In nineteen ninety eight, twenty three year old Amy Lynn Bradley vanished without a trace while on the open water during a family cruise in the Caribbean. What should have been a relaxing vacation turned into one of the most baffling missing person cases in modern history, filled with suspicious sightings, bounched investigations, and a growing theory of human trafficking. Here we are decades later, an Amy has never been found, but the mystery around her disappearance only continues to deepen.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Ingram, a true crime podcast.
The following podcast and material intended more mature audience listeners. Us.
One of our dogs is snoring. I don't think anyone's gonna be able to hear that, but I can hear it.
You're probably loving it. You were just away for a few days. You're back home to hear the sounds of the home.
You know. It's kind of funny because we recorded the last podcast and I literally hit the road and I've gotten home and we're recording a podcast.
It's working out great.
Yeah, it does seem to be working out. So I mean, I am like a little tired, but uh, you.
Know, we're here to be fair, it is a little bit late tonight, We're recording a little bit later and normal I'm a bit tired too, but well, sorry, go ahead, no, you go ahead. I was gonna say, but we got quite the case to come up, we do.
I was just going to say, yesterday I was at a hotel and at three in the morning, the fire alarm went off and we had to go be evacuated for like an hour in the middle of the.
Night, which would suck hard.
Yeah, I just I've never experienced something like that. It was wild, and I swear to god, not everyone even came out because there wasn't that many people out when the hotel was full. So that's also interesting.
Are you sure the hotel was actually full?
Well, the parking lot was like packed.
Oh really okay, yeah, then people were just like fuck it most likely guaranteed.
I guess, which is not saved, not save at all. But yeah, it was a very jarring wake up at three in the morning.
I can imagine it's like, holy shit. Well, before we get into the case and before we talk too much about fire alarms middle of the night, that sort of stuff. I want to give a little shout out to our patrons who signed up this week.
Let's do that.
So we have Ashton Matchell. I hope I said your last name right, Rebecca Cloutsis. I hope I said your last name right. I'm gonna say that for everyone. I hope I say all your first and last names right. Cadence Davis, Leonardo Lozano, Kaylin Gwillin, Carol Ryan, and Marissa.
Rash right on. That's a good list.
Shout out to you guys, Thank you for joining us on Patreon.
Yeah, thank you.
They're going to get a patron episode here only in a few.
Days, so holy shit, yes they are.
You just realize it's the end of July. Yeah, yeah, which means August, September, October, October. We got a plan er Halloween photo shoot.
Oh yeah, we got a lot to plan actually for that, we got to start getting our button gear.
No kidding, but we have quite the show. This is like the third time I've said that, and it's true. Yeah, this is one I've actually had on my list for a little while. And uh well Netflix just dropped a big old three part docu series on it. So I was like, well, now's the time it's called Amy Bradley is Missing, which is probably what I'm going to title this episode as well, mostly for you know, seo reasons, but it's actually a really good title. Yeah, because that's
exactly what it is. So before we actually recorded this podcast, I made sure that Nicole when she got home, we sat down, we watched the docuseries together. I watched it already during research, but I'm like, you know what, I think you should watch it before we do the podcast.
And I had heard of this case before, but yeah, I had that saved on my list because I don't want to watch this. It is a good it was a good documentary.
It is, but like, typically you don't know the cases, I just throw you into the frame, right.
Occasionally I do, but mostly not.
Well, this one's gonna be a little bit more fresh in your brain. Yeah, so you're prepared.
To I'll call you out if shit's wrong.
Do it. Do it. But I will say I have some information that was not in the docuseries, and I have omitted some of the things not in the docuseries, just for time wise, because it's a three part.
Omitted things that were in the docuceries.
Sorry, yes, yes, because it's like you should totally watch it, get all the information, go check it out. This is just a single episode on a podcast. We can't cover a three part documentary.
Yeah, that would be like three episodes really exactly.
So I got I got my own take. I've covered some of the stuff that's in the documentary and I've covered some other stuff after this. Make sure you go watch the document docuseries as well, because it's hella good.
It was well done for sure.
And there's one dude in the document docuseries. He's a complete asshole. I don't know why he's in it. He was actually part of the staff on the ship at the time, and here we are, like over twenty years later, is it over twenty years nineteen ninety eight? It happened in so do the math?
Oh that is over?
Yeah, and yeah, he's just so arrogant, so matter of fact, and so cold in the way things were handled then in his opinion now. And I'm just like, dude, we're going to get hate on the internet hard.
I even said, while we're watching it, does he realize how he is going to be coming across.
I don't think he does.
Because he's going to watch them and be like, oh gosh, yeah, oh gosh.
So actually I do quote him in this directly. Okay, but let's dive into this, shall we. You ready?
Yeah, I do want to just say I didn't totally agree with you on everything. That's all him coming across as an asshole, but like later in it was evidence, Yeah, well I didn't at.
That one part where we actually disagree. That's where I'm quoting them. So we'll talk about it then if you want. Okay, Okay, So let's get going here. The Bradley family, they were the kind of people, the kind of close knit family that people envy. Ron and Iva had two kids together, Amy and Brad, and they were raised with a strong mix of love, independence, and no nonsense values in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Both Ron and Iva worked in insurance. Brad was the younger sibling of their two children, at twenty one years old in nineteen ninety eight and was away at college and Amy was twenty three. She was, you know, right in that in between stage of life, finishing off you know, post secondary school, and she was now getting done with basketball and standing on the edge of basically full adulthood. You could say. She had just graduated from Longwood University
with a degree in sports psychology. She'd gotten through college on a basketball scholarship, and had a full time job lined up at a computer counsel or consulting firm. But for now she was working at Ruth Chris's Steakhouse. That's hard with the thhi, Yeah, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. There we go to pay the bills. You know that intermediate type position, right. But this cruise, this was meant to be her last little break before starting the next chapter in her life
where she dove into those more adult quote unquote things. Now, Amy initially wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of the cruise, so she had she had this thing about deep water and hated the idea of being far from land, and didn't love heights of massive ships like the one they'd be sailing on, the Rhapsody of the Sea. But her dad had won these tickets this trip through work. Brad was home from school and he was going to and in the end, Amy figured, you know what, why not?
And she decided she was going to go. And that's when the anticipation of the excitement started to build from her when she made that decision.
