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

[JSolt1210]

One thing that sort of speaks to me is she took her cigarettes and lighter, so she thought she would be gone at least long enough to want to smoke.
Someone correct me , but back then, weren't you able to smoke on your balcony and possibly even in your cabin?
If so, there would be no reason to leave just for a smoke, so she may have had other plans

If she left the cabin, she left freely.

According to this article: https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/part-ii/Content?oid=1390780

"[FONT=&quot]About 3:45 a.m., Brad and Amy returned to the room. They went out onto the balcony to smoke, but Ron woke up because they had left on the bathroom light. He told Amy to turn it off and the last thing he remembered before going to sleep was the glow of her Marlboro Light as she walked past.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Amy and Brad smoked for awhile, watching the waves and laughing about the limbo contest. They also talked about the next day in Curacao and Amy asked Brad if he had ever been on a jet ski.[/FONT]"

Not sure if you could smoke in the cabin, but this article confirms Amy and Brad were smoking on the balcony. Note that, according to this source, the siblings returned together—not one after the other, so that's definitely confusing.

I notice another detail here that goes back to the discussion about whether or not it was easy to be woken up by the balcony/cabin doors and/or other movement in the room. Ron woke up when the two arrived because the bathroom light was left on. According to Unsolved Mysteries: "[At 3:40am] Amy's dad, Ron, said he woke up when she came in and said she was going to sleep on the balcony. [Ron:] '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 [sic] stay there and get some fresh air.'"

Seems like it can be easy to be woken up by movement to and from the room.

Source: https://unsolved.com/gallery/amy-bradley/

 

[Hiandmighty]

One thing that sort of speaks to me is she took her cigarettes and lighter, so she thought she would be gone at least long enough to want to smoke.
Someone correct me , but back then, weren't you able to smoke on your balcony and possibly even in your cabin?
If so, there would be no reason to leave just for a smoke, so she may have had other plans

If she left the cabin, she left freely.

Yes, back then you could smoke on your balcony.

The whole late sleeper/early breakfast thing works both ways because if they were having an early breakfast, why would she leave to go meet someone at the disco? (Idea mentioned above)

In other words, if she left the room then she wasn’t planning to sleep in.

 

[Mica]

In Vanished, Ron remembers: "Knowing that she was comfortable [asleep on the balcony at 5:30am], I just decided to lay my head back down because I knew in about 20 minutes [i.e., 5:50am], we were going to get up, and go off on the island and have breakfast..."

This is the first time I noticed that apparently the breakfast plans were to be on the island itself, and not on the ship, as I previously thought I'd read elsewhere.

IMO then, these sound more like early plans to me. From Unsolved Mysteries, we know that by the time the first page to Amy went out at 7:50am, "most of the passengers had disembarked for the day," probably starting around 7am. 5:50am is a reasonable time to start getting ready for a 7am departure—especially if you want to be one of the first to get off a ship of about 3,000 people, and get a table before the rest of the crowds beat you to it.

Now if Amy was a late sleeper, then in a way, I can see why the panic might've escalated so quickly. Do we know if the "we were going to get up, and go off on the island and have breakfast" includes Amy? Ron might've felt that because of her sleeping habits, she would've stayed behind sleeping—and if so, she should've still been on the balcony. Maybe that's why he never said he was concerned when Amy didn't show up for their plans, because she wouldn't have been a part of those plans. Her not being still asleep there, then, was the cause for concern.

Thank you for this and for confirming it was from Vanished. Couldn’t remember.


In Vanished, Ron remembers: "Knowing that she was comfortable [asleep on the balcony at 5:30am], I just decided to lay my head back down because I knew in about 20 minutes [i.e., 5:50am], we were going to get up, and go off on the island and have breakfast..."

 

[Mica]

The Bradleys stateroom was located on deck 8. Perhaps somebody Amy was familiar with saw her on her balcony from an upper deck and called down to her to meet someplace on the ship? I don’t know if this is even possible, but it’s just a thought.

 

[JSolt1210]

The Bradleys stateroom was located on deck 8. Perhaps somebody Amy was familiar with saw her on her balcony from an upper deck and called down to her to meet someplace on the ship? I don’t know if this is even possible, but it’s just a thought.

That's certainly possible, but would she have been able to make out who it was, though?

At 5:30am on that date, daylight (astronomical twilight) was just beginning in Curação. Would there have been enough light coming from the eastern horizon for her to recognize a person, and not just see a silhouette backlit by balcony lights?

Sources: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/curacao/willemstad?month=3&year=1998
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight#Astronomical_dawn_and_dusk (for pictures of astronomical twilight)

 

[Hiandmighty]

She would have to have been sort of leaning over her balcony for someone to see her head— her head would have had to have been “breaking the plane” of the railing.

 

[Mica]

That's certainly possible, but would she have been able to make out who it was, though?

At 5:30am on that date, daylight (astronomical twilight) was just beginning in Curação. Would there have been enough light coming from the eastern horizon for her to recognize a person, and not just see a silhouette backlit by balcony lights?

Sources: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/curacao/willemstad?month=3&year=1998
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight#Astronomical_dawn_and_dusk (for pictures of astronomical twilight)

I don't know. Are there lights on the balconies or on the upper decks that would create enough illumination? I've never been on a cruise so I don't know. If somebody identified him/herself when calling out to Amy, the amount of daylight wouldn't matter. JMO

 

[Mica]

She would have to have been sort of leaning over her balcony for someone to see her head— her head would have had to have been “breaking the plane” of the railing.

