01x01 - Vanished at Sea

[bunniefuu]

-[waves crashing]
-[suspenseful music plays]

[foghorn blowing]

[darkly intriguing music playing]

[waves gently lapping]

[seagulls squawking]

[producer] What do you think
happened to Amy?

I don't know.

-[waves crashing]
-[woman on video] Amy!

Something terrible did happen.

[woman on video] Amy!

I gotta think that somebody k*lled her.

Maybe she was k*lled,
put in a suitcase, and taken off the ship.

[grim music playing]

I think she jumped or fell off.

[splash]

[woman] I do not believe
that Amy committed suicide.

There's no room for me to believe that.

[man 1] I'm reticent to tell you
what I think has happened.

I don't want to say it out loud
as I don't want to speak it into being.

[man 2] How would I know
she got off the boat?

I had nothing to do with that. Nothing!

[reporter] Exactly what has happened
to their daughter is a mystery,

and FBI agents have now boarded
the cruise ship to try to solve it.

[Brad Bradley on video] If someone
has her, please let her go.

Leave her somewhere
in the middle of the night, blindfolded.

We won't ask any questions.

I still think she's alive.

I think she got taken as a sex sl*ve,
but I don't know that.

[reporter 1] A dream cruise
to a Caribbean paradise.

[reporter 2] Mystery on a cruise ship
of a passenger who vanished.

We don't know what went wrong.

[man 1] It just goes deeper and deeper.

[man 2] There's so many questions.

[reporter 3]Terrible accident
or foul play?

[man 2] Just so many theories.

[woman 1] She turned back.
She was almost saying, "Help me."

One of them is the right answer.

[woman 2] If you wanted to k*ll somebody,
just take 'em on a cruise.

Because you'll never get caught.

[darkly intriguing music continues]

[intriguing piano music plays]

[producer] How often do you
replay the trip?

[Iva Bradley] Every day. Every day.

Not occasionally, not every other day.

[sniffling] Not once a month.

[Ron Bradley] You wake up
thinking about it.

Go to bed thinking about it.

It's just…
everything around you reminds you of her.

[Iva] Hi, Mom. Hi, Amy.

-[Iva] All right!
-[laughter]

And it's a really, really terrible,
terrible feeling.

Let's say you're gonna go shopping,

and you've got your children with you.

The children are playing around

up underneath all the clothes,

and you look up…

and one of the children's not there.

[tense electronic music plays]

[Iva] It's sheer panic.

[Iva] And that feeling is something
that doesn't go away.

[suspenseful music playing]

[hoarsely] We're 71 and 72 now.

And I was 45 when Amy disappeared.

[ominous music playing]

[woman] It was March 21st, 1998.

And I was going to stay
at the Bradleys' house

while they were on the cruise.

'Cause I was watching the dogs,
and the birds, and…

you know, taking care of the house.

[Amy] We gotta go in just a minute.

[bird chirping]

[Erin C] Growing up, I kinda was like
the fifth member of the Bradleys,

just like kinda living there all the time.

[woman on video] …in your mouth.

[Erin C] It was always fun.
Their house was always full of laughter.

[Amy on video] Mom and Dad
said that when you were three,

you were designated the job

of busting your forehead
on every doorknob.

[laughter]

I loved being with Amy and Brad.
It was fun.

We had fun all the time.

They were close in a way that made you

want your family to be, like, that close.

[indistinct chatter]

[Brad] When I picture my sister,
I don't envision her much different than

when I last saw her.

I still see the same sis I always did.

[laughter]

As you head for the future, be confident
and take advice from no other.

I'll always be there for you.
I love you, little brother.

-[man] Hey!
-[Brad] Thank you.

[clapping]

[Erin C] Brad actually was my boyfriend
at the time.

But, I mean,
we were all such good friends.

You know, young love.

At the time, Brad was 21 years old.
Two years younger than Amy.

Amy was 23. She was a year older than me.

She had just gotten a new apartment,
a new dog.

So it was sort of like
this family trip that you're going on,

kinda before you start your big girl life.

-[woman on video] How ya doin'?
-[indistinct chatter]

[Erin C] I remember us shopping,
and talking about bathing suits,

and packing for the trip.

And she seemed excited to go.

I mean, they all did.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Erin C] I just remember them
pulling out of the driveway.

I didn't realize that life
was never gonna be the same after that.

[airplane engine roaring]

[upbeat tropical music plays]

[waves crashing]

-[car horns honking]
-[indistinct chatter]

[tropical music continues]

[foghorn blows]

I was cruise director
for Royal Caribbean for 20 years.

