Spoilers for Amy Bradley is Missing
Prior to seeing Netflix’s popular docuseries, Amy Bradley is Missing, I’d heard of the case through the true crime podcast Casefile. There were some key omissions and new information in this docuseries, which I’ll get to in a moment. Amy Bradley, 23, disappeared off a cruise ship to the Caribbean with her family in 1998. She was seen dancing with a crew member on the night before her disappearance and eyewitnesses saw her with him early the next morning. While she may have fallen overboard her body was never recovered and several credible witnesses went on the record with sightings of her over the years. I’ve seen coverage insisting that Amy must have fallen overboard, deliberately or not, but there are too many witnesses and clues suggesting she was trafficked for me to firmly believe that.
The detail which was new to me, and which redditors have said they hadn’t heard before either, is that Amy was gay and specifically that she had just broken up with a girlfriend. In the series, Amy’s ex shared a heartfelt letter that Amy wrote her just before the cruise, wanting to reconcile when she got back. This detail was discussed very reluctantly by Amy’s family, who discounted it and seemingly denied that part of her identity. Amy’s dad had written a mean letter to the ex girlfriend back when Amy was alive, showing how her family did not accept her. Notably, the docuseries left out the fact that Amy’s family was bilked out of about $100,000 by a shady private detective promising to find her. There were three nearly hour-long episodes, there was plenty of time to include this detail. I can only guess that the family didn’t bring it up and that the filmmakers either didn’t ask or respected their wishes not to talk about it.
Filmmakers Phil Lott and Ari Mark spoke with The Hollywood Reporter. They swear that they were objective despite being close to Amy’s family, but I doubt that. Still it was a well edited docuseries that told a cohesive story. Here’s more:
It sounds like you believe she’s alive.
Mark: I got to the point on this show where I became close enough with the people. Of course, we remain objective, and we were objective through the whole process. There are enough reasons to believe all of these things are possible. That’s what makes it compelling. But Brad, [Amy’s] brother, says, “I have to cling to the hope.” He’s like, “I’m not saying it’s definitely this, definitely that — but I have to cling to the hope.”
I’ve kind of gotten to the point where I have to believe she’s alive. And people will judge me for that. You immediately fall into a bucket of, “How could you believe the most far-fetched piece of this?” We’re always so used to calculating odds. “Well, the odds are this happened, and the statistics say …” All of those things are true. But if we’re telling a remarkable story, I think there’s just as much of a chance that there’s a remarkable answer.
Anything you want to add, Phil?
Lott: No, I think that was incredibly well said. When people watch this series, I think you will feel like your preconceptions have been compounded. The easiest thing in the world is to come up to us going, “Clearly, she fell off the boat.” I think we’re as guilty of that coming into this as anyone else. And as you go down the path, and you start answering the first five questions, they all lead to much bigger pieces of mystery. Well, now you have three episodes of that. It’s something that just gets bigger and deeper and more compelling.
Mark: Our job is essentially to call bullshit, right? We go into these things calling bullshit. So as you go, “Ooh maybe we’re wrong,” it’s an evolution. It’s a process.
They go on to discuss the photos from the escort site of the woman whose face matched Amy’s using facial recognition software. She was posed in a way that hid Amy’s birthmark and tattoos. Another compelling clue is that visits to the Amy Bradley is Missing website from someone with an IP address from Amy’s presumed location spike around family birthdays and holidays. That person spends much more time on the site than someone with a casual interest. I also found the eyewitnesses very believable. They each seemed convinced they saw Amy. It’s possible she’s alive and is trapped or doesn’t see a way back after all she’s been through. It’s also possible she fell or jumped from the ship early that morning. There are no clear answers as to what happened, which is people are so interested in this case. For all their flaws, Amy’s family has dedicated their lives to finding her and they deserve answers.
photos via Netflix Press
I get the devastation and no closure, how hard it must be for family and friends but she’s dead. She either jumped, or fell. It’s not surprising to not find a body in the ocean. Not everything is some huge mystery
Thank you. The filmmakers were so biased it was unreal. They talked to one guy who was like oh no a body would have washed up. I guess those other millions of times they didn’t, did not mean a thing.
