01x03 - Message in a Bottle

[bunniefuu]

[intriguing music plays]

[footsteps]

[Iva] Careful. At least it's not
a thousand degrees up here.

Amy's two bags are over here,

and all of her belongings
are in boxes over in the eaves there.

[fabric rustling]

[sniffling]

[producer] That's the bag she packed?

She packed this bag…

and this bag, and…

[producer] When's the last time
you looked in there?

[Iva] Probably about 20 years ago.

We have all of her things,

right down to her wallet,
and her change, and her toothbrush.

[crying softly]

[intriguing music continues]

[crying softly]

This is what she had on during dinner.

[tense music plays]

[crying softly]

[Iva] She was supposed to come home…

…and have her things.

[tense music continues]

[Brad] After Amy disappeared,

watching Dad hold Mom
while she's losing it was super hard.

Before that, I don't know if I'd ever
seen my dad, um… kinda break down.

[indistinct chatter]

[Brad] Before Amy's disappearance,
life is good,

everything's great,
everything's going well.

And then all of a sudden,
the rug gets pulled out from under us,

and everything kinda
came to a screeching halt.

I stopped school for a period of time,
came back home.

It felt like this depressing period

where one of the most important people
in my life was gone, was missing.

[tearfully] We've lost a lot of years,
you know, of our life…

searching, but we won't stop.

[Brad] I don't have children,

and I'll be 48 in December.

Subconsciously, I think I'd have to admit,
you know, watching my parents lose a child

was so traumatic for me
that I'm not willing to put myself

in a position to go through that.

[tense music playing]

[foghorn blowing]

[Iva tearfully] Somebody knows something.

Somebody saw something.
Somebody heard something.

Somebody told somebody something.

We were told by an FBI agent,

"Keep your lights on."

"Nobody can keep a secret
their entire life."

[musical sting]

[wind whistling]

[darkly intriguing music playing]

[pensive music plays]

[distant crickets chirping]

[automated voice] Message two.

[beep]

[Amica on recording] Hi, my name's
Amica Douglas. Um…

I'm the daughter of Alister Douglas.

I'm not really good at this, but um…
[sniffling]

…I would really,
really love to talk to you.

Um… I know what you guys
are going through.

And if it was me in this situation,
I would want information about,

you know,
why my daughter isn't here right now.

[intriguing music plays]

[Iva] I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe, of all the people,

find our number, go through the effort,

and call, it would be
Alister Douglas' daughter.

[musical sting]

[suspenseful music playing]

[woman] I was born in Grenada.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[corn horns honking]

Me and my dad was like two peas in a pod.

Like, I say to everybody,
"I'm a daddy's girl."

"My dad made me that way."

He took me on a lot of fun adventures,
going to the beach, going out for food,

seeing him play with his band.

But growing up,
it was just all about his music.

And he was just constantly away,
playing music on cruise ships.

When he and my mom got divorced,

I think I was probably like one or two.

And then when I got older,

my mom said, "Something happened
on a cruise ship your dad was on."

"And if you go research his name,
you'll probably find this about him."

I wasn't born at the time,
but my mom told me,

one night when he came back
from the cruise ship,

my mom said everything just changed.

[suspenseful music crescendos, fades]

I guess my mom was just trying to,
you know, have a conversation with him.

I mean, she's been home
by herself for months, you know,

and then just to see
her husband come home,

and he's upset and just saying
a lot of hurtful stuff to her.

It's just really weird

that he would disrespect
his pregnant wife like that, you know?

It's scary too.

[musical sting]

[Amica] And then my mom saw
that he came home with a bag.

My mom looked in the bag…

and it was pictures.

[ominous music playing]

[Amica] Pictures of women.

Just all Caucasian women.

And I think
that's what raised a red flag for me.

[Amica] It's just…
There's a lot of questions behind it.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Amica] When I ask my dad
what happened with Amy,

his reaction was just weird.

-He gets upset when I bring it up.
-[heart beating]

To me, his story feels like
it is missing a lot of parts.

[phone ringing]

[Amica] And that's what's making this
so nerve-wracking.

[phone ringing]

[Amica] I want this to end.
I want, you know, answers.

[man] Yes, Amica?

