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

[dotr]

In full: The chilling footage that shows the last seen moments of Amy Bradley on cruise ship

'Probably one of the most eerie videos. Literally hours before whatever happened'

thetab.com

 

[Sleuthster]

i just keep wondering.. why would criminals look for sex trafficking victims on a cruise ship of all places? not just because you’d have to smuggle someone off a ship, but also because cruiseship passengers seem like the opposite of a typical trafficking victim. amy is from a wealthy family, from a wealthy country, she is with her family who will immediately miss her and do everything they can to find her.

but then i don’t know why the witnesses would make things up, so that does makes me second guess things. but it’s also known that with high profile cases there always seem to be sightings and different people believing all kinds of things and witness reports aren’t always reliable. the pictures of the escort who looks just like amy did make me pause again too!

at the end of the day, i’m not convinced of any specific outcome. if i would have to pick i would say i think she did fall overboard and somehow her body didn’t end up somewhere where it would be found. but i could be completely wrong.

I think that people involved in human trafficing are only interested in opportunity
They look for someone who is easily accessible and at ease/ outgoing with strangers.

 

[elle neirbo]

I agree.
I

I’ve been deep-diving into this case, and here’s what stands out to me:


There are two dominant theories about what happened to Amy Lynn Bradley, and they couldn’t be more different:


1. Suicide Theory
This is the “simplest” explanation on paper—but it falls apart under scrutiny:

• There’s no evidence she was suicidal.
• The idea that she opened a balcony door just 12–14 inches and jumped doesn’t add up.
• The ship was close to port—something likely would have washed up if she’d gone overboard. A person doesn’t just vanish without a trace in those conditions.
• Also, no shark is going to completely consume a human body in minutes without leaving a single trace. It’s not realistic.

2. Abduction / Trafficking Theory
This theory is 100000x more complex

• Amy was reportedly seen in the elevator around 6 a.m. with “Yellow”
• If that sighting is accurate (and I believe it is), sunrise was around 6:30 a.m., meaning it would have been getting light outside—enough to see both people and possibly the coastline.
• Yellow would’ve known the ship’s layout and traffic patterns—so if he brought her to a secluded area like the club, he may have known it would be empty at that hour.

Now here’s where I’m connecting dots:

• What if something happened in that quiet, early-morning setting—a sexual assault attempt or worse?
• Whether Yellow acted alone or with others, he would’ve had some access and knowledge to hide a body—at least temporarily.
• Could she have been hidden somewhere onboard (e.g. a locked equipment case) and removed from the ship later the next night, when fewer eyes were on the crew?

Let’s also remember: cruise ship “search” by the cruise staff in 1998 weren’t at a forensic level. A locked container(like for music instruments) wouldn’t have raised eyebrows if it wasn’t clearly suspicious.


My Conclusion

I’m not claiming to know what happened. But this “middle-ground” theory—that something happened involving someone she knew (like Yellow), followed by a panicked or premeditated cover-up—makes more sense than either extreme.


The case deserves more discussion from fresh angles. I hope this gives someone a new idea or helps jog a memory.


New here—feedback welcome.

watched the

 

[elle neirbo]

I think that people involved in human trafficing are only interested in opportunity
They look for someone who is easily accessible and at ease/ outgoing with strangers.

I watch a lot of documentaries on you tube. I’m not by any means an expert - nor do I claim to know everything about these cases. I’m simply interested.

But, the pattern I have noticed is that foreigners are ‘easy targets’ for the sex industry in these smaller, maybe poorer parts in the world.

I simply think, those who worked on the ship that lived in the local area’s work for a larger trafficking community.
It may be an easier way to traffic women. Maybe she was drugged. When she approached the alleged whitenesses, they describe her character to be more subdued, than how her parents and family described her.

people are smuggled from other countries to Malaysia. Which is s large sex trafficking area, for example.

I think the idea of her being drugged and kidnapped is a plausible idea to be considered.

In addition, the ships main man was very much protesting his staff, causing the family pain by saying ‘the family can’t let go and are clutching at straws’.
He refused to make a call out at 7am because he didn’t want to disturb others,… but when people where offloading at 7:30 to get to the next destination…. If it was a 4 year old-
would they have made the call out ??
Would they allow the cleaners to clean?
Why would the ship entertainer back and protect the staff on his ship? Is he at risk? Reputation concerns as he didn’t make the right choices ?

 

[earthgurl]

It seems like her parents were not supportive of her life choices, so I can see why they would cover that up to protect their image and daughters.

It’s easy to judge them now but I was a kid in 1998 so I don’t know the in’s and outs back then on if it was that bad to be “out”.

IMO

I was a preteen in 1998 and being 'out' was sort of a big deal back then. I can totally see her family changing the gender of Amy's significant other back then because they feared her disappearance wouldn't be taken as seriously if the public knew she was gay.

