VA - Amy Bradley, 23, Petersburg, 24 March 1998 - #1

[neesaki]

Have there been any other disappearences (or even recorded deaths with no body) in the areas Amy has been sighted. The only ones I can think of are natalee Holloway (which sadly appears to be a murder from what I can gather, correct me if this is not believed to be the case) and kristen Modofferi who disappeared in san francisco in summer 1997 (only nine months or so before Amy, but obviously very geographically far apart).

IIRC, Amy disappeared just after the ship had stopped in Aruba, enroute to Curacao. She may have disappeared sooner if she hadn't refused to go along with some of the staff on the ship who tried to convince her to go to a bar in Aruba (Carlos & Charlie's?).

Blueskies who is a member here and has posted on this thread several times, has dedicated literally years to researching some of these cases and is very knowledgeable on these disappearances and / or murders, including Amy's, Natalee Holloway's, and Robyn Gardner's. There are others as well.

It is very unfortunate that disappearances and murders in Aruba seem to have a tendency to be swept under the rug by Aruba LE mainly because of the tourist industry, but there have been reports that corruption maybe be involved as well. Then we have the cruise ship industry who is at least as bad, maybe worse, who wants to claim that victims all just accidentally fall overboard. :what:
Oh, and then there are all those "suicides" too, :shakehead: . Seriously, if it were that easy to go overboard and they were having all these accidents and suicides, wouldn't one think the cruise ships would choose to install higher railings to try to prevent them from happening ?

 

[FindAmy]

Have there been any other verified sightings since 2005? I understand if you cannot answer that question. Amy's safety first always.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

This was my response to that question from several posts back...

There has not been any information released to the public about sightings, since the Barbados sighting in March of 2005. The Bradleys regularly receive tips and information about sightings. Most of these are mistaken identities and there are times when things are just crazy. Every tip is checked. Sometimes, the Bradleys receive very good information. The newer information is not released because of a concern for Amy's safety and the integrity of the investigation. Details from the older sightings are not released for the same reasons. The risk is just too great for both Amy and the source of the information. The people who have Amy are not nice people.


I do wish that I could answer all of your questions, but I can't and I do hope that you understand. I can assure you that Amy's case is not cold and it is not closed.

 

[FindAmy]

:what:

Robyn Gardner from Maryland, August 2, 2011. Disappeared in Aruba, under mysterious and highly questionable circumstances while in the company of Gary Giordano, also of Maryland. Giordano claimed that they had gone snorkeling at a place that has been called 'Rocky Point' adjacent to Baby Beach, an extremely rocky area that no one goes snorkeling according to locals, especially tourists. Also, there is absolutely no evidence and no witnesses that Giordano and Robyn went in the water at that location, or any evidence that they went snorkeling at all. Also, according to Aruba LE, the conditions were such that if Robyn had drowned where GG claimed her body would have washed ashore. It did not.

If you are not familiar with Robyn's case, there has been much speculation that she may have been a victim of sex trafficking. Beautiful blonde young American woman, considered quite valuable in that industry. Though she was a little older than prime for the sex trafficking market, she was an aspiring model and could have passed for younger, so many think it is still a possibility.
Also, Giordano had taken out what was first reported as a 1.5 million dollar insurance policy on Robyn. Then quite recently it has been revealed he was suing for a 3.5 million policy. Quite a motive, imo.

Sadly, it appears that Aruba has let that case go by the wayside as they did also in Natalee's case, but we will see, maybe they will prove me wrong, I certainly hope so .... The anniversary is coming up, I hope and pray that they will come forth with something, preferably something to extradite GG back to Aruba for a trial. I am, however, not holding my breath.

I am one of those who said from the day she disappeared from Rum Reef that Robyn had been kidnapped. I have been very interested in the white Hyundai. I am not convinced that Robyn was taken by the same group who has Amy or a parallel group to that one, but I have no doubt that Robyn is probably still alive and captive somewhere. I have heard that some people think she was part of a scam to defraud the insurance company, and I guess that's possible, but I have seen nothing to back that up.

