Amy Bradley, 23, Disappeared from cruise ship en route to Curaçao, 24 March 1998 #4

[Hiandmighty]

Special Agent Erin Sheridan works with violent/unusual crimes, hence the reason she is looking at the case, IMO.


I’m assigned to the violent crimes task force working homicides, serial sexual assaults, or serial killings. And I tend to work on the cold cases and the unusual homicides or the unusual crimes. And for me, I am drawn to cold cases.

https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/fbirecruitingerinsheridan-bwonbu0sqrg1.mov/view

Both readings work.

She said she was assigned to San Juan for many years and she is starting over from the ship to gather puzzle pieces from the smallest of details because the time line is too broad and so the first thing she has to do is tighten the timeline.

I read that as an open but cold case but I am also waiting for part 2 to see what she says.

 

[Dushi]

I think Brad is foggy on a lot of details because they were in Aruba all day and then drinking and up all night and then he only got about 4 hours of sleep before they went through the Amy missing nightmare. Exhausted.

Yes, that and all of the stress and fear of not knowing where Amy was.
It would be difficult to remember all of the details. So much going through your head

 

[Hiandmighty]

Yes, that and all of the stress and fear of not knowing where Amy was.
It would be difficult to remember all of the details. So much going through your head

He couldn’t remember if she had her cigs and lighter with her or not.

Definitely understand how exhausted they were. Bead seems like a real nice guy.

 

[Hiandmighty]

This is brad’s direct quote why I originally thought Douglas was also a DJ when he wasn’t playing in the band:

“She kinda befriended him and was hanging out and talking to him and making music requests and that kind of thing, as was I.”

I’m working on transcribing Agent Sheridan’s direct quotes from part I.

Here is one that the podcast plays in the beginning to intro the story and then again at the end of the podcast in a more complete quote setting:

Sheridan:
“So if something nefarious occurred, whether she willingly went off possibly, if that was the situation, or she didn’t, which of course could have been the situation, there are ways, there are different exits, there are egress and things that definitely could have occurred...”

 

[Hiandmighty]

The producer says: Let’s bring in an expert who is revisiting these events (Scientology women and yellow)”

Erin Sheridan, Special Agent with the DC office.

“I basically have been up in this office over 10 years, previous I worked down in the Caribbean in the San Juan division.

The biggest and most difficult thing is the timeline, with any type of case, and with this case as well.

You have statements from family and friends, of course from folks who were witnesses and you basically have to try and piece things together. The timeline is difficult especially because you’re in international waters and folks that don’t have the same time on their wrists because they are from all over the country and someone else is from another part of the country so the timelines are different.”

Ok, here is the rest from Agent Sheridan:

“There are definitely ways I would think of if that is what happened, whether someone goes off willingly you know back then they didn’t track when people exited, they only tracked when you entered back on.

You know when passengers come off these ships you have 2-3-4or 5 thousand people exit and go onto whatever island that may be, so if something nefarious occurred, whether she willingly went off possibly, if that was the situation, or she didn’t, which of course could have been the situation, there are ways, there are different exits, there are egress and things that definitely could have occurred...

But we can basically piece things together to figure out exactly what might have happened. That is why we are doing what we are doing, trying to make that timeline more narrow, you know, trying to make it so that that one piece of evidence or something someone may have that they don’t think is important may be important to us.

You had a young 23 year old woman who graduated, obviously from college and had her whole life ahead of her. She had a new job, apartment, dog a new puppy, planning her life, planning to go out you know into the world and make her way. And she goes on vacation, a cruise with her family, probably one of the last family vacations cruise because now she is getting older and Brad is getting older, a family trip to have fun, a family trip to celebrate and then that’s really the story there, the fact that she had everything.

Whatever exactly happened, we don’t know.

That is why it is extremely important or it is crucial for folks who were on that ship, for folks that might have been on that island that they come forward and they start to provide us with some information that could help the investigation.”

 

[Kristin83]

Question for you all on the taxi cab driver sighting (he claims Amy came up to him frantic and asked him where the nearest phone was).

Some websites/shows have said this happened in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which I believe is where the cruise started and ended. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was held on the ship until the cruise was done.

But, I could have sworn on both Vanished and Disappeared, this sighting was said to happen in Curacao. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was smuggled off the ship the morning it docked in Curacao.

Does anyone know which one it is?

 

[Dushi]

The producer says: Let’s bring in an expert who is revisiting these events (Scientology women and yellow)”

Erin Sheridan, Special Agent with the DC office.

“I basically have been up in this office over 10 years, previous I worked down in the Caribbean in the San Juan division.

The biggest and most difficult thing is the timeline, with any type of case, and with this case as well.

