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

[thebedbug]

Yellow, in my book, was quite distinctive looking, far from “build, skin coloring and short hair”.

I mean... in one of the famous 'club' pictures, there's literally a guy in a white t-shirt that but for the shadows on Yellow, could easily be mistaken for him. Someone you've only seen for a maximum of 3 days and for who knows how many actual minutes, from a distance and in the dark or even in a lit elevator, of course.

I would also suggest, that isn't the only other person on the ship who could fit his physical description.

 

[Quiet Time]

Someone may have already mentioned this, but I'm intrigued by the internet searches done from Barbados.
Where someone is doing searches of the Bradley family, mostly done on holidays or birthdays and staying on those sites for up to almost 45mins.

Is that AB? Or children of AB?

 

[Salah11]

Someone may have already mentioned this, but I'm intrigued by the internet searches done from Barbados.
Where someone is doing searches of the Bradley family, mostly done on holidays or birthdays and staying on those sites for up to almost 45mins.

Is that AB? Or children of AB?

The only thing I don’t get about this is how come they haven’t traced the IP addresses if it’s a constant thing then it shouldn’t be hard to do.

 

[thebedbug]

One last thing that might be worth considering... I believe there are exactly zero documented cases of a young white American woman on vacation or just in another country, who was abducted into sex slavery.

It would seem like the most risky and fastest way for any criminal organization to bring about its own downfall, given the risk-reward.

Does that mean it couldn't happen? Does that mean it has never happened? No. But is that another thing that would seem to point away from those explanations for Amy's disappearance? I think so.

 

[GreyPhantom]

Someone may have already mentioned this, but I'm intrigued by the internet searches done from Barbados.
Where someone is doing searches of the Bradley family, mostly done on holidays or birthdays and staying on those sites for up to almost 45mins.

Is that AB? Or children of AB?

Her children probably wouldn't know their grandmother's birthdate or too many details of Amy's family.

I suspect that seeing the website is part of a "reward" manipulation her captors use to keep her in line. That she gets to see it on negotiated days like Xmas etc. I bet Amy can't touch the keyboard or mouse and someone navigates it for her.

 

[avob00]

Her children probably wouldn't know their grandmother's birthdate or too many details of Amy's family.

I suspect that seeing the website is part of a "reward" manipulation her captors use to keep her in line. That she gets to see it on negotiated days like Xmas etc. I bet Amy can't touch the keyboard or mouse and someone navigates it for her.

I doubt she is still be kept by captors in her 50’s. It is possible she was let go and is living a very basic life in Barbados or she may have passed years later. I am unsure what life would look like when you are no longer part of that horrific life. How do you rebuild yourself?

When you are deemed too old what happens to victims of this life?

We don’t know how many years she was subject to this life. If the photos are Amy, these were taken in 2002 and the sighting in Barbados is correct, that’s a minimum of 3-7 years.

I do wonder if the police are aware of more sightings and can’t release these for whatever reason. It’s strange that there has been absolutely nothing concrete since 2005.

Barbados is not a massive and it’s awful the resources and legal restrictions are prohibiting exploring the IP address and doing further search. If I were the Bradley’s I would buying some sort of property there and going over a few times a year to try and find her.

I saw Brad has a Go Fund Me to facilitate recovery of evidence.

She would definitely be living under a different name and it’s hard to imagine what she would look like now after having endured years of that horrific life and potentially drug use.

What life would her children have had?

 

[Keiri]

“Lost as sea” isn’t really helpful here. The ship was in docking procedures.

Air and sea searches did focus on the area between Aruba and Curaçao, as they happened only a few hours after she was reported missing. However, soon afterward, it became evident that she’d been in the cabin/balcony well after leaving Aruba, and that her disappearance happened very close to shore.

We have lost so many people in the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan, not even mentioning the other lakes, even right offshore or on the beach. Never seen hide nor hair again. Water is hard to predict, and unrelated to this case too, is that remains from water can often be impossible to get dna from. I hear what you are saying, but given how many people are lost in smaller bodies of water or right offshore, I’d expect they *not* find remains snd would be surprised if they did.

 

[avob00]

The only thing I don’t get about this is how come they haven’t traced the IP addresses if it’s a constant thing then it shouldn’t be hard to do.

Legal restrictions I believe was stated in the documentary. If they were in the US they could (I think?).

 

[GreyPhantom]

I doubt she is still be kept by captors in her 50’s. It is possible she was let go and is living a very basic life in Barbados or she may have passed years later. I am unsure what life would look like when you are no longer part of that horrific life. How do you rebuild yourself?

