URBAN LEGEND: THE STORY OF BLOODY MARY

Remember that annoying little story of Bloody Mary? You know ... that light a candle in your bathroom with the lights out late at night, look in the mirror and say her name three time in a row “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary” and hope you won’t be found dead with your eyes scratched out? Or with claw marks all over your body? Or the possibility that you will be forever trapped behind the glass of the mirror for all eternity?

There are hundreds of backstories on how Bloody Mary came to be. But one of the most reasonable (as reasonable as it can get when a reflection kills you) is the tale of her demise.

In the 1800s there lived a young girl named Mary. An illiness washed over the place where they lived, making people drop dead after a short period of time. When physicians couldn’t find a pulse or when they put a mirror under the nose of the seemingly dead, there might not always be condensation on it from their breaths. So the fallen would be easily assumed to be dead. But were they?

Cases of people who were pronounced dead - but weren't - happened often. So when one would die, people would put a small hole in the coffin, and put a piece of string through the hole that was attached to a bell. The bell would hang on a stick by the homes of the deceased, and if they woke up they would simply pull the string, ring the bell and would be dug up.

Of course, when Mary was to bedridden and slowly died, she was laid in a coffin in her grave. She wasn’t to be buried under just yet it would be easier to un nail the coffin she was put away in, the string and the bell was of course on hand. Days past then up to a week. Her parents never left the house wishing with their very being that their sweet Mary would awaken again.
Friends of the parents claimed that if she had not awoken yet then she never would. That day the parents left the house with their friends at their behalf.

When her parents had gone a neighbor came and began to fill her grave (string and all.) Just in case she would wake up if she was still alive and if so before she suffocated. The neighbor had said his remorse and walked to his home.

Not soon after Mary awoken from her slumber. She pulled the string. The string to the bell that wouldn’t be heard from her parents who were out and the neighbor who was too far away. She pulled and pulled the string until the bell fell and so did the stick. She began clawing and scratching at her wooden prison until her fingers bled then she cut scratching till she breathed her last breath.

When the parents arrived home the father soon realized that the bell as yards away from it originally was and soon called for his wife to come and help him dig up their daughter. When dug threw they unlatched the coffin and found mary in a Petrified state her hands like claws covered in blood same with her white dress she was buried in. They put a mirror under her nose to see if her breaths would show. Condensation was shown on the mirror but even so she was dead. Her spirit is said to have attach to the mirror. And now whenever one says calls “Bloody Mary” three times she come and claws at the unknowing victim.

This is just one of the said stories to be about her demise. There are plenty and their might not even be fact behind the year. But still It’s a gory story that can still kids and you still have your heart beat up every time you say her name...

BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS IN WEST VIRGINA

Many West Virginians believe the woods and mountains are home to cryptids such as Mothman or the Flatwoods Monster. So, it is no surprise that Mountain State residents have also reported possible Bigfoot sightings over the years.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization documents reported sightings in each state. According to the data, the three West Virginia counties with the most Bigfoot sightings are Pendleton, Randolph and Pocahontas.

In Pendleton County, there are 14 Bigfoot sightings reported. The first was in November 1994 when cave explorers had bizarre experiences while camping in the Seneca Creek backcountry. The most recent was in November 2012 when hunters said they possibly heard voices and saw a large head peaking behind boulders near Franklin.

There are 10 reported Bigfoot sightings in Randolph County. In November 1989, two people first reported seeing the creature while they were hunting in treestands near Elkwater. Most recently in the county, a fisherman said he saw Bigfoot about six miles from Elkins in July 2017.

Eight Bigfoot sightings have been reported in Pocahontas County. The first was a daylight sighting reported by a person deer hunting near the Greenbrier River in November 1969. The most recent was a September 2016 report from motorists traveling near the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center.

There are two sightings reported in Kanawha County, which is home to the capital city of Charleston. The first was a Summer 1990 report from a man who said he saw a large, hairy creature near a Marmet cemetery. The second report was from a deer hunter who believed he saw Bigfoot near Cabin Creek in November 2009.

People have also reported possible sightings in many other areas of West Virginia. Sightings and evidence, including footprints and casts, are reported statewide, with a concentration in Braxton County, particularly near Sutton Lake. The state's mountain regions are rich with local legends, such as the "old man of the mountain" and the 1919 Flatwoods Monster sighting, further contributing to its reputation as a Bigfoot hotspot...

