When this happened I was stationed in Republic of Panama. As a female, I was told not to go in certain areas down town because of the slave industry. I was in the Navy and know about people just happen to disappear at sea.
That's nuts that's you still have to worry as a sailor. I can't imagine the kind of anarchy where people wouldn't be afraid of the repercussions of kidnapping US Navy personnel. Also, yeah, Amy was most definitely trafficked.
I'm 37 and my Dad still texts me to check on me if I'm driving out of town and the weather sucks or its after dark. Parents worry no matter how old you are.
100%, my mum has 4 kids, 2 married with kids, she checks on them loads. I guess when you’re 21 it could be embarrassing but it’s just being a parent. My aunt recalled telling her 30-year-old married cousin on the phone he needed to go to bed because he had work in the morning and it was late, stating “you never stop being a mum”
Honestly though, I think we can all agree that the cruise ship should've taken this more seriously, the mercenary they hired was the actual worst, and the dad's boss was a sweetheart for all he did to help them out.
Hindsight is twenty twenty. I've never worked on a cruise ship, but I have worked at hotels. The idea of making a ship wide announcement early in the morning or late at night and posting Missing Persons signs all around the ship are an extreme last resort. The last thing you want is a big panic anywhere, especially on a isolated floating object like a cruise ship. Also they'd have to pay so much money in refunds for the missed/late excursions. I don't have to agree, but I understand why they reacted that way.
@@W4TSKY Na, that is just excuse. They could have waited an hour or so instead of flat out refusing and not caring about the safety of a passenger because they cared more about the ship feeling like a carefree party.
@@dandylionsloth446 Nah, that's just the reality of how these things work. Go work at a hotel or some other lodging place and see how often and willing you are to sound a building wide alarm to thousands of paying customers before the sun even comes up for something that's not fire or earthquake related. Again, hindsight is twenty twenty, but I still don't blame them for how they initially reacted. Easy to criticize when you've never been in their shoes and have no idea how these places operate.
Having worked at multiple resorts and with coworkers who have worked on many cruise ships I’ve seen and heard enough stories like this to understand why the cruise didn’t take it seriously. It’s horrible that it happened, but people go missing on cruise lines and resorts for almost the entire length of their stay causing family and friends to panic before showing up again for check out. It’s horrible this happened and I’m sure the staff wishes they took it more seriously but it’s like the boy who cried wolf. Thousands of panicked families every year and almost all of them are nothing to worry about. It’s sad, but I can see why it happened
@@curtsimons9285 That still doesn't mean they couldn't have made an announcement just a few minutes before everyone went to port. It would have been a reasonable time do it, and most people are pretty numb to: "Amy Bradley, please go to the deck C lounge to meet your family." That few seconds of minimal effort really isn't asking too much.
Simon during the introduction : “I’ll add some thoughts if I have any…” Also Simon: Doesn’t make it through the first sentence of Callum’s script without adding an aside. 😂🤣 Never change, Simon, never change!
So far I've heard of a cruise line getting a man overboard report and taking no action for 7 hrs. That's some criminal level negligence and I got like 40 minutes left
As you are now a parent, I'll let you in on a secret. Post cards, naps, bedtimes, and sundry other tactics are used to ensure sex and ice cream in solitude. The older they get, the more sophisticated your strategy must become.
@@Samm815 post cards, chores, and random "character building exercises", specifically those that do not require parental supervision, such as reading to themselves once they learn how are good ways for patents to acquire time in which they are unsupervised, which can lead to further children, time for hobbies, tasks which children are best kept away from, or just working on dad's beer belly. I'd draw you a picture, but my daughter won't share her crayons right now, and I just can't do it without the blue one.
I have a friend whose mother was a chef for Carnival for 25 years starting in 96. She has told me some disturbing stuff that happens behind the scenes. So basically the management team will "clean up" for their employees. She said back in the early 2000s, she heard rumors of employees assaulting guests.. one involved a bartender and a young woman who was kidnapped assaulted and placed in a bathroom until she sobered up(allegedly). Supposedly the bartender was known for flirting and pouring free drinks for the women he liked. He would get them drunk then take them to a secluded place and assault them. Except one early morning a women died from alcohol induced pulmonary aspiration.. she choked on her throw up. The other employees (who had reported the guy in the past) called the management team. Even the women showed signs of assault.. they overlooked it. The doctor on staff never checked her. They hide everything from the guests. Also she talked about rumors of some employees that enticed young women and men to shore in exchange for money from sex traffickers. I don't know about all of that but I do know that almost 200 people have went missing on cruise ships since 1995. That's something to think about.
I have personal experience with this. Carnival is bad about updating critical passenger detection systems as well, such as the MOB system. My special needs cousin was lost at sea on a Carnival cruise with his group home..
When you keep in mind each cruise has over 2,000 people, not even including the staff and crew, and they run hundreds of cruises every year, 200 people is actually shockingly low.
The whole cruise industry is super sketchy, with disappearances and sexual assault being one particularly poor part of their pile of awfulness that exist at every level in it.
@soowzy Exactly. Low probability does not take into account the severity of the impact, or the fact that for every individual, whether it happens or not is completely binary. It happens or it doesn't. The problem with going missing at sea is that it's nearly impossible to investigate once the ship leaves the area. There's nothing to recover, and people who work on ships are likely to know blind spots in surveillance, not to mention people don't want to be filmed when they're blowing off steam. I'm sure it must be tough to balance safety, convenience, and privacy, but anyone operating a luxury business should have to be transparent that an incident has occurred, and follow a strict safety protocol. Especially if the business moves locations, making evidence collection a serious challenge.
I have zero interest in a cruise. Too curated and programmed for me for a vacation. I stay away from stuff that screams "tourist here!" I just like a vacation to be more spontaneous and unscripted.
I like the idea of stopping off in multiple countries but cruise ships are full of all sorts of shady business practices to try dodge taxes and legal issues (being registered in a country where they pay lower tax and having a crime happen in another nations waters or the open sea means it's a nightmare trying to get the authorities to take the case and arguing over who's jurisdiction it falls under)
They usually have fancier restaurants where you have to pay extra. The "all-inclusive" usually means all the juice, coffee, tea, buffets, and dinner in the general dining room. Everything else is extra.
I love that this channel recognizes how utterly meaningless the phrase "he passed a polygraph test" is. I would trust the guy's mother coming out and saying "oh my son didn't do it, he's a good boy" more than a machine that measures how sweaty you are.
Yeah, whenever listening to/watching true crime and they talk about polygraphs my thought was always ‘why do we bother with polygraphs? They’re so inaccurate’. But people just talk about them like they’re dead right all the time.
My favorite was when a true crime podcast guy said, "She was so untrustworthy that she even failed the control questions." I have a science degree, so I laughed. The control questions are questions *no one* is supposed to fail. When's your birthday, is this your name, etc. That was more evidence the whole thing should've been scrapped lmao
Yeah I’ve never put any stock in them. I never did but especially after watching a lot of true crime shows. It never would fail that the guilty person would pass so they’d put them to the side and the innocent would fail. It just has law enforcement chasing their tails most of the time. I know with my anxiety disorder I’d fail even if I had nothing to do with it.
@@bayonetababe9697 Good... You shouldn't put any stock in them. There's a reason polygraph results are not allowed as evidence in a court of law. If these machines actually worked we wouldn't need a criminal justice system.
Having been the victim of an abduction in my past, in addition to the fact that I am now and over-the-road truck driver in the US and one of the things that we go through in training is recognizing human trafficking, this whole story reeks of human trafficking. In case anybody wants to know the organization that trains Trucker's to recognize human trafficking is called truckers against trafficking. And I would advise any trucker out there to get in contact with them and have them do the education for your company
Most trafficking has a large degree of willingness. No pimp is going to risk having women who are outright being held as kidnapped victims who will attempt escape at any moment. They are basically in a relationship that is extremely abusive and it happens to include sex for sale because they need money and the guy is willing to take advantage of the fact that there are women out there that are 100% passive and will submit to anyone who asserts themselves over them. Its not their fault but painting it as slavery and kidnap is hopefully not what your training does. Besides lmao. Truckers are their main customers
@titaniusanglesmith9690 Yeah, I'm sure most of the kids and teenagers that are kidnapped are willing 🤦♂️. Even most adults probably aren't. Sure, there are a lot that are, but I'm sorry you're comment was kinda stupid.
Trafficking doesn’t make as much sense as being murdered and dumped overboard though. How would they get her out without someone noticing or Amy making a commotion? If she was unconscious then whoever did would need something large enough to carry her or wheel her off and if they just carried her someone would’ve noticed a person carrying a women off in their arms and reported as such after the news spread around the ship. Most trafficking victims are related to or close to the person in some way that traffic’s them and Amy seemed pretty wary of the crew and even stated she was uncomfortable with the attention they were giving and she seemed to always have one of her family members with her when at the clubs/restaurants. The trafficking angle just seems like a scarier/grandiose story made all the worse by false sightings or mistaken identities in order for scumbags to try to collect the reward money. One could easily strangle her unconscious or to death and quickly throw her over a balcony in the early hours of the morning without leaving much physical evidence outside of defensive wounds that were never checked for (especially with a man nicknamed Yellow who also apologized to Amy’s brother about what happened to her before anyone but the family and some crew knew).
