A newly released cache of aerial photographs showing a remote South Pacific island may provide fresh leads in the enduring mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.

The pioneering aviator was 39 when she vanished in July 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world.

After almost 90 years, investigators remain without a definitive answer. However, many believe Earhart may have crash-landed her Lockheed Electra on Nikumaroro, a remote island in the South Pacific roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

In 1938, a year after her disappearance, an aerial survey of the atoll—then known as Gardner Island—produced nearly 50 high-resolution black-and-white photographs.

The Air Force Museum of New Zealand has now published the complete set of 47 images, taken on December 1, 1938, hoping online investigators may spot evidence that could help resolve the mystery.

Matthew O’Sullivan, the Christchurch museum’s keeper of photographs, discovered the negatives more than a decade ago.

Several of the pictures have previously been shared online, but the entire collection has never been made public until now.

The release comes as a renewed expedition searches for Earhart’s missing aircraft. 

A research team from Purdue University in Indianapolis, Earhart’s former benefactor, is investigating a ‘visual anomaly’ in Nikumaroro’s lagoon identified in 2020 satellite imagery.

Researchers have named the feature the ‘Tararia Object’. They believe it could be the wreckage of an aircraft matching Earhart’s plane, supporting the theory that she came down on the remote island.

Archaeologist Dr Richard Pettigrew, executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, is leading a 17-person team on Nikumaroro, part of the archipelago nation of Kiribati.

The team arrived on Tuesday and has begun using a magnetometer to search for metal from the aircraft, along with sonar technology to locate objects concealed beneath the lagoon’s surface.

Any compelling evidence that Earhart reached the island could finally resolve a mystery that has frustrated investigators for most of a century.

It could also confirm a grim explanation for what happened to the celebrated, tousled-haired aviator.

Pettigrew has previously theorised that Earhart became lost during her round-the-world flight, ran out of fuel and landed on a small, isolated island, where she eventually died from hunger and thirst before her remains were consumed by giant crabs.

‘The very idea that she wasted away on the island and eventually died and got eaten by coconut crabs—that’s a horrible, horrible vision,’ Pettigrew told the Daily Mail in 2025.

‘I don’t like thinking about it, but it’s inevitable.’

It would be a macabre end to the puzzle of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, who disappeared in the Pacific on July 2, 1937, en route from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island.

Earhart’s bid to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe ran into strong headwinds, and she radioed that she was running low on fuel.

The loss of an aviation pioneer who had inspired women to chase their dreams sent shockwaves around the world.

The US Navy scoured the area for 16 days, but found no trace of her or her plane.

The longstanding official theory is that the plane ran out of fuel, crashed and sank into deep ocean waters off Howland Island.

RELATED: FIT Student Who Was Drugged and Raped Before Her Death Remembered as ‘Sweet and Kind’

But the absence of a wreckage has spawned a slew of alternate explanations about her fate.

Theories have veered into the absurd, including abduction by aliens or Earhart living in New Jersey under an alias.

Some speculate Earhart and Noonan crash-landed on Mili Atoll, 800 miles northwest of Howland, and were taken prisoner by the Japanese and transported to Saipan, where they died in captivity.

Various teams have tried to pinpoint the crash location by scanning the ocean floor or using computer models based on Earhart’s radio transmissions.

But no one has yet found a verified plane part or bone fragment.

In 2024, explorers at South Carolina firm Deep Sea Vision discovered an ‘aircraft-shaped object’ in the area of the Pacific where the legendary aviator vanished.

However, a second expedition dashed hopes, revealing the object was not an aircraft but simply rocks. 

Since the late 1980s, many investigators have probed another theory: that Earhart made an emergency landing on a dry flat stretch of coral reef off what was then known as Gardner Island, southwest of Howland.

Researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (Tighar), point to Earhart’s last in-flight radio message heard by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, which put her on course for Gardner. 

A series of distress calls in the days after the disappearance, apparently made by Earhart from a safely-landed Electra, also point to her having landed on Gardner, though these may have been hoaxes.

However previous attempts to scour Nikumaroro Island have drawn a blank.