And honestly, I just have to say, I get it there. I have about zero percent desire to go on a cruise ship.
Well, there was also that other docuseries on Netflix that you saw that the poop Cruise Cruise.
Oh my gosh. Yeah, after watching that and then this one, I'm just like, no, thank you. But I already was very much so like that, I have no interest.
I get it. So for her though, for Amy, it was a chance to chill with her family, soak up some son, maybe even enjoy herself before diving into this new job and whatever, you know, life was about to throw at her. So Amy she was very bold. She was funny and unafraid to speak her mind. A natural leader too. Friends described her as someone who could light up a room or shut down a jerk in one sentence.
Flat you know, that's awesome. She had strong opinions, a sharp sense of humor, and a whole lot of love for the people she cared about.
Now.
Amy also had had had come out to her family not long before the trip. She told them that she was in fact gay, and it hadn't exactly gone over super smoothly. Her ex girlfriend later said Amy's parents were a little bit disappointed, quote unquote, and her dad even admitted in interviews that it wasn't what he would have chosen for her. But at the end of the day, that all didn't matter. They all agreed one thing. They loved her no matter what.
Yeah, they're very close family, which is nice. And the fact that they all went and took the time to spend together on this cruise was like lovely exactly.
You know what, they might have opinions, differing in opinions, you know, different ways of living their life, but that in the end, it didn't matter. They were family and they loved each other no matter Yeah. Now the cruise was going to be a celebration, It was going to be a memory maker, a one last family vacation before
life starts officially pulling them all in different directions. So on March twenty first, nineteen ninety eight, the Bradleys boarded a massive Word Caribbean Cruise ship heading for Curisow Now. Curisau is a small island in the Southern Caribbean Sea, just off the coast of Venezuela, known for its colorful Dutch colonial buildings, crystal clear waters, and it's laid back, tropical vibe. Let's say it's a popular stop for vacationers looking to soak up the sun and the culture.
Now.
The cruise ship was named the Rhapsody of the Sea, and it was huge, sleek and luxurious, and it packed on over two thousand passengers. There were pool decks, nightclubs, dining rooms, live bands, the whole deal right, and for many it was the dream vacation. I mean for Amy, she was excited, but it was still quite overwhelming. The ship had thirteen decks, thirteen decks tall, was towering above
the water. Amy had always been uneasy around that deep ocean and didn't love the idea being surrounded by it for days, but she pushed those nerves down and made sure that she was going to have fun. She was still excited, after all, she was there for her family and she was determined to make the most of it. Plus, her brother Brad was there, and the two of them they were pretty close and when they were together things
usually felt a little bit lighter. Now, the first couple of days went as you'd expect, sunbathing, exploring the ship, meeting other passengers, making friends, checking out the night life. Amy wasn't the type to sit still for too long. She quickly found herself on the ninth floor disco, where
a band called Blue Orchid played every night. She seemed to click with the band, especially one of the members, a guy named Alistair Yellow Douglas now Brad and Amy ended up spending the evening of March twenty third dancing and drinking at the ship's disco party. It was lively, packed with music and flashing lights, and for a moment, everything felt carefree. The cruise ship photographer even snapped a few photos of Amy on the dance floor with the
band's bass player, Yellow. Video footage shows her laughing, dancing, blending in like any other twenty something year old on a vacation. Right. It was around one am when Yellow, I'm going to continue calling him Yellow for the record said he called it a night, But Amy and Brad they stayed longer, riding up that vacation high and living that night life on the cruise, And it wasn't until about three thirty five am that Brad finally decided he
was heading back to the family cabin. Amy followed only a few minutes later. Behind, and once she entered the room, she joined her brother out on the balcony for a little bit, chatting quietly and enjoying a cigarette. The ocean stretched out endlessly beneath them, black and still in the early hours of the morning. Brad eventually went to bed and Amy stayed out just a little bit longer behind her brother. By five point fifteen am on March twenty fourth,
the ship was quiet, most passengers were still asleep. In the Bradley family suite, Ron was just waking up, not for the morning, but he just kind of opened his eyes and glanced towards the balcony and through the glass door he could see his daughter. There were Amy's legs stretched out in the lounge chair, still and peaceful. She most likely had fallen asleep outside, and Brad had went to bed. So he dozed off once again, knowing that his kids were both in the room and safe. But
then something woke come up just after six am. Whether it was his internal clock telling him it's time to get up, or something else that drove him to wake in that moment, we don't really know. Ron himself even said he's not sure what will come up, but something did and as he opened his eyes he saw that chair where Amy was sitting not more than maybe even fifteen minutes ago, but it was now empty. There was no sign of Amy on the balcony or in the small cruise ship room that they were in. She was
just gone. Now. At first, Ron didn't panic. Maybe she'd gone to grab coffee or take a walk around the deck. It's about six am, after all, it wasn't like Amy to disappear without saying something. But it was early, and she was independent.
Well, and she probably didn't want to wake him up exactly. It could have been her leaving the door that even like woke up her dad or something.
You all, it's possible. It's possible, now, I do you want to mention that the balcony door was left open approximately a foot and a foot and a half. Ron specifically mentions that. But still, as the minutes ticked by and there was no sign of Amy, Ron's concern began to grow. She started checking the common areas on the cruise ship, you know, the pools, the buffet, the lounges.
But still there was nothing. By six point thirty, he'd woken up the rest of the family, and that's when things started to shift from concerned to a little bit more dread Amy wasn't the type to vanish. She was always careful, always aware of her surroundings, and she'd had no reason to go off on her own without saying word. She would have at least told someone where she was going if she was heading off for a while. It was unlike her not to leave a note or something.
But something wasn't right. The ship was now already docking in Curasau and passengers were getting ready to disembark. The Bradleys raced to the pursuer's deck and begged the crew to make an announcement to keep everyone on board to search the ship before before it was too late, But they were told it was too early. The cruise ship workers didn't want to bother the rest of the passengers
at seven am. In fact, in the documentary, one of the workers from the ship is quoted saying, quote, we're not going to stop everybody's cruise because there's a missing girl. That's one family's unfortunate incident. But we still have twenty four hundred people who paid a lot of money, And as cold as that sounds, that's the reality.
Yeah, I mean, it does sound really cold, but she had hadn't been missing long, so I think everyone at that point was just assuming like they'd find her, you know, really quickly.