I was cruise director
on the Rhapsody of the Seas.

Hi, folks, I'm Kirk Detweiler,
your cruise director…

Oh, Jesus.

I'm a baby.

This video we played at the beginning
of the Welcome Aboard show.

I'd like to take this opportunity
to welcome you aboard

the MS Rhapsody of the Seas.

One of the largest
and most beautiful cruise ships afloat.

My job? The cruise director
is the face of the ship.

Every cruise was different.

You get a different crowd every week.

-My soft spot was for the old ladies.
-[tropical music plays]

I would go dance with the old ladies.

[shrilly] "Oh, my God,
I have a granddaughter," you know?

[upbeat music playing]

Grapevine to the right,
grapevine to the left.

Three steps back, rock forward, rock back.

Step, turn, and start again.

[pensive music plays]

[Kirk] It was just a great life.

I probably have 500 best friends
that I worked with, you know?

That was a good time.

This particular cruise is March of 1998,
and I remember that cruise very well.

[intriguing music plays]

[Kirk] We were doing
seven-day cruises out of San Juan.

And we did Aruba, Curaçao,
St. Maarten, St. Thomas.

[intriguing music continues]

[Ron on video] That's supposed to be
the biggest ship in the world. Pretty big.

My wife and I are both insurance agents
with Illinois Mutual Insurance Company.

And they would run contests every year.

And this particular year,
we were rewarded with a cruise.

[Ron] I'm going in my room.

[indistinct talking]

[Ron] That's pretty neat.

[Iva] We were pumped
about the trip as a couple.

But when we realized that
they were going to actually let us bring

Amy and Brad with us,
we couldn't have been more thrilled.

[Ron] The pull-out couch,
the sliding glass door.

[Iva] They would probably have liked
to have had their own cabin,

being 21 and 23 years old,
but it didn't work out that way.

[intriguing music plays]

[Ron] San Juan. San Juan Harbor.

Gotcha on film.

[Iva] We did stop.

Amy bought some postcards,

and we picked up about
a dozen rolls of film.

[Brad] Amy was taking pictures
to enter a photo contest.

[Iva] Horns are going off.
We're leaving the dock.

[foghorn blowing]

[intriguing music continues]

[Brad] I remember going up
to the pool deck and looking around.

There was a band playing.
Typical kind of steel kettle drum band.

[steal drum music plays]

[singer vocalizing]

[Iva] The next day, we were at sea.

[Ron] The water, it was crystal clear.

Just like they talk about on TV.

[intriguing music plays]

[Iva] And then day three was the stop
on Aruba.

[Brad] I remember we rented a vehicle
and got lost in the desert,

and all that stuff,
and we got baked by the sun.

We were talking about what we were
going to do the next day on Curaçao.

We went on back on the ship.

[Ron on video] I'm getting this for Erin.

This is a boy who is very, very tired.

Had a hard day on the island of Aruba.

He is passed out!

That night, we were getting ready
for dinner, and that was the formal night.

[Iva] The photographer said that
he wanted to take a picture of Amy.

And Amy was standing there, he said,
"Okay, now her and her boyfriend."

Amy laughed, and she said,
"That's not my boyfriend."

"That's my baby brother."

[Brad] At the dinner table, the waitstaff
was noticeably attentive to Amy

and kinda flirting a little bit.

We actually went as far as
to make jokes at the table.

Like, "Hey, if anybody needs anything,
just tell them Amy wants it."

"You know, it'll be here right away."

[suspenseful music plays]

[Brad] After dinner,
we went back to the room

and, you know, got out of our formals,

and went up to the pool deck.

[Ron on video] Going out.
Gonna get really fun!

[Brad] Pool party started at ten o'clock.

It was like Dancing Under the Stars,
or something like that, they called it.

It almost seemed like
everybody was up there.

There was a limbo contest that,
somehow or another, I ended up winning.

[man] Winner!

[Brad] The crown that I won,
when I won the limbo contest,

I put it on Amy's head.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Brad] The boat had left Aruba
during the pool party at, like, 1:00 a.m.

At that point, Iva and I were tired,
so we decided to call it a night.

And we told Amy and Brad
we were going to bed.

[Iva] And I said, "I love you."
She said, "I love you too, Mom."

She said, "I'll see you in the morning."
I said, "Okay." And so we went to bed.

[dance music playing]

[Brad] Went up to the disco 'cause
that was the last place that was open,

and we weren't ready to turn in yet.

