16-07-2025
She vanished from a cruise nearly 30 years ago. Netflix just reopened the case.
In the first episode of 'Amy Bradley Is Missing,' a new Netflix docuseries, Adtzere 'John' Mentar recalls a frantic search for a guest who vanished from a cruise ship as it arrived in the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao.
As Harbor Police Chief, he was part of a multi-agency effort to find 23-year-old Amy Bradley, who went missing from Royal Caribbean International's Rhapsody of the Seas in 1998. Given the strong current in the area, he posited, a passenger who had gone overboard would turn up eventually. 'I'm telling you, if she came off the ship or fell off the ship, we would get a body,' he said. 'She would have washed ashore …'
'E kos ta straño,' he adds in Papiamentu, one of the country's official languages. 'It means, 'The thing is strange.''
The mystery is the focus of the show, which premiered on the streaming service on Wednesday. The series reexamines Bradley's disappearance during a cruise with her family, a case that remains unsolved nearly 30 years later.
After meeting the Bradleys, co-director Ari Mark said, 'It became clear that this was a family that was really suffering, and had been for a very long time.'
'Truly, that was the impetus for this was, you know, we really can actually move the needle on this case,' he told USA TODAY. 'Of course, as we got deeper into it, the complexities around the case, the various theories, and just the many, many layers to it are impossible to ignore.'
What happened to Amy Bradley?
The show spends three episodes pondering that question, featuring interviews with relatives, friends, law enforcement and others. The series incorporates both original and archival footage, including from Bradley's relatives, to tell the story.
'There's quite a lot of material that's sort of trapped in this time capsule from that period as media is brought in, photographs, videos,' said co-director Phil Lott.
Bradley's parents won a week-long Caribbean cruise aboard Rhapsody of the Seas through a work contest and took her and her younger brother along in March 1998. A few days in, her father, Ron, noticed she was missing in the early morning hours of March 24, shortly after he'd seen her in a lounge chair on the balcony.
The family notified the crew, who searched but were unable to find her. Law enforcement searched the waters between Aruba – where the ship had previously stopped – and Curaçao to no avail. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents boarded the vessel, but the inquiry was inconclusive.
The docuseries highlights a range of possible scenarios, including that Bradley could have gone overboard, intentionally or accidentally; been smuggled off the ship; or walked off and never returned. Multiple witnesses claim they saw her in various parts of the region in the years that followed.
The cruise ship setting also posed challenges, according to the series. FBI special agent Erin Sheridan said the Bradleys' cabin, which they were all sharing, was cleaned before agents could get on board, for instance.
The Bradleys later sued the cruise line, but the claims were dismissed. Royal Caribbean did not immediately share a comment with USA TODAY on the documentary.
How long is 'Amy Bradley Is Missing'?
The series' three episodes range from around 40 to 50 minutes each.
How do I watch 'Amy Bradley Is Missing'?
The show is available to stream on Netflix.
The FBI's investigation remains open. Mark said he hopes viewers are 'activated to engage in a way that could lead to answers.'
'I think people will empathize with (the Bradleys) and will be given a sense of purpose,' he said. 'And I think anytime we can come together as people with a clear sense of purpose, we're better off for it.'
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@
