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- [00:02]
Vanessa
Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love. Hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhat. Every Monday, Dr. Bhat goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look. Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery.
- [00:52]
Carter Roy
This is crime house. When we go on vacation, we let our guard down and go with the flow. Things feel easy, safe. We're surrounded by friends and family, other travelers, and systems designed to keep everything running smoothly. On a cruise ship, that feeling is dialed all the way up. You don't have to plan or think or worry about anything. It's all taken care of and handed to you on a silver platter. But sometimes that sense of ease can work against us. Because the very things that make a cruise ship feel carefree its size, its crowds, its constant motion can also make it easier for something or someone to slip through the cracks. In 1998, the Bradley family learned this the hard way. On March 21, they boarded a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. They were ready for a carefree week at sea. But just three days in, their dream vacation turned into a nightmare when 23 year old Amy Bradley vanished without a trace. The search for her would span land, sea and air. But when you go missing in the middle of an ocean, the water has a way of swallowing everything, including the truth. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon. And we don't always get to know the real ending. The I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Friday's episodes covering the cases that deserve a deeper look. Thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow the show and for ad free access to every episode, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the first of two episodes on the disappearance of Amy Bradley, the 23 year old who went missing from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in March 1998. The world has been searching for her ever since. Today I'll introduce you to Amy and the Bradley family. They were a close knit bunch enjoying a Caribbean vacation. When she vanished seemingly out of thin air, the Coast Guard and FBI were called in. But an investigation in international waters is no easy feat, and while the Bradleys wanted to find Amy, the ship's crew was more concerned with protecting the company's own interests. Next time I'll trace the Bradleys desperate search for their missing daughter. Multiple sightings over the years gave hope to the family that she was still alive and field countless conspiracy theories about what happened on the ship. When a Netflix documentary crew started poking around, old suspects came back under suspicion. But the more people dug, the murkier things got. All that and more coming up.
- [04:32]
Vanessa
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- [05:40]
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- [06:31]
Carter Roy
The most sinister stories often have the most ordinary beginnings. More than two decades before the Bradleys boarded that cruise ship in the Caribbean, they were your typical suburban family. Ron and Iva Bradley lived in Petersburg, Virginia. He was an insurance salesman, and she was a homemaker. Pregnant with their first child, Amy Bradley was born on May 12, 1974. Two years later, Ron and Iva had a second child, Brad. Yes, Brad Bradley. Then in 1981, when Amy was seven, her family relocated about 20 miles away to Chesterfield, Virginia, the place Amy would come to know as home. The Bradleys were incredibly close. Amy and Brad were best friends, and their house was always filled with warmth and love, which allowed Amy to excel. As a kid, she was constantly in motion. She was athletic and competitive, and when she put her mind to something, she did it. Summers were spent lifeguarding. During the school year, she played just about every sport she could. Basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, softball. She was good at pretty much all of it, but basketball was where she really shined. In high school, her stats were so impressive that she earned all district honors three times, was named to the all Central Region team, and even received a scholarship offer to play at West Point. It was a huge opportunity. West point was a D1 school, but going there meant leaving home and moving to New York. Not only that, but Amy would be signing up to serve in the military. In total, it looked like five years at the academy, five years as an enlisted officer, four years in reserves. And after that, she could get stationed anywhere. Amy didn't like the idea of that, so she took another scholarship offer from a smaller school closer to Chesterfield called Longwood University. It was a D2 college, but it was only an hour away from where she'd grown up, close enough that her parents could come to her games. And they did, to almost every single one. Amy's parents had cheered her on her whole life. It was clear that they threw all their support behind her. But there was one moment that tested that unconditional love. In college, Amy realized she wasn't straight. It's possible she knew earlier, but it seems like she was too focused on basketball to have much time for dating. What we do know is that when she went away to Longwood University, she started dating a woman named Kat Lovelace. Amy kept it a secret from her family. She worried that they would be disappointed in her. But by junior year, she decided it was time to be honest. She needed to tell her parents the truth. Still, Amy was nervous. So nervous that she asked a friend to come home with her for support. The whole drive to Chesterfield, Amy was wondering if