The disappearance of Amy Bradley
Amy Bradley was 23 when she went missing. Amy was on the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas in March 24, 1998.
Amy was never fond of cruise ships or traveling of any kind, but when her parents won tickets for the Royal Caribbean, they decided it would be a fun trip for the family. So Amy, along with her brother Brad, dad, Ron, and mom, Iva left on for the week long cruise on March 21,1998.
The night before Amy went missing, she and Brad spent the night at a party the cruise was hosting. During this party, Amy was seen dancing with a member of the live band, Blue Orchid, that was playing at the party. His name was Alister Douglas, but he went by his nickname, Yellow. At around 1 a.m., Amy and Brad departed from the party and headed up to their room.
Brad was the last family member to speak with Amy before she went missing, his last words being, “I love you,” and then falling asleep.
Around 5 a.m., Ron went into Amy and Brad’s room just to check in the two were fast asleep. When Ron went to check in again at 6 a.m., Amy was gone. She had left her shoes and had taken her cigarettes and lighter with her.
Her family would never see her again.
Her family acted quickly and asked the ship to call her name over the speaker system. At first, the cruise refused, claiming it was too early in the morning to use the speakers. The cruise also refused to keep the ship away from the dock to prevent people from leaving the ship, in order to not worry their passengers. It’s pretty clear that it would be hard to locate Amy when the cruise would not cooperate until 8 a.m. when they decided to page Amy through the speakers. At this point, the ship had already been docked at Curacao, and many people had disembarked to explore the island.
Something else I find interesting is that the night of the party on the cruise, pictures were taken and posted on a wall for people to come see and collect for memories. There were a few photos of Amy that were posted on a wall, but when her family came to look for them the next day – to see who she was hanging out with – all the pictures of Amy were gone.
Another thing worth noting: the guy Amy was seen dancing with at the party, Yellow, came to Brad and told him that he felt bad about what happened about his sister. However, before the announcement for Amy was made, the family and security were the only ones to know about the disappearance To me, it seems like Yellow definitely knows something; it’s clear he is very suspicious. However, he did agree to a lie detector test by authorities and passed, and there was no evidence found linking him to Amy’s disappearance.
There had also been some details about how the cruise crew members were acting toward Amy. Her father claimed they were being flirty toward her and had invited her to come to the shore. This seems creepy and uncomfortable – especially after seeing that Amy went missing in such little time.
In the 19 years Amy has been missing, there have been claims of various sightings of her throughout the Caribbean islands. A woman believes she encountered Amy in a department store restroom. The woman claims to have heard three men’s voices and when she left the restroom, saw their faces. Later, these faces were taken into account and sketched by the FBI.
In 2005, Amy’s family went on the Dr. Phil show and they were presented with new and shocking information. There had been pictures of girls posted on a website, and one of the girls had a striking resemblance to Amy. One of the detectives even bet their career that it was her. Unfortunately, the FBI was unable to track an IP address down, and that lead ended there.
To me, I think it’s pretty clear what happened to Amy. There obviously was a lot of shady activity at play from the beginning, from the crew members of the ship, to Yellow’s comment, to all these sightings of her with these men. With all the information I could gather, I believe that Amy was abducted.
It’s so heartbreaking that this is a reality, and that is most likely what happened to Amy. All she wanted was to enjoy this trip with her family, and it cost her life. To this day, she still hasn’t been found.
Hopefully more evidence will come up for Amy and her family’s sake.
But until she is found and brought home, this case remains unsolved.
Senior Tatiana Calzado is the opinion editor and this is her third year on staff. She enjoys writing, playing the piano and ukulele, and eating sushi....
Dianna • Mar 12, 2024 at 8:24 AM
This whole story……SAD. SHE WAS ABDUCTED, no question to me. I’ve seen everything on this case. And let me say,..I’ve read the comments as well. If you can’t say something positive about this woman, how about shut the hell up. This family don’t need to endure the added negativity. This woman IS somebody’s child, sister…etc. Do everyone a favor, keep your eyes open wide…..LOOK at people. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS. Hidden in plain sight…..usually the way it goes because people have their heads down, on your phone….if it looks sketch,….it probably is and that person could be depending on YOU. NOBODY IS GOING TO FAULT YOU REPORTING ON SOMETHING YOU THINK IS UNUSUAL. IVE GOT THIS FAMILYS BACK and I hope they can bring her home.