We were having drinks
and listening to music,

and having a great time.

We had a lot of fun together.

I was walking out of the club.

I motioned up to Amy,
who was up in the upper level,

the DJ booth area,
it was like a round table

where four, five, six people
were sitting up there, and we kinda,

motioned at each other. You know, I said,

"I'm gonna be out here."

[ominous music plays]

[Brad] And so I go out
and hang out on the upper deck

for a half hour or something like that,

and then go back to my room,
our room, the room we all shared.

[Brad] My parents were sleeping.
I went out onto the balcony.

[wind whooshing]

[Brad] And, like, not five minutes later,
it seemed, Amy came back to the room.

[door squeaks open]

[ominous thud echoes]

[lighter flicks]

[Brad] And we're both kinda just finishing
our drinks and, you know, hanging out

and talking about the next day…

She brought up that someone
she had been dancing and talking to

during the course of the evening
made some sort of physical pass at her.

She told me it was
the bass player from the band.

She didn't make a big deal of it.

Just kinda mentioned in passing.

[intriguing music plays]

[Brad] At that point,
yeah, we were both tipsy.

You know? Not, like, not crazy.

I mean, I could tell it was time for bed.

We were getting up
pretty early the next morning,

so I was going to try
to get a few hours of sleep.

She said, "I don't feel too good,

I'm going to sit right here
with all the fresh air and the wind."

[wind whistling]

[Brad] Told her I loved her
and see her tomorrow,

and shut the glass door behind me.

[door closes]

And I went to bed.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Ron] I remember waking
somewhere around 5:30 in the morning.

Brad had come in and gone to bed,

but I didn't see Amy in there.

So, I made sure that Amy was okay,
and I saw her legs

and her feet,
sitting in a lounge chair on the balcony.

So, I said, "Well, she's safe."

[suspenseful music building]

And about ten to 6:00, six o'clock,
somewhere in there,

something woke me up again.

I don't know what it was,

but when my eyes opened,
I looked out again, and she wasn't there.

[suspenseful music continues]

I noticed that the balcony door was open

about 12 to 14 inches.

I noticed that
her cigarettes weren't out there.

And the shirt that she had on that night

was laying on the chair in the room.

It was a yellow polo shirt.

So, the first thing that I'm thinking is
she's changed her clothes and went up.

She's left the room,
and she's up getting a cup of coffee,

taking pictures,
'cause we were coming into port.

[seagulls squawking]

That's when I left the room.

I figured that by leaving myself
and letting them sleep,

that I would find Amy,
you know, in just a few minutes.

[doors closes]

And then everything would be good.

[indistinct chatter]

But when I didn't,

that's when I came back and told Iva,
you know, I was… "I can't find Amy."

[Iva] He touches my foot…

and he said,

"I've been looking for Amy,
and I can't find her."

[wind whooshing]

-[tense music playing]
-[foghorn blaring]

[Iva] All of a sudden…

the ship is close to docking.

[foghorn blaring]

[tense music continues]

One of my staff came to me and said,

"Brent, I've got some parents
who are at the desk."

"They are concerned about their daughter."

I went out to the desk,
and I spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Bradley.

They were really, really concerned,

and, you know, a bit forceful
in wanting to know what we could do.

They did ask for the ship
to put out a voice page.

I did explain that we wouldn't do a voice
page at seven o'clock in the morning.

For the rest of our guests,
that could be seen as intrusive.

[bell chiming]

[Brent] What I said to them was,

"It sounds like you've had
a really good look around."

"Keep looking, but if you can't
find your daughter within a half an hour,

come back, I'll be here,
and I'll get you the security officer."

[suspenseful music plays]

[Ron] The ship was ten decks,
and it was 1,000 feet long.

She could have been anywhere.

[Kirk] Two thousand people were ready
to get off the ship in Curaçao.

I had bouffant hair at the time,
so I was probably spritzing my hair,

getting ready to
make my appearance on the gangway.

[seagulls squawking]

And I heard an announcement…

[imitating PA] "Would Amy Bradley
please contact the purser's desk?"

[Iva] We could see people
gathering their things up.

We're just saying, "You can't let people
off of this boat until we find her."

[indistinct chatter]

[Kirk] The hotel director debriefed me,

"Oh, this girl's missing."

But at the time, I still had to make
the clearance announcement.

[Iva] I was begging them,

"Can you back the ship off of the dock?"

"Don't put the gangways down.
Stop everything."

