Amy Bradley is Missing, one of Netflix's newest docuseries, is drawing backlash from fans and experts who have been studying the woman’s disappearance for more than seven years.
One of the film’s critics is American author and investigative journalist James Renner, whose theories depart from the common belief that she was kidnapped and trafficked from a cruise ship in the Caribbean.
Highlights
- New Theory: Netflix’s three-part docuseries revisits the 1998 disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley.
- The 23-year-old vanished from a Royal Caribbean cruise without a trace.
- The FBI continues to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to her case’s closure.
Meanwhile, among the audience, Netflix’s depiction of events surrounding the mystery appears to be generating immense frustration.
The cruise liner, Rhapsody of the Seas, continued on its journey despite the fact that Amy Bradley was missing
Image credits: Netflix
On the FBI’s Most Wanted portal, under the Kidnappings/Missing Persons section, lies the promise:
“The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the recovery of Amy Lynn Bradley and information that leads to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person(s) responsible for her disappearance.”
Below that is an explanation stating: “Amy Lynn Bradley, while on a family cruise to the Caribbean, went missing from the Royal Caribbean International Cruise Line’s ship Rhapsody of the Seas.”
It claims that on March 21, 1998, the cruise liner departed from Puerto Rico’s San Juan and arrived at Aruba two days later, before sailing for Curacao.
Image credits: Netflix
En route on the morning of March 24, the FBI notice claimed, Bradley went missing—and the Rhapsody continued its itinerary despite the then 23-year-old’s disappearance.
Bradley’s mother is pleading for anyone with information about her long-lost daughter to come forward
Netflix’s documentary delved into various aspects of Bradley’s life and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, and interviewed a friend of hers, Erin Cullather.
Cullather said: “So it was kind of like this family trip that you're going on, kinda before you start your big girl life."
“I didn't realize that life was never gonna be the same after that.”
Image credits: Netflix
The documentary’s producers, Ari Mark and Phil Lott, reached out to the missing woman’s parents, Ron and Iva Bradley, and brother, Brad, and heard a plea for anyone with information on their long-lost daughter to come forward.
“Something happened to Amy. We don’t know what that is, but we’ve got to have answers,” the mom said in the documentary.
An IP address logs on to a page set up for Bradley by her parents every Christmas and Thanksgiving
Image credits: Netflix
Much like the ever-growing mountain of information gathered for the three-part series–which only produced more questions–speculation continues to swirl with the theory that the young woman was kidnapped for trafficking being a favorite.
Reports of sightings in various locations in the Caribbean have reinforced this idea, along with a Barbados IP address logging on to a website set up for Bradley by her parents every Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Renner, working on his version of the investigation in book form, A Cruise to Nowhere, criticized this idea in an interview with the US Sun.
James Renner has rubbished the idea that Bradley was kidnapped
Image credits: FBI
“I think it's very interesting when you look at the facts of the case, such a small detail that doesn't seem to mean anything, but it might mean everything,” he told the outlet on August 9.
“They (Mark and Lott) make a big point of saying that the balcony door (of the cabin Bradley was occupying) was ajar in the morning, but they also suggest that Amy then left the room without telling anybody.
“But if you've ever been on a cruise ship, you know that there are warning plaques in your room that say, ‘Do not open the cabin door when the balcony doors open’ because the hallway is pressurized.”
He does not believe that she left the cabin through the door
“So, if you open that cabin door, it creates a wind tunnel. And it often causes the cabin door to slam shut,” Renner reasoned.
“In fact, some people have lost fingers because it slammed shut so hard. You cannot quietly leave a cabin room with the balcony door open. It would’ve woken everybody up,” he said, appearing to debunk the theory that she left the cabin through the door.
“On the railing, they found Amy's palm prints, and on the glass door, they found her footprints,” his explanation continued.
“So it appears that she was sitting on the balcony with her feet against the glass.”
At the time, Bradley was contemplating telling her parents she was gay
“So it's possible that she kicked off. And when she kicked off, the door opened a little bit (with the force of the action).”
Bradley was around the time weighing up telling her parents she was gay.
“She didn’t identify as bi, she identified as gay and lesbian,” said Renner, who was on speaking terms with her family until he let on that he knew about their daughter's preference for the same gender.
“So does she live that life and risk disappointing her parents and not having that close relationship? Or does she live a lie and turn her back on who she really is? So all that's going on in her mind,” Renner speculated.
He believes she may have taken her own life
Image credits: Netflix
“I think it's possible she sat on the railing. I think what we might be looking at here is what the French call 'l'appel du vide’ which we call ‘call of the void,’” he continued.
“She had a really rough night. She'd been drinking. She had a very big decision to make when she got home from that cruise ship.”
“She's sitting there out on that balcony. When you're in places like that, just like when you're standing on the edge of a cliff, there is that voice inside you sometimes.”
“I think she's sitting on that balcony thinking, 'What if?' and by pushing off she causes action,” Renner said.
“So [...] It's likely she went overboard earlier when they were further from the port.”
The journalist claims it would have been difficult to keep a low profile in the places she was reportedly seen
Image credits: Netflix
Renner brushed aside eyewitness accounts, claiming that, after seven years, they were “faulty.”
He said that while “people have the best intentions and they wanted to help Bradley’s family, “they’re coming at it backwards.”
“They’ve been shown the picture of Amy, and then it matches up with this memory in their mind.”
He also went on to say that she was likely to stick out like a sore thumb if she appeared in the Caribbean Islands, like some reports indicate.
“A white woman is gonna stand out in Grenada, and it's not worth the risk for the people that do this.”
Image credits: Netflix
“They have plenty of women from the Dominican Republic, from Columbia, from these poor countries, that can go there and make more money than their family could in a year working a couple of weeks for these brothels.”
“This would be a first, which is very unlikely,” he asserted.
The public is frustrated
The Netflix documentary has done little to bring closure for people who have been keeping tabs on the mystery.
One person captured the sentiment when she wrote on X:
“Watching Amy Bradley is Missing makes me wanna SCREAM wym you didn’t make an announcement or keep passengers from getting off the boat?”
“Wym people kept seeing her yet no one could find her??? Wym none of these tourists called the cops or FBI?”
“This Amy Bradley documentary is p**sing me off,” raged another. “If a poor girl is missing ruin my f**king vacation, I don’t care. Make a godd**n announcement at 7 am. You’re f**king joking.”
Many are convinced that Amy Bradley is still alive
