Amy Lynn Bradley was only 23 years old when she and her family boarded the Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship in March 1998. She had recently moved into a new apartment and was due to start a job the Monday after returning from vacation, her mother wrote in a blog on the International Cruise Victims website.

“So it was kind of like this family trip that you’re going on, kinda before you start your big girl life,” Amy’s friend, Erin Cullather, says in the Netflix documentary Amy Bradley Is Missing, directed by Ari Mark and Phil Lott. “I didn’t realize that life was never gonna be the same after that.”

What was supposed to be a happy family vacation turned into a nightmare when Amy seemingly vanished into thin air on March 24, 1998. Multiple investigative agencies launched searches and investigations, but Amy’s whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.

And yet, all these years later, Amy’s parents, Ron and Iva Bradley, and her brother, Brad, have not lost hope of finding their daughter. 

“Something happened to Amy. We don’t know what that is, but we’ve got to have answers,” her mom pleads in the documentary. “If you know something, please give us that one thing that we need. Please do that for us and do that for Amy.”

Amy Bradley Is Missing directors Ari Mark and Phil Lott spoke to  that they, too, have come no closer to understanding what went down on March 24, 1998.

“In this case, it was actually incredibly hard, because every single time one of those pieces of information came up to the surface, it changed the story; it deepened the mystery. And it just became kind of a bigger pile of information than reducing it, which is what normally happens,” Lott said.

The message in a bottle

And so, while Mark and Lott could have focused on the kidnapping theory, they also included evidence that perhaps Amy, who had come out as gay to her parents about a year prior, took her own life. Such evidence includes a letter Amy wrote to an ex-girlfriend exactly a month before her disappearance. 

In the letter, Amy apologizes for cheating on her ex, Molly, writing that she was “not proud” of her actions. “I feel like there is an ocean between us. Like i’m on a desert island waiting for you to rescue me. A message in a bottle, my only hope. I miss you, Molly. Save me, please,” the letter read. 

Molly ultimately forgave Amy. They planned to get together after Amy returned from the cruise.

There was also a separate letter written by Amy’s dad, Ron, in which he candidly addressed her sexuality. In the documentary, Ron discussed what he wrote, saying, “It wasn’t what we would choose for her, but it’s her life and we loved her unconditionally, and I remember putting that in the letter.”

Though Amy’s friends and family don’t believe that any of this is connected to her disappearance, Mark and Lott felt an obligation as documentarians to acknowledge that, perhaps, Amy struggled more than anyone knew.

“We wanted to leave that possibility open,” Mark said.

Calls for information on Amy Bradley

While there seem to be more questions than answers when it comes to this case, Mark and Lott are hopeful that the Bradley family may finally learn what happened to Amy.

“There were people on that boat from all over the world. There are people who’ve moved on, who, maybe, in that part of the world, maybe haven’t thought about the story since they were on vacation 26 years ago, and now maybe this is the catalyst for them [to come forward],” Lott said.

To learn more about the case, watch Deadly Waters with Captain Lee, airing now on Oxygen.