[buzzer sounding]

[latch clicking]

[cranking]

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to Curaçao."

"The gangway's located on deck number two
using the aft set of stairs."

We're not going to stop everybody's cruise
because there was a missing girl.

That's one family's unfortunate incident,

but we still had 2,400 people
who paid a lot of money,

and as cold as that sounds,
that's the reality.

[pensive music playing]

[Ron] It was nothing like
we've ever felt before.

People still going on their merry way.

Having a vacation, laughing, talking.

-[ice clinks]
-[laughter]

And there we are, looking for my daughter.

It was, uh…

It was what nightmares are made of.

[clock ticking]

[Kirk] After her family didn't find her,

we decided to do a search of the ship.

We had a… What they call "Charlie drill."

They call it a Charlie drill.
It's basically a b*mb search drill.

We check every drawer
of every closet, of every room,

of every nook, of every cranny.

It takes 45 minutes to an hour.
You have 800, 900 people doing it.

Every crew member has to check
their own cabin, every inch of the ship.

[eerie music plays]

[Ron] For the search,

the security guard had told us
to go back to the room and wait.

So, we didn't see anyone search the ship.

But that's when the captain came in.

[knocking]

[Iva] He says, "We have searched,
and your daughter's not on this boat."

[ominous music playing]

[Kirk] Nothing was found.

She just disappeared.

Everybody, at least
from the employees' side,

was just assuming that
she either jumped or fell overboard.

[Brent] We were thinking it was possible
that she went overboard.

It's not so common as people might think,
but it's possible.

[tense music playing]

[Kirk] When we didn't find her
on the ship,

local authorities to Curaçao
were called immediately.

[Adtzere] I was chief of island police,
and when something like that happens,

automatically it comes in my lap.

They thought she had fallen overboard.

Our waters have a very strong current,
so something should wash ashore.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[Ron] I remember the search.

I could see the boats
and the helicopters out looking.

It was the biggest search
that we ever had.

[Henry] Our search grid
was between Curaçao and Aruba.

The Marines,
the Venezuelan Coast Guard, the Navy,

everybody was looking in that area.

Because of the position of the boat,
wind force, sea current, the wave height,

the body would have washed up.

But she was nowhere to be found.

Not even a piece of clothing, nothing.

[waves crashing]

[Adtzere] It was very unusual.
Very, very unusual.

I was born here.

I know about the water.

We searched. I'm telling you, if she came
off the ship or fell off the ship…

we would get a body.

She would have washed ashore.

Our waters have sharks,
but the shark will not eat her completely.

Something, maybe a leg or an arm,

something would have washed ashore.

E kos ta straño.
It means, "The thing is strange."

[phone ringing]

[Erin C] They called me March 24th, 1998.

The phone rang. I said, "Hello."

And it was awful. It was awful.

Just three people crying uncontrollably.

I mean, pain that I've never heard before.

'Cause I was alone,
and I'm sitting there thinking,

"Oh, my God, what next?"

"What's gonna happen next?"

[machines clanking]

[water gurgling]

[foghorn blows]

[Kirk] We left five or six o'clock.

We still had a couple thousand
people to entertain, feed.

They were still on vacation,
so we went back to, you know,

normal operating procedure.

Life goes on.

[sighs]

Cruises go on.

That's when word got to America.

And we begin tonight
with a mystery on the high seas.

It was like "breaking news."

[reporter] This picture
of 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley

was taken just hours
before she mysteriously vanished

from a cruise ship early Tuesday morning.

Like, "That's not our Amy
that they're talking about."

Stephanie had called me.
We all were kinda like, "Oh, my gosh."

And I'm an eternal optimist.

"Everything's gonna be okay.
They're gonna find her. It's fine."

"It was a mistake. She's on… "

"She got drunk
and was somewhere lost or something."

I was so just, like, numb.

In college,
we had all lived in the same dorm.

I mean,
we literally all met because of Amy.

[Sarah Luck] It happened
while I was on this work trip.

There weren't a lot of details.

I just remember not being able to stand.

"We have to find her now. Now."

[darkly suspenseful music playing]

Most people have no idea

when they board a cruise ship
the dangers that are inherent there.

But the things that have happened to me,

things that have happened
to Amy Bradley and her family,

can happen to anyone,

anyone, and they do happen all the time.

My daughter died on a three-day cruise
out of Long Beach to Mexico.

And after that, I began working for

improved safety and security
on cruise ships.

[pensive music playing]

[Jamie] This ship is like a small city.

You cannot let your guard down.

