Where’s Amy Lynn Bradley?

Going on a week long cruise is a dream for any young woman, even if it’s with her family. In March, 1998, 23 year old Amy Lynn Bradley boarded the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Rhapsody of the Seas with her mom, dad, and brother. After a night of dancing, she was spotted by her father, sound asleep on on their cabin’s balcony. A short while later, she was gone without a trace.

Amy Lynn Bradley was the oldest of two children, and was very close with her family. She and her brother Brad were like best friends. While she received numerous athletic scholarships to prestigious colleges, she chose to stay close to home and in 1996, graduated from Longwood College in 1996 with a degree in Physical Education. She was highly athletic, working as a swim team coach and excited for her future.

In March, 1998, she had her own apartment, just adopted an English Bulldog, and had a job all lined up. She was even getting ready to begin work on her masters master’s degree, but when her parents called to invite her on a weeklong cruise, paid for by her fathers employer, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend time with her family.

The cruise, a Royal Caribbean Cruise, sailing to Aruba, Curacao, and then St. Maarten, was just what they all needed to relax and unwind. On March 23, they reached Aruba and had a family photo taken. After a day on the island, they got back on the ship, had dinner followed by dancing including a limbo contest (which Brad won) on the upper deck. When their parents decided to call it a night, Brad and Amy went down to the club. The ship’s house band, Blue Orchid, were playing and they spent the evening dancing and having fun.

Around 4 am, Brad went back to their room, and sat outside on the balcony. Amy joined him about fifteen minutes later, still energized and enjoying the fresh air. When Brad went inside to go to sleep, Amy chose to remain on the balcony where she ultimately fell asleep. When her father, Ron, woke up at 5:15 am, he saw Amy, asleep on the balcony, with her cigarettes beside her, and the sliding door closed. He went back to bed, but awoke again an hour later, only to find Amy gone. Her cigarettes were gone and the sliding door was now open. Noting that none of her shoes were gone, he figured maybe she had gone out to get a snack from the vending machine, or to go take some photos.

Ron put on his shoes and headed out to find her. He checked on deck, and everywhere else he could think of for the next hour. There was no sign of Amy.

Ron went back to his room and woke his wife. Together they alerted the ship’s officers and urged them to make an announcement. The ship docked in the island of Curacao, and it wouldn’t be long before the gangways would be opened, letting people disembark. Despite their pleas, the ship’s captain would not make an announcement because it would “disturb” the other passengers. He also would not keep the passengers on board, and opened the gangways right on schedule, while agreeing to conduct a thorough search of the ship.

As the family continued to search the ship, Alister Douglas, a member of the house band, Blue Orchid, stopped Brad on the steps saying, “Hey, man. I’m sorry to hear about your sister.” Brad thought nothing of it at first, remembering how Amy and Alister had been dancing in the club earlier that morning.

When the ship’s crew informed the Bradley family that they had searched “every nook and cranny” on the ship, and did not find Amy, the Bradley’s chose to disembark and search Curacao in hopes that she had somehow gotten off the ship. They contacted the FBI, who instantly wanted to help, but could not make it to Curacao for 24 hours. The family then made the difficult decision to stay behind in Curacao and wait for the FBI.

Later that evening, after they had watched the ship leave port, Amy’s mother, Iva, received a phone call from The FBI spoke with the ship’s crew, only to discover that they had not, in fact, searched the entire ship, only common areas and restrooms. They were able to join a few members of the FBI on a flight to St. Thomas, where they got back on board and confronted the crew.

The FBI conducted a “Bomb” search, and began showing her picture to guests, hoping someone would know something. The Bradley’s continued searching on their own, and it was then that they were confronted by a couple of girls who claimed they had seen Amy the morning she disappeared. They saw her around 5:45 am, get off an elevator with Alister Douglas, “Yellow,” and head into the disco. This revelation reminded Brad of what Alister had said to him the morning Amy had disappeared and he realized, at that time, there was no way he could have known that Amy was missing. Only his family and the ship’s crew had been informed.

Alister was questioned by the FBI, where he changed his story, claiming to know nothing about Amy’s disappearance. He took a lie detector test, and unfortunately, he is then released. There was not enough evidence to detain him. On his way out of the interview room, Alister looked right at Amy’s dad, gave him a thumbs up and a smile.

