Earhart enthusiasts do not find 'smoking gun'

NEW YORK (AP) — A group seeking clues to the fate of famed aviator Amelia Earhart is ending its latest search of a remote South Pacific island with some new evidence but without a conclusive "smoking gun," its leader said Thursday.

Scant as they might seem, the 100 or so artifacts collected over the past 16 days at Nikumaroro island offer some possible links to Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, said executive director Ric Gillespie. The aviators vanished over the Pacific during a round-the-world flight attempt in July 1937.

The official ruling was that the pair crashed at sea, but Gillespie's group, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, believes they may have crash-landed on the atoll and lived for months before perishing.