During many years a volume of facts and evidence was collected that thoroughly discredits the "repatriation theory" about Amelia Earhart .
Two certified forensic professionals, Dr. Walter Birkby (Arizona) and Dr. Todd Fenton (Michigan), after studying the "photograph overlays", came to a negative conclusion about the credibility of the theory (yet in 2005), refusing to support it.
In 2006, another professional - criminal forensic expert Kevin Richland - was hired by National Geographic to study photographs of Earhart and Bolam. He cited many measurable differences between them, eliminating any possibility that Bolam was Earhart.
The same was the conclusion of many long-time serious researchers who studied Bolam's personal life history for years and found that her life is a matter of public record, thoroughly documented and not "mysterious" in any sense. Some results of these studies are summarized, for example, here:
http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/lostflightgrouplfg/irenebolamessay.html
The claim about "several" Irene Bolams was made but was never substantiated. Actually there was no any mysterious "gaps" in Bolam's life. On the contrary, the massive evidence was presented to prove that Bolam was always the same person during all her life, well known by many credible and respectable people since her youth years till her deathbed. The amount of facts collected and established about her completely eliminates any reasonable possibility to speculate that she as if somehow "disappeared", or could be somehow "substituted" by other person, ect.
Thus, the whole idea about Amelia Earhart's "secret repatriation" is a completely unsubstantiated speculation, not only based on nothing real and factual but contradictive to the well established facts. There are the real enigmas - and artificial ones... The disappearance of Earhart is a real one... but the proposed "repatriation theory" alas is certainly an "articifial" one - just an unsibstantiated guess built on sand and unable to stand against the hard factual reality...
Respectively submitted - Alex V. Mandel, PhD, Earhart researcher and historian for 25 years