Disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley

Amy Lynn Bradley (born May 12, 1974) is an American woman who went missing during a Caribbean cruise on the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas in late March 1998 at the age of 23 while en route to Curaçao.

Her whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

She was a 23-year-old Longwood University graduate at the time of her disappearance.

Amy Lynn Bradley was born on May 12, 1974, in Petersburg, Virginia.

She was a resident of Chesterfield County, Virginia.

She attended a local college, Longwood University, graduating with a degree in Physical Education.

She attended with a scholarship in basketball and was known for her strong swimming abilities as well as having previously worked as a lifeguard.

Amy was planning to start a new job at a computer consulting firm after she graduated from college.

As a celebratory event, Amy decided to join her family on a cruise vacation on the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas en route for Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island under the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

After midnight on Monday March 23, 1998, Amy and her younger brother Brad headed to the ship's nightclub to go dancing.

Records show that Brad decided to return to his cabin earlier than Amy.

The ship's door lock records show that Brad had entered his cabin at around 3:35 am, and Amy soon followed five minutes later.

The two chatted before heading to bed.

Amy's father Ron awoke around 6:00 a.m. to check on his daughter only to find her missing from the balcony she had slept on earlier.

When authorities were alerted that Amy was missing, the Netherlands Antilles Coast Guard conducted a four-day search in the surrounding waters and along the cruise lines to no result.

Authorities began to speculate that she may have fallen overboard and drowned, but investigators have rejected this theory as Amy was known to be a strong swimmer and searches turned up no sign of her.

There have been possible sightings of Bradley in Curaçao.

In August 1998, tourists saw a woman resembling Bradley on a beach and in 1999 a member of the U.S. Navy claimed a woman in a brothel said she was Bradley and asked him for help.

In the years after Amy's disappearance, some new evidence would arise leading to theories including Amy being sold into a human trafficking industry or potential remains.

The case has been presented on Dr. Phil in a segment entitled The Search for Natalee: Amy Bradley, the case was also presented on America's Most Wanted.

On March 21, 1998, Amy and her family boarded the cruise towards Curaçao.

Prior to the time of the disappearance, Amy and her brother Brad decided to stay up late dancing at a Mardi Gras nightclub party on the ship and drinking alcohol with the ship's band, Blue Orchid.

One of the band's members, Alister Douglas, otherwise known as ‘Yellow,’ was drinking with Amy that night and claimed that he left the party at around 1:00 am.

At the time, a videographer known as Chris Fenwick was also able to capture the moment where Amy and Yellow were dancing.

After a couple of hours, Brad decided to rest for the rest of the night at the family cabin at around 3:35 am.

The ship's computerized door lock system recorded that Brad returned to the cabin at 3:35 a.m. where Amy followed five minutes later.

Brad reported that he and his sister sat on the suite's balcony and talked before he went to sleep while Amy stayed awake for a while longer before she fell asleep shortly after.

Between the times of 5:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. March 24, 1998, Amy's father Ron woke up and got up to check on the status of his children where he saw Amy still sleeping on the lounge chair of their cabin's balcony.

Ron told local papers—"could see Amy's legs from her hips down. […] I dozed back off to sleep. The balcony door was closed, because if it hadn’t been closed, I would have gotten up and closed it."

When he got up at 6:00 am, however, she was missing along with her cigarettes and lighter.

He later said, "I left to try and go up and find her. When I couldn't find her, I didn't really know what to think, because it was very much unlike Amy to leave and not tell us where she was going."

After Ron searched the common areas of the cruise, Ron woke up the rest of the family and told them Amy was missing at 6:30 am.

Amy's family immediately reported the missing case to the onboard crew where they continued to plead with the crew members to keep the 2,000 passengers from disembarking the cruise and to make an announcement to assist in finding Amy.

However, the team at the purser's office informed them that it was too early to make a ship-wide announcement.

The crew agreed to issue an announcement at 7:50 a.m. after a majority of the passengers left the ship announcing, "Will Amy Bradley please come to the purser’s desk?".

Between 12:15 p.m. and 1:00 pm, the cruise staff searched through the ship but could not find Amy.

The delay that the crew put on the search and investigation of the disappearance has been said to have led to lowering the chance of finding Amy by ignoring the Bradley family's advice and allowing the passengers to disembark.

The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard conducted a four-day search that ended on March 27, 1998, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines chartered a boat to continue looking for her.

The Coast Guard used three helicopters and a radar plane to assist in the search.

Initially, the authorities suspected that Amy had either fallen overboard or died by suicide.