That's true, But and I totally get it, because that's the thought that I had as well. But my counter argument to that is, how many times do we cover a case where someone reports a missing person and authorities don't take it seriously at first?
Yeah? Well, I was just going to say too, because any if she wasn't found, any evidence or whatever's also disembarking, you.
Know, exactly. And so of course with missing persons, you know, the longer things go by, the less chance of finding him. And in this case, you are literally, if you let these passengers off, opening the floodgates for any potential person who did something to Amy, for Amy herself, for any evidence, all of it to just go away. Yeah, forever. Yeah, And in all honesty, I'm willing to bet that that's what the ship wanted, to wash its hand clean of any incident or even potential incident.
Well, I mean, if they didn't let people off, though, I mean they would have people would get very unhappy, true, But I mean, and at that point they didn't know if a crime or whatever had been committed. So it's I find that part, that part's a little tough.
But here's here's one thing. They're willing to like announce, we are parked, We are willing to disembark. You can now like head off onto land. But they're not willing to announce Could Amy Bradley please come to service task?
Yeah, because it's too early.
Right, So now the crews began letting the passengers off the ship without securing anything and looking for Amy. In fact, the announcement for Amy to finally contact the front desk didn't go out until seven fifty am, well after hundreds of passengers had already left. By then, Amy and perhaps whoever could have possibly taken her or known something was long gone, because let's be honest, there's there's some countless things that could have escaped in that hustle and bustle
of people. Not even to say that someone else is even responsible. Let's just say, for argument's sake, that Amy slipped and hit her head and has amnesia and doesn't know what's going on, and now she just walks off the ship forever, right, Yeah, So who knows what that floodgate. Let go.
Yeah, there's so many things. She could have been captured in something that was being taken off, or she could have been drugged or something like There's.
It could have even just been a witness who had seen what had happened to her who left and departed and just stayed there and never got back in the ship and never got in contact with authorities. Yeah, but let's continue now. Once the realization set in that Amy was truly missing, the crew finally began to do something, and they began a search. This search was initiated sometime shortly after nine am, but the delay had already hurt
the investigation. For hours, passengers had been allowed to walk off the ship without being questioned, without bags being checked, and without knowing a woman had been vanished or missing at all. As the ship was scoured top to bottom, allegedly, witness accounts did begin to surface, but they didn't all line up now. Three passengers later claimed that they'd seen Amy on an upper deck sometime between five thirty and five forty five am, well after her father said he
last saw her. Now, according to them, she was with Alistair Yellow Douglas, the same band member she had been hanging out with the night before. They said she had a camera and that Yellow handed her a drink and apparently with some kind of dark liquid in it. Moments later, the pair were seen stepping into an elevator together, and then not long after, the same pair spotted Yellow once again, and this time alone.
Not very long after, really not very long after.
And here's the caveat with this sight is the two individuals who saw Yellow and Amy together they were on their way to the room, but they don't they can't confirm that it was somewhere between five point thirty and five forty five am, so it was the problem is on the ship, there's key cards on the doors, and those key cards they logged a time when someone opened
the door with the key card right to enter. Yeah, these two forgot their key card, knocked on the door, had someone in the cabin already let them in, So the key card was never used, and that timeline could not be confirmed.
Right, And then when you're leaving it's not confirmed either. It's only when you're like swiping this.
Card exactly now. Yellow had claimed that the night before he left the party around one am, well before any of that had happened, but the cruise ship's own video footage contradicts that timeline. He was clearly seen dancing with Amy well after one am, smiling and quite close. Not only that, but her brother Brad would later recall something unsettling. Shortly after Amy disappeared, Yellow allegedly approached him and said, quote, sorry to hear about your sister, but here's the problem.
No announcements had been made yet, so how did he know that Amy was missing?
Holy shit? Really?
Yes?
Huh okay.
The FBI was contacted later that same day that Amy went missing, and the agents flew down on March twenty fifth, the day after. When the FBI boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas after it docked in Curisow, they were walking into a crime scene that had already been trampled. Hours had passed since Amy was last seen, and most of
the passengers had already disembarked. Crucial surveillance footage could have been lost or even overwritten, and any chance of sealing the ship off or controlled investigation it was long gone now. To make matters worse, the Royal Caribbean hadn't treated it like a case that was a possible crime, let's say, but instead of locking down like areas stopping traffic and chips routines and all this sort of stuff, people were just roaming freely and no serious action was taken.
I just have to say, too, so if they were going to do like a search like they did around nine or a little bit earlier or whatever, they should have just done it right away. Really, yes, I agree, because you know, it wasn't that much longer that they decided to do this search.
Well, it doesn't make any sense though you have a missing person. So what you're going to do is get rid of all the people to search for a person.
Well, maybe they were probably just maybe thinking she was like passed out somewhere or something. I bet you it's possible. I think, yeah, they probably weren't taking it quite seriously yet, and then at one point they're like, okay, I guess we will. But if they have done that earlier might have been helpful.
It might have been helpful. Even what they could have done has had people at the ramp on the docks looking for her as she's going through. Yeah, you know, asking people, have you seen this girl? She's somewhere around? Her family's looking for you know, Amy can come to the service desk. It would have been super easy, but they chose not to do that.
Yeah, they did.
Now, back to the FBI, despite all of the run around that they're receiving, all of the mess that they're dealing with, the FBI still did their best and they interviewed the ship's crews, passengers, and those who last saw Amy. But one of the biggest issues was without a crime scene,
without forensic evidence, the FBI just hit a wall. The ship's staff had even been allowed to clean the rooms, including the Bradley's family's room, and with it they wiped away any potential evidence and contaminated a potential crime scene because if someone entered the room while they were sleeping to come and get Amy, for example, fingerprints could have
been possible. Right, maybe let's say, because this theory does come up that Amy went over the handrail, maybe fingerprints on the handrail or down the side, things like that could have potentially come up. But these were all wiped clean.
Yeah. The fact that people that the room got cleaned just shocks me. It makes absolutely no sense.
Yeah, I understand them cleaning the rooms, but it was as if and I said it once, and I'll say it again that this cruise liner was trying to wipe their hands clean of this and just be done with it and not want to deal with it. Yeah, trying to get rid of it as fast as.
Possible, which is not good. Like someone is missing and the fact, do you think that your job is to keep people safe.
