More than 27 years ago, Amy Bradley, a local Virginia girl, seemed to have vanished into thin air on a cruise ship somewhere in the Caribbean, and the mystery still remains unsolved.
It is through a 3-chapter show called ‘Amy Bradley Is Missing’, with the first episode dated July 16, that the crowd has been talking more about this mystery than it has been talked about in the last couple of decades, making it one of the hardest ones to solve.
Being the first episode of the documentary series, quite understandably, “Amy Bradley Is Missing” is the result of thorough research and examination of each and every lead, which aims at the discovery of the woman’s whereabouts.
Do You Know
The media use old reports, statements of witnesses and their insights, and everything else that is left around the sphere of her vanishing mystery to draw not losing its piquancy in due course questions that remain unsolved to this day.
Timeline of Disappearance
A 23-year-old young lady, Amy Lynn Bradley, from the USA, was last seen on the morning of her disappearance on March 24, 1998.
It was the light of dawn, and apart from people who probably just got out of the disco, she was the only one who was sitting on her cabin’s balcony. Just at 6 a.m., passengers found the room being empty.
Her shoes and other personal effects, however, were still in the room. The vessel, meanwhile, moored in Curaçao followed by its passengers being allowed to disembark before an actual search could be done.
All subsequent attempts to locate Amy Bradley by the FBI, Coast Guard, and local authorities have been fruitless. No clues of her existence or her whereabouts emerged anywhere on the cruise ship or the island.
Public Sightings and Theories
Many people have seen the 23-year-old woman during these times. The majority of these incidents occur on the islands. Over 150 persons have sent information to a Facebook page and the Dear Amy Foundation regarding her whereabouts.
But, any time one is traced, it has turned out to be the wrong person. The ones that seem most plausible, however, are those who are covered in depth in the “A current affair” segment – the women who claimed they had seen Amy on the islands.
The subsequent events are as follows:
- In 2005, there was a witness who claimed to have seen Amy walking on a beach in Curaçao with two men.
- In 2008, another person reported to have seen her in Barbados.
- Mysterious internet activity from Barbados was recorded on Amy’s website around the same period as the anniversary of her disappearance.
Yet, none of these leads were officially confirmed, though they kept the public interested and caused debates on the reason for her disappearance, alleging abduction and human trafficking among others.
Netflix Series Highlights Family’s Long Fight
The documentary, shot by Ari Mark and Phil Lott, does an excellent job at showing how Amy’s family was deeply affected by the situation.
During the shooting, Brad Bradley, brother of Amy Bradley who makes an appearance on the series that is now called X after a major change that happened recently, provided a statement regarding the position of the family from the project, a statement that reads: “The family is backing the project, yet it doesn’t contain the entire story and most of the information is missing.”
For over twenty years, the Bradleys have been keeping up with their own inquiries, investing huge amounts of money, and running a GoFundMe campaign to get help with the leads.
The film does nothing to contribute new observable facts, but the publicity it has already received is amazing. Devotees and armchair sleuths have turned to Reddit and social media versed in simple detective techniques to overhear each part watched and mention new possibilities.
A Family Still Searching
In the span of the passing years, the family of Amy Bradley still harbors the hope that she’s very much alive.
The family offers a $250,000 bounty for any credible information about her whereabouts, while an extra $25,000 has been provided by the FBI.
The family is still active with presenting/speaking about her case and still they are tracking down the clues.
They have even co-worked with artists that have made a digital image of how she could look at her current age, with the hope that someone, somewhere will recognize her.
Brad Bradley said in a recent interview, “We are not quitting. We just want her home, or at the very least, answers.”
Such an Approach May Boost Public Interest in the Case and Offer New Information
A less publicized detail, which was highlighted in the Netflix series about her disappearance, is the fact that Amy was part of the LGBTQ+ community.
In the documentary, friends of her revealed that Amy had not only identified herself as a queer but had also been in relationships with women, one of whom was before the disappearance.
Some people think of this discovery as a possible ace card, which might solve the mystery, or at least clear the way to a new life.
This new aspect has even been perceived as solving the drought in terms of LGBTQ+ issues in recent media coverage and thus has been of particular interest to a wider audience.
On-board Safety and Security in the Limelight
The spotlight brought on Amy Bradley’s case has once again revealed the issue of cruise line responsibility when passengers are unaccounted for.
The 1998 incident on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship where passengers were allowed to get off the vessel before a full search was conducted is a thing no longer permissible according to the current international maritime safety standards.
Detractors say that the inaction during the period of the delay might have lost the valuable time of the investigation. The cruise line was hit with lawsuits and a public outcry in the respective years.
Amy Bradley’s story has investigators and, consequently, the public riding on a roller coaster. There are quite a few tough questions to be asked. Was she kidnapped? Did she accidentally fall? Or did she decide to vanish?
The Netflix series, on the one hand, made the public more conscious, while, on the other hand, it has shown them how far the investigation has to go. Their mission, as an example, of that, the family of Amy is to find and return her home alive to them.
In the meantime, her name will remain there as an unresolved mystery of the United States that is extremely sad and challenging for everyone.