[musical sting]

Hi, Daddy.

[ominous music plays]

[Alister] I don't know, I mean…

I don't wanna go through this again.

I didn't do anything wrong.

So, tell me, now what am I supposed to?

I have no problem
with you calling to ask me questions.

I would wish
that you put yourself in my shoe

and understand how I feel about this.

[Alister] Amica…

They brought the FBI on immediately.

And then he said to me
that they're trying to find

this girl,
that I was seen dancing with her.

Everybody that had anything
to do with cleaning her room,

serving her drinks, we were grounded.

When they realized nothing was involved,
we continued to work.

And I continued to work on the cruise ship
until two years later.

Why am I hearing that you were seen
on the beach with her, like, months later?

[Alister] Which beach?

Which beach they saw me on?
'Cause I don't like beaches.

Amica…

We danced at the club, like I danced
with many people at the club.

So, you…

[Alister] I did nothing.

You don't know
if she ever got off the boat?

[Alister] How would I know that?
I left her in the club at one o'clock,

and I went to my room.
How would I know if she got off the boat?

I'm a little boy from Grenada

who have never had
any experience like this before.

I'm sitting there. My name was called.

I'm being questioned
about something I don't know.

Mommy found a bag
of pictures of Caucasian women

that you came home with, you know?

-[Alister] Which people?
-It raised a lot of questions, Daddy.

[Alister] Which one
of the pictures was with her?

I don't know.

[Alister] I had many pictures.

Yeah, why?

But it's hard to hold this conversation
with you because you get upset.

[Alister] I took pictures with everybody.

As a band, people come
and wanna take pictures with you.

If this happened to me,
how would you feel?

[Alister] If you were missing,
I'd do everything in my power

to find out where you are.

I understand that her family is trying…
maybe trying to find her all these years.

And I'm in sympathy with that,
but I had nothing to do with that.

Nothing at all.

Nothing.

[line static crackles]

[phone beeps]

[Amica sighs]

It's like a puzzle you can't put together.

Like, there's just so much missing pieces.

When I spoke to the Bradleys,
it was emotional.

Everything that they were saying,
it just kept hitting.

Like, I have a daughter, and I'd be
losing my mind every single day.

I would not rest until,
you know, I know what's going on.

There's gotta be something
at the deepest level in her, I believe,

to go through the effort
to find us and try to help us.

I want peace for everybody.

I just wish
that I could help 'em to get answers.

[sniffling]

[intriguing music plays]

[Erin S] You know, if we had evidence,
someone would have been arrested.

But, Alister, he had some behavior
that is definitely suspicious.

The young women
saw Amy and Alister Douglas together,

going up to the disco
through the elevator,

which was after the disco closed.

And that timeline does make sense.

Because we know Alister was in his room
approximately by 3:35 a.m.

But then after that,
the timeline can't be confirmed

because the door lock would have
when passengers entered their cabin…

[clicking, beeping]

…but not, of course,
when they exited their cabin.

We can't track
when Alister Douglas next left the cabin.

Two young women
saw Amy and Alister Douglas together.

You just don't know,
is the time actually correct?

[elevator dings]

[doors opening]

Lori Renick saw Alister Douglas with Amy

going up the glass elevator to the disco
approximately 5:30 or so.

They go back to their room
a few minutes later

and have forgotten their keys.

And so they knock on the door,

and the mother of one of the girls
opens the door and lets 'em in.

So, there's no lock link showing key entry

as to when they said they were going in.

I can't find any evidence
anyone interviewed the mother

who let 'em in the room at 5:30,
six o'clock in the morning

to confirm that time.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Erin S] The fact Alister Douglas
is not in the United States

makes it very difficult.

We have no jurisdiction.

You can't just go into another country,

without the permission, of course, or,
"Hey, can I speak to your citizen?"

[Kirk] I just remember
he was very nice, very chill.

Good guy, you know?

Had no bad thoughts about…
No bad experiences with him at all.

He was in the wrong place, wrong time,
dancing with the wrong girl.

And he told them what he knew.

No one even thought he would be capable
of doing anything wrong or bad.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Jamie] It's surprising how few people
realize the dangers of cruising.

But the things
that have happened to Amy Bradley

and her family do happen.

