Earhart 'hair' found to be thread

CLEVELAND, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- DNA analysis of what was believed to be a strand of Amelia Earhart's hair found the item was actually thread, a Cleveland aviation museum said.

The International Women's Air and Space Museum at Burke Lakefront Airport said the item, given to the museum by the Smithsonian Institution 20 years ago, was loaned to a team seeking remains of the lost pilot and her plane on a Pacific island, WJW-TV, Cleveland, reported Tuesday.

Toni Mullee, executive director of the museum, said the group hoped to use the hair to check any DNA evidence discovered during the search, but testing on the item found it to be a piece of thread, rather than human hair.

"Not only wasn't it Amelia Earhart's hair, it wasn't hair at all," Mullee said. She said the thread will remain on display at the museum with an explanation of its origins.

Mullee said the thread was initially given to the Smithsonian by a man in Pennsylvania.

"We don't think it's a hoax," she said. "We think they thought they had something special and wanted an institution to have it."