VA - Amy Bradley - missing from cruise ship, Curacao - 1998 #3

[lebvidox]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed due to no link>

My impression from the Netflix program is that Amy's family wants to believe that she was abducted and was forced to live a terrible life. They don't accept that she could have gone over the railing, even though she had been drinking and partying through the night.

Although there were 6 beer on her tab, we don't know what other drinks were given to her. She's had enough to drink that she wanted to stay on the balcony until she felt a little better, rather than go to bed - per Netflix. That's more than 6 lite beer spread over 10 hours.

Her judgement was impaired. That's true of everyone who parties until 4 in the morning. Maybe she did go near the railing that morning. It's more likely that she went over the railing than the long detailed story that is required to believe that she's living on an Island under the control of men who buy her cigarettes and only reveal her to tourists.

I'm surprised that her father started looking for her at 6 a.m. and decided that she was missing an hour later. It's a big ship, and he could not have looked everywhere, but he knew that she was no longer on the ship? Did I hear correctly that her parents flew home within a day of her vanishing from the ship? I found that surprising. Natalee Holloway's family did the opposite.

The doc made it feel like Amy was a high-schooler living at home and the mom and dad and brother being involved in every one of her activities etc. The college friends recollections of Amy possibly drinking too much and smoking too much and partying harder and harder are almost brushed over. She seems more like a bright, well-adjusted, athletic teen than a grown, adult woman. The assessment of her personality, habits, behaviors etc is all down to a innocent character building.

 

[na19]

Ditto, and my biggest takeaway from the series. If she were a child I get it. Yet, not only is she an adult, but he said he saw her around 5:30am "and she was safe." My first reaction..."why would she not be safe?" Perhaps he's adding protective words in hindsight, but he makes a point of saying he looked for her feet, and she was there. Not that he assumed she was in the bathroom which would be a logical deduction. Perhaps he did say as much but it was cut as not provocative enough.

Anyway, it's curious he went from 0-60 on the panic meter so early on. Especially since he knew she was out into the wee hours, and never stated he was concerned about that part. You could chalk it up to being overprotective, but no one was clutching their pearls about her drinking, in a nightclub, with what amounts to strangers...so it's hard to reconcile.

Regardless, she's not in the cabin...why go looking for her if only 30ish minutes had passed? If they had an early excursion I'd imagine he'd think she was already lined up to disembark rather than feel the need to find and remind her, and certainly not go straight to catastrophizing. I'm left wondering if something relayed by Brad to his parents about either he and Amy's conversation on the balcony, or something recalled from the nightclub prompted such a reaction. Then on top of that, her mother requests a voice broadcast at 7am when we're just past an hour. Now the family at least sounds exponentially alarmed. How did they know she wasn't social butterflying in another cabin, staff or passenger? The father being so concerned, and the way it was edited, sounds like he thought maybe she'd committed suicide, but "you can't let anyone off this ship" to me actually rings of knowing or assuming something else is at play. Some kind of intervention off-ship narrative might put pieces into place, but actual evidence would be needed to name any...organization as a factor in this disappearance.

A lot of sensationalism and just-so editing, but that's another post.

As for the “she’s safe” comment, I took that to mean he had everyone in his family right there with him at that moment, so from his perspective, they were all “safe.” I think that comment was less about literal safety and more about the emotional peace of having your loved ones nearby.

I also think my parents would’ve reacted the same way if they woke up and I wasn’t in the room. It would’ve been completely out of character for me to leave without saying anything, so I imagine they believed the same about Amy.

 

[Quill]

"Nobody gave a " - sure... The father WROTE a 3 page letter to Amy's girlfriend. The woman herself talked about the content of the letter. It was not in the lines of 'that's not what we wanted for Amy, but as long as she's happy with you, I'm all for it'. It's okay to admit parents in the mid 90s wouldn't be as welcoming to this news. It was a different time and place. But to now act as "this was a non-issue"... Sorry, don't buy it.