URBAN LEGENDS: THE CHIEF AND THE MYSTERIOUS CAVE

This one is is a spooky one so don't read it if it's night time, you have been warned. There is a rumor surrounding some of the caves found in Utah, some people belive that they were the caves ancient Ute Shamen used to preformed dark magic and worship the devil, these men would gain the powers of the devil and become skinwalkers, those guys were tame compared to the true honors that sleep in those caves.

It is said that the son of a chief when into the cave to go mining as he traveled deeper into the cave he lit a fire and took a torch. Soon he was encompassed in the earth's bosom. Suddenly a powerful draft nearly extinguished his torch leaving him in the cold, damp, dark. Quickly he grabbed his flint and tried to strike a spark before the torch lost all its light from the glowing embers. He successfully lit his torch, but it was too late. He had been in the dark, he couldn't see his surroundings, and it only took a moment for what lay lurking in the dark to claim its victim. Suddenly the cave was filled with ecos of screams and shouts of horor and pure terror. The sounds of his cries for help were distorted by the caves echos and when they finaly reached the enterance of the cave it was just an unitelegable mess of screaming and noise. This spooked his horse and the horse ran back to the tribe, back to its stable, back to safety, safety that was far away from that young man. 

The Chief, upon seeing his son's horse without his son was immediately worried, perhaps a cave in had spooked the horse, or a skinwalker or enemy tribe killed his son, maybe even the wendigo was to blame. As soon as he could he and 2 other tribesmen set off for the cave his son should have been, it was about a days ride away so when they got to the most of the cave 4 days had passed, no sounds could be heard from the mouth of the cave, but his sons pack and rations were laid out infront of it. The horses the men rode were nervous, something clearly wasn't right. The chief had one man stay out and watch their horses while he and his friend went in. Night was coming so they didn't have much time to look around but in the fading sunlight they saw the remains of a campfire deep in the cave, the cheif decided that exploring the cave exhausted wouldn't be productive so they exited and set up camp for the night. 

That night the chief had a dream he saw his son as a ghost, and was warned not to go in the cave, there is great danger in there. The cheif sad to see his son dead expressed that he wanted to retrieve his sons body so that he can give him a proper funeral and burial, the son agreed but warned his father, "you cannot let your light go out or you will meat the same fate as me" after promising his son this he awoke, the first light of dawn peaking over the Utah Mountians. 

The chief and his friend entered the cave and light a fire both men grabbed grabbed torch amd began their treck deeper into the cave, a few minutes of walking and searching later they found a burned out torch, covered in dried blood. Suddenly the other man stepped into something sticky and foul smelling upon closer inspection it was a pool of rotting blood Suddenly a powerful draft blew through threatening to extinguish their torches. In a moment of panic the other man ran to the chief, and the chief remembering his son's warning put his torch against his friends strengthening the flame, when the draft was gon e the were able to inspect the remains of the cheifs son. Having to berry your own Chile is one of the hardest thing a parent can go through, so think for a moment how hard it must have been to be the chief picking up the peices of what's left of your child. It paints a very sad and gruesome picture.

As the chieff fount bits of his son's clothing to his arm and his torso witch lay in a pool of rotting blood, there is enough blood for the cheif to realize that his son suffered and likely bread out befor having his neck redused to a bloody stump. A little deeper they could see his sons head placed on an outcropping in the rock, they could also hear a deep growling laughter from farther within the cave, it seemed as if it were taunting the chief, asking him what he was gonna do about his son's death. After collecting his head the cheif instructed his friend to walk backwards out of the cave and the chief would guide him, as they exited the other man saw something, lurking just outside the circle of light cast by his torch was something big, it wore a necklace of skulls strung with dried intestine. Its clothing seemed to be made out of bones or covered in them. The beast was short but wide, it had pointed teeth and beady small pure blak eyes, black as obsidian. As the pair walked into the sunlight the creature that was following them faded into the darkness. As the chief and the man he left outside were preparing to leave the last man had an idea, he made a plan so that the creature would never get out and kill anyone else or to prevent anyone else from wandering in. Using the heat from a bondfire he and the other men cracked the stone roof of the cave, after beating at it the cave began to collapse. After all was said and done they headed home to mourn the loss of their son amd tribesman...