I went on a cruise for winning some something with my job well, it was very scary if you get lost in that thing you get lost I was pushed into my room by a steward and thankfully blocked the door with my foot and began screaming while five other people ran by to help me... it was terrible. You could go disappearing in a heartbeat on those things and as we know no one will ever know
Normally, I'm with you on the skepticism. But this happened the same year I graduated high school. I've seen the supposed pictures of her from the website. Whether it's her or not, that picture has haunted me through my entire life. Maybe it's a generational thing (I was raised in the 80's, when teaching kids about 'stranger danger' was a new, urgent, and terrifying thing) or maybe a gender thing, (when you said in another episode that, as a young man, you used to just take off and go places without a care while your step-mother worried, I was so deeply jealous of that sense of freedom!) but it hurts to see the human trafficking story so easily dismissed. I admit, was really hoping someone finally found Amy.
I completely agree with you that it’s a possibility. But in my opinion if I had to guess… She fell off the boat. Simply because there would have been more instances of making the human trafficking thing a bit more believable. Even if those guys had kidnapped hundreds of people from cruise lines… Which obviously isn’t the case or a pattern would’ve been seen. There’s no way they could’ve gotten away this cleanly one of the first few times doing it. I mean it is absolutely possible don’t get me wrong… But if I had to choose one or the other it would be fall off the boat followed by a close second of the kidnapping theory.
On a cruise ship you can get away with anything if you aren't actually seen doing it. Cruise ships ALWAYS cover up anything that might tarnish their reputation. Even robberies and rape investigations are actively blocked and discouraged.
Watching Simon complain about being forced to write postcards only to reason himself into ‘I’m definitely making my kids write postcards’ in 5 seconds was an unexpected delight 🤣😂🤣😂
It's really not that far fetched for her family to think she was targeted and taken. Once when my friends parents were traveling (can't remember what country) they were in their hotel and the police came and told them that a strange man who wasn't staying at the hotel had had a medical emergency in the parking area and the police and paramedics couldn't find any ID on him but he had 2 phones. When they looked at the phones one of them had nothing but pictures of my friend's mother (from a distance) over the course of a week that had been sent to another number. The hotel staff identified her in the pictures and the police told my friends parents that they were pretty positive the guy was planning to kidnap her from the parking area. When they got this news she was like an hour away from leaving the hotel alone in their rental car to visit friends, which she had done twice before during the week they'd been at the hotel. They said she probably would have been taken the previous time if she had not had one of the hotel staff loading her car for her. The phone had pictures of her leaving on both of those days.
To answer your question about the all inclusives, they're not all open at the same time of the day and they usually all have a pretty different menu. Also, if one of them is really fancy, they'll usually make you book ahead of time since it's smaller and open only one time of the day.
Royal Caribbean has various restuarants and not all is inclusive. Steakhouse and French restaursnt was extra costs. And not all restaurants are open all day.
I find the balcony sighting (the last time her Dad saw her) one of the most chilling parts of this. Plus it’s odd her shoes were still there no? I feel like no one talks about that
I know this story very well. I've watched several true crime RUclipsrs cover this extensively. I'm looking forward to Callum and Simon's take. Edit: I'm surprised that Simon didn't jump on the fact that her brother's name is Brad Bradley. Maybe he will later. Edit again: Aaaand...he finally realized the brother's full name. Was waiting for that. LOL
NGL, when I first saw that photo of "Jazz", I seriously thought it was Amy. Either it's been heavily edited to look like Amy, or she's Amy's doppelganger. It's erie.
As someone who's been on a few cruises, I'll tell you that it's honestly pretty hard to just fall off of one unless you're really trying to. The railings are usually quite tall for the average American and they're built with that kind of precaution in mind. If she really went overboard, it would have had to have been intentional on either her part or someone else's. I personally think that she thrown overboard by somebody else, maybe after an assault or an accident. Human trafficking is a concern, but I think that would be far more likely to happen off the ship rather than on it. From what I understand, traffickers ideally target people whose disappearances won't really be noticed. They'd get away with the "She just ran off" excuse easier if she were already on the shore when she went missing and not locked on a crowded ship in the open ocean.
I think its not that difficult, when it was chest-high. I mean especially a drunk person, who for example lifts herself a bit up to vomit over the railling can easily fall in. I had a similar expirience. I needed to vomit due to partying a bit too mich and wanted to do that over a fence near a lake and almost fell into the water.
I agree on the point that traffickers would probably be more likely to target people alone. When we got to the point where the waiter asked her parents to pass along a drinking invitation on shore and the idea that that was proof that that person was targeting her for kidnapping, all I could think was that'd be pretty stupid to set yourself up as the last person to see her to her parents
I adore that Simon hasn’t read the script beforehand, so it’s like listening to a case with a friend; when Simon interjects the script, it’s almost like having a conversation with your friend about what you’re hearing. He’s shocked when I am, he’s annoyed when I am. Such a brilliant show and concept
I’ve gone back and I’m watching every episode of the Casual Criminalist. I only have about 20 episodes left. I’ve realized I should have started from the beginning, but alas. I’m going to be so bummed when I’ve watched them all! Good thing Simon has about a million other channels I can enjoy in between Casual Criminalist uploads.
Yes it happens,but again, why kidnap someone with 3 people reporting them missing if you have a massive source of young women on vacations alone or with just a friend possibly drunk aswell? Plenty of young women are alot more vulnerable and easier to take.
I’d like to add that I used to work for a UK government agency investigating traffickers and their victims. The idea that traffickers target middle-class, educated white women from rich countries is a bit of a myth. Trafficking victims tend to be poor, vulnerable women who are often already involved in sex work in their countries of origin. These women are generally so desperate that they can be duped into voluntarily leaving with traffickers on the promise of respectable, well paid jobs abroad. No kidnapping necessary...
*Sam pops up outta nowhere* Daddy chill. What the hell even is that? So that was a fucking lie? *Heman disco starts* Jokes on you, I'm into that shit! Allegedly...
Simon you are correct. Not knowing what happened is worse than anything. I’ve lost a son in an airplane crash which was horrible but had he just disappeared I don’t think I could have coped. I’m sorry for everyone who has had this happen to them. A nightmare. 😢
Simon in other videos “gosh, why dont police do a good job” here: “why didn’t they let the police do a good job!” Also, if 2020 taught us anything, cruise ship companies don’t give an f about passengers.
@@KS-PNW Yeah I'm starting to understand where my paranoid nan was coming from. She's a Finnish immigrant and we'd take the ferry over from Sweden with her sometimes. Granted, I highly doubt it's as big an issue on these small ferries - traffickers tend to invest in poor (dual meaning) Russian and Baltic women. Also it's not very long that the ship is on international waters. But she was *so nervous* we'd be kidnapped, assaulted and/or mudered whenever me and my same-age child, then teen, then early 20's friend were going anywhere without her. Insisting we stay together, take her rape alarm with us, not to mention giving us advice: "Bite them, poke them in the eyes-" "Okay nan, we're JUST going to the upper deck! 0-0" I mean, the woman _did_ *work* such a cruise ship as a 14-yo and onwards so we probably shouldn't have shrugged her off... I guess it's the danger of growing up in (at the time) a ridiculously safe country, in an even safer county. Danger gets hard to take seriously.
There have been investigations on missing women on other ships. Allegedly people working on board in cahoots with Traffickers at ports...so you never know.
@@lenibeni7421 yeah it's pretty messed up. The state department wanted to issue notices informing the public that those two lines specifically have "engaged in a consistent pattern of failing to cooperate with, and at times out right obstructing law enforcement investigations, especially those involving S.A.". (RUclips will take down the comment if I use the real words)
Unfortunately this is super common on this channel? Dont try to fall asleep to it and beware if you are quietly listening near an already sleeping person!
If I can bring up a little constructive criticism, the audio when you announce some of the different sections ("search at sea" etc.) abruptly jumps way up. Startled the hell out of me
I came across this channel yesterday and I'm happily binge-watching these. Everything is so well done, thanks to Callum, Simon and Jen for such a simple yet rich and enjoyable content.
Personally I dont think her being kidnapped is a stretch at all, I was a bit bummed to hear that angle taken so lightly. Human trafficking is a monstrous industry. In any case what an incredibly sad thing to happen :(
Seriously, I live near one of the U.S. hubs for human trafficking and have been through training to recognize victims. I don’t think people realize how prevalent it actually is. A cruise ship seems like an excellent place to kidnap someone.
To be fair most trafficking victims (with the exception of large groups like the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram) are extremely vulnerable; runaways, teen girls with terrible home lives, immigrants seeking a better life somewhere else, homeless women, drug addicts. Kidnapping a wealthy twenty something white woman from a cruise ship would be extremely risky. Plus once you’ve kidnapped her you have to worry about her family kicking up a major fuss. Not to mention a twenty something year old woman who has a family that she knows will look for her is going to be harder to control and manipulate than a seventeen year old runaway. That’s not to say there aren’t extraordinary cases or “special orders” that might lead people to take such a risk, it’s just highly unlikely. No one is going to kidnap a wealthy white woman just to force her to work in some random brothel, it’s just too risky. I suspect she went overboard, but I’m guessing it wasn’t suicide. Maybe she hooked up with the bassist and they had a disagreement and he shoved her, maybe they were just drunk and being silly and she took a risk and fell.
