A longstanding conspiracy theory surrounding famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart has been seemingly bolstered by way of an intriguing secondhand story.
Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan famously went missing in 1937 as she attempted to fly around the world.
In the eight decades since, numerous theories have emerged to explain what became of the pair when they vanished.
One of the most prominent possibility often offered by Earhart researchers is that the duo were captured by Japanese forces after their plane went down in the Pacific Ocean and subsequently held captive on the island of Saipan.
The controversial theory has its fair share of critics who see such a scenario as implausible, however a heretofore-untold story will no doubt strengthen the case for those who believe it.
A man from the Mariana Islands, of which Saipan is one, named Bill Sablan says that his uncle actually served as a prison guard where Earhart and Noonan were held.
Sablan was told the story by his uncle back in 1971 when they were chatting about aviation and, suddenly, the man revealed his alleged run-in with history.
According to Sablan's uncle, the normally quiet prison became chaotic one day when Japanese forces arrived with a Caucasian man and woman who had been taken prisoner.
He later learned that they had been found at the site of a nearby plane crash in the Pacific Ocean and also recounted that the pair only stayed at the prison for a few days before being executed.
Although the man's tale is largely lacking in details, the specifics of the story match what has been proposed by researchers for years and closely mirrors similar testimony from others who were on Saipan at the time.
Unfortunately, as with most witness testimony for these types of mysteries, the story provides little in the way of proof and can really only be added to the ledger of those who support the Saipan theory.
Source: USA Today