A multi-million-dollar search of waters off the island in August 2019, spearheaded by ocean explorer Robert Ballard, found no trace of Earhart’s twin-tailed monoplane there.

The current expedition has been hampered by severe weather, but the team is expected to release an update in the coming days. 

Pettigrew said in an update on Thursday: ‘We understand the tremendous interest in what we’re doing at Nikumaroro, and we appreciate everyone’s patience. 

‘This is a complex scientific process. You don’t simply arrive at a site and immediately identify what’s there. 

‘We have to carefully collect the data, analyse it and reach sound conclusions.’ 

READ MORE: Never-before-seen photos show Amelia Earhart beside her plane just hours before she vanished during bid to fly around the world

READ MORE:  I know where Amelia Earhart is after tracing bombshell picture… we’re off to the island to prove my sickening crab theory

She was alone in the concrete jungle, far from home and pursuing her dreams.

Fashion Institute of Technology student Annabel Richter had moved thousands of miles away to New York City, determined to build a life on her own, according to a family friend. But prosecutors say her journey ended in tragedy when a predator allegedly drugged her and sexually assaulted her as she suffered a fatal fentanyl overdose.

Prosecutors allege that Moises Freire, 19, gave fentanyl to Richter, 21, and her roommate inside their Chelsea dorm room in March.

Both women lost consciousness and were taken to a hospital. Only Richter’s roommate survived.

“She struck me as very sweet and kind,” Christina Perez, a longtime friend of Richter’s grandmother, told The Post Friday. “She was very bright.”

Perez said Richter’s family was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, while her grandmother was based in Washington state when Richter left for college.

“She wanted to go to New York,” Perez said. “The idea worried me a bit because she didn’t have anyone there — her family was still in Brazil.”

Richter’s grandmother, Virginia “Gini” Richter, has been devastated by the death and is “suffering a great deal,” Perez said.

Richter’s extended family traveled to the United States for her memorial service in Portland, Ore., Perez said.

“I can only imagine what it’s like for her parents. It’s a terrible situation. Very, very sad,” Perez said.

Richter’s mother, Flavia Rocha, a Brazilian poet and journalist, posted an emotional tribute to her daughter on Instagram days after her death.

“It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of our daughter Annabel, so dearly loved by all of us. Her light remains alive in our hearts. Forever,” Rocha wrote.

MORE ON THIS: Prosecutor Calls Alex Murdaugh’s DNA Defense ‘High Risk’

Rocha also shared a poem Richter wrote at age 10, titled “What is Red?” The post included an angelic photograph of Richter wearing a light pink top.

“Bel and I would often discuss how women who suffered violence would rarely have a voice. I hope that Annabel’s story brings awareness, and meets justice,” Rocha, who was heartbroken, previously told The Post.

According to court documents unsealed Thursday, Freire allegedly told the women he was bringing cocaine from Mexico, despite having tried fentanyl a week earlier and describing it in a text to a friend as “poison.”

Freire, who was not an FIT student, allegedly gave both women the drug in their dorm room on March 18. It remains unclear how Richter and her roommate knew him.

Prosecutors say Freire then sexually assaulted Richter while she was unconscious and waited about 45 minutes before contacting campus security. First responders administered Narcan to both women before taking them to the hospital.

Freire also allegedly photographed Richter while she was unconscious and nude from the waist down, intending to share the images with friends.

Prosecutors further allege that he told campus security the women had passed out after drinking too much. He also reportedly claimed he did not realize Richter was unconscious until after he had finished having sex with her.

“It is truly hard to believe that the defendant, who seemed entirely coherent and sober at the time, who didn’t have any of the substance, who is captured on the security guard’s body-worn camera seeming coherent and sober, didn’t know what was going on when he was having sex with the victim who was completely unconscious,” prosecutor Ariana Bloom said during an April court hearing.

Freire’s friend, Brian Peralta Cabrera, 18, of Queens, was separately hit with narcotics conspiracy charges for alleging helping Freire get the lethal fentanyl.