Robyn is a very different type of woman than Amy is. Robyn had a very different appearance and background. For this reason, I think she might have been abducted for different reasons or purposes, but I personally think that Robyn was kidnapped or sold.

Aruban law enforcement is useless. I was hoping that our FBI would find something when they confiscated Giordano's computers, but I guess not.

 

[FindAmy]

This is an old interview with Amy's parents, Iva and Ron Bradley, It gives an account of some things that took place during the first few years that Amy was missing. It also gives some information about a few of those early sightings. Amy was asked to go with crew members to the bar in Aruba. Several crew members had been extremely attentive to Amy during the cruise. Amy didn't want to go into Aruba with the crew. She stayed on the ship with her family. I personally believe that it's very possible that an abduction was originally planned for the club in Aruba. It certainly would have been much less complicated than when Amy disappeared on the cruise ship the next morning.




Iva Bradley, mother of Chesterfield, Virginia’s Amy Lynn Bradley--missing from the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship off Aruba since 1998 and last seen in a house of prostitution by a U.S. Navy petty officer on the nearby island of Curacao in 1999--was interviewed Thursday by MSNBC host Dan Abrams.

"We came to find out that the same bar [Aruba’s Carlos and Charlie’s] that they [three men on her ship] wanted to take Amy to was the same bar as Natalee Holloway was in." (MSNBC, 6-9-2005)

Curiously, the Bradley-Holloway link is seldom mentioned, save for the Abrams Report and a CNN report on Friday which quoted the Bradley family as believing their daughter Amy is "being held in servitude" somewhere in the Caribbean.

CNN reporter Brian Todd told host Suzanne Malveaux that the Bradleys said "crew members on the ship [Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas] were hitting on Amy and wanted to take her to a bar on Aruba." (CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports, 6-10-2005)

Mrs. Bradley added, "the Naval person who went to a brothel on Curacao [1999] said that Amy asked him for help, told him her name. She said, ‘my name is Amy Bradley. Please help me.’ He didn’t know she was missing. He told her there was a naval ship five minutes down the dock that she could leave."
"But she said, ‘No, you don’t understand. Please help me. My name is Amy Bradley,’ " said Iva Bradley. At that time, two men in the bar removed her, told her to move and go upstairs, according to the U.S. Naval officer.

Two Canadians also told Bradley they saw her daughter Amy on the beach in 1998, described her tattoos and her demeanor but did not know she was missing.

Ron Bradley told MSNBC, "...we’ve maintained from the beginning that someone saw Amy and took Amy from that ship in some way [when it was docking in Curacao], there are several ways...by boat, through cargo, the cargo doors that open and close."

According to the Bradleys who alleged cruise ship negligence by Royal Caribbean International, the vessel’s personnel opened the gangway, allowed passengers to go ashore despite their pleas to wait, and refused to use the ship’s public address system to aid the frantic family during the critical first minutes of the search for their daughter "because it would disturb the passengers."

Originally, Debra Opri [Michael Jackson family lawyer] told CNN attorney-host Nancy Grace on Wednesday, "My gut is telling me this [Holloway case] is part of a transport, a prostitution business with the country of Columbia. I hear too many stories. I know too many people who have gone down to Aruba." (CNN-Headline News, 6-8-2005)

"There are many instances where women will go down there, that age, that type, blonde-haired, and they are drugged and transported to Colombia, period, bottom line," she said.

Opri continued, "...it may lead to, in fact, Aruba being a way station for some sort of activity in drugs or prostitution movement to 17 miles away to a country called Colombia," such was the thinking by an informed attorney who is aware of sex-trafficking in the Caribbean.

Regarding Amy Bradley’s case, the petty officer was not supposed to be in the restricted brothel area, so he did not report the incident, waiting some time until contacting Ron and Iva Bradley to apologize after seeing Amy’s photo and story in a major magazine.

"I have seen your daughter. I have seen her. I have talked to her. And she was in trouble, and I apologize for not doing anything about that," the retired officer told the Bradleys.

