Crime Weekly - S3 Ep326: Amy Bradley: The Mysterious Disappearance from a Caribbean Cruise (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

In the early morning hours of March 24, 1998, 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley vanished from the balcony of her family’s cabin aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Just a few hours earlier, she had been at a party, joking with her brother, dancing with the ship’s band, and planning out the next day’s adventure in Curaçao. By sunrise, Amy was gone. Her sandals were still on the balcony. Her cigarettes were missing. Her key card and license were gone too, but everything else had been left behind.  What began as a family vacation quickly turned into a nightmare, and the moments leading up to Amy’s disappearance would raise questions that remain unanswered to this day. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. https://www.TaskRabbit.com - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 15% off your first task! 2. https://www.NakedWines.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for $100 off your first six bottles! 3. startphotobooth.com/crime - Check out our FREE profit calculator!

In the early morning hours of March 24, 1998, 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley vanished from the balcony of her family's cabin aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Just a few hours early, she'd been at a party, joking with her brother, dancing with the ship's band, and planning out the next day's adventure in Curacao. By sunrise, Amy was gone. Her sandals were still on the balcony. Her cigarettes were missing. Her keycard and license were gone too,

but everything else had been left behind. What began as a family vacation quickly turned into a nightmare, and the moments leading up to Amy's disappearance would raise questions that remain unanswered to this day. Hello everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Lavasar. All right. So today, as you could tell from the title and from the teaser and from Derek and I talking about it for a week, we are covering the disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley, which has recently been made into a Netflix documentary and has been a case that has haunted me and stayed with me for. for many, many years. So Derek just covered it and detected perspective. Yep, gave my whole

thing. And it blew up. It blew up for considering my channel. It blew up. It was like the top on Google, have over 100,000 views on it, not what I normally get on my video. So it's, it's been crazy. I know we're going to get right into it because we want, we have a lot to cover just before we do. We mentioned it on crime weekly news. Mention it quick here. For anyone who didn't see, we now have YouTube memberships for people who are on YouTube. A lot of you were asking for it because a lot of other content creators do it. We hadn't. We now have it.

You can see it up on the screen here. We have the different badges from the Python to the Fox to the Crime Weekly Diamond badge, all based on how long you're a member. With it, your replies and your comments get highlighted. You can also leave different emojis that are specific for us. It's like a picture of Stephanie, a picture of me. We're going to be adding more emojis to it as well. And then also you get featured on our page as a member.

So if you want to join up, If you don't, it's not going to hurt or help you. You're still going to get the videos. But some people like to be, I guess, featured in the comments section. So if you want to be there and you want to support us, we love it. We love seeing the little badges. That's all I had. Yeah, it's fun stuff.

So, yeah, let's get right in because I'm actually very excited. I'm very excited to talk about this with you. And the fact that I don't sound like a bumbling moron on this one, or maybe I will. Who knows? The fact that I'm coming into it, not blind. No, that's a preemptive. I don't sound like a bumbling moron. No, I'm just kidding.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's like, it is a little different for me. It's nice to not be completely, not have you have all the facts in your back pocket. Well, as you know, we're going to kind of get into the background. Who was Amy? How did she get on this cruise ship? What are the circumstances leading up to it? So Amy Lynn Bradley was born on May 12, 1974 in Petersburg, Virginia, to her parents, Iva and Ron. She and her younger brother, Brad, who was born two and a half years after her. They grew up in Chesterfield County. This is a suburb just. outside of Richmond. Now, from the outside, the Bradley's looked like everything a family was supposed to be. Close-knit, loving, full of laughter. Amy's childhood friend Aaron spent a lot of time at their house and later said that they were the kind of family people dreamed being a part of. They were good people, inviting, wholesome, warm, everything that, you know, you'd kind of want to include yourself in. And Amy's loved one said she was known for having a very tender heart

and a rare ability to make people feel appreciated and seen. She was inviting and inclusive, and she took the time to really get to know people. She made them feel like, you know, they were important. Everything they were saying was important and she was paying attention. Her warmth paired with her natural charisma left a lasting impression on everyone she met. But Amy wasn't just kind. She was also fiercely athletic. The Bradley home was filled with trophies from the five sports Amy played growing up.

And those sports were soccer, softball, swimming, basketball, and volleyball. So she's very, very busy. And while attending Lloyd C. Bird High School, she lettered in all five. So, I mean, fiercely athletic, yes, incredibly talented, yes. It's hard to be good at one sport. It's hard to be that good at one sport, much less all five. There are people like that, though, just anything they do, stick or ball, they pick it up, they're good at it. Remember Aaron Hernandez was kind of like that.

A lot of those pro athletes could play multiple pro sports. And she also worked as both a lifeguard and a swim coach. So that's important to know. Amy Bradley, excellent swimmer. Very good. Well, I have something. Here, I'm going to put this out here right now. Okay, I have to let you, we talked about it before we hit record.

There's a lot of exposition. Not everyone knows Amy's case. So I'm going to bite my tongue on a lot of this to let you get all the facts out before we dive into it. And so just know, if you already watch Detective Perspect, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait until. Put a pin in it. Stephanie gets everything out there. then there's going to be, this is a multi-part series.

So I'm holding back. Okay. Yeah, put a pin in it, make it out of it. You're going to boomerang that back to me. Because we can debate that for 20 minutes right there. I'm not going to do it. Yeah. Incredibly strong swimmer. Incredibly strong swimmer.

I mean, you have to be, right? You're a swim coach. You teach other people to swim and you're a lifeguard. You save people from drowning. I'd say you're a strong swimmer, yeah? So if you weren't intoxicated or hit anything on the way down, if you had fallen, then you wouldn't, yeah, you'd be an excellent swimmer. I couldn't help it.

So she worked as a lifeguard and a swim coach, but it was always basketball where Amy really stood out and where she really would shine. She was a confident point guard who brought a lot of energy to the court. I mean, just in general, she brought a lot of energy to everything she did. She was super energetic, super, like happy, passionate, really just the kind of person that you're like, hey, this is a fun person to be around. She's outgoing, enthusiastic about the things she likes, once again, enthusiastic about people talking to her, telling them about themselves.

She was never somebody who was like, you know, I'm bored with this conversation. She just very, you know, brought a lot of energy to everything she did. And Amy's high school coach said, quote, she was the best ball handler and passer I ever coached. She loved the game. She worked real hard. She was very intense. She just seemed to be excited about life, end quote. Now, as a senior, Amy averaged 13 points, five steals, and four rebounds per game.

She helped lead her team to the Dominion District title and earned all district honors three times. Now, I'm not a big sports person. I didn't play sports. You know, I played soccer here and there, but I wasn't, like, competitively playing sports. What does this mean earned all district honors? That's a good thing. Yeah, it's great. So basically, there's every district that you play in is obviously multiple teams, and they pick the best players from that district to be on the all district or all state team. Essentially, she was really good. We'll just put it that way. I don't know how many schools were in that district, but more than one and she was she was one of the best so when you're saying she earned all district honors does

that mean when she was put on the all district team she won honors even amongst all of those elite athletes they don't actually usually those teams don't actually play so like you'll play for a certain high school and they'll pick an they'll pick an all district or all state team and it's just an honorable thing like you're mentioned in the paper or something where that that team doesn't actually get together and play other teams okay so there's just a team of people that are the the top of their game in their sport. Yeah, they get recognized as being all district or all state. They don't actually play.

So Amy was also named to the all central region team. I would assume that is also a good thing. She was so good that she earned a full athletic scholarship to Longwood College, which is a public university in Farmville, Virginia. So at Longwood, Amy majored in physical education with goals to be a teacher. She started more than half of the 87 games. played during her four-year career, and as a senior, she averaged 9.7 points per game, which was her highest college stat. She even tied a school record after scoring 7-3-pointers in a single

game. Now, I do know basketball because I don't watch sports and I don't play sports, but I love college basketball. I love watching. Caitlin Clark, she's coming for you. That's amazing. Yeah, 7-3-pointers in a single game. If I was watching a college game like that, Syracuse was my team, you know, even though they don't, they're not good anymore. But if I was watching a college game like that and somebody was scoring seven three-pointers, I would be on my feet. I would just be absolutely out of my mind with excitement because that's, that's very talented. Yeah. Yeah, but do you know who that is? Yeah, of course. Okay, just check. Golden State Warriors, right? Oh, look at, wow, I'm proud. Do you know what number he is? I have no idea. Oh, damn it.