@@TGuard00014 Yeahh, I'm thinking IF she was trafficked she is still, sadly, going to be dead by now. She would have become a liability, _due_ to being rich and having such dedicated family with an even richer boss - and just letting her go means exposing people, places, routines...
It’s not that a kidnapping isn’t possible it’s just there is no evidence for it. Trafficking would be really hard, since you have to get an unwilling person of a ship with hundreds of people around. Murder in the night is more likely than that, but there is no blood, no witness seeing her with someone, no screams, items left behind, etc. Falling overboard leaves the least evidence behind.... which matches the complete absence of any evidence.
It happens everyday, but there are easier marks than this poor girl. It's about risk vs reward. This victim is too big a risk unless she's sold into private hands instead of sex work.
What we hoped: *Red alert, send out search teams, a woman has been kidnapped!* What we got: “Ms. Amy, please report at the front desk or we’ll do basically nothing.”
I can: take a few valiums and lyricas first, and an hour later inject 10-25mgs of heroin. Its heaven, or literally better because it actually exists. In that state of bliss you wouldnt care if that ship was BOTH sinking and on fire at the same time. There, the ugly truth: drugs make everything better.
Maybe she was trafficked? Everyone is probably asking “But how did they get her off the boat?” I’m glad you asked. There’s no reason why she couldn’t have been drugged and kept in a trunk and simply rolled off the boat and into a van. It’s not like they did background checks back then so there could have been a group of kidnappers.
Just for the record drugging people to keep them quiet is really hard to do successfully. Too much and the person dies (and you have to kidnap someone else). Not enough and they start kicking and screaming and you have big problems. Doses are based on weight (so you either have to know the person’s weight or be a very good guesser). Also if that someone has a heart condition, drug reaction, or other medical condition you risk them dying even with minimal amounts of drug (and you have to kidnap someone else). There are much much easier ways and places to kidnap people, especially since this wasn’t a ransom or revenge type scenario. Why go to all that trouble when you can just grab a drunk chick from a bar or the homeless teen that just wants to eat and get out of the weather?
@@TGuard00014 So no one has ever been drugged and taken advantage of or incapacitated for transport successfully? Of course it would be easier to grab someone off the street in any location and anywhere. We are all just shooting at ducks here. Someone probably just pushed her over after she denied their advances. Wouldn’t be the first time some spoiled rich kid killed because he didn’t get his way.
@@LaserPeckford I didn’t say it never happened. My point was just that it is extremely difficult to do and trying to pull it off on a cruise ship is much harder than dropping some GHB in a drink in a bar and getting the victim in a cab.
@@TGuard00014 What do you think sleeping pills are for? Same standard dose worked the same way when I was almost 300lbs as when I weighed 140lbs. GHB is different and dangerous. Sleeping pills = same dose regardless. Not encouraging anyone to do this, I must add!
@@burnyizland That’s because sleeping pills aren’t a very strong sedative, real sedatives (the types they use for anesthesia etc) tend to be dose dependent. Also there is lots of individual variation, a dose that might knock you out at 300lbs I might shrug off at 115lbs. Women also tend to metabolize medications different than men.
I've been impatiently clicking all week, just hoping that a new episode would be posted early. Not only are these episodes expertly written, but I can't imagine a host any better than Simon delivering the story. I'm definitely a fan.
"Royal Caribbean: Communist Utopia" This will keep me laughing all day--what a marvellously efficient use of language. Thank you to the BigBrains who made such a phrase possible--Simon and Callum, you have a wonderfully intuitive narrative dynamic. I've been a true-crime binger for years, but the Casual Criminalist has already risen to be one of my very favourite 'series', and the narrative/writing interplay is a big part of that experience. The thoughtfulness and the comedy are each richly rewarding, in addition to the actual crime-story content. And luckily, you upload often enough that I don't have time to get #casualcriminalistless :)
I have a tendency to binge your content when I'm working. You have a wonderful voice, an engaging personality and very interesting topics! Thanks to you and Callum both- from Texas :)
I vividly remember one Saturday morning in this past year laying in bed half asleep at like 5 in the morning, when her name popped into my head. I had to get up and watch a documentary about her. Edit: Also, just waiting for Simon to start a channel where all the videos are done with him laying down. We've got standing, pacing, and now sitting. XD
These parents are amazing in their relentless loyalty. There are a lot of people who would have stopped after the law suit, though it would have haunted them to the end of their lives. It requires a lot of mental fortitude, and cash.
honestly, learning to let go in such a situation is ultimately the best thing to do. Of course i appreciate that they love their daughter so much to th epoint of not giving up on finding her all these years later. But... at this point, they are not gonna find her anymore. She is gone. Whatever happened to her, they will never see her again. And it is extremely sad. But as long as they keep having faith on the super slim possibility that she is still alive somewhere, they will never be able to move on from this tragedy. Amy would have wanted them to live.
Yeah a "would so and so please come to the front desk" style announcement should be something they do immediately so as to not cause panic among other guests while still making that effort to either confirm or deny that the person is safe. I've heard so so many terrible stories about cruises that I would never consider going on one. Too easy to disappear and never enough work done to find you.
This case is so interesting, I’ve watched a bunch of other videos on this topic but I’m glad to hear Simon cover it. So sad what happened to that family, I hope they can find out what happened to their daughter :(
@@nomadpurple6154 lol that's not even a conspiracy. A conspiracy is an alternative theory not in line with the official narrative usually involving a cover up. The trafficking story is just a legitimate theory as to her disappearance.
I'm going to say unfortunately that RCI killed Amy when they allowed the ship to dock. I believe she was trafficked after being roofied earlier that night hence the feeling of sickness. It's definitely possible that traffickers use the photographers photos to pick their victim and then move on them when most vulnerable.
Having worked on cruise ships for 5 years, all these scenarios are possible. Yes, passengers fall/jump off ships, not every week but it happens. Drunk people do very stupid things. Also, crew members have sexually assaulted passengers, but in my experience it is rare. If an assault is reported, the ship will probably fire the crew member and send them back to their county at the very next (non-US) port. Ships are registered in the Bahamas, Panama, Liberia, etc... to keep costs low. If something happens onboard, the laws of the country of registration apply. Keep in mind it's very difficult to do ANYTHING on a ship and not been seen. It's like living in a small town and crew on ships love to gossip.
Thing to consider is that this happened 23 years ago. Pretty sure that safety precautions and surveillance were quite lax back then. I'm not 100% convinced one way or the other, but kidnapping or murder is pretty plausible for that time.
Ochams razor. Always amazes me how many people forget this simple,yet so very important idea when investigating or deducing anything..Not that you cant run into a very elaborate explanation of a murder or someone dissapear,but generally apply Ochams razor
This is exactly why I would never go on a cruise.. I drink too much and I would totally fall overboard and then struggled drunkenly to swim watching the ship sail away and then probably get eaten by a giant squid or some other sea monster
I’m 5’9, the banisters around the ships come up to just under my chest. You would have to climb up onto them in order to fall off. (Which people do, the idiots) the entire ship is monitored by cctv and if someone sees someone go overboard, those ships can turn on a dime. It’s really remarkable.
@mdtmjat same here.. I've always wondered if there is record of the number of drunken sailors who've stumbled/slipped/fallen overboard. But knowing my luck, I'd not be on a sea monsters menu.. I'd sink to the bottom & end up hanging out with a blob fish. Blob fish: would you care to gaze upon my extensive collection of toenail clippings? Me: no.
Your wit always makes me laugh ! The stories may be gruesome at times, but I always watch! Keep up the great work! Looking forward to 2023 with you! Only health and happiness to you and your family!
I have seen this on the “Cruise Ship Killers’ show on the True Crime network on tv. Iva Bradley described the cruise ships and open seas as “Lawless”. They say you should ‘Never say never’, but I will NEVER, EVER step foot on any cruise ship in my life, EVER! IMO, the slave trade theory is not beyond the realm of plausibility.
True but for me the most likely is she fell overboard, i used to do stupid things all the time and i'm lucky i never fell off a bridge into icy water or something.
@@georgecrompton8663There is no way she went overboard! She has been spotted over the yrs. Once in a brothel...SOMEONE ON THAT SHIP SER HER UP TO BE TRAFFICKED!
6:03 No, Simon. Your all-inclusive ticket buys you meals in the standard dining area, or "The Pleb Room" as we called it on our Royal Caribbean cruise. The fancier restaurants on the ship will cost you big.
I love the sense of Humour Simon has when making light of these serious stories. Usually I will not watch this kind of thing, but Simon makes me laugh until I cry, so that is the reason I tune in.
Simon: "Wait, you can't just put a gag order on your workers, can you?" Simon proceeds to quickly google gag orders, followed by forcing the writers in the basement to sign if they want to see daylight again.
I feel so incredibly badly for the family, I always do when it comes to missing persons cases. I had to report my brother missing a few years back and it ranks up there as one of the worst times in my life. Interview after interview with police, being grilled constantly by would-be sleuths, the family drama behind the scenes, and worst of all, the scammers, jokesters, or worst of all, a few very lonely and disturbed people who wanted attention as much as we wanted answers. I was lucky, we found my brother. He wasn't murdered or kidnapped, just very very stupid. He went awol from the military while he was on leave and staying with me and just decided not to tell anyone since he knew he was absolutely committing a crime in order to get some with a girl he met online. As pissed as I am at him, I really feel for families of the missing who haven't been so lucky.
