Gerrard Kaonga
The family of a missing woman fear a photo might reveal what happened to her after she vanished from a cruise ship 26 years ago.
Amy Lynn Bradley went missing while she was on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship with her family, parents Iva and Ron and brother Bradley back in 1998.
The then 23-year-old was parting in the Rhapsody of the Seas’ club on March 24 and was last seen sleeping in a chair on her cabin’s private balcony at around 5.30am.
This would be the last time the woman would ever be seen again.
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Within half an hour, Bradley had vanished and her father couldn’t find her.
The simplest explanation to her disappearance was that between 5.30am and her father trying to find her, she had fallen overboard.
However, her family is reluctant to believe this, stating that she was an excellent swimmer, was a trained lifeguard and the boat was not far from shore.
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Over the years have held on to hope that their daughter is still alive, but an episode of TV show Dr Phill suggested a rather dark suggestion as to what happened to the young woman.
In 2005, the family received a tip off that Amy may have been sex trafficked. It is not clear at what point this would have happened and Royal Caribbean staff state they searched every inch of the vessel when they were made aware of her disappearance.
With that being said, while on the TV show, the family were shown haunting images of a woman who strongly resembled Bradley. She was scantily-clad and posing uncomfortably in lingerie in the picture.
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The internet archive has a cached version of the images being promoted on a defunct website advertising adult holidays in the Caribbean.
It identified the woman as "Jas" - and includes two pictures of a woman with long black hair.
Iva said: "When I first looked at the picture, it wasn’t the Amy I know. The picture looks like a harsh and tormented Amy."
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These alleged leads failed to result in the mystery of her disappearance being completely unfurled.
The family has since issued a fresh appeal for information regarding her disappearance on what would have been Bradley’s 50th birthday.
The FBI appeal for information described Bradley as being a white 5 foot 6 woman weighing 120 pounds with short brown hair and green eyes from Petersburg, Virginia.
The FBI appeal also included aged up images of Bradley to better help people identify the missing woman.
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The release states: "The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the recovery of Amy Lynn Bradley and information that leads to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person(s) responsible for her disappearance.”