The FBI has not called the Bradleys since the initial search for their daughter, offering an ominous warning to American taxpayers expecting assistance from federal officials.

Iva Bradley told Abrams that "Venezuela, on a good day from Curacao or Aruba, is in sight. We have been told by investigators, there are boats incoming. They come and go freely...there is a tremendous drug trade...so we’re putting our families and our children in danger, and because they [United States government] say they have no jurisdiction, it hurt us terribly, and it hurt Amy. And we’re not gotten the help that we need."

Night-time beacon for drug and sex-trafficking boats?

More: http://tomflocco.com/fs/CaribSexTrafficking.htm

 

[FindAmy]

The brothel where Amy was seen was actually an old hotel located in the Otrobanda section of Willemstad. Otrobanda is the historic area of the city and the location where tourists go. It's not far from the cruise terminal. The old hotel had once been a very distinguished Curacao hotel, but it was old. It had been known under various names. It had never been identified as a brothel, as such. It was a hotel where prostitution was known to be available. Prostitution is legal in Curacao and prostitutes are connected to many of the hotels.

The Chief Petty Officer did not report that he had seen Amy in the hotel. The hotel was off limits to Navy personnel because of it's bad reputation. The man was also married at the time. Amy pleaded with him for help and she gave him her name. He didn't realize who she was until he later saw her photograph on the cover of a magazine. At that point, he was divorced and retired from the Navy. He came forward with the information. His information has been verified and he has met with the Bradleys. He has declined all interviews.

The Chief Petty Officer saw Amy in January of 1999. The old hotel burned to the ground in May of 2000. There is nothing left of the hotel. There is an empty and overgrown lot where the hotel once stood.



Otrobanda and the Cruise Terminal

 

[SoSueMe]

FindAmy has said that this avenue was explored in this case and dismissed. Please move on from this subject as it pertains to this case.

Thanks!

 

[FindAmy]

It is believed by the Bradleys that Amy was chosen during that cruise by someone who either worked for Royal Caribbean or was a passenger on the cruise. It makes more sense that it was someone who worked with Royal Caribbean. I believe there was someone in charge of this kidnapping who paid Alister Douglas to possibly drug Amy so that she could be removed from the ship, in Curacao.

I personally believe that the kidnapping had been planned for the prior evening when Amy had been invited to an Aruban bar with members of the crew. Kidnapping Amy from the ship presented a more difficult dilemma in getting her off of the ship. It would have been less complicated for her to disappear from Aruba.

At one point, a photographer had taken pictures of the Bradleys and others during a special dinner. The next day, Iva and Amy checked for the photographs. All of the photographs were there except for photographs of Amy. The photographer had no idea what had happened to the photographs he had taken. He told Iva that he would reprint the photographs and he gave her a receipt. Iva still has the receipt. Why were Amy's photographs stolen?

Alister Douglas was fired at the end of the cruise for fraternizing with a passenger. It certainly is interesting to me that he was seen again in Porto Marie, five months later. He was one of two men on the beach with Amy. The Canadian divers identified Alister Douglas as the person with Amy. Their information was verified by the FBI and they presented the information to a Grand Jury. It certainly sounds to me like Alister was hired by the kidnappers after he was fired by Royal Caribbean.

Alister Douglas is currently married and living in Grenada. The FBI have not been able to prove that he kidnapped Amy, so he was been a free man for all of these years.

 

[brit1981]

If there was a kidnapping and it occurred in Arubian waters, surely the FBI could not issue an arrest warrant anyway, but would have to pass their information on to the authorities in Aruba?

Why was Amy targeted though, there must have been other girls on the boat, ones who would have gone onshore, or who were not there with people who would miss them so soon? And if this was their method for getting girls, kidnapping tourists off cruise ships, why so infrequently? Despite the thousands of people who visit the caribbean only a handful of women are missing.

 

[Wondergirl]

Where is Amy?

 

[FindAmy]

I have been saying repeatedly that travelers in the Caribbean should be very aware of their surroundings. The photograph below is one of the reasons why I make this comment.