she was making a mistake. Her parents were great, but this was the 90s and they were traditional people. She didn't know how they'd react to their daughter coming out as gay. Now, Amy's family would later say she was bisexual, though her friends insisted she was gay. Either way, she certainly wasn't straight. And sure enough, when she told her parents, they didn't take it well. They were disappointed, just like Amy thought they'd be. Iva said they were worried about what other people would say or think about Amy. Ron decided to write Kat a three page letter detailing how he felt. All the ways he struggled to accept the relationship. Still, he made it clear that he loved Amy unconditionally, that this was just tough for him and Iva to process. But eventually, after they had some time to take it all in, Ron and Iva came around. They were still worried, but they told Amy they loved her and that it was her life, her decision. If that was what she wanted, they would support her. But even with their acceptance, Amy could feel that something was different. And she hated feeling like she'd somehow let them down. The whole incident strained her relationship with Kat. Soon, Amy started drinking more. Cat thought it was a coping mechanism, a way to take the edge off. But it didn't help their budding romance and eventually Amy and Kat broke up. It was a tumultuous period, but by the time Amy graduated from Longwood a year later in 1997, everything seemed to have settled down. She and her parents were on good enough terms that she moved back in with them while she looked for a job and figured out what to do with her life. Amy had initially majored in education and then had a brief stint where she thought she might go into criminal psychology. Eventually, she ended up getting her degree in physical education. Unfortunately, she couldn't find a job in that field straight out of school. Instead, she got a job waitressing at a local steakhouse. It wasn't her dream by any means, but she took it seriously all the same. She was always on time, ready and willing to work. Everyone loved her, from the customers to her fellow employees. For a while, that was her routine, working five nights a week, saving money, figuring things out. Then one night, she ran into an old teammate at a local gay bar. Amy reconnected with her friend, Molly McClure. They had first met when they were 14 and playing on the travel basketball team together. They'd lost touch when they went to different colleges and didn't know until now that they'd both come out. Amy and Molly hung out at the bar all night, catching up. There was an immediate spark. Molly had felt it for a long time, even when they were kids. But she had no idea if Amy would ever feel the same way. But when Amy drove Molly home that night, she parked the car, leaned over and kissed Molly. And there was absolutely no doubt. It was a perfect moment that came at a difficult time. Molly had just gotten a job at the University of Kentucky, so she was planning on leaving town. But she and Amy both wanted to pursue a relationship, so they decided to try long distance. Amy visited Molly on the weekends whenever she could, and Molly fell harder and harder for her. Then one night in January 1998, 23 year old Amy called Molly and said she needed to tell her something. Molly's stomach sank. Amy confessed that she'd kissed someone else. She said they'd been drinking and that it didn't mean anything. Amy said that actually it just reaffirmed how much she truly loved Molly. That she wanted to be with her and only her. Molly listened to Amy's desperate pleas, but it was too much for her to process all at once. She told Amy that she needed to take a beat and think about things. So she hung up and then gave Amy the silent treatment. She refused to answer any of her phone calls. Desperate to get Molly to understand, Amy started writing letters. One in particular stood out. It was a literal message in a bottle. When Molly got the love letter, she caved and finally called Amy back. It turned out that a lot had happened for Amy in the two months since she and Molly broke up. Amy had rented a new apartment, adopted a bulldog named Bailey, and was cutting back her nights at the steakhouse so she could work at a computer consulting firm. She wasn't using her degree, but at least it paid well. But perhaps most exciting of all, she was packing for a Cruise. Her dad, 49 year old Ron, had won a trip to the Caribbean as part of a performance reward from his company, Illinois Mutual Life Insurance Company and he got to bring the whole family. Amy, 21 year old Brad, and their mom, 45 year old Iva. Amy was stoked to go on vacation with her family. She told Molly how she'd been tanning to look good for the trip and she'd bought a ton of new outfits and she couldn't wait to shop in the Island Boutiques. For new items for her apartment. As Molly listened to Amy excitedly talk about the trip, she felt like they were falling back into their easy ways. She was confident that she could move past Amy's indiscretion and work towards the future. But there was something Molly didn't know. In a July 2025 interview, Brad dropped a bombshell. According to him, Amy had actually been dating someone new, a man. We only know him by his first name, Tom. Brad said they'd been going steady for a few months, but he acknowledged the message in a bottle. It seemed like whatever was going on with Tom, Amy did plan on rekindling things with Molly when she got back from the cruise. Either way, when Molly left Amy's apartment that day, they made plans to see each other again. After Amy got back from the cruise, everything was going to work out. Little did Molly know that would be the last time she ever saw Amy.