When you are deemed too old what happens to victims of this life?

We don’t know how many years she was subject to this life. If the photos are Amy, these were taken in 2002 and the sighting in Barbados is correct, that’s a minimum of 3-7 years.

I do wonder if the police are aware of more sightings and can’t release these for whatever reason. It’s strange that there has been absolutely nothing concrete since 2005.

Barbados is not a massive and it’s awful the resources and legal restrictions are prohibiting exploring the IP address and doing further search. If I were the Bradley’s I would buying some sort of property there and going over a few times a year to try and find her.

I saw Brad has a Go Fund Me to facilitate recovery of evidence.

She would definitely be living under a different name and it’s hard to imagine what she would look like now after having endured years of that horrific life and potentially drug use.

What life would her children have had?

She's way too high risk to let loose even in her 50s. She knows their criminal operation too intimately. She's arguably the most well known missing person in the world. Sorry, she's either dead or still in some form of captivity.

 

[Salah11]

Legal restrictions I believe was stated in the documentary. If they were in the US they could (I think?).

Thank you I must of missed that part of it.

ETA- I just looked up the go fund me and it’s not even at $5000 which won’t get them very far if this brings in loads of new leads.

 

[eoyste]

Do we know how long ago the IP tracking was from? I may have missed that but was it recent? I think the website was created 2016/2017 correct? So relatively recent but I wonder if it was like 2024 recent too?

(Thinking out loud)

 

[Danaya]

I think the issue regarding her living in Curaçao is that many people suggest she was abducted into sex slavery, which I agree can be a sensationalized narrative.

However, there are documented cases that the public isn't privy to. So, to say "there are no documented cases" relies only on the information publicly available to us.

Not every victim's story is published, either in peer-reviewed journals or discussed openly beyond their inner circles. The sex trade is filled with shame, and the women and men involved often exist in secrecy.

That being said, I agree that it's unlikely Amy was outright abducted with her mouth taped shut or a gun to her side. What I can speak to is many years of experience with the inner workings of the sex industry. I've crossed paths with pimps, working girls, brothel owners—you name it. I've heard the stories, seen the patterns, and witnessed firsthand how people can become entangled in that world for all kinds of reasons, some of which start off feeling like choice.

What I can conceive is Amy leaving the ship willingly. We saw in the documentary that the announcement about her disappearance wasn't made until most passengers had already disembarked. Nobody was keeping an eye out for a woman matching her description. The documentary showed visuals of how disembarkation looked, and I can see her slipping away unnoticed.

Amy wasn't known by every individual on the ship, not even close, and people are typically busy paying attention to other things. The saying "truth is stranger than fiction" isn't just a cliché. She didn't necessarily have to be abducted to become involved in the lifestyle. She might have initially been drawn to a temporary escape from her normal life. Maybe it was the allure of adventure and freedom that appealed to her.

However, what started as a seemingly innocent exploration could have quickly turned dark. She may have found herself in a situation where she was no longer free to leave. Initially, no one would have been aware, but eventually, some people did notice. Multiple witnesses reportedly saw her, and even known individuals, like the taxi driver, had heard rumors.

I'm much more open to the possibility that Amy did not fall overboard, or commit suicide.

 

[eoyste]

I think the issue regarding her living in Curaçao is that many people suggest she was abducted into sex slavery, which I agree can be a sensationalized narrative.

However, there are documented cases that the public isn't privy to. So, to say "there are no documented cases" relies only on the information publicly available to us.

Not every victim's story is published, either in peer-reviewed journals or discussed openly beyond their inner circles. The sex trade is filled with shame, and the women and men involved often exist in secrecy.

That being said, I agree that it's unlikely Amy was outright abducted with her mouth taped shut or a gun to her side. What I can speak to is many years of experience with the inner workings of the sex industry. I've crossed paths with pimps, working girls, brothel owners—you name it. I've heard the stories, seen the patterns, and witnessed firsthand how people can become entangled in that world for all kinds of reasons, some of which start off feeling like choice.

What I can conceive is Amy leaving the ship willingly. We saw in the documentary that the announcement about her disappearance wasn't made until most passengers had already disembarked. Nobody was keeping an eye out for a woman matching her description. The documentary showed visuals of how disembarkation looked, and I can see her slipping away unnoticed.

Amy wasn't known by every individual on the ship, not even close, and people are typically busy paying attention to other things. The saying "truth is stranger than fiction" isn't just a cliché. She didn't necessarily have to be abducted to become involved in the lifestyle. She might have initially been drawn to a temporary escape from her normal life. Maybe it was the allure of adventure and freedom that appealed to her.