NEWS BREAK: CHERRIE MAHAN UPDATE

The search for Cherrie Mahan is back in the spotlight as local police and members of the FBI started digging in Armstrong County.

Crews were out excavating a small plot near a home in South Buffalo on Tuesday afternoon.

Members of Cherrie’s Angels told us that the search was in reference to the 40-year-old case.

The group was not sure if any clues were located.

On Friday, February 22, 1985, in Winfield Township, Pennsylvania, 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan looked forward to attending her friend Jennifer’s 10th birthday party after school. The final bell rang for her third-grade class, and Cherrie headed to her school bus to get home and get ready for the party. At about 4:10 pm, Cherrie and three of her classmates get off the bus at their regular stop on Cornplanter Road, just around the corner from Cherrie’s home. All her friends make it home, but not Cherrie.

Earlier this year, a private investigator from Iowa put up a $100,000 reward for information that leads to her discovery.

“I don’t know if surprised is the best word but I was very happy,” Bailey Gizienski told Channel 11. She is a friend of Cherrie Mahan’s mother Janice McKinney and runs a group dedicated to finding Cherrie.

“She [Janice] did say to me this morning, ‘my heart is beating so fast. Cherrie wants to come home,’” she said.

Steve Ridge is a private investigator working on the Cherrie Mahan case.

“I knew a dig was imminent. I was not surprised but in terms of the specific location, I did not have that location pinpointed. I definitely had areas on both sides of the Allegheny right in that area,” he said.

It’s not clear what investigators uncovered in the dig, if anything. Gizienski says they told Cherrie’s mother that they plan to return...

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SARAH STERN

I recently watched an old episode of Dateline NBC, and I was drawn to the story of Sarah Stern. I had to do more research on this sad disappearance.  The disappearance of 19-year-old Sarah Stern in December 2016 was a murder case that shocked her community in New Jersey. Her childhood friend, Liam McAtasney, was convicted of her murder, which authorities say was committed during a robbery.

On December 3, 2016, Stern's car was found abandoned on the Route 35 Bridge in Belmar, New Jersey, with the keys in the ignition. Initial speculation suggested suicide, but police soon suspected foul play.
The motive: Prosecutors stated that McAtasney, along with his roommate and Stern's former prom date, Preston Taylor, planned to rob Stern of cash she had inherited from her mother. The money had been left in a lockbox after her mother's death from cancer in 2013.

The case broke open after another friend, Anthony Curry, went to the police. Curry had secretly recorded a conversation with McAtasney in which he allegedly confessed to strangling Stern for a half-hour and robbing her. The horrifying recording was used as key evidence in the trial.

Following McAtasney's confession being revealed, Preston Taylor confessed to helping McAtasney dispose of Stern's body. As part of a plea deal, Taylor testified against McAtasney, describing how they threw her body from the bridge into the Shark River.

Despite extensive searches, including using Taylor's testimony, Stern's body has never been recovered. An ocean engineer testified that her remains were likely swept out to sea.

 
In February 2019, a jury found Liam McAtasney guilty of all charges against him, including first-degree murder, robbery, and desecrating human remains. In June 2019, McAtasney was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Preston Taylor received 18 years in prison for his role in the robbery and disposing of the body.

Sarah Stern deserved a lot better than this. A promising life was ended shortly by greed and violence...

URBAN LEGENDS: THE SCARED BABYSITTER

There was this story a friend of mine told me back in middle school. He told me it happened to his baby sitter but I highly doubt it. One night during a snowy winter his babysitter was looking after some kids while the parents went out. It was getting late so the babysitter put the kids off to bed. Soon as the kids were asleep she went to the living room to kick back on the lazyboy and pass the time watching TV.

While watching TV she noticed something. She looks over to the slide door that leads to the backyard and sees what looks to be the top half of a person. She's tries to keep calm and reaches for her phone. She pretends to be having a conversation with a friend but actually she's talking to the police. The cops get there and they have a look around the back yard. They find no signs that anyone was there. There were no footprints in the snow or anything. They tell her to keep the doors locked and to call back if anything happens.