The only reason I know this is because I used to do like woodburning and somebody hired me to make like a Steph Curry, Golden State Warriors. Like Steph Curry, number 30, Golden State Warriors, best shooter of all time. I wouldn't know that otherwise. I'm sorry. But those things come in handy if you're playing trivia. So at this point, basketball was such a big part of Amy's life that she got a tattoo on her shoulder of the Tasmanian devil playing basketball. This is an important thing to remember the tattoo, the Tasmanian devil tattoo. She also had a green and blue gecko tattooed around her navel, a Japanese symbol on her right ankle, and a primitive Japanese son on her lower back. So she's got some, she's got some tats. She's tatted up. While Amy was sure,

of her role on the court, she struggled feeling the same way when it came to her sexuality. During her junior year, Amy had confided in her roommate and close friend that she was gay and that she had started dating a fellow student named Kat. Amy asked if her friend could help her tell her parents. She was nervous, obviously, not because she was ashamed, but because she didn't want to disappoint them. This is a close family, right? But close families don't always mean open-minded families. Sometimes even it can be almost the opposite when your parents are very invested in your life as you're growing up in high school and as you go into college, they're very invested. They kind of almost have envisioned a path for you. And sometimes that path that

they've envisioned doesn't always match what you've envisioned. And so it's going to be difficult to tell these people who have always supported you, who have always been there for you, hey, I might have something about me that you may not have expected and being worried about how they're going to react to it. The only counter I would make to that is, I hope, if my relationship is as open with Tenly and Payton as I think it is, there wouldn't be apprehension because they would know that no matter what they say, I got their back. So I just want to push back a little bit on that.

And there have been some accounts that maybe, like you had said, in a nice way, their family wasn't open-minded and wouldn't be receptive to that. So there was some anxiety there for her to tell them because there might not have been as good of a relationship as some may have. And I'm not trying to put a negative spin on anything, but the fact that she was reluctant to tell them, to me, suggest that maybe they weren't as receptive to everything that was going on in Amy's life that we would like to believe, at least on the surface. Yeah, you can be close and tight net, but we also have to remember the times, right? Like it's not 2024, 2025 where we exist, where we're raising our children. And of course, it's like, oh, yeah, I'll always love you. It's not being openly gay was becoming obviously more visible in the 1990s.

Coming out publicly started becoming more common and less like, you know, impactful as far as like families, careers, things like that. Like people felt more comfortable doing that. Then you had celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres. She popped out in 1997 and she was like, I'm gay. this is who I am and, you know, TV shows like Will and Grace that premiered in 1998. So being gay and being openly gay was becoming more mainstream and kind of on people's radar. Whereas before that, it was sort of like, hey, this is something you hide.

It's not openly talked about. It's not super prevalent in media. I think now we do have that benefit where movies, music, TV, we see the LGBTQ community everywhere. It's just so much more mainstream now. So, yeah, you would worry as a kid in the 90s, what are my parents going to think about this? Because it's not like Amy's parents were watching, you know, television where this would have been introduced to them and almost sort of help her, like, bridge that gap. This would have been something that was not as well known, I guess. And I'm not saying it's going to excuse them from being upset about it.

That's the only reason I bring it up because I don't know if it's in your script. I haven't read your script yet, but I can tell you. If it comes up later in the script, we'll address it again. But allegedly, when she did tell them, they were not happy and they actually told her were, like, disappointed in you. So not only did she feel anxiety about telling them, but it appears that anxiety was warranted because they reacted the way she anticipated, which to me, I don't agree with personally. If my son or daughter came to me, told me they were gay, I love them no matter what. And I'm going to support them no matter what. I'm definitely not going to say I'm disappointed in you.

Oh, for sure. If that's what happened, and I wasn't there, but if that's what happened, I don't agree with it. I think once again, like, it was the perception of it almost felt like back then people thought it was a choice. Like, I'm disappointed you've chosen this. Like, you have chosen this. And now I think we're very well-versed on the fact that it is absolutely not a choice. Just like being, you know, cisgendered is not a choice. You just are who you are.

But back then, it just wasn't as well-known. There's a lot of things that we've come to learn a lot and educate ourselves about a drug addiction, mental health things, that back then it would be like, oh, why are you choosing to be depressed or why are you choosing to be a drug addict? And we just didn't understand as much what really it was entailed and that it's not a choice. And this is something that you are born with. You're born liking and loving who you like and love. And that's it. So eventually, Amy did tell her parents the truth. So you do have it in here. Yeah. She was gay. She was dating Kat. And according to Kat, the Bradley's were not happy. Ron even wrote a three-page letter to Kat explaining exactly how he felt, which

was that he was surprised and disappointed. So he wrote the letter to, so Ron is Amy's father. He wrote the letter to Kat, Amy's girlfriend, saying that he was surprised and disappointed. So Kat, her real name is Shannon Kat Lovelace. and she'd met Amy in 1994, and, you know, she said they started, you know, developing feelings, Amy kissed her, they started dating, and then Kat was dating Amy when Amy came out to her parents. And even Kat said she had never seen someone as close to their family as Amy was.

And, you know, Kat did say that Ron wrote this three-page letter where he made his feelings on the relationship very clear. And eventually, this kind of of caused a strain on the relationship because Amy was so close to her parents. And actually, Kat has given a few interviews since all of this went down. And basically, she said both her and Amy had boyfriends as beards. And Amy was absolutely gay. And Kat actually stayed with the Bradley's one summer. But at that time, they were both on the down low.

And Amy was still afraid to come out. Kat said, there's nothing wrong with the Bradley. She said, they're really nice people. the family were super close. She enjoyed being around them. But she said she did feel like Amy's personality around her family was kind of performative. Like her parents and her brother didn't know every facet of her. And Amy had to kind of like put on, you know, a mask and a persona when she was with her family that she didn't necessarily feel she had to put on around her college friends and around a cat. And I wasn't trying to say they're bad people either. Like they're just more, I guess I would word it as traditional, if that makes sense. At that time especially. Yes, at that time, I'm not trying to frame them as bad people. So I just want to make sure that's clear. Now, I do think it's interesting that Amy's sexuality wasn't publicly discussed until the Netflix documentary aired, which has been 27 years after she went missing.

And then after the documentary was released, Brad claimed the series had misrepresented Amy's identity, saying it portrayed her as a lesbian when she was actually bisexual. But it's unclear if that's even accurate, right? Because in the documentary, Amy's closest. friends appeared certain that she was a lesbian. And like I said, Kat herself said, yeah, Amy had the boyfriend. I had a boyfriend too. Yeah, Kat was dating her. Yeah, but we were dating. We were not that she was a hundred percent. She was saying I was dating her. She was 100 percent a lesbian, not bisexual. The only reason she had a boyfriend at that time was because we, we didn't want to be open. And Ron, Amy's father, he defended his choice to send Kat this letter

saying that he was disappointed and not super happy about Amy's sexuality, he said it wasn't the life that they would have chosen for Amy. But at the end of the day, it was her life and they loved her unconditionally. And Iva, you know, Amy's mother, she did add that their concern stemmed from fear that society wouldn't accept her, which once again makes perfect sense. This wasn't really that accepted. You saw a lot of pushback. And people were sadly, I mean, it's sad to think about it. It's so hard to even consider that because we live in a time where It's just normal. Of course, it's always been normal, but now we see it as normal.

We raise our children to see that as normal, but then it wasn't. So her parents were concerned. You're always concerned as a parent, your kid's going to have a harder life. So her parents were concerned, we don't want you to make a choice. Once again, quote unquote, they thought it was a choice that would make your life harder. Now, Amy's friends also mentioned that she liked to drink and party, and Kat believed that Amy used alcohol to help numb the pain. She felt over her family not fully accepting her.

Another friend described Amy as carrying a kind of heaviness, a weight that came from feeling misunderstood by your own family, which is totally, it's totally understandable. I can get that, you know, people drink for different reasons, but, you know, sometimes socially, sometimes they just have one or two to have fun. But if you're drinking often, it's usually to hide from something, run from something, or to sort of numb yourself from something that you don't want to feel. And that makes perfect sense. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. So summer is officially in full swing, which is great for so many things. Beach days and barbecues and downtime and spending more time with your family and having longer days because it's getting dark later. But it's not so great for that ever-growing to-do list at home because I find during the summer I'm spending way less time at home.

And you know what the to-do list is that I'm talking about, the patio furniture that's still in the box, even though it's almost August. the shelf you've been meaning to mount since spring of last year, or in my case, the laundry room sink that has mysteriously decided to gurgle like it's auditioning for a horror movie. I feel like I have a poltergeist in there. Now, I finally gave up and called in a pro using TaskRabbit, and honestly, I should have done it sooner, and I will from now on. TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers who can help with everything from moving and mounting to furniture assembly and home repairs.

You just open the app, find someone based on cost, skill set, and reviews, and Boom, book them. Some taskers are even available the same day, which is wild and so convenient. Now, the guy who helped me was on time, professional. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he got the job done in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to watch a YouTube tutorial and cry. Definitely a fraction of the time. I would have given up. And taskers with task rabbits have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs, and helped with 1.5 million moves. And if you're not satisfied, task rabbit's happiness pledge has you covered there's really nothing to lose here nothing to risk

and everything to gain we love task rabbit and derrick is going to tell you how you can check them out for yourself tackle your to do list today and get 15% off your first task at task rabbit dot com or on the task rabbit app simply by using promo code crime weekly and crime weekly's all one word that's promo code crime weekly at task rabbit dot com for 15% off your task task rabbit book trusted help for home tasks. All right, we're back. So despite these struggles, Amy was going through as a very young person, she graduated from Longwood College in 1996 with a degree in physical education.