Freire and Peralta Cabrera were first arrested in March. They pleaded not guilty to an initial set of charges that did not include the rape allegation and remain in custody.

Freire is due back in court Oct. 28 to be arraigned on upgraded charges of distributing a controlled substance with the intent to commit rape, along with other narcotics charges. He faces a minimum of 20 years in prison, and a maximum of life if convicted.

A third man, Harry Rosales Pino, has pleaded guilty to narcotics distribution resulting in death.

This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

For years, Bonnie Lou Gower shared her life and a bed with a man she believed she knew completely. She never imagined that her husband was capable of murder.

Richard “Marc” Evonitz was living a hidden double life—one that eventually revealed him as a serial killer who targeted young girls.

One of his victims was a 16-year-old girl who was killed while Evonitz was still married to Gower.

Decades after Evonitz’s crimes were exposed, Gower is looking back at the warning signs she missed. She is doing so alongside a young woman who survived an encounter with him.

In Investigation Discovery’s true-crime docuseries “The Serial Killer Connection,” Gower meets Kara Robinson Chamberlain, who survived 18 hours of captivity and torture before escaping Evonitz. Together, they examine whether he could be connected to additional unsolved cases.

Since discovering the truth about her former husband, Gower has been haunted by one central question.

“When I initially learned about [his crimes] and told people, honestly, their first response was, ‘Well, obviously you knew. How could you not have known?’” Gower told News Media.

“That was my very first question to the FBI: ‘How could I not know this? How could I not know I was sleeping next to somebody for eight and a half years who was doing this?’ And, of course, they assured me there was no way I could have known.”

With the perspective of time, Gower said there were details she now realizes she never questioned.

Whenever Gower left town to see relatives, Evonitz told her he had to remain behind for work. She later learned that he had actually taken time off during those same days.

“One of the reasons he never came with me was because he said he was working,” Gower said.

“Then I found out he had actually taken off work on the days I was out of town. But at the time, I wasn’t concerned at all about leaving him behind. I was simply going to visit my family. It definitely makes you reconsider everyone and everything, and whether you can trust what people say or do.”

Gower met Evonitz in South Carolina. Eight years older than her, he was the older brother of one of her friends and returned home whenever he was on leave from the U.S. Navy. As she got to know him, Gower developed a crush on him. When she was 16, Evonitz asked her on a date.

They married in August 1988, when Gower was 17 and Evonitz was 25.

“You think you know who you are when you’re 17, but I really don’t think I did,” said Gower. “I don’t think I had a handle on that. And I was relatively sheltered. I was very naïve, very trusting, taking everything at face value. I think he knew that.”

During the marriage, there were moments when Gower suspected Evonitz was being unfaithful. Whenever she questioned him, Evonitz told her it was all in her head. She believed him. But as the relationship progressed, Evonitz began isolating her from friends and family as they moved around the country, from Maine to San Diego to Virginia.

“No one ever thinks that their significant other is going to be a serial killer,” Chamberlain told News Media. “I think worst case, and this is something that she expressed to me, he was having an affair. No one ever thinks your spouse is out murdering someone.”

“He kept that part of himself very tightly controlled and didn’t show it to the people he was closest to.”

The marriage began to unravel after Evonitz left the Navy. Gower said financial pressures fueled growing tensions between the couple, while Evonitz became prone to mood swings and what she described as “rages.” He also frequently criticized her weight. Behind closed doors, Gower was also uncomfortable with his interest in bondage, according to the docuseries.

Even as the marriage reached its breaking point, Gower said she still didn’t see Evonitz as someone capable of hurting her. Walking away, she said, was a decision that came after years of mounting unhappiness.

When Gower made the decision to leave the marriage, Gower said her fear was for him, not herself.

“I was concerned for his safety when he said he was going to take the gun and kill himself,” Gower recalled. “I never feared for my own life.”

Even after she finally walked away, Gower said Evonitz had left her questioning whether she had any justification for doing so.

“When I left, I felt like I was leaving for no real good reason,” she said. “[But] I wasn’t happy.”