 

[thebedbug]

Yes!! The story was always that Amy was seeing a man prior to disappearing but it seems this story was false or else they have omitted this detail to avoid painting her in a further bad light after kissing another woman. But the family may have decided to say it was a man rather than a woman to avoid any negative perception to her case (it was the 90s).

Scroll down and there are two blog entry of Amy mentioning the word boyfriend:

Amy Lynn Bradley is still missing

Website dedicated to spreading accurate information regarding the 1998 disappearance of Amy Lynn BradleyAmy Lynn Bradley - Amy Lynn Bradley

amybradleyismissing.com

“On another evening when her dad and I were with she and her boyfriend and her brother Brad and his girlfriend”

Amy Lynn Bradley is still missing

Website dedicated to spreading accurate information regarding the 1998 disappearance of Amy Lynn BradleyPorto Marie, Curacao - Amy Lynn Bradley

amybradleyismissing.com

Amy's boyfriend was the manager of a restaurant in Virginia. One of his suppliers gave him a Dos Equis watch, similar to the one above. Amy brought the watch with her on the cruise and she was wearing it when she disappeared. Information about the watch had not been released to the media. David Carmichael accurately described the Dos Equis watch to the FBI, the Bradleys, and the Federal Grand Jury.


The second detail of the watch was totally excluded from the documentary. This makes me question the accuracy of that website as several sightings (San Fran, etc) are not discussed.

So there are 2 possibilites:

1. The ex-boyfriend story was false and her girlfriend gifted her that watch… but why exclude the watch from the documentary?

2. She was seeing a local man in her area and also having a long distance with her girlfriend. Was Amy in an open relationship?

If they were in an open relationship, Amy would not be writing letters of apology to her ex for kissing someone else.

It doesn’t make sense.

Having watched enough "unsolved mystery" documentaries, they often leave out or don't address critical things to enhance the "mystery."

Let me give you a few examples from this...

1. Who let the witness girls back into their cabin and what is their testimony about the time?

2. The only and I mean only evidence that Amy and Yellow didn't both go back to their cabins and not leave again is the testimony of those 2 girls.

3. And this is probably the most baffling and unexplored element from the NETFLIX doc, not a single other passenger or crew member saw Amy, Yellow, OR the girls. That's pretty hard to believe. A cruise ship at 5:30 AM isn't hopping, but there is activity. Crew is up preparing for docking. Housekeeping staff is getting ready, maybe cleaning public areas... dance club? Kitchen/Galley staff is preparing for breakfast. Security walking rounds. Early rising passengers having coffee (that's what her Dad though she might've done), a morning walk/jog, getting up to take sunrise photos... or even getting ready for early excursions (my cruise in '99 had me on a motor boat at 7am skipping over waves to those pyramids in Mexico).

^This is really hard to reconcile, if you're going with any of the kidnap/murder theories. You've also got to believe that with the ship only docked for probably 8 hours and the crew on alert and having performed that all-hands search, she was still smuggled off the ship in front of the eyes of everyone watching. I know it all fits a Hollywood movie scenario, but it sounds wildly risky and about 1000 different ways such a plan could fail.

If there was a single bit of proof that she left that cabin, I'd feel differently about this. I think she fell/jumped and the Dad heard something and woke.

 

[KSwizzle]

there was literally a ship passenger on the doc who said she saw yellow and Amy together and go in an elevator and then saw yellow after that between 5-6am….

 

[thebedbug]

there was literally a ship passenger on the doc who said she saw yellow and Amy together and go in an elevator and then saw yellow after that between 5-6am….

there was a girl who was on the deck with another girl. she did say she saw them go up an elevator to the club and saw Yellow walking by after. you're right about the time she said, but there is no confirmation of her story. there is no key card log because she said they forgot their key and they had to knock to be let back into their cabin (by a mom?)... but we don't know what time this actually happened at. also, we have no other testimony of anyone seeing those girls on the deck at that time. the way NETFLIX presents it, it's like the only 4 people awake on the ship were Amy, Yellow, and these 2 girls.

this is really important. according to Amy's Dad she was definitely on the cabin deck at 5:30am and he started looking for her (went to see if she was having coffee) around 6:00am, maybe a bit before (5:50am?).

 

[Salah11]

I am a very black and white thinker and don’t do conspiracy theories at all.

But I think with everything that is known it does a great disservice to Amy and her family to keep saying she jumped. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that happened, and it must be incredibly hurtful and frustrating to the family. Also the narrative she was Gay so she must of killed herself is deeply troubling.

 

[Mica]

there was literally a ship passenger on the doc who said she saw yellow and Amy together and go in an elevator and then saw yellow after that between 5-6am….

There were 3 witnesses who saw Amy with Yellow between 5-6 AM, as stated in this recent article. One witness was the woman in the Netflix documentary. IIRC, another was Crystal Roberts.