I don't know what kind of background check

is done on the crew that's hired there,

because they're hired
in countries where the vetting practices

might be incredibly different
from what we're accustomed to in the US.

There are stories after story, after story

of disappearance,
or suspicious deaths, sexual as*ault.

When something happens,
I suspect the first person they call

is the legal department.

"What do we do? How do we cover this up?"

"How do we make this go away?"

[Chris] I think people forget,
when you get on one of these cruise ships,

you're in basically your own country.

You might be a US citizen,

and this may look like Main Street, USA,

but it's not.

Because the sheriff of this town,

the boss of this little floating village,
is the captain.

And the captain is an employee
of a multi-billion-dollar company.

[Jamie] What's at stake is money.

It is profit over people.

Profit over protection.

[Kirk] Being a proud Royal Caribbean
employee, it was kind of heartbreaking

that we were accused of,
you know, either wrongdoing,

or not doing our job properly,
or not caring.

You know, we had a business to run.

And it was a very unexpected happening.

-[suspenseful music playing]
-[wind whistling]

[Kirk] I've concluded
that the conspiracy theories

about Amy Bradley are BS.

I think she jumped or fell off.

[suspenseful music crescendos, fades]

And I just think it's grasping at straws.

A family that is not facing… reality.

A family who cannot come to terms
with the fact that their daughter's gone,

looking for somebody to blame.

The front cover shows Chandra Levy,

Molly Bish, Jill Berman, and here's Amy.

Twenty-six years
of looking for Amy every day.

It's a life goal.

Two chairs, and then the balcony.

You had the sun deck,
and then you had the compass deck.

That would be the island,
and then this would be the search grid.

In my quiet times, I mean,
it's just like, "What did we miss?"

Looking for a clue and looking
for somebody who has something,

but they don't know
what to do with it, or they're afraid.

[intriguing music playing]

Because I know somebody knows something.

[tearfully] Please give us
that one thing that we need.

[producer] What are you holding?

Um…

[laughs softly]

It's a…

It's a message in a bottle

that she sent me in February of 1998.

It is one of the most personal things.

And I am incredibly reluctant to share it

with anyone.

I can't… This can't…

[producer] Why don't we start
from the beginning?

Okay.

[intriguing music plays]

[Mollie] We met at a basketball tryout.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[ba*ls bouncing]

[Mollie] I was 14, and I am shy,
introverted, insecure.

And I see this very confident, loud…
[chuckling]

…playful person
that was doing trick shots,

and she couldn't just take a layup,
she had to put, like, style in it.

And so I was like, "Whoa, who is this?"

We were both on the travel team.

So, you're staying in hotels,
you're playing all day long.

Pretty quickly,
we were really close friends.

We'd get along on different levels.

We'd go to each other's houses,

and these dynamics started to come in.

I was like, "Okay, who is this person
that you're hanging out with?"

I had a sleepover at her house.

I can't sleep. Why can't…
My heart is pounding.

But clearly, I was falling for her.

But then we went to different colleges,
and both came out in college.

But we didn't really know it
until graduation.

[intriguing music continues]

[Mollie] We went to the g*y bar

and hung out all night
and danced and caught up.

And she's dropping me off in the driveway.

We both lean in.

[leaves rustling]

I had never been kissed before like that.

I think we stayed in that car
for like an hour kissing.

And it felt like…

"Finally."

It was magical.

I had just gotten a job
at University of Kentucky.

So, I was getting ready to leave.

But we both intuitively knew
we wanted to be together,

and we were gonna pursue long distance.

She'd come for weekends.

And I was very much in love with her.

But in January of '98, she calls me.

She wanted to tell me
that she had kissed someone.

They had been drinking.

What she said was it didn't mean anything.

She said it helped her
confirm her feelings for me.

And I said, "Amy,
I need some time to process this."

I wasn't returning her phone calls,
so she resorted to writing letters,

and a message in a bottle.

[pensive music playing]

[Mollie] "Mollie, I hurt you deeper
than you can ever forget."

"I'm not asking you to forget,
because that'll never happen."

"I just wanted to ask you if you could
find it in your heart to forgive me."

"Mollie, will you please forgive me?"

