The disappearance of Amy Bradley has captivated viewers with Netflix’s documentary “Amy Bradley Is Missing,” garnering tens of millions of views. Viewers remain curious about what happened to the 23-year-old who vanished without a trace from a packed cruise ship in 1998.
Her family has never given up hope, including her brother Brad Bradley, who joined Court TV for an interview about his sister’s case and the recent documentary.
Brad and Amy Bradley are seen in a family photo. (Brad Bradley via Scripps News Richmond)
Brad said their family continues to hold hope, calling it a “gut feeling” that Amy is still alive and the lack of concrete confirmation about Amy’s fate.
When asked about his sister’s personality, Brad described Amy as the “life of the party” and a multi-sport athlete in high school who received a full basketball scholarship. “She was always a great sister and friend,” Brad said.
The Netflix documentary focused significantly on Amy’s sexuality, which Brad says was an incomplete portrayal. Brad said that at the time of the cruise, Amy was dating a guy.
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When asked about a letter a woman claimed to receive from Amy at the end of the series, Brad described it as a “forgive me letter” after Amy was “caught kissing another girl.” Brad said his sister was “poetic” and doesn’t believe there’s anything “cryptic” from the “message in the bottle.”
Brad said while on the cruise, Amy was writing postcards to friends, buying gifts and talking about plans after the trip, so the family does not believe suicide was a possibility.
Brad emphasized there was no family conflict over Amy’s sexuality, contrary to suggestions in the documentary.
“Amy came out to myself and my parents in 1995, about three years prior to the cruise. I guess you could say there was some surprise. I guess my parents had to come to terms with the fact that she wouldn’t be a source of grandchildren for them,” Brad said. “But all of that was well gotten past. Amy’s girlfriends and boyfriends came to the house. Her girlfriend spent the night, girlfriends went on vacation with us. In fact, Molly was at my parents’ house eating Easter dinner with us in 2024,” he said. “We all accepted Amy, we all loved her just as we always had.”
Regarding theories about what happened to Amy, Brad firmly believes she was taken from the ship.
“We know she didn’t jump. She was never willing to go near the rail at any point during that cruise. We know she didn’t accidentally fall,” Brad said. “We have three eyewitnesses that put her with Yellow [a crew member] that morning—two from outside the club that saw her go up the elevator with him and one from inside the club that wasn’t shared on the documentary.”
Brad also referenced “several credible eyewitness sightings” of Amy in the years following her disappearance, including in Barbados.
“I know for a fact she didn’t run away to start a new life,” he said. “The fact that she didn’t fall, didn’t jump, didn’t run away leaves only one possibility—that she was taken and removed from the ship for whatever reason.”
When asked about a photo sent to the family allegedly showing Amy in what might have been a trafficking situation, Brad couldn’t say with absolute certainty it was his sister.
“I do believe with all the characteristics that have been compared through analysis of those photos and many other photos of Amy, that it’s a high probability,” he said. “But 100%? No. That certainly is the one set [of photos] over all these years that really takes your breath a little bit.”
Brad noted that the FBI’s analysis of the photo indicated a “high probability” it was Amy. He also found it significant that in the 27 years the photo has circulated online and in news reports, no one has come forward to identify themselves as the person in the image.
When asked about a glass table pushed against the balcony railing, Brad noted that he believes it was “moved to support a narrative that the cruise line would like everyone to believe.”
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