According to Gower’s TikTok, she and Evonitz were married from August 1988 until January 1997. Multiple reports indicate that their divorce was finalized in 1998. Years later, Gower would learn just how much she hadn’t known about the man she left behind.

On June 24, 2002, 15-year-old Chamberlain was at a friend’s home in South Carolina when Evonitz pulled into the driveway. The stranger approached her with pamphlets and asked if her parents were home. Then, he held a gun to her neck and threatened to shoot her if she screamed. He forced Chamberlain into a dark storage container in his car.

At Evonitz’s apartment, Chamberlain was repeatedly sexually assaulted. He restrained her to a bed. After hours of torture, Chamberlain managed to free one of her hands from a pair of handcuffs with her teeth, unclip a leather leg restraint and quietly bolt out the door as Evonitz slept. As she took off, Chamberlain encountered two men who took her to a police station.

RELATED: BA pilot's calm message as all engines fail, saving 263 lives over shark-infested waters – NewsFinale

Chamberlain led officers back to her captor’s apartment. But when investigators arrived, Evonitz had escaped. Police tracked Evonitz to Sarasota, Florida, but as they closed in on him, Evonitz died by suicide. He was 38.

Once investigators began digging into Evonitz’s past, Chamberlain’s abduction proved to be only part of the story. Evidence recovered from Evonitz’s South Carolina apartment, former Virginia residence and vehicle linked him to three unsolved murders.

On Sept. 9, 1996, Evonitz abducted 16-year-old Sofia Silva from the front steps of her home in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where he and Gower had been living. Her body was discovered about five weeks later in neighboring King George County.

Then, on May 1, 1997, sisters Kristin “Kristi” Lisk, 15, and Kathryn “Kati” Lisk, 12, vanished after returning home from school. Both girls had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Their bodies were discovered five days later in the South Anna River.

Notes discovered by investigators indicated that Evonitz already had his eye on other potential victims, News Media previously reported.

It would be months after Chamberlain’s abduction that Gower learned of her ex-husband’s other victims.

“It felt like it wasn’t real at all,” Gower admitted. “It felt like this was something that happens in the movies. This wasn’t real life. It was very hard to believe that he could hurt anybody. He had never hit me or physically abused me.”

Now, Gower and Chamberlain are looking to Evonitz’s past for answers about whether there could be other victims.

Gower has helped piece together a timeline of Evonitz’s movements during their marriage, providing investigators with dates, locations and old calendars as potential cold cases are examined.

“Of course, he wasn’t always where I thought he was,” said Gower.

Chamberlain, meanwhile, has been investigating whether Evonitz could be responsible for other unsolved crimes, examining cases dating back to the 1980s and tracing his movements during his years in the Navy and in the decades before her own abduction.

“I genuinely think that there is a level of escalation that we see between an indecent exposure [incident] and then three homicides in approximately nine months and then a break before me that is unexplainable to me,” she said.

“Everything’s possible and nothing has been confirmed,” Chamberlain stressed. “It’s a frustrating place to be, but I will not stop searching.”

One potential key to finding answers is DNA.

While investigating cases for the docuseries, Chamberlain said she learned that Evonitz’s DNA profile was not in CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database. However, she said authorities in Spotsylvania County still have a blood sample that can be provided to law enforcement agencies seeking to compare his DNA with evidence from other cases.

Chamberlain said she hopes Evonitz’s DNA can ultimately be entered into CODIS, allowing for broader comparisons with evidence from unsolved crimes.

“I genuinely believe that there’s no way he only murdered three girls and kidnapped me,” she said. “I don’t think that there’s a world in which that’s true.”

While making the docuseries, Gower learned that Evonitz had kept a photograph of her when she was just 11 years old — years before they began dating — hidden behind another framed picture of her. Gower said it was not a photograph she had taken with her when she left home and that she never knew Evonitz possessed it.

“It’s disturbing enough that he would have 11-year-old me in a picture behind something,” she said.

Decades after learning the truth about the man she married, Gower said she is still trying to make sense of it.

“I don’t think you ever make sense of it,” she said. “There’s no tidy little box to put it in to make it make sense.”