She talked about going back to school for a master's in sports psychology or possibly even opening a sports bar. In the meantime, she moved back home and got a job waiting tables at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. And her boss said, quote, she was great. She was always on time. willing to work, the customers loved her, and she just always had a good time with all of the rest of the employees here." End quote. Not long after graduation, Amy reconnected with Molly,

a childhood friend. Both women had come out during college and were now single. They went to a bar, danced, and caught up, and there was an instant connection, and from there they started dating. But there was one complication. Molly was a photographer and had just accepted a job in Kentucky. She was preparing to move, but they decided to try long distance, and Amy started visiting on weekends. Things continued going really well, and Molly felt herself falling in love with Amy. But then in January of 1998, Amy called Molly and told her that she had kissed someone else after they had both been drinking. Amy said she didn't have feelings for the other person. In fact, the experience had confirmed her feelings for Molly.

And some people online have speculated that the kiss may have been with a man, and that Amy did it to be sure of her sexuality, but that's just speculation. Amy isn't here to clarify the truth, and either way, Molly said she needed time. She told Amy, she wasn't ready to talk and stopped answering her calls. And obviously, Amy was devastated. She tried to win Molly back, but it didn't work. And once again, this is understandable. They're young people, number one.

Number two, Amy's trying to figure out who she is, right? This is not a time to come out as gay when you don't have a lot of people around you. who are also sort of versed in that process and how to move through it and find yourself. So she's still trying to find herself. And I think it's great that she was honest with Molly. She didn't have to be. But she says to Molly, this is what happened. And I wanted to be honest with you because I care about you, because I want something real

with you and because I want to go on with you in life and I don't want this hanging over me. And it only made me feel more sure that I care about you and I love you and I want to be with you. but Molly obviously felt betrayed and hurt, and so she needed some time. I'm so glad that you're going this in depth on this because some people at this point may be asking, why is Stephanie spending so much time on Amy's sexuality? In detective perspective, I don't do this deep of a dive, so I didn't. My shows are only an hour.

But this is really important, and we're not going to talk about it now. We're going to talk about it when we start to go over different theories. but to give you a little tease, if you're to believe that Amy left the room to meet up with a man, that's not something you would expect from someone who's gay. So having this dialogue and talking about her sexuality is very important because if you're to believe what you're hearing here, it doesn't give as much weight to the theory that she went to go meet up with a man.

So it's something to me that was extremely important, and I'm glad you're spending so much time talking about it because it will come into play later in the series. for sure. Yeah, and I do, I do think it's relevant that Amy's brother, Brad, would come out and say, oh, no, she wasn't like a full lesbian. She was bisexual, even though there's no evidence that she was bisexual, right? We know she had a boyfriend during college, but Kat says that's a beard. It was a cover up. There's no evidence or stories or eyewitnesses who are like, yeah, Amy equally would kind of go out with boys and girls. No, she seemed to be at this point

focused specifically on women. So for Brad to say, no, she was bisexual, I think that a lot of that is maybe not wanting to accept fully that she was a full lesbian. And also, it really doesn't add any foundation to the fact that she was hanging out with this guy and then she left her cabin again to go meet him if she's a lesbian because why would a lesbian go out to meet a man in the middle of the night other than for some romantic Trist. And if we're to believe what, you know, everybody who knew Amy as far as her friends knew about her, that wouldn't have been something she would do because she wasn't interested

in men in a sexual or romantic way. Yeah. And I love that you mentioned that Amy's sexuality wasn't really mentioned until the Netflix documentary. And it wasn't, it was mentioned in there, but it wasn't a big thing. And I want to say this as we go over this series, because I do see a lot of people in the comments saying, oh, I watch the Netflix documentary and I believe this or I believe this. I'm going to say this as someone who's been on multiple shows that when these shows happen, whether it's Netflix or Discovery ID or even a show that I was involved in, which was the OJ series, when you want a show to get picked up,

if they had came out and said, hey, we're going to do a series to prove that OJ was guilty. It wouldn't have got made. The reason the show got made is because someone came out, Bill Deere, and said, I can prove OJ's innocent. That's the angle that was interesting. So with Amy's case, the interesting angle here was that she was trafficked, not that she had fallen overboard. So for the sake of these series, and I'm talking about all of them, I ask you when you watch the documentary or if you already have to consider that. They are making a TV show.

They are making something that they want people to watch. They're not necessarily trying to solve a case. So just keep that in mind because I am giving them credit here, even though it doesn't sound like it. because the fact that they even brought it up in the series does take away from a little bit of the theory that she went to meet up with a man and I respect and appreciate the fact that they included that. So I'm giving them a compliment.

It might sound a little backhanded, but I'm just asking all of you as someone who's been in this industry for over 10 years now, that when they make these shows, they make them so people see the title and want to watch it. That's all I'm saying. And I'll also say that I think a big reason why for decades,

am bisexuality was not included as part of her story is obviously because her family, the Bradley's, were the ones spearheading the movement to trying to find her and keeping her name alive, which is great. I am not saying anything bad about them. But of course, they're not going to lead with that. They're not going to lead.

They don't want it to be included. They don't believe it has anything to do with anything. Correct. And I think I'm not spoiling anything here. They don't believe she fell over the cruise ship. So they believe that she was trafficked or something more nefarious took place. And to your point, the idea that if she was gay,

she wouldn't go meet up with them could hurt that. So they're not leading with that. I know this may come off to me, at least as some of you, like, I'm talking negatively about the family. I'm trying to get to the truth, whatever that may be. That's my goal. I have no skin in the game. That's all I wanted to put out there. So Amy's dating Molly.

Molly's got real intense feelings for Amy. Amy kisses someone else. Tells Molly about it. Molly's like, okay, I hear you. Thank you for telling me. But I need some time. She won't return Amy's calls. Amy's very, very upset.

about this, and she then made a few major changes in her life. She got an English bulldog puppy and named him Sir Billionaire Bailey Boy, which is a cool name, such a cool name. I love it. She also decided to move out of her parents' house and into an apartment of her own, taking Bailey with her. She was excited about having her own space, but obviously she couldn't stop thinking about Molly. You know, she's making moves now to kind of exert some independence, to kind of say, hey, I love my family. We were close. But I'm becoming an adult now, and I have the right to live my life the way I want to live it. And I need my own space in order to do that. She's got her own space. She's got her own apartment. She's got her cute little puppy. And she wants Molly to be integrated into this new independent life that she's creating. So Amy kept calling Molly, trying to reach her, but Molly still wouldn't pick up. So Amy wrote Molly a handwritten letter and sent it in a bottle as a last ditch. effort to explain how she felt. She started her letter by saying, quote, I have written a dozen letters, yet none of them seemed appropriate for you to read. I've tried to write exactly what I

feel, but it never really came together the way I needed it to. I guess what I'm saying is, here goes, my final effort, end quote. Now later in the letter, she wrote, quote, Molly, I hurt you deeper than you can ever forget. I'm not asking you to forget because that'll never happen. I just wanted to ask you if you could find it in your heart to forgive me. Molly, will you you please forgive me. I have been insensitive, immature, and selfish. I don't like the person I was, and I'm not proud of how I acted. I feel like there's an ocean between us, like I'm on a desert island waiting for you to rescue me. A message in my bottle. My only hope. I miss you, Molly. End quote. And she ended the letter with, quote, save me please. Stranded Amy. End quote. Wow.

That's really cute. A message in a bottle and talking about feeling like stranded without her. Stranded Amy. So cute and sweet. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know how you could even deny that that touched you. You got to send them a message back in the bottle. Yeah. You got to, right?

Who would? Even if it's like, leave me alone, but in the bottle. No. Well, Molly later said she knew the message in the bottle was a love letter, but still she didn't reach out, at least not right away. And, man, Molly's holding on here. The message in the bottle would have gotten me. That didn't win you over.

Yeah, I don't care how mad I am. You send me a... She's a tough cookie to crack. She's got boundaries. She's got boundaries. Now, around this same time, Amy's parents won a week-long Royal Caribbean cruise through their work, Illinois Mutual Insurance Company. And the trip was set to run from March 21st to March 28 aboard the Rhapsody of the seas. The crews would depart from San Juan Puerto Rico with scheduled stops in Aruba, Carousau, St. Martin, and St. Thomas.