- [16:50]
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- [17:25]
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- [18:23]
Carter Roy
In March of 1998, the Bradley family traveled from Virginia to San Juan, Puerto rico there, on March 21, they boarded the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas. The ship was about 900ft long and 12 floors high. It could carry up to 2,400 passengers along with 765 crew members. It was an overwhelming sight for the Bradleys. 49 year old Ron and his wife, 45 year old Iva didn't leave their suburban Virginia community very often. And now they were stepping onto a massive floating city with their two kids, 21 year old Brad and 23 year old Amy. They were all crammed into a cabin on the eighth floor deck that had one bed and a pullout sofa. It was definitely tight, but the Bradleys didn't mind. The ship was supposed to leave Puerto Rico and stop at Aruba, Curacao, St Martin and St Thomas before returning to San Juan. The trip would last one week. The first leg was more or less what you would expect. The ship sailed to Aruba where it docked and everyone got off to explore. The Bradleys were enjoying themselves like all the other passengers. Then from Aruba it was onto the island port of Curacao, just off the coast of Venezuela. They were scheduled to arrive there by the morning of March 24th. The night before, the crew hosted a formal gala for all the passengers. Back in their cabin, the Bradleys got ready. Amy slipped into a black dress. Brad put on a nice suit. It was the fanciest night of the cruise and everyone was buzzing with anticipation. As the family joined the party, a photographer asked to take a photo of Amy. She posed, smiling. Then the photographer asked if she wanted her boyfriend to join. Amy laughed and pointed out that Brad was her brother, but they took a cute prom like photo together anyway. Then it was time for dinner. Throughout the night, Amy and her family noticed that the waitstaff were all paying a lot of attention to Amy. They made light of it, joking that if they wanted something, all they had to do was say Amy wanted it and a server would bring it over in a split second. But there was something a little off about all the attention. Earlier in the trip, one of the waiters had asked Ron for Amy's name, saying they wanted to take her to Carlos and Charlie's restaurant when the ship docked in Aruba. When Ron told Amy about it, she was disgusted and said she would never go anywhere with the crew members because they gave her the creeps. At that time, that restaurant didn't mean much. But a few Years later, in 2005, it would be one of the last places that 17 year old Natalee Holloway was seen before Disappearing under mysterious circumstances. An eerie, disturbing coincidence. After the gala, the Bradley family went back to the cabin. Ron and Iva were done for the night, but Amy and Brad changed and went back out. There was more partying to do. Amy was wearing a yellow short sleeved polo over a white undershirt as they headed to the dance club on the ship's upper deck. It was loud and packed and the two twenty somethings danced the night away. At one point, Brad won a limbo contest. Meanwhile, Amy spent some time dancing with a member of the ship's band, the bass player, a man who went by the name yellow. Somewhere around 3:30am, Brad finally decided he was done. He called it a night and headed back to his family's cabin. Amy followed behind. About five minutes later, back in the room, the night wasn't quite over. Still wired and coming down from all their fun, Amy and Brad stepped out onto the balcony and closed the door behind them to let their parents sleep. They sat side by side, smoking cigarettes and talking quietly as the ship continued on its course toward Curacao. At some point, Amy mentioned that Yellow, the bass player, had made a pass at her. She said it so casually, Brad didn't think much of it. And plenty of people had been flirting with Amy all night. Eventually, Brad's adrenaline wore off and he felt tired enough to go to bed. Then Amy wasn't feeling great. She said she was a little nauseous and wanted to stay outside for some air. Brad told her goodnight and that he loved her. Then he went inside, closed the door behind him and went to sleep. Amy stayed on the balcony alone. Sometime around 5:30am, Ron woke up. It was still early and the cabin was quiet. He glanced around. Brad was asleep on the pullout couch and Ron could see through the glass door that Amy was out on the balcony, curled up on a lounge chair. Everyone was accounted for, so Ron went back to sleep. About half an hour later, Ron woke up again. This time something felt different. He looked toward the balcony and saw that Amy was gone. The sliding door was slightly open. As he sat up, Ron saw that Amy's shoes were still in the room and so was the yellow shirt she'd been wearing the night before. That was odd. Amy wouldn't just leave without saying something. But it was early. Maybe she just wanted to let everyone sleep while she went to get coffee or go for a walk on the deck. Still, Ron thought he'd just check to make sure. So he got out of bed and went to look for her. He looked on the upper deck first, then other common areas, anywhere someone might go early in the morning. But Amy wasn't anywhere he looked. And soon Ron's uneasy feeling became full blown concern. Ron went back to the cabin and woke up Iva and Brad. He told them that Amy was missing. At first, missing felt like too strong a word. But the more they retraced their steps and came up empty, the harder it was to deny. Eventually, they had to admit that they couldn't find Amy anywhere. The Bradleys asked the first crew members they could find for help. By that point, they were worried that someone had kidnapped