In Curacao, there is a large, new cruise terminal. I posted photographs of the new cruise terminal a few pages back. When a ship is docked in the newer cruise terminal, other ships must dock in the older areas along the canal. In the photograph below, there is a cruise ship docked along the canal in Otrobanda, an old section of Willemstad. The ships pull right up to the streets. They've been docking this way for years.

What passengers from these cruise ships don't realize is that the empty lot in the center of the photograph was the location of the old hotel where Amy was seen in 1999. This photograph was taken after the hotel had burned in May of 2000. Now, it's just an empty and overgrown lot. When Amy's parents learned about the sighting, Ron Bradley went immediately to Curacao. Unfortunately, there was nothing left of the hotel and there was no evidence that Amy had ever been there. The old hotel was never registered as a brothel. There was no record of any women who worked there.

I have to wonder how many tourists and cruise passengers walked right in front of the hotel as they left their ships. The old hotel had a bar that was an attraction in the Otrobanda area. This is the bar where the Chief Petty Officer spoke to Amy. How many other tourists walked into that bar for a quick drink and saw Amy, without realizing who she was?

 

[FindAmy]

If there was a kidnapping and it occurred in Arubian waters, surely the FBI could not issue an arrest warrant anyway, but would have to pass their information on to the authorities in Aruba?

Why was Amy targeted though, there must have been other girls on the boat, ones who would have gone onshore, or who were not there with people who would miss them so soon? And if this was their method for getting girls, kidnapping tourists off cruise ships, why so infrequently? Despite the thousands of people who visit the caribbean only a handful of women are missing.

Our FBI has absolutely no authority on the Caribbean islands unless they are invited by the island's government to take part in an investigation.

Amy was not kidnapped in Aruba. She disappeared from Rhapsody of the Seas as it was docking in Willemstad, Curacao. The ship was in Curacao territory. Law enforcement in Curacao is exactly the same as in Aruba and in many cases, they are the same people. We have not been able to depend on the authorities in Curacao to find Amy or to track the sightings.

American tourists need to understand that when something happens in a foreign country, they will probably not get the assistance they would get at home.

I do believe that Amy was a target by someone on the ship. I believe she was selected several days before she disappeared. I believe that the people who kidnapped Amy were connected to both Curacao/Aruba and Royal Caribbean. I can't comment on why Amy was chosen by the people who kidnapped her from the ship.

 

[FindAmy]

Where is Amy?

Southern Caribbean

 

[FindAmy]

In 2011, a jaw bone was found on an Aruban beach. There was a lot of speculation that the jaw bone belonged to Natalee Holloway or Amy Bradley. It would have been a huge stretch for it to have belonged to Amy, because she didn't disappear in Aruba. CNN Justice raised the issue of whether fragments of the jaw bone, reportedly that of a Caucasian, were Amy's. The Bradleys were asked to submit Amy's dental records. The jaw bone did not belong to Amy or Natalee. Forensic evaluation of the jaw bone indicated that the fragment was at least fifty years old.

 

[FindAmy]

http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/2926/?id=2926&showID=623


Amy's mother, Iva, explains how the cruise came about. "In 1998 my husband, Ron, won a trip and so we went as a family. Our first stop was Aruba, and then after that was Curuçao. When we were on the ship, we noticed immediately there was a tremendous amount of attention toward Amy from the crew members. After dinner, the waiter came out of the dining room and asked me where Amy was, and I asked him why, and he said, 'Well, we want to take her to Carlos 'N Charlie's.'"

"When the waiter asked, I thought it was maybe a little forward of him to be asking those types of questions," Ron adds.

"When Amy came back, I said, 'The waiter wants to take you to Carlos 'N Charlie's with his friends.' And then Amy looked at me and said, 'They're creepy. And I'm not going anywhere with them.'"

"There was a dance troupe that was allowed onboard the ship," Iva continues. "There was a bass player who I noticed. And he was a very unsavory looking character. Amy told her brother, Brad, that the bass player had been hitting on her. She said that he was a real jerk."