"I have been insensitive,
immature, and selfish."

"I didn't like the person I was,
and I'm not proud of how I acted."

[stifling tears] "I feel like
there is an ocean between us."

"Like I'm on a desert island
waiting for you to rescue me."

[voice breaking] "A message in a bottle,
my only hope."

"I miss you, Mollie. Save me, please."

"Stranded, Amy."

[darkly intriguing music plays]

[Erin S] Years had passed.

Because the 20th anniversary
was coming upon us,

that's a great way
to get more information out there

to really push
that the FBI still has the case open,

that we are soliciting and garnering,
we love information to come in.

It's been all these years.

I had age progression photos of Amy done

because I myself don't look the same
as when I graduated college.

She could have a different hairstyle,
long hair, short hair,

and of course she has aged.

If you have any information,
whether it be that you were a passenger

or a crew member,
we ask that you come forward.

The smallest detail could assist us
in finding out what happened to Amy.

Back in 1998, there wasn't
a whole lotta internet going on.

Things have changed quite a bit.

Hi, guys. Welcome back to my channel.

Today, we're going to be talking about
an unsolved missing persons case.

Amy Lynn Bradley.

-Amy Bradley.
-Amy Lynn Bradley.

One of the biggest mysteries at sea.

I really, really don't think
she would have intentionally jumped.

Okay, first off,
even if she did fall off the boat,

they were so close, she could have swam.

As disturbing as it is,
it is entirely possible

Amy Lynn Bradley
was smuggled off this cruise ship.

-Ships have so many closets, and weird…
-[woman] Yeah.

…little corners and nooks and crannies
that you could hide someone in.

He was an employee of the cruise ship
and had access to restricted areas.

-Maybe the band members of Blue Orchid…
-[woman] Yeah.

…were working for some
sort of nefarious operation.

Maybe the whole entire crew was in on it.

I think that she was, like, marked.

[man] So, if you have any information
leading to the recovery,

identification of Amy Lynn Bradley,
please contact the FBI.

-[intriguing music playing]
-[waves breaking]

[Anthony Willis] I first became aware
of Amy's case, it was in 2014.

True crime discussion boards

really were only really
starting to begin at that point.

I had a pretty strong interest
in true crime.

I was googling and researching
everything I could find about Amy.

Articles, Websleuths threads,
there was discussion forums.

I was pretty shocked that, for one,
I had never heard of the case

and that Amy had never been found.

Amy's story moved me in a lot of ways,
and I really felt like there needed to be

a go-to resource

where all the information that pertained
to Amy's case could be posted.

Because if they're not, these cases,
a lot of time, do get forgotten about.

So, that was why, in 2018, I created
my website, amybradleyismissing.com.

[intriguing music plays]

[Anthony] It has photographs, sightings,

a lot of archived links, all of the tips,
leads, different theories.

Obviously, a case of this magnitude,
the speculation, it goes completely crazy.

[darkly intriguing music playing]

And that's where I was standing
when I saw Amy.

I worked in telecommunications.

I'm a networking and
telecommunications specialist.

That's what I do.

[typing]

[David] Now, one day Iva tells me,
"Hey, this guy, Anthony Willis,

he built this website."

So, Anthony and Iva strike up
this kind of friendship.

So, then we start thinking,
"Well, wait a minute, we have a website."

"We have string data
that comes from that website."

"We have IP tracking on that website."

"Why don't we start to mine that data?"

[mysterious music plays]

The great thing about my website
is I can log into the analytics.

I can find each and every IP
that has visited my site.

I can then… What you do is
you copy and paste those IPs

into a IP reader, and it will give you

the general geolocation
of where that IP is coming from.

[mysterious music continues]

[David] Anthony starts
sending me information, the data.

I start filtering through the data.

We're looking for patterns.

Where these IP addresses come from.

-[beeps echoing]
-[mouse clicking]

What was pretty shocking to me

was the amount of IPs that were coming
from Bridgetown, Barbados.

[mysterious music plays]

[David] The last sighting of her…

[water tap trickling]

…was in Barbados.

So, we start taking pictures
of Amy's family,

and we start putting
that information up there.

I start pulling out all the IP addresses.

It tells us how many times
that IP address visited the site.