The girlfriend who received the letter from Amy's father was titled on my screen as "ex-girlfriend". The girlfriend who received the letter in the bottle from Amy prior to the cruise was the more current girl-friend. I struggled a tad with the timeline in this area of the story to make sense of it. I would like to better understand that timing, but it seems to me that Amy came out to her parents a bit earlier in her college experience, dad wrote the letter etc. Time moved on and Amy might have dated numerous people, possible male and/or female, then she reconnects with the woman we see with the letter in the bottle. Some amount of time, probably years, have passed between her coming out to her parents and her graduation college and moving into her own place. It was clear to me from Amy's friends' statements that her parents loved her very much and it appeared, from the old pictures and videos, that Amy's appearance reflected that as well. I think it's possible it may have become less of an issue over time. Maybe they were dealing with it. They loved her. Why is it so hard to think that they might have been working on accepting Amy's choice? I'm not willing to call them liars "just because". We are looking at their lives under a microscope at this point but we are missing huge pieces of a puzzle. It's impossible to judge their entire family life. on a few snapshots, which is what we have, IMO. I keep in mind that Amy's family are still considered victims here.

 

[joijoi12]

Initially I questioned why her dad panicked so quickly, but then remembered how my parents are extremely worrisome and especially in the 90s when you (or at least my fam) communicated in person, verbally or by leaving a note. I’m a year younger than Amy and I still do what I can to relieve them from unnecessary worry.

 

[Triple G]

https://www.facebook.com/61557952762751/posts/122200317722265092

https://www.facebook.com/61557952762751/posts/122200321556265092

 

[otto]

Ditto, and my biggest takeaway from the series. If she were a child I get it. Yet, not only is she an adult, but he said he saw her around 5:30am "and she was safe." My first reaction..."why would she not be safe?" Perhaps he's adding protective words in hindsight, but he makes a point of saying he looked for her feet, and she was there. Not that he assumed she was in the bathroom which would be a logical deduction. Perhaps he did say as much but it was cut as not provocative enough.

Anyway, it's curious he went from 0-60 on the panic meter so early on. Especially since he knew she was out into the wee hours, and never stated he was concerned about that part. You could chalk it up to being overprotective, but no one was clutching their pearls about her drinking, in a nightclub, with what amounts to strangers...so it's hard to reconcile.

Regardless, she's not in the cabin...why go looking for her if only 30ish minutes had passed? If they had an early excursion I'd imagine he'd think she was already lined up to disembark rather than feel the need to find and remind her, and certainly not go straight to catastrophizing. I'm left wondering if something relayed by Brad to his parents about either he and Amy's conversation on the balcony, or something recalled from the nightclub prompted such a reaction. Then on top of that, her mother requests a voice broadcast at 7am when we're just past an hour. Now the family at least sounds exponentially alarmed. How did they know she wasn't social butterflying in another cabin, staff or passenger? The father being so concerned, and the way it was edited, sounds like he thought maybe she'd committed suicide, but "you can't let anyone off this ship" to me actually rings of knowing or assuming something else is at play. Some kind of intervention off-ship narrative might put pieces into place, but actual evidence would be needed to name any...organization as a factor in this disappearance.

A lot of sensationalism and just-so editing, but that's another post.

Yes, I think the father knows more, but is unable to accept it. I think he knows that the noise that woke him up was not the sound of the door closing.

He woke up around 5:30 a.m., knew that Amy was not in bed, and looked at the balcony. He saw her legs, and went back to sleep. At 6:00 a.m. he woke up to a noise that concerned him. He looked at the balcony and did not see her legs. He didn't roll over and go back to sleep, assuming that she had change posture. He jumped out of bed and started looking for her. Why? Why did the noise cause him to be concerned about Amy?

He (franticly???) looked around the ship and didn't see her having breakfast. An hour later, he reported her missing. That seems really fast.

Agreed, she was a 23 year old who could have been anywhere. She might have gone to visit a friend in another cabin. She might be on a quiet deck somewhere watching the sunrise. She wasn't a child that needed to be monitored.

The son makes a big point about closing the balcony door when he went to bed, the father says the door was open. Because the door was open, they create a question of whether Amy left the room via the door. I wonder whether the door was closed by the son, or seen open by the father.

The table next to the glass railing - where it should not be - is the problematic fact. If she stood on it for any reason, it reduces the railing to 26", which is dangerously low for someone with impaired judgement. Too often do we read about impaired tourists in Mexico leaning over a low railing and falling. If she stood on the table and it wobbled where she lost her balance, that would create a sound loud enough to wake someone up ... a sound that would create concern about the person who was no longer on the balcony.

 

[otto]

The doc made it feel like Amy was a high-schooler living at home and the mom and dad and brother being involved in every one of her activities etc. The college friends recollections of Amy possibly drinking too much and smoking too much and partying harder and harder are almost brushed over. She seems more like a bright, well-adjusted, athletic teen than a grown, adult woman. The assessment of her personality, habits, behaviors etc is all down to a innocent character building.