And their job is to make money?
It's not, though, That's just this terrible world that we live in.
Exactly now, the FBI were left with no signs of foul play. They had no body, no answers, and it was a frustrating start to say the least. Now back to Yellow. Yellow was also questioned with the FBI and even pasted a polygraph test and denied knowing anything about Amy's disappearance, but with his relaxed attitude afterwards, smiling giving thumbs up to his bandmates, it didn't sit right with the Bradley family, especially not Ron, who's already convinced Yellow
knew more than he let on. Now, add that to a strange incident involving a waiter who had asked multiple times during the cruise if he could leave a note for Amy inviting her to go for drinks Once they hit. Once they hit shore, he's invited, he's wanting to go for drinks at a bar on shore, and everything right,
and then there's also the missing photo. See every cruise photo taken by the ship's photographer was supposed to be displayed for passengers to view and purchase, but none of the ones that were taken of Amy's could be found. The staff even remembered seeing them. They're ready to go for the family because they recognize Amy. She was like the life of the party and stuff. So they're like, oh, yeah, you guys are here to pick up your photos. We
got like, Amy's right over here, here's the photos. And then they go to grab them.
They're missing.
They're missing. Someone had already taken the photos. And they're like, oh, did someone from your family already grabbed these? And they're like, uh no, that's creepy.
This is so creepy.
Someone outside of the family came and purchased or stole these photos of Amy specifically. Now, a lot of things were happening all at once, and the early hours of Amy's disappearance were critical, but instead of treating it like an emergency, the ship's crew just seemed more concerned with sticking to schedule and maintaining the happy atmosphere for the
rest of the guests. The ship's internal search, conducted later that morning lasted less than an hour, not exactly thorough for a vessel with eleven decks nearly sorry, I think it was like thirteen decks. My authorogies nearly nine hundred crew members and more than two thousand passengers. And to make matters worse, surveillance footage wasn't reviewed right away, and any window of time where Amy might have been spotted leaving the ship or being taken was officially gone.
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I just feel like you could not search that big of a vessel in one hour thoroughly. Nope, there's just no way.
No, Even with even if you had the exact every member of the crew nine hundred, let's say you have every single one of them searching, You wouldn't but you wouldn't, but you would not be able to search it in that amount of time, especially the way it's described in this documentary from this one guy. He's like, we're doing like checking every drawer, every closet of every room, every nook and in an hour.
Fuck that, there's no way not even close.
Now. Outside help didn't arrive until later. The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard launched a search for the surrounding waters. They were desperately trying to find you know, potentially if she went overboard, right, So they're using helicopters, radar equipment and planes and it lasted four days that search. In the water. Wow, okay, nobody, no clothing, no sign of falling overboard at all.
But they were pretty certain if she had fallen overboard that she would have appeared, yes, or something of her what would have appeared for sure?
But before we okay, there's one thing I gotta say, just to put this in perspective to the timeframe she would have gone overboard. If she did, they were almost already at port. Like they could see the port right at suore right, so it's not like they're in the middle of the ocean. Amy is a strong swimmer, was like a lifeguard. Even she hates the ocean.
Sure, m hm, but she's athletic, she's strong.
Yeah, she unless got injured in the fall, would have been able to swim to short no problem. But you're right, there was no like Like, they're pretty confident they would see a body or something. I say that somewhere here in my script, but yeah, one hundred percent. They're like, oh, you know what, with the currents, the winds, something of her would have washed a short guaranteed. But they found nothing.
So despite all of that, though early reports painted her disappearance as a tragic incident, some even floated the idea that she had taken her own life, jumping overboard on purpose, you know, self delete. But the Bradleys didn't buy it. And the more they looked into how little the crew had done and how quickly those theories started floating around, the more it felt like someone was trying to make the problem go away. This wasn't just a case of
someone wandering off or taking their own life. That much. To her family was clear. Amy had been excited about life back at home. She just graduated, had a job lined up at a computer firm, was planning to move into her own new apartment. She wasn't suicidal, she wasn't reckless. She just got a new dog.
Oh that okay, right, there is a flag that you wouldn't be doing something like that.
Yeah, she was a strong swimmer, former lifeguard, and this just doesn't make sense. Officials suggested that maybe she'd had, you know, too much to drink. Maybe it was an accident, but this just didn't line up. She wasn't heavily intoxicated. Her brother could corroborate that, and the family looked back at their tab. She had seven light beer from I believe it was six pm onwards that evening, so it was six pm to three thirty am when she went back to the room, and then her father seen her
again at about five thirty am. Now official suggested, maybe she'd drank too much, right, but that kind of throws it out the window. She wasn't heavily intoxicated as far as we know, and she told her family she didn't even like going near the ship's railing. Plus Ron had seen her lying on the balcony lounge chair just before she vanished. Things are not adding up to whatever these theories are being put out there. There were no signs
she slipped, jumped, or any sort of accident. To the Bradley's, it was simple. The cruise lines slow response cost them their best shot at finding Amy, and even though the Coastguard search turned up nothing, Amy's family refused to believe she was gone forever, and not long after they started hearing from people who claimed they had seen her. The first big tip came from a taxi driver in Curassau.
It was just a month after Amy went missing when he approached the Bradleys during their visit to the island. The man said he'd seen someone matching Amy's description the morning the ship docked on March twenty fourth. He claimed that the young woman had been frantically running through a parking lot, clearly distressed and asking for a phone. What struck him were her green eyes. He said that they matched the poster the family had been handing out, but
something about the account it didn't quite add up. He never mentioned her being barefoot, which she likely would have been when she left the ship that morning because her sandals were still sitting on the deck. Vanished, but still his memory felt sincere. Authorities, however, were unable to ever confirm this incident or sighting, and then came the Canadian divers. In August nineteen ninety eight, two tourists, David Carmichael and his diving partner spotted a woman on play a Mortal
Marie a beach in Curroseu. She was with two men who seemed controlling and aggressive. The woman looked tense and uneasy, and when Carmichael called to his buddy in English as they were washing up their diving equipment ashore, she whipped her head around and started moving towards them, almost as
if she heard English and was going towards that. But one of the men who allegedly resembled yellow or alistair Douglass from the cruise ship, as Carmichael said he believes it was him, stepped in and redirected her towards the bar. Carmichael said, he kept glaring back, sorry, she kept glancing at him, while the man kept glaring at him, making eyed contact.
