‘You can’t leave quietly’ — Journalist claims chilling cruise ship ‘wind tunnel’ clue and palm prints on balcony could finally unlock truth behind Amy Bradley’s disappearance, insisting she ‘never came off alive’ after vanishing 27 years ago - suong

What happened to Amy Bradley remains one of life’s most puzzling mysteries nearly three decades on. An author who has been studying her case for years has shared a theory that focuses on an important detail about the cruise ship and what it might mean for understanding Amy Bradley’s disappearance.

The 23-year-old vanished from Royal Caribbean International’s Rhapsody of the Seas in March 1998 during a family holiday. To this day, nobody knows what happened to her.

There are many theories, but James Renner, who is working on a new book about the case, believes Amy Bradley may have gone overboard.

So, what did he actually say?

Amy Bradley via Netflix

In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Renner said he has studied small but important details left out of the recent Netflix documentary Amy Bradley Is Missing. One key fact he points to is that the balcony door of the cabin was found open the morning she vanished. This, Renner explains, would have made it impossible for Amy to quietly leave the room without waking everyone. This is due to how cruise ship cabins are pressurised.

“They make a big point of saying the balcony door was open. But then suggest Amy left the room without telling anyone,” Renner said. “If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you’ll have seen warning signs telling you not to open the cabin door when the balcony door is open. The hallway is pressurised.

“If you open the cabin door while the balcony door is open, it creates a wind tunnel and the cabin door slams shut hard. Some people have even lost fingers because of it. You cannot quietly leave with the balcony door open. It would have woken everybody up.”

Renner believes Amy was still on the balcony, sitting on the railing with her feet pressed against the glass. When she pushed off, he thinks this may have led to her going overboard.

Why he believes Amy went overboard that morning

via YouTube

During his research, Renner spoke with cruise staff who said the FBI found Amy’s palm prints on the railing and her footprints on the balcony’s glass door. This physical evidence, he argues, strongly suggests she was perched there before she vanished.

“She’d been drinking. She was dealing with personal struggles. And she had a huge decision weighing on her mind,” Renner said. He referred to her recent coming out and fear of how her family might react.

Once someone goes overboard in open seas, survival chances are slim. “If you go into the water from that height, in those conditions, you have maybe a 20 per cent chance of survival, and that’s only if you are spotted right away,” he explained.

Amy’s parents believe their daughter was abducted and trafficked. They point to alleged sightings in the Caribbean and photos from 2005 showing a woman with a strong resemblance to Amy on a sex work website.

But Renner notes that there is no verified case of a white woman being trafficked from the Caribbean. And that it would be very risky for traffickers.

“I don’t think she ever came off that balcony alive,” he said. “It’s a heartbreaking possibility. But after ruling out the other theories, it’s the one that makes the most sense to me.”