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in: Caribbean, 1998, Abduction,
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Amy Bradley

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Amy bradley1

Amy Bradley

Real Name: Amy Lynn Bradley
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Curacao, Netherland Antilles
Date: March 24, 1998

Bio[]

Occupation: College Graduate
Date of Birth: May 12, 1974
Height: 5’7’
Weight: 120 lbs.
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: White female with Brown hair and green eyes. Amy has multiple tattoos; a Tasmanian devil tattoo on her left shoulder, a Chinese symbol tattoo on her middle back and right ankle, and a blue-green gecko tattoo near her navel. She has a navel ring, and multiple ear piercings

Case[]

Details: Amy Bradley was an All-American girl. She was pretty, outgoing, and athletic. And even though she was a strong swimmer and a trained lifeguard, she was terrified of the open ocean. According to her mother, Iva, she had to be persuaded to join her family on the Caribbean cruise ship, Rhapsody of the Seas. "She was reluctant about going up to the railing, but her father, Ron, and brother, Brad, both said, "Come up here, we'll hold on to you." She managed to put her fears aside and cruise life offered plenty of distractions. On their third night at sea, she and Brad partied long and hard. Neither returned to the family's cabin until 3:40am. Ron said he woke up when she came in and said she was going to sleep on the balcony: "She said she hadn't been feeling too well because of the motion of the boat since we left Aruba that evening. So she said she was gonna just to stay out there and get some fresh air."
The next time Ron woke up, Brad had gone to bed and Amy was asleep on the balcony: "I could see Amy's legs from her hips down. She looks like she was resting comfortably. I dozed back off to sleep. The balcony door was closed, because if it hadn't been closed, I would have gotten up and closed it." Just 30 minutes later, according to Ron, their dream vacation turned into a nightmare: "About 6am, something awoke me again. I got up, looked out on the balcony, and the balcony door was open about 14-16 inches and Amy wasn't on the deck. And I had a little funny feeling at that time, because it was unlike her to be up that early in the morning." The Bradleys said the ship's crew resisted paging Amy, claiming it was too early to use the loudspeakers. And to make things worse, the ship had just docked in the port of Curaçao. Iva pleaded with the crew: "I got very, very panicked and frightened and I asked them, 'Please don't put the gangplank down. You need to lock the ship up. You need to back the ship off of the dock. Don't let anybody off of this boat. Somebody's got my daughter.'" The Bradleys claim the purser didn't broadcast the first page for Amy until 10 minutes to 8am. By then, Iva said, most of the passengers had disembarked for the day: "I became more and more frantic because I knew that if she was in a position to hear the announcement, she would come immediately to us. And then I had thoughts that maybe somebody had her in a room and she heard it and couldn't get to us." Finally, the captain ordered a search. Officials claimed they combed through all 10 decks and all 999 rooms and found nothing. A three-day search of the ocean also failed to turn up any trace of Amy. The official conclusion: she may have fallen overboard, or even jumped.
The Bradleys began to piece together Amy's last hours on board the ship. She left the balcony between 5:30 and 6am. They know she changed her clothes. They know she took her cigarettes. But they don't know where she was going. And then, they found a witness. Crystal Roberts said she saw her early that morning with the bassist in the ship's band: "I saw Amy and the band member walk over and up to the next deck up above us. And about 10 minutes later, he came walking around by himself."
Others claimed that they had seen the bassist flirting with Amy the night before. Brad remarked, "She said that when they were dancing at the disco, he tried to, you know, dance a little too close, and she had to tell him to back off a little bit."
That morning, no one but the Bradleys and the ship's security knew Amy was missing. No one, that is, except the bassist. According to Brad, the bassist mentioned that he felt bad about what had happened to her: "That was a really odd thing to say that early in the stages of this thing, you know. Nobody knew except for my family and I, and security, that something may be wrong."
Authorities never found any evidence that the bassist was involved with Amy's disappearance. Then, according to Steve Reeves, the editor of a cruise line trade publication, a disturbing new theory emerged: "There's rumor and legend surrounding slavery in the southern Caribbean. It's not uncommon knowledge in the maritime community that young white women are considered to be very desirable to foreign procurers." Iva believed Amy was a perfect target: "Amy would have been a trophy. Amy would have been someone that, I believe, could have been picked out and fingered to move off of that ship. She could have been held and hidden. She could have been possibly drugged and taken from that ship." Officials of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines insist that Amy either left the ship on her own or met with an unfortunate accident. Her parents are convinced the opposite is true. They are offering a $250,000 reward for information.
Suspects: Amy was last seen with the bassist in the ship's band. Earlier, several people had noticed him flirting with her. She had told Brad that he tried to dance close with her, but she pushed him away. At 9am on the morning of her disappearance, the bassist talked to Brad, saying he was sorry about what happened to her. However, at that time, only the Bradleys and the ship's security knew she was missing. Some have alleged that he kidnapped and sold her into an underground prostitution ring.

Amy Bradley Age Progressions

Age Progressions of Amy Bradley

Extra Notes:

Results: Unsolved. A cab driver once claimed that a woman matching Amy's description approached him and said she urgently needed a phone. This sighting was never confirmed by authorities.
In August 1998, a Canadian computer engineer claimed to have seen Amy walking down with two men on a beach in Curacao, five months after the disappearance was made public. The witness noticed that the woman was constantly trying to get his attention until he lost sight of her at a nearby cafe. Her tattoos were reportedly identical to Amy's, he said he was "two feet away from her", and he was sure it was her with complete certainty.
In January 1999, a U.S Navy Petty Officer claimed to have seen a woman who claimed to be Amy at a brothel in Curacao. He claimed she told him that "her name was Amy Bradley and she begged him for help", explaining that she was held against her will and not allowed to leave and did not report the incident earlier as he feared for his career in the Navy having been in a brothel. The witness only contacted the Bradleys after he retired and saw her picture in a magazine. There was no evidence to support his claim.
There was another potential sighting in 2005 when a witness named Judy Maurer claimed to have seen Amy in a department store restroom in Barbados. She claimed a woman entered the restroom accompanied by three men who proceeded to threaten her if she did not follow through on a deal. She alleges that after the men left, she approached the distraught woman who said that her first name was Amy and that she was from Virginia before the men re-entered and took her away. Maurer called authorities and they created composite sketches of three men and the woman based on her account.
Ron and Iva appeared on the November 17, 2005 episode of Dr. Phil. An image of a young woman resembling Amy that was emailed to them was shown on the program and it suggests that she might have been sold into sexual slavery. An email was sent to the Bradleys' website containing two photographs of a woman that closely resembled her. The photographs were observed by a member of an organization that attempts to track victims on sites that feature sex workers. The woman in the photo has been said to appear "distraught and despondent" and was a sex worker known as Jas.
It is believed that natives of the islands have been masking drinks with date-rape drugs in order to kidnap and force women into prostitution. These sightings have never been confirmed, and Amy has never been located. In 2017, the FBI became involved in this case. A $250,000 reward is being offered for information in it.
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