Research in SFU’s forensic lab could produce the first DNA profile of aviation’s most celebrated woman, Amelia Earhart—and provide new clues about her disappearance 74 years ago.

Working from four hand-written letters attributed to the American aviatrix, forensic scientist Dongya Yang hopes to extract DNA found in the saliva Earhart used to seal the letters’ envelopes. His findings could help shed light on claims that finger-bone fragments found in 2009 on the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro belong to Earhart.

The pilot and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while flying over the central Pacific Ocean in an attempt to fly around the world at the equator in 1937.

Health sciences student Justin Long contacted Yang to see if he could use his ancient DNA expertise to study the letters, which were given to Long’s grandfather, Earhart scholar Elgen Long, who kept a handful and donated the rest to Harvard University.

“The letters he kept are personal—one was written by Amelia on airline letterhead while waiting for a flight—so we can be fairly certain that she is the one who sealed the envelopes,” says Long, whose PR and design agency ACG Corp. is partially funding the research.

Yang hopes to eventually collect DNA from the envelopes that will positively identify her, but the DNA will also be compared with that of Earhart’s deceased sister and other living relatives.

Long says it’s possible that an old shipwreck from Earhart's era is shedding debris on Nikumaroro, which is 650 km from Howland Island where she was planning to land when she disappeared.

“It will be interesting to see how modern day research can help us learn the truth,” he says.