After that, the ship would return to San Juan where the Bradley's... would then catch a flight home. Now, the prize was originally intended for two people only, but Iva and Ron wanted to turn it into a family vacation, so they asked for special permission to bring along their children, Brad and Amy. Now, their request was granted, but with conditions. Because Iva and Ron's flight was already full, Amy and Brad had to fly separately.

They also had to share a single cabin with their parents. So Brad and Amy would sleep on the pullout couch while Iva and Ron took the bed. Once again, very important. Yes. Because Amy's right there in the room with her parents. This isn't something where she's in a separate room away from her parents, away from her brother. They're going to sort of be able to, in their waking hours, and a little bit even in their sleeping hours, have an idea of her movements throughout the day and night. We have a very small window where a lot goes down, allegedly.

So that's very important for the story. She wasn't off in a different cabin where someone could have came in, someone could have laughed. She could have had somebody in there with her. Yes, exactly. It's also a negative, too, because as you're going to see with any cabins, even back then, they had a key card, which would scan people in and out. So if she had been in another room and there was activity at her door, maybe that helps us figure out what happened. But because she entered this room and nobody was with her, it does give the potential suspects a little bit more ability to hide their possible. To be concealed.

Yeah. Because they would have never entered that room. Nobody would have seen them if that's what happened. And anybody Amy was talking to, let's say she was talking to someone. And it was a guy and he was like, well, let's go back to your cabin. She would have told him, I can't. My parents and my brother are there. You know, that's not good.

That's a no-go. That's not going to work. Which then leads to the speculation up, well, maybe she told someone that. And they were like, well, go back to your cabin, you know, let your parents know that you're there and everything. And when they fall asleep, sneak out, come meet me. We'll find a place. I know a place or whatever. And we're going to get into that too because on that particular night, Amy could have stayed out.

She was alone, and why would she have to go back and check in? I can't wait. I can't wait to get there. Let's get that exposition going. So Amy had never been on a cruise before, though Brad, her brother had. And at the time, cruises were quickly gaining popularity. They offered something unique and easygoing, all-inclusive atmosphere with gourmet food, really good, constant entertainment, high-end service.

It was a kind of vacation that felt both relaxing and luxurious. And it's so funny because, like, I see you. sounds like right up Stephanie's alley. No, no, you're nodding and you're like, yeah, because you've been on cruises. You've been on cruises, right? Yeah, and you just love cruises so much. I will never go, like, you love them so much. It's like, at this time, cruises were gaining popularity.

And it's like, now I think that. I love hearing you say it. A lot of people feel about cruises. Like, did you just see that Netflix documentary? The poop cruise? The poop cruise? Yeah, it doesn't help. That doesn't help.

I mean, that was a horror story all in its own. And it's kind of like, I could imagine myself being in this scenario, like having to sleep in like a tent city on this cruise ship. And you're like, cruises are so luxurious and high-end entertainment. And it's like, yeah, you're screwed at this point. Did you see the part where the other cruise ship came up and they were playing music and like dancing and the other people were sitting there, no power, couldn't use the toilets, no food?

And they're like, are these people serious? I was like, I would have jumped off the cruise ship and swam to that cruise ship at that point. Like I would have done anything, anything. There are definitely some areas. Even when the cruise is running perfectly, I will come out and admit. that there are some drawbacks to cruises even on the more expensive ones where after a couple days the food tastes the same because it really is all the same. There's only so much as big as the cruises, a lot of it is cabins. So there's a lot of activities, but it's also a seven-day cruise.

You can run through most of them pretty much and you're kind of like, okay, well, what do we do now? So I will concede pros and cons and I will tell you this. If you make me choose between a Disney trip and cruise, Disney all day. All day. All day. day. Every day. I'm going to, I'm going to the new park, Epic Universe. So am I. We talked about this. Yeah, I'm so excited. When are you going again? Um, end of September. Okay. And I'm going in November. So. Well, I want to go there for horror nights. I love horror nights at Universal. Yeah, that would be cool. I'm going in. You're not going until November. So sorry. I guess I'm going when it's cheaper.

I've also seen a ton of pictures of cruise ships recently where it looks like there's like 1,700 people on the pool deck and there's not even space like the pools packed and the decks packed and it's just everyone's packed in there like sardines it does not appeal to me I'm going to get you on a cruise at some point if it's like a private like crime con cruise and it's just me you and like 50 of our closest followers but I'll get you on a cruise I'll get you on a cruise so abie was obviously excited she spent weeks getting ready she went indoor tanning she dyed her blonde hair brown she got her nails done bought new clothes She told friends she was especially excited to shop at the island boutiques.

She wanted to pick out a few new things for her apartment. You know, she's got her own apartment now. She's making her own space. She wants it to be unique, cool, represent who she is. That's what she's looking forward to the most. And it is sad knowing how excited she was to go on this. Because some kids are like, yeah, I'm going on a vacation with my mom and dad. Like, this is going to suck.

But she was genuinely looking forward to this. She loved cruises as much as you. She loved cruises. Well, she didn't have been on a cruise before. And that's why she loved it as much. She loved them. She loved life. She was just excited for any new experience that it brought her way.

As you should be. I am not. I am not. I mean, this isn't a great example for me to convince you to go on based on what we're talking about here. I know. It's not. No example I've ever seen is good. If I had my choice, I wouldn't have had you cover this case.

It's not helping me. Well, either way, we are going to take a quick break. And then we'll be right back. Okay, real talk. Have you ever stared at a wall of wine battles? in the store and thought, I have no idea what any of these words mean. I don't know what varietals. I don't know what's the difference between wines that come from Oregon and wines that come from California and wines that come from Europe. Because honestly, same. And that's why I've

completely given up on guessing and now let Naked Wines do the hard work for me. And honestly, my taste buds have never been happier. Naked Wines is a wine club that connects you directly with independent winemakers from all over the world. No middleman. No overpriced bottles with a confusing label, just incredible wine delivered straight to your door, and the best part, it's up to 60% less than what you'd pay in stores. So everybody knows, you go to a restaurant, order a bottle of wine. It's like super expensive. And you think you're going to go to the store and get it for much cheaper. And it is cheaper, but it's still super expensive. With naked wines, they're cutting out the middleman, so you're paying much lower prices, up to 60% less.

That's huge. And I'm not talking bottom shelf energy here. These are small batch, hand crafted wines that feel like a secret you actually want to share. I recently cracked open a bottle of their Argentinian Malbec from my last box and it was just an instant mood booster. It was so good. I had some people over. I want to try it out. We paired it with some cheese. So I highly suggest checking naked wines out. They're going to send you a box. You can see which ones you like, which ones you don't. You can move accordingly from there. But Derek is going to tell you how you can try them out for yourselves. Now is the time to join the naked wines community. head to nakedwines.com slash crime weekly, click enter voucher and put in our code

crime weekly for both the code and password for six bottles of wine for just $39.99 with shipping included. That's crime weekly all one word. That's $100 off your first six bottles at naked wines.com slash crime weekly and use the code and password crime weekly for six bottles of wine for just $39.99. Okay, so around this time, when Amy's getting ready to go on the cruise with her brother and her parents, she was offered a job at a computer consulting firm owned by her aunt and uncle. And the position was for a marketing and office assistant. And Amy accepted.

So she made plans to start when she came back from vacation. Her life's coming together. She's got her own place. She's got a job lined up. She's like, let me go on this vacation, have a great time. And then I'm going to get home, get serious about, you know, adulthood and starting my life. and hopefully reconnect with Molly, who has still not responded to her message in a bottle letter. But luckily, shortly before Amy left for the cruise, Molly did reach out and the two reconnected.

And Amy invited her to Virginia. She wanted Molly to see her new apartment. She wanted Molly to meet her beloved dog Bailey. And Molly did make the trip. And the moment she saw Amy again, she said she just knew they were going to make it work. They made plans to see each other again. on Easter, April 12th after Amy returned from the cruise and started settling into her new job. And this makes me so sad because Amy really wanted Molly back.

She really knew like, okay, this is the person I want. I'm going to do anything it takes. I'm going to wait as long as it takes to have her back. And finally Molly comes back. And I'm so glad they got to spend that time together before Amy went on the cruise. But I'm so sad that they didn't get to have this life together. Now, after the Netflix documentary came out, Amy's brother Brad, claimed that Amy, actually had a boyfriend named Tom at this time. According to Brad, Amy wrote Tom a heartfelt

letter expressing how much she enjoyed being with him and his family, while also noting that she wanted to take things more slowly. Some people have questioned that version of events. They believe that if Amy did date Tom, it may have been a part of a deeper struggle between her true identity and the expectations she felt from her family. And others worry that Brad is lying in order to spin the narrative regarding Amy's sexuality, again, we don't know for sure what the truth is. Yeah. And we're not going to dive too much into it here with Brad.

He's doing a lot of interviews right now. I just saw one he did on Barstool Sports, which is interesting because I don't see Eddie Barstall do a lot of those. But you can go look at Brad's tweets yourself if you care to do so. There's some things that have been going on with this Twitter that some consider controversial. And he's a victim in this as well. based on what we know at this point. So we have to treat it as such.

