‘I never believed she fell overboard’: Amy Bradley’s boyfriend breaks silence about disappearance

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IDAHO FALLS -- For the first time since Amy Bradley vanished from a cruise ship in 1998, the man who dated her in the months before the trip is speaking out.

Tom, who requested his last name not be used for privacy reasons, spoke with EastIdahoNews.com via Zoom to address speculation that Amy was secretly gay and that her family rejected her.

Amy was with her family on the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas when she disappeared on March 24, 1998. After last being seen on the ship's dance floor, she vanished from her family's cabin, leaving behind an open balcony door and no sign of her. There have been numerous searches and theories over the years, including a Netflix series released in July called "Amy Bradley is Missing."

Tom and Amy met in 1997 while working at a steakhouse in Richmond, Virginia. Amy was 23 and Tom was 31. They were friends but began a more serious relationship following the company Christmas party.

"She walked in wearing a long black dress and bright red lipstick," Tom said. "She grabbed me, pulled me onto the dance floor, slipped me her number, and that was it."

The couple went to Broadway shows, the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and on Valentine’s Day, they visited a restaurant where the staff seated them center-stage. Amy gave Tom an antique cigar box and a framed photo of herself from the Christmas party, which he still has and showed EastIdahoNews.com.

In the Netflix documentary, a suggested theory is that Amy's sexuality was a factor in her disappearance.

"Amy came out as bisexual three years earlier (before she disappeared). There was zero tension. The day before she vanished, she was riding on Dad’s back in the Aruba surf, laughing," Brad Bradley, Amy's brother, told EastIdahoNews.com.

Tom said there were rumors about Amy's sexuality among coworkers at the restaurant, but Amy introduced him as her boyfriend, and he considered her his girlfriend.

"One night, a woman came up and Amy excused herself. She came back and said, 'I used to date her.' Then she looked me dead in the eye and said, 'I like who I like. You got a problem with that?' I didn’t. We never spoke of it again," Tom said.

Tom last saw Amy on the Tuesday before the cruise. Days later, Brad’s then-girlfriend called and said Amy was missing and could have fallen into the ocean. Tom never believed that theory.

Two weeks later, he quit his job, flew to Curaçao with Brad, Amy’s father Ron, and her uncle Paul. They plastered the island with missing posters and searched intently for Amy.

One day, while driving back from a search, both Tom and Brad swear they heard Amy scream “Brad!” from a passing vehicle. They spun around and the car was gone.

Tom and Brad both believe Amy could be alive and is possibly being held captive against her will. Brad is continuing to work with state and federal officials, along with investigations, in hopes that his sister will be found.

"I think that we're potentially one person away, one share, one repost, one comment away from reaching the right person that's willing to speak up, because we know somebody knows something, and I think quite a few people know something," Brad said. "We operate every day like she's out there waiting for us to save her...I hope everybody keeps talking and asking questions and sharing, and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing."

Tips on Amy's case can be emailed to amybradleyismissing@gmail.com and updates on the case are posted at amybradleyismissing.com.

Watch our entire interview with Tom and Brad in the video player above.

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