Just like stared him down exactly, sort of trying to intimidate him by the sounds of it.
The thing is, though, what really struck him was the tattoos. Carmichael later saw Amy's photo in America's Most Wanted and instantly felt sick the tattoos. Amy had a Tasmanian devil on her shoulder, a gecko on her navel, and barbed wire on her ankle, and he remembered seeing these tattoos, the exact tattoos on this girl. They matched, Oh man. He ended up calling Ron Bradley, flying out to Virginia, Virginia,
sorry and giving a full statement to the FBI. But unfortunately the sighting, just like the others, could not be verified.
Because yeah, her tattoos are pretty unique.
Definitely, Well, any tattoo generally does get to be unique because it can be placement size. You know what, we all have an infinity symbol? Say yeah, but where's yours? Oh, mine's on my wrist, where's yours? Oh? Minds on my shoulder? Where's yours? Oh I've got a tramp stamp like you know, it varies.
Oh my god, what do you have an infinity symbol?
Maybe I did have an infinity civil tramp.
Stand Okay, maybe you do.
If there's anyone who's gonna know, it would be you, do, I say, okay, I my need to check the mirror. No, don't. Anyways, Still, the Bradleys, they weren't ready to give up on the search. They weren't. These weren't random tips coming in. It seemed
like they were very consistent. A young woman, green eyes, distinct tattoos, all spotted in curisou, all looking anxious, all seeming to try and reach out and if Amy was in fact still alive, that meant that she hadn't drowned, she hadn't jumped, and she had been in fact taken. In January nineteen ninety nine, nearly a year after Amy had vanished, a new tip surfaced, one that felt impossible
to ignore. A US Navy petty officer named William Hefner was stationed in curisout when he visited a local brothel, a place he wasn't supposed to be. In fact, he reportedly wasn't there for nefarious reasons, but rather just looking to find a place to have a fucking beer.
A beer, yeah, that's what he said.
Anyway, that's what he said. So while he approached the bar, there were two guys that questioned him outside with guns, like what are you doing? What do you want? He's like, I just want a beer. They're like, okay, go ahead. So he goes inside and while he sits in the bar, he struck up conversation with two different women. Now these
two women were accompanied by again two men. Now they were having a casual conversation when one of the women left the table for a moment, leaving him alone with the second girl and that's when she began to talk. She told him her name was Amy and that she needed help. She claimed that she'd been taken. She's stuck there and unable to leave because she owes these guys two hundred bucks and she can't do anything about it.
She said that she'd been on a cruise and that things went wrong and now she's being held against her will, and apparently she left that cruise to go buy some drugs in here she is now. According to Hefner, the woman spoke quickly and seemed terrified, but just as quickly as the conversation started, it ended once the other girl returned, she shut down. Hefner said that he had heard it all before, though reasons why sex workers or someone would
need money to get out of situations. He thought it was all just a tall tale at the time, a way to try and get some money out of him, And he didn't report the interaction right away because of that, also because he was at a place he shouldn't have been because career wise, right h So, he was in the military and worried that admitting he was inside a
brothel could have some serious consequences. So you have a military guy in a brothel in a rough situation with a potential sex worker who's potentially most likely just spinning a story trying to get free two hundred bucks and armed guys outside the door. So he kind of like just finishes his beer and wants to put this story behind him.
Yeah, but can you imagine if that like was her and here she is pleading for help and just like that can't get it.
Well, that's the thing, because it wasn't until years later, in May of twenty twenty, sorry, two thousand and two to be exact, that Hefner saw Amy's face in a magazine and he felt the weight of not talking because he said, that was her, That was the girl who he talked to that night, that was the one who was asking him for help, and he realized what his silence meant. Yeah, So from there he quickly came forward,
contacted the Bradleys and shared everything he remembered. The FBI looked into it, but by then that brothel, it had supposedly burnt down. There were no records, no physical evidence, there was nothing to follow up on, of course not Yeah, Hefner has never wavered in his report, adamant that was Amy, Whether you believe him or not. For her parents, this was a gut punch. The possibility that Amy might be alive, that she was asking for help, and that it never came was unbearable.
Yeah, like as them as a parent, you just couldn't imagine hearing that.
So this was starting to feel less like a mystery and more like a nightmare for them. And by late nineteen ninety nine, the Bradleys they were desperate. They had followed every lead, scoured the Caribbean, worked with private investigators, pleaded for help through the media, and then finally, a man named Frank Jones reached out and he claimed to be a former Navy seal with a tactical team who was ready to go and rescue Amy. See this, Frank Jones said that he had a team with actual eyes
on her. They were watching who had her. So, according to him, Amy was alive and being held in a heavily guarded house, surrounded by armed Colombian men and barbed wire. He even described her tattoos perfectly small, unique in the right spots. He said he heard her humming a lullaby, and that lullaby happened to be the same one that her mom had sung to her. He kept the family in the loop with updates, photos, surveillance details, reports as they were getting close. But the rescue, he said it
was expensive and needed funding. Over time, The Bradley sent Jones over two hundred thousand dollars to support the mission, who they were told a rescue attempt was imminent, and then nothing. The phone stopped bringing, email stopped coming. There was no raid or no Amy.
Seriously, Okay, was this in the documentary? No it wasn't, And so this was they just like conned. This was his person conned the family. This was a con No, people are so disgusting.
Yeah, Frank Jones wasn't a Navy seal. He he had no team, no mission, no contact with Amy. He made it all up to scam grieving parents out of their savings.
Wow, you're literally scum of the earth to be able to do something like that.
Now, there's not a whole lot reported on who this Frank Jones is, or the piece of shit or the situation. However, the FBI did catch up with him, and in two thousand and two he pled guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Yeah, that's not enough.
No. So I'm not sure if the family got money back or what, but he was he was arrested for his crimes brutal. Yeah, way to pray on them, Like, holy fuck yeah that.
To just like hear a story like this and then come up with some sort of plan to just try to get money from a grieving family, right, I just like, how awful are you?
That is the low of the low. Yeah, you are right down there.
Yeah, it doesn't get much worse really.