It's not unusual for parents of a missing young woman to portray her, or memorialize her, has having an perfect life with a promising future. She had a new college degree, new car, new apartment, new dog, new job, new relationship, and she disappointed her parents with her relationship choices.

Excessive drinking, smoking, partying are excluded from the narrative even though they are sometimes an indication of stress and avoidance. Amy's friends discussed the real Amy - the one who drank enough to cause them concern.

The letter from her father to her girlfriend must have shocked Amy. I think it would shock all of us if one of our parents wrote a 3 page letter to our love interest for the purpose of not supporting that relationship.

I lean towards accidental fall ... maybe there was enough turmoil in her life that she was reckless on the balcony - toying with fate, and fell.

 

[Sweetluv]

Im a 5'5 female who has been on many cruises. When I'm out on the balcony, I will take my shoes off and push the table up against the balcony to stretch my legs out..placing my feet on the table.

 

[Chypre]

In this scenario, I find the following to be quite possible:

Amy had mentioned to Yellow that she wanted some weed. Yellow said he can sort that out when the ship docks. Arranges to meet at 6am on the top deck. She grabs $10 dollars or whatever and meets him. They get off the ship pretty much unnoticed and go to an apartment. It was a trick, and she was unable to leave from that point.

Agree. Yellow didn't even have to leave the ship.

 

[TizerisT]

I'd be interested to narrow down the time that this happened:
Alister approaches Brad and says "hey man, im sorry to hear about your sister"

And also the ship docking time.

 

[Chypre]

Also in today's age, the technology tools have advanced. And every tool says it's not the same person even when it recognizes celebrities that have had advanced plastic surgery.

Are you stating "every tool says it's not the same person" specifically to tests done on the Jaz picture? Or just in general technology has advanced?

 

[Radial Loop]

He's damn good at what he does, I just hope his analysis of Jas holds up to the new scrutiny that is coming post Documentary.

Unfortunately, his conclusions are speculative. Forensic photograph analysis does not conclude anything other than an opinion from the analysist. Unlike actual forensic tools such as latent fingerprint identification and ballistic identification. I found it interesting that he is also a polygraph operator given the accuracy (i.e., validity) of polygraph testing has long been controversial.

 

[GreyPhantom]

Every online facial comparison tool says they are not the same person. The caveat that the FBI might have better private software.

 

[fridaybaker]

Tizeris, the original information on that conversation from the VI, was the it was the waiter, EC, who approached Brad and said that. Somehow, over the years, that’s gotten changed to it being Yellow. I’m not saying one or the other is true, I just wanted to point that out.

There certainly have been inconsistencies regarding many points/facts through the various interviews, write-ups, WS posts, and documentaries over the years. It makes it terribly difficult to follow this case!

 

[GreyPhantom]

Tizeris, the original information on that conversation from the VI, was the it was the waiter, EC, who approached Brad and said that. Somehow, over the years, that’s gotten changed to it being Yellow. I’m not saying one or the other is true, I just wanted to point that out.

There certainly have been inconsistencies regarding many points/facts through the various interviews, write-ups, WS posts, and documentaries over the years. It makes it terribly difficult to follow this case!

The unsolved mysteries episode has Yellow approaching Brad that morning. And that was in 1999.

 

[Chypre]

Thank you.
Every online facial comparison tool says they are not the same person. The caveat that the FBI might have better private software.

Thank you. FBI probably does have better software. Experience is important, software reliability . . .
Personally, I think it really is her.

 

[bestill]

I watched the doc last night. I am curious as to why it took the ship 4 days to circulate a missing flyer with her photo on it? Those 4 days were crucial, imo. The professional photographer had a photo that the could have used within hours of her missing. JMO

 

[GreyPhantom]

I watched the doc last night. I am curious as to why it took the ship 4 days to circulate a missing flyer with her photo on it? Those 4 days were crucial, imo. The professional photographer had a photo that the could have used within hours of her missing. JMO

They are a business first and foremost. Advertising that they "lost" a passenger isn't really in their interest. Especially if one of their employees was the last person seen with them.

 

[bestill]

They are a business first and foremost. Advertising that they "lost" a passenger isn't really in their interest. Especially if one of their employees was the last person seen with them.

The cruise director made that clear, "....the cruise goes on".

 

[DustysMom]

I highly recommend International Cruise Victims website.

Thanks - will check it out.