My mom was born and raised in Liberia, and moved to Canada when she was 20. She has ZERO interest in going back. Things have gotten slightly better there after the civil war (thank you, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf)... but no, there's no way its police system is up to any decent level.
YOu have a fantastic way of presenting a old crime and making it quite entertaining.. I've only recently found you new Vlog. At first I didn't like ur comitic addition but it grew on me.. Thanks
You'll never catch me going into a giant hunk of metal with thousands of people in the middle of the sea. If anything happens to you, it's never in their interest that people find out about it.
The main dining room and the buffet on the top deck are included. The fancier restaurants and bakery cafes cost extra. A few other places might be included like a hotdog stand, cafe, or pizza spot. Also, I was on an RC cruise in 2019. It would take work to fall off the side. They put up these clear panels on the top deck, so you would have to knowingly climb over to "fall over". Considering how often drunk people fell off the sides of cruise ships in the 90s, I believe she probably fell and the engines of the ship muffled her screams for help.
Want to say I'm just 10 minutes in and oh my God if somebody goes missing on a cruise stop, try to find them You're out on water people. If they fell over they're soon to be dead.
I really like this channel and especially the longer episodes. I also really appreciate the story being told without internet conspiracy or 'supernatural' speculation. Sorry that I can't contribute more by leaving a podcast review, I'm only just mastering Spotify and they don't have reviews.
On a cruise ship only some of the food is part of the all inclusive package the high end steakhouses and some of the other restaurants on board are just normal restaurants and you have to pay to eat there
On Carnival all food is included liquor is not they have no high end restaurants but you must eat at your assigned seating in the evening. I would venture to guess the high end restaurants are what is called lease space and not under the ships jurisdiction.
@@sharonquick7856 per the Carnival website. The following services are not included in the cruise price: Dining in specialty restaurants and snacking at cafes and lounges (featured on select ships), such as but not limited to: The Steakhouse, Bonsai Sushi, Bonsai Teppanyaki, Ji Ji Asian Kitchen, Seafood Shack, Cucina del Capitano, Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse|Brewhouse, The Chef's Table, Emeril's Bistro 1396, Shake Spot, Javablue Cafe, Promenade Cafe, Lido Coffee Bar, Ocean Plaza Cafe, Havana Bar (on Carnival Sunshine), RedFrog Pub and other lounges that may serve light bites. 'Steakhouse Selections' served in the Main Dining Room
I know on smaller cruise lines that are fancy as heck, its all inclusive you just have to make reservations and they limit the number of nights you can make a reservation at the specified restaurant or 'chef's table'. That way everyone has a chance to dine at the fancy restaurant if they would like it.
@@audreysark I'm upvoting you and downvoting your parents. Sending my love to you. Well that is all too common. You just give your love to your children/ future children. I still call my parents every day as does my wife. My wife's mom still makes her work meals for every shift. Not because she has to just because she wants to.
Open the Quran and read chapter called “yusuf” it talks about a story where a prophet was slaved and went missing, yet was found when he became an adult, the moral of the story is his dad never lost hope and kept praying for his son and trusted God, its a true story andQuran is a word of God, please read it and make lots of prayers God will respond
There is a reputable intuitive on RUclips that did an extensive read plus where she feels Amy is now as of Feb 2023..visit The Reckonimg Co. Her readings will give clues. Says she's willing to work with the family god bless ♥
When this happened I was stationed in Republic of Panama. As a female, I was told not to go in certain areas down town because of the slave industry. I was in the Navy and know about people just happen to disappear at sea.
That's nuts that's you still have to worry as a sailor. I can't imagine the kind of anarchy where people wouldn't be afraid of the repercussions of kidnapping US Navy personnel.
Also, yeah, Amy was most definitely trafficked.
Vicky Gehring Thank you for your service!
Thank you for your service!
I'm 37 and my Dad still texts me to check on me if I'm driving out of town and the weather sucks or its after dark. Parents worry no matter how old you are.
38 and mum rings me every day ❤❤❤
27 years here , I talk to my dad daily
100%, my mum has 4 kids, 2 married with kids, she checks on them loads. I guess when you’re 21 it could be embarrassing but it’s just being a parent. My aunt recalled telling her 30-year-old married cousin on the phone he needed to go to bed because he had work in the morning and it was late, stating “you never stop being a mum”
Honestly though, I think we can all agree that the cruise ship should've taken this more seriously, the mercenary they hired was the actual worst, and the dad's boss was a sweetheart for all he did to help them out.
Hindsight is twenty twenty. I've never worked on a cruise ship, but I have worked at hotels. The idea of making a ship wide announcement early in the morning or late at night and posting Missing Persons signs all around the ship are an extreme last resort. The last thing you want is a big panic anywhere, especially on a isolated floating object like a cruise ship. Also they'd have to pay so much money in refunds for the missed/late excursions. I don't have to agree, but I understand why they reacted that way.
@@W4TSKY Na, that is just excuse. They could have waited an hour or so instead of flat out refusing and not caring about the safety of a passenger because they cared more about the ship feeling like a carefree party.
@@dandylionsloth446 Nah, that's just the reality of how these things work. Go work at a hotel or some other lodging place and see how often and willing you are to sound a building wide alarm to thousands of paying customers before the sun even comes up for something that's not fire or earthquake related. Again, hindsight is twenty twenty, but I still don't blame them for how they initially reacted. Easy to criticize when you've never been in their shoes and have no idea how these places operate.
Having worked at multiple resorts and with coworkers who have worked on many cruise ships I’ve seen and heard enough stories like this to understand why the cruise didn’t take it seriously. It’s horrible that it happened, but people go missing on cruise lines and resorts for almost the entire length of their stay causing family and friends to panic before showing up again for check out. It’s horrible this happened and I’m sure the staff wishes they took it more seriously but it’s like the boy who cried wolf. Thousands of panicked families every year and almost all of them are nothing to worry about. It’s sad, but I can see why it happened
@@curtsimons9285 That still doesn't mean they couldn't have made an announcement just a few minutes before everyone went to port. It would have been a reasonable time do it, and most people are pretty numb to: "Amy Bradley, please go to the deck C lounge to meet your family." That few seconds of minimal effort really isn't asking too much.
Simon please do Mariam Rodriguez! The vigilante mom the hunted down the cartel one by one that murdered her daughter. Craziest story!
She sounds awesome!
YES!!
She doesn't hunt the cartel down 🤣 she's just waiting for them to come back BC she's fuckn strapped like Rambo
Definitely do this one Simon
Something something about a very specific set of skills.......
Simon during the introduction : “I’ll add some thoughts if I have any…”
Also Simon: Doesn’t make it through the first sentence of Callum’s script without adding an aside. 😂🤣
Never change, Simon, never change!
am I RIGHT, Peter?
@@HauntedbyApathy Yes, Lois
Thank God!! Love his clever banter and drole delivery.
So far I've heard of a cruise line getting a man overboard report and taking no action for 7 hrs. That's some criminal level negligence and I got like 40 minutes left
As you are now a parent, I'll let you in on a secret. Post cards, naps, bedtimes, and sundry other tactics are used to ensure sex and ice cream in solitude. The older they get, the more sophisticated your strategy must become.
Naps and bedtimes I get but what's this about postcards and sundries? (not a parent just a young adult who might want to have kids someday).
hahaha, there is so much truth here.
@@Samm815 post cards, chores, and random "character building exercises", specifically those that do not require parental supervision, such as reading to themselves once they learn how are good ways for patents to acquire time in which they are unsupervised, which can lead to further children, time for hobbies, tasks which children are best kept away from, or just working on dad's beer belly. I'd draw you a picture, but my daughter won't share her crayons right now, and I just can't do it without the blue one.
Jawbone? Dental records, duh!
Until it doesn't matter anymore
I have a friend whose mother was a chef for Carnival for 25 years starting in 96. She has told me some disturbing stuff that happens behind the scenes. So basically the management team will "clean up" for their employees. She said back in the early 2000s, she heard rumors of employees assaulting guests.. one involved a bartender and a young woman who was kidnapped assaulted and placed in a bathroom until she sobered up(allegedly). Supposedly the bartender was known for flirting and pouring free drinks for the women he liked. He would get them drunk then take them to a secluded place and assault them. Except one early morning a women died from alcohol induced pulmonary aspiration.. she choked on her throw up. The other employees (who had reported the guy in the past) called the management team. Even the women showed signs of assault.. they overlooked it. The doctor on staff never checked her. They hide everything from the guests.
Also she talked about rumors of some employees that enticed young women and men to shore in exchange for money from sex traffickers.
I don't know about all of that but I do know that almost 200 people have went missing on cruise ships since 1995. That's something to think about.
I have personal experience with this. Carnival is bad about updating critical passenger detection systems as well, such as the MOB system. My special needs cousin was lost at sea on a Carnival cruise with his group home..
When you keep in mind each cruise has over 2,000 people, not even including the staff and crew, and they run hundreds of cruises every year, 200 people is actually shockingly low.
The whole cruise industry is super sketchy, with disappearances and sexual assault being one particularly poor part of their pile of awfulness that exist at every level in it.
@@dillongage unless it's your kid.
@soowzy
Exactly. Low probability does not take into account the severity of the impact, or the fact that for every individual, whether it happens or not is completely binary. It happens or it doesn't.