Unfortunately, I think the family just wants her to be alive and while I get that, I just don’t see how she could be. I know the eyewitnesses seemed convinced but eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable and Amy was a pretty average looking white woman. Even the tattoos that they harped on weren’t unusual, so it feels to me like they were also wanting in their minds to believe that they had seen her. The only witness testimony that I might have been inclined to believe would be the two girls who say they saw her with the band member between 5-6 am…except her father said he saw her on their balcony at 5:30. Makes me think their timeline or even the day was off. And I don’t believe she would have gotten out of their room without one of the others hearing the door. The simplest explanation is usually the right one-she had been drinking for many hours and her brother said she stayed on the balcony because she felt sick. My guess is she felt the need to vomit and pushed the table close to the railing so she could reach over better. Between the motion of the ship and her dizziness, she fell over.
I think what makes it worse is that the photos they are talking about have more pictures that show that she’s obviously not Amy Bradley. And her eyebrow, chin, and cheeks are not remotely similar. They got one retired dude from the FBI saying it could be her and the whole thing is exhausting.
The dirty little secret of the cruise industry is that people go missing all the time. Depending upon where they are and where the ship is flagged they often have no responsibility to reverse course and search for the missing passenger or crew member. She jumped, fell, or was pushed. The family is never going to get answers and its really unfortunate they were exploited in this way.
@Megan: really? they have no responsibility to search?? Geez Louise, why would anyone go on a cruise?
And yeah, sorry, but I think she’s dead. Plus, what kind of a documentarian doesn’t include the part about the family being bilked by people claiming to investigate? That’s something that happens all too often, people preying on the bereft.
yeah, let’s be honest: the only way she’s alive is if she left of her own volition and that’s highly unlikely
Exactly. They weren’t objective if they left out facts. Thats not journalism, that’s fiction. I stopped watching when I found out.
I know that if it were my daughter, I’d be a wreck thinking that she was alive and hoping I’d never give up. I get that she’s probably dead, I just think the whole thing — and cases like this– are so devastating.
ITA. This case has been publicized for decades and originally I bought into the kidnapping-sex trafficking theory, but with age and experience and literally seeing so many news stories about drunk people falling off cruise ships and their bodies not being recovered, I think it’s obvious that she fell and her body sank. It’s the ocean. Most bodies never turn up.
The girlfriend of a band member from Faster Pussycat jumped off her balcony while inebriated during a cruise this spring and her body was never found even though the ship was immediately halted and they spent days searching.
She’s not alive. And the family was found to have committed perjury way back in the day when they brought a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean. They even tried to declare her dead at one point.
I felt disgusted that Netflix even aired this mess and left out tons of details, the filmmakers didn’t go into how eyewitness testimony is freaking unreliable to the point that we have had how many people to to prison based on something we find out via DNA later wasn’t possible.
Don’t get me started on this white woman traveling with her parents is not remotely even within the realm of a sex trafficking victim typical profile.
Her brother last week tried to accuse two Black women as abducting her. They keep acting like that Black man who sounds exhausted by this whole thing to have done something.
She was drunk. She either jumped or fell over. The end.
I find this so sad. Such a loss, no answers. If there is no body, I guess families keep hoping.
I think this is the same case where an American sailor was approached by a young woman who told him she was an American and asked for his help. (I can’t recall the country where this happened.) I think the sailor told someone, but when they went to where she had been, she was gone. Of course, no one would admit to seeing her.
If it was me, I would rather believe my daughter was at peace in the ocean, then…alive and trafficked for many years.
this is what I was just thinking. But then, you would have your daughter’s best interests at heart and not be the kind of cretin writing mean letters to her ex-girlfriend
I came here to say the same thing. The mother wants to think she has grandchildren. So if that were the case, her daughter is in a horrific situation where she has been a s*x slave for almost 30 years, has had children by her traffickers against her will and that she and her children are being held hostage in a violent existence.
I’m not in the mother’s shoes, I know. But yikes.
They are so desperate for her to be “straight” they’d rather fantasise about her being gang raped, than see her go to a peaceful grave a lesbian.
That…🤦♀️ No words.
I haven’t watched this show, but I’ve heard her story on about 30 different podcasts and I think this is the first time I’ve heard she was gay and that was not accepted by her parents. That would be the real tragedy here and might trigger anyone to jump. It reminds me of when I watched the new “Unsolved Mysteries” and came away thinking most of the episodes weren’t really mysteries, they were unexpected suicides that the families [understandably] don’t want to acknowledge or process.
She’s dead. She fell overboard and it’s absolutely tragic. You know what else is tragic? That the family has refused to accept that. What’s more likely? That a young woman was singled out and smuggled off of the ship and held in sex trafficking, or that the noise her dad heard (and what woke him up) was likely her leaning over to look at something (or take a picture) and falling into the water.
No one singled her out, that’s what the ship employees do, they FLIRT FOR TIPS. This netflix series was an incredible waste of time.
There was a PI in the series. The father and brother were with him when the brother said he heard her call his name from a passing car for it not to be her when they pulled it over. They didn’t mention $100k though. That’s a lot for back then.
The fact that her family didn’t “know” she was gay is a very important detail. I clocked that immediately from the pictures (and I think Brad is too). Couple that with the letter to the ex which didn’t sound healthy at all, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a suicide.
Whether dead or alive, I hope she is at peace and I hope her family finds peace as well.
“Credible” my foot. A couple of people claimed to have seen a brunette that resembled her. People insert themselves into these cases to feel important. “Trafficking” isn’t done by grabbing middle class women from their families and smuggling them off cruise ships. Why would they do something that complicated and risky when the usual grooming methods are low-risk and effective?
And the “no body” thing is ludicrous. It would be more surprising if they *had* found a body.
Has there ever been a case of a passenger trafficked from a cruise ship? I find that extremely hard to believe.
Not that I can find.
I don’t know if there is, but there are plenty of known cases where LGBTQ people have ended their lives because their families rejected them.
Occam’s Razor – the simplest explanation is usually the best one.
I’m sorry for their loss but the family are hardly whiter than white here.
They spent 20 years lying to everyone (including actively lying to police) that Amy was straight including making up a fake boyfriend, because they are deeply homophobic and believed they had to forcibly closet Amy after her death.
There’s also a lot of evidence to suggest they were emotionally abusive and deeply controlling. The abusive letter Amy’s dad sent her ex-girlfriend was truly unhinged.
It’s also concerning that Amy vanished so soon after telling them that she was a lesbian (and we know that they brutally rejected her for it).
I don’t think we can rule out Amy intentionally jumping.
She went overboard, either intentionally or accidentally.
The trafficking theory is just silly to me. She was a 23 year old college educated woman vacationing with her family, unlikely target for this.
That poor girl is long dead and needs to have her memory put to rest, not exploited for a badly done TV show. All those “witnesses” saw some white girl but oh no, it was most definitely Amy, a person they had never met. I also thought it was grief porn at certain points, like the mom crying over the still-packed suitcases in the attic. The constant “when Amy comes home” rhetoric is just an illness at this point, and I hope her family finds acceptance and peace before they die.
I was more upset by the fact that, if alive, she had spent nearly 30 years in an appalling sex-trafficking situation. But she obviously got drunk and fell off the boat. The story was really about the effect of this kind of mystery on the family, especially the parents (I don’t hate them) who have lived for 30 years in a make-believe world where she is alive somewhere. Everyone in the family, including of course Amy, stopped living when she died. I was concerned, however, about the reaction of the cruise ship personnel who could easily have made an announcement.
I haven’t seen this doc yet (I love cruising but am afraid of falling overboard so I think this would set me off) but generally speaking I agree with the comments here – when someone is missing on a cruise ship, falling overboard is unfortunately the most likely scenario, not being trafficked .
I watched this last week then did a deep dive. We have been cruising for over 25 years. And a lot of information didn’t ring true to me. Also I am surprised that Yellow hasn’t sued them for slander. It was been proven he was in his stateroom from around 1ish and was there at 7 AM when he opened his door when security knocked.
I think she went overboard.
This poor woman took her life because of her family’s homophobia. They were never going to accept her girlfriend. Amy didn’t want to go on the cruise, she spent the whole time drinking while her brother tried to get her to hook up with men. It’s very sad. Her family tried to erase her gayness from her story. Just look at her brother’s twitter – it’s filled with hateful, anti-gay messages.
That poor woman, what an awful family she came from.
Honestly, her family’s behavior regarding her sexuality does kind of open up another alternative that would also explain why they haven’t moved on.
If one or more of them argued with Amy about it and things got heated…well, she wouldn’t be the first person to get shoved off a boat in the middle of the ocean, intentionally or not.