An hour goes by and she convinces herself she was just tired and seeing things that weren't there. She glances back at the slide door and sees the same thing again. It's a person but only their top half. She quickly runs upstairs to the kids room and locks herself up there with them. She calls the cops yet again and yet again the cops find no signs of any intruder. The cops leave and she decides to stay locked up in the kids room till the parents come back.

Several months later she gets a call from the parents letting her know they're moving and if she would be interested in a few things to lighten their load for the move. She said sure of course and went right over to the house. As she went through the living room she noticed the lazy boy she had sat in many times. She asked if they were taking it with them. They said it's hers if she wants it. She starts moving it and while moving it she notices something. On the back of the lazy boy someone had written with marker or something and it said "I was behind you".

THE MYSTERIOUS SIDE OF BING CROSBY

Bing Crosby died on this day 48 years ago. His life, unlike fellow crooner Frank Sinatra was not too eventful. Sure rumors came out after Bing's death, but for the most part his life was quiet.

THERE may have been more to the bigger-than-life friendship between Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra than just broads and tossin’ back the booze. Like Sinatra, Crosby had a thing for mobsters.

He combined high-profile glittering nights with pals like Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope and Mel Torme with illicit payoffs and gambling tours after dark. Considered America’s most cherished entertainer for his rendition of “White Christmas” and turn as a kindly priest in “The Bells of St. Mary’s” — Crosby was also the target of numerous death threats.

In the late ’50s, the FBI learned that Crosby was hobnobbing with mobsters, including mob frontman Moe Dalitz, who he invited to go deer hunting.

His passion for golf also led him into troublesome company. Crosby biographer J. Roger Osterholm said one of Crosby’s golf partners was Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn, an alleged gunman in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

“Crosby just loved golf; he didn’t care who he played with. I stress that it was just very innocent — it was just to play golf,” Osterholm said.

Partly, it seems Crosby was just a victim of the time and the place. One 1930s memo written by FBI agent Clyde Tolson says “an extremely serious situation exists in Hollywood … with all types and kinds of racketeers preying upon prominent persons in the motion picture industry.”

Tolson never speculated on who the racketeers were — but Bugsy Siegel, the mobster who built Las Vegas, and Frank Nitti, a henchman of Al Capone are mentioned.

Tolson revealed that Crosby had once coughed up $10,000 because of a threat hanging over him. Crosby was so fond of gambling, he would eagerly track down illegal games to blow his millions.

Reports says one memo detailing a 1947 raid on a Burbank, Calif., gambling joint noted that “approximately 100 patrons, among them being Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, were permitted to leave the place.”

It reprints a letter from a man who claimed to have gone on an all-night gambling binge in Nevada with Crosby and his first wife, Dixie Lee. “An argument broke out,” the man wrote.

“Two men held … Crosby with guns and four men walked me out, put me in a black Cadillac limousine, handcuffed me and took me for a real fast ride and beat me up in route … “

FBI reports show that one death threat Crosby received warned: “Crosby, I want you to send me $6,000 wright (sic) away. I hate your guts you Bastard. Your (sic) not going to make a fool out of me.

“You will have to send me all of your money for what you did to me and what you tried to do.”

The writer never explained how Crosby had allegedly wronged him.

Despite these FBI reports of Bing's gambling dealings, he left behind a sizeable estate. And when he left us on the golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977 he left behind countless records, movies, and maybe even a little mystery...

ALIEN BASES AND THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

There might be an ancient alien city lies on the dark side of the moon. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has made its most important discovery till date by spotting Giant alien lunar base on Google moon app, claimed UFO hunter.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which has been surveying desolate lunar surface since 2009, proved itself invaluable in identifying sites with high scientific worth and areas ideal for future lunar missions. Now with surprising claim Scott Waring, a self-proclaimed UFO expert evidenced Giant alien city on the moon surface, speculated Google moon map anomaly through his blog etdatabase.com.

He said: “I have found an alien structure over 9 miles (15km) long on the Moon’s De Moraes Crater.”
The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard. He zoomed into the Moon anomaly to focus on its grainy indistinct details. He said: “You can see there is a structure here and it this does appear to be a solid object.”

“The object must be huge, and it looks like part of the object is a circular tube.

"Look at all of these right angles on this thing – they don’t look like pixilation at all.

