In March 1998, Amy Lynn Bradley vanished from the Rhapsody of the Seas while en route to Curacao. Seven years later, her family received a troubling photograph that appeared to indicate her fate.
At approximately 5:30 AM on March 24, 1998, Ron Bradley peered out from the balcony of his cabin on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and observed his daughter Amy Lynn Bradley relaxing peacefully. Thirty minutes later, he looked again — and she had disappeared, never to be seen again.
The most straightforward explanation for Amy Lynn Bradley’s disappearance is that she fell overboard and was engulfed by the ocean waves. However, Bradley was an accomplished swimmer and a certified lifeguard — and the ship was not far from the shore.
Indeed, her disappearance appears to be far more ominous than merely a case of someone lost at sea. Since Bradley’s vanishing, there have been numerous unsettling sightings reported. In 2005, a heart-wrenching photograph was sent to her distressed family, implying that she had been trafficked into sexual slavery. This is the disturbing, unresolved mystery surrounding Amy Lynn Bradley. A Nightmarish Conclusion to a Family Vacation in the Caribbean.
The Bradley family — Ron and Iva, along with their adult children, Amy and Brad — embarked on the Rhapsody Of The Seas on March 21st, 1998, from Puerto Rico. Their journey was set to take them from Puerto Rico to Aruba and then to Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles. On the evening of March 23rd — the night preceding Amy Lynn Bradley’s disappearance — the ship was anchored just off the coast of Curacao. At first glance, it appeared to be a typical night aboard a cruise ship. Amy and her brother enjoyed themselves at the ship’s club, dancing to a band known as “Blue Orchid.” Amy engaged in conversation with several band members and danced with the bass player, Yellow (also known as Alister Douglas).
Around 1 AM, the siblings decided to call it a night and returned to their family’s cabin together. This would mark the last time Brad ever saw his sister. “The final words I spoke to Amy were ‘I love you’ before I went to sleep that night,” Brad later recounted. “Knowing that those were the last words I said to her has always provided me with a sense of comfort.” A few hours later, Ron Bradley spotted his daughter on the deck of their family’s stateroom. Everything seemed fine until he looked again — and she had vanished. Ron proceeded to check his daughter’s bedroom to see if she had returned to sleep, but she was not there. Aside from cigarettes and a lighter, it appeared that Amy Lynn Bradley had taken nothing with her, not even her sandals. After searching the common areas of the ship, the family grew increasingly anxious. They implored the cruise ship staff to cancel the docking at Curacao — but their pleas went unheeded. That morning, the gangplank was lowered.
Wikimedia Commons reports that David Carmichael is convinced he spotted Amy Lynn Bradley in Porto Mari, Curacao, accompanied by two men. One of the tourists, David Carmichael, asserts that he is “100%” certain it was Amy Lynn Bradley. In 1999, a Navy member visited a brothel in Curacao and encountered a woman who claimed her name was Amy Lynn Bradley. She pleaded for his assistance, but he refrained from reporting it as he feared potential repercussions.
The officer withheld this information until he recognized Amy Lynn Bradley’s face in People magazine. That same year, the family received another hopeful lead, which ultimately turned out to be a heartbreaking scam. A man named Frank Jones, who claimed to be a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer, asserted he could rescue Amy from armed Colombians who were holding her in Curacao. The Bradleys provided him with $200,000 before realizing he was a con artist. Ron Bradley later remarked, “If there’s a chance — I mean, what else do you do? If it was your child, what would you do? So I guess we took a chance.
And I guess we lost.” Reports of sightings continued. Six years later, a woman alleged she saw Bradley in a department store restroom in Barbados. According to the witness, the woman she encountered introduced herself as “Amy from Virginia” and was engaged in a struggle with two or three men. In 2005, the Bradleys received an email containing a photograph of a woman who seemed to be Amy, reclining on a bed in her underwear.
A member of an organization dedicated to locating victims of sex trafficking on adult websites came across the photo and believed it could be Amy. Dr. Phil/Bradley Family The Bradley family obtained this photograph in 2005 from an organization that seeks out human trafficking victims. The woman depicted in the photograph is identified as “Jas” — a sex worker in the Caribbean. Regrettably, this distressing clue did not yield any new leads.
Currently, the investigation into Amy Lynn Bradley’s disappearance continues. The FBI and the Bradley family have both offered substantial rewards for information regarding her whereabouts. Nevertheless, her disappearance remains a mystery for the time being.
