Spink has never solicited financial help for his pursuits. Her plane, losing parts as it bounced over the coral, was later dragged to a Japanese transport ship. He interviewed dozens of Marshallese natives, pressing for specifics until he pinpointed a stretch of rough coral shore where two fishermen had claimed they saw Earhart land. What began as serendipity became a pursuit for Spink. вЂњItвЂ™s become part of Marshallese history and culture.вЂќ вЂњSo many people said the same thing,вЂќ he says. After that, wherever he traveled in the Marshalls, he kept hearing the same story.

SpinkвЂ™s first reaction was to laugh, but he stopped abruptly when he realized the man wasnвЂ™t joking. Then, three years ago, Spink was having dinner with Marshallese friends when he asked an innocent question: вЂњDidnвЂ™t Amelia Earhart disappear in this part of the world?вЂќ A local man answered: вЂњYes, she landed on our island, and my uncle watched her for two days.вЂќ вЂњI just assumed everyone believed that she disappeared when she sank in the ocean,вЂќ he says. In fact, he hadnвЂ™t read anything about Earhart when he first traveled to the Marshall Islands for a sideline business venture. Spink counts himself among GoernerвЂ™s disciples, but he didnвЂ™t come to faith by reading his book.

GoernerвЂ™s book-a bible of sorts to many Marshall Islands believers-argues that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were taken prisoner by the Japanese after landing in the Marshalls and transported by ship to Saipan, where they died in captivity. (The fascination with Earhart continues a crew trying to fly a solar-powered plane around the world is planning to embark on what it calls the вЂњEarhart legвЂќ of its trip, across the unforgiving Pacific.) It first came to global attention during the 1960s with the publication of Paul BriandвЂ™s book Daughter of the Sky, as well as CBS correspondent Fred GoernerвЂ™s The Search for Amelia Earhart. Putting the pieces togetherДick Spink isnвЂ™t the originator of the Marshall Islands theory. One still has a hint of reddish paint-perhaps a faded match to the reddish-orange trim of EarhartвЂ™s plane. Some are still encrusted with sand and bits of coral from the Marshalls, where they were found recently. Which is why these eight researchers-including engineers, metallurgists, and aircraft technicians-are gathered around a conference table and joined via teleconference by two scientists from Alcoa, original supplier of the aluminum used in EarhartвЂ™s plane.ДЄfter examining the authentic piece, the group passes around a half-dozen other parts-jagged, weathered, and corroded aluminum sealed in bags like evidence from a crime scene. He contends that the islandersвЂ™ stories will be borne out by scientific proof. The Marshallese accounts were so convincing that Spink has spent $50,000 of his own money searching for the spot where Earhart landed. Our uncles and aunts, our parents, and our grandparents know she landed here.вЂ™ вЂќ вЂњI heard a consistent story from too many people in the Marshalls to dismiss it. вЂњThe world needs to know this,вЂќ Spink says. Others say she landed and eventually died on an island now called Nikumaroro, some 350 miles (563 kilometers) south of her intended refueling stop on Howland Island.Д«ut a 53-year-old high school science teacher from Washington State named Dick Spink believes a different theory: Her plane set down in the Marshall Islands, far off course, on a tiny atoll named Mili. Some say itвЂ™s obvious: She ran out of gas over a vast stretch of the Pacific, splashed into the water, and vanished. What happened to Amelia Earhart? Depends on whom you ask. Just a few months later, Earhart and her Electra would be lost in an attempted round-the-world flight. It was removed from EarhartвЂ™s Lockheed Electra during a repair job in the spring of 1937, and a forward-thinking mechanic rescued it from a trash bin. The authenticity of the artifact is undisputed-a rarity in the contentious world of Earhart aficionados. At a gathering of researchers near Seattle, a piece of Amelia EarhartвЂ™s plane is reverently passed hand-to-hand around a conference table.

Mili atoll