But yeah, you have the ability to go look at Brad's tweets and look at the things that he's posting. He's pretty active there. So strongly recommend you go look at it yourself and follow up on some of the things that he said. And this is once again, just new information really since the Netflix documentary came out this Tom boyfriend guy. Brad's actual tweet that he said, he said, I thought I would share something that many of you might find interesting. Amy had a boyfriend of several months leading up to and during the cruise. He went back to Curacao with us to search for her weeks later and can be seen sitting in the couch during that press conference between my uncle Paul, who was interviewed and

also didn't make the cut and my dad. They had tickets to go to New York to see David Letterman after she got home. He was in love with her and was obviously devastated. He was flown to be interviewed for the Netflix show for five hours, but ended up being completely excluded from the story. she actually broke up with Kat to start dating him. He knew about her alternating preferences. He means her alleged bisexuality.

And he didn't have a problem with it. Not that her sexuality had anything to do with her disappearance anyway. But it paints a more accurate picture of who she was. Please don't ask why he wasn't mentioned in the series because I cannot tell you that. I would love to know why Netflix spoke with him for five hours and didn't feature him in the show. Does he even exist? I believe he exists. Here's what I would say.

I think you kind of already hit on it, too. There were points in Amy's life, according to Kat, where Amy would put up a disguise or a beard that she was straight. And clearly, from what we're hearing from her own girlfriend, that was not the case. And so this could have been a one-sided relationship where you can tell Tom was in love with her based on what Brad's saying. But as you mentioned, Amy was saying, hey, I want to take it slow. What does that mean? Is she just trying to see if maybe there's something there, but it's not because she seems like in these other letters that we have of hers, she's more straightforward and more passionate about her feelings. When she has feelings, she expresses them.

When she has true feelings like she did from Molly, she has no problem saying, I want to be with you. You're the one. She's no problem putting them in a bottle. Right. But with Tom, maybe she said, I want to take it slow, meaning like, I don't want to kiss. I don't want to be sexual. I'm just trying to build a friendship and a foundation with you. See where it goes.

See where it goes. And maybe was this to explore her sexuality or was this just for image purposes? Did Molly know that Amy was kind of dating a guy, whether it was for, you know, external appearances or for whatever? I don't know. I do wonder if Netflix interviewed him and realized maybe what we're saying where this was kind of a one-sided thing. like that he didn't have a single shred of evidence to suggest that she was really into him. And when we're doing this documentary, we wanted to kind of be a little bit of a mystery. They should have.

If they interviewed it for five hours, they should have at least had a clip something of time. And they intended on doing something with them. They interviewed him and yet nothing makes the final cut. If that, if that's the truth. If I'm taking Brad at his word and he was interviewed for five hours, which would be able to confirm, there's something there that we're not being told that Netflix looked at it when it got to the cutting room floor and said, We're not including that. I'm genuinely questioning whether they did even.

Interesting. I believe it happened, but I believe that maybe Tom didn't say exactly what Brad's saying. And Netflix was like, this is really wishy-washy. We got our credibility on the line. Cut it. It's not making sense to us. Maybe Tom was like, yeah, we were just really good friends. It might have had no weight on the case.

Yeah. Maybe he did know that Amy was a lesbian. He was fine with just being friends and kind of pretending to be her boyfriend. I don't know. Tom, you know, listen. Listen, nothing stopping Tom from speaking out. Yeah, where's time? If you're seeing this, we'll talk to you.

Where you at, Tom? You want to know what you had to say. Yeah. I want to talk to mystery, Tom. So on Saturday, March 21st, the Bradley family flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Iva and Ron flew together, like we already talked about. Brad and Amy were on a separate flight. Brad said they spent the flight talking, listening to music, getting excited about the trip.

Once they landed in San Juan, the family had some time to kill before boarding the ship, so they went shopping. And Amy made a few. purchases, including 15 rolls of film. She obviously had plans to take a lot of photos during the trip, some for her friends, some for a contest, others to display under the glass top of her coffee table in her new apartment. She had this cool idea to sort of, what do they call it, de copage, a bunch of pictures under... What did you just call me? Decopage, I think they call it. I have no clue what that is. My daughter Nev is really into doing that stuff. And so I've always heard her say decapage, declapage. I don't know. That's a thing. That's the first time

40 years I've ever heard of. See, it's somewhere in my brain. But basically she would take all the photos, put them and like put this sort of substance, this clear substance over to protect them and then put the glass of the coffee table over it. And it would be really cool. And I also think that Amy was developing like an interest in photography and taking pictures because of her relationship with Molly, who was a photographer. And as you know, when you care about somebody, your passions rub off on each other. You're kind of, you know, want to get a look into their world. And Amy definitely. bought a ton of film and she was going to take a ton of pictures. And I, I'm glad you brought this up as well because I don't subscribe to this theory, but there are a, there is a pocket of people who believe one theory that maybe she had decided to try to take a really cool photo as like the sun was rising or whatever and leaned over. You know, sometimes you do a weird angle to try to get a cool photo. Some people say, oh, maybe she slipped while taking that photo. I don't believe that.

Her camera was found, I thought. I don't know if her camera was found or not. If we'll probably get into that. I know we'll find out, but for me, I don't think you wake up at 5, 36 o'clock in the morning after a night of drinking and go, oh, you know what? Let me go grab my camera. You think that, right? Yeah.

I would absolutely do that. Okay. So listen, so that's good. Maybe we can explore that thing. I have done that, dude, because I don't know if you, so some people say like. I just haven't found any evidence of it, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have happened. I just didn't find anything to support it. Some people think that when you drink, or maybe this is the case for some people,

Let me know, Derek. Some people think when you drink. Oh, why you say to like? Because you drink, I drink. Okay, some people think when you drink, you have like really deep sleep. For me, it's the opposite. After a night of drinking, I have a very, see, you're out. I'm not.

I have a very restless sleep. It's like the alcohol is just like making me wake up every 10 minutes. I don't sleep deeply. I have a really bad sleep. And in fact, I find the night after drinking, I can't sleep in. I'm always up early. So you're not, so you hearing this theory, and I'm sure you're already started to probably see it online when you're doing your research. But there are people who believe that. That's a

possible theory that maybe that would explain why she would be leaning over a balcony rail or something like that. So I'm sure we'll get into that as well. Now listen, I'm going to talk about myself and the stupid things I've done to take a picture. But all the research I did on this case, and this is from years ago. In fact, if I pull up my Google Doc for the notes that I took, This happened in 2019. I was doing this research, yep. Spring chicken. So all the research I did said that Amy's camera and one role of film was never found.

But recently, Amy's brother, Brad, came out in an interview and said that her camera was found in a safe. So we're going to talk about that more in the next episode. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. And once again, this could be like the whole, oh, she wasn't a lesbian, she was bisexual. It could be this thing that maybe he's saying so that the whole theory of she got up there to take a picture and fell. And that's why her camera and one roll of film is not found is not possible because her camera was found. Yeah.

If the camera was found in the safe, she wasn't taking a photo, right? Everything I have, yeah, exactly. Everything I have searched for, everything I can find online, Amy's camera was never found. So that's interesting. But do I think it's plausible that she may have done something a little. risky in order to get a really cool shot. Yes, I've done that. Like, I've been on vacation, woke up early, trying to get a good picture of the sun rising. Amy was in her cabin, according to her father. We're going to talk about all this. And then she would leave again

and her flip-laps were there. So maybe she saw the sun coming up. She's like, hey, I'm up anyways. I've been partying all night. Let me run out to the deck really quick and try to get a picture. Or even on the balcony of her own cabin, say, hey, let me climb up here really quick and try to get a picture. Remember, Amy was incredibly athletic. she would have said to herself, I have the balance, I have the strength to be able to sort of like maybe straddle this balcony and get a picture. It's very possible. I'm looking at the interview right here with like the transcript and it says right here, quote, we have her camera. It was in the safe in the room with all the film that she had bought.

So again, it's one source. It's from him. But we've already talked about some stuff with Brad. Isn't this interview from like four days ago? Correct. It's the one you're referring to. So you've never said that to anybody before now. Yeah.