The problem with going missing at sea is that it's nearly impossible to investigate once the ship leaves the area. There's nothing to recover, and people who work on ships are likely to know blind spots in surveillance, not to mention people don't want to be filmed when they're blowing off steam.
I'm sure it must be tough to balance safety, convenience, and privacy, but anyone operating a luxury business should have to be transparent that an incident has occurred, and follow a strict safety protocol. Especially if the business moves locations, making evidence collection a serious challenge.
A cruise, to me sounds like the worst vacation ever, and that's without disappearing, or murder.
I have zero interest in a cruise. Too curated and programmed for me for a vacation. I stay away from stuff that screams "tourist here!" I just like a vacation to be more spontaneous and unscripted.
I used to like it. Shows and free ice cream.
Dude...same
Cruises seem pretty dangerous and sharing a cruise ship with thousands of people sounds migraines inducing
I like the idea of stopping off in multiple countries but cruise ships are full of all sorts of shady business practices to try dodge taxes and legal issues (being registered in a country where they pay lower tax and having a crime happen in another nations waters or the open sea means it's a nightmare trying to get the authorities to take the case and arguing over who's jurisdiction it falls under)
They usually have fancier restaurants where you have to pay extra. The "all-inclusive" usually means all the juice, coffee, tea, buffets, and dinner in the general dining room. Everything else is extra.
I love that this channel recognizes how utterly meaningless the phrase "he passed a polygraph test" is. I would trust the guy's mother coming out and saying "oh my son didn't do it, he's a good boy" more than a machine that measures how sweaty you are.
My anxious ass would probably fail a polygraph test if they asked me what day is my birthday
Yeah, whenever listening to/watching true crime and they talk about polygraphs my thought was always ‘why do we bother with polygraphs? They’re so inaccurate’. But people just talk about them like they’re dead right all the time.
My favorite was when a true crime podcast guy said, "She was so untrustworthy that she even failed the control questions." I have a science degree, so I laughed. The control questions are questions *no one* is supposed to fail. When's your birthday, is this your name, etc. That was more evidence the whole thing should've been scrapped lmao
Yeah I’ve never put any stock in them. I never did but especially after watching a lot of true crime shows. It never would fail that the guilty person would pass so they’d put them to the side and the innocent would fail. It just has law enforcement chasing their tails most of the time. I know with my anxiety disorder I’d fail even if I had nothing to do with it.
@@bayonetababe9697 Good... You shouldn't put any stock in them. There's a reason polygraph results are not allowed as evidence in a court of law. If these machines actually worked we wouldn't need a criminal justice system.
Having been the victim of an abduction in my past, in addition to the fact that I am now and over-the-road truck driver in the US and one of the things that we go through in training is recognizing human trafficking, this whole story reeks of human trafficking. In case anybody wants to know the organization that trains Trucker's to recognize human trafficking is called truckers against trafficking. And I would advise any trucker out there to get in contact with them and have them do the education for your company
Most trafficking has a large degree of willingness. No pimp is going to risk having women who are outright being held as kidnapped victims who will attempt escape at any moment. They are basically in a relationship that is extremely abusive and it happens to include sex for sale because they need money and the guy is willing to take advantage of the fact that there are women out there that are 100% passive and will submit to anyone who asserts themselves over them. Its not their fault but painting it as slavery and kidnap is hopefully not what your training does. Besides lmao. Truckers are their main customers
@titaniusanglesmith9690 Yeah, I'm sure most of the kids and teenagers that are kidnapped are willing 🤦♂️. Even most adults probably aren't. Sure, there are a lot that are, but I'm sorry you're comment was kinda stupid.
I mean its a possibility but theres literally nothing but hearsay and conjucture to suggest trafficking, I would hardly describe it as reeking.
@@titaniusanglesmith9690 Do tell how you know all this
Trafficking doesn’t make as much sense as being murdered and dumped overboard though. How would they get her out without someone noticing or Amy making a commotion? If she was unconscious then whoever did would need something large enough to carry her or wheel her off and if they just carried her someone would’ve noticed a person carrying a women off in their arms and reported as such after the news spread around the ship. Most trafficking victims are related to or close to the person in some way that traffic’s them and Amy seemed pretty wary of the crew and even stated she was uncomfortable with the attention they were giving and she seemed to always have one of her family members with her when at the clubs/restaurants. The trafficking angle just seems like a scarier/grandiose story made all the worse by false sightings or mistaken identities in order for scumbags to try to collect the reward money. One could easily strangle her unconscious or to death and quickly throw her over a balcony in the early hours of the morning without leaving much physical evidence outside of defensive wounds that were never checked for (especially with a man nicknamed Yellow who also apologized to Amy’s brother about what happened to her before anyone but the family and some crew knew).
3:10 - Chapter 1 - Rhapsody of the seas
6:30 - Chapter 2 - Gone without a trace
8:00 - Chapter 3 - Disappearance
9:10 - Chapter 4 - Delayed response
14:35 - Chapter 5 - Search at sea
15:20 - Chapter 6 - FBI search
20:35 - Chapter 7 - Alister "Yellow" Douglas
23:00 - Chapter 8 - The waiters
25:30 - Chapter 9 - The caribbean human trafficking ring
27:45 - Chapter 10 - The 1st potential sightings
29:35 - Chapter 11 - A daring rescue
36:30 - Chapter 12 - Later sightings
40:40 - Chapter 13 - Troubles on the high seas
43:40 - Chapter 14 - As things stand
49:20 - Wrap up
51:20 - Dismembered appendices
Ok
Hey, this is a late reply, but thanks for the timestamps! Much appreciated. 💜
I went on a cruise for winning some something with my job well, it was very scary if you get lost in that thing you get lost I was pushed into my room by a steward and thankfully blocked the door with my foot and began screaming while five other people ran by to help me... it was terrible. You could go disappearing in a heartbeat on those things and as we know no one will ever know
What happened to the steward?
Simon on Casual Criminalist: I don't know where Liberia.
Simon on Geographics: Liberia, the tragic republic of the Ivory Coast
Hahaha I was going to link to that video 🤣
It is further proof that each channel's Simon is a different clone
😂😂😂
Lmao
We’ll get through these geographic nightmares,as needed, together!
Amongst your listeners one of us will know something to add…!
🧐 🇺🇸🇫🇷🇺🇸!
Normally, I'm with you on the skepticism. But this happened the same year I graduated high school. I've seen the supposed pictures of her from the website. Whether it's her or not, that picture has haunted me through my entire life. Maybe it's a generational thing (I was raised in the 80's, when teaching kids about 'stranger danger' was a new, urgent, and terrifying thing) or maybe a gender thing, (when you said in another episode that, as a young man, you used to just take off and go places without a care while your step-mother worried, I was so deeply jealous of that sense of freedom!) but it hurts to see the human trafficking story so easily dismissed. I admit, was really hoping someone finally found Amy.
I think I would rather be dead than having lived through 20+ years of being trafficked.
@Kate Yist ahhhhhh, the 1980s.. the decade of Etan Patz, the Hillside Strangler and some little-known guy named Ted.
Katie, same. This has haunted me for years.
The girl fell off the boat. It happens.
I completely agree with you that it’s a possibility. But in my opinion if I had to guess… She fell off the boat. Simply because there would have been more instances of making the human trafficking thing a bit more believable. Even if those guys had kidnapped hundreds of people from cruise lines… Which obviously isn’t the case or a pattern would’ve been seen. There’s no way they could’ve gotten away this cleanly one of the first few times doing it. I mean it is absolutely possible don’t get me wrong… But if I had to choose one or the other it would be fall off the boat followed by a close second of the kidnapping theory.
On a cruise ship you can get away with anything if you aren't actually seen doing it. Cruise ships ALWAYS cover up anything that might tarnish their reputation. Even robberies and rape investigations are actively blocked and discouraged.
Watching Simon complain about being forced to write postcards only to reason himself into ‘I’m definitely making my kids write postcards’ in 5 seconds was an unexpected delight 🤣😂🤣😂
Considering how lax the ship crew was I would believe the human trafficking theory.
It's really not that far fetched for her family to think she was targeted and taken. Once when my friends parents were traveling (can't remember what country) they were in their hotel and the police came and told them that a strange man who wasn't staying at the hotel had had a medical emergency in the parking area and the police and paramedics couldn't find any ID on him but he had 2 phones. When they looked at the phones one of them had nothing but pictures of my friend's mother (from a distance) over the course of a week that had been sent to another number. The hotel staff identified her in the pictures and the police told my friends parents that they were pretty positive the guy was planning to kidnap her from the parking area. When they got this news she was like an hour away from leaving the hotel alone in their rental car to visit friends, which she had done twice before during the week they'd been at the hotel. They said she probably would have been taken the previous time if she had not had one of the hotel staff loading her car for her. The phone had pictures of her leaving on both of those days.
Yeah but kidnapping someone off a parking are is something completely different than from a cruise ship
yeah...ok. Did you also observe a columbian drug den?
To answer your question about the all inclusives, they're not all open at the same time of the day and they usually all have a pretty different menu. Also, if one of them is really fancy, they'll usually make you book ahead of time since it's smaller and open only one time of the day.
I have a conundrum for Simon: If the choice was between a super fancy restaurant and KFC (rather than burger place) would your choice be harder?
Royal Caribbean has various restuarants and not all is inclusive. Steakhouse and French restaursnt was extra costs. And not all restaurants are open all day.