As the investigation continued, they looked for the crew-taken photos of Amy in the ships gallery system, and every photo of Amy was gone. Pictures of her and her family at dinner and other events had just disappeared. They tried to track down who had removed the pictures, but once again, hit a brick wall.

While the ship’s crew suggested maybe Amy had fallen overboard, or had jumped intentionally, her family didn’t believe it. Brad had noted that although she was a trained lifeguard, she always stayed back from the edge of the ship, never approaching the rails. Additionally she was afraid of heights. Regardless, an air and water search were conducted, neither turning up any sign of Amy.

On March 28, the family had to disembark one last time, and flew home without their daughter. They did not give up though, they spoke with the media, and offer a reward of $200,000.

On April 21, the family returned to Curacao with fliers. Within the first 24 hours, they get a lead. They meet with a Taxi driver who claimed to have seen Amy just after the ship disembarked. She frantically approached his cab, and asked where the phone was. He pointed her toward a nearby pay phone, but she turned and walked in the opposite direction. He said he could never forget her green eyes.

With the help of local police, Ron and Brad continue to search the island for Amy. Four days later, Brad hears his sister’s voice, calling his name. He catches a glimpse of a passing van, and is sure the voice came from it. They turn their car and chase down the van only to find out that it was only a man driving, no Amy.

They returned home once again, where a few more tips came in. David Carmichael from Alberta, Canada reported seeing a woman resembling Amy while vacationing in Curacao. He was positive the tattoos on the woman he saw matched Amy’s exactly; a Tasmanian devil on her shoulder, a sun on her lower back, a Chinese symbol on her right ankle and a lizard on her navel. He watched her walk up the beach, behind “a black guy and a white guy.” When David turned to his friend and said something in English, the woman spun around and stared him blankly in the eyes, “Just as she was about to say something, the black fellow came into my line of vision and he sort of motioned her away. She sort of looked down and turned around and walked away,” he said.

David also reported that before he walked away, the black man turned around and glared at him, “one of those ‘leave her alone’ type of looks.” He didn’t think anything of it until he saw Amy on “America’s Most Wanted,” and that’s when he sent an email to the show. He never heard anything back, but in March 1999, he saw Amy’s story on Unsolved Mysteries, when he decided to go straight to Ron Bradley. While researching the case, he found a picture of “Yellow,” also known as Alister Douglas. “If that guy Yellow h as a double in the world,” he was the man on the beach that day.

Also in 1999, William Hefner, a member of the U.S. Navy was working with the crew of the destroyer USS Chandler when it visited Curacao in January of that year. One night, he decided he had to visit the bar of a local brothel. Prostitution was legal in Curacao, but this particular brothel was known to be “off-limits” to Navy personnel. He went in and sat at the bar. He chatted with a couple of black men who happened to have women by their sides, whom he presumed to be sex workers.

After a while, one of the men left and went upstairs with one of the women. A short while later, the other man stepped away from the bar, leaving his woman behind. As soon as he was gone, “She grabbed my arm. She said she was in trouble. She said ‘They’ve got my papers, and I can’t leave the island.’” She then grabbed his hand and told him her name and asked him not to forget it. “Amy Bratley” he said, with a T, not a D. “That’s what I thought she said…”He told her that if she was a U.S. citizen then all she had to do was go to ship in the port and ask for help, but before she could reply, the other man returned and she returned to her silence.

William forgot about the encounter until several years later, when he saw Amy’s photograph on the cover of People Magazine.

In 2005, a photograph was sent to Amy’s family by an organization that tracks down potential sex trafficking victims on adult websites. Later, on an episode of Dr. Phil, the family provided the picture and they had several forensic artist experts analyze the woman’s face, pointing out similarities between her and Amy. To this day, the Bradley’s are sure that the woman in the photograph is their daughter.

If you or anyone you know, have any information regarding Amy’s whereabouts, please call:
804-276-2204.

What happened to Amy Lynn Bradley remains unsolved, as do the 800,000 children that go missing in America every year. Read more about them here.