Developing the first and full DNA profile of Amelia Earhart.
To date, no full DNA profile of Earhart exists. Efforts coordinated by Elgen's grandson, Justin Long, and scientific work led by Dr. Dongya Yang at Simon Fraser University are currently using old envelopes to harvest a full DNA profile of Amelia Earhart. DNA will be extracted from seals that have a high probability of being licked by Amelia.
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In 2009, Elgen was sitting for Christmas dinner with his grandson, Justin, and family when they were discussing recent news about potential bones of Amelia Earhart. Expressing his concern for the lack of tools available to identify such remains, he exclaimed at the dinner table, "I've got her DNA!"
Of course such a claim was met with skepticism by the family, but Elgen pulled out several letters locked away for safekeeping that were indeed family letters Amelia sent to her mother and others. Justin was a student at Simon Fraser University at the time, and proposed finding an experienced researcher to harvest any potential DNA.
After asking around at SFU, Justin finally met with Dr. Dongya Yang. In the first minute of sitting down he asked Dr. Yang, "Do you want to profile the DNA of Amelia Earhart?" Without hesitation he immediately responded "yes", and the project was underway.