You have statements from family and friends, of course from folks who were witnesses and you basically have to try and piece things together. The timeline is difficult especially because you’re in international waters and folks that don’t have the same time on their wrists because they are from all over the country and someone else is from another part of the country so the timelines are different.”

Ok, here is the rest from Agent Sheridan:

“There are definitely ways I would think of if that is what happened, whether someone goes off willingly you know back then they didn’t track when people exited, they only tracked when you entered back on.

You know when passengers come off these ships you have 2-3-4or 5 thousand people exit and go onto whatever island that may be, so if something nefarious occurred, whether she willingly went off possibly, if that was the situation, or she didn’t, which of course could have been the situation, there are ways, there are different exits, there are egress and things that definitely could have occurred...

But we can basically piece things together to figure out exactly what might have happened. That is why we are doing what we are doing, trying to make that timeline more narrow, you know, trying to make it so that that one piece of evidence or something someone may have that they don’t think is important may be important to us.

You had a young 23 year old woman who graduated, obviously from college and had her whole life ahead of her. She had a new job, apartment, dog a new puppy, planning her life, planning to go out you know into the world and make her way. And she goes on vacation, a cruise with her family, probably one of the last family vacations cruise because now she is getting older and Brad is getting older, a family trip to have fun, a family trip to celebrate and then that’s really the story there, the fact that she had everything.

Whatever exactly happened, we don’t know.

That is why it is extremely important or it is crucial for folks who were on that ship, for folks that might have been on that island that they come forward and they start to provide us with some information that could help the investigation.”

So when passengers left the ship, no record was kept, they didn't sign you out.
Does anyone know if passengers passed through customs?

When I cruised, in some countries you did, in others you did not

Could this be where the "US customs lost exit records" comes from?

 

[Hiandmighty]

So when passengers left the ship, no record was kept, they didn't sign you out.
Does anyone know if passengers passed through customs?

When I cruised, in some countries you did, in others you did not

Could this be where the "US customs lost exit records" comes from?

MOO probably.

I suppose it’s good in the end that nothing sounds really suspicious here other than she has been missing for 20 years.

An overboard theory would mean she didn’t suffer/ didn’t suffer long.

A kidnapping, mule, sex slave 20 year hostage theory means she suffered tremendously and then probably died anyway.

I hope she didn’t suffer no matter what the ending is/was.

 

[Hiandmighty]

Question for you all on the taxi cab driver sighting (he claims Amy came up to him frantic and asked him where the nearest phone was).

Some websites/shows have said this happened in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which I believe is where the cruise started and ended. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was held on the ship until the cruise was done.

But, I could have sworn on both Vanished and Disappeared, this sighting was said to happen in Curacao. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was smuggled off the ship the morning it docked in Curacao.

Does anyone know which one it is?

MOO IIRC, there were numerous eyewitness sightings and IIRC Amy was supposedly sighted by a cab driver in both San Juan and Curacao.

So I think the answer is: both. Maybe some else can cite specifics, as I never really put a lot of credit on eyewitnesses.

 

[Dushi]

Question for you all on the taxi cab driver sighting (he claims Amy came up to him frantic and asked him where the nearest phone was).

Some websites/shows have said this happened in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which I believe is where the cruise started and ended. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was held on the ship until the cruise was done.

But, I could have sworn on both Vanished and Disappeared, this sighting was said to happen in Curacao. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was smuggled off the ship the morning it docked in Curacao.

Does anyone know which one it is?

Authorities are not certain if Bradley went ashore on Curacao of her own will and vanished while in port or if other factors were at work. A cab driver later stated that she approached his cab and said she urgently needed a phone, but this sighting has not been confirmed.

http://charleyproject.org/case/amy-lynn-bradley

 

[Mica]

Question for you all on the taxi cab driver sighting (he claims Amy came up to him frantic and asked him where the nearest phone was).

Some websites/shows have said this happened in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which I believe is where the cruise started and ended. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was held on the ship until the cruise was done.

But, I could have sworn on both Vanished and Disappeared, this sighting was said to happen in Curacao. If this is correct, to me it means Amy was smuggled off the ship the morning it docked in Curacao.

Does anyone know which one it is?

It was San Juan, Puerto Rico, four days after Amy’s disappearance.


Feeling helpless, the Bradleys exited the ship again Friday, March 27, in St. Thomas while the FBI investigated. McCord, the Illinois Mutual CEO, chartered a private Lear jet for the family to fly from St. Thomas back to Richmond. They left on March 28, the same day that Rhapsody of the Seas returned to the docks at San Juan, and the same day, unbeknownst to the Bradleys, that the witness claimed to see Amy there. It had been four days since her father saw her sitting in the lounge chair on the cabin balcony.

https://web.archive.org/web/2015092...kly.com/richmond/part-iii/Content?oid=1383740



If true, what the man said was not only important but explosive. According to a lawsuit the Bradleys filed against Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. last month alleging negligent security and other charges, the Spanish-speaking man told Iva's friend that he saw Amy — four days after her disappearance — being forced into a taxicab at the terminal at San Juan, Puerto Rico shortly after Rhapsody of the Seas docked there on March 28, 1998, the day that should have been the last day of the family's aborted week-long cruise.

