Amy Bradley Is Missing: New Netflix Documentary Explores the Chilling Disappearance at Sea

A new Netflix documentary series revisits one of the most haunting and perplexing unsolved cases in recent history: the disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley. The film, Amy Bradley Is Missing, meticulously reconstructs the events surrounding the 23-year-old’s vanishing from a cruise ship, presenting a narrative fraught with conflicting theories, troubling eyewitness accounts, and a family’s unending search for answers. The series opens by establishing the idyllic scene of a family vacation, a reward for Ron Bradley’s work as an insurance executive. The Bradley family—Ron, his wife Iva, their son Brad, and daughter Amy—boarded the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas for a week-long tour of the Caribbean, with stops planned in Aruba and Curaçao. The documentary portrays Amy as a vibrant young woman on the cusp of a new chapter in her life. A recent college graduate with a degree in physical education, she was a talented athlete and a trained lifeguard. Upon her return, she was set to start a new job at a computer consulting firm. The film underscores that her life was filled with plans and commitments, including a new dog waiting for her at home, details that stand in stark contrast to any suggestion she intended to disappear. Yet, the series also introduces a key paradox: despite her capability in the water, Amy harbored a deep apprehension about the open ocean, a detail that complicates the simplest explanation for what happened next.

The Final Hours Onboard

The documentary painstakingly pieces together a timeline of Amy’s last known hours. On the night before she vanished, she and her brother Brad were at the ship’s disco, dancing and socializing with other passengers and members of the ship’s band, Blue Orchid. A videographer captured footage of Amy on the dance floor with the band’s bassist, Alister Douglas, known as “Yellow”. According to the ship’s computerized door lock system, Brad returned to the family’s cabin around 3:35 a.m., and Amy followed just five minutes later. The two chatted for a while on their private balcony before Brad went to sleep, his last words to his sister being, “I love you.” The film then focuses on a critical window of time. Between 5:15 and 5:30 a.m., their father, Ron, woke briefly and saw Amy’s legs on the balcony lounge chair, where she appeared to be asleep. He noted the balcony door was closed and dozed off again. When he awoke fully at 6:00 a.m., Amy was gone. Her cigarettes and lighter were also missing, but her shoes had been left behind in the cabin.

Alarm on the High Seas

What followed was a slow-unfolding panic that the family claims was met with institutional indifference. The documentary details the family’s frantic efforts to alert the crew as the Rhapsody of the Seas was docking in Curaçao. They pleaded with ship personnel to delay lowering the gangplank, fearing Amy could be taken off the vessel. They also begged for a ship-wide announcement, but the crew allegedly resisted, stating it was too early to use the public address system. The first page for “Will Amy Bradley please come to the purser’s desk?” was not broadcast until nearly 8:00 a.m., by which time a significant number of the ship’s 2,400 passengers had already disembarked to explore the island. The Bradley family has long been critical of Royal Caribbean’s response, which they describe as slow and insensitive. The documentary highlights that an initial search of the ship was later found by the FBI to have been incomplete, covering only common areas and not crew or passenger quarters. Royal Caribbean maintained it acted “appropriately and responsibly at all times” and was never informed by law enforcement of any evidence suggesting foul play.

Two Fates: A Fall or a Forcible Taking

The investigation, as presented in the film, quickly diverged into two starkly different narratives. The first, and simplest, is that of a tragic accident. Amy, having been drinking, could have become disoriented, leaned over the railing of the moving ship, and fallen into the vast, dark ocean. A search launched hours later would have faced nearly impossible odds. The Netherlands Antilles Coast Guard conducted a four-day search of the sea but found no trace of her. The second theory, which the family suspected from the start, is that of a criminal abduction. This possibility was given weight when official investigators stated there was “no evidence that Amy… fell overboard, was pushed or committed suicide”. The FBI has kept her case open and listed her among its most wanted missing persons, suggesting a criminal act is considered a serious possibility. This theory posits that Amy was targeted by crew members or others, possibly drugged, and then smuggled off the ship when it docked in Curaçao.

Shadows on the Deck: Persons of Interest

The abduction theory is fueled by several suspicious events and interactions detailed in the documentary. The focus narrows on Alister “Yellow” Douglas, the bassist from the ship’s band. Amy had reportedly mentioned that he had been “a little too close” while dancing. More critically, other passengers reported seeing Amy with Douglas on an upper deck between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m., precisely in the window after her father last saw her. These witnesses claimed Douglas handed her a dark liquid and was seen leaving the area alone a few minutes later. Adding to the family’s suspicion, Douglas approached Amy’s brother Brad shortly after her disappearance was known only to family and security, and said he was “sorry to hear about your sister”. Brad found the comment deeply unsettling. Douglas was questioned by the FBI and passed a polygraph test; with no direct evidence linking him to the disappearance, he was never charged. Another troubling detail presented in the film is the disappearance of photographs of Amy from the ship’s photo gallery. The ship’s photographer remembered developing and displaying several pictures that included Amy, but after she went missing, those specific photos vanished, suggesting a deliberate attempt to erase her presence.

A Phantom in the Caribbean: The Sightings

In the years that followed, the family’s hope was kept alive by a series of disturbing and compelling, yet ultimately unverified, sightings. In August 1998, two Canadian tourists on a beach in Curaçao saw a woman they were certain was Amy. She was accompanied by two aggressive-looking men, and one of the witnesses noted that her tattoos—which he described accurately before ever seeing a missing person poster—matched Amy’s. The woman appeared to try to make eye contact after hearing the men speak English. A year later, a U.S. Navy petty officer, William Hefner, claimed he encountered a woman in a Curaçao brothel who identified herself as Amy Bradley. She allegedly begged him for help, saying she was being held against her will and was not allowed to leave. Hefner, fearing repercussions for being in a brothel, did not report the incident until after he retired. By the time authorities could investigate, the brothel had burned to the ground. Then, a haunting photograph surfaced from an adult website advertising “erotic vacations”. The photo showed a lingerie-clad woman, identified as “Jas,” who bore a strong resemblance to Amy. The Bradley family remains convinced the distressed-looking woman in the image is their daughter.

A Family’s Long Ordeal

The documentary powerfully conveys the devastating, decades-long impact on the Bradley family. Their unwavering belief that Amy is alive is symbolized by her red Miata, still parked and waiting in the family’s garage. Their desperate search also made them vulnerable to cruel exploitation. The film recounts their experience with a con artist named Frank Jones, who claimed to be a former Special Forces operative. He convinced the Bradleys that he had located Amy and could mount a rescue mission, extracting a total of $210,000 from them over time. He even provided staged photographs as proof of his efforts. Jones was eventually exposed and convicted of mail fraud. Ron Bradley’s poignant question in the film—”If it was your child, what would you do?”—captures the depth of their desperation.

An Unanswered Question

Today, the case of Amy Lynn Bradley remains an open FBI investigation. Although she was declared legally dead in 2010, her family has never stopped searching. The discovery of a human jawbone in Aruba in 2010 led to a brief hope for answers, but it was not a match for Amy. The central mystery endures, caught between the probability of a tragic accident and the chilling possibility of a sinister crime supported by a string of compelling but unprovable clues. Amy Bradley Is Missing does not offer a definitive answer. Instead, it leaves the viewer with the same profound and agonizing uncertainty that the Bradley family has lived with every day.

The disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley occurred on March 24, 1998.

Where to Watch “Amy Bradley Is Missing”

Netflix