It was meant to be the holiday of a lifetime. Instead, it became one of the most enduring mysteries in American missing persons history.
In March 1998, Amy Lynn Bradley, a 23-year-old from Virginia, vanished without a trace during a luxury Caribbean cruise with her family. Despite extensive searches, global media coverage and years of reported sightings, she has never been found.
More than two decades on, her parents believe she could still be alive.
“I’ll see you in the morning”
Amy was travelling with her parents, Ron and Iva, and her younger brother Brad, after Ron earned the cruise through his job. The family boarded the Royal Caribbean liner Rhapsody of the Seas, excited for their first trip at sea.
Amy quickly struck up friendships onboard and, on the night of March 23, she and Brad visited the ship’s nightclub. Brad said the two had drinks, laughed and danced. At around 3:35AM, he returned to their cabin, with Amy following minutes later.
“I told her I loved her and would see her tomorrow and shut the glass door behind me and I went to bed,” Brad recalled, per The Sun.
Their father, Ron, woke at 5:30AM. He saw Amy’s legs on a lounge chair on the balcony and assumed she had dozed off.
"I saw her legs and feet, sitting in a lounge chair on the balcony, and told myself, ‘Well, she’s safe.’"
But by 6:00AM, she was gone.
Vanished without a trace
Ron said the balcony door was ajar, Amy’s shirt was left behind, and her cigarettes and lighter were missing. Her shoes were placed neatly on the balcony.
“I left the room, leaving the others asleep and figured that I would find her in a few minutes… But when I didn’t, that’s when I came back and told Iva, ‘I can’t find Amy’.”
The family raised the alarm as the ship docked in Curaçao. They pleaded with staff to delay disembarkation and search the vessel.
“When we discovered Amy missing, we begged the ship's personnel to not put the gangway down, to not allow anybody to leave the ship,” Iva told NBC News. “And they put the gangway down anyway. People left the ship in Curacao.”
An announcement was made around 7:50AM, but by then many passengers had already left. Ship staff conducted a limited search of public areas. The Bradley family say no cabins were checked.
By 9:00AM, there was still no sign of Amy.
Questions and suspicions
Authorities initially suspected Amy had fallen overboard. But she was a trained lifeguard and strong swimmer, and the ship was close to land. The waters were searched by the Venezuelan Coast Guard and Navy, who found nothing.
“Because of the position of the boat, wind force, sea current, wave height, the body would have washed up,” said Curacao harbour police chief Adtzere ‘John’ Mentar. “It is very strange.”
Ron later learned the cabin had been cleaned before FBI agents boarded. The family was interviewed — separately — by investigators.
“I said to Iva, ‘You understand why they are interviewing us separately? It’s because we’re suspects,’” Ron said.
The FBI found no evidence suggesting family involvement.
“Yellow”, odd neighbors, and a nightclub encounter
Amy had mentioned to Brad that a bass player in the ship’s band had made a pass at her. That man, Alister Douglas—nicknamed “Yellow”—was seen dancing with Amy in footage filmed by another passenger that night.
Witness Lori Thompson said she later saw Amy and Yellow in a glass elevator between 5 and 6:00AM. Ten minutes later, Yellow passed her without Amy.
“I got a bad vibe. Immediately I thought, ‘Where’s Amy?’” she said.
Yellow admitted to flirting with Amy but denied involvement in her disappearance. A polygraph test was inconclusive, and he was released.
Meanwhile, neighbour Wayne Breitag, who had the adjoining cabin, was also interviewed. Iva remembered he “would come out on his balcony next to us and lean over the partition to talk to Amy.”
After Amy vanished, the family said Breitag’s radio was “at a level of, ‘You gotta be kidding me.’”
“I thought, ‘Well, who’s he talking to?’” said Iva.
Theories emerge
In the weeks that followed, the family began receiving disturbing reports suggesting Amy may have been abducted.
A taxi driver in Curaçao said a distressed young woman matching Amy’s description asked for help finding a pay phone, per The Express.
“He said, ‘You need to go to Kadushi Cliffs and look around but don’t talk to anybody because it was dangerous',” Ron recalled.
On a later visit to the island, Brad heard a voice call his name while driving down a dirt path.
“I distinctly heard Amy’s voice say, ‘Brad!’ in what seemed like a vehicle that was passing us… I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life that that’s what I heard.”
Sightings and signs of life
In the years that followed, multiple potential sightings were reported:
- Canadian engineer David Carmichael said he saw a woman with Amy’s Tasmanian Devil tattoo on a beach in Curaçao, accompanied by two men.
- U.S. Navy sailor Bill Hefner said a woman in a Curaçao brothel told him she was Amy Bradley and was being held by armed men.
- In 2005, a shopper in Barbados said a frightened woman told her she was Amy from Virginia before being led away by three men.
In 2001, the family received photos via email of a woman resembling Amy posing provocatively on a Venezuelan sex tourism website. An FBI forensic analyst said the woman bore a striking resemblance.
“When I first looked at the picture, it wasn't the Amy I know,” said Iva. “The picture looks like a harsh and tormented Amy.”
No conclusive evidence was found. In 2010, Amy was declared legally dead.
The letter
Before the trip, Amy had written a heartfelt message to her girlfriend Mollie McClure after the pair had argued:
“I feel like there is an ocean between us. Like I’m on a desert island waiting for you to rescue me. A message in a bottle is my only hope. I miss you, Mollie. Save me please. Stranded, Amy.”
The letter has since gained renewed attention, interpreted by some as a cryptic premonition. Mollie disagrees.
“It could suggest suicide but I don’t connect with it in that way. For me, it is a love letter.”
“Somebody knows something”
Amy’s parents continue to believe their daughter is alive. Her car remains parked and polished in their garage.
“It’s going to be pristine when she gets here. And then she’ll get to drive it again,” said Ron.
“Somebody knows something,” said Iva. “We were told by an FBI agent, ‘Keep your lights on. Nobody can keep a secret their entire life.’”
The FBI is still offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Amy’s discovery.
The three-part documentary Amy Bradley Is Missing is now available to stream on Netflix.