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

[RandyMcDonald]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they didn't could establish when this particular photo was taken, right? It could be from ages ago. The website where the picture was first published led nowhere? I can't make sense of this.

I checked James Renner's Reddit account, and he made a post suggesting that at least one of the women was actually an adult star active in that frame of time, leading to the possibility that the escort site had just been scraping images of attractive women.

 

[lebvidox]

I think it is important not to judge the parents reaction to Amy’s sexuality based on today’s standards. I am the same age as Amy and had many friends in high school, college and later come out. I lived in the most progressive 3 cities in the northeast. The ideal was to have parents who responded with “great, happy for you.” I never saw that happen.

Exactly what I've been saying. This was never about "blaming" the parents for not being welcoming. I won't judge any middle-aged parent for reacting that way in the mid 90s. I've been through this experience myself (as the child). It's the retcon, 27 years later, that this was a 'non issue' in the family and to Amy's self-acceptance and peace of mind that stands out to me.

 

[RandyMcDonald]

I think it is important not to judge the parents reaction to Amy’s sexuality based on today’s standards. I am the same age as Amy and had many friends in high school, college and later come out. I lived in the most progressive 3 cities in the northeast. The ideal was to have parents who responded with “great, happy for you.” I never saw that happen. It wasn’t the story of famous people coming out then, Ellens’s mom reacts almost exactly the same way Amy’s family did which was the best type I had observed. I saw most kids continue to hide their sexuality until their mid to late 20’s. Some of friends were sent to conversion therapy, some ended up homeless and couch surfing, some were shipped off to boarding school, I saw restraining orders against love interests. Amy had the best type of response I saw at the time, “it isn’t what we have envisions for you, hoped for you but we will love you no matter what.” I mention this because Amy would know this, she would have friends who also came out or were terrified to. She would have seen the few celebrity stories like Ellen mirror her own, I mean Rosie O’Donnell was still in the closet and claiming the whole love infatuation with Tom Cruise daily on her show, I remember because one of my roommates was horrified that I suggests Rosie O’Donnel could be gay. So with the lens of today her family’s reaction seems less than ideal but it was not only typical and kind of what you would see on TV sitcoms as the “good” family response at the time. I can only speculate of course as to what Amy’s thoughts were but I think for her coming out to her family was scary, and I am sure frustrating because her family couldn’t relate but also probably a huge relief and the most she would have actually expected at the time.

I am sure that Amy probably expected that. It still would have been a heartbreaking experience for her to learn that her parents were that upset, to the point of her father sending the letter to her girlfriend. You always know how bad things can be, and you always hope that you will be surprised in a good way because these are your parents, and you can get so hurt when they disappoint you.

This can easily lead people down dark routes. The heavy drinking that her college friends noted was not a surprise.

 

[lebvidox]

I checked James Renner's Reddit account, and he made a post suggesting that at least one of the women was actually an adult star active in that frame of time, leading to the possibility that the escort site had just been scraping images of attractive women.

That's what I thought. This wasn't an advertising for these particular women - you can choose Jas, Emma or Mary. Those were more like illustrative examples. The Jas photos in particular always seemed to predate the 2000s to me.

 

[logic284]

But the facts are up to what the family chooses to make of them for their own comfort. Since all possibilities are open, they could picture Amy leaving voluntarily to start a new life in the Caribbean with a hot, lesbian wife and having multiple children, either adopted or through in vitro fertilization.

If all scenarios could be entertained, the report of someone seeing 'Amy' who said she had left the ship to 'score drugs' and was prevented from leaving the island are still up for grabbing. It's totally understandable why the family hangs on to the version that's more comforting to them, or through their perspective.

As in: if you're sure Amy didn't have a drug problem, then this woman couldn't be Amy. It was a scammer. You can't have it both ways.

Years ago someone on this forum suggested that both might have been true. This person had speculated that the search for Amy had generated so much publicly that it was possible that some prostitutes were using the story of Amy as a way to scam $200 out of sympathetic people. Thus the navy guy passed the lie detector test AND maybe Amy did not go missing trying to score drugs, that was just a sympathy story for scam from cash. I personally think it is plausible that Amy did want to score some minor drugs, I don’t think she was looking for crack or heroin, but maybe some pot or Xanax.