You must remain vigilant at all times.

Once you're 12 miles offshore,
you're in international waters,

and that's about
as lawless as you can get.

The closest thing to police
is the security crew.

Well, that's an inherent conflict
right there

because they're hired by the cruise line.

And so if you have a disappearance,

you're hundreds of miles away

before the US investigative authorities
are able to get on that ship.

[Erin Sheridan] In 1998,
I was just freshly out of college.

Our office on St. Thomas
was small with several agents.

I heard about the case,
and then I hopped on to assist.

The initial information
that comes in is very sparse.

It was an American citizen
that had gone missing.

Her age was 23,
and she was on her family vacation.

[clicking]

[helicopter blades whirring]

[Victor McCollum] We flew down
from St. Thomas to St. Maarten.

And in St. Maarten,
the cruise ships don't pull up to port,

they dock out at sea,

and then they run
these little dinghies to shore.

And so we hopped on one of the dinghies
that was going back to the boat.

The boat was huge.

It's like pulling up to
the Empire State Building.

It's this massive thing.

[dramatic music plays]

[Erin S] We knew that the Coast Guard

and the local police department
in Curaçao did not find a body.

So, did something occur
that was nefarious and criminal?

In this particular case,
anything could have occurred.

[motor whirring]

We boarded the ship the late afternoon.

The captain gave us
a briefing on what he knew.

Last place she was seen
was in the cabin on the balcony.

So, the first thing we wanted to do
was look at the cabin.

[intriguing music plays]

[Victor] The room was organized well,

and it was very small.

There was basically
just enough room for the two beds,

and just to walk in between them
to get to the balcony and back out.

[flashbulb pops]

[Victor] In the room,
there was no signs of a struggle,

but we couldn't be certain
the ship had locked down the cabin

as a potential crime scene.

The Bradley room had been cleaned
before the FBI even was able to board.

Which was unfortunate
because if there was evidence,

there was no preservation
of that evidence.

[camera clicking]

[Erin S] We tried to take fingerprints,
we tried to take fibers from the sheets,

but it had already been cleaned.

[Victor] We looked at the balcony.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Victor] Based on
what the captain briefed us on,

the last place
that she was physically seen was here.

The railing on the balcony is…

was relatively high.

I'm over six feet tall.

And the railing, you know,
came up relatively high on me.

And it was a sheer drop
all the way down to the water.

[waves lapping]

The balcony was arranged
so that there were two lounge chairs

and then a small table.

The little table was pushed
up against the glass of the balcony.

Amy's shoes were found on the balcony,

neatly placed together
beside the little table.

Like a Birkenstock kind of sandals.

You could speculate, "Did she jump?"

But there's no direct evidence of that.

[flashbulb pops]

[Erin S] I don't take a table being moved
as a key piece of evidence

because things, of course, have been moved

because of the cleaning crew.
So, it gets very difficult.

[Victor] At this point,
we need to speak to the family

because they were
the last ones to see her.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Iva] We're taken to a room,

and there's two FBI agents,

you know, it was basically an interview.

We met the family as a whole,
all three together initially,

and then we broke them out,

and interviewed
each family member separately.

You know,
we were sensitive to their situation,

but at the same time,
we have to start asking questions

because we need to determine
what they knew.

[dramatic music plays]

[Ron] We were taking turns going in,
talking to the FBI.

He assured us, he said, "We will leave
no stone unturned to help you."

They asked me simple things
like, you know,

"What happened in the timeline of the…"
you know,

"that night in question,"
and all that kinda stuff.

[dramatic music intensifies]

[Victor] We're not only looking
for evidence of what possibly did happen.

We're also looking
to eliminate potential alternatives.

[Iva] I spoke up and said,

"I don't understand
why you're taking so much time with us."

When I came back out,

I told Iva, I said,
"You understand why they're…

why they're talking to us like this
and interviewing us separately?"

"That's 'cause we're suspects."

"They think that one of us
had something to do with it, maybe."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Victor] We had to look at
the Bradley family.

The last place they had seen Amy
was in their cabin

and in the middle of the night.

But we found no evidence
that led us to consider

a family member as a possible culprit.

[darkly intriguing music playing]

[Erin S] Initially, you are trying
to figure out that timeline,

to really pick apart
and peel that onion back

on what could have occurred.

We do have one concrete point of fact.

We do have confirmation of when

the family re-entered their cabin,

when Bradley went back in,
as well as Amy, because of their key card.