However, what started as a seemingly innocent exploration could have quickly turned dark. She may have found herself in a situation where she was no longer free to leave. Initially, no one would have been aware, but eventually, some people did notice. Multiple witnesses reportedly saw her, and even known individuals, like the taxi driver, had heard rumors.

I'm much more open to the possibility that Amy did not fall overboard, or commit suicide.

Agreed! Look what happened to Cassie with Diddy right in the public eye. They could have also been fueling an addiction to force her to stay complacent.

 

[Danaya]

Respectfully snipped by me:

...prostitutes tell stories - Amy Bradley was a well-known story at that point - this one could've been spinning a tale to see if she could get a $200 handout from the Navy guy.

I absolutely believe Navy guy was sincere in his belief that it was Amy. That being said, I don't think he mentioned any specific tattoos—only that she had some.

Personally, I don't think this is as strong as an eye-witness sighting as the other ones were. JMO.

You're absolutely right, in that working girls often tell stories. Some are told for the sole purpose of making money.

It could've been a brunette who looked like Amy, and was trying to use this anecdote to gain sympathy from him in order to secure a booking or a handout. JMO

What happened to Amy’s cruise pictures? That is just such a weird thing to go missing. Why, and who took them?

If the photographer did photograph her, this is a very interesting detail.

Maybe he was mistaken? I'm not saying that's the case, but I would like to know any opinions on why they would've gone missing.

Could Amy herself have taken them? How about the "secret admirer" on board?

 

[cujenn81]

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 senior in high school at the time. There were several gay students at my school, and I don’t remember it being a big deal. Not among the majority of our peers. Maybe it was a bigger deal to the parents of our generation at the time. I certainly don’t think it would’ve affected how much people cared about her disappearance. But I guess there’s no way to really know because we can only view it in hindsight.

 

[Quill]

Respectfully snipped by me:



I absolutely believe Navy guy was sincere in his belief that it was Amy. That being said, I don't think he mentioned any specific tattoos—only that she had some.

Personally, I don't think this is as strong as an eye-witness sighting as the other ones were. JMO.

You're absolutely right, in that working girls often tell stories. Some are told for the sole purpose of making money.

It could've been a brunette who looked like Amy, and was trying to use this anecdote to gain sympathy from him in order to secure a booking or a handout. JMO



If the photographer did photograph her, this is a very interesting detail.

Maybe he was mistaken? I'm not saying that's the case, but I would like to know any opinions on why they would've gone missing.

Could Amy herself have taken them? How about the "secret admirer" on board?

I believe he did photograph her. In the documentary it is mentioned that he first took pictures of her and then said, "Now let's get some of you and your boyfriend", meaning Brad. Amy told him "That's not my boyfriend, that's my baby brother!". The photographer recognized Amy, according to her mother, when they walked into the gallery to get the photos. He went right to the spot he had put her pictures and started looking. When he couldn't find them, he asked her if anyone in her group might have gotten them. They had not. He found it very odd. Her mother then asks him if he can retake them and he does. That's the story they told in the doc.

 

[cujenn81]

I thought this was interesting for them to use ‘it was the 90s’ as an excuse. I was in 10th grade in 1998 and I knew teenagers who were out. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Of course, I was in Southern California not Virginia.

Same and I lived in South Carolina.

 

[Lucyblu37]

What happened to Amy’s cruise pictures? That is just such a weird thing to go missing. Why, and who took them?

I wonder if the suggestion was that Yellow took them as his wife said he had a suitcase full of photos.

 

[Quill]

I wonder if the suggestion was that Yellow took them as his wife said he had a suitcase full of photos.

I think that possibility must be considered. I know that is definitely what came to mind when the daughter told that story.

 

[annemc2]

I keep thinking back about posts from FindAmy that were about how she was being used for something nefarious yet nebulous. People were wondering about sex, money, drugs, jewels, and all of the more common illegal activities that we think of yet FA kept alluding to Amy being involved in something different. Does anyone else remember that? The amybradleyismissing site is mostly focused on sex tourism. I can't do a lot of research right now and hope that doesn't have anything to do with FA's departure that would be against terms to bring up. For some reason Amy's story unsettles me more than most cases. There is something extremely dark about it.

As far as the gay thing, I was in the Dallas Tx area at the time. I had just graduated college with a friend that everyone knew was lesbian but it was just something that was completely and bizarrely danced around. Several other friends came out after college. I think that in the late 1990s there were pockets in some cities that had gay/lesbian communities, but outside of those areas it was just Not Discussed.