It tells us what pages they went on
and how long they rested on that page.

Why, why, why, on birthdays,

anniversaries, Christmas
does somebody keep hitting that site?

-[suspenseful music playing]
-[typing]

[David] They dwell on Thanksgiving…

Christmas,

and birthdays.

And hitting it from Curaçao,
hitting it from Barbados,

and sit on there
for 45 minutes or something.

It doesn't make sense.

So, here's my theory,

and it's just that.

It's either the people
that are involved in this are curious

and they want to know
how close they are to being caught.

The second thing is, it's Amy.

[intriguing music plays]

We put a lot of new pictures up,
sentimental things.

[Iva] We've got her Miata,
had pictures of the dog.

[Brad] If in case
she happens to be able to look at it,

hopefully she'd see it
and know that we're still trying,

still thinking about her.

[David] The pages that they
dwell on, right?

Why are you looking at this page,

and why are you spending
minutes on it, right?

Why do you
keep coming back to these pages?

Why are you interested in these pages?

Maybe you're doing this
because you want to reach back.

You want to reach back,
it's a memory, right?

You want to see how your mom and dad

have aged over the years
and what your brother is doing,

or something is happening in their lives.

Maybe they're looking
to make sure they're still alive.

When Amy disappeared,
was there a threat out there that said,

"If you ever tell your parents,
we'll k*ll them"?

Might be she still believes
that her family might be threatened.

[Erin S] I think the idea
that she's being held against her will

and that she will go to the website
to see her own photographs…

Anything is possible.

You can track those that,
you know, come to the site,

but you have to go through a legal process
to get the subscriber information.

If people are international
and they're not from a US carrier,

we're not going to at all obtain,
you know, any information

on who could be hitting that site.

[producer] A question I'm sure
you've been asked is,

"Why the hell doesn't Amy call home,
email home, if she's alive?"

Okay, so…

that's a good question.

[darkly intriguing music plays]

[Anthony] I don't understand
why she wouldn't have reached out

if she has access to a computer.

However, we don't know, you know,

what she has experienced,
what she has endured.

[darkly intriguing music continues]

[Judy] Back when I saw Amy in Barbados,

one thing that I always remember,
when the man said,

"You better be all set to go
and don't try to leave or do anything,

because we're going to be outside
waiting and watching all night."

The woman, she goes,
"Can we stop and see the children?"

[musical sting]

[Judy] He said,
"Yeah, we can stop and see the children."

He says, "Are you gonna cooperate,
not try to leave?" She said, "Yes."

[darkly intriguing music continues]

[Judy] I don't know whose children
they were gonna go see.

But she really got excited about that.

Maybe it was her children.

A lot of things
could have happened in that time period.

We don't know if she has children.
She could be a mother now.

We don't know if there's been
threats made against her family.

That might explain
why she hasn't reached out.

Even though she has been seen in Curaçao,
she's been seen in Barbados.

[Ron] I look at all of these sightings,

and people say,
"Well, why hasn't she called you?"

That's probably
the biggest question that we get.

"If she's out there,
why doesn't she call you?"

There's a lot of reasons.

Maybe she's a victim
of Stockholm syndrome,

where the c*ptive person
starts to identify with their captors.

[mysterious music plays]

Maybe is in a situation
where she's had children.

Maybe they threatened her.
Maybe they threatened her children.

We don't know any of these answers.

It just gives me hope
that she's still out there somewhere.

To think that I've got grandchildren
that I don't know,

I'm still on Earth,
I'm still here, so if I do,

and we're able to locate Amy,

and if she has children,
locate her children,

um…

I'd be happy.

[soft thud]

There's a few things in here
that are pretty special.

We have all of Amy's possessions…

even down to…

[pensive music plays]

…the change in her wallet.

The not knowing,
how does it not wear them down?

It doesn't.

Thirty years later, they still
come across as hopeful and optimistic.

But hope is
a double-edged sword, you know?

And I wonder what's better,

having that hope, having the belief
that she's coming home,

or getting the closure that you need?

[pensive music continues]

If she is drinking Mai Tais
on a beach somewhere,

and we find her, and she's happy,

I would be
the happiest person in the world.

But I don't think that's…
the ending we're gonna get.