I find the balcony sighting (the last time her Dad saw her) one of the most chilling parts of this. Plus it’s odd her shoes were still there no? I feel like no one talks about that
I know this story very well. I've watched several true crime RUclipsrs cover this extensively. I'm looking forward to Callum and Simon's take.
Edit: I'm surprised that Simon didn't jump on the fact that her brother's name is Brad Bradley. Maybe he will later.
Edit again: Aaaand...he finally realized the brother's full name. Was waiting for that. LOL
Brad is short for Bradley, so his name is Bradley Bradley.
NGL, when I first saw that photo of "Jazz", I seriously thought it was Amy. Either it's been heavily edited to look like Amy, or she's Amy's doppelganger. It's erie.
I went to school with someone name Bradley Lee. So even a shortened version of his name was still Brad Lee. Also someone legitimately name Guy Mann.
@@leeneufeld4140 apparently his actual name is Ronald Bradley Jr but goes by brad. I guess that he doesent want to go by his dads name but brad??
I've been trying to think how to say surely the biggest crime is that the brother is called Bradley Bradley without sounding like a tosser lol.
As someone who's been on a few cruises, I'll tell you that it's honestly pretty hard to just fall off of one unless you're really trying to. The railings are usually quite tall for the average American and they're built with that kind of precaution in mind. If she really went overboard, it would have had to have been intentional on either her part or someone else's.
I personally think that she thrown overboard by somebody else, maybe after an assault or an accident. Human trafficking is a concern, but I think that would be far more likely to happen off the ship rather than on it. From what I understand, traffickers ideally target people whose disappearances won't really be noticed. They'd get away with the "She just ran off" excuse easier if she were already on the shore when she went missing and not locked on a crowded ship in the open ocean.
I think its not that difficult, when it was chest-high. I mean especially a drunk person, who for example lifts herself a bit up to vomit over the railling can easily fall in. I had a similar expirience. I needed to vomit due to partying a bit too mich and wanted to do that over a fence near a lake and almost fell into the water.
I agree on the point that traffickers would probably be more likely to target people alone. When we got to the point where the waiter asked her parents to pass along a drinking invitation on shore and the idea that that was proof that that person was targeting her for kidnapping, all I could think was that'd be pretty stupid to set yourself up as the last person to see her to her parents
His voice is so pleasant to hear. Im at the doctors rn for severe allergic reaction and i want to claw my face off. But his voice is helping somehow
Hope you'll feel better soon!
Simon Whistler: His voice is better than a horrific allergic rash.
@@--enyo-- when you put it that way it sounds awful.
I adore that Simon hasn’t read the script beforehand, so it’s like listening to a case with a friend; when Simon interjects the script, it’s almost like having a conversation with your friend about what you’re hearing. He’s shocked when I am, he’s annoyed when I am. Such a brilliant show and concept
"Its not me, amy isnt in my basement"
*muffled crying from Danny whose locked in Simon's basement*
Justice for Danny
That was my thoughts exactly!
Lol you beat me to it!
Dont forget ETA! :O
What about Sam
I’ve gone back and I’m watching every episode of the Casual Criminalist. I only have about 20 episodes left. I’ve realized I should have started from the beginning, but alas. I’m going to be so bummed when I’ve watched them all! Good thing Simon has about a million other channels I can enjoy in between Casual Criminalist uploads.
I’ve heard about this case years ago. I’m so heartbroken for this family.
I am baffled as to why any sex trafficking angle is seen as a wild theory, it is super plausible
Yes it happens,but again, why kidnap someone with 3 people reporting them missing if you have a massive source of young women on vacations alone or with just a friend possibly drunk aswell? Plenty of young women are alot more vulnerable and easier to take.
I’d like to add that I used to work for a UK government agency investigating traffickers and their victims. The idea that traffickers target middle-class, educated white women from rich countries is a bit of a myth. Trafficking victims tend to be poor, vulnerable women who are often already involved in sex work in their countries of origin. These women are generally so desperate that they can be duped into voluntarily leaving with traffickers on the promise of respectable, well paid jobs abroad. No kidnapping necessary...
@@joannaw5913 This. 👏🏽👏🏽
@@joannaw5913 this makes sense to me.
Very good point Joanna . Still.... Epsteins island is in the area, so i still have theories.
This is the best channel Simon has, and believe me that is SAYING something. Guys awesome.
Err..... Excuse me, me and the other OGBB's would like a word.... 😡
(jokes ❤️)
@@wut274 Legend
@@overtlybiased "Allegedly" 😎😂
*Sam pops up outta nowhere*
Daddy chill. What the hell even is that? So that was a fucking lie? *Heman disco starts*
Jokes on you, I'm into that shit! Allegedly...
@@dudepool7530 it's like you have tourettes for OGBB memes 😅🤣
Simon you are correct. Not knowing what happened is worse than anything. I’ve lost a son in an airplane crash which was horrible but had he just disappeared I don’t think I could have coped. I’m sorry for everyone who has had this happen to them. A nightmare. 😢
Simon in other videos “gosh, why dont police do a good job” here: “why didn’t they let the police do a good job!” Also, if 2020 taught us anything, cruise ship companies don’t give an f about passengers.
"Sorry you've been stuck on this ship for months, here's a coupon for a free ice cream"
To be fair there's been plenty of evidence of that prior to this..
@@KS-PNW Yeah I'm starting to understand where my paranoid nan was coming from. She's a Finnish immigrant and we'd take the ferry over from Sweden with her sometimes. Granted, I highly doubt it's as big an issue on these small ferries - traffickers tend to invest in poor (dual meaning) Russian and Baltic women. Also it's not very long that the ship is on international waters.
But she was *so nervous* we'd be kidnapped, assaulted and/or mudered whenever me and my same-age child, then teen, then early 20's friend were going anywhere without her.
Insisting we stay together, take her rape alarm with us, not to mention giving us advice: "Bite them, poke them in the eyes-" "Okay nan, we're JUST going to the upper deck! 0-0"
I mean, the woman _did_ *work* such a cruise ship as a 14-yo and onwards so we probably shouldn't have shrugged her off... I guess it's the danger of growing up in (at the time) a ridiculously safe country, in an even safer county. Danger gets hard to take seriously.
Are you referring to their response to the Scamdemic brought on BY THE WUHAN INFLUENZA, aka JUST THE FLU?!! Whatever bro....
Security on these ships has not changed much in the last 20 years which is why I wouldn't get on one
There have been investigations on missing women on other ships. Allegedly people working on board in cahoots with Traffickers at ports...so you never know.
If they ever go after balding, middle-aged guys, I could be in real trouble. Especially if a premium is put on a hairy back.
This is hardly the first time where Royal Caribbean helped conceal a crime. Allegedly..
Yeah when looking it up statistics literally say that 70% of cruise grape crimes literally happen on Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruises!
@@lenibeni7421 yeah it's pretty messed up. The state department wanted to issue notices informing the public that those two lines specifically have "engaged in a consistent pattern of failing to cooperate with, and at times out right obstructing law enforcement investigations, especially those involving S.A.". (RUclips will take down the comment if I use the real words)
@@lenibeni7421 yeah.. DoJ has described them as being consistently unhelpful when it comes to investigating those crimes.
The "Search at Sea" just about gave me a dang heart attack.
**S E A R C H A T S E A**
Wasn't there a movie about somebody on the open ocean when they fall off a cruise ship? Nightmare fuel!!
I'm watching this on my phone while I work and I flinched and back handed my phone off my desk! 😵😵
Unfortunately this is super common on this channel? Dont try to fall asleep to it and beware if you are quietly listening near an already sleeping person!
Sailing the high Cs can be perilous.
This story killed my soul. I cannot even imagine the pain Amy's family has lives with every day. No answers meanns no end for it. So horrendously sad.
Usually seeing a video was 50+ minutes long would turn me off watching it.
Seeing a 50+ minute video of The Casual Criminalist turns me on.
... you might want to rephrase that.
@@kelerews no I definitely don’t.
@@MissBlueEyeliner Haha :3
Horny jail... now!
@@Kadeo-ms6qw You sound boring 😂
If I can bring up a little constructive criticism, the audio when you announce some of the different sections ("search at sea" etc.) abruptly jumps way up. Startled the hell out of me
it's not been so bad in the past but this ep it was very prominent
I couldn’t hear anything. Maybe just certain devices?
Lou Costello was the security chief? What was the name of the ship's captain; Bud Abbott?
Who's on the poop deck??
Good one!🤣
The whole "investigation" was pretty much a comedy routine.
@@yvonaamariaa I don't know's in the restaurant
@@fentonstyles Yep. Back when comedy was really funny without every other word being ****.
I came across this channel yesterday and I'm happily binge-watching these. Everything is so well done, thanks to Callum, Simon and Jen for such a simple yet rich and enjoyable content.
Simon, it doesn't matter how old your kids get....you will always fret about their well-being! Welcome to parenthood 😊
Their problems get bigger, too.
Personally I dont think her being kidnapped is a stretch at all, I was a bit bummed to hear that angle taken so lightly. Human trafficking is a monstrous industry.
In any case what an incredibly sad thing to happen :(
Seriously, I live near one of the U.S. hubs for human trafficking and have been through training to recognize victims. I don’t think people realize how prevalent it actually is. A cruise ship seems like an excellent place to kidnap someone.