“It looks like the side of an alien building from up-close – and this is just mind-blowing guys, it really is.”
NASA images seem to show squared shaped blocks, which conspiracy theorists claim is proof there was an ancient alien civilization (Image: NASA)

Waring continued: “It almost looks like a crater itself, but it’s not there in other photos.

“If we try to look at this in other photos, it just disappears."

The alien life conspiracy theorist examined the image using two different filters supplied by the Google Moon app and found that mystery object vanishes when both Visible Imagery and Colourised Terrain are applied.

Waring, who has expressed doubts about NASA’s achievement believes this is further proof of cover-up by the US Space Agency.

He said: “The Lunar Orbiter mosaic is the older of the Google Moon images.

“What NASA did is edited this object out and put a fake crater in the location.”

Waring continues by speculating that ghostly straight lines in the image, almost certainly created by stitching the composite together, are evidence of a NASA conspiracy.

YouTube user George Mair commented: “Hi Scott it could be a huge ventilation system for an underground city to vent out fumes of some kind?”

And user The UFO Experience added: “My impression is it might be some kind of mobile drilling machine.”

As always, the photos and images are open for wild interpretations...

SICKENING NOISES IN CUBA

In December 2016, a CIA officer checked in to the American Embassy’s health office in Havana suffering from nausea, headache and dizziness. Days later, two more CIA officers reported similar ailments. By late 2018, the number grew to 26 Americans and 14 Canadian diplomats with roughly the same weird symptoms, ranging from hearing loss to nosebleeds. All the victims said that the symptoms were related to a strange noise they’d heard at their homes or hotel rooms. One noted that the noise was high-pitched. Another described “a beam of sound, pointed into their rooms.” Some said that the noise resembled marbles rolling inside a large funnel.

While the cause of these reported brain injuries was still a mystery, the fallout was clear. In October 2017, the Americans removed 60% of their diplomats from Cuba and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington, D.C. The illnesses confounded medical experts. Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania who examined some of the victims diagnosed concussion-like symptoms but didn’t find signs of concussions. You might be thinking: The Cuban government was up to something, right? The Cubans vehemently denied they were responsible. Many American investigators believed them.

Recordings of the sounds only added to the confusion. Two scientists believed the recordings were of lovelorn male crickets. One of the experts, Alex­ander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, said the insects are incredibly loud. “You can hear them from inside a diesel truck going 40 miles an hour on the highway.” Still, scientists had no idea how these sounds could lead to human illness, and they couldn’t explain why other people who lived near the diplomats weren’t affected.

Maybe it was just nerves. “Cuba is a high-threat, high-stress post,” a former embassy official told propublica.org. Diplomats are warned that “there will be surveillance. There will be listening devices in your house, probably in your car. For some people, that puts them in a high-stress mentality, in a threat-anticipation mode.”

True—but then how to explain what happened in China? In May 2018, an American posted in the consulate in Guangzhou was diagnosed with the very same mystery illness. Ultimately, 15 Americans were evacuated.

In 2020, a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded that the most probable cause was “radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that includes microwaves.” Meanwhile, a 2023 intelligence community assessment found that the injuries were likely “tied to previous injuries, stress, environmental concerns and factors such as group psychology, in which illness symptoms reported by one individual in a community can spread serially among its members.”

And in 2024, two studies by the National Institutes of Health compared more than 80 affected people with a healthy comparison group. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed “no clinical signs or brain image indications to explain those widely varied symptoms.” Yet attorney Mark Zaid, who represents current and past federal officials and their family members seeking continued medical treatment for Havana syndrome, believes that “the government is knowingly weaponizing the lack of science that exists in this area and intentionally hiding behind the classification wall where much of the evidence that contradicts the results exists.”

The mysterious sounds may well be the opening shots in a new kind of cold war...

ALIEN BASE IN CHILE

Google Maps users have made a peculiar discovery that has sparked the imagination of many. This time, the find comes from the remote mountains of Chile, where a face-shaped formation on a mountain top has left viewers baffled. The sighting has led some to wonder if the formation could be evidence of an alien presence or even an ancient, unknown base. However, experts are providing a more down-to-earth explanation.

According to Daily Mail, the mysterious face appears on a remote island located in the southern part of Chile. Its unusual shape caught the eye of Scott C. Waring, a self-proclaimed UFO hunter who is known for sharing his findings online. Waring, who shared the coordinates 55°32’35” S, 69°15’56” W, posted a video revealing the formation on YouTube.