Now, for the Bradleys, the emotional damage was worse than the financial loss. They weren't just scammed, they were emotionally gutted over this. They had let themselves believe Amy was finally coming home and just for a moment they felt like they had her back, only for her to basically slip away again. Now, even after the scam, though, the sightings of Amy didn't stop, and each one kept the
Bradleys hoping. In two thousand and three, in San Francisco, a couple reported seeing a woman who looked like Amy in a crowd watching a street performer. She wasn't alone, two men flanked her. The couple claimed that once the woman noticed she was being watched the men grabbed her and disappeared down the street. Now she was pulled away, she supposedly locked eyes with the witness, giving them a described as pleading look. The FBI released composite sketches based
on descriptions, but that was it. No follow up or confirmation of identity was ever done. Then, in two thousand and five, a woman named Judy Maherer said to have had a disturb being encounter in Barbados in a department store restroom. She was in a stall when a woman walked in surrounded by four men. They were talking business, something shady, something sketchy sounding, let's put it that way. Now, Judy heard the woman ask softly, can we stop and
see the children? And the men are like, well, will you behave will you listen? And then she's like yes. So after the men stepped out, Judy came out of the bathroom stall and was then face to face with this woman in the bathroom and she said her name was Amy, and she's pretty sure she said she was from West Virginia. She looked anxious, scared, and she couldn't say anymore. And when Judy saw Amy's photo later, she
was convinced This was the same Amy. Composite sketches were made once again, but still, just like the other times, nothing came of it again. In two thousand and five, a chilling tip surfaced, one that brought a new wave of hope, also horror and heartbreak, one that really made those closes to Amy have both hope and heartbreak. It started with an email that was sent to Amy's parents.
Attached were two images. These images were pulled from an adult website by a member of an organization that tracks victims of human trafficking. In the photos was a woman. She has these vacant eyes and a blank expression, sitting stiffly on a bed what looks kind of like a dingy hotel room. She has a smile, but it's a half hearted one, and she's wearing heavy makeup. Her posture's tents, and everything about the image feels wrong. The woman calls
herself jos Jas. But it wasn't the nickname or the setting that made the Bradley family's blood run cold. It was the resemblance. The woman in the photo looked exactly like Amy, the same bone structure, the same green eyes, but not the same tattoos. And I say that because the photos were taken with woman posed in ways that seemed to specifically avoid showing the areas where her tattoos were located. So you can't even see if the tattoos are there or not.
No, you can't.
Now. Amy's parents took the photos seriously. They handed them over to the FBI, hoping that advanced facial recognition might give them an answer. Now, at the time, technology was limited, but one former FBI consultant who reviewed the images said, without hesitation he believed the woman was in fact Amy Bradley.
Now the agency investigated, but nothing could be definitively proven with the photos, though Special Agent Aaron Sheridan told the media that one of the biggest issues was verifying whether the photos had been doctored or altered. Oh okay, see the images had been circulated online and they weren't in their original form.
Oh okay, I see, so.
Has shared and put it. The difficult part is back then information such as that or pictures such as that, you can't tell when they're altered. Direct quote.
I feel like those wouldn't have been altered, though.
It's hard to say because you have someone who already tried to scam true, right, And so you have someone else who's just trying to fuck with the families for whatever reason.
Well, I know, but would they've been able to do that good of a job, because I've seen I sell those photos and they looked like they wouldn't have been altered.
I agree with you, but I'm not a professional, Like I'm not a professional like analyst of bone structures and stuff, or to say if a photo has been altered, like I can do a bit of photoshop work, but that's about it.
Yeah, I just mean, like it was quite a few years ago. I'm like, would anyone be able to do that good of a job or have the means of doing that good of a job?
Well, it's possible. Put it this place.
It's possible if you.
Do doctor an image and you upload it to the internet and then it's downloaded by someone else they uploaded and someone else downloads it, and you have this image it's been uploaded and downloaded like three four times, and the resolutions all mismashed and fucked up, and it's a terrible image. Yeah, it hides those things, right, But that was.
One part of the documentary I feel was pretty convincing showing you know how closely these two people, like comparing photos that the parents had and then this photo how closely these two women looked.
That's true. But the one thing the documentary didn't say was that the FBI never said for certain. They said, un FBI agent believes it was her, okay, but they do not say that they weren't sure.
They can't know for sure.
They can't know for sure, But they also don't say that they can't be sure the photos aren't doctored. They don't even touch on the doctor part. So there's something I got they don't. Oh my god, Now this is seriously, this is why you should listen to this episode and watch that, because they're talking about stuff and I'm I'm talking about stuff there not.
And well, yeah, there's been a few times I'm just like, was I notping attention? But yeah, it's just new stuff that you have.
Yeah, and you're probably thinking, oh, you cut out a little bit of that part because it's just, hey, this is one episode.
Ryeah.
Now, the idea that she may be alive out there somewhere against her will is becoming a strong possibility at this point, and in twenty eighteen, a man named Anthony Willis may have helped lend a lot of credibility to this theory when he took his obsession with Amy's case and turned it into something very tangible. See, he's a true crime person like you and I, and he spent a lot of time looking into Amy's case. So much though, that he thought he would create a place for all
the information and tips to be located at once. So he launched a website. And that website is available. You can go visit it. It's called Amy Bradley is Missing dot com, a dedicated space to collect everything tied to her disappearance, photos, known sightings, timeline, old newspaper clippings, and even theories. His goal was simple but important, make sure
that Amy's story wasn't lost to time. But you know it's remembered because when stories like this fade from the headlines, tip stopped coming in, and that's when hope really dies. But what started as an awareness tool turned into something else entirely. Anthony began noticing something strange in the site's analytics dashboard, a pattern in the IP traffic. Using standard tools,
he tracked visitors and their general locations. He realized that the site was getting repeated hits from very specific places Bridgetown, Barbados, and Curasou, the same areas tied to Amy's last known location and later alleged sightings. Even more chilling were the timing and behavior of those visits. These weren't random one time clicks. It was the same IP addresses that would
show up over and over again. This person with this IP address would visit the website on holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, dates that matter deeply to Amy and her family, and those visitors weren't just skimming the homepage. They were dwelling for long stretches of time on these pages and photos, sometimes up to forty five minutes, and often focused on very personal content family photos, memories, pictures of Amy's old
car or the dog. It was as if someone, or maybe even Amy herself, was watching from afar, silently checking in.
Yeah, see, that's like wild that part of the story to me.