[…]

On the morning of Amy's disappearance, three witnesses claimed to have seen her on the upper deck between 5:30 and 5:45am with band member Douglas – contradicting his statement that he left the party at 1am. The witnesses claim to have seen the pair with a camera, and testified that he handed her a drink. They also allege that the pair arrived at one of the ship's elevators together, and that he was then seen leaving the upper deck alone, shortly after 6am.

What happened to Amy Bradley? A timeline of her disappearance and rumoured sightings

A new three-part documentary on Netflix investigates the case

www.cosmopolitan.com

 

[thebedbug]

I am a very black and white thinker and don’t do conspiracy theories at all.

But I think with everything that is known it does a great disservice to Amy and her family to keep saying she jumped. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that happened, and it must be incredibly hurtful and frustrating to the family. Also the narrative she was Gay so she must of killed herself is deeply troubling.

It's 27 years later. I don't think anyone is talking about jumping with a moral judgement, but it sounds like there were certainly different elements swirling about that have cropped up in those situations. If she didn't leave the cabin, it's one of the few plausible scenarios.

I would lean towards an accidental fall. Perhaps she was standing on the table with her arms spread, leaning out over the railing, doing a little morning "Titanic scene" re-enactment... the ship rocked stronger than expected and over she went?

 

[nannymo]

A small piece of info from the documentary.....Brad came back inside and closed the sliding door behind him. When Dad woke up and went into the kids room, Brad was asleep and the sliding door was open about 14 inches or so. Enough room for Amy to come through, change and leave.

Another small thing I noticed. In the documentary they say Amy took her yellow polo shirt off and was wearing a white shirt that is missing. She was wearing a white short sleeve shirt while dancing with yellow. Was the yellow polo shirt with her at the bar or did she put it on to go sit on the balcony?

 

[fsngruv]

It's 27 years later. I don't think anyone is talking about jumping with a moral judgement, but it sounds like there were certainly different elements swirling about that have cropped up in those situations. If she didn't leave the cabin, it's one of the few plausible scenarios.

I would lean towards an accidental fall. Perhaps she was standing on the table with her arms spread, leaning out over the railing, doing a little morning "Titanic scene" re-enactment... the ship rocked stronger than expected and over she went?

I'm with you. I am open to all theories and hearing all thoughts, even if I can't imagine them, myself, they are worthy of listen just as much as the next.

Maybe not a Titanic scene, but maybe she was a bit hung over and was feeling sick. Maybe her cigarettes fell and she tried to catch them or retrieve them unsuccessfully.

 

[Silverstorm]

I just watched the Netflix documentary Amy Bradley is missing and I thought it was excellent. They interviewed several people who have reported seeing Amy several years after she was reported missing.
One was a US Navy veteran who was in an illegal bar that had prostitutes in it and was guarded with an armed guard. He said one of the girls working there identified herself as Amy Bradley and she was being held against her will and needed help. He was afraid of being found out about being in the bar and never reported the incident until years after the fact. He said Amy told him she left the ship to get drugs for her and her brother and now she was stuck there.

 

[fridaybaker]

Yes!! The story was always that Amy was seeing a man prior to disappearing but it seems this story was false or else they have omitted this detail to avoid painting her in a further bad light after kissing another woman. But the family may have decided to say it was a man rather than a woman to avoid any negative perception to her case (it was the 90s).

Scroll down and there are two blog entry of Amy mentioning the word boyfriend:

Amy Lynn Bradley is still missing

Website dedicated to spreading accurate information regarding the 1998 disappearance of Amy Lynn BradleyAmy Lynn Bradley - Amy Lynn Bradley

amybradleyismissing.com

“On another evening when her dad and I were with she and her boyfriend and her brother Brad and his girlfriend”

Amy Lynn Bradley is still missing

Website dedicated to spreading accurate information regarding the 1998 disappearance of Amy Lynn BradleyPorto Marie, Curacao - Amy Lynn Bradley

amybradleyismissing.com

Amy's boyfriend was the manager of a restaurant in Virginia. One of his suppliers gave him a Dos Equis watch, similar to the one above. Amy brought the watch with her on the cruise and she was wearing it when she disappeared. Information about the watch had not been released to the media. David Carmichael accurately described the Dos Equis watch to the FBI, the Bradleys, and the Federal Grand Jury.


The second detail of the watch was totally excluded from the documentary. This makes me question the accuracy of that website as several sightings (San Fran, etc) are not discussed.

So there are 2 possibilites:

1. The ex-boyfriend story was false and her girlfriend gifted her that watch… but why exclude the watch from the documentary?

2. She was seeing a local man in her area and also having a long distance with her girlfriend. Was Amy in an open relationship?

If they were in an open relationship, Amy would not be writing letters of apology to her ex for kissing someone else.