Melissa • Sep 7, 2018 at 1:11 AM
I do not recall anyone mentioning where the gifted cruise came from that was won! Did they check into this? It could have been set up from day one!
Dianna • Mar 12, 2024 at 8:29 AM
It was a gift from the father’s employer for his hard work. The employer also paid money in the following years to help find her and the employer hired his own private investigator to check on the private eye who was supposed to be helping them in the first place. That PI was a scammer.
Allie • Jul 9, 2018 at 8:16 PM
I just found out about this tragedy, and it is honestly scary and heartbreaking! My speculation is that the three crewmen had planned to drug and abduct her when they had first asked her to come to a club on the Aruba island. Amy got the creeps from them and didn’t want anything to do with them. That made her guard go up. So then the men decided to pay Alister Douglas (Yellow) to approach her instead.
Brit • Jul 7, 2018 at 7:47 AM
What we know for sure is that Amy’s keycard was used to enter the room in the early morning hours. This corresponds with her father’s memory of seeing her on the balcony. Her shoes were left on the balcony. She was there. Other than eyewitness accounts given by people who don’t know Amy and cannot be considered reliable, there is no evidence that she ever left the room. I think that she went overboard that morning and drowned. Maybe it was an accidental. Maybe it was suicide. Perhaps she was intoxicated by either drugs or alcohol. The Bradley’s are an unfortunate target for criminals who rely on victims of missing loved ones who are desperate for answers. All sightings have come in too late and only in response to the reward money.
Dylan • Apr 17, 2018 at 2:55 PM
I just watched the disappeared episode on Sunday. It says that Yellow the band member came up to Amy’s brother and said he was sorry to hear about his sister before an announcement had been made so what did he know.
C. B. • Mar 27, 2018 at 8:18 AM
I’m with you there. Just because a court declares her dead for life insurance purposes (for instance), doesn’t make it true. How many times have courts declared someone guilty of murder– yet 20 years later, technology has proven that the person was innocent. Unfortunately, the 20 years behind bars was wasted–lost…..just like the 20 years that Amy and her family have lost. I BELIEVE because she was a personal friend of mine. She was a strong girl with a very disciplined and determined mind. I will continue to hold out HOPE because I believe that she wiol find her way back. There’s not enough evidence to prove that she is gone forever.
Susie • Oct 13, 2017 at 7:35 PM
Amy Bradley was declared dead through a court proceeding that began in December 1998 (6 months after she went missing) and ended with the declaration of her death in 1999. She is dead, and likely fell off the ship.
Susie • Oct 13, 2017 at 7:36 PM
Bradley vs. Bradley (Virginia, declare Amy Bradley dead to get death certificate, 1998) https://ibb.co/fUZAbQ https://ibb.co/hZosqk
Ashley • Feb 9, 2018 at 5:24 PM
You should probably watch the show vanished available on Amazon to watch. The episode about Amy is heart rennching and I pray her family finds answers one day! Just because they declared her dead doesn’t mean that’s the case! She is missing and it’s a very sad story!
L K Tucker • Oct 11, 2017 at 11:23 PM
Amy complained of feeling the cruise ship’s movement underfoot. That’s not possible. There is a long list of these college student disappearances. They are high achievers and heavy computer users. That posits the suspicion the disappearances are being caused by visual subliminal distraction mental breaks.
Subliminal Distraction was discovered to cause still-believed-harmless temporary episodes of panicked confusion for office workers fifty years ago.
Although there is a multi-billion dollar industry to provide peripheral vision blocking protection using cubicles and Systems furniture (in open plan offices) to prevent the ‘office worker’ mental event, the public, mental health services, and research are unaware the problem exists. __Students are not warned.__ There was a picture of Amy in her dorm room using a computer with no precaution for Subliminal Distraction on an early family missng person page.
Jeanie • Apr 14, 2018 at 1:06 PM
LK Tucker What on Earth are you talking about??