I hear where you're coming from. I'm not pushing back on it. So I would, I would, if Brad's listening to this, I would encourage you, if you want people to believe what you're saying, I would encourage you to produce that camera. Produce that camera, because I would assume there's pictures on that camera with that role of film that might be of interest. Useful. Yeah, that might be of interest to law enforcement and the police. And as far as I know, officially, her camera was never found. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, I agree. I would think law enforcement would have seized that camera and then maybe gave it back to them later. But the fact that it's in their possession, chain of custody, things like that. I mean, yeah, I completely agree with everything you're saying. Yeah, this is, and I'd like to look at the serial number on that camera to see if it was, you know, produced before Amy went missing on that cruise ship. Or if this is a camera that was purchased after that was just like the camera she had so that they could say we found the camera, just saying. It's all things that definitely, as we go through the series, whether you want to or not, we have to explore all of it. Exactly. I'm not trying to be an asshole. Yeah, I'm not trying to be an asshole here and be like Brad's lying or the Bradley's are bad people. I don't want. They lost their daughter. They lost their sister. In any circumstance, they are heavily and severely affected by this. It doesn't matter if she accidentally fell or if she was taken. It still is awful, no matter what way you look at it. So I don't want anybody to think or for the Bradley's to think that we're coming for them. But the point of it is to get to the truth.

To find her. And we need accurate details and accurate depictions of what happened here in order to get to the truth. I think everyone's on board with that. You know, sometimes you've got to go through tough terrain to get to the destination. And that's what we're doing here. So Amy also bought postcards when they were in San Juan to send to her friends. And on one, she wrote, quote, hey, girl, it's gorgeous here. We leave for Aruba tomorrow.

I'll be home Saturday at 10. See ya, Amy. Unquote. On another that she addressed to Molly, she wrote, quote, hey, it's beautiful here. Old San Juan. has got some amazing buildings. I am taking pictures. Maybe you can see them at Easter.

Wish you were here, Amy. End quote. So, yeah, she's telling Molly, like, you know, I'm taking pictures. Like, I'm taking an interest in the things that you like. I care about you. I want to be a part of your life. At around 4 p.m., the family boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas. And Brad later described the moment they stepped onto the ship as exciting.

At the time, the Rhapsody was the second largest cruise ship in the world. It was also nearly brand new, having completed its maiden cruise ship. voyage just 10 months earlier in May of 1997. The ship itself was massive. 11 stories high, 915 feet long, and 106 feet wide. It weighed 75,000 tons and carried a crew of 765 with space for more than 2,000 guests. It was also strikingly designed. More glass had been used in its construction than any other cruise ship. Glass lined the public areas creating uninterrupted views of the sea. Bay windows jutted out from the atrium, offering sunny spaces for passengers to sit and take in the ocean, and in the dining room,

six-foot portal windows opened the lower level to the sea, while the balcony offered floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Another major attraction was the solarium, designed with ancient Egyptian decor. Painted columns, hieroglyphs, and a pair of marble lions gave the space a dramatic feel. A retractable glass canopy kept the room protected from bad weather while a nearby bar and cafe served guests lounging by the pool. The Bradley family's room was on the eighth floor of the ship. It featured a private balcony and a few chairs and a small table. When they first arrived, Brad invited Amy out to the balcony to look at the view. He asked her to lean over the railing, but she refused due to her fear of heights. Even though the railing came up to her chest, she wouldn't go near the railing

on the balcony or anywhere else on the ship. She kept her distance. Once again, this is Brad's narrative. Has anyone else said that Amy's afraid of heights? Has anybody else stated, you know, she really was terrified. She didn't want to go near anywhere near that balcony. She don't want to go anywhere near the railing. She was keeping her distance. Has anybody else said that about Amy Bradley? Or is this simply what her brother Brad said, which once again would set a narrative. of how could she have fallen accidentally? She wouldn't even go near the railing. How could she have gotten up there to take a picture and fallen accidentally?

She was terrified of heights. She was terrified of the balcony. Yeah, these are all questions that you have to ask, and they're uncomfortable to ask. And there might be someone else out there like a cat or a Molly or even a Tom who would say, yeah, she was scared of heights. And that wouldn't be a stretch, right? I think a lot of people are scared of heights. And then I will say on a cruise ship, it is pretty high. and it's a straight drop down.

Yeah, very steep. Yeah. So I don't even let my kids go out on the balcony by themselves at all. Like there's a rule, you're not allowed to touch the glass. Unless I'm out there with you, you don't go out there. And the railing, the balcony, it would be a piece of big glass. Yeah, and you look right down. It's even someone like myself, I wouldn't say I'm scared of heights.

I don't love heights. But yeah, the balcony, especially if you're in the ninth or 10th floor of that ship, you're a ways up there down to that ocean and it can be a little intimidating. So I could definitely see her being scared of heights and having an impact on her, but again,

and why is she out on the balcony by herself? I don't know. There's a lot of thoughts that went through my mind. Well, we don't know if she was. That's the point, right? It's a, yeah, there's a lot. You've got to try to find the foundation where you know what you're hearing is true

and go from there. The question is, what is that foundation? Yes. Are there verifying reports that say Amy was out on the balcony alone at any time during her stay? We do know, and I'm jumping around a little bit, so I apologize, but we do know she used her key card to check into the room at 345. And I know you're going to bring that up when we get to the timeline, but we know she was in the room. And unfortunately, when you check out of the room, like when you leave the room, you don't have to use a key card to get out. So there's no evidence of her leaving the room, but there wouldn't be.

And unfortunately, the cameras weren't working. but we're going to get there as well, and I know I have to shut up. And by the way, I'm looking at a picture of the balcony on the Rhapsody of the Seas. It is all glass with like, you know, probably like a metal handle that runs across the whole top. It's all glass. And it says it's, it would have been chest height for her. I don't see how. Amy Bradley was about five, six.

Five six, yeah. This balcony, to me, based on the little table and chair sitting next to it, looks like it probably would have been about at her waist, maybe a little higher than a waist. Definitely not to her chest. I mean, I haven't seen the actual railing from the photos. Yeah, maybe about five feet. Maybe about five feet, four eight, four nine. They are pretty high. I feel like you could stand in front of it and comfortably like put your hands on it where your hands would, where your hands would be like maybe around. Yeah. I'll tell you this. It's not like the point where I'm six one, but it's not at the point where like you'd bend at the waist and you could bend lean over. You'd have to get on your tip. I would have to be on like, I would have to jump up like on my

tippy toes to get my waistline at the at the railing height so yeah i would say mid like above her abdomen maybe below her chest somewhere in that area but not to her chest no high enough where she would have to prop herself up on something to flip over or she would have to have momentum running towards the railing to flip over it it wouldn't be something where just leaning forward she would fall over and we're going to talk about all that because i i went in depth on that and my theory on how that transpired. But yes, this case is so fascinating. Okay. So obviously now we're hearing Amy's afraid of getting too close to the balcony. Once again, we don't know if that's true or if it's just the narrative of the Bradley family. But after settling into their room, the family participated in

the ship's mandatory safety drill. This is just something they do on like the opening day of the cruise. You know, they tell you where your emergency exit. I don't know. I've never been on one, but I did see that pool cruise. day. The first day of the cruise, you go down, you find out where you have to go in case there's an emergency, who you talk to, et cetera, et cetera. So that evening, they spent time in the casino and had dinner with some of Iva and Ron's coworkers. And the next day, Sunday, March 22nd, the ship spent the day at sea. The Bradley's explored the ship and took in the views of the crystal clear water. That evening, they called home to check in with Brad's girlfriend

and Amy's friend, Aaron, who was staying at their house and watching Amy's dog Bailey. And Aaron, later recalled that Amy sounded upbeat on the phone. She told Aaron, hey, I'll see you when I get back home. I can't wait to tell you about the trip. Now, in the morning of Monday, March 23rd, the ship docked in Aruba. This was their first stop. And the Bradley family disembarked together. They posed for a photo outside the ship. From there, they found a beach. They went swimming in the ocean. Though Amy wasn't thrilled about it, because despite being a strong swimmer, she didn't like the idea of swimming in the ocean because she didn't know what else might be swimming with her. Once again, I come back to this.

Did Amy notoriously not like swimming in the ocean? I notoriously don't like swimming in the ocean. But if I'm going to swim in any ocean, it's going to be in the Caribbean where they were. They're in Aruba, crystal clear waters. They're all blue, beautiful. You can see to the bottom. It's not like swimming in the Atlantic where there's just a bunch of like silt and sand and everything's murky and you don't know what is swimming with you.

Was this a thing that Amy didn't like to do swim in the ocean? Or was this her family saying she didn't like. to swim in the ocean to further reinforce the idea that there's no way she would have gotten that close to the balcony. There's no way she would have, you know, risked this because of how afraid she was of the heights and of the ocean. We don't know. We don't know. And I want to say that as you're talking about this, it's not even the implication that they're doing it from a malicious perspective or something nefarious. It could be just, hey, they truly don't believe that she went overboard. And so anything that would suggest that they're going to,

discredit it, or they're going to magnify other things that would enhance what they believe and would strengthen their argument. And it might just be a bias. They don't want people to stop looking for her. They don't want people to think she accidentally went over or she drowned or she never left that ship because then people won't be looking for her. Some people will read into what we're saying, like, oh, we're implying the Bradley's could be involved or whatever. No, it's just a matter of they want people to go out there and be excited and engaged and reinvigorate people to go try to find Amy. And it's not going to happen if everyone believes that she's already dead.