 

[RandyMcDonald]

Exactly what I've been saying. This was never about "blaming" the parents from not being welcoming. I won't judge any middle-aged parent for reacting that way in the mid 90s. I've been through this experience myself (as the child). It's the retcon, 27 years later, that this was a 'non issue' in the family and to Amy's self-acceptance and peace of mind that stands out to me.

Agreed.

It should be noted that the parents have been criticized for their economy with the truth, even in law courts.

Dismissal Upheld of Suit Against Cruise Line | Law.com

A Miami appellate court wasted no time telling the parents of a woman who disappeared while on a 1998 cruise that lying and perpetrating a fraud against the court won't be tolerated. One week after hearing oral arguments, the court affirmed the dismissal of a negligence suit brought by Amy...

www.law.com

Being found to have lied under oath is not credibility-enhancing.

Finding out that Amy's parents have hidden key things about their daughter, most notably her sexual orientation and their relationship to said, is both unsurprising and the sort of thing that should make us more skeptical of their claims.

 

[GXP Sleuther]

[removed]

 

[lebvidox]

Years ago someone on this forum suggested that both might have been true. This person had speculated that the search for Amy had generated so much publicly that it was possible that some prostitutes were using the story of Amy as a way to scam $200 out of sympathetic people. Thus the navy guy passed the lie detector test AND maybe Amy did not go missing trying to score drugs, that was just a sympathy story for scam from cash. I personally think it is plausible that Amy did want to score some minor drugs, I don’t think she was looking for crack or heroin, but maybe some pot or Xanax.

It's obvious that the navy guy reported nothing precisely because he saw it for the scam that it was. Just like the taxi driver had come to talk about 'Amy' wearing exactly what her father had said she was wearing and pointing them to a particular dangerous area of the island after their press conference (he was just after the reward money). And the first tourist who saw Amy all tanned and frolicking in the beach with 'Yellow' and someone else only came forward 4 months later after seeing about the case on TV and that special focused on some particular tattoos as Amy's distinguishing features. And the other woman years later came forward after seeing a different special featuring the picture of 'Jas'.

 

[The Zookeeper]

I feel terrible for Amy’s parents. Of course they still have hope that Amy is alive and that they will find her. I think most parents in the same situation would keep hoping and trying to find their child. In cases where there is a disappearance and no closure, most people would believe their loved one is still alive and hold onto any shred of “evidence” they can find. Amy’s family has done a very good job of keeping her story in the media all of these years. Although I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong, sadly I feel that it is most likely that Amy fell overboard and passed away. All of these other scenarios seem to be too much of a stretch of the imagination. Human trafficking victims are usually younger and are vulnerable due to being un-housed or runaways. I worked with girls who had been trafficked, and all of them had been easily lured due to not having a safe home environment.

 

[logic284]

Out of fear? She possibly could have kids wrapped up in this by now too.

I wonder if it is true if Amy was concerned if she fled she wouldn’t get custody of those kids. Children born to one US citizen in a foreign country might be eligible for citizenship but it is not automatic (if born before 2017) unless both parents are US citizens. Even if she escaped she could be scared she might never be able to bring her kids. Obtaining U.S. Citizenship for a Child Born Abroad

 

[RandyMcDonald]

I feel terrible for Amy’s parents. Of course they still have hope that Amy is alive and that they will find her. I think most parents in the same situation would keep hoping and trying to find their child. In cases where there is a disappearance and no closure, most people would believe their loved one is still alive and hold onto any shred of “evidence” they can find. Amy’s family has done a very good job of keeping her story in the media all of these years. Although I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong, sadly I feel that it is most likely that Amy fell overboard and passed away. All of these other scenarios seem to be too much of a stretch of the imagination. Human trafficking victims are usually younger and are vulnerable due to being un-housed or runaways. I worked with girls who had been trafficked, and all of them had been easily lured due to not having a safe home environment.

If, by some chance, Amy did get smuggled off the cruise ship somehow and was forcibly prostituted, I really doubt that she would have lived long. What incentive would her abductors have to keep alive someone who could destroy them?

(It is the same story with the Sodder children, actually: If they actually were removed from their home against their will, why would their abductors keep them alive for decades knowing that a single admission could send the abductors to jail for the rest of their lives?)

