That pretty much explains it for me. I can sleep better tonight.....
A "landing gear" (sure looks like one to me) and footprints (who else had feet in the South Pacific other than Fred and Amelia?), a partial skeleton believed to be female (the only female in the Pacific in the 1930s seemed to be her). That pretty well takes care of the mystery.
When Stephen Pitcarin flew the autogyro to OSH in 1986, I was there. I stood by him one afternoon and listened to him recall events he'd witnessed in the early days of aviation. One was about Amelia, apparently she was supposed to have flown an autogyro and landed in a baseball field between innings. He said she piled it up in the parking lot.... (I did a quick search and she had 3 autogyro crashes and none seem to match the one he described) Steve said "She was destined to kill someone and Fred Noonan ended up being that guy", 27 years later I can still hear those words.
Well at least she was at the opening of the airport in Canastota NY back in 1928. Cool place, I spent a lot of time there in the early and mid 1960s.
http://www.canastota.com/details.asp?key=2143TIGHAR... What a bunch of lucky guys. It simply amazes me that every time they turn over a rock they seem to find some trace of Amelia or some other lost artifact. They seem to confirm what PT Barnum said about a sucker born every minute. If only Indiana Jones did so well. Even Babe Ruth didn't hit a home run every time he stepped up to the plate.
Me. I'm keeping up my search for her... I figure she'll be in Oshkosh this year just like everyone else. After all, she'd only be 116 years old......
Mark H