“I’m still grappling with it. I’m still processing.”

An urgent recall has been announced for packaged smoked salmon sold across six states after regulators raised concerns about possible contamination with a potentially dangerous bacterium.

Krasnyi Oktyabr Inc., a New York-based company, is voluntarily recalling its frozen Starfish Seafood Premium Cold Smoked Norwegian Salmon because it may contain Listeria monocytogenes, the bacteria responsible for listeriosis.

The affected product comes in 8-ounce (227-gram) vacuum-sealed plastic packages sold under the Starfish Seafood brand.

The recalled salmon was distributed in New York, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Consumers can identify it by lot number D080-148.

The recall began after the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets detected the potential contamination.

No illnesses have been linked to the product so far.

Krasnyi Oktyabr Inc. is a wholesale distributor rather than the product’s manufacturer. The salmon’s listed country of origin is Latvia.

The company is working with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, has contacted affected customers and asked them to stop using or distributing the salmon. Those customers have also been instructed to notify anyone who may have received the product.

The recall follows another Listeria-related action involving the same company. On Monday, Starfish Seafood Trio — a combination of cold-smoked salmon, halibut and trout — was removed from store shelves over similar contamination concerns.

The FDA is advising anyone who purchased the recalled salmon not to eat it. Customers should return the product to the store where it was bought.

Officials have not determined how the smoked salmon may have become contaminated. Listeria can spread through contact with contaminated soil, water, decaying plant material or animal manure.

Krasnyi Oktyabr Inc.’s seafood trio was recalled Monday because of concerns that it may also have been exposed to Listeria.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Kremlin Welcomes Trump’s Decision to Suspend Sanctions on Russia

That action covered 8-ounce (227-gram) vacuum-sealed plastic packages sold under the Starfish brand. The products were distributed in New York, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The trio can be identified by lot number D139149161-153 and carries an expiration date of December 1, 2027.

The company has not said how the seafood mix may have come into contact with Listeria. No illnesses were reported in connection with that recall either.

Many foods can harbor the bug, but it is usually found in unpasteurized milk, soft cheeses and ready-to-eat foods, such as pre-packed sandwiches. 

Cooked shellfish, cured meats and fish, including sushi and pre-cut fruit, are also a risk.

While most of the 1,250 Americans infected with listeria each year recover on their own, the infection can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms.

It can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

About 250 Americans die of the infection each year, which can occur if the infection spreads beyond the gut and affects the central nervous system.

Drivers may want to keep a closer eye on the road.

New Jersey officials are cautioning commuters about heightened white-tailed deer activity as the animals enter their annual mating season.

The state Department of Environmental Protection said Friday that motorists should be especially alert during the morning and evening commute, when bucks are more likely to cross roads while pursuing does.

Known as the “fall rut,” New Jersey’s peak deer-mating period typically runs from mid-to-late October through the middle of December, according to the agency.

“Collisions with deer pose a very serious safety threat and can cause significant damage to vehicles and possible loss of life,” Dave Golden, assistant commissioner of NJDEP Fish & Wildlife, said in a warning.

Golden urged drivers to remain vigilant, adding that motorists should learn the steps they can take to lower the risk of hitting a deer.

DON’T MISS: Harry and Meghan’s Plan to Win Back Public Support Revealed: Alison Boshoff

The danger could increase after daylight saving time ends on Nov. 1, officials said, as reduced visibility makes deer harder to spot along busy roadways.

With more commuters traveling during the darker morning and evening hours, drivers may find themselves on the road at the same time deer are most active during the rut, raising the likelihood of crashes.

About 25,000 vehicle accidents involving deer are reported in New Jersey each year, according to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

New York sees an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 deer-related crashes annually, according to the New York State Department of Transportation, which recently launched a public awareness campaign.

To help avoid a collision, officials recommend slowing down, watching for “Deer Crossing” signs and using high beams when driving at night, when appropriate.

New Jersey’s white-tailed deer population has grown to troublesome levels in many suburban communities. Gothamist reported that roughly 100,000 deer are now estimated to roam across the state.