Yes, that's one of the ones that gets me the most. Yeah now, Iva, Amy's mother was moved by the possibility that it could potentially be Amy. But why do they keep coming back? She wondered this aloud in the documentary, right like why on Christmas? Why? Thing giving why stare at a picture of our dog. It opened up a new haunting theory that maybe it was in fact Amy.
Maybe if she was alive, somewhere hidden, trapped, or otherwise cut off, this was her only way of contact, you know, a virtual lifeline window into the family that she left behind or could no longer contact, or a family that's still looking for her now. The FBI was aware of the site and its analytics, but once again without jurisdiction in these countries and no clear way to trace the
exact person behind the IP addresses, the trail stayed frustratingly cold. Still, it left the family and many online sleuths with the same nagging feeling somebody is in fact watching. The only question is who, I guess and why?
Ah. I just hate that because there's it seems like it's a little bit of a I don't like, what would be like a light right at the end of the tunnel or something, but then you just you can't reach it. Yeah, exactly, You're just running and it's just not getting any closer.
Now. The flip side of that coin of it's Amy looking at the site is maybe it's the people responsible for Amy disappearing, and they're keeping up with the site as you know, a means of seeing how close authorities are to catching them more updates, right, Yeah, now, I mean that being said, maybe it's just very dedicated internet sleuths out there who are really attached to the case, right, like you or I or Anthony who set up the site. Yeah, and she did go missing there.
It's weird that it's on such important dates.
That is very weird.
Yes, And then I feel like the people if someone did this to her, that they wouldn't be It's also wouldn't be going on specific dates, and like would they be looking and staying on there that long and like really paying that much attention.
Yeah, I firmly believe it is Amy. But the uestion is, Okay, if she's looking at these photos, if she's going on the website looking at these, she clearly has internet access in some capability, So why isn't she sending an email to someone her family authorities asking for help reaching out.
Well, she could be having permission to look at the site though too right.
She could be, But if she has the site open in front of her, all it takes is for a moment for someone to look away, and she, you know, types quick emails.
I don't know, she don't need a freaking email account and shit and that stuff takes time to create.
It's true, but there are other theories with it too, and I kind of touched on it with I believe it was the woman named Judy who had the encounter in the bathroom where she ran into someone named Amy, and she was talking to those guys who were like, you better behave right, and she's like, well, can we go see the kids? What if Amy does have kids now and whoever had captured her also has her kids
and are using her kids as leverage. So it's like she can't say anything because if she does, how can she save her kids?
Well, yeah, and she's not She probably doesn't want to leave her kids exactly. If she runs away, like gosh knows what they're going to do to the kids, or she'll never see them again.
Right, she might be able to get herself saved, But what if she doesn't have control over her kids. Sounds like she doesn't get to see your kids all the time. Yeah, So it's either she saves herself or she stays and saves her kids or tries to save her kids, you.
Know, or make sure that they're at least safe.
Right, So she's I mean, this is only one theory. There's so many of them, but it's as if she's like, you know, it's very much lord of the rings. You stray but a little and it shall fail. Right, you're running on the edge of this knife, and it's yeah, it's a fine line that you're walking. Now. More than two decades have passed since Amy vanished, and the mystery still haunts her family and the world alike, especially with
this new documentary that has come out. With no physical evidence, no confirmation, confirmation on any of these sightings rests her disappearance remains a frustratingly open case. The theories haven't stopped spinning, but some do believe that she was murdered on the ship and thrown overboard, but there's no proof of that. There's no body or struggle, nothing to support the idea
beyond speculation. Even local law enforcement and search and rescue say that with the tides, here's the tide thing, the tide and the waters, they would have brought in a body or at least remains of one to the shores, but nothing has ever washed ashore. Nothing's been found.
Okay, but if she was weighted down, that could be a different story too, Right if the body was thrown overboard and weight like it was weighted.
Not necessarily because a body will decompose, right I guess. And as a body decomposes, it falls apart. So we covered this in the shoe the shoes that wash ashore in Vancouver in British Columbia here with the feet in them. Yeah, it's because people are being like ugh, weighted down in the waters and their feet with the shoes pop off their bodies and the shoes float and wash ashore.
Okay, but what about like if you were in a garbage bag or something, I mean potentially that I don't know. If you were in something and was weighted, I feel like it could stay down there. That's sometime that's true, like Dexter. So I bring up Dexter so often I feel.
So it was like a fifteen thirty minute window where she was seen in the bedroom on the balcony to when she was gone. So you're suggesting someone killed her, stuffed her in a garbage bag, weighed her down, thrown her overboard, and cleaned up the crime scene in that amount of time.
Well they probably they would have had more time to clean up the scene for sure, But sometimes depending on where it was down or not, they don't have to be like, really gross, that's true. It could just be someone strangling someone, that's true. Especially what kind of messes that clean up really.
Especially because housekeeping dead the cleaning forum later.
Anyways, I'm not saying that out of experience, but I'm just saying that wouldn't create a huge mess.
WHOA, I got to watch out.
I don't know.
Now. Other people cling to the early theories that she did fall overboard on her and took her own life, potentially one or the other. But for anyone who knows Amy, these never made me sense. She disliked the ocean, the unknown nature of the heights and the railings. Yeah, sure, but she was a strong swimmer, she was cautious by nature, and she was excited about her future just days before she even landed a new job and had big plans.
What's more plausible to many and most terrifying, is the theory that Amy was indeed trafficked, that she was targeted while on board, lured or forced off the ship, and sold into a life that she never chose. The witness accounts, the brothel claims, the desperate eyes, and the online photos, they all point to that possibility. This is a theory
her family never stopped believing. Now, one thing that I do think they really needed to have in this documentary, but they omitted for one reason or another, is the fact that in twenty ten, twelve years to the day since Amy disappeared, she was officially declared deceased.
Oh really, yes, Oh I didn't know that.
Her case remains open, but she has officially been declared deceased. There is no body, no trace of her, no information, no nothing, but she is officially declared deceased.
The family doesn't want that. They want to be They want this hope because she could still be alive.
They do not believe she's dead. It's not to say that people aren't hunting for her. They just believe they're hunting for remains in what happened.
You know. I do want to say one thing too, because at one point it was someone said she left the cruise ship to go get drugs or something. So is it like possible that she could have taken drugs on the balcony or something. That made her go a little mad or something, and then she jumped off like I don't know maybe, but then again like yeah, her body would have most likely been found.