Amy or hurt her in some way. And they were nervous that if the crews docked in Curacao as planned, it would give her assailants a chance to disembark with her. Ron and Iva begged the crew to hold off on docking until they found Amy. Those requests were escalated to Brent Hunter, the guest relations manager. He told them the ship had over 2,000 other passengers. They couldn't disrupt everyone else's travel plans just because one grown adult had wandered off somewhere and it was still only 7am, which according to Hunter, was too early to page for a Amy across the ship. He told them to keep looking for another half hour and if they still couldn't find her, to come back and he'd get the security officer for them. The Bradleys tried to argue, but Hunter was firm. The ship docked in Curacao once many, many passengers had gotten off the boat. The crew finally paged for Amy, asking her to come to the the office. She didn't. At that point, the crew searched all the public areas and staff were instructed to search their own personal cabins. No one found Amy or any hints of what had happened. The crew's director, Kirk Detwiler, was briefed about what was happening, but as far as he was concerned, the most likely option was probably the correct one. No one had taken Amy. She had either fallen overboard or jumped. It was rare, but it happened. The Bradleys didn't believe that theory. Amy wasn't suicidal. She had so much going for her back home. A new apartment, new job, new dog, and a partner she planned on seeing as soon as she got back. Beyond that, she was a trained lifeguard. She knew the dangers of water and understood the risks. Besides, the balcony railing was high and solid, not something you could just accidentally tumble over to her family. That explanation didn't just feel unlikely, it felt impossible. But if Amy didn't fall and she didn't jump, then something else happened on that ship. In the narrow window between 5:30 and 6am and if someone had really taken her, then there was nothing stopping them from walking straight off the boat with her. Where is Daredevil? I'm right here. Don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again. So what? What's next? I feel liberated. We're gonna take this city back over
- [28:18]
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- [28:21]
Carter Roy
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- [28:31]
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- [28:35]
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- [28:41]
Carter Roy
911 which emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.
- [28:45]
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- [29:07]
Carter Roy
During the early morning hours of March 24, 1998, 23 year old Amy Bradley went missing from the Royal Caribbean cruise she and her family were vacationing on. As the ship docked in Curacao and its 2,000 passengers disembarked, the local Coast Guard was called in. They searched for Amy in the ocean waters while planes searched above. According to local authorities, the way the currents and wind patterns worked around the island meant that everything was pushed toward the shore. If Amy had in fact ended up in the water, then she would eventually end up on the coast. As one official said, even if a shark got her, they wouldn't eat a whole human, therefore an arm, a leg, something would turn up. I can't imagine the Bradleys wanted to hear that. But things kept escalating and the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. Back on the boat, the Bradleys were desperate for the crew to conduct a more thorough investigation. But. But the crew's interests seemed to collide with Bradley's. That afternoon, a lawyer for Royal Caribbean flew in from Miami to look after the company's image and legal interests. To the Bradleys, finding Amy clearly seemed like a low priority. By the evening of March 24, when Amy had been gone for a little more than half a day, the cruise line told the Bradleys the they were moving on to their next destination. They refused to hold up the entire ship just for Amy. So the Bradleys got off and remained in Curacao to search for her. While the Rhapsody of the Seas sailed off to St. Martin, the Coast Guard continued searching for Amy for four days. But when they still couldn't find her they called off the search. Royal Caribbean ended up chartering a search and rescue boat to continue looking for Amy after the Coast Guard. Meanwhile, news of Amy's disappearance reached the FBI and they stepped in to conduct their own investigation. But the cruise was in international waters. Because of bureaucratic issues it took them several days to even get aboard the ship. When they did, they brought in dogs to try to trace Amy's scent to, but they had no luck. The agents also took deck furniture and other objects from the cabin for testing. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived on the ship, the Bradleys family cabin had already been cleaned. So any potential clues or evidence were hard to discern. The way the FBI saw it, it was unlikely that Amy, a trained lifeguard, fell overboard. But there were a few other potential theories. Amy could have jumped. She also could have walked off the ship of her own free will and started a new life somewhere. Or someone could have kidnapped or murdered her then taken her off the boat when it docked. Thanks to the electronic key cards used by the ship, the FBI agents could determine the last time Amy used her key card to enter her family's cabin. Unfortunately, there was no way to tell when or how she left the room. So the FBI could confirm that Brad's timeline was correct. He and his sister had returned to the cabin just after 3:30am but what had happened between that time and the second time Ron woke up and found Amy missing was