BONES FOUND ON SAIPAN STUDIED AS CLUE TO AMELIA EARHART'S FATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200480023-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: November 25, 1961
• Content Type: NSPR

S nrti j'1z OP~V 'v 6d For Release' CIA1 D
Hones Found o ,Saipan Studied
As Clue to Amelia Earhart's Fate
CPYRGHT
From News Disoatcuea the emen s it'a nian and a legs of their flight. Their last
A University of Californi oman: messages indicated their be-
anthropologist is to begin a "I! `'id teeth uncovered, doc- lief that they were close to
study next week of the skel ors indicated they were Catr- i .owland.
stet remains of two bodies asia.4 and quite possibly Forty-six minutes before
hose: taf, Miss Earhart acid their last message Miss possibly those of the long oonan. `>#ut we are not sure h4rt told the United State,
missing aviatrix Amelia Ear these are the remains." a i'Guard Cutter Iia~;ca,
hart Putnam and her naviga Goerner said Cmdr. Brid- ir?arding by at Howland- ?e
tor, Fred Noonan. Of '"told hint: "I think they re eirkltng but cannot hem
The remains, i n c l u d i n g ent down in the Marshalis, Ynti." Noonrr, had estimated
some dental work which may lose to Howland Island, were previously-they were within
aptured, taken to Yap, and 100 miles of ,Howland.
prove to be Noonan's, were hen brought to Saipan." Cmdr. W. $. Thompson of
disinterred from a shallow The bodies had been buried the Itasca said, "at the cud
Saipan grave two months ago. my two feet deep, in Japa- Miss Earhart :talked so rapid-
!iimaxing a radio newsman's ese fashion. ly as to be almost incoherent,"
nouths-long effort to solve "Miss Earhart and Noonan Ile said the plane's radio was
.he mystery in which Miss nay iha~e been kept on Saipan loudest when it sent the "cir-
a r It a r is , round-the -world or a year or more," Goerner cling" message and he he-
'light ended on July 2, 1937. aid. "I was told Miss Earhart lieved, it was closest. to Now-
"he boner are being flown lied of dysentery and, after land at that time.
Torn Guam to Berkeley to be ter death, Noonan was exe- On-the-spot searchers at (1w
t u d i e d by anthropologist uted by Spnmurai sword." time believed the .flight must
Theodore D. McCown. There were h i dental plates have ended in the sea near
Fred Goerner, -36, a news- is such b'1t the'teeth had fill- Rowland.
mar sco radio ngs indicating the work of In Baltimore, Capt. Irviug
tation KCBS, told, a news merican dentists; Johnson, who spent amain
onference 'yesterday that in- Na one had done a thor years searching " ]or Amelit,
or?mation which led him to ugh job of checking informa- Earhart, discouhted the idea
he jungle grave came from ion on Miss -Earhart's last that her remains had berar
'homas E. Devine, a business- light, including reports of in- found.,
nun of West Haven, Conn. erupted messages; ~lesum "It's most unlikely," he said.
Goerner said Cmdr. Paul bey from. the Japanese, Vthe' Japanese were rues
lridwell, Saipan's naval com- hich' were never made pub- tinned closely about this after
u.andant,. expressed to him a c, the war when they had abso-
henry,that Miss Earhart and Miss Earhart's sister, Mrs. lutely nothing to hide, and
roonan were forced dowry 11 lbert Morrissey of Medford, they contended they knew
lie Marshalls, then taken mto, [ass., `expressed, little cdnfi- nothing of Miss I arhart.
'aipan where they were it1t ence that the remains were There is a remote possibility.
nrisoned. hose of the flier. She said but , .."
Devine, a United States sot- here' was no known dental Johnson said he had access
dies with a post office unit on hart of Miss Earhart. to the complete file on Theis
amart in 1944-45, said a oa- Goerner said Dr. Games I Earhart in the war plant,
c~c woman asked him one Scott of Palm Springs, Calif.,!office where he worked, itr
ay if he was searching for a Might have Noonan's chart. said there was no evidence of
ave, and pointed out the Saipan is 2275 miles from any intercepted Japanese me-
hallow burial place to him. lowland' island, 'which was sages dealing with the disap
hit he said he did not con he fliers' destination after
ect the with the dis- pearance and nct.evidertc:, (ha,
grave hey took off from Lae, New she might have been ~,aptured
ppearance of the fliers until uinea, for the Pacific Ocean, by the Japanese
ears later. 'air
Armed with this informa-
inn, Goerner formed an ex-
edition which came upon
he burial site Sept. 21. CPYRGHT
"Excavating in the vicinity
here the war-destroyed city
Sarapan once was," Goern-
r said, "we found a shallow,
,marked grave conlainirrrp
FOIAb3b
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200480023-6