A new study may hold a clue to solving the decades-old mystery of what happened to American aviator Amelia Earhart, who famously went missing without a trace more than 80 years ago.

Bones found on a remote island in the South Pacific in 1940 that were originally thought to belong to a man are now being considered as Earhart’s, according to the study “Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones” authored by Richard L. Jantz, a professor for University of Tennessee’s Department of Anthropology, and published in the journal “Forensic Anthropology.”

The bones were found when a working party brought to the island for the Phoenix Island Settlement Scheme found a human skull, the study states. When the officer in charge of the settlement scheme learned of the discovery, he ordered a more thorough search of the area, and additional bones were found. Also found were a shoe “judged to have been a woman’s,” a box designed to carry a Brandis Navy Surveying Sextant manufactured in 1918, and a bottle of Benedictine, an herbal liqueur drink.