BILLINGS — A former Montana journalist is watching from Kentucky as her history-loving father helps lead an expedition searching the South Pacific for Amelia Earhart’s missing plane, hoping to solve one of aviation’s most enduring mysteries.
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Evelyn Schultz, an evening news anchor at LEX 18 (WLEX-TV) in Lexington, Kentucky, spent four years reporting for Montana television news in Billings and Great Falls and anchoring for MTN News in Helena (KTVH). Now, she is following a story that hits much closer to home: her father, Steve Schultz, is helping lead a team of researchers investigating a possible clue to Earhart’s disappearance nearly 90 years ago.
“I think everyone was thinking, ‘What are you doing? Like, really?’” Schultz said over Zoom. “But it is truly so my dad to get involved in an expedition like this.”
The 17-person expedition, organized through a partnership between Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute, traveled by boat for five days to Nikumaroro, a remote island in the South Pacific, to investigate a visual anomaly identified in satellite imagery known as the Taraia object.
Researchers are working to determine whether the object could be the remains of Earhart’s airplane.
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared July 2, 1937, while attempting to fly around the world. Their fate has remained one of aviation’s most famous unsolved mysteries.
For Steve Schultz, who serves as general counsel and senior vice president at the university, the expedition is an opportunity to investigate a possibility that could bring new answers to a story that has captivated generations.
“They figure, why not check it out? Someone has to, is what my dad has said. He says, ‘Why not us?’” Schultz said.
The expedition’s remote location has underscored the challenges facing researchers as they work to determine what lies beneath the ocean.
“You could get to the moon faster than you could get to Nikumaroro, which puts things in perspective,” Schultz said. “But it’s also kind of mind-boggling.”
In an update shared Friday, Purdue University said rough seas had prevented the team from safely returning to shore, extending the expedition as researchers waited for weather conditions to improve.
The team continued its underwater surveys, with at least two more days of fieldwork expected before researchers could determine what the object might be.
The discovery is far from certain, and the investigation must establish whether the anomaly is an aircraft at all, let alone Earhart’s missing plane. Still, the possibility of an answer has brought renewed attention to the decades-old mystery.
Steve Schultz has decades of law experience, but his involvement in the expedition also reflects interests that have long shaped his life, his daughter said.
“My dad loves history. He has always been a big history lover. He studied history in college,” she said. “And I think as a lawyer, he just really likes to get to the bottom of things and figure out the truth.”
He also loves to travel and has encouraged his family to embrace new experiences, she said.
"He's part of the reason why I moved out to Montana,” Schultz said. "My dad loves to explore."
For a journalist accustomed to telling other people’s stories, watching her own father become part of a major international investigation has offered a different perspective. She has even interviewed him herself for a story and watched as national outlets followed the expedition.
“I’ve been doing TV now for 10 years, and the last year, he’s been on the Today show multiple times, and I have never been on the Today show,” Schultz joked. "That's crazy that he has gotten to be on all these different networks and talking about Amelia Earhart."
Beyond the scientific questions surrounding the expedition, Schultz said Earhart’s legacy makes the search especially meaningful. Earhart, who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, remains a symbol of determination and possibility for women in aviation and beyond.
“She was such a feminist icon. She was ahead of her time. She was a role model for women,” Schultz said. “And as a girl dad to four women, I think my dad really appreciates that about Amelia Earhart.”
Whether the expedition produces a definitive answer remains to be seen. For now, Schultz is following the updates with a mixture of excitement, pride, and the understandable concern of a daughter waiting for her father to return safely.
“I’m so proud of my dad. I think this is the perfect project for him to be on,” she said. “And I’m proud of the other crew members, too.”
She is also looking forward to hearing the full story firsthand and celebrating when the team returns.
“When he gets back, we really want to have a party,” she said, noting that her father’s birthday is coming up at the end of the month. “I’m excited for them to wrap up and come home so that we know they’re safe.”
