Throughout history, there have been amazing unsolved mysteries.
Some of those mysteries include the Zodiac killer, the Axeman of New Orleans, Stonehenge, and what happened to D.B. Cooper.
But a recently discovered photograph might be evidence of the unsolved disappearance of an American 80 years ago.
Amelia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author who was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1937, Earhart attempted to circumnavigate the entire globe, but her 10-E Electra disappeared over the Pacific Ocean and she was never heard from again.
Earhart was presumed to have crash-landed and died in 1937.
That was widely believed to be what had happened, until now.
The New York Post reports:
A recently discovered photograph may be the key to solving the mystery of missing American pilot Amelia Earhart.
Earhart – the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean – disappeared while on a flight around the world 80 years ago.
The U.S. declared Earhart dead two years after her disappearance, alleging she must have crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean after running out of fuel.
Now some historians believe she survived the plane crash and died in Japanese captivity.
A photograph, discovered by the National Archives, appears to show a woman who looks like Earhart and a man who resembles her navigator Fred Noonan on a dock in the Marshall Islands, NBC reported.
Historians believe the picture, labeled “Jaluit Atoll,” was reportedly snapped by an American spy in 1937 — the year that Earhart went missing.
The new clue will be featured in the two-hour History Channel special, ‘Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence,’ on Sunday.
“When you pull out, and when you see the analysis that’s been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that’s Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan,” Shawn Henry, an NBC News analyst and former executive assistant director for the FBI, said of the picture.
Ken Gibson, who specializes in facial recognition, concluded the photo is un-doctored and is ‘very likely’ a photo of Earhart and Noonan.
The woman in the photo has short hair and is wearing pants — two characteristics Earhart was known for. But it is the man in the photo who has the closest similarity to the missing Noonan.
“The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic. It’s a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent,” Gibson said.
“It’s my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan,” he added.
The photo also reportedly shows the Japanese ship Koshu towing an object 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart’s plane.
“We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese,” said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the TV special.
Japanese authorities say they have no record of Earhart ever being in their custody, according to NBC.
This was in 1937 – approximately four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor – and the Axis Powers were coming together to gear up for World War II.
Of course Japan would have every reason to lie about having “no record” of Earhart being in their custody.
Why reopen a can of worms?
You can see the picture here.
Newly-found photo suggesting that Amelia Earhart may have crash landed in Marshall Islands, 80 years ago this week:https://t.co/lEIXeYdyMY pic.twitter.com/PqRCtaiBRx
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 5, 2017
But there are some who are skeptical of this photograph.
The International Business Times reported:
Ric Gillespie, the owner of The International Group For Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), an organization that investigated Earhart’s disappearance, claims the famed aviator isn’t present with her navigator Fred Noonan in a blurry photo that the documentary believes to be real.
While there are many theories that have emerged regarding Earhart’s disappearance, Gillespie and TIGHAR don’t stand behind this one.
Gillespie, who has known about the photograph that the History Channel reveals it evaluated for about a year in the upcoming documentary, told TMZ that “there were a lot of mercenaries in that area at the time … so it could be any white woman in the pic — the features aren’t recognizable.”
The Earhart expert claims that “she would not have had enough fuel to get to the Marshall Islands, where the photo was allegedly taken,” primarily because her final signal was discovered roughly 100 miles from that location.
It’s worth noting that the photo also doesn’t match smoothly with the documentary’s captive theory. Gillespie clarified that “none of the alleged captors [in the photo] have guns or look threatening.” Two Caucasians pictured appear to be engaging in casual activity, hanging freely on a pier at the Marshall Islands.
Many believe that Earhart survived a crash-landing and died on a remote island in the western Pacific, but this photograph — that Japan had sinister motives with one of America’s heroes — and the timeline certainly match up with their hatred towards the United States.