Thunder Bay Labs Amelia Earheart

The decades-long mystery of the disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart might finally be solved next year with the help of two Thunder Bay, Ontario, labs.

American Ric Gillespie and his team from TIGHAR will head to thewestern Pacific island of Nikumaroro next May.

That's where they think Earhart was left stranded and died after her plane crashed as she tried to fly around the world in 1937.

They hope to collect items that have her D-N-A on them.

Gillespie says they already have a D-N-A sample from a relative.

During a 2007 expedition, Gillespie's team collected a sample that had human D-N-A.

Two Thunder Bay labs -- Genesis Genomics and Molecular World -- tested it and the results came in this spring.

But the sample didn't match a great-niece of Earhart.

It turned out to be contaminated with Gillespie's own D-N-A becausehe handled the sample.