These are statements made by the Bradleys to Dr. Phil. This information is completely correct. Alister Douglas (Yellow) was not the only member of the crew who was overly attentive to Amy. Alister Douglas was the bass player in the band. Another attentive crew member was a Portuguese waiter. He asked Amy to go with the crew to Carlos and Charlies the night before she disappeared. Amy thought that these crew members were creepy and she didn't go with them. She stayed on the ship with her family. She took part in a limbo contest and then she went to the disco with her brother, Brad. The waiter made some unusual comments to the Bradleys, the following day.

I personally believe that there were at least two crew members who handed Amy over to someone for her removal from the ship. Alister Douglas was the last person seen with Amy in the disco area of the ship. He was carrying a dark liquid (coffee?) for her. A short time later, though, he was found in his room supposedly asleep. I do believe that Amy was passed to someone else where she was kept until she was moved off of the ship. Amy's removal from the ship was probably in a laundry cart, a large box, or a trunk. She could not have walked off of the ship and proceeded through Customs because she did not have her passport. Royal Caribbean made no attempt to stop passengers from leaving the ship and they made no attempt to inspect anything coming off of the ship, after they learned that Amy was missing. I believe that Amy was selected by someone connected to Royal Caribbean and Curacao. I believe that Alister Douglas was not the only crew member paid to deliver Amy.

Amy was taken off of Rhapsody of the Seas in the Curacao cruise terminal. She was probably drugged and in a container. It is very unlikely that the taxi driver saw her running through the parking lot, especially when he never noticed that she wasn't wearing shoes. The Curacao cruise terminal is only blocks from the old Otrobanda hotel where she was seen, less than a year later.

 

[FindAmy]

http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/2926/?id=2926&slide=1&showID=623&preview=&versionID=


Iva continues, "At about 1:00, Ron and I decided to go to bed. Some time between 5:15 and 5:30 my husband woke up and he saw Amy asleep on the deck. And about a half an hour later, at 6:00 a.m., he woke back up. He saw that Amy was no longer on the balcony."

"I immediately thought that she was up on the top deck," says Ron, "and so I left to try and go up and find her. When I couldn't find her, I didn't really know what to think, because it was very much unlike Amy to leave and not tell us where she was going."

Iva recounts, "Ronnie woke me up at 7:00 a.m., and he was gray, and he said, 'I can't find Amy,' and I knew immediately there was something terribly wrong. My son went up to look for Amy. He was approached by the band members and they said, 'Sorry to hear about your sister.' How in the world did they know anything about Amy being missing?

"At approximately lunchtime, the captain said, 'She is not on the ship. We have searched every nook and cranny.' And I said, 'Well, you've got to put a picture out.'" And he looked at me and said, 'I cannot do that. It will disturb the other guests.'

"My son was in a fetal position. Ron was vomiting blood, and I had no feeling in my arms.

"The captain made the comment to us that she could have fallen overboard. And I told him absolutely no way. He said that we should get off the boat in case she ended up in Curaçao.

"My gut feeling to this day was somebody saw her, somebody wanted her, and somebody took her."





These statements by Iva Bradley are accurate. Ron Bradley saw Amy on the balcony at approximately 5:30 AM. By 7:00 AM, the Bradleys were aware that she was missing and they were looking for her. Royal Caribbean refused to stop passengers from disembarking into the cruise terminal after they learned that Amy was missing. They assured the Bradleys that they were doing a comprehensive search of the ship, but in reality it was a cursory check. Cargo items being taken off of the ship were not checked. Amy could have been in a number of different containers.

Early in the morning, the Bradley family were approached by several waiters who expressed how badly they felt that Amy was missing. At the time, there was no way for these people to have known that Amy was missing because there hadn't been an announcement by Royal Caribbean. Some of these waiters were questioned by the FBI.

 

[FindAmy]

http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/2926/?id=2926&slide=2&showID=623&preview=&versionID=


Ron says, "We have reason to believe that Amy was kidnapped and possibly sold into the sex slave market somewhere on one of the Islands. We have gotten thousands of leads since this happened. One of the best leads that we had came from David Carmichael."