Yes, exactly. So after some time on that little beach, the family rented a small convertible SUV. They decided to explore the island, but things didn't go quite as planned. They got lost in one of the more remote desert-like areas of Aruba, where they encountered wild dogs and goats, and everyone got badly sunburned. It was kind of chaotic and stressful in the moment, but they laughed about it later after they made it back to the port in time. So we're going to take our last break here, and we'll be right back.

Okay, can we talk about how every wedding and party these days has a photo booth? I was just at a friend's wedding. Well, it was like a couple months ago. And I'm not kidding. People were lined up all night. It got me thinking, who owns that booth? Because, spoiler alert, they're probably making serious money. They're so popular.

It's a fixture at every wedding. And it turns out photo booth supply co makes it ridiculously easy to start your own photo booth business, even if you've never run a business before. Seriously, weddings, corporate events, holiday parties, you name it. People are renting booths nonstop. And PBSCO helps you every step of the way with sleek booths, step-by-step guides, and actual one-on-one coaching to help you launch and succeed. Now, some of their top earners are making over six figures a year, just from setting up booths at events. It's one of the fastest growing ways to bring in extra income. And with the people at photo booth supply, kind of coaching you on the business side of things and the

best way to go about it and the best way to like get out there, get seen and get booked. It's really a no-brainer. You guys should definitely check out photo booth supply and they're offering a really great deal. Derek's going to tell you what it is. Whether you're looking for a side hustle or ready to build a full-time business, now is the time to start. Summer is the busiest season. For a limited time, photo booth supply co will give you their quick start program for free and it's loaded with all the resources you need to launch your business and make money this season. Curious how much money you can make by running your own photo booth business, check out their free profit calculator at start photo booth.com slash crime. That's start

photo booth.com slash crime. One more time, start photo booth.com slash crime. Okay, before reboarding the ship from Aruba, Amy did a little shopping like she was excited about doing. She picked up some souvenirs for her friends back home. Then the family returned to their cabin to cool off and get ready for dinner. It was a formal night on the ship. So sometimes cruise ships would do this where it's like, okay, everyone's kind of casual. But hey, on this night when we go to dinner, we're going to be more formal. It's going to be a little fancier.

So Brad wore a tucks and Amy dressed up too. They sat down for dinner together around 6 p.m. Brad later recalled that the wait staff paid an unusual amount of attention to Amy. The family noticed it, and they joked about it at the table. They said if anyone needed anything, Amy should be the one to ask because they would get it right away. After dinner, the family posed for professional photos on the ship. Then sometime between 7.30 and 8 p.m., Brad and Amy went to the casino while their parents, Iva and Ron, stopped at the bar for drinks. While they were there, a waiter approached them.

They recognized him as one of the crew members who had been especially attentive to Amy. He asked if Amy wanted to come to a bar in Aruba that night with him. and a few other crew members. Iva later passed along the message, but Amy said she wasn't interested. At 8.30 p.m., the family returned to their room to change into something more casual and comfortable. And then from 9 to 11 p.m., they attended a Mardi Gras-themed party on board. There was music, dancing, food, drinks. Brad even entered a limbo contest and ended up winning. Now, throughout the night, Amy and Brad interacted with the band that was playing at the cruise that night, which was Blue Orchid. They made several song requests and hung around while the band played.

At some point during the party, Amy and her mother went to the ship's photo gallery to look at the pictures that had been taken earlier that evening. Remember, they had professional photos taken by the ship. But when they looked through the displays, they realized that all of the photos of Amy were missing. They asked the gallery manager about it, and he said he remembered developing the prints and placing them out with the others, but now the photos of Amy were gone. Iva asked if the photos could be remade and the manager agreed, so he did that. They got the photos and after that they returned to the party. Just before midnight, the family went to the ship's buffet. An hour later, at around 1 a.m. on March 24th, the ship left Aruba and began the short

journey to carousel. At that time, Iva and Ron said they were going to bed and Amy told them she loved them. Brad and Amy were having a good time, so they decided to stay out. and the party shifted from the pool area to the on-board disco, where the night continued with drinking, dancing, and socializing. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, and Brad later said they had a lot of fun. That's where I'll be taking you. Yeah, no.

What, the disco? The disco, baby, that's where we're going. You don't even dance. You don't know. You just don't know, because I haven't put that on you yet because I don't want to expose. That's something you've got to earn. We've known each other all these years, but you're way to. When was the opportunity for me to dance in front of you?

There's been plenty of out. I mean, though I'm always dancing. Why don't you dance? You dance all the time. I've literally seen you in the middle of a bar just dancing when there's not even music playing. Yeah, I mean, there's music in my head. Exactly. No, there's always music in my head.

Listen, you don't want that smoke, okay? I do. I want to see this now. I need to see this now. Come on a cruise. All right. Oh, my God, is this? Is that the only place you'll allow me to see it?

That's where the action goes. That's where it goes down. If I do a cruise, it'll be the CrimeCon Cruise. The Crime Con Cruise. cruise was a lot of fun. And then I will tether myself to you with one of those, like, leashes that people put on their parents. I like it.

Or they put on their kids. I'll just hand the leash off to one of you guys that are watching right now and say, hey, man, I got to go to the bathroom. Just hold on to Stephanie. Yeah, as long as somebody's got me on a leash. Yeah. I'll just tie you up to one of the poles. Can you watch her?

Could you watch her for a minute? And then people will walk by and I'll be tied up, you know, tethered with this leash. And I'll be like, can anybody give me a dirty martini and brig it here? I can't leave. Yep. So at one point, Brad said he saw Amy and a member of the cruise band, Blue Orchid, coming off the elevator and entering the lounge. This guy's name was Alistair Douglas, but he went by Yellow. Amy later danced with Yellow, but Brad was distracted talking to other people.

He wasn't really paying attention. He said he wasn't in a protective mindset that night. Amy was his older sister, and she didn't seem like she needed looking after. Now, some accounts say that around 2.45 a.m., Ron woke up and realized Brad and Amy weren't back yet. So he was concerned. He went looking for them. He found Brad dancing with a group of young women at the disco. Amy was upstairs talking with the DJ and other band members on the second level. Ron was satisfied at that point that they were both safe, still having fun, so he returned to his cabin. Other sources do not mention this interaction at all. So I'm unsure of how accurate it is, or was it not included in the initial timeline, and it was just something that maybe Ron remembered later. We're not quite sure. But either way, as the club started winding down around 3 a.m., Brad looked around for Amy. He spotted her on an upper-level balcony, standing with yellow and a few others, possibly members of the ship's staff. The area appeared to be off-limits to passengers. Now, Brad left the club

with two women and sat on the lounge chairs near a stairwell. He stayed there for about 20 to 30 minutes. While outside, he saw two other women, Crystal and Lori, who are going to later become important to this case. At around 3.35 a.m., Brad returned to the family's cabin where Iva and Ron were asleep. Brad stepped out into the balcony with a drink. A few minutes later, he said that Amy joined him. They both sat and smoked. They were unwinding after the night out.

And Brad said that they'd both been drinking. But Amy handled her alcohol very well, and she seemed calm and in control. Like, basically, she didn't seem drunk. She didn't seem to be like slurring her words or not able to walk or be disoriented. He knew she was drinking, but she seemed fine. Which, by the way, is corroborated because the key card shows her checking into the room at 345. So that completely aligns. It shows somebody using her card to enter the room.

That's fair. That's fair. Can we really say for sure it was Amy? We can't for sure. I'm assuming it is based on the accounts of what we have. And I don't necessarily at this point believe that the family. family members are suspects or persons of interest. So it seems to me that they're genuinely trying to find their loved one.

And so based on what Brad has told us, based on what the key card represents, that timeline aligns, especially when you think about her leaving a public area and people seeing her going upstairs. And even Yellow has said that this was around the same time that they parted ways. So Amy and Brad are out in the balcony, smoking, sharing a drink, she's fine. And at some point, Brad said that Amy told him that Yellow had made a fifth. physical advance, either touching or trying to touch her chest. And she said she just shut it down right away. Brad recalled that Amy didn't seem upset by this, just annoyed. She brushed it off. They also were talking about the next stop, which was Curacao. Amy was asking what the plan was

for the day. Brad wasn't sure. He said there might be jet skiing or exploring, but neither of them had looked too far ahead. They were just kind of in the moment, enjoying each other's company, having fun, unwinding from the night. So Curacao is just off the coast of Venezuela on the northern edge. of South America, but it's not part of South America. It's actually part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. And the island itself is relatively small. It covers only about 171 square miles. For comparison, the largest of the Hawaiian islands covers more than 4,000 square miles. Now, the Kurosau tourism website describes the island as colorful and vibrant, and it says it's home to some of the best beaches in the Caribbean. With 37 beaches in total, tourism plays a major role in the

island's economy. Thousands of cruise ship passengers visit every year, and the coral reefs around the island are close to the shore, making it popular for snorkeling and scuba diving. Now, at around 4 a.m., Brad told Amy he was heading to bed. He knew they had to get up early, and he wanted to get a few hours of sleep. Amy told him she wasn't feeling well. She said the breeze on the balcony was sort of helping with her seasickness, so she planned to stay outside a little bit longer. Before Brad went inside, they exchanged I love yous. Brad later said that moment brought him comfort because it was the last thing they ever said to each other. He quietly closed the sliding glass door behind him and went to sleep on the pullout couch.

