VA – On March 24, 1998, Amy Lynn Bradley, mysteriously vanished while vacationing with her family aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Rhapsody of the Seas. The ship had left Oranjestad, Aruba, to sail to Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles.
The, 23-year-old trained lifeguard, had been awarded a full basketball scholarship and graduated from Longwood University in VA with a degree in Physical Education. Amy also had a teaching certificate from K -12. Amy was looking forward to a future bright with possibilities prior to her disappearance. She had lots of plans upon her return. She adopted an English bulldog named Daisey to keep her bulldog Bailey; took a dozen rolls of film to take pictures to decoupage her coffee table; had concert tickets; a part time job to start on Monday; bought gifts in Aruba for her friends back home; sent post cards to friends from Puerto Rico. The ill-fated Caribbean family vacation with parents, Ron and Iva Bradley, and Amy’s younger brother, Brad, should have been a trip of a lifetime but quickly became overcast amidst darkness and mystery.
Rhapsody of the Seas had left Aruba and was in docking procedure in the Port of Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, at the time of Amy’s disappearance. In the early morning hours of March 24th, Amy left her cabin barefoot only taking her lighter and cigarettes, an obvious sign she was not expecting to be gone for an extended amount of time.
Reflecting on the days before Amy’s disappearance, Amy’s mother, Iva Bradley, recalls several members of the crew paying special attention to Amy from the moment they boarded the ship. The day preceding Amy’s disappearance, Amy’s parents were approached by a waiter who asked for Amy by name. The waiter said ‘they’ wanted to take Amy to Carlos and Charlie’s Restaurant while docked in Aruba. Her father recalls thinking the waiter’s request was uncomfortably forward. A short time later, Ron and Iva told their daughter what happened. Both parents are now haunted by Amy’s response, “I wouldn’t go and do anything with any of those crew members. They give me the creeps.”
Creepy didn’t stop there. Later that night, the family attended a party on the upper deck where the band was playing. During the party, Amy, accompanied by her mother, went to the 4th deck photo gallery to view pictures of vacationers that had been taken earlier in the evening. All of the photographs taken of Amy were missing. When they asked the gallery manager where the photos were, he stated he remembered developing them and placing them with the others but was unable to locate them. Iva then asked the photo gallery manager to re-make the photos.
Later that evening Amy and Brad went to the ship’s nightclub and where Amy had some interaction with ship band members of Blue Orchid. Witnesses claim the bass player was trying to pick her up. According to band member Alister Douglas, who goes by the name Yellow, claims Amy had departed to her room at approximately 1:00AM and used the crew elevator. A ship surveillance video showed Amy and Yellow on the dance floor at approximately 3AM. Amy’s father was the last to see her on March 24th at approximately 5:30AM sleeping on the balcony of the cabin the family shared. When Ron awoke again between 5:50- 6:00AM, Amy was nowhere to be found. While relentlessly searching for their beloved daughter, Amy’s parents have endured an unimaginable journey into the abyss of international kidnapping and sex trafficking. Who Amy may have left to meet that morning remains a mystery.
According to the Bradley’s, they quickly found cruise ship management less than cooperative in the search for their daughter refusing to issue a formal public alert or post pictures of the missing American woman for fear of causing concern to other passengers. Though the FBI has conducted an extensive investigation, into Amy’s background, her friends, teachers, relatives, co-workers, employees, basketball coaches, her parents and brother were even polygraphed. Unfortunately, because Amy vanished outside of the US and lack of FBI jurisdiction in the Netherland Antilles, valuable leads have fallen through the cracks and never investigated. Not one search has ever been conducted.
In the 13 years following Amy’s disappearance, the Bradley’s desperate search for their daughter has included multiple trips to Curacao, appeals on national television, even hiring private investigators. Since Amy’s mysteriously disappeared, many tips reported that appear credible. One of the tipsters, David Carmichael, called the hotline after watching an Unsolved Mysteries segment. He confidently identified Amy as a young woman he saw walking along the beach snug between two men. Describing the encounter, Carmichael, along with his dive buddy, also from Canada, identified two tattoos that matched Amy’s, one of a Gecko, the other a Tasmanian devil. He said the woman approached within 16” of him and his friend and made eye contact for several seconds but didn’t utter a word. He said she was then quickly ushered away by the two unidentified men. Another tip came from a US Navy officer that had visited a brothel in 1999. After seeing Amy in People Magazine, he claims he approached Amy and another woman sitting at a table and the woman told him her name was Amy Bradley and began begging him to help her. When he responded there was a Navy ship just down the road, she said, “You don’t understand, I can’t leave. Help me. Please help me” The Naval officer says he dismissed her plea because he wasn’t aware Amy was a missing person and he did not want his superiors to know he was there.