the big mystery. The federal agents began questioning people about aboard the ship. One of the first people they interviewed was the 20something bass player Alister Douglas, aka Yellow. Brad was suspicious of him from the jump. Brad said that at around 7:30 on the morning Amy disappeared, Yellow approached him on the deck and apologized about his missing sister. But that was before any public announcement had been made about her disappearance. So how did Yellow know she was missing? And that wasn't all. According to Brad, Yellow wanted to know the last time he'd seen Amy. Just as Brad was about to tell him, Yellow told him to wait. He wanted to go get his brother so he could hear too. As if that wasn't suspicious enough, a videographer aboard the ship also found footage that showed Amy dancing with Yellow in the club hours before she went missing. This proved he was one of the last people to spend time with her. That was enough for the FBI to question him. He admitted that yes he had danced with Amy, but he claimed they said goodnight around 1am and he never saw her again after that then the next thing he knew, a cruise line manager came to his room first thing in the morning and asked if Amy was with him. Later that day, investigators searched his room and his bandmates rooms. They found nothing. Yellow swore he was innocent. But two other young women on the ship contradicted his story. Lori and Crystal were teenage friends who were on the cruise with one of their moms. They told FBI agents that they'd been on the upper deck of the ship just before 6am on the morning of March 24. That was when they saw Amy and Yellow ride a glass elevator together up to the dance club. They said they saw Yellow handing her a Brown drink. Then a little while later, Yellow came walking briskly past them alone. Amy was nowhere to be seen. Laurie and Crystal went back to their room after that, but they'd forgotten their keys, so one of their moms let them in. That made it impossible for the FBI to verify their timeline, since no key was actually swiped and no time was required Recorded. If Laurie and Crystal were telling the truth, they were the last people to see Amy before she went missing, and Yellow was the prime suspect. But if they had their time wrong, then it could all be a misunderstanding. There was a third witness named Elizabeth who didn't come forward until later on. But eventually she would testify before a grand jury that she also saw Amy and Yellow in the lounge that morning and that Yellow made Amy a Brown drink. Then the pair moved out of her line of sight. Then Elizabeth revealed a detail that most people didn't know. She said a young woman about 18 or 19 years old came out of the back yelling senorita kidnap. Multiple times after her testimony, Elizabeth disappeared from the public eye and refused to talk about the case again. But those sightings made Brad believe Yellow was responsible for whatever happened to Amy. He thought Yellow might have handed Amy off to somebody who took her down into the crew quarters and hid her so they could later smuggle her off the boat. To prove his innocence, Yellow agreed to a voluntary polygraph test. It came back inconclusive. And ultimately the FBI didn't find enough evidence to charge him with anything. That didn't stop the Bradleys from focusing on him as a person of interest. And when a Netflix documentary crew started looking into the case, Yellow's own daughter would speak out against him. But that would be years later. For the time being, the Bradleys were still hopeful that they would find Amy soon. Unfortunately, after four days in Curacao, the Bradleys were no closer to locating Amy or figuring out what had happened to her. So when Ron's insurance company offered to fly them home on a private jet, the Bradleys took them up on it. Leaving without Amy felt like giving up. But the family knew they needed to regroup. Once they got home to Virginia, they set up a hotline and website with information about Amy. The FBI did too. They gave Amy's physical description. She had short brown hair, green eyes, was 5, 6 and 120 pounds, and they listed her specific tattoos. A Tasmanian devil spinning, a basketball on her shoulder, the sun on her lower back, a Chinese symbol on her right ankle, and a gecko lizard on her navel. The Bradleys prayed that someone would see Amy and report her location. They remained in contact with police, FBI, and cruise officials throughout the Caribbean. They communicated with ham radio operators throughout the region. They even prepared a mass email to thousands of personal email accounts in the Caribbean and South America asking for help finding her. Two weeks later, Ron and Brad returned to Curacao to find Amy. They walked the island inch by inch, chasing tips, knocking on doors, and refusing to let her become forgotten. Because for them, the search wasn't over. It never would be. They would face every possibility and follow any lead to bring her home, no matter how long it took or what it cost. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for part two on the disappearance of Amy Bradley and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free. Will be back on Thursday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertovsky, Alyssa Fox, Alex Burns, Hania Said, Cassidy Dhillon and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.
- [41:03]
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- [41:29]
Carter Roy
Start your free trial@shopify.com Looking for your next listen?
- [41:35]
Vanessa
Check out Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bot every Monday. Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, and events that science still can't fully explain. Follow Hidden History now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.