Providing previously unpublished details not mentioned in the lawsuit, Bradley's lawyers say the witness was a Puerto Rican local who was studying to be a police officer. He called Iva Bradley after seeing a story about Amy on Puerto Rican television and recognizing her photo as the woman he had seen just days before.

Andrew Hall, one of the Miami-based attorneys representing the family in the lawsuit, says the witness claims that Amy was under the control of a man wearing a baseball cap.

"It was a clear day and she passed right by [the witness]," Hall says of the Puerto Rican man's account. "She was firmly held. Her appearance was not that of a happy person, to say the least. The [witness] thought they were fighting. They didn't look like they were getting along, like they were disagreeing."

The witness said the man in the ballcap then guided a disoriented-looking Amy into a taxi, leading her much like a policeman would direct a suspect into the back seat of a squad car, according to Hall.

Hall won't say more about the alleged abductor or the eyewitness for fear of harming the investigation, he says, though he adds there is a suspect in Amy's disappearance.

So what happened, and if Amy was abducted and there's a suspect and a witness, why hasn't there been an arrest?

For starters, the Bradleys called the FBI agents in St. Thomas investigating Amy's disappearance and faxed them the Puerto Rican witness's name and number.

More than eight months later, the Bradleys learned FBI agents never interviewed the man. Despite records the Bradleys have proving they sent the information, the FBI denied ever receiving the lead, Iva Bradley says.

U.S. Department of Justice agents working with Interpol finally interviewed the witness early this year. In a photo lineup, he positively identified Amy as the woman he saw last April. Hall will not say if the man identified a suspect.

"We had lost time because leads were not followed up. We were told the FBI would leave no stone unturned," Iva Bradley says angrily. "We were confident that they were contacting [the witness], following the lead and tending to everything." (A spokesperson with the FBI office in San Juan says they cannot comment on pending investigations but says they are following "all pertinent leads" and are doing "everything we can do to solve the case." )


https://www.styleweekly.com/richmon...ly-refuses-to-give-up-the/Content?oid=1390272

 

[Hiandmighty]

A taxi driver also went up to Brad and Ron in Curacao 1 month later when they went back to look for Amy to say he had encountered Amy.

Sorry, I don’t have a link handy. It might be referenced in the lawsuit links.

Edited, not sure this is a reliable source,

“One month after she went missing, Ron and Brad returned to Curacao. They passed out flyers and talked to locals, and Amy’s father said that he received a tip from a taxi driver who claimed that Amy was still alive — and on the island.
The taxi driver claimed that he had spoken to Amy when she came up to his cab and asked him where she could find a phone. The driver suggested three specific places on the island where he said that Ron and Brad should search for Amy — but they found nothing.”

http://crimefeed.com/2018/04/disappeared-amy-bradley/

 

[JSolt1210]

A taxi driver also went up to Brad and Ron in Curacao 1 month later when they went back to look for Amy to say he had encountered Amy.

Sorry, I don’t have a link handy. It might be referenced in the lawsuit links.

Edited, not sure this is a reliable source,

“One month after she went missing, Ron and Brad returned to Curacao. They passed out flyers and talked to locals, and Amy’s father said that he received a tip from a taxi driver who claimed that Amy was still alive — and on the island.
The taxi driver claimed that he had spoken to Amy when she came up to his cab and asked him where she could find a phone. The driver suggested three specific places on the island where he said that Ron and Brad should search for Amy — but they found nothing.”

http://crimefeed.com/2018/04/disappeared-amy-bradley/

This is the transcript of the Disappeared episode, so it should be considered reliable. I too thought the taxi cab driver sighting was on Curaçao itself. I’ve never heard of one in Puerto Rico.


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[Hiandmighty]

This is the transcript of the Disappeared episode, so it should be considered reliable. I too thought the taxi cab driver sighting was on Curaçao itself. I’ve never heard of one in Puerto Rico.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe it’s the Puerto Rico one in the court transcripts?

 

[Mica]

This is the transcript of the Disappeared episode, so it should be considered reliable. I too thought the taxi cab driver sighting was on Curaçao itself. I’ve never heard of one in Puerto Rico.


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Read up above. There are two articles about a Puerto Rico sighting involving a taxi.