To be fair most trafficking victims (with the exception of large groups like the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram) are extremely vulnerable; runaways, teen girls with terrible home lives, immigrants seeking a better life somewhere else, homeless women, drug addicts. Kidnapping a wealthy twenty something white woman from a cruise ship would be extremely risky. Plus once you’ve kidnapped her you have to worry about her family kicking up a major fuss. Not to mention a twenty something year old woman who has a family that she knows will look for her is going to be harder to control and manipulate than a seventeen year old runaway.
That’s not to say there aren’t extraordinary cases or “special orders” that might lead people to take such a risk, it’s just highly unlikely. No one is going to kidnap a wealthy white woman just to force her to work in some random brothel, it’s just too risky.
I suspect she went overboard, but I’m guessing it wasn’t suicide. Maybe she hooked up with the bassist and they had a disagreement and he shoved her, maybe they were just drunk and being silly and she took a risk and fell.
@@TGuard00014 Yeahh, I'm thinking IF she was trafficked she is still, sadly, going to be dead by now. She would have become a liability, _due_ to being rich and having such dedicated family with an even richer boss - and just letting her go means exposing people, places, routines...
It’s not that a kidnapping isn’t possible it’s just there is no evidence for it. Trafficking would be really hard, since you have to get an unwilling person of a ship with hundreds of people around. Murder in the night is more likely than that, but there is no blood, no witness seeing her with someone, no screams, items left behind, etc. Falling overboard leaves the least evidence behind.... which matches the complete absence of any evidence.
It happens everyday, but there are easier marks than this poor girl. It's about risk vs reward. This victim is too big a risk unless she's sold into private hands instead of sex work.
What we hoped: *Red alert, send out search teams, a woman has been kidnapped!*
What we got: “Ms. Amy, please report at the front desk or we’ll do basically nothing.”
I dont blame the ship for not doing more. 99.9999999% of times, a missing person turns up on their own.
Binge watching Simon is the only thing getting me through work right now
I LOVE how long these videos are getting!!! Thank you for all your hard work simon and team casual criminalist
a "party ship" is going to be designed for a bunch on drunkies to not fall overboard. and cruise companies have a lot of sketchy business practices.
Cruise Ships are hell ships, you cant convince me otherwise
Floating petrie dishes.
I can: take a few valiums and lyricas first, and an hour later inject 10-25mgs of heroin. Its heaven, or literally better because it actually exists. In that state of bliss you wouldnt care if that ship was BOTH sinking and on fire at the same time. There, the ugly truth: drugs make everything better.
Ships of fools.
@@ilewtf2234 depends on the drugs.
@@St.Linguini_of_Pesto Well, so called downers (heroin, benzos, lyrica etc.) and some of the uppers like coke (preferrably as crack) are always good.
Maybe she was trafficked? Everyone is probably asking “But how did they get her off the boat?” I’m glad you asked. There’s no reason why she couldn’t have been drugged and kept in a trunk and simply rolled off the boat and into a van. It’s not like they did background checks back then so there could have been a group of kidnappers.
Just for the record drugging people to keep them quiet is really hard to do successfully. Too much and the person dies (and you have to kidnap someone else). Not enough and they start kicking and screaming and you have big problems. Doses are based on weight (so you either have to know the person’s weight or be a very good guesser). Also if that someone has a heart condition, drug reaction, or other medical condition you risk them dying even with minimal amounts of drug (and you have to kidnap someone else).
There are much much easier ways and places to kidnap people, especially since this wasn’t a ransom or revenge type scenario. Why go to all that trouble when you can just grab a drunk chick from a bar or the homeless teen that just wants to eat and get out of the weather?
@@TGuard00014 So no one has ever been drugged and taken advantage of or incapacitated for transport successfully? Of course it would be easier to grab someone off the street in any location and anywhere. We are all just shooting at ducks here. Someone probably just pushed her over after she denied their advances. Wouldn’t be the first time some spoiled rich kid killed because he didn’t get his way.
@@LaserPeckford I didn’t say it never happened. My point was just that it is extremely difficult to do and trying to pull it off on a cruise ship is much harder than dropping some GHB in a drink in a bar and getting the victim in a cab.
@@TGuard00014 What do you think sleeping pills are for? Same standard dose worked the same way when I was almost 300lbs as when I weighed 140lbs. GHB is different and dangerous. Sleeping pills = same dose regardless. Not encouraging anyone to do this, I must add!
@@burnyizland That’s because sleeping pills aren’t a very strong sedative, real sedatives (the types they use for anesthesia etc) tend to be dose dependent. Also there is lots of individual variation, a dose that might knock you out at 300lbs I might shrug off at 115lbs. Women also tend to metabolize medications different than men.
I've been impatiently clicking all week, just hoping that a new episode would be posted early. Not only are these episodes expertly written, but I can't imagine a host any better than Simon delivering the story. I'm definitely a fan.
Your channel & Mr. Ballen’s channel are the only two that I will “like” on RUclips before even watching the video. Love your work!
14:30 *SEARCH AT SEA*
Me: *flies backwards off couch, over the balcony railing*
"Royal Caribbean: Communist Utopia"
This will keep me laughing all day--what a marvellously efficient use of language. Thank you to the BigBrains who made such a phrase possible--Simon and Callum, you have a wonderfully intuitive narrative dynamic. I've been a true-crime binger for years, but the Casual Criminalist has already risen to be one of my very favourite 'series', and the narrative/writing interplay is a big part of that experience. The thoughtfulness and the comedy are each richly rewarding, in addition to the actual crime-story content.
And luckily, you upload often enough that I don't have time to get #casualcriminalistless :)
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Murder Blaze. I, as always, am your host the Boy with the Blaze.
I have a tendency to binge your content when I'm working. You have a wonderful voice, an engaging personality and very interesting topics! Thanks to you and Callum both- from Texas :)
I vividly remember one Saturday morning in this past year laying in bed half asleep at like 5 in the morning, when her name popped into my head. I had to get up and watch a documentary about her.
Edit: Also, just waiting for Simon to start a channel where all the videos are done with him laying down.
We've got standing, pacing, and now sitting. XD
We need a channel with him jogging on a treadmill also, to compete the set
The Reclined Romantic - a study of the influence of romance languages on today's slang.
This comment right here, officer
These parents are amazing in their relentless loyalty. There are a lot of people who would have stopped after the law suit, though it would have haunted them to the end of their lives. It requires a lot of mental fortitude, and cash.
honestly, learning to let go in such a situation is ultimately the best thing to do. Of course i appreciate that they love their daughter so much to th epoint of not giving up on finding her all these years later. But... at this point, they are not gonna find her anymore. She is gone. Whatever happened to her, they will never see her again. And it is extremely sad. But as long as they keep having faith on the super slim possibility that she is still alive somewhere, they will never be able to move on from this tragedy. Amy would have wanted them to live.
I want my official title to be "gung-ho action man"
Aq
That would be an awesome name.. go for it.
I've binge-watched a ton of these and you can really tell how much work they put into each one
Yeah a "would so and so please come to the front desk" style announcement should be something they do immediately so as to not cause panic among other guests while still making that effort to either confirm or deny that the person is safe.
I've heard so so many terrible stories about cruises that I would never consider going on one. Too easy to disappear and never enough work done to find you.
I would never sail on a Royal Caribbean ship after hearing this.
This case is so interesting, I’ve watched a bunch of other videos on this topic but I’m glad to hear Simon cover it. So sad what happened to that family, I hope they can find out what happened to their daughter :(
The trafficking is very real. Tourists are targeted all the time.
total conspiracy theory bs, murder more likely and in this case accidential drowning
@@nomadpurple6154 not conspiracy. Get over yourself. Remember when epstein was a conspiracy?
@@nomadpurple6154 lol that's not even a conspiracy. A conspiracy is an alternative theory not in line with the official narrative usually involving a cover up.
The trafficking story is just a legitimate theory as to her disappearance.
@@nomadpurple6154 cruise ship employee shill detected.
@@Adam_M98 Well tbf Epstein didn’t really target middle-class grown up women
I'm going to say unfortunately that RCI killed Amy when they allowed the ship to dock. I believe she was trafficked after being roofied earlier that night hence the feeling of sickness. It's definitely possible that traffickers use the photographers photos to pick their victim and then move on them when most vulnerable.
Her brother lived next to me in VA. Such a sad story, I feel so sad for the family.
Having worked on cruise ships for 5 years, all these scenarios are possible. Yes, passengers fall/jump off ships, not every week but it happens. Drunk people do very stupid things. Also, crew members have sexually assaulted passengers, but in my experience it is rare. If an assault is reported, the ship will probably fire the crew member and send them back to their county at the very next (non-US) port. Ships are registered in the Bahamas, Panama, Liberia, etc... to keep costs low. If something happens onboard, the laws of the country of registration apply. Keep in mind it's very difficult to do ANYTHING on a ship and not been seen. It's like living in a small town and crew on ships love to gossip.
Wow, they actually FIRE someone for a simple rape? Harsh. /s
Thing to consider is that this happened 23 years ago. Pretty sure that safety precautions and surveillance were quite lax back then. I'm not 100% convinced one way or the other, but kidnapping or murder is pretty plausible for that time.
Legislation has been passed so that the laws of the potential victim/missing person’s country are the ones that apply.
Basic investigative rule: "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."