[clicking, beeping]

The staterooms at that time had key cards

that when you would use the key card,
it would create

an electronic record
of entry into the room.

[door shuts]

[Erin S] So, we know what time
Amy got back into her room.

She was in her room
approximately by, you know, 3:40 a.m.

She's out on the balcony with her brother.

They're chatting,
and having a smoke out there.

And that is
the only true fact that we have.

And then it does get a little murky.

[Victor] After interviewing the Bradleys,

what we know is approximately


she was on the balcony.

At 6:00 a.m. or sometime right thereafter,
she wasn't on the balcony.

[pensive music playing]

The ship did have security cameras
in certain places, mostly in common areas.

[projector clicking]

But there weren't many.

We looked at that footage,
and we didn't find anything.

[Erin S] To get a full timeline,

you're just hoping that someone
would come forward to say

that they heard something
or they saw something.

[Wayne] I had the room next door
to Iva and Ron Bradley.

I remember the FBI,
they were looking for clues

and they had the room

open by the door so you could see in.

They had yellow tape across things.

[man] I leave my room,

and I'm getting a little feeling…
weird stuff going on.

You know,
people gossip when they're hanging out.

[indistinct chatter]

[Chris] When I first heard the news,
it was apparently somebody fell overboard.

I'm like, "Oh, that's horrible."
"Yeah, they're searching for her."

Later, by like the next day,
I'm hearing that she committed suicide.

I'm like, "What?"

[Kirk] From what I heard
through the grapevine,

she'd kinda bragged
that she was a good swimmer.

And when she saw the lights of Curaçao,

she was gonna jump in the water
and try to beat the ship ashore.

[Wayne] I remember hearing someone say
that someone could have drugged her

and abducted her.

[Chris] And then I heard, yeah,
apparently, maybe she didn't jump.

I was like, "What?"

He goes, "Yeah, they think
there was some sort of foul play."

[Wayne] There was a lot of rumors.

Everybody's talking about it.
"Nah, I seen her here, I seen her there."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Wayne] The FBI wanted to interview me.

[knock on door]

The first thing out of my mouth was,
"I seen her last night."

[dance music plays]

And I told them that I seen
Amy Bradley up at the disco that night

at about two o'clock,

'cause I went up to the disco
just to see what was going on.

And I just observed
and sat down and, yeah, looking for,

you know, looking at girls, whatever.

[Iva] I told the FBI, Wayne Breitag,

he would come out
on his balcony that was next to us,

and there was a partition.

But he would lean over to talk to Amy.

He was just odd.

He was just an odd individual.

During the cruise,
I'd go to the casino for a while,

then I'd always come back to the room,
and I'd go out to the balcony

till 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.

[door slides]

[Wayne] Earlier on the trip,
Amy and I… we talked.

[pensive music plays]

Their balcony, you know,
those balconies on those ships,

even though that rail's right there,
well, you can step up to that rail,

you can lean right and
look right around in that other balcony.

That's where we talked about
how she was a good athlete.

And she'd just graduated college,

and she was going
to some job or something.

[waves gently breaking]

[Victor] We interviewed Mr. Breitag.

He mainly talked about, you know,
his interactions or conversations with Amy

and how pleasant she was
and this sort of thing.

But he was there by himself.

I don't think he had a spouse,
or friend, or anything with him.

All my cruises I went on by myself.
I never took anybody or anything, so I…

I kinda…

My chiropractor always says,

"Your filter's only this big anymore,"
so my filter is…

I like solitude. I like being alone, and…

That night, I probably was
back in the room by 2:30 and whatever,

but I don't remember
hearing anything from in that room.

That's why it was a real surprise to me
that this stuff had happened.

[Iva] The passengers in the cabin
on the other side of him

said that after Amy disappeared,
his TV, or either radio,

was at a level of,
"You gotta be kidding me."

And then they could hear him
talking inside of his room,

even over the sound
of the loud TV or the radio,

and the thought was,
"Well, who's he talking to?"

[tense music plays]

[Victor] We did search his room,
and didn't find evidence of her presence.

[producer] There was a version
that somebody had mentioned to us

that she tried to climb over and fell…

Somebody could say that.

[ominous music plays]

Yeah, somebody could say that.

But I never had
nothing to do with Amy Bradley.

Nothing.

She just was
the girl next door in the room.

[ominous music intensifies, fades]

[pensive music plays]

[Chris] At some point on Thursday,

somebody puts a notice on my door.

It said, "Amy Bradley missing,"

you know, "please contact," whatever.

When I saw her face,
I went, "Oh, I know her."