So now accounts of her family were to say that she doesn't do drugs or anything. Yeah, And also with that waiter who was like leaving a note like let's go on shore or in party, Amy was like, no, we're not going ashore. That's not happening.
She wasn't interested.
So according to her family, no, she wasn't going ashore. And know she wasn't into drugs.
Well yeah, why would she be out on the deck, like, you know, doing drugs alone like that.
So now, even now, the FBI still lists Amy as a missing person, offering up twenty five thousand dollars in reward for information. Her family offers up even more, up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her safe return. Her name is etched in every missing person's database. Her face has been shared on shows like Unsolved Mysteries, Doctor Phil, America's Most Wanted and Disappeared, and even as just of recently with the new three part Netflix documentary that came
out just like a week ago. It brought a lot of attention back to her and her story, and social media has helped with the renewed interest. Good people are sharing their stories, dissecting the the evidence, they're they're talking about theories, they're posting clips of the documentary. There's even a YouTuber Ethan Klein. He's quite a big, big name
out there. He's jumped in and just a few days ago he offered a staggering one million dollars for information that leads to Amy, or the possibility of leads to finding her children.
Curiously, Yeah, okay, that is like so amazing for the family. Hey yeah, oh man, that I hope that makes them, like, you know, feel good and like maybe there's there's a chance there's still Yeah.
Regardless of all this, one thing is certain. Amy Lynn Bradley's story is far from forgotten. Her memory is still quite lingers, especially right now with this renewed interest on that cruise ship on the beaches of Curassow and in the first hand accounts of photos that surface online. Her
name is still there. I'm confident that someone out there does know the truth and maybe, just maybe, if we keep talking about Amy's story, she can be brought back home to her family and say from whatever horrors that may have stolen her. But for now, this is an unsolved story, and that is the story that we know of of amy Lyn Bradley.
I just have to say, it's such a piss off because she was just like a gem, like a light in this world and got noticed right for just being freakin amazing. Yeah, and someone just decided that they needed that for themselves for whatever reason. I guess that's what it seems like, yeah, which is oh, just so maddening, so disgusting. I have a feeling, I do have a feeling that one day it will be known what happened with this case.
I really hope so.
But we are like approaching thirty years here. Soon we are what it would be in twenty twenty eight, yeah, which is wild that that is like soon.
But it is well in all honesty though, with like the money that's being put out there, the renewed interest, yeah, the publicity it's getting nowadays, I think it's a high possibility that there will be some new developments in the next year, maybe even the next couple months. I do think there will be some new information coming out on this. So I do want to keep my own eye on this, and I think you guys should do the same.
Kine really quickly. I was gonna call him Lemon Frick. But his name yellow or what the hell ever?
Well, apparently he dyed his hair yellow or something, and so we got a nickname yellow and it just stuck, which is the dumbest way to get a nickname.
Well, anyway, call me Beard Beard Ben. In the documentary, his daughter actually is on there speaking, which is like wild, and they're at one point even like calls her dad. I don't know. I don't think he knew that it was like being recorded.
I'm not sure, but yeah, you know, I'm going to assume that he did know, just because the fact it's released on like Netflix. I they, well, no, because he's another citizen of another country, they could probably just get away with not asking for permission. Just do it anyways, because what's he going to do?
But like right there, even his own like flesh flesh, whoa flesh and blood? Flesh and I can't speak right now, lesh and flesh and blood questions him.
Yes, Well, reportedly he came home with like off this cruise with like a bunch of photos of women. Yeah, and we know that there was photos of Amy missing. We know that there is human trafficking. There is some human trafficking in the area of this world, it is reported, but he claims to have nothing to do with it.
See. I go back and forth big time with this case of whether I think that you know, she's alive or not, and this sad thing is gosh, if she's alive, like, well, either way, it's sad, but I just think that her life has probably not been very easy. No, definitely, it's really sad. And yeah, the poor family, like, yeah, the family's in this dock and they just talk about it, just the effects of this of their life, right, you know, for the last almost thirty years.
So they her parents still keep Amy's car polished and ready to go in the garage when she gets home.
So yeah, oh my god, I forgot about that. It just like breaks your fucking heart.
Yeah.
Anyway, on that note, I guess.
On that note, you guys should definitely watch this documentary. As I mentioned, I believe it's Amy Bradley is Missing. I close Netflix. I got to open up again just to confirm that that's what it's called. But yeah, check it out. It is really good. They talk about a couple different angles that I decided to not dissect on my own. So it's it's worth the watch for sure.
And then after that you can watch Poop Cruise and then you can just never go on another cruise in your whole entire life.
Yeah.
I mean, if you like it, you like it, but I just ah. Yeah. Also, the ocean terrifies me. I'm sure I've talked about that before. I love the freaking ocean, but from a shore.
Really I want to look at it. I want to I want to hear it, but we have.
No idea some of the stuff in there. I am certain it's like some terrify.
It's like over eighty percent of the ocean is like discovered or explored or something like that. Most of it's just unexplored.
Yeah. See, one day I do want to live by the ocean, and I like love paddle boarding, but I would have trouble. I think paddleboarding and the freaking ocean, Yeah, I think you'd probably get used to it until you were like come across a freaking whale or shark, and you'd never do it again.
Yeah.
You see those videos where people think that's awesome. And I would literally be shitting myself on the paddle board.
I showed you a video of today. If someone just fishing in the ocean in a whale shark just swims up by the boat, I mean, they're completely harmless, but they're gying enormous key.
But on a boat, I feel like I'd be a little more better. Imagine that, and you were on a paddle board.
Yeah, oh my gosh, the ocean would be a little more brown.
The ocean. I don't know, I think I would. I would probably end up doing something stupid and fall in and just okay, that's it, I'm done.
Just accept your fate and just sink. Just take me world.
And meanwhile, this freaking shark literally wanted nothing to do with you, But you were just by.
The shark's talking to his buddies later that just this bitch. You should have seen her.
Oh my gosh, it's so scary.
Ocean is terrifying. But anyways, thank for being here. Go watch that documentary you know the drill. There's a whole description of stuff down below. We're an independent podcast and with your support we can keep doing this. So thank you very much. We appreciate you and until next time, stay wicked,