 

[lebvidox]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed>

Something else to consider here: it’s not just about how the family dealt with Amy’s sexuality then and now, but how other assessments of her personality (reliance on alcohol, cigarettes, partying etc) were included but not highlighted in the documentary, despite coming from her college friends and a pat girlfriend. It could be that she turned to alcohol to deal with other issues, for instance. And we could turn to a bunch of studies indicating the higher rates of suicide or thoughts of suicide by alcoholics compared to those dealing with other psychological issues… It can become a snow ball of sorts.

 

[lebvidox]

I wonder if it is true if Amy was concerned if she fled she wouldn’t get custody of those kids. Children born to one US citizen in a foreign country might be eligible for citizenship but it is not automatic (if born before 2017) unless both parents are US citizens. Even if she escaped she could be scared she might never be able to bring her kids. Obtaining U.S. Citizenship for a Child Born Abroad

There's no a single possible scenario I can picture this. She wouldn't be fighting for custody if she managed to escape an abductor.

 

[RandyMcDonald]

I wonder if it is true if Amy was concerned if she fled she wouldn’t get custody of those kids. Children born to one US citizen in a foreign country might be eligible for citizenship but it is not automatic (if born before 2017) unless both parents are US citizens. Even if she escaped she could be scared she might never be able to bring her kids. Obtaining U.S. Citizenship for a Child Born Abroad

I am profoundly skeptical that, in a situation where Amy Bradley was made a sex slave and carried to term children born of these rapes, she the mother would not get custody. If she was mentally incompetent to parent, perhaps? But even then, I would imagine that authorities in the Caribbean would realize the terrible optics, and politics, of keeping an American woman terribly victimized in their country from her children.

Mind, all this assumes that her abductors would allow her to carry the pregnancies to term. (If, in fact, they let her live so long.)

Looking to Curaçao, the US State Department's 2024 report does suggest there are serious problems in the local government's response to trafficked women.

Technical Difficulties

It should be noted that it also identifies the women subjected to sex trafficking as coming mainly from Hispanic countries in the Caribbean basin, with Venezuelans being especially common these days thanks to that country's breakdown. An Anglophone--an American, definitely--would stand out in this population.

 

[RandyMcDonald]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> I read that tweet. His suggestion that Netflix had an agenda for portraying her relationships that way made me wince as much as his summary of that letter to Amy's girlfriend (not that bad, apparently, he said).

 

[lebvidox]

I read that tweet. His suggestion that Netflix had an agenda for portraying her relationships that was made me wince as much as his summary of that letter to Amy's girlfriend (not that bad, apparently, he said).

Netflix's portrayal of Amy was TOTALLY respectful. Even the girlfriend who got the letter in the bottle said (in the excerpt included in the final cut) that she saw it as a love letter and not a suicide warning.

The guy finishing off with "Please don’t ask why he wasn’t mentioned in the series because I cannot tell you that, hashtag sensationalism", makes zero sense whatsoever.

 

[lebvidox]

Is this actually Brad's verified account or just a troll? This person can't stop posting and some of that stuff is unbelievable.

 

[Salah11]

Is this actually Brad's verified account or just a troll? This person can't stop posting and some of that stuff is unbelievable.

yes who else would it be?

Just because your sister goes missing doesn’t mean you’re automatically a saint. He shows documents in some of his posts and links to the go fund me.

 

[lebvidox]

yes who else would it be?

Just because your sister goes missing doesn’t mean you’re automatically a saint. He shows documents in some of his posts and links to the go fund me.

It's just that his recent posts have been way over the top.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1947107598966182249

Now he knows this person covering their face is Yellow and that these girls were DISCUSSING what they saw that night while Yellow was present and eavesdropping on their conversation. Things are getting beyond ridiculous. He's advocating for a particular theory and suspect. This will do nothing to help the case.

 

[Chypre]

Did she only drink those six lite beers, was she given others? How quickly did she drink them?

Even her brother said that she was "tipsy".

What Happened to Amy Bradley: Unpacking the Disturbing Theories About Her Disappearance

Amy Bradley disappeared in the middle of a Caribbean cruise in 1998. The Netflix series Amy Bradley Is Missing dives into the theories about what happened and the family's ongoing search for answers.

www.eonline.com

Tipsy is used specifically to differentiate from drunk or dangerously drunk.