Ochams razor. Always amazes me how many people forget this simple,yet so very important idea when investigating or deducing anything..Not that you cant run into a very elaborate explanation of a murder or someone dissapear,but generally apply Ochams razor
@@defunctuserchannel Lol In that case, think Wildebeest :)
@Lee Neufeld shouldn't one also consider: rhinos, giraffe, bison, cows, mules, goats?
@@St.Linguini_of_Pesto I'd rather talk about joining the Pastafarian movement:)
Grey's
This is exactly why I would never go on a cruise.. I drink too much and I would totally fall overboard and then struggled drunkenly to swim watching the ship sail away and then probably get eaten by a giant squid or some other sea monster
I’m 5’9, the banisters around the ships come up to just under my chest. You would have to climb up onto them in order to fall off. (Which people do, the idiots) the entire ship is monitored by cctv and if someone sees someone go overboard, those ships can turn on a dime. It’s really remarkable.
@mdtmjat same here.. I've always wondered if there is record of the number of drunken sailors who've stumbled/slipped/fallen overboard.
But knowing my luck, I'd not be on a sea monsters menu.. I'd sink to the bottom & end up hanging out with a blob fish.
Blob fish: would you care to gaze upon my extensive collection of toenail clippings?
Me: no.
@@St.Linguini_of_Pesto 😂
@@St.Linguini_of_Pesto Blob fish, giggle
This has surpassed Business Blaze as my favorite of your channels!
Your wit always makes me laugh !
The stories may be gruesome at times, but I always watch!
Keep up the great work!
Looking forward to 2023 with you!
Only health and happiness to you and your family!
"This was a long one! I do hope you enjoyed it." Goddamn right I did.
I have seen this on the “Cruise Ship Killers’ show on the True Crime network on tv. Iva Bradley described the cruise ships and open seas as “Lawless”. They say you should ‘Never say never’, but I will NEVER, EVER step foot on any cruise ship in my life, EVER! IMO, the slave trade theory is not beyond the realm of plausibility.
True but for me the most likely is she fell overboard, i used to do stupid things all the time and i'm lucky i never fell off a bridge into icy water or something.
@@georgecrompton8663There is no way she went overboard! She has been spotted over the yrs. Once in a brothel...SOMEONE ON THAT SHIP SER HER UP TO BE TRAFFICKED!
6:03 No, Simon. Your all-inclusive ticket buys you meals in the standard dining area, or "The Pleb Room" as we called it on our Royal Caribbean cruise. The fancier restaurants on the ship will cost you big.
I love the sense of Humour Simon has when making light of these serious stories. Usually I will not watch this kind of thing, but Simon makes me laugh until I cry, so that is the reason I tune in.
Simon: "Wait, you can't just put a gag order on your workers, can you?"
Simon proceeds to quickly google gag orders, followed by forcing the writers in the basement to sign if they want to see daylight again.
Wha-what is this "daylight" you speak of?
I feel so incredibly badly for the family, I always do when it comes to missing persons cases. I had to report my brother missing a few years back and it ranks up there as one of the worst times in my life. Interview after interview with police, being grilled constantly by would-be sleuths, the family drama behind the scenes, and worst of all, the scammers, jokesters, or worst of all, a few very lonely and disturbed people who wanted attention as much as we wanted answers. I was lucky, we found my brother. He wasn't murdered or kidnapped, just very very stupid. He went awol from the military while he was on leave and staying with me and just decided not to tell anyone since he knew he was absolutely committing a crime in order to get some with a girl he met online. As pissed as I am at him, I really feel for families of the missing who haven't been so lucky.
Callum is probably my favorite script writer ever. He cares about things, which is nice. XD
And I absolutely love his dry, dark sense of humor!
Agreed. I love how he finishes the scripts by talking about poignant aspects of the case. Also his savage humour.
You have the most beautiful speaking voice for telling horrific tales. It just works, my dude.
My mom was born and raised in Liberia, and moved to Canada when she was 20. She has ZERO interest in going back. Things have gotten slightly better there after the civil war (thank you, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf)... but no, there's no way its police system is up to any decent level.
@Gary Allen All of it, including the Liberian "Liberation" Army led by Charles Taylor, before he went on to eff up Sierra Leone.
I love these! I can't get enough. I don't know why I'm so fascinated by disturbing stories even when I get nightmares about it.
"No it wasn't those things so let's let the police do actual police work".. I love you like a brother Simon
YOu have a fantastic way of presenting a old crime and making it quite entertaining.. I've only recently found you new Vlog. At first I didn't like ur comitic addition but it grew on me.. Thanks
Either I'm old or Simon is really young as he said Lou Costello I was waiting for a Abbott and Costello reference or joke. Lol
Hell im 24 and ik who those two legends are haha
Yup. I was waiting too! 😂
Lol, @Jeff Ashley, you weren't alone there.
You'll never catch me going into a giant hunk of metal with thousands of people in the middle of the sea. If anything happens to you, it's never in their interest that people find out about it.
The main dining room and the buffet on the top deck are included. The fancier restaurants and bakery cafes cost extra. A few other places might be included like a hotdog stand, cafe, or pizza spot.
Also, I was on an RC cruise in 2019. It would take work to fall off the side. They put up these clear panels on the top deck, so you would have to knowingly climb over to "fall over". Considering how often drunk people fell off the sides of cruise ships in the 90s, I believe she probably fell and the engines of the ship muffled her screams for help.
Yes, or she was pushed, there is no way she is still alive, Allegedly... I hope for her family she is still alive however...
I’m happy you covered this! She was from my neck of the woods.
Want to say I'm just 10 minutes in and oh my God if somebody goes missing on a cruise stop, try to find them You're out on water people. If they fell over they're soon to be dead.
Naming your kid Brad Bradley might be the biggest horror.
The father’s boss is honestly one hell of guy compared to most.
I really like this channel and especially the longer episodes. I also really appreciate the story being told without internet conspiracy or 'supernatural' speculation. Sorry that I can't contribute more by leaving a podcast review, I'm only just mastering Spotify and they don't have reviews.
On a cruise ship only some of the food is part of the all inclusive package the high end steakhouses and some of the other restaurants on board are just normal restaurants and you have to pay to eat there
On Carnival all food is included liquor is not they have no high end restaurants but you must eat at your assigned seating in the evening. I would venture to guess the high end restaurants are what is called lease space and not under the ships jurisdiction.
@@sharonquick7856 per the Carnival website.
The following services are not included in the cruise price:
Dining in specialty restaurants and snacking at cafes and lounges (featured on select ships), such as but not limited to: The Steakhouse, Bonsai Sushi, Bonsai Teppanyaki, Ji Ji Asian Kitchen, Seafood Shack, Cucina del Capitano, Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse|Brewhouse, The Chef's Table, Emeril's Bistro 1396, Shake Spot, Javablue Cafe, Promenade Cafe, Lido Coffee Bar, Ocean Plaza Cafe, Havana Bar (on Carnival Sunshine), RedFrog Pub and other lounges that may serve light bites.
'Steakhouse Selections' served in the Main Dining Room
I know on smaller cruise lines that are fancy as heck, its all inclusive you just have to make reservations and they limit the number of nights you can make a reservation at the specified restaurant or 'chef's table'. That way everyone has a chance to dine at the fancy restaurant if they would like it.
Simon you are the most watchable and listenable people in the world/on the internet. You're videos and podcasts are amazing. Thank you
i'm 61 years old. my mommy still checks on me. you'll learn. children change you.
You are her baby. I have a 4 year old and a 15 month old. It doesn't matter if they are 4 or 40. Will always be my babies.
This is the cutest and truest comment.
Will one of you adopt me? ;) Haven't heard from my mother in 30 yrs & my father hasn't checked in for 8.
@@audreysark I'm upvoting you and downvoting your parents. Sending my love to you. Well that is all too common. You just give your love to your children/ future children. I still call my parents every day as does my wife. My wife's mom still makes her work meals for every shift. Not because she has to just because she wants to.
Aren't mum's just the best?? My mum has terminal lung cancer but she still makes juices for me when I'm sick, and I'm 43
This is my cousin. If anyone has any information, the family would be forever grateful.
Open the Quran and read chapter called “yusuf” it talks about a story where a prophet was slaved and went missing, yet was found when he became an adult, the moral of the story is his dad never lost hope and kept praying for his son and trusted God, its a true story andQuran is a word of God, please read it and make lots of prayers God will respond
@@islamispeace3919 God made a real effort when he sent those cruise employees
There is a reputable intuitive on RUclips that did an extensive read plus where she feels Amy is now as of Feb 2023..visit The Reckonimg Co. Her readings will give clues. Says she's willing to work with the family god bless ♥
It is clear as day Yellow sold her to human trafficking 😢😢😢😢
Psychic say she is alive trafficked
Being in law enforcement, 9.9/10 it is exactly what it looks like. Don't worry Simon skeptical is good.
Really love this channel Simon. It's satisfies my love of true crime stories but it also isn't morbid sensationalizing of the crime.
Damn Simon, almost blew out my eardrums with that "Search At Sea" title read. 😱
Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there. At least it didn't last!
same, why Jan??
@@ilicarriedoll2843 You mean Jen?
Bro my car speakers bout exploded 🤣
Sorry guys :P
Thanks Simon and Co. as always interesting 👍
Anyone else get startled by how unusually loud “SEARCH AT SEA” is said? I had headphones in 😂