"In August of 1998, a friend, Brian, and I were scuba diving on the island of Curaçao," David says. "I noticed three people walking along the beach. One of them was a young girl, and she was flanked by two fellows. She had two tattoos. One of them was of a gecko, the other was of a Tasmanian Devil. The girl walked towards me. She started to stare at me. Just as she was about to say something, the fellow motioned her away. In May of 1999, I saw the segment on Unsolved Mysteries. The minute I saw her picture and saw her face, I realized that was the girl on the beach."

David may not be the only visitor to Curaçao to have seen Amy. A member of the Navy says he saw her during a visit to a brothel there in 1999. She told him that her name was Amy Bradley and begged him for help. He told her there was a Navy ship five minutes down the road. As Amy's mother recounts, "She said, 'You don't understand, I can't leave. Help me. Please help me.'" But the man dismissed her plea because at the time he didn't know Amy was missing — and because he wasn't supposed to be there.

"And when he saw Amy's picture on the front cover of People magazine, that's when he contacted us, because he realized it was the same girl," Iva says.







David Carmichael has been an extremely valuable witness for the Bradleys. He and his dive partner were able to describe Amy in very specific detail. They described her various tattoos that weren't public knowledge at the time. They saw her on the beach and they sat near Amy and her "handlers", in an outdoor bar area of Porto Marie. David worked very closely with the FBI and a Grand Jury once he realized that he had seen Amy in Curacao. Royal Caribbean attorneys went to great lengths in an attempt to discredit David's identification of Alister Douglas as one of Amy's handlers.

 

[FindAmy]

Two of Amy's tattoos.

 

[FindAmy]

http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/2926/?id=2926&slide=4&showID=623&preview=&versionID=




Dr. Phil says, "I want to show you this picture of who may very well be Amy the Bradley seven years after her disappearance. Now I want to emphasize that we discussed whether we should show this picture on the air with former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt who has worked on many kidnapping cases. Now, Ron and Clint both agree that because this is the first lead that they've had in nearly eight years, he and Iva would like to show this picture in case this young woman is indeed Amy. Now, we have had top forensic artist experts in the country look at these pictures, and they say that it is possible that it could be Amy.

"I'll tell you what. Why don't we go through the features that the experts have picked out? Now first we want to look at the cheekbones here. And what they do is they measure things that don't change in time." Dr. Phil points out similarities in her cheekbones, her hairline, her chin, and even a mark that Iva pointed out, a freckle below her eye.

"Do you believe that could be your daughter?" Dr. Phil asks Iva.

"I believe it could be Amy," she responds.




Dr. Phil was the media source who released the photograph of Amy from the escort resort in Venezuela. The Bradleys and the FBI do believe that this photograph is Amy. I won't show the full photographs out of respect for Amy and her family. I will use cropped portions showing just her head.

There have been many questions raised about these photographs and the escort resort. We don't believe that Amy was actually an escort at this resort. The resort was frequented by American and Canadian men. As an escort, Amy would have had an opportuniity to speak with them just as she had done in the Otrobanda hotel with the Navy sailor. It would have been a tremendous risk for her captors to have allowed her to be alone with anyone who spoke English. I personally believe that there is a direct connection between Amy, the Royal Caribbean kidnappers, the men involved with the escort resort, and the handlers in Curacao. I don't believe, however, that Amy was an escort in this Venezuelan resort.

The escort resort was a small resort in Playa el Agua, Margarita Island, Venezuela. It was known as Affordable Adult Vacations and it was a lower class hotel. It was owned by a Canadian and the manager was from England. The resort is no longer there. It is currently the location of a Venezuelan school for Hospitality and Hotel Management. The FBI did send agents to the location and they found no evidence that Amy had been there. The resort owners claimed that they had borrowed the photograph from Curacao.

 

[FindAmy]

This is Amy's poster. It can be enlarged and reproduced. It's also available at her website. My advice would be to contact the Hotline, first, if anyone should see Amy or if they have any information. The FBI also has a poster that I posted a few pages back, but I will post, again.

 

[FindAmy]

FBI Poster