I remember seeing her on the boat,
and she was just the life of the party.

Amy had this, like,
magnetic, magic bubble around her.

And when she'd walk into the room,
everybody noticed her.

I'd heard about the missing girl,

but when I saw
the xeroxed flyer on my door,

that's when I went, "Oh, that's the girl?"

"That's the one? Interesting."

My mind starts racing, I'm thinking,

"Well, we were in that dance club
that night sh**ting,

the night she went missing."

-[crowd chatter]
-[dance music playing]

[Chris] I worked for a computer company
in the San Francisco Bay Area.

They were doing a trip for all their best
salespeople on this cruise ship.

My job was to edit
a little "highlights reel."

As a job, I'm thinking,
"Yay, I'm going to be on a boat."

No, I was in a stateroom
almost the entire time.

After I saw the picture of Amy,
I sit down, I go through my box of tapes,

and I start going through 'em.

You drop it in, and you shuttle,
and you scan, and you look.

No. Take the next one,

[tape whirring]

shuttle and scan.

No. The next one.

[tape fast-forwarding, whirring]

[whirring speeds up]

[Chris] Boom.

And there's Amy. Clear as a bell.

[somber music plays]

[Chris] And she's dancing with Yellow.

[suspenseful music plays]

Yellow was a bass player
who played out on the pool deck.

[suspenseful music continues]

[Chris] And there was a second shot
of her dancing with Yellow.

[tape whirs, clicks]

[Kirk] His name was Alister.
He went by "Yellow."

I don't know if he had yellow hair
at that point,

but he dyed his hair yellow.

So, that's how he got his nickname.

-[phone rings]
-[Chris] Later that afternoon,

I'm in my stateroom, and I got a call.

The voice on the other end
of the phone says,

"Hi, I'm the head of security
on the boat."

And he said, "I'm gonna need to get
your master tapes from you."

The cruise ship knew my camera guy
had been sh**ting in the dance club.

I'm like, "Really?"

"That's not gonna happen."

"I don't give my master tapes to anybody."

"No, screw you."

[Chris] I took this tape,

and I did a digital dub of the Beta SP,

popped it in a cassette shell,

labeled it with my name
and room number, and I gave it to the FBI.

[tropical music playing]

[Erin S] The footage is significant
because it would help

basically find, you know,
anybody that she was with

before she went missing.

You can see Amy and Alister Douglas
together throughout the night.

Now we are beginning
to find that timeline,

to really pick apart
and peel that onion back

on what could have occurred,

who saw her, where she was,

what was going on at that time.

[woman] When I saw the flyer
with Amy's picture on it, I was like,

"Oh, my God," you know, "I saw her."

My friend and I, we had gone to
the nightclub that night, and I saw Amy.

She did kinda stand out to me

because there wasn't a lot
of young people on the boat.

Yeah, I remember talking to them.

Amy, she had graduated,

she'd gotten an apartment.

You know, she had
all these things going for her.

And, you know, at the time,
I'm 18 and still trying to figure it out.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Lori] My friend and I,

we went back to the room
after the nightclub closed.

Then we decided we weren't sleepy.

So we just decided
to go hang out on the top deck.

We were sitting on that deck for a while.
We weren't ready to go back to the room.

It was wee morning hours.

Sometime between 5:00 and 6:00.

I saw Amy and this guy
that worked on the boat

together in this glass elevator
that I could see to my right.

The glass elevator went up to
the nightclub even though it was closed.

It was a very well-lit elevator. I could…

I could tell right away who it was.
It was the bass player and Amy.

Amy looked like
she was staring at something.

I watched them until they rode completely
to the top and they exited the elevator.

[elevator dings]

[Lori] Ten,
fifteen minutes after I saw them,

he was coming from the front of the boat.

So, to my left.

He walked down the top deck.

Never says a word,
just kind of a brisk walk past us, alone.

I thought it was very strange,
because in the nightclub

he had tried to, you know,
get us to talk to him.

We're alone on this top deck.

You know, he just walks right by us.

Doesn't even look at us.

You know, I just kinda got a bad vibe.

You know, immediately I thought,
"Well, where's Amy?"

If the two young women saw
Amy and Alister Douglas together

after 5:30 or whatever it may be,
it could be a game changer.

You would know and confirm that
she actually could have left the cabin.

But unfortunately,
we can't confirm the time because

the door lock would have
when passengers entered their cabin…

[clicks, beeps]

[door opens]

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

[suspenseful music playing]

To us, you know, it looked like
he could be suspect number one.