I didn't know if there was a full or half roof over the balcony.

 

[Hiandmighty]

I didn't know if there was a full or half roof over the balcony.

It’s hard to tell, but looks like upper deck juts out and may be an enclosed deck, so I don’t think anyone could have seen her unless they were hanging over like a monkey if it is open. At 2 decks up, he would have had to yell.



ETA this is port side but starboard is likely exactly the same.

 

[CoolJ]

The Bradleys stateroom was located on deck 8. Perhaps somebody Amy was familiar with saw her on her balcony from an upper deck and called down to her to meet someplace on the ship? I don’t know if this is even possible, but it’s just a thought.

I think it more likely that she had made plans the night before to meet someone on the ship at a certain time. Or, more accurately, "someone" made plans with her to meet.

 

[Mica]

I think it more likely that she had made plans the night before to meet someone on the ship at a certain time. Or, more accurately, "someone" made plans with her to meet.

This is the most likely scenario.

 

[JSolt1210]

I think it more likely that she had made plans the night before to meet someone on the ship at a certain time. Or, more accurately, "someone" made plans with her to meet.

This is the most likely scenario.

If that's true, then maybe for some unknown reason, Amy felt she had to conceal these plans from her family?

According to Ron on Unsolved Mysteries, Amy stayed on the balcony to get some fresh air and relieve her motion sickness. Maybe she just didn't want to fall asleep and miss those plans?

 

[CoolJ]

If that's true, then maybe for some unknown reason, Amy felt she had to conceal these plans from her family?

According to Ron on Unsolved Mysteries, Amy stayed on the balcony to get some fresh air and relieve her motion sickness. Maybe she just didn't want to fall asleep and miss those plans?

Exactly, she didn't look to have motion sickness on the dancefloor of the disco!

This is what i think we are missing. I think it possible she said something to her brother about her plans.

The all out panic within minutes is not logical. It doesn't make sense unless we are missing a big piece of the puzzle.

 

[JSolt1210]

Exactly, she didn't look to have motion sickness on the dancefloor of the disco!

This is what i think we are missing. I think it possible she said something to her brother about her plans.

The all out panic within minutes is not logical. It doesn't make sense unless we are missing a big piece of the puzzle.

Yeah, I can agree with the whole not having motion sickness on the dance floor.

But I think that if she had said something to Brad about her later plans, something she would've confided to him as her brother and not to their parents, he might've said something by now, or especially on the day she went missing. Like, "hey, she told me she was going to go back and meet up with [fill in the blank]."

To me, the panic isn't completely beyond logic since, being a night-owl, she would've been in bed at sunrise and she wasn't there. But I agree that we're missing pieces of the puzzle.

 

[CoolJ]

Yeah, I can agree with the whole not having motion sickness on the dance floor.

But I think that if she had said something to Brad about her later plans, something she would've confided to him as her brother and not to their parents, he might've said something by now, or especially on the day she went missing. Like, "hey, she told me she was going to go back and meet up with [fill in the blank]."

To me, the panic isn't completely beyond logic since, being a night-owl, she would've been in bed at sunrise and she wasn't there. But I agree that we're missing pieces of the puzzle.

Well, i am assuming IF she did confide in her brother that he would have immediately told the parents and that was the reason for the premature panic.

 

[Kristin83]

Some families may be more close knit than others. Or more paranoid than others. For example I'm a 34 year old adult and I can tell you if I were to go on a cruise right now with my parents they'd probably panic if they couldn't find me within minutes. Just their personalities.

I do agree it's logical that the early panic may have been because Amy mentioned plans to meet someone OR all the attention she'd been getting was creeping the family out.

I wonder, if Amy was creeped out by these crew members, why she was willing to dance with Yellow? In the video she looks very content.

 

[U2forever]

Can anyone use a resoucrce to pull this broken link up? http://www1.richmond.com/output.aspx?id=1669

ETA: supposedly this link has information about the footprint on the table.

The link was easy to fix b/c the 1 does not belong with www. Anyway, the link is not any good after fixing as it states. . .
Unsupported Media Sorry, the page you requested could not be found.

Please disregard if this issue has already been addressed.

 

[Mica]

Some families may be more close knit than others. Or more paranoid than others. For example I'm a 34 year old adult and I can tell you if I were to go on a cruise right now with my parents they'd probably panic if they couldn't find me within minutes. Just their personalities.

I do agree it's logical that the early panic may have been because Amy mentioned plans to meet someone OR all the attention she'd been getting was creeping the family out.

I wonder, if Amy was creeped out by these crew members, why she was willing to dance with Yellow? In the video she looks very content.

BBM, Maybe Amy was naive and perhaps she was drugged. JMO

 

[JSolt1210]

BBM, Maybe Amy was naive and perhaps she was drugged. JMO

That’s certainly a possibility. But the video was filmed before she returned to the cabin and hung out with her brother on the balcony for a bit. I feel like, if she had been drugged then, wouldn’t Brad have noticed that she was a little “off?”


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[Mica]

That’s certainly a possibility. But the video was filmed before she returned to the cabin and hung out with her brother on the balcony for a bit. I feel like, if she had been drugged then, wouldn’t Brad have noticed that she was a little “off?”


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Yes, I would think so. When was it stated Amy felt sick? Before or after she was dancing with Yellow?