By around 5.30 a.m., the ship had entered the inland channel heading to the harbor at Port Wilmstad on Carousel. And Ron, Amy's father woke up and glanced around the cabin. He said he saw Brad asleep on the couch and Amy was outside on the balcony, sleeping in alone. chair. There was a pack of cigarettes beside her and the sliding glass door was closed. Now, once again, Amy's afraid of being on the balcony, being close to the balcony edge, you know, what would you call that? The railing. The railing, but it's glass, but it's a railing. But she's falling asleep on the balcony. I think she had a couple drinks for sure. But she was fine. According to Bradge, it wasn't like she was like, you know, like I'm about to pass out drunk. Maybe she had a couple,

You know how sometimes you have a couple drinks and then it takes a little bit before they kick in. But either way, she was acknowledging that she didn't feel great when he went to bed saying, hey, listen, I'm not feeling great right now. That could have been seasickness or it could have been a combination of both. So it is possible while sitting out there and you're feeling the breeze on you. You're tired. You've been drinking. You pass out.

All right. So about half an hour later, this would have been around 6 a.m. The ship docked in Curacao. Ron woke up again. This time he said Amy was gone. The sliding door to the balcony was open. the pack of cigarettes that had been next to her was missing. Her sandals were still on the balcony, but she had brought several pairs on the trip.

So he felt, you know, it was like possible she'd grabbed another pair. Maybe she wanted to wear something different that day. They were going into Carousal. Maybe she wanted to wear an outfit that those other sandals matched. He didn't think too much of it. Brad later said the family has never been able to determine exactly which pair of shoes Amy brought in the cruise ship or which ones might be missing. She'd brought several. But without a full inventory, it was impossible to say.

for sure. He also pointed out that walking around barefoot on the ship wasn't unusual, so it was quite possible she didn't take any shoes with her. And this makes sense. Let's say she woke up and she was like, let me grab some coffee before we dock, and she just wanted to run out to the coffee cart. Yeah, it makes sense that she may have gone out barefoot, although her sandals were right there. So I don't know if I would walk around a public cruise ship, barefoot. Just saying the sandals are right there. If you have the option to walk around a cruise ship barefoot or with your sandals on in there. Yeah, I'm not going to throw them on, right? Yeah, just because something's not uncommon, it doesn't mean you should do it. You should do it. Yeah,

I mean, I know now I don't walk around a cruise ship barefoot. I don't. And especially if I have crocs or sandals nearby where I can just slip them on to go get my coffee or whatever you want to do. And it's pretty common practice for most people. But there are outliers. I will acknowledge that. But there's a couple other things you said in there. I'm letting you get through this next couple paragraphs and then I want to talk about it. Yeah, for sure. And I do think that once again, and maybe this is what you want to talk about,

but if the theories are something happened to Amy nefarious, she was taken, and the theories are she accidentally fell off the balcony of their cabin. The whole her cigarettes were gone. The sliding glass door was open, even though both Ron and Brad remembered it being closed when Amy was out there, that would suggest she had entered the cabin again.

So she did not fall off because she'd entered the cabin again. Now still, she could have gone and had to pee, woke up, had to pee, went back out to the balcony and left the door open and then still fallen. It doesn't necessarily mean she didn't just because the balcony door was open and her cigarettes were gone. She could have been holding the cigarettes when she fell. She could have lit up a cigarette, leaned on the balcony, and then something happened. Or put them in her pocket when she woke up. I mean, listen, this isn't for everyone. I put this up as a comment on my video because I have been on a few cruises. And for someone like yourself who hasn't on these cruise ships you have these balconies right but what separates your

balcony from the balcony next to you is basically just a piece of sheet metal or plastic you could basically kick it down or you could kind of crawl around it if you really had to which is a little unnerving for someone like me who doesn't trust anyone i say all this to say common practice not only because of the noise the wind noise that comes into the cabin while everyone's sleeping is to keep your sliding glass door shut because of the wind noise but also because you don't want someone using the balcony as a point of entry. So to me, the balcony being open, if you're in the camp of she left to go somewhere, she'd probably wrap some things up before doing so.

I don't think if she left the room, she would have left the sliding glass door open, which would have been an annoyance and a disturbance to the people still sleeping. Just wanted to put that out there. We'll get, we're going to get into it more in four or five episodes. But for me, the sliding glass door being open is a really big deal. I mean, she could have been still a little bit intoxicated. It had only been a few hours since they got back to the room and they had been drinking. So it could have been just something she didn't think of.

But the sliding glass door and forgetting to take her sandals and going to meet up with someone bare feet? Barefoot, yeah. There's no smoking gun here. But, you know, I have some problems with some of the things that were left behind. But there is other things that you're going to mention that would lean the other way. So I'll let you get to it. Well, Ron also noticed that inside the room, Amy had taken off the yellow polo shirt. she'd been wearing over her white tank top earlier that night, and it was draped over a chair.

She'd also picked up a pair of jeans, and her keycart and driver's license were gone. So Ron assumed that she'd gone up to the top deck to get coffee and take pictures of the port. He figured she'd be back soon and didn't want to wake up anybody else, so he went to look for her, but he couldn't find her anywhere. By 7 a.m., Ron realized that his daughter was missing. And that realization marked the beginning of a search that has now lasted more than 27 years, a search that we're going to break down in the next episode. Cannot wait.

I'm not going to get into it here. It'll be another 30 minutes. I've given a couple little snippets of where I'm leaning and what I think. And I acknowledge that it's not, like I said, it's not a clear cut case. There's a lot of mystery in this one. But I like the way you're presenting it so far. I think it's fair. I think it's accurate.

And I think it's objective. So that's awesome. And we'll just get into it. And we're going to break down all the theories. We have a lot more to cover. this is just the tip of the iceberg you had talked about it in crime weekly news as far as the cruise ship's response to ron and his family there's a lot there there to talk about a lot with yellow so much and i can't wait to dive into it because i think there's this is going to be a lot

of conversation a lot of discussion in the comments so we do want to hear from you guys we want to hear what you think if you're on audio leave a review leave your comment we're looking at them we're also looking for the whole crime con giveaway yet we're not officially announcing that yet we want to wait a little bit let it build up but please leave your comments and if you're on youtube obviously leave your comments down below let us know what you think after part one i would say if you can refrain like i'm doing right now until we get into the parts that you want to make your points because we want it to be in line with the way we're telling the story so don't jump ahead to what we're more than likely going to cover if we don't cover it by the end bring it up but

let's stay in the comments with where we are now in the story. Let's break this part down before we get to the next. That would be my one suggestion. And I do want to say that after revisiting this case, because like I said, it's been so many years. And I know how I felt when I first looked into it. I know how you felt during Crime Weekly News. Yep.

And also I will say, like, there has been things that have happened to me and just cases I've covered over these last several years. And they've changed me. They've changed my perspective. They've changed the way I look at things. and I'm looking at this a little bit differently than I thought I would now. And I'm surprised myself by that, yeah. I'm surprised because I thought I was in.

And maybe as we start to go through it all, because you're researching these episodes as you're doing it, you may find something in where you go, oh no, Derek, you know. So I'm looking forward to it. I think it needs to be covered. We don't know where Amy is right now. There's no evidence of as far as where she could be right now, although some people think that there are.

And we're going to go over all of it. And I think the same goal for the Bradley's, for us, for you guys, is to not only figure out where Amy is, but to bring her back home, if possible, dead or alive. We need to reunite her with her family because at this point, the unknown is even worse than understanding what happened. So her family deserves that. It's 27 years.

Like you said, it's way too long. The Netflix documentary for its flaws, because it is slightly skewed, it does put this case back in the forefront, which is a great thing. It's a great thing to use their platform. To get more eyes and ears on this case, you will never hear me complain about it. And I mean, we've always, we talked about this, every single documentary you see is skewed. They go in with an idea of what they want to present and, yeah, every single one. There's an angle to it that makes people want to click on it.

And don't think for a second, and this is coming from a guy that sometimes does these shows that when they're thinking about how they're editing it together and how they're going to market it, there has to be an angle that makes it interesting for someone to click on it. So we'll see how it goes. Let us know, like, comment, subscribe, turn your notification. on. We appreciate you being here. Until next week, everyone stay safe out there. Have a good night. Bye.