The video quickly gained attention, especially from those interested in extraterrestrial phenomena. Some commentators were quick to speculate that the formation could be part of an “alien base,” and Waring himself suggested, “The oldest aliens in our universe might be seen as angels or demons with such powers…or even god or gods.”

This remote location, far from urban centers, has led to widespread curiosity and theories about the true nature of the discovery. For many, this face-shaped formation seems far too perfect to be a natural geological feature.

Despite the excitement online, scientists have a simpler explanation for the mysterious formation: pareidolia. Pareidolia is the tendency of the human brain to recognize familiar patterns, such as faces, in random objects or images. Dr. Robin Kramer, a face perception expert from the University of Lincoln, explained this phenomenon: “Our face detection system has evolved to be great at detecting faces and it makes more sense to err on the side of caution by occasionally seeing faces where there aren’t any, rather than missing faces where there are.”

This ability to perceive faces in unusual places likely evolved to help our ancestors in identifying friends and foes quickly. From a survival perspective, it would have been better to briefly mistake a tree branch for a person rather than miss an actual threat.

The discovery of faces in strange places is not new. People have often found what they believe to be faces in various geological features or even in objects that appear random at first glance. Waring’s find, along with other similar discoveries, has fueled the belief that these formations might be linked to ancient alien civilizations or secret extraterrestrial activity.

While such theories may capture the imagination, experts caution that pareidolia is a powerful force that can lead to the perception of faces even in the most unlikely of places. The brain’s bias toward recognizing faces can cause us to interpret ordinary geological features as something extraordinary.
A Shared Human Fascination with Faces

Experts also note that some people are more prone to seeing faces in random patterns than others. Professor Kevin Brooks, a psychologist at Macquarie University, added, “We tend to classify anything vaguely face-like as a face until proven otherwise – it’s safer that way.” The tendency to perceive faces is deeply ingrained in human psychology.

Dr. Susan Wardle from the National Institutes of Health mentioned that while pareidolia isn’t typically a sign of any psychological issues, those with strong beliefs in the paranormal might be more likely to see faces in random patterns. As she explained, a 2012 Finnish study found that people with religious or paranormal beliefs were more likely to see faces in unexpected places, further linking this phenomenon to our cultural and psychological predispositions...

NEWS BREAK: HAS AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE BEEN FOUND?

Researchers from Purdue University are set to travel to the South Pacific to determine if a "visual anomaly" on a remote island is the wreck of Amelia Earhart's lost plane, saying there is "very strong" evidence the object is the iconic aviator's aircraft.

Earhart was attempting to become the first female pilot to circle the world when she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937. Earhart, Noonan and their plane, an Electra 10E, were never found. Recently, President Trump ordered records related to Earhart be declassified.

In 2020, researchers looking at satellite imagery identified a "visual anomaly" known as the Taraia Object in a lagoon on Nikumaroro, a small island in Kiribati about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, according to a news release from Purdue University. Nikumaroro is about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, Earhart and Noonan's planned destination.

The underwater object has been visible in photos dating back to 1938, the year after Earhart and Noonan disappeared. A team of researchers from Purdue University, the Purdue Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute will travel to Nikumaroro to inspect the object in November. The team will first take photos and videos of the site, then use magnetometers and sonar devices to scan the area. Then, the item will be dredged and lifted from the water so researchers can attempt to identify it.

Theories have abounded about Earhart and Noonan's fates since their disappearance. One theory suggests that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro and was marooned on the island before her death. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, has collected evidence it says supports the theory. Richard Pettigrew, the executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, said that the expedition offers a chance to find "smoking-gun proof" that confirms the theory.

However, Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has expressed skepticism. "We've looked there in that spot, and there's nothing there," he told the press  in July.

Steve Schultz, a Purdue senior vice president and the university's general counsel, will be a field assistant on the expedition. He said that if the object is identified as Earhart's plane, the university hopes it can transport the plane home. Earhart worked at Purdue University for two years in the 1930s, and the Purdue Research Foundation originally paid for the airplane that Earhart flew, the school said. She planned to return the craft to the university after her trip around the world.

"A successful identification would be the first step toward fulfilling Amelia's original plan to return the Electra to West Lafayette after her historic flight," Schultz said in the news release...