All key evidence linked to Amelia Earhart as mystery 'finally solved' after 88 years

In 1937, famous American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared during an attempt for Earhart to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in a plane.

She had already gained fame and renown for becoming the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean and had set many other records in her career as a pilot.

Earhart and Noonan set off in a Lockheed Electra, which had been modified with extra fuel tanks and some other additions to make it more suited for the long-range journey on 17 March, 1937, but had to call it off after the aircraft was damaged in a crash and couldn't take off again.

A second attempt was started on 1 June after their aircraft had been repaired and they set off, making various refuelling stops along the way.

Little over a month later on 2 July, with most of the flight completed, they set off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, with the intention of making it to their next stop of Howland Island.

However, their plane never made it to the next stop and they disappeared, with no conclusive proof of their final resting place and fate being found beyond a few scraps of evidence.

That might be about to change thanks to a new investigation later on this year after researchers think they've found what would be the most conclusive proof of all.

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan went missing on 2 July, 1937 (Bettmann/Getty Images)

1940 - Human remains on Nikumaroro

The most likely site where Earhart and Noonan ended up is a small Pacific island called Nikumaroro, which was called Gardner Island at the time.

Located about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, this small piece of land in the Pacific was found to have human remains on it in 1940, which people thought might have belonged to Earhart.

According to Time, the human bones along with some possessions which could have belonged to Earhart and Noonan were discovered on the island, but when they were analysed they were deemed to have been male remains and thus not Earhart.

However, a further study of the dimensions of the bones actually were from a woman of Earhart's size.

Forensic anthropologist Richard Jantz of the University of Tennessee said: "If the bones do not belong to Amelia Earhart then they are from someone very similar to her."

Nikumaroro Island is thought to be where Earhart and Noonan crash-landed (NASA/Public Domain)

1991 - Plane repairs and shoe fragments

Decades later The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) found a heel and sole of a shoe which they suspected belonged to Earhart on Nikumaroro.

The shoe heel was made in the 1930s and was from the same kind of footwear that the aviator had been pictured wearing previously.

However, the fragments were from a size nine shoe which was considered too large to be worn by Earhart.

Something else TIGHAR found that year was a sheet of scrap metal on the same island, which didn't appear to fit any possible aircraft.

Wired reports that after further investigation some photos of the plane showed that the sheet of scrap metal matched a repair job done on the Lockheed Electra before it had set off on the second attempt.

Human remains were found on Nikumaroro in 1940 and were initially thought to have been the bones of a man, but a more recent study said they were probably Earhart's (Bettmann/Getty Images)

2010 - Potential finger bone

Yet another find on Nikumaroro, a small bone fragment recovered from the island was thought to have been from Earhart's finger.

Despite the hope of more concrete evidence, NBC said that the bone fragment was examined by an expert who could not say with certainty whether or not it belonged to a human.

With such a long time between Earhart's disappearance and the finding of new potential evidence, some of it will not be in pristine condition and would be hard to tell what's a clue and what's a red herring.

Various discoveries on the island have pointed towards it as the most likely place Earhart ended up (Bettmann/Getty Images)

2012 - Freckle cream

According to ABC there was another key find from TIGHAR on Nikumaroro in the form of some cosmetics that looked like freckle cream.

"We do know that Earhart had freckles and she was conscientious about them," TIGHAR director Ric Gillespie said of the find.

"It's not an unreasonable thing to think.

"This is one of several bottles that we've identified from the castaway campsite that seem to be and, in some cases, are very definitely personal care products that were marketed exclusively to women in the United States in the 1930s."

He said that the bottle had been found smashed into pieces and that one piece was away from the others and appeared to have been used as a cutting tool.

Satellite images from 2015 show something just off the coast of the island, could it be the plane? (Archaeological Legacy Institute/Today)

2015 - Satellite photos

Scientists believe they have finally discovered the location of Earhart's plane based on satellite photos taken in 2015.

These images appear to show the remains of the plane poking through the sand.

However, one person isn't convinced by the images.

TIGHAR director Gillespie reckons the picture actually shows a washed up coconut tree and not a long-lost aircraft.

The Lockheed Electra plane under construction in 1936, later this year a team will try to find it (New York Times Co./Getty Images)

2025 - The new investigation

Purdue University, who funded Earhart's fateful flight back in 1937, will send a new investigative team to Nikumaroro later on this year to check out the site captured by the satellite photos.

If it turns out to be right and the wreckage of Earhart's plane then it'd be pretty much case closed on the disappearance of the famous aviator.

It all depends on what the university digs out of the sea.