[waves gently lapping]

[eerie music playing]

Because of the circumstances,

her going missing a month later to the day

that she sent me this letter,

and also it being a message in a bottle,

the convenience of the metaphor

is ripe for misunderstanding.

It could suggest suicide…

but I don't connect with it in that way.

For me, I read a love letter.

It is a love letter.

[pensive music plays]

[Mollie] After the message in a bottle,

I reach out to her,
and we actually got together.

This was days before
she left for the cruise.

She wanted me to meet
her dog she had adopted, Bailey,

and she really wanted me
to see her apartment.

[mysterious music playing]

[Mollie] I knew, in her presence,
we were gonna make it work,

and we had planned
that we would see each other

after the cruise on Easter.

I don't think
that she'd been on a cruise before.

She was incredibly excited about it.

[mysterious music continues]

[Mollie] She had written me a postcard.

[voice breaking] It arrived after
I had gotten word she was missing.

I'm a photographer,
so she referenced taking photos,

and then she said, "I wish you were here."

I can't help but want to, like,
stop her from going on the cruise.

You know, I was right there.

I was right there with her
in that apartment right before, and…

It's like I can see her,
I can, like, see her clearly.

I can smell her.

I can feel her.

[mysterious music continues]

[sniffles]

'Cause we're bringing her alive, you know?

Like, we're bringing her alive.
[tearful laugh]

Today is the 9,758th day

that we've been working to get Amy.

[pensive music plays]

[Iva] We will never give up on her.

In the morning, when we wake up,
we say, "Well, maybe today."

And when we get ready to go to bed,

we have a special little kiss for Amy,
and we say, "Maybe tomorrow."

[door opens]

[Ron] We keep her car
in the garage at home.

We keep it out of the weather
and keep it shined up.

[Iva] That's hers, and she would…
She'd love to be able to get back in it.

[Ron] So, it's going to be pristine
when she gets here.

And then she'll get to drive it again.

We all have this gut feeling
that she's out there.

The lack of closure or the not knowing
allows us to continue to hope.

So, I actually prefer it that way,

you know, than the finality
of having an answer.

Ron Bradley was
over at my house a month ago,

and he said to me, "When Amy comes home."

[pensive music swells]

[Sarah] Sometimes, like,
I see her in my brain.

I think about her in certain places.

I see her playing basketball a lot.

[laughing]

Like, I see her drinking a beer a lot
and hanging out and dancing.

You wonder what she would think
of all of our life choices,

and, you know, what we've done,

and, you know,
and then there's just that hope

that she knows that, like,
how much we've all missed her. [crying]

Brad and I broke up within
a couple months of when Amy disappeared.

I just think there was just
a lot going on for all of us, you know?

[cryptic music plays]

[Erin C] I still love them.

I think the situation
was obviously so overwhelming that,

you know, I probably distanced myself.

I think they probably all felt like
they just couldn't handle anything else.

I mean, it's never going to be the same.

[Michael] The Amy Bradley case is…
You're never going to forget it

because you can't. It's so many questions.

For an FBI agent,
that is very, very frustrating,

'cause that's our business.
We like to solve mysteries.

We don't like to leave loose ends,

and this case is just full of them.

[cryptic music continues]

[Mollie] I think that's the…

struggle.

All these different sightings,

I desperately wanted them to be true.

Any scenario about
what could have happened

around her disappearance

has doubt and possibility mixed in.

[holding back tears] But for me
and my making peace

with that she's no longer here,

the one that I have loved, is…

The fact is,
I'm living my life without her.

That's not gonna change.

That doesn't change.

[breathes shakily]

[cryptic music plays]

[Erin S] Amy's case today
is considered an open investigation.

If anybody knows anything,
were you on that ship?

Did you see or hear something?
It's been all these years.

Maybe you took notes,
you wrote something down,

whatever it may be,
that information could help.

[Iva] Something happened to Amy.

We don't know what that is,
but we have got to have answers.

[pensive music playing]

-[laughing]
-[indistinct chatter]

If you know something,

please give us
that one thing that we need.

Please do that for us and do that for Amy.

[Iva] Amy!

[Iva] Amy!

[pensive music playing]

[darkly intriguing music playing]