia bound for Vancouver, B.C. The 397-foot freighter ran aground on the reef at Gardner Island. 11 men were killed. Four bodies were buried by survivors after washing ashore. Seven other men were missing and never found. The rusted and broken hulk of the Norwich City still rests on Nikumaroro’s beach. In October 1937, a British survey team headed by Harry Maude and Eric Bevington, along with 18 Gilbertese men “thoroughly explored” Gardner Island for several days. From November 30, 1938, and for the next several weeks, a 16-man New Zealand Survey team walked all over Gardner Island from an aviation perspective. In December 1938, while the New Zealand team was still on Gardner, at least 80 colonists from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands under British sponsorship settled on the island. At the time of their arrival, it was noted at least 200 coconut trees existed there. The island also had an abundance of very large coconut crabs resembling King Crabs in size, a pesky rat population, sea turtles, and the inner reef and lagoon swarmed with fish. On November 5, 1939, crew members from the USS Bushnell, a Navy Survey ship landed at Gardner Island. The ship discharged 25 sailors and technicians. The Bushnell crew was intent on constructing a tower. The surveying team noted in its journal, the island was being occupied by 80 settlers. The Bushnell team stayed on the island for two days. In June of 1944, the U.S. Coast Guard arrived on Gardner Island and began constructing a Loran Station. For the lay person, that's a radio navigation system meant to guide ships and planes. The station was up and running on December 16, 1944 and manned by 25 Coast Guard personnel. Because of changing technology and the end of the war, the station was deactivated 2 Photo Credit – Steve Sopko on May 15, 1946. The “Coasties” co-existed with the Gilbertese settlers who finally gave up on the island in 1963. Don’t you get the idea that lot of people trampled around Gardner for many years? One Coastie remarked it was boring and all they did in their free time was explore. Can you imagine the amount of trash on that island? How the Nikumaroro “Bones” got TIGHAR’s attention In the late 1980’s along comes Ric Gillespie and TIGHAR. During Gillespie’s second or third mission to Gardner having heard a tale from a Coast Guardsman serving there in the 1940’s, that early colonists buried Earhart’s bones, Ric and his crew began poking and digging around an area TIGHAR has coined the “Seven Site.” They found human remains alright, but it was of an infant. While they were figuring out their next move, one of TIGHAR’s explorers found the sole and heal of a shoe nearby. It was about the size of a nine or ten and stamped on the bottom was the famous American trademark, “Cat’s Paw.” Fast forward a few years. One of TIGHAR’s Kiwi members was leafing through research material in the Kiribati National Archives in Tawara. He noticed a file talking about a skeleton and human remains discovered on Gardner Island in 1940. Gillespie’s team jumped on this information. The Kiribati archive report documented the finding of Gerald Gallagher, Gardner Island’s colonial administrator. After Gallagher arrived on Gardner in 1940, he was told by natives there were human bones on the southeastern part of the island. They also mentioned finding a human skull, but it was reburied. Gallagher’s working party searched the area, collected 13 bones and found the skull. Nearby, they found an old-fashioned sextant box, part of a sole, possibly from two shoes, and a bottle. Gallagher’s examined the sole carefully and said it was about an English size 10. Writing back to Fiji headquarters in Suva, Gallagher said there was a 3 “very slight chance” the bones might be of Amelia Earhart, although to his untrained eye, the bones appeared to be “older than four years.” Gallagher went on to tell his superiors the area was then searched for rings, money, and keys with no results. His message told of examining the skull. The “dental condition appears to have been good,” he said, “but only five teeth remain.” Gallagher makes no mention of fillings. He goes on to emphasize that in his opinion, “am quite certain they are not less than four years old and probably much older.” The bones were eventually shipped to the High Commissioner’s Office in Suva. An initial report was completed by the Acting Senior Medical Officer, Lindsay Issac. The medical examiner concluded “they are part of a skeleton of elderly male of Polynesian race, bones having been probably in sheltered position for upwards of 20 years possibly much longer.” The bones were then brought to the Central Medical School and examined by Dr. D. W. Hoodless. Hoodless took careful measurements of the bones and skull. He noted the remains only included one half of the pelvic bone. Hoodless obviously took into consideration the pelvic bone is symmetrical and said that in his professional opinion, the bones were that of a skeleton of “total height of 5 feet 5 and ½ inches approximately.” Hoodless went on to write “it may be definitely stated that the skeleton is that of a [MALE.”] Hoodless emphasis. Hoodless added, “he was not less than 45 and more probably older.” Dr. Hoodless again emphasized the bones were male, probably a male of undetermined cultural origins, possibly of mixed descent. The skull had five teeth and Dr. Hoodless noted the right zygoma and malar bones broken off. The bones, the bones, where are the bones? TIGHAR has tried hard to find the bones but they haven’t been seen since 1941. It hasn’t deterred Gillespie. Early on, he called on one of his members, the late Dr. Karen Burns, an anthropologist to review the Hoodless findings. Burns had previously traveled to the South Pacific and Gardner courtesy of TIGHAR. Dr. Burns analysis indicated the Nikumaroro bones could have indeed been Earhart. But her findings are biased. After all, she was on TIGHAR’s Board of Directors. It would be like Eli Lily telling the public their new drug was 100 percent effective based upon a study by a pharmacologist who happened to be on Lily’s Board of Directors. It wasn’t log after Karen Burns issued her findings when an independent study of the Nikumaroro bones was completed by Cross and Wright (2015). “The “Nikumaroro Bones” are not those of lost aviatrix Amelia Earhart, stated Pamela J. Cross and Richard Wright. “Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, this new analysis is a welcome redress to the reputation of Dr. D.W. Hoodless (the medical official first responsible for the evaluation of the bones) and raises serious questions for The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery 4 (TIGHAR), an Amelia Earhart-focused nonprofit investigatory group and the top proponents of the “Gardner Island Theory.” Not one to easily give up, Gillespie tried a different tack.