Thousands of leads later, it’s hard to ignore the circumstances of Amy’s disappearance do not strongly point to sex trafficking. According to a 2010 report conducted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and published by the United States Department of State, the Netherland Antilles is a transit and destination point for women and children who are victims of forced prostitution in a multi-billion dollar industry. It is estimated approximately 80% of all prostitutes are foreigners. The UN Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) lists the Netherlands as a top destination for victims of human and sex trafficking. Women who are coerced or kidnapped face inhumane conditions, extreme violence and multiple rapes to break their spirit. Victims are often threatened with death along with their family members should they try to escape; forced drug dependence is also common.
When we think of the word unimaginable, Amy’s parents truly know its meaning. “Our lives have been so drastically changed. Every waking moment is, ‘Where is Amy?’ I just want people to know that when girls disappear outside of the country, they’re disappearing for a reason. And white slavery and sex trafficking is so alive and well, it would absolutely blow you away. We believe with every fiber in our being that someone took her and we want her back. And I have tried to make deals with God. If we find her today, you can take me tomorrow. When they say the worst nightmare, it is. It’s the worst nightmare.”
Thirteen years later, Amy remains missing in an ocean of international red tape and a series of events that have failed to be investigated. Sadly, as the Bradleys found out, when you are traveling overseas and someone you love goes missing – you are on your own.
GLENDALE, AZ – Glendale police are asking for help finding for a man who has been missing for a week.
Michael Sean Grenley
Michael Sean Grenley, 41, has not been seen or heard from since he left his home near 75th Avenue and Deer Valley Road around 1 p.m. last Tuesday, Sgt. Brent Coombs with Glendale Police said.
Grenley has an ongoing medical condition that requires medication, Coombs said.
Coombs said Grenley was driving his Red Jeep Rubicon with Arizona License Plate 797-VZS.
Grenley is an avid off-road enthusiast, and may have driven to a remote area in his Jeep, Coombs said.
Glendale police are asking anyone with information on Grenley’s whereabouts to contact Glendale Missing Persons Detective Mario Sanchez at 623-930-3000.
Allowing access to bank, cellphone records alarms critics
The Alberta government has tabled new legislation to help police find missing people by accessing personal information.
The Missing Persons Act, or Bill 8, would allow police working on a missing-person case to search personal information -such as cellphone and financial records -even when there is no reason to suspect a crime has been committed.
The legislation requires police to apply for the personal information through the courts. When police believe there is a risk of harm or death, they can demand specific records needed to find the missing person.
The bill was introduced by George VanderBurg, MLA for WhitecourtSte. Anne, who said the legislation was primarily created in response to police requests, including a resolution by the Alberta Association Chiefs of Police in spring 2010.
VanderBurg said cases like that of Lyle and Marie McCann, the elderly St. Albert couple who disappeared last July under suspicious circumstances, provide additional impetus for the changes.
“In my constituency, it struck home,” said VanderBurg. “If there was any legislation lacking to make it easier, whether searching bank records or Visa records or phone records, it sure is a lot easier on family members.”
The proposed changes sparked concerns over privacy when mentioned in last week’s throne speech. Opposition MLA Laurie Blakeman said the legislation would give police too much power.
VanderBurg said all information collected by police must be kept separately from other police records and is not to be used for other purposes.
“The bottom line is that the privacy information people have looked at this legislation, they agree with it.”
According to Josh Stewart, a spokesman for Alberta Justice, Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work provided verbal feedback after reviewing a first draft of the bill. The ministry is waiting to receive written feedback from Work about the current draft.
A spokesman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner declined to comment on the current draft until it can be reviewed.
Murray Stooke, deputy chief of the Calgary police, chairs the law amendments committee for the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police that recommended the changes last spring.
Stooke said the bill will go a long way in helping police track down the 200 Albertans currently missing. Since proving a crime is difficult, police were unable to access telephone, bank, or even health records. The prospective legislation will “clarify the rules.”
“In many or most missing person situations, by definition, we don’t have information or evidence of crime,” Stooke said. “This now allows us to take reasonable steps that wouldn’t otherwise be available to us.”
Melanie Alix, whose son disappeared more than two years ago, said she understands some people may have concerns about the release of personal information, but she thinks the legislation’s potential benefits far outweigh any risks.
“I totally understand that this can be a very touchy subject, but I believe in certain cases the police should have access,” said Alix, whose son, Dylan Koshman, disappeared after a fight with his cousin on Oct. 11, 2008, and remains missing.
MONTPELIER – Stephen Perry’s life wasn’t easy, but it had gotten better in recent months.
Perry, a former Vermonter, went from being homeless in his car to living in a suburban Florida home. A charity began helping him pay for the treatment of his terminal bladder cancer.
Then he went missing May 9. Friends and family stopped receiving e-mails and phone calls from the 56-year-old writer, who was divorced. Police discovered his van – soaked in blood and abandoned – in a parking lot.
A severed human arm was found near the vehicle, police said. When they went to Perry’s home, it was ransacked and empty.Stephen Perry
Thursday, police in Zephyrhills, Fla., confirmed what many feared.
“The Zephyrhills Police Department is now investigating the disappearance of Stephen J. Perry as an apparent homicide,” said Capt. Rob McKinney in a news release. “Laboratory results on evidence are still pending at this time.”