It doesn’t make sense.

I’ve read, can’t remember where now, that Amy dated both men and women, only recently rekindling a relationship with a young woman she’d has a short relationship with previously. There have been conflicting reports of Amy being excited for the cruise, but hesitant as well. I’ve always thought it likely that both of these things are true, as is often the case in life. Her reasons for being hesitant have been described as being due to her fear of the open ocean despite being a good swimmer and trained lifeguard (sharks) and also that she was on the precipice of her “adult life” starting: new job, new apartment, etc. We can now add “new relationship” to those things.

I’ve also wondered, since we learned about that new relationship, if she was also anxious because she hadn’t had time to break up with her boyfriend before leaving. Don’t know, of course, but it was always presented as they were still together at the time and, wasn’t she still wearing his watch?

 

[RickC]

New to forum. Just watched doc last night. My question to anybody who still thinks she fell overboard or jumped is how do you explain all the eye witness sightings, especially the one where where the guy said she told him her name was Amy Bradley and she’s being held against her will, and then the woman in 2005 who said she saw her in the bathroom and she said her name was Amy. What purpose would these people have to make something like that up. Their lives didn’t benefit whatsoever for coming forward. Why would they lie?

 

[fridaybaker]

i just keep wondering.. why would criminals look for sex trafficking victims on a cruise ship of all places? not just because you’d have to smuggle someone off a ship, but also because cruiseship passengers seem like the opposite of a typical trafficking victim. amy is from a wealthy family, from a wealthy country, she is with her family who will immediately miss her and do everything they can to find her.

but then i don’t know why the witnesses would make things up, so that does makes me second guess things. but it’s also known that with high profile cases there always seem to be sightings and different people believing all kinds of things and witness reports aren’t always reliable. the pictures of the escort who looks just like amy did make me pause again too!

at the end of the day, i’m not convinced of any specific outcome. if i would have to pick i would say i think she did fall overboard and somehow her body didn’t end up somewhere where it would be found. but i could be completely wrong.

Detective moon, you have picked up on the stickiest wicket of this mystery, and one that confounds many. People do go “missing” on cruise ships, but it’s usually eventually attributed to some variety of overboard incident. Why Amy. And why from a cruise ship? It certainly doesn’t seem to be a common occurrence for someone to be trafficked that way.

There’s been MUCH discussion over the years about this, but this is what I’ve come up with. No doubt, better thinkers and better sleuthers than I can come up with more.

Why not on a cruise ship? Much trafficking and sex tourism goes on throughout the Caribbean. Perhaps it was simply because someone who worked on the ship came into contact with a group doing this, and saw an opportunity to make some $. There is little security on the ship, very few security cameras (and an employee would know where those are and aren’t located). It’s an atmosphere of “escape”, “letting one’s hair down”, and partying in general. Tons and tons of mixing with strangers and free flowing alcohol. Most people aren’t “on guard” on a cruise.

How easy would it be to slip something into someone’s drink, then get them down a staff elevator in the wee hours of the morning, put them in a laundry cart, band equipment case, etc., and get them off the ship via a staff gangway. Certainly, staff and laundry aren’t mixing with the well dressed cliente as they embark/disembark.

Also, there’s been talk that certain staff at RC were linked to AAV. I’m not sure why that would surprise anybody. Look at the character of the cruise director. I highly doubt any of the staff are vetted in depth for character.

At the end of the day, anyone, anywhere can be kidnapped and trafficked and if you look long enough, you’ll see that there are many examples of middle class, ordinary women becoming victims to it. Layer onto that the lack of security on cruise ships and billion dollar industry out to protect its image, and you have what many are trying to blow the whistle on, which is a situation rife for crime without consequences. It’s hard, though, as the billions in the industry can simply crush those who go up against them.

 

[Quill]

I just watch this specific part. She explains about the software analysis (the editing puts some images over her deposition). Her final quote was "A forensic analyst looked at the photo and believed that that was Amy Bradley". Those are TV tricks.

You can make anything fit your theory if you look at it that way, IMO. I'll choose the experts analysis anyday,

 

[Salah11]

New to forum. Just watched doc last night. My question to anybody who still thinks she fell overboard or jumped is how do you explain all the eye witness sightings, especially the one where where the guy said she told him her name was Amy Bradley and she’s being held against her will, and then the woman in 2005 who said she saw her in the bathroom and she said her name was Amy. What purpose would these people have to make something like that up. Their lives didn’t benefit whatsoever for coming forward. Why would they lie?

Exactly and even years later is absolutely adamant it was her and even got interviewed for the Netflix series.

 

[Keiri]

I would love for this to be solved as I don’t believe she fell overboard as her body would have washed up.

There are many, many people lost at sea who never wash up. It’s a much smaller percentage that do. Especially off shore.