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April 17, 1998 President Bill Clinton 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C., 20500 Dear Mr. President, Because you are the most powerful man in the World and the father of a 19 year old daughter, we are writing today to appeal for your help. We are certain that you will understand our unimaginable terror concerning the following. Our 23 year old daughter, Amy Lynn Bradley, vanished from the cruise ship "Rhapsody of the Seas" in the early morning hours of March 24, 1998. We were on a family vacation along with our 21 year old son, Brad. The last three weeks have been a frantic nightmare for our entire family. Amy was last seen at approximately 5:00 a.m. sleeping on our balcony. When we awoke at 6:15 a.m., she was gone along with her cigarettes and lighter. At that time we were approaching the island of Curacao. After searching for her and having her paged, we realized that something was very wrong and reported her missing. We were told that the ship was being searched, by the crew members. However, since then we have learned that the extent of the search of the ship conducted in that critical period was completely inadequate. We pleaded with the Captain to distribute a picture of Amy and to notify the other passengers of her disappearance, but we were told that the other passengers could not be disturbed. That afternoon the Captain told us "your daughter is not on this ship". We then asked if he was absolutely, positively certain that she was not on the ship, and he said "yes". Totally devastated, we then left the ship and the ship sailed on time at 6:30 p.m. Mr. President, we now realize that the Captain did not and could never have completely searched that ship in that amount of time. By not conducting a thorough search and allowing the ship to sail on schedule that afternoon we feel that the Captain's decisions may have put Amy's life in jeopardy! Meanwhile, our family in Virginia was desperately calling anyone they thought might be able to help, including Congressmen, newspapers, FBI agencies in San Juan, Barbados and St. Maarten. The FBI then put together a team and boarded the ship when it docked 2 days later on Thursday in St. Maarten. We also flew from Curacao to St. Maarten and reboarded the ship, however, we were terrified at having lost 48 hours. The FBI investigation is ongoing, however we have not heard any news to date. This incident happened in international waters and we feel that we have no rights! We have many concerns about the cruise line, the Captain and the crew members. We have learned some shocking things through e-mails, phone calls and other correspondence. Mr. President, we need your help. With all of the abductions and disappearances in South America and in that part of the world, I'm sure you can understand our fears. I am also appealing for help to the Secretary of State, Madeleine K. Albright and to our Virginia representatives, Governor James Gilmore, Congressmen Tom Bliley and Norman Sisisky and Senators JohnWarner and Charles Robb. As a United States citizen, Amy deserves more! These ships sail from American soil. We have not heard from the cruise line in any way, shape or form since March 24, 1998. The Captain of the ship never one time expressed any compassion towards us in any way and we feel that he lied to us concerning "searching" the ship. He allowed passengers to come and go all day and we believe cargo as well, to leave the ship after we notified him at 7:00 a.m.and then proceeded to leave on schedule that evening. We are outraged! It was obvious that his concern was not disturbing his passengers and we feel that his behavior was unconscionable! We are pleading for your help in this devastating situation. We want our Amy back! Thank you for listening to our appeal. We can be reached at Amy's Hot Line (804) 276-8503, or our home (804) 276-2204 or fax (804) 745-6133. Amy's websites are: http://www.amybradley.net/, http://www.ctsi.net/amy/ and http://www.curanow.com/amy/. If you have any questions or need any additional information we will forward it to you. Please help us find Amy! Time is of the essence! Thank you again! Sincerely, Ron and Iva Bradley
cc: Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
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