[Erin S] This was international waters,
so we can't detain anyone.

We can ask questions, but that's about it.

[tropical music plays]

[Victor] We interviewed him,
and subsequently, he was polygraphed.

[polygraph whirring]

He admitted that he knew who Amy was.
He admitted that he had flirted with her.

He said, you know, "I did that,
and that's kind of what I do."

That he's kind of a flirt,
and he would, you know, get flirtatious

with many of the female passengers.

But anything to do with her disappearance,

no, he vehemently denied.

[Erin S] The unfortunate part
is the timing.

Those statements where two young women
saw Amy and Alister Douglas together,

you just don't know,

is the time actually correct?

Ultimately, the polygraph results
were not conclusive.

If we had concrete evidence,

were working with
the local police department,

Alister Douglas would have been arrested,

but we didn't have that.

[Victor] But, I mean, he was bothered,
you know, by what was going on,

you know, for whatever reason.

Either because
he had something to do with it,

or because he had nothing to do with it,
but he was bothered.

[eerie music playing]

[Victor] The cruise was coming to its end.

[foghorn blowing]

[Victor] So, at that time,

we were losing access
to anything on the boat,

any witnesses, suspects,
and the potential crime scene.

If you don't have a body, you can't
determine exactly what happened.

[Erin S] You have several scenarios.
Many things could have occurred.

Did she inadvertently fall off,

wasn't feeling well, felt sick,

by mistake was on the balcony,
fell off into the water?

Did she commit suicide?

Was furniture moved?

Did she step on something?
And did she jump overboard?

The sliding door on the balcony was ajar.

Did she walk back through?

Did she go up to the deck
to watch the sunrise?

Did she go out to smoke?

Did something occur
when she was up on the deck?

Did she meet somebody?

Whether it was that night
and the previous night.

Did she walk off the ship, never return?

Did something nefarious occur
where she's smuggled off the ship?

That puzzle is
extremely difficult to put together.

[foghorn blaring]

[suspenseful music plays]

[Iva] We had a very close friend.

He basically said to us,

"I do not want you to dock in Puerto Rico

because I think it's just going to be
too tough on you with the news."

"Would you rather just go home now
and be with your family?"

So we flew out of St. Thomas on the 27th.

[airplane engine revving]

I don't remember a whole lot
about the flight coming back home,

except that we were leaving her.

You know, she was supposed to be with us.

[Brad] If she is out there lost,
or being held against her will,

or being in a bad situation,
whatever it is, then, you know,

flying home felt like giving up.

[Ron] As we were coming into
Chesterfield Airport…

…the wind was blowing like crazy,

and the jet was just all over the place
coming in for a landing.

I'd never been on a plane
that had that much turbulence

or that much, you know,
wind trying to land.

The wings tiltin' to the sides.

The funny thing about it is my heart…

You know, I wasn't scared.
My heart wasn't beating.

I was just thinking to myself,

"If the thing crashes on the runway,
then this thing will be over."

[pensive music plays]

[Iva] We were picked up at the airport

and taken to our home.

All of my brothers and sisters were there.

My mom was there.

[Erin C] Iva just collapsed
in her mom's arms when she walked in.

Just watching Iva with her
in her comfort, it was like, you know,

watching a little kid
be in their mom's arms.

Nobody knew what to say, what to do.

[Ron] We had a prayer vigil,

asking God to watch over Amy
and get her back home to us.

[sniffling] And I remember
it bringing me to my knees,

and Iva Bradley came over and held me up.

I mean, her daughter is missing,
and Iva held me up.

[dramatic music playing]

[Iva] It took a few days to be able to

eat again and form a sentence.

But from that point forward,

we never even thought about laying down.

We started a command center
to reach out to

every authority that we could think of,

the different countries' embassies.

We had hotlines, contacted media.

[reporter 1] A young woman traveling
with her parents vanishes from the ship

in the open sea

[reporter 2] Amy Bradley vanished
just as the ship was docking.

She hasn't been seen since.

[Iva] We tried to have faith and hope.

Because I knew somebody knew something.

[reporter 3] If you have information
on the whereabouts of Amy Bradley,

please call the number on your screen.

The minute I saw the picture,
I went, like,

are you kidding me?

-This is not right.
-[dramatic music plays]

I was there four months later.

And I saw her.

I know where she is.

[music crescendos, fades]

[electronic whirring and static]

Amy's alive.

[mysterious music playing]

[darkly intriguing music playing]