There were two sightings. One in Curacao the day Amy disappeared involving a taxi driver seeing Amy and one in Puerto Rico four days later with a local who saw Amy getting pushed into a taxi.

I wonder how many other sightings we don’t know about. Supposedly RCC had a ton of witness sightings of Amy.

 

[JSolt1210]

Maybe it’s the Puerto Rico one in the court transcripts?

Totally possible.

But see... these sightings are getting to be way too much for me.

According to this NBC article, which I quoted above at some point, the Curaçao sighting occurred on the very day she disappeared:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8143921/#.WtjDhIcduJI

Now we have a sighting in Puerto Rico four days later. If both sightings are true, this means she must’ve been smuggled *back onto US territory*, a pretty risky thing to do when your victim is American, and her disappearance is in the news.

Then, according to the same article, she would’ve been smuggled *back* to Curaçao in time for the August 1998 sighting.

I realize it’s called “trafficking” for a reason, but it just seems a little complicated for me. In the Curaçao sighting, she asked to use a phone. That cab driver didn’t report anyone else, from what I’ve found out, so she must’ve escaped temporarily at some point, and gotten far enough away from her captors that the driver didn’t report anyone else. If she did that once, what makes you think she’s not going to do it again four days later when you take her back onto her own territory?


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[Hiandmighty]

Here is the best resource I have found:
https://soundcloud.com/user-748895801/revisiting-the-disappearance-of-amy-bradley-96-part-1

Brad’s own words.

The had each had several drinks throughout the day and night. Were not hammered. Amy was in the disco with about 4-5 people. She was woozy. Seasick. Breezy on balcony. They were exhausted from staying up all night.


Brad seems to describe the smaller jr suite cabin (8564) with amy’s chaise lounge in the “back corner on the balcony” basically on the “other side of the glass” from Brad’s head when he was sleeping (he says 2 feet away).

View attachment 134127

Another reference to Brad and Amy sharing a sofa bed in the smaller junior suite:

Finally, Brad opened the patio door and rolled into the sofa bed he was sharing with Amy during the trip.
www.styleweekly.com/richmond/part-ii/Content?oid=1390780

 

[Hiandmighty]

Now that it is clear (MOO was PROVEN above) they were in a junior suite, some more things stick out for me from the podcast:

Amy and Brad flew down to San Juan after their parents because their parents already had plane tickets when they decided to add Amy and Brad. So Amy was a somewhat last minute add on, and that is so tragic.

Brad doesn’t know why Amy didn’t leave a note stating where she was going because that is what she would usually do. (MOO she didn’t leave the cabin)

Brad doesn’t know how Amy got out of the smaller cabin without waking anyone, even though Ron was in a somewhat end of sleep/partially technically awake state (MOO she didn’t leave the cabin)


MOO I feel really really sorry for her family. It seems MOO clear to me MOO that the new pieces of information tell the story that she never left the cabin. MOO

However, I am glad the MOO cold case agent took interest in the case because she likes unusual unsolved cases along with her previous area of San Juan (moo she probably remembers the case or heard about it moo) because like she says, the FBI still doesn’t know what happened to Amy and they want to provide a resolution to the family.

With the last “sighting” in 2005 and with the FBI back to MOO begging (agent used the word crucial IIRC) the passengers for tips, I’m glad she is giving the case another chance to work through information. If they keep coming back to nothing corroborated, and they continue to get back on the ship as the last place she was seen (on the balcony), then maybe MOO the family will feel some comfort that she likely went in the water unconscious and so wasn’t afraid and didn’t suffer.(Although this does mean she was dead from the start. The immediate panic has never made much sense to me, and MOO I do think part of the background story, story, is missing and has never been told).

******* all of this is MY OPINION ONLY MOO :moo:

 

[Hap]

What happens to people who fall off cruise ships? Are their bodies ever found? (I don't believe this is what happened to Amy, but have always been curious about those missing people.. )

 

[Hiandmighty]

What happens to people who fall off cruise ships? Are their bodies ever found? (I don't believe this is what happened to Amy, but have always been curious about those missing people.. )

Most are never found, even with one recent woman where witnesses saw exactly when and where she went in. She still drowned and her body wasn’t recovered.

There is video on YouTube of one woman falling, bouncing off two lifeboats and then going in. She survived.

Some do survive and are rescued. (Rare but has happened)

For those who drown, their bodies are never found. Maybe somebody might find something through a google search, but I don’t remember any bodies found.

I’m cruising again in a few weeks. There were 3/4 overboardas in the last few months. It seems to be happening more and more.

I’m about to get my hair colored and cut etc so I might be able to find some links for you. It’s interesting. You can also check places like cruise law news. I’m sure he has a missing or overboard section.