Perry’s two roommates – both of whom have lengthy criminal histories – are in jail on unrelated charges, although police consider them “persons of interest” in the case.
“As you can imagine, this has been horrifying, sickening, depressing, frustrating, infuriating, sorrowful news,” Stephen R. Bissette of Windsor, a close friend of Perry’s since the 1970s, wrote on his blog.
Becoming a writer
Perry was born in Maine and moved to Vermont in the early 1970s to attend Johnson State College. He lived in this state when he wrote much of his most widely seen work, including several issues for Marvel Comics and several episodes of the 1980s “Thundercats” cartoon.
Johnson is where Perry met Bissette, a comics creator who now teaches at White River Junction’s Center for Cartoon Studies.
“When I first arrived at Johnson, everyone told me I needed to meet Steve,” Bissette said. “He was already writing a lot then, including two plays and an unpublished novel.”
The two friends began working on stories together.
Perry’s first break came in 1981, when he and Bissette created a series of stories for Marvel Comics. By the mid-1980s, Perry’s comics – although never huge sellers – were garnering critical acclaim.
His big break came when he began writing for animation studio Rankin/Bass on the children’s television shows “Thundercats” and “Silverhawks.” The first show was a hit, spawning toys, comics and other merchandise.
But this was all work-for-hire, meaning Perry didn’t receive royalties. When “Thundercats” toys came out, Perry had to buy them from a store for his young son.
“Freelance work is a meager living,” Bissette said. “You wait for paychecks to come in and try to land as many jobs as you can.”
In the late 1980s, Perry’s writing work dried up. Editors stopped returning his calls. Checks stopped coming in. He was heartbroken. Writing comics was his dream.
After comics
But he didn’t give up on the dream.
In the early 1990s, he answered a newspaper ad for a job at Moondance Comics, a Brattleboro store. Owner Alan Goldstein said Perry was the only applicant to come in with a portfolio. He quickly hired him.
“He threw himself at the job,” Goldstein said. “Steve was one of the most loyal people I worked with. We quickly became friends.”
Years later, Perry would provide the inspiration for Goldstein to launch his next business, an independent video rental store in Brattleboro.
“First Run Video was Steve’s idea,” said Goldstein, who recently sold the business and retired to the West Coast.
But Perry still never made much money. He relied on weekly flea market sales in the spring and summer. For a few years he worked for a carnival that traveled between Maine and Florida, where he would later relocate.
“When he was let go from ‘Thundercats,’ the light went out of his eyes,” Bissette said. “Even when life was good for him, life was still bad.”
The crime
“My name is Steve Perry and I used to be a writer,” Perry says at the start of a promotional video for the Hero Initiative, a California-based charity for veteran comics creators experiencing financial or health problems.
Perry minces no words when describing his living situation before help arrived early this year: homeless in his car, no income, no health insurance, no hope. His body ravaged by cancer, he thought he was close to death.
The Hero Initiative paid for some of his medical bills and got him a place to live. It also assisted him in signing up for state and federal benefits – food stamps, Social Security and Medicaid. Life seemed to stabilize, although he knew he was still one late payment away from having the electricity turned off.
“They really saved my life,” he said in the video.
Two months after he recorded that video in Florida, Perry’s life took what appears to be a grisly turn.
Here’s what is known publicly about the crime: Perry lived in a rundown home in Zephyrhills, a community outside Tampa with a population of less than 12,000, with two roommates – James Davis, 46, and his wife, Roxanne Davis, 49, whom Perry had taken in to help pay the bills.
Police originally investigated the disappearance of all three after Perry’s van – and the arm – turned up in Tampa in mid-May. By the end of that week, James and Roxanne Davis were found and arrested on unrelated drug and robbery charges.
What had started as a missing person case quickly became a possible homicide. Police have released few details – communicating with the media mostly through news releases – and it is not known if the arm belonged to Perry or if police have found his body.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Goldstein said. “An evil has been done to him.”
McKinney, the police captain in Zephyrhills, acknowledged that the public was frustrated with the lack of updates on the case. He said last week – before announcing the case was now considered a homicide – that investigators were “dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s.”
“This isn’t ‘CSI: Miami,’” McKinney said. “We’re waiting on lab results. The crime can’t get solved in the last half hour like they do on TV.”
Media attention to Perry’s health care plight seemed to ignite some interest in his comics work. At least two companies expressed interest in releasing some of the comics as books, and one announced it had bought the rights to reprint one of his comics. And he wrote a new “Salimba” short story, based on one of his final comic books.
“The sad reality of this is that Steve’s death has reignited some interest in his work,” Bissette said.
Two men charged in the 1978 disappearance of five teenagers in Newark, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to five counts of murder Wednesday morning as about 40 family members of the victims looked on. Tonight, in our crime and punishment report, we’ll look into the case.
The story got us thinking about cold cases and missing persons cases around the country. Check out the National Missing Persons Database. It allows you to search nationwide for missing persons using a variety of search features. Anyone may search the database, but by registering in the system both law enforcement professionals and the general public will also be able to:
