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Amy Bradley disappeared while on a cruise of the Caribbean with her family in 1998, yet over 25 years later, the case surrounding the 23-year-old still mystifies police. Because a body was never found, many believe that Amy is still alive.
In Netflix's latest true crime offering, Amy Bradley Is Missing, we dive headfirst into the unsolved case, hearing from Amy's friends and family along with the officers still trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance and establish whether this was a tragic accident or crime.
So what actually happened to Amy Bradley? Here's everything we know.
What happened to Amy Bradley?
First of all, there's a lot we don't know when it comes to the case of Amy Bradley.
Because she vanished before the age of cellphones, it's almost impossible to trace her movements before her disappearance.
In 1998, Amy set off on a Caribbean cruise with her parents and younger brother. She had just graduated from Longwood University.
On March 23, Amy and her younger brother Brad spent the evening at the ship's night club. Records show that Brad's cabin door was unlocked at 3:35 am, while Amy's cabin was opened at 3:40 am. Presumably, this is when she returned to her room. However, when Amy's father, Ron, checked on Amy at 6 am, she was gone.
Has Amy Bradley ever been found?
A search of the waters around the boat began that day, lasting for four days. Authorities suspected that Amy had fallen overboard and drowned, however, a body was never found. Ultimately, though Amy Bradley was legally declared dead in 2010, her whereabouts remains unknown.
There have been a few potential sightings of Amy since then. That August, a group of tourists claimed they saw a woman who looked like Amy on a beach.
In 1999, a U.S. naval officer said that he had met a woman in a brothel who claimed to be Amy.
In 2005, a woman called Judy Maurer was on holiday in Barbados and claimed that she overheard a group of men abusing a woman. She later comforted the woman, who told her her name was Amy.
Yet it wasn't until Judy watched the Dr Phil episode spotlighting Amy's case that she realised the person she had met may in fact be Amy Bradley. On realising, she called the FBI who flew to Barbados to investigate though nothing ever came of the lead.
Theories about Amy's disappearance
Several theories about what really happened to Amy have been suggested over the years.
Some people believe that Amy might have been murdered, before her remains were hidden on board. Others believe that she hid herself on the ship and ran away from her family at the next stop. Then there are those who believe that she was kidnapped on board and is still being held captive.
Amy's family believe that she is “out there.” “We all have this gut feeling that she’s out there,” her brother Brad says in the documentary. “The lack of closure or the not knowing allows us to continue to hope. So I actually prefer it that way than the finality of having an answer.”
