Amelia Earhart was mostly a publicity stunt. Her first notoriety was for being the "first woman to fly across the Atlantic", but she actually went as a passenger. The two men hired to fly her across spent the two weeks they had to wait in Newfoundland for clear enough weather to give it a try drinking fiercely. Im sure they expected to die, because it was still extremely dangerous and more people had died trying it than had made it across. The flight took about 18 hours and photos taken after the landing in Ireland show a smiling Amelia and two very haggard men.
G. P. Putnam, the publisher, had dumped his wife to marry Amelia, scandalizing his family and his adult children, who were roughly Amelia's age. It was G. P who financed Amelia's around-the-world effort. Because this time she intended to fly the airplane herself, no one could be found who would go along with her as navigator/radio operator except the alcoholic Fred Noonan. They actually made it more than halfway, but probably the most difficult leg was their undoing. There was a long flight over open water, which provided Noonan no landmarks for confirmation of his navigation. There was a Coast Guard cutter positioned to provide a radio beacon, and the ship did have brief contact, but the radio direction finding technology of the day could only narrow things down to reciprocal bearings. You had two possible locations with respect to the RDF, and they were 180 degrees opposite. The confusion from this and Noonan's poor navigation skills meant they could not find the flyspeck Howland Island in the vast expanse of ocean.
There have been numerous speculations and tales regarding the ultimate fate of Noonan and Earhart. One was that they crashlanded in a lagoon in the Marshall Islands, which the Japanese were busily fortifying, in violation of their League of Nations Mandate to the islands. This was purportedly witnessed by a native who related the tale when she was very old. The Japanese either assumed she was a spy, or decided she had to die to keep their fortifying the islands a secret.
Another which was interesting was aired several years ago. It was based on a flat piece of metal, which may have been the lid of a map box of the sort that Noonan might have been expected to have, and on the heel of a shoe, of the type of flat that Amelia is seen wearing in photos as she readied herself for departure. These items were found on an uninhabited island within a radius that they might have reached. Some wealthy mystery hunters had pledged an all out further investigation, but nothing more has been made public of which I am aware.
This was a huge news event in 1937 and the area is so remote that there is virtually no way she could have slipped out of the area and returned to live out her life in obscurity in a New York hamlet. Why would she not return to G. P. and the easy life and further exploits his millions would have made possible?