Amy Bradley is Missing has landed on Netflix, with the documentary series examining a decades-old case that leaves dives into unanswered questions, the biggest being: was Amy ever found?
While there are plenty of new true crime titles to watch this month, Amy Bradley is Missing should be top of the list. The three-part series centers on the case that unfolded in the early hours of March 24, 1998, when 23-year-old Amy went missing during a Caribbean cruise with her family.
Her parents, Ron and Iva Bradley, and her younger brother Brad were left panicked as they searched the ship. Eventually, the FBI got involved with the investigation, but with each passing day the theories only multiplied.
Now, Netflix’s Amy Bradely is Missing revisits the case in a bid to find out what really happened on that day, with testimony from passengers, witnesses, suspects, and Amy’s family and friends.
Was Amy Bradley ever found?
As of July 2025, Amy Bradley hasn’t been found, and on March 24, 2010, she was declared legally dead. But with no remains and multiple accounts of sightings, many still believe she could be alive – and that someone knows more than they’ve said.
One of the most discussed theories in the Netflix documentary revolves around Alister “Yellow” Douglas, a band member on the Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship who was seen dancing with Amy the night before she vanished.
Other witnesses saw Amy with Alister on the upper deck of the ship between 5.30 and 5.45am, which the FBI say would make him “suspect number one.”
However, not only were they unable to confirm the sightings, but because the ship was in international waters, they have no jurisdiction to bring in Alister or anyone else aboard for questioning.
Ron and Iva have never given up their quest to find out what happened to their daughter, and their tireless efforts led to an unexpected phone call in 2017 – 19 years after Amy vanished.
Alister Douglas insists he knows nothing about what happened to Amy
The caller was Amica Douglas, Alister’s daughter. She appears in the docu-series to reveal that she believes her father knows more than he’s letting on.
Amica recalls being told by her mother that “everything changed” when Alister returned from the trip, and he allegedly had a bag full of photos of “all caucasian women.”
This may tie in with an earlier claim from Iva, who describes heading to the cruise’s gallery to purchase pictures taken of Amy, only to be told someone else had purchased them.
Brad and the rest of the family also remember the staff taking a particular interest in Amy that night, urging her to go to Carlos’n Charlie’s, a bar on Aruba.
Whether Alister was the one to purchase the photos or not has never been established, but the bag full of pictures raised alarm bells for Amica. “There’s a lot of questions behind it,” she says.
“When I ask my dad what happened with Amy, his reaction was just weird.” Amica then calls Alister to try and get answers, but he insists he had nothing to do with Amy’s disappearance.
The leading theory of what happened to Amy Bradley
A forensic analyst believed this photo is of Amy
Ron and Iva went on Dr. Phil and America’s Most Wanted to bring awareness to the case, leading to further leads emerging. As a result of new evidence, a leading theory emerged that Amy was kidnapped and sold to the illegal human trafficking industry in the Caribbean.
In 2005, the family received a series of photos allegedly from a website where people would engage with sex workers. The woman in the pictures resembled Amy, and so the FBI carried out testing.
Erin Sheridan, an FBI agent who worked on the case, says in the true crime series, “A forensic analyst looked at the photo and believed that that was Amy Bradley.”
This theory was supported by the testimony of Bill Hefner, a former US Navy officer who maintains his claim that he spoke to a woman at a Curaçao brothel in January 1999.
According to his account, the woman said her name was Amy Bradley and she was asking for his help. “She said, ‘Well, me and my brother were partying, I went ashore to go get drugs, and now I’m stuck here with these guys,” Bill says in the Netflix doc.
However, when the people she was with returned, Amy stopped talking. Bill assumed it was just a tall tale and he knew “there was a guy out front with a gun” so he left.
In 2001, he saw Amy’s picture in the news and connected the dots, eventually reaching out to the family. The FBI conducted a polygraph test on him, which he passed.
But with so much time between the sighting, the brothel in question had since burned down. Once again, it’s evidence that ultimately didn’t lead to any tangible discoveries.
Even though Amy Bradley was declared legally dead, the FBI investigation into her disappearance remains open.
It’s currently offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the recovery of Amy and the identification, arrest, and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance, which you can find out about here.
Amy Bradley is Missing is streaming on Netflix now. For more true crime news, read about Monster Season 4, the John Wayne Gacy series, and how to watch the new Idaho college murders documentary.
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