Critical information overlooked in the Netflix series about the disappearance of American Amy Lynn Bradley might illuminate how she went missing from a cruise ship nearly three decades ago, one expert argues.
Amy was 23 when she disappeared from the Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas on March 21, 1998, during a family trip.
This mystery has been perplexing the true crime community for many years, with the three-part documentary becoming highly popular on the platform.
Even aspiring lawyer and true crime aficionado Kim Kardashian has reportedly been approached to aid in solving the mystery, amidst theories suggesting Amy may have been a victim of sex trafficking, as reported by TMZ.
However, author and YouTuber James Renner, who has extensively investigated the case and is planning a new book release next year, proposes there may be a more straightforward explanation.
In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, he commented, “When examining the case facts, there’s a seemingly insignificant detail that could actually be pivotal.”
“The documentary emphasizes that the balcony door was left ajar in the morning, yet it also implies Amy left the room without notifying anyone.”
“But if you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you know that there are warning plaques in your room that say, ‘Do not open the cabin door when the balcony doors open.’ Because the hallway is pressurized.
“So, if you open that cabin door, it creates a wind tunnel. And it often causes the cabin door to slam shut.
“In fact, some people have lost fingers because it slammed shut so hard.
“You cannot quietly leave a cabin room with the balcony door open. It would’ve woken everybody up.”
During his research for the book, Renner says he spoke to cruise staff who were briefed about what the FBI found in the cabin when they dusted it for prints.
He alleged, “On the railing, they found Amy’s palm prints, and on the glass door, they found her footprints.
“So it appears that she was sitting on the balcony with her feet against the glass.
“So it’s possible that she kicked off. And when she kicked off, the door opened a little bit.
“I think it’s possible she sat on the railing. I think what we might be looking at here is what the French call ‘l’appel du vide’ which we call ‘call of the void.’
“I think it’s possible. She had a really rough night. She’d been drinking. She had a very big decision to make when she got home from that cruise ship.
“And that was, does she live her life out in the open as a gay woman? Which is how she identified to everybody.
“She didn’t identify as bi, she identified as gay and lesbian.
“So does she live that life and risk disappointing her parents and not having that close relationship? Or does she live a lie and turn her back on who she really is? So all that’s going on in her mind.
I think she’s sitting on that balcony thinking, ‘What if?’ and by pushing off she causes action.”
Author James Renner
“I think she’s sitting there out on that balcony. When you’re in places like that, just like when you’re standing on the edge of a cliff, there is that voice inside you sometimes. that comes up and says, ‘What if?’
“I think she’s sitting on that balcony thinking, ‘What if?’ and by pushing off she causes action.”
Renner explained that once you’re overboard on a cruise ship, there is only about a 20 per cent chance you’re going to survive being in the rough waters long enough to be pulled out.
“So, I think that’s what happened. I think it’s likely she went overboard earlier when they were further from the port.”
He said he will discuss his theory in full in his book, A Cruise to Nowhere, which will be released next summer.
He said, “I talk about some stories where eyewitness testimony was faulty, and it’s because memory doesn’t work like it does on TV and film, where you see this flashback in technicolor.
“Every time we access a memory, we rewrite it a little bit.
“These people have the best intentions. They want to help this family. But you know, they’re coming at it backwards, they’ve been shown the picture of Amy, and then it matches up with this memory in their mind.”
On the theory that Amy was kidnapped and sex-trafficked, Renner claims there is no verified account of a caucasian woman being abducted and trafficked in the Caribbean.
I do think that if Amy had lived, she’d probably be with her partner Molly.”
Author James Renner
“This would be a first, which is very unlikely,” he said.
“It’s just not worth the trouble. A white woman is gonna stand out in Grenada, and it’s not worth the risk for the people that do this.
“They have plenty of women from the Dominican Republic, from Columbia, from these poor countries, that can go there and make more money than their family could in a year working a couple of weeks for these brothels.”
Renner met with the Bradley family while researching his book several months ago, but he alleges they cut contact with him after an initial meeting.
“I came to care for the Bradley family quite a bit. Iva [Amy’s mom] is the type of person that loves hard,” he said.
“I met with them about a year ago and was invited to their house, and had lunch with them.”
He claims that before he arrived, Iva told him anyone who is invited into their home was considered family, a comment he did not take lightly and he was hoping to build a relationship with them.
“Unfortunately, once they learned that I knew that Amy was gay and that I had spoken to her partners, that was the last contact I had with them,” he claims.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Amy’s family for comment, but did not hear back.
Top theories relating to Amy Bradley’s disappearance
From suicide to sex-trafficking, there have been many theories about what happened to the 23-year-old.
- Sex-trafficking/Abduction – this is the most prominent theory, as alleged witnesses have come forward to claim they have seen her with suspicious men in the Caribbean. A photograph of a woman with strikingly similar features was also posted on a sex worker website and featured in the Netflix doc.
- Suicide – Amy was allegedly struggling with stress after coming out as a gay woman to her family, and they found it difficult to accept. She was reportedly drinking and chain-smoking in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. She was also last seen in her family’s cabin smoking on the balcony, and there is no proof she ever left.
- Accidental Overboard – Amy was under the influence of alcohol when she was on the balcony after a night of partying in the ship’s nightclub. She may have climbed up while intoxicated and fallen overboard. However, this is considered the least likely theory due to the height of the balcony and Amy’s reported fear of heights.
- Voluntary Departure – It has also been suggested that Amy may have intentionally left the ship to start a new life after revealing her sexuality to her family. The documentary explores this theory as a mystery internet user with an IP address linked to Barbados would often spend minutes on pages of the website created by her family every year on Christmas and Thanksgiving.
“It’s very sad. I do think that if Amy had lived, she’d probably be with her partner Molly, and I hope she would’ve had the support of her family.”
Asked what drew him to the case, Renner said he likes unsolved mysteries that are “giant puzzle boxes.”
“It could be that they walked away to start a new life. It could be they committed suicide. It could be they were abducted. It could be they were murdered. So everything’s on the table.
“And those cases intrigue me because they’re very rare. And, you know, one of the reasons they’re still like that is because they haven’t been properly investigated.
“So what I like to do is just chip away at some of those other theories and see what’s left.
“And for me, I’ve narrowed [it] down, what happened to Amy Bradley … to the point where I don’t believe she ever came off that balcony.
“I think it’s highly likely that she is responsible for whatever took place there.”
Renner also previously spoke to The U.S. Sun about the now-debunked theory that Amy was taken from the ship and sex-trafficked by a bass player called Alister Douglas, known then by his nickname “Yellow”.
He took the same journey as Amy on the Rhapsody of the Seas and tracked Douglas down in Grenada, where the now-reverend granted him a brief interview.
Douglas claimed the case had turned his life upside down, and he was still receiving hate from trolls online despite being ruled out by the FBI on more than one occasion.
Tearing up, he admitted, “I’ve lost so many opportunities because of this,” explaining that people Google his name and believe he had something to do with Amy going missing.
“